“Your role,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “is to thrust a few times and come. We have nine months and a hard labor we have to put in, you dick.”
“Arlo, don't be an asshole,” Mama said, reaching over and smacking me on the back of the head. “You're speaking to a goddess. Show some of those manners I worked so hard to beat into you. You know better than anyone else that a man's role isn't in the baby making—other than a literal sense. It's his job to pleasure his lady.”
“Damn straight,” Reece said with a bright grin. Once again, everyone but me was smiling. Bunch of assholes. “We just gotta pleasure dis girl straight to da full moon, and then we make some progress, no?”
“We have less than a week,” Killian said, a darkness in his voice that said he suspected trouble.
“And what happens on the full moon?” Caley asked, leaning forward in her chair. She was genuinely curious, but she wasn't privy to club business. The Veil Keeper and all her secrets, most definitely club fucking business.
“Nothing you want to know about,” I said, reaching down and avoiding the mugs of coffee—fuck if I even knew why I’d bothered making it—and grabbed a tall, cold glass of iced tea instead, the ice cubes clinking pleasantly, the sides of the drink sweating in the oppressive humidity. The AC was working at full capacity, but even with the dehumidifier chugging away in the corner, it was fucking moist as hell in here—and in a bad way. “Now try this tea and see what you think.”
“That’s my famous sweet tea,” Mama began, leaning back in her rocking chair, her lips painted as red as the day she waltzed into the clubhouse and captured my father’s … well, his interest and his cock, if not his heart. “That won the over the entire Wild Hunt MC, every last man from President to hang-around.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t your cunt?” Caley giggled, receiving a proper swat on the knee for being an asshole.
“You’ll love it,” Mama declared, crossing her arms over her chest. She truly believed there wasn’t a person in the world that couldn’t be charmed by her famous sweet tea recipe.
We all waited in silence for Ciarah to sip the drink slowly and carefully, like she was putting a lot of thought into something as stupid as cold tea. But shit if it wasn’t important to my mother.
“It’s fucking amazing,” she said and Mama, Caley, and Reece all flashed big grins. Killian smiled like he was in a frigging underwear ad or some shit, and I sat there … scowling again. Jesus H. Ciarah was right. “I wouldn’t be a proper Southerner if I disliked sweet tea, now would I?”
“Once had a girl from New Zealand show up at the clubhouse wanting to be a part of the Willing Hunt. She was pretty, curvy, big tits. But one of the boys offered her up some of my sweet tea and she refused, said cold tea was downright gross. Well, I’ll tell ya what, they kicked her ass right to the curb, sent her outside to spend the night with the gators.”
A laugh bubbled out of Ciarah at this, sounding like the wind chimes on Mama's upstairs veranda, and fuck it … I smiled.
I couldn't frigging help it.
Fucking Veil Keeper was wearing me down. Hell, I was already worn down. I was hers, whether I wanted to admit it or not.
As I laughed at the mental image of some poor girl left out in the bayou at nighttime, my eyes flickered over to Arlo, my Lord of Spring, and my heart almost stopped.
No wonder that man never smiled. Fucking hell, he'd be causing car crashes and breaking up marriages everywhere he went if he smiled more often. The sight of it was nothing short of dazzling. Heart-stopping. Panty-dropping.
“What?” he snarled at me, his stunning smile fading back into his trademark scowl, but it was too late. I'd seen it.
“Nothing,” I replied with a smirk, and he glared.
Too late, Cernunnos, I've seen what you're hiding and now I want more.
As I grinned, and Arlo glared, I wasn't focusing on what was going on around us, so didn't see the small dog coming until it was too late.
It leaped into my lap in a fluffy bundle of white … er … fluff, knocking the glass of tea out of my hand and saturating my white tank top.
“Shit, Linda I am so sorry,” I apologized, placing the now empty glass back on the tray and frowning at the brown liquid seeping into the couch cushion around me while Arlo manhandled the small dog out of the way.
“Not a worry at all.” Linda flapped her hand. “I'll grab a tea towel for that if Caley can grab you a clean shirt?” She gave her half-fae daughter a pointed look and Caley nodded her blond head.
“Sure thing, come on Cia,” she agreed, hopping up from her seat and holding out a hand to me. “Arlo can take Noodle outside to play with the chickens or something.”
The idea of Arlo playing with both the excited fluffball that was Noodle and chickens made me want to laugh, but I bit my lip to hold it back and followed Caley down the hall to her room.
“Here.” She grabbed a t-shirt out of her top drawer and passed it to me. “Sorry if it's a bit small, I keep most of my clothes at the clubhouse because it's closer to work.”
“It's got to be better than this.” I smiled, taking the garment gratefully and glancing down at my soaked top. I'd gone bra-free again seeing as this body had smaller tits than I was used to in my former life. They were perky enough that they really didn't need anything more than the support of a good halter top, but that now meant the dark circles of my nipples were showing though the wet fabric.
“Uh, yeah,” Caley snickered. “I'm pretty sure all three of the guys cracked a fat one the second your top went see-through, so like … be quick changing or one of them will hunt you down.”
She chuckled at her own joke, then headed back to the living room, leaving me alone to peel the tea-soaked fabric from my skin.
Caley hadn't been kidding when she'd said the top was small … it was literally a cropped t-shirt which barely covered the lower curve of my breasts and left my flat stomach totally exposed down to the low waist of my pants. I'd worn a pair of tight, acid washed jeans, since I'd been on Kill's bike coming out here, and a quick glance in the mirror suggested the tiny top was actually kinda sexy on me.
Totally useless for my wings, but I supposed it would do for now.
As I wandered back down the hallway to rejoin the others, Arlo stepped through a door that must lead into the backyard.
For a moment, we both froze and his eyes raked a burning path over my body as he took in my borrowed shirt.
“Arlo,” I whispered as he took two steps closer to me and laid a finger over his lips, indicating I be quiet. My eyebrows shot up, but I did as he said and closed my lips as he advanced closer still, backing me up until I was pressed against the wall just outside the living room.
Arlo's huge frame crowded me, and his intense green gaze held mine for a long, charged moment before his fingers reached out and skimmed the flesh below my tiny t-shirt.