the idiocy not to claim you as his as soon as those ties were severed. I don’t know how that man sees straight with his head so far up his own ass.”
“Loulou,” Bea exclaimed. “Just because you married a man who swears every other word doesn’t mean you have to be crude too.”
Lou rolled her eyes, but I only smiled because I thought the two of them were hilarious, and I liked the attention off of me.
“You guys okay since the kiss?” Lou asked, bringing us back on track, her eyes pinning me in place so I’d answer her question.
“It’s complicated.” I shrugged.
Bea and Lou shared a look then they both turned to me with slow moving grins.
“Oh, babe,” Lou drawled, “You are so in the thick of it.”
My phone pinged, and immediately, Bea peeked over my shoulder as I pulled my floral case from my rattan purse to read the text.
Nova: Bad play, Li. I find out you’re avoidin’ me, your ass isn’t in my chair at Street Ink at noon on the fuckin’ nose, I’ll tan your ass. You get me?
So apparently Nova wasn’t hip on someone else doing the walk of shame in the morning before he could wake up.
I sniffed, but Bea’s squeal nearly made me drop my phone.
“Oh, my God!” she said, her smile tinged with wickedness, her cheeks stained with peach. “If I wasn’t half in love with someone else, I’d probably faint at how hot that text was. Phew, I could feel his intensity through the phone. What did you do to deserve that?”
I cracked my knuckles and struggled not to make eye contact with Lou who was staring at me in her voodoo way where I just knew she was reading my thoughts.
“Well,” I admitted. “I may have fooled around with Nova last night and then left this morning before he woke up.”
They both blinked at me then burst into raucous laughter that had the entire café staring at us in varying degrees of irritation. But we were biker babes, known in Entrance and revered or hated in equal turn, so they left us alone.
When Bea recovered, she wiped a tear from her cheek. “I think you’re my hero.”
“It’s about time someone gave Nova a taste of his own medicine,” Loulou said, humor rich in her voice. “And it’s about time that person was you.”
“I’m supposed to get a tattoo in…an hour,” I said after checking the pink watch on Bea’s pale arm. “I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to keep my distance with his hands on my body.”
“Do you want distance?” Lou asked, cocking her head. “Last time I checked, you wanted to wear him like a face mask.”
“Lou!” Bea cried again, but even she snorted with laughter.
“I’m not going to be some notch on his bed post,” I declared, even though the idea of having Nova’s strong, calloused hands on my body made my skin buzz with electric heat. “But I’m not ashamed. So we got drunk and hooked up, big whoop. We can move on from this.”
When the girls didn’t say anything, I pressed, “Right?”
“Big whoop?” Bea shook her head. “He rocked your world, huh?”
I sighed. “I think I came so hard I blacked out, and he didn’t even actually lay a finger on me.”
Lou nodded sagely. “Seems to be a badass biker talent. Don’t worry, babe, we’ll go with you to the appointment. I’ll drop the babies off with my mum, we’ll pick up H.R., and head over there together. He’s not going to try dick with all of us there watching.”
* * *
* * *
“Out.”
We hadn’t just picked up Harleigh Rose.
Cleo and Tayline had also been at the clubhouse, shooting the shit with Axe-Man and Cyclops, so they’d decided to tag along as well.
They weren’t even all inside the glass door of Street Ink Tattoo Parlour when Nova’s voice lashed out the one hard struck word.
“Out,” he repeated, standing by his station to the left of the reception desk, back leaned up against the wall, booted feet and tatted arms crossed, his face set to stone. He looked dangerous, filled with criminal intent and equipped with the means to see it out.
And his eyes, even from a distance, were nothing close to their habitually warm velvet brown.
They were black as banked coals, burning me up as they touched on my face, dragged down my body, then returned to lock with my eyes.
“Nova, is that any way to treat an Old Lady?” Loulou asked sweetly as