Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“I... uh...”
“Yeah, she’s fuckin’ here with me. Got a problem with that?”
Angel blinked. “You’re together?”
“No... We...”
“Gonna ask again, Angel, you got a problem with that?”
Shade’s growl had Chelle turning toward him and staring. But he only had eyes for Angel and his eyes were saying a lot. None of it good.
Angel’s throat undulated and she stared at Shade as a forced “no” slipped from between her tight lips.
Chelle grabbed his forearm and squeezed. “Shade was nice enough to ask if I’d like to go along today on the run. I’ve never been on a motorcycle before, so I thought I’d check that off my bucket list.”
“You’re going on the run?”
That question had a sharp edge and caused the muscles under Chelle’s fingers to turn to stone.
“Aren’t you?” Chelle asked, confused.
Oh shit.
It hit her then why Angel was at the clubhouse dressed the way she was but not included on the ride. Angel was one of those “other women.”
The other women Shade didn’t want to put a name to.
The name Chelle had read about briefly. Actually, there had been a few names she had skimmed over. None of them great. The best one being a “club girl.” The worst being...
Ooooh shit.
Did she have sex with a man who had sex with one of her daughter’s childhood friends?
Oh... shit.
Heat hit her cheeks, her mouth opened and she turned wide eyes to Shade.
As soon as he saw her reaction his face got hard and he spun on Angel. “Go find somethin’ or someone to do.”
Chelle dug her nails into his forearm. “No! No... It’s okay. It’s fine. This is just all... new to me.” She grimaced. “Seriously, it’s fine.” She turned to Angel and gave her a smile, hoping it wasn’t too lopsided. “It’s really good to see you, Angel.” Chelle just wished she hadn’t seen so much of her.
It took the girl a few seconds, but her anger at finding out Chelle was not only with Shade, but going on the club run with him, mysteriously disappeared.
After a quick frown at Shade, Angel plastered on a smile Chelle could tell was fake, bounced on her toes which made her very perky unrestrained boobs bob freely and said, “Well...” Her fake smile turned into an exaggerated pout and she pressed a hand between those very pointy boobs, making her nipples practically punch out of the thin, skin-hugging fabric. Was that all for Shade’s benefit? “Aww... I miss Maddie. I haven’t talked to her in like... forever.”
Chelle swallowed the automatic response of, “You should give her a call.” Because if Angel talked to Maddie, the cat would be out of the bag about her and Shade.
Or at least about being here today on the run.
Then she’d have to live through a double daughter inquisition on why she was on this motorcycle ride with Shade and why they hadn’t been told about it.
Then they’d pester her about... Well, about everything. Her girls were experts at digging up the truth. They both also had good imaginations. The longer Chelle held out, the wilder her daughters’ stories would get until she was forced to tell them the details.
Plus, the last thing she wanted Josie and Maddie to know was that their mother got nailed behind the shed in their backyard or on the rear seat of the Subaru, where they also sometimes sat, by a man eleven years her junior.
She grimaced.
“How she know your girl?”
She snapped out of her musings and realized Angel had wandered away. She had draped herself over the young mechanic, Whip, where he sat at the bar on a stool, while she whispered something into his ear and straddled his thigh.
Or... rode it.
Whip had his hand down the back of her shorts and was...
She spun toward Shade.
“Sorry, what?” Her face felt touched by the heat of a thousand suns.
Shade glanced over where she had, frowned and grabbed her hand, pulling her along.
“How she know your girl?”
She had no idea where Shade was taking her, but followed anyway. “Maddie and her were really close when they were younger. I figured they just drifted apart like some girls do. But Angel was also one of my students. Her and Maddie were in the same grade level all the way through graduation.”
“It bother you?”
“I wasn’t expecting to see someone my daughter’s age here.” She wasn’t expecting to see people she knew here. Now she would look at everyone in town in a whole new light. She would wonder who else had a “secret” life.
“She’s legal. All of them are.”
Them. She assumed he meant the “other women.” Because all the ol’ ladies she had been introduced to—but not given time to have a deep discussion with, which might have been by design—seemed to be at least in their mid- to late-twenties. And those were the younger ones. Reese seemed to be the oldest and Chelle guessed the lawyer was a few years younger than her.