Page 7 of Beast

“No.”I felt my stomach drop.I had a strict rule against playing around with someone else’s man.“You’re married?”

He shook his head.“Hell no.That ended a few years ago, but the girls live with me, and they’ve taught me a lot.”

I felt the weight lift off me.“Like what?”

“Like how to turn the tables on females who think they can shock me.”

I grinned.Maybe it was the fact that Drake couldn’t possibly find me here, but I felt almost giddy.“Am I supposed to be scared now?”

“If you’re smart, you’ll wonder how I plan to do that.”

I laughed, just as someone opened the door and beckoned us inside.

“Hey, Tinker.How’s it going?”Beast gave my hand a little squeeze, warning me to be quiet.

“Pretty good.Enough business to pay the bills without making me work too hard.You?”

“Taking a road trip with Piper here.She wanted to see the country from the back of a bike.”

Tinker held out his hand.“Nice to meet you.Enjoying the trip?”

“So far.Haven’t seen much yet.”

“No?”Tinker looked confused.

Beast wrapped an arm around me.“Piper’s from the West Coast.Met her on the last trip out, and we hit it off.Came back to get her so we’re heading back to the clubhouse now.”He looked down at me.“Can’t wait for you to meet the gang.”

I felt out of my depth.I had no idea what the heck was going on, so I played along.“Me either.Should be fun.”

“They’re a good bunch.”Tinker turned and headed inside.“I’ll put you in the suite on the second floor, okay?Bigger room and I just redid the ensuite.Watched one of those ‘how to tile a bathroom’ videos on YouTube and wanted to try it.Might have overdone it a tad.The shower’s big enough to hold a party in.”He threw an amused look over his shoulder.“Or in your case, a party for two.”

I felt my face heat up and I flashed a look up at Beast.He just shrugged slightly, but I could see he was trying not to laugh.So much for me trying to embarrass him.I needed to meet those twins of his.

Tinker slipped behind the reception desk and grabbed an old metal key off a pegboard on the wall.“Room 214.The cleaning girl put fresh sheets and towels in there this morning so you should be good to go.You going to want anything else before you turn in?”

“You have a couple beers handy?”Beast looked down at me.“Beer okay or did you want something else?”

“Beer’s fine.”Anything wet would be good at this point.

“Coming right up.”Tinker disappeared for a moment and returned with a six pack of beer.“This do?”

“Looks great.Put it on our tab.”Beast snagged the beer and the key without letting go of me.“See you in the morning.”

Tinker nodded.“You need a wake-up call?”

“Nah.We don’t have a schedule to keep.”

“Good night then.Nice to meet you, Piper.”

“You too.”

Beast and I headed up the stairs.No elevator, but not a surprise.I imagine anyone who couldn’t handle stairs simply stayed on the main floor.This wasn’t exactly the Ritz, but it had a quaint charm and its out-of-the way location was a plus right now.

Our room was at the end of the hallway, and when Beast opened the door, I was pleasantly surprised.The room was large, with a king-sized bed in the middle and a sitting area in front of a picture window off to the right.I took a deep breath.“It smells so clean!”

“You can smell ‘clean’?”Beast looked amused.

“Yeah, of course.”I took another deep breath.“See?It smells just like this room.”

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