Page 68 of Beware of Dog

“Worth it?”

She smiled at him as she unbuckled her helmet and fluffed her hair. “Definitely worth it.”

She couldn’t see his eyes, but his mouth flattened, then pursed, then flattened again, and his cheeks pinked high along the bone in a way that had nothing to do with the cold morning.

Her smile widened. “Thank you. See you when I get out?”

“Yeah.” His voice was gruff, and he cleared his throat. “I’ll be here. Call before if—”

“I need you?”

“Yeah.”

She leaned in to kiss him. She meant it to be a quick, teasing peck, because she had no idea how he was going to feelabout PDA. He’d held her hand in his pocket yesterday, but that wasn’t the same as kissing. Some of the Dogs got obnoxious and over-the-top, wanting the world to know their woman was theirs. Others played it lowkey, looking more like bodyguards than lovers in public.

But to her happy surprise, Shep caught her by the back of the neck before she could draw back, and deepened the kiss. Slipped her a little tongue. She was flush-faced and breathless when she pulled back.

He smirked. “Have a good day.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Then he sat and stared at her.

“You’re going to wait until I’m inside the building, aren’t you?”

“Yep.”

She smacked one last, fast kiss to his cheek, and turned to go, his gaze warm against her back the entire way.

~*~

Shep felt drunk. Notbaddrunk, the kind when you wanted to go home and fall face-first into bed. He was right in that sweet spot, when you’d had enough to laugh long, and loud, and maybe get up and make a fool of yourself on the dance floor, when all the colors smeared in a fun way, and you weren’t ready to puke yet. That euphoric, floaty feeling that you could do anything. That you could be anyone.

Today, he was the lucky shithead who Cassandra Green wanted, and what the hell had he done to deservethat?

A small, nagging voice in the back of his head insisted that this was too good to last, and that he should brace himself for impact, because good things didn’t happen to him. People didn’t like him, as a general rule. He didn’t need anyone to like him if Casslovedhim.

But she had a big, fucked up family to tell, and he had the club, and things were going to get…complicated. Maybe messy. Maybe even…bad.

He wasn’t going to think about that today.

He arrived at his first stop of the day, an apartment block where one of their dealers had been getting hassle, ready to crack a few skulls, and paused on the curb for a minute to fire off a text.

U get inside ok?

The three dots appeared immediately, which meant she’d been looking at her phone, maybe even thinking about him. Maybe even hoping he’d reach out.

God, forget drunk, he felt eighteen, which was infinitely worse, even if it warmed the cockles of his unlovable little heart.

U literally watched me go in, she typed back.

He smiled to himself. “Smartass.”

Then she sent a string of kissy emojis, and he debated for five whole minutes that he couldn’t afford to waste before he sent a single red heart, and shoved his phone away, face flaming.

His phone pinged as he swung off his bike, but he didn’t look. He’d save her response for later, a little treat to power him through the day’s chores.

~*~

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