Chapter 113 The right woman can tame any man.
Lia
My head hurt, and my mouth felt like garbage. It was so dry. Damn, I am cursing now. This club really is changing me. I started to laugh at my own thoughts.
“What’s so funny, Sunshine?” Beast’s voice was thick with sleep.
“I am cursing in my head now.”
He let out a low laugh. “You’re still my good girl.”
My heart seemed to stop. I looked down at my left hand and my breath caught. On my finger sat a square emerald, small diamonds set around it in a white gold band, with even more tiny stones going all the way around.
“Do you like it? I don’t think you really saw it last night.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, my voice quiet.
“It belonged to my mother. I know she would want you to have it. She would have loved having you as part of our family.”
“You really think so?”
“I know it. My father, too. He looked out for women, just like I do.”
I made a soft sound as he pressed his face into the back of my neck and kissed me there.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“I’m really hungry.”
“Alright. Let’s get cleaned up, then after we eat, you get to open your gifts.”
I squealed. I had not had a birthday with piles of presents since I was a child. My dad would just give me money, and then we’d go out to eat. Liam never celebrated my birthday at all.
After Beast took his time washing every part of me, we went to the kitchen. We loaded plates with waffles and bacon and sat down with Clown, Carrie, Rachel, Bear, Owen, Hex, Doc, Butcher, and Kiki. I saw Doc looking a bit down. Before I could ask him about it, Owen threw his arms around me.
“Look, babe!” He shoved his hand right in front of my face.
I looked at the ring on his finger. It was a silver-colored band, made of some kind of heavy metal, with little sparkling bits set into it. It was really pretty.
“That’s gorgeous,” I said.
“It was his grandfather’s. He called his dad, told him he’d found the love of his life, and his dad mailed the ring. I am so happy,” he squealed.
“Me too,” I said, holding up my own hand with my ring.
He squealed again, pulled my hand closer to look, then tugged my arm across the table to show Rachel, Carrie, and Kiki. They all made happy little sounds too, which made all the men shake their heads.
“Where is everyone else?” Beast asked.
“Still sleeping it off. You should see the yard. Nothing but tents. Some of the Reapers, VAs, and DS guys brought RVs and parked them on the empty lot next door. There are about thirty of them,” Butcher said.
“I guess Rockstar and Amber are still asleep?” I asked.
Butcher nodded.
“Kiki, congratulations. I’m really happy for you two. Now it looks like we need to work on you, Doc,” I said.
He stopped with his fork halfway to his mouth, his eyes locking onto mine. Something flashed in them that made my eyebrows go up.
“Getting a little personal, sweetness,” he muttered.
“No, I’m just happy and I want everyone else to be happy too. You looked happy with that brunette you were following last night. You couldn’t stop watching her. What happened? Who is she?”
“Lia,” he grumbled.
“Daddy Doc?” I grinned.
Both of them, Beast with a touch of jealousy and Doc with a touch of heat, made a low, warning sound at me. Owen and I completely lost our composure. Owen leaned into me, bumping my shoulder.
“You’re getting brave. I love it,” he said close to my ear.
The other men at the table snorted, and the women giggled.
I looked at Doc. He was trying hard to keep a straight face, but I could see he was amused.
“I scared her off,” he said suddenly.
Everyone at the table stopped eating and stared at him. They were all gossips, every one of them. They lived for this stuff.
He let out a big sigh.
“Her name is Lacy. We were together five weeks ago, right when you first got here. She was at your first club party. She showed up yesterday and told me she’s pregnant. Says I’m the father. She’s completely sure. I’m the last guy she was with, and before me, it was some guy about a year back. I don’t think she’s the type to lie about this. So, she agreed to a paternity test in three weeks. I had too much to drink last night, and I might have told her that if the baby is mine, she has to be my Old Lady. That was after she mentioned just co-parenting. She said maybe she didn’t want that kind of commitment. I basically told her I did not give a fuck what she wanted. She let me have it and then she left.”
“Good for her,” I said.
Every head turned to me, mouths open. Owen was nodding, agreeing. Carrie, Kiki, and Rachel had the same look of agreement on their faces.
“What do you mean, ‘good for her’?” Doc asked. His frown was serious. If I was still the scared girl from five weeks ago, I probably would have started crying. But these men, and my man, have given me so much strength. I knew I could hold my ground with them.
“Women like to be won over, Doc. We don’t like being told what to do. How we’re going to live. Look at me. I ran from a man who controlled my whole life. Try a little romance. Do you like her?”
“Yeah, I think I do. She seems honest and she’s got spirit. From what I remember, she was amazing in bed, and we had a good time that night. When I saw her again, all I could think about was getting her back in bed. I’ve never wanted a woman like I want her. She’s all I think about.”
“I know what you mean, brother,” Butcher said, giving Kiki a look full of heat. Sounds of agreement came from around the table as all the men looked at their women the same way. In Owen’s case, Hex looked like he wanted to eat him alive.
I giggled. These men. ‘She was great in bed, so she’s the one.’ I couldn’t help laughing harder.
“Don’t laugh, Sunshine. It’s true. The right woman can tame any man.”
I lost it then, tears running down my face.
“Well, this one sure did,” I got out between laughs.
The whole table erupted.
“Win her over, Doc. Call her. Ask her out. Bring her flowers. Get to know her. If she’s the mother of your child, it would be good to make her yours and bring her into the family,” I said, after I caught my breath.
He just stared at me. Then he tapped the table, got up, and walked out.
“That was amazing advice, Lia,” Kiki said.
Everyone else agreed.
“Let’s open the presents!” I shouted.
We cleared the table and the guys brought all the gifts over. We split them between Owen and me. I let Owen go first and took pictures of everything he opened. He got a leather vest with ‘Lords of Chaos’ and ‘Property of Hex’ on the back. On the front was a patch that said ‘Misfit.’ His other vest just said ‘Owen.’ He cried and kissed Hex. Now both sides of him belonged to Hex. He got books, leather pants, new wigs, and costume jewelry. He and Hex laughed at the swing we got them, and then he opened the box with the bracelet.
“Thank you. It’s beautiful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Okay, your turn,” he said.
I got new paintbrushes, paints, and canvases from the club girls. Owen got me a bright blue smock with ‘Badass Artist’ embroidered on the front. It made me laugh. Butcher got me a gold charm bracelet with little charms of a painter’s palette, a paintbrush, and a tiny easel. I put it on my left wrist, got up, and kissed his cheek. His cheeks turned a little pink. I thought that was sweet.
Doc got me a spa package that came with three guest passes. The Old Ladies put together a recipe book, which I really loved. Papa Leonardo got me what looked like a small, slim box. On the front, my name ‘Lia’ was spelled out in diamonds. The dot of the ‘i’ was a button. Good thing I wasn’t holding both ends, because when I pressed it, a thin, pointed blade shot out.
“This is so cool.”
“The card says, ‘for your protection, keep it on you always.’ Here, there’s a little chain you can attach to the handle and wear around your wrist if you want,” Beast said, handing me a thin chain. I fixed it to the blade.
I really liked it and slipped it onto my right wrist.
Beast handed me a rolled-up tube of paper with a bow tied around it.
“You can change anything you don’t like,” he said, sounding nervous.
I looked at him, curious, as I took the bow off and unrolled the paper. It was graph paper with a drawing of a house.
“Cam, what is this?”
“This is our house. And behind it is your art studio.”
I stared at the drawing. It would be a beautiful modern farmhouse with a porch that wrapped around. It had two floors, six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a basement, a huge kitchen, and a separate garage for six cars on the side. I could only imagine that would be all for Beast. In the back was a pool shaped like a bean and a hot tub. There was an outdoor kitchen with a full BBQ setup. Over in a corner of the yard was a small art studio. I loved it.
“The club bought some land up north. Butcher wants to move the club away from the city. We want to keep home life separate from business, build a bigger compound. We have people who don’t like us, and this will be safer and harder to find. With the club growing and so many of us finding someone, we needed more land to build on. This is our house. Like I said, change anything.”
“No, it’s perfect. I love it. Six bedrooms?”
“I want a lot of kids,” he said with a grin that promised trouble. I giggled, and I could feel my face getting hot.
I thanked everyone for the gifts.
“Wait, there’s one more. I don’t know who sent it. The prospect said a messenger dropped it off yesterday,” Butcher said.
He handed me a medium-sized box. It wasn’t very heavy. I tore it open. Tears jumped to my eyes and a sob broke out of me. Inside were pictures of my parents, ripped to pieces. One of my father’s shirts, sliced up. A blanket that belonged to my mother, destroyed. A card at the bottom read: ‘I found you, Princess.’