Royally Chosen Christmas (Royal Sons MC #7) - Elle Boon Page 0,23
her as something other than a little girl or a sister. She wanted to tell him that other men didn’t make her happy, that her life felt empty and meaningless. She didn’t say anything because even in her head, she sounded desperate and spoiled. She had everything a girl could ask for. Money, a nice home, nice things, a mother who loved and doted on her, a big brother who looked out for her and protected her. What she didn’t have was friends, real friends who liked her for her, or someone to hold her and tell her they loved her, were in love with her. All around her, she saw that kind of love, but her own foolish heart seemed to want only one man—a man who didn’t see her as anything but a kid sister in pigtails and braces.
“Nah, you’re not happy, you’re existing.”
She stepped away from his touch, confused at his frown. “I need to get going.”
“Where are you going?” He tilted his head to the side, staring at her with an expression she recognized.
“I’m meeting up with some friends.” Not a lie. She was going to skip out on them, but now she’d changed her mind.
“If you’re going to be drinking, you best leave your car and get a ride home or call me. I’ll make sure you get home safely.”
Talena lifted her hand to her forehead, giving a jaunty salute. “Yes, Sir, I’ll be a good little girl and do just that. Jeez, how do you think I survived all these years without your overbearing self?”
He pulled her hand down, wrapping his arms around her body. “One day, you’re going to get yourself into more trouble than you bargained for.”
She was struggling to breath as he held her within his hard arms, feeling his rock-hard body pressed against her own. “I can handle trouble, Scott.”
“I don’t think you can, baby girl.” He pressed her head to his chest.
She felt his heart beating beneath her. The fast thump mimicked her own, then she felt him kiss her head and step back.
“Remember what I said about drinking and driving. I will blister your ass and take away every vehicle you have access to, trust and believe me on that,” he growled.
The softness from moments ago had to have been an illusion, for the man staring down at her with the icy blue eyes, wearing black denim and a fitted black T-shirt stretched over muscles with more tattoos than unmarked skin, looked nothing like the soft-spoken man she’d heard.
“I got you and said I wouldn’t. I’m twenty-three, not thirteen.” She balled her hands into fists to keep from flipping him the bird. “Do you know how many nights mom and I worried over you and what you were doing whenever we saw anything on the news about terrorists and such? You were in a branch of the military that didn’t seem to report to the government like—normal. All we had to go on was the few and far between phone calls and visits. I was sixteen when you retired, or whatever you call it, but you still kept your distance from me until a few years ago. Oh sure, you came around and did the good son and brother bit, but things weren’t like they were before.” She didn’t say before our lives went to shit. “I clearly didn’t get myself offed, or in some situation I couldn’t get out of without my super soldier brother intervening back then,” she reminded him, hating the hurt she felt at the rejection his absence made her feel. Talena turned away, her long legs ate up the short distance to where she’d parked her car outside of Cosmo’s and Tai’s newly built house at the Royal MC Compound. The home was stunning and showed the man didn’t lack in the wealth department either.
She needed to get away before she broke down in tears. The only reason she’d come out to the compound was to drop off a few things she no longer needed for Tai, the latest woman to fall for one of the Royal MC brothers. Alright, in her own mind, she’d admit the truth; she used the excuse to bring the things out to Tai in hopes of seeing Hollywood. Most of the stuff was new that she had no plans to ever use. She’d bought the shit and never wore or needed because she was, as her big brother had so eloquently stated, a spoiled rich girl.