Page 67 of Wild Side
“Sleep, honey,” I say instead of stating that fact.
I’ll tell her soon enough, just not yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MAVERICK
Sucking in a breath,I sit straight up. I don’t get nightmares very often, but I’m thinking this has to do with what went down yesterday, along with Zadie’s father. Two members in high standing and two prospects are a lot to lose in just a week’s time. It’s a lot of fucking betrayal, too. More than I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life.
Zadie makes a noise, and I look down at her, watching as she rolls to her side, her eyes fluttering open before they shift to meet mine.
“Mornin’, honey,” I murmur.
She smiles sleepily. “Morning,” she says, her soft voice reaching my ears.
My balls are completely empty, and yet, my cock twitches at the thought of her sexy-as-fuck body beside mine. She reaches out, resting her palm on the center of my chest. “You okay?”
My lips twitch into a smirk. “I’m okay. You want something from the bakery this morning before we get your shit from the motel and go out house hunting?”
Her eyes open a bit wider. I’ve gotten her attention. I called and scheduled a realtor to help us find a rental. I’m not sure yet if I want to buy anything or when, but a rental would be a good start. I called the agent days ago without telling Zadie. She’d had enough shit to worry about. I didn’t want her to concern herself with this because I had it under control.
Thankfully, the real estate agent knows exactly who I am and has found some places where check stubs won’t be required.
“House hunting?” she asks in a whisper.
Fuck me, but this woman is absolute perfection. She seems to be in awe that we would need to find another place to live, even though I know she doesn’t want to stay here forever. I wrap my fingers around her wrist at my chest and clear my throat before I speak.
“Bakery, motel, and then house hunting for a place to rent. We’ll buy something later, but for now, a rental will suffice, I think.”
“Yeah,” she breathes, “it will.”
Then I really blow her mind. Flexing my fingers around her wrist, I squeeze gently before I continue. “And Brake, along with a few of the guys, is packing up your shit in your apartment in California. He’s going to be driving it out here.”
Her eyes widen even more, which is something I wasn’t sure was possible. “What?” she asks. “They’re bringing my things here? All this way? Why?”
I could give her a million reasons why. One of them being to kiss our asses in hopes we won’t do them the way we did Halo. That we won’t get rid of the whole damn club and start over there from scratch, inserting people we know rather than them. I don’t tell her that part, though. I don’t want her to feel guilty in any way, because none of it, not a single second of it, was her fault.
“As a show of faith,” I say, because at the end of the day, it’s also just that simple. “Now, go get dressed. We have a busy day.”
She pushes up on my chest until she’s sitting up, her eyes searching mine for a moment, then she flashes me a smile. “And this is really what you want?”
I don’t know how the fuck she can think I want anything less than to be with her. I open my mouth to tell her that, but decide against it, at least for now. I slide my palm along her jaw, then trace her bottom lip with the pad of my thumb.
“It’s all I want, honey.”
And it is—all I want. I love my brother. I loved my life before I met Zadie, but I didn’t know what I was missing. And I was missing something. I was missing her. Zadie is that piece of the puzzle that I didn’t know I needed. She is everything.
Leaning forward, I touch my mouth to hers, brushing my lips across hers. I seal my words with a kiss because they are the truth. A fact. She is who I want. And she came back to me for a reason—forthisreason… to be mine until my dying breath.
She gathers her things, then makes her way toward the bathroom. When she’s out of the room, I throw my legs over the side of the bed and grab my jeans from the floor, tossing them into the hamper before I find a pair of sweats and tug them on.
I’m not sure if the clubhouse is up and running yet, but I know we have church soon. I don’t make it far, just one door down. I notice that it’s open and peek inside. My brother is sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.
Leaning against the jamb, I fold my arms over my chest as I look across the room at him. When he senses my presence, he lifts his head, then slowly turns to face me. I watch him for a moment in silence. I want to ask him if he’s okay, but I also know that my brother wouldn’t want me to ask him a goddamn thing.
“I’m fine,” he grunts.
My lips twitch into a grin. “I didn’t say a goddamn word,” I point out.
