The Davenport Christmas Chronicles - Piper Davenport Page 0,53
stuck, and he took advantage of that fact.
“Seriously, you grew up with the name Kennedy, and you don’t know?” he challenged, running his hand over my hip.
“What does Lace have to do with Kennedy?”
“The Secret Service call-sign for JFK was Lancer and Jackie was given the name ‘Lace.’”
“How the hell could you possibly know that?”
He grinned. “Summer just after fifth grade, I visited my grandparents on Tybee Island. It was supposed to be a summer of hiking, fishing, and boating, but I ended up getting mono from Lisa Gormon the first week, and spent the rest of the summer in bed. The only thing my grandparents had to distract me were an outdated set of Encyclopedia Britannica and a three-volume set on the US presidents. I learned more that summer about US presidents than anyone should ever know.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Quiz me.”
I woke again with a start and glanced at the clock. Four-thirty. I realized I’d never quizzed him. Probably because I didn’t care. Instead, I’d kissed my way down his body and blown him, rewarded with him coming in my mouth, then because he was a mighty wee mouse, he’d recovered in record time and fucked me all over again. My nether regions tingled from the memory and I sighed, pulling the covers back over me, trying to tuck myself back in.
At five, I gave myself another pep talk.
At five-fifteen, I calculated my sleep time again, rolling to my other side, convinced a total of six hours of sleep was plenty.
At five-thirty, I rolled again, and prayed for just a few more minutes.
At five-forty-five, I got up to pee, climbing back into bed.
At six a.m., I gave up.
After making my bed, I headed into the shower feeling the weight of exhaustion covering me. I hadn’t slept uninterrupted in months and it was beginning to show. I was snappy, emotional, occasionally irrational, and paranoid.
Totally out of character for me.
I was pretty even keeled, but since one of my best friends had died of cancer, I couldn’t seem to pull myself together. On top of that shit show, I willingly fucked a man who’d rocked me to my core and ultimately scared the shit out of me.
Because I’d sworn off men after Seth—clearly I was a horrible judge of character and couldn’t trust myself any longer to make rational decisions when it came to my heart. But this one had wormed his way deeper. He’d wormed his way into my soul and now I ached for him.
Declan ‘Mouse’ Schneider.
Maybe it was just my vagina that ached for him, but that was enough to make me go back for seconds. And thirds. And twelfths.
But I was done. We were done. We’d had a great run, and now we were over.
At least that’s what I’d told him as I filled him in on my decision, the whole time sobbing in his arms. Jesus, I was pathetic, but I was resigned. Or I had been. The problem was, that conversation was months ago and he was just as determined to get me back in his bed.
So, we were now at an impasse.
And I was starting to fold.
My other bestie, Remington, had fallen for a biker by the name of Finch, marrying him and moving to Portland, Oregon. After Michelle died, we were both kind of a mess, but she’d had Finch who’d introduced me to Mouse, and Mouse gave me some much-needed distraction from my grief.
He’d also introduced me to a world I never thought I’d like. Case in point, girls’ night out with the Dogs of Fire Club ladies a few months ago. Even though Remington was back in Portland, the women had adopted me as one of their own, which meant I had an awesome girl posse, but it also came with strings attached.
Those strings were in the form of one very intense and gorgeous biker.
As I stood under the hot water, my mind wandered to one of our more intense arguments...
“You promise there are no hidden cameras in the club,” Olivia said, gripping Doc’s cut and staring up at him.
Doc was the club’s president and he’d married Olivia not long ago, although, they’d been together for years.
“I have no fuckin’ idea if there are hidden cameras in the club, baby,” Doc said. “I don’t own it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Who do you have on the inside reporting information back to you?”
“You have a vivid imagination.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
He grinned, leaning down to kiss her quickly. “Go have fun, baby.”