Revive (Storm MC #3) (17 page)

She shrugged.  “No worries, I’ll just have a coffee.”

Ah, fuck it. 

She’d won. 

I made coffee.

***

V
elvet

Shit, bugger, damn. 

My morning had gone really well after Nash dropped me at home on his way to the club.  I’d finished off some study for my exams that were coming up and then I’d given myself a facial, a pedicure and washed and blow-dried my hair.  If Nash was coming over at lunch, I was going to look damn good for him.  However, my mother phoned and reminded me I was having lunch with her and Anna.  I’d completely forgotten and now had to let Nash know I was cancelling.  He hadn’t answered my call so I texted him.

Me: Gotta cancel lunch with your tongue.  Forgot I had lunch planned with my family.  Catch you tonight.

I finished getting ready for lunch and checked my phone before I left.  Still no reply.  There wasn’t much I could do about it so I locked up the house and left.  We were meeting for lunch at the Breakfast Creek Hotel and the traffic was a bitch.  However, my car was running so well after Nash had worked on it that it made the traffic bearable.  Either that, or the fact I was thinking about Nash made it bearable.

The lunch crowd was loud today, and there were people everywhere.  I scanned to find Mum and Anna, finally locating them in the corner and then made my way to where they were.  Anna grinned at me strangely and Mum gave me a huge smile.

As I sat down, I asked, “What?  Why are you two acting weird?”

Anna didn’t hesitate to tell me; she was bursting to get it out.  “You’ve been with Nash again, haven’t you?”

“How the hell can you tell that?”

She gave me a sly smile.  “Well, I couldn’t, but it was a good guess.”  She looked me up and down.  “Mind you, you do look very happy and soft.”

“What does that mean?  The bit about being soft.”  My sister spoke in riddles half the time; I was forever trying to decipher what she meant.

“Your shoulders aren’t as tense as they normally are, and you don’t have that look on your face that says ‘don’t fuck with me cause I’ll fuck back’.”

Mum laughed and nodded her agreement.  “She’s right, Velvet.  You seem different.  Who is this man?”

Before I could answer her, Anna did it for me.  “Nash is one of the bikers who own Indigo.”

I corrected her.  “He doesn’t own the club as such; Storm own it.”

She waved her hand in the air.  “Semantics.”

“How long have you been seeing him?” Mum asked.

I sighed, wishing that Anna hadn’t said anything.  They’d both been pushing  me to start dating again for years so I could only imagine the questions I was about to be hit with.  I would rather have told Mum in my own time, once I knew where it was heading, if anywhere.

“So, is it dating or just sex?” Anna wanted to know next.

“God!  Why do you need to ask so many questions?”  She completely exasperated me sometimes.  I loved her to death, but her need to know everything drove me insane.

“Why do you always avoid my questions?”

“Aargh!”  If I could have screamed, I would have.  But I couldn’t, and I knew that if I didn’t give her an answer, she would just keep asking.  I pointed my finger at her and gave her a very serious look.  “Alright, I’ll answer your question but it’s the last one you ask, okay?  Otherwise, no more answers.”

I waited for her answer and she nodded.  “Yes, you answer that and I won’t need to know anymore.  Except for the size of his - ”

“Anna!” I screeched.  “Enough!  It’s not just sex and it’s not dating.  There, are you happy?”

She looked perplexed.  “What kind of answer is that?”

“The most honest one I’ve got.”

Before anyone had a chance to say anything more, my phone buzzed with a text message.  I quickly snatched it out of bag hoping it was Nash replying to mine from earlier.  I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I read it.

Nash: Didn’t get your message and now I’m at your fucking house with the biggest hard on I’ve ever had and no pussy to take care of it.

Me: Perhaps you should check your messages more often.

Nash: Fuck.

Me: Poor baby.  I miss your tongue.

Nash: Fuck the tongue, sweet thing.  Tonight all you’re gonna see and feel is my cock.

Me: I’m gonna be in Nash heaven.

Nash: Fuck.  No more texts or I’m gonna have to whack off on your front verandah.

I laughed out loud when I read his last text and then put my phone away.

My mother took my hand and squeezed it gently.  “I’m happy to see you smile again,” she said, softly.

I wasn’t sure if it was what she’d said, the tone of it or the emotions I was already feeling today, but my eyes teared up.  My heart felt full today; I felt like something had shifted in me.  Something big.  And even though I had a sense of anxiety about it, I knew, deep in my soul, that it was a good thing.  I knew I had to take this step and let be what may.

“Me too, Mum,” I agreed.

I turned to Anna.  “Now, enough about me.  It’s you we should be worried about.”  I was still concerned for her after her boyfriend dumped her.

“I’m good, sis,” she said, but I could hear the sadness in her voice. 

Men.  Sometimes you could kiss them forever and other times you could just take your glittery, red stilettos and jam them as far up their asses as they’d reach.

Ready To Love Again ~ Lady Antebellum

––––––––

N
ash

I pulled my t-shirt on over my head, not taking my eyes off Velvet as she wiggled into her jeans.  Not only did she make taking her clothes off an art form, she made putting them on an erotic act also.  She finished wiggling into them and did them up before she realised I was watching her.

“Baby, I’ve never wanted to watch a woman put her clothes on but you’ve shown me the error of my ways,” I declared.

She slipped her top on and then walked over to where I was.  Wrapping her arms around my waist, she asked, “So no more taking clothes off?”

I smirked, and ran my hands over her ass.  “Let’s not get carried away.  I’ve still got my priorities, sweet thing, and seeing this ass naked is at the top of them.”

Her smile hit all the right spots.  “Okay, just checking.  I’d like to keep my man happy.”

The minute those words were out of her mouth, there was a shift between us.  I fucking liked hearing those words but I sensed she wished they’d never been uttered.  It had been a long time since I’d been anyone’s man, and with each passing day I was easing more into this relationship, whatever the hell it was.  A week ago, it was just sex, now it felt like a lot more.

I pulled her closer before she had a chance to retreat from me.  “You make me very happy,” I whispered in her ear.

Her body was rigid but at my words, I felt her soften.  “Same,” she said, and that one word sent warmth through me.  Although we’d taken a long time to get here, I felt like we were in the exact right place.  Together. 

Loosening my hold on her, I stepped back and my eyes drifted down her body.  “Babe,” I said as I looked back up at her, “don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it, but why the hell do women wear the tightest jeans that barely fit them.  How the fuck do you breathe in those things?”

She smacked me on the arm.  “Why the fuck do women do anything, Nash?  To make sure the men in their lives are happy and to make sure their attention stays on them rather than on another woman.”

I chuckled having achieved my goal.  “Trust me when I say that my attention is firmly on you, sweet thing.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “You totally said all that to change the topic of the conversation, didn’t you?”

Caught out.  I grinned.  “It may have also been to get you a little shitty.  You’re fuckin’ hot when you’re shitty.”

She hit my chest this time and pointed at the doorway.  “Go.  We’ve got shopping to do.”

I did as I was told and she followed me outside.  When we reached her car, I put my hand out for her keys.  The look she gave me could have brought a weaker man to his knees.  “What?” I asked.

“Did you just put your hand out for the keys so you could drive my car?”

“Yeah.”  I wasn’t really sure what the problem was here.

“I don’t think so, Nash.”  She gave me an annoyed look.

“Well we can’t take my bike,” I said what I thought should have been clear.  We were on our way to Ikea to pick up a bookshelf for her and it sure as shit couldn’t be transported on a bike.

That just pissed her off even more.  “Oh my God, Nash.  That’s not what I meant.”

“What the hell did you mean then?”  This conversation had gone south real fucking quick and I was clueless as to why.

“Just because you’re the man doesn’t mean you get to automatically drive my car.  If it was your car, I would assume you’d drive it.  I’d never assume that I would.  Don’t come into my life and think that I’m the woman so I must be relegated to woman jobs.”  She meant business and I read between the lines.  Some asshole had fucked with her and I suspected it was her ex-husband. 

I didn’t argue, just raised my hands in apology.  “I’m sorry, sweetheart.  It’s all yours.”  I moved to the passenger door and waited for her to let me in.

She stood staring at me and I waited for her to make the next move.  “Shit, Nash Walker, where the hell have you been all my life?” she finally said before walking around to the driver’s side.

“Baby, I could say the same thing,” I said, softly, more to myself than her, but she caught it and flashed me a smile before getting in the car.  Velvet smiling was a sight I could see myself living for; a sight I would trip over myself to make sure I saw often.

***

V
elvet

I watched as Nash pulled all the flat packed pieces out of the box and started assembling the cabinet I’d bought.  We’d gone to buy a bookshelf and ended up with one of those plus this cabinet that looked tricky to put together.  I grabbed the assembly instructions and passed them to him.

He frowned as he took it off me.  “Why are you giving me that?”

I gave him a ‘you’re joking’ look.  “So you can work out how to put it together.”

He shoved the instructions back at me.  “I can work out how to put it together without those, sweetheart.”

Was he kidding me?  I opened them and started reading to make sure what he was doing was actually right.  It was a good thing I did because I noticed he was doing something wrong.

I tried to give him the instructions again.  “You’ve got the wrong part there,” I insisted.

He stood up and scowled at me.  “Velvet, I’m still working out how it goes together.  Maybe you should go and do something else while I do this.”

“If you’d just read the instructions, you’d work it out faster,” I suggested.  It annoyed me when men wouldn’t read instructions.

The instructions remained in my hands as he glared at me.  “I’d work it out a lot fuckin’ faster if you’d just let me do it.  Without the fuckin’ instructions.” 

I took a deep breath.  “Fine, I’m going to leave you to do it on your own.”  Without waiting for his response, I stalked out of the room.  He could really be an ass sometimes.

While he put the furniture together, I took the opportunity to get some study done.  I had fallen behind lately due to all the time I’d been spending with Nash.  There was only a couple of weeks left on my course so I really needed to buckle down and get it done.  I’d have to cut down on my time with him for a little while.  And even though I was annoyed at him at the moment, my heart dropped a little at that thought.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I heard Nash’s voice.  Looking up from my books, I found him standing at the door to my study, watching me.

“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked.

He took a step toward me and jerked his head in the direction of my living room.  “They’re both put together.  Do you want to come and make sure I’ve got them in the right place?”

“Yeah.” 

I followed him out and found that he had them exactly where I wanted them. “Perfect,” I said.  “Thank you.”

I was still mad at him and there was a divide between us; one I couldn’t get past until he’d apologised.  The problem was, I wanted him to say sorry without me having to tell him I needed that.  And I knew that wasn’t going to happen.  And that pissed me off even more.

“Okay, babe, spit it out,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Nash, the fact I have to spit it out really pisses me off.”

“I’m not a mind reader.  You’re going to have to tell me what it is.”

“You don’t need to be a mind reader for this.  You just need to realise that you were an ass to me.”

He raked his fingers through his hair.  “Fuck, is this about me not taking the instructions off you?”

“Not so much, although that did annoy me.  This is because of the way you spoke to me.”

He didn’t say anything, he just stood there looking confused about the whole thing.  Good Lord, men needed it spelt out to them so I did that for him.  “Nash, my ex treated me like shit.  He didn’t hit me or anything like that, but he bullied and belittled me.  I won’t even contemplate a relationship with a man who does that.  Now, I’m not saying you did that at all, but from the start, I’m being upfront and telling you what I won’t put up with.  And I won’t put up with being spoken to the way you spoke to me.”

I watched as he processed that.  It didn’t take him long and then he moved towards me, lifted his hand to my face and gently rubbed his thumb across my cheek.  His eyes were soft; kind.  Totally not how I’d expected this to go at all.  My tummy did somersaults while I waited for him to speak.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a relationship and I’m kinda rusty, babe.  I’m sorry I spoke to you that way.  And I’m real fuckin’ sorry your ex was such a dickhead.”

He’d managed to piss me off twice already today but each time, he hadn’t hesitated to fix it.  That stunned the hell out of me.  Especially after being married to a man who hardly ever apologised for anything.

“Thank you.”

The divide between us was gone and his arms circled my waist.  His lips met mine in a soft kiss that was so unlike most of his kisses.  When he ended it, he murmured, “Fuck, baby, you bring out good shit in me.”