Page 416 of The Tempted

Another surprise.

“Really? I took you more for a meat and potatoes kind of guy,” I said, a bit bewildered as I bit my cheek. It just so happened that I made the best meatballs and while I preferred them fried, I could definitely throw together a little marinara sauce. “I want to cook dinner for us tonight,” I blurted, throwing a couple of heads of garlic into the wagon.

I could feel him stare at me as I grabbed the basil and added it to the cart. When I lifted my eyes to his, I saw a slow grin work its way across his lips.

“You can cook?”

“Of course I can cook,” I replied, feeling my cheeks redden I nervously repositioned my glasses on my face and looked back at him. “It’s my God given right,” I offered.

“Because you’re a woman?”

“Because I’m Maria Bianci’s daughter,” I corrected. “I know she may not be your favorite person, but she can throw down in the kitchen,” I informed him, lacing my arm through his as we walked through the supermarket. “Stop smiling at me like that, you’re making me blush,” I ordered. He continued to push the cart and I noticed from the corner of my eye he was still smiling.

“I like it when you blush, Kitten, like it a whole lot,” he whispered.

I’m whipped.

And for lack of better words and all puns intended, I am one hundred percent pussy whipped.

The sickest thing of all was, I didn’t give a fuck.

Lauren was my dream girl, sweet when she wanted to be, ferocious when she needed to be, and fucking wild in the bedroom. Plus she could cook. She made my favorite for dinner, something someone had cooked for me a long time ago, before Bones’ mom passed.

I watched her from the living room, barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen—I couldn’t help but chuckle. Lauren didn’t share my amusement and dragged my ass into the kitchen, insisting I help her. She taught me how to make the perfect meatball and I now knew Maria Bianci’s secret ingredient. I wouldn’t hesitate to leak that shit if that woman should find the need to piss me off.

Bones showed up as we were eating dinner and Lauren fixed him a plate. The three of us sat down like Three’s Company and ate, forgetting all about the reason Bones was there in the first place. Jack was calling Church in an hour and my ass was needed at the compound. It was time to face the music and tell him the truth of how I fucked up, how all this shit with the Chinese was my fault.

I kissed Kitten goodbye and left with Bones. We were late walking into the Chapel, just as Jack slammed the gavel down.

“Nice of you two idiots to join us,” he commented.

“Leave them alone, man. These two fucks were getting it on in the back of the cage,” Wolf chimed in.

“You two dicks acting out a little Brokeback Mountain?” Pipe questioned.

“The fact that you even know what that is makes me wonder if that mail order bride of yours is just a cover,” I growled. “Wolf here, probably does it for you,” I turned to Wolf. “When you gonna make this bitch your old lady?”

Jack chuckled from the head of the table as Pipe stood, about to kick my ass but Wolf held him back, keeping his man in line and all that.

“All right, all right, enough. We have a lot of shit we need to cover and not a lot of time,” Jack announced. “We want to keep breathing, we need to settle this score with Wu. We were desperate to get back Reina and Blackie and fucked ourselves by taking their shit. There’s a reason we’ve been playing nice with the Red Dragons for all these years…them motherfuckers, they get down and dirty.”

“Let them fuck with us, let them try, we can get down and dirty too,” Wolf argued.

“I think you proved that point when you shot and killed those whores,” Jack cited, grounding out his cigarette in the ashtray in front of him.

“God rest their souls,” Wolf muttered, making the sign of the cross.

“You’re sick,” Bones declared, as he watched Wolf bow his head and pray for the souls of the whores who made a living cutting heroin.

I wasn’t a church man but something told me they needed more than a prayer to cleanse their souls, but then again so did we.

“Pipe, where we at with our finances?” Jack questioned.

“Wait, we’re seriously going to pay these rat bastards?” Pipe asked, turning his attention toward Jack.

“We pay them what we owe them because I don’t want them taking another one of my guys,” Jack said. “Now, I asked how our finances are and I expect an answer,” he barked.

“We don’t got much to work with, most of the clubs money has been tied up in the guns, but hey, we got a shitload of guns now,” he informed.

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