“Don’t do it, Shade,” Winter said as they watched Lily, Razer, and Beth leave the diner after their Sunday lunch.
Shade turned cold eyes on Winter for daring to interfere again. He had listened to her the day Razer and Beth had gotten married, but he was done listening to everyone.
He had been forced to sit and watch Lily and Charles eat lunch at the same table. Then, when the piss-ant had gotten up, he had kissed Lily while giving Shade a confident smile.
Shade had broken his coffee cup with his bare hand then thrown it to the floor, about to get up, but Beth had brought him back to reality by making the excuse she had dropped the cup.
Everyone wanted to protect Lily from him, while the real wolf was trying to steal her away. Fuck that. He had watched Lily put her mouth on Charles for the last time.
“Come to the lake with us. The whole club is going,” Viper broke in between the building tension from his enforcer and his wife.
“No, thanks. I have something I need to take care of,” Shade said, standing up.
“Shade.” Winter’s soft voice stopped him from leaving. “Be gentle.”
Shade started to snap a reply to her for butting in yet again, but Viper’s warning glare stopped him.
He nodded. “Always.”
* * *
Shade knocked on Lily’s door. When she didn’t answer, he unlocked it and went inside, worried Lily might have had an unexpected panic attack.
He found her outside sleeping on the lounger. Grinning wickedly, he walked closer, moving silently. He had only seen her once before in her swimsuit, and her body had matured since then.
Shade swallowed hard, forcing himself to wait. He went into the kitchen and began preparing them something to eat. After he had done as much as he could, he rewarded himself by picking up the bottle of lotion Lily had placed by her lounger. He rubbed the cold lotion onto her, knowing her hot skin would be sensitive.
She startled awake, her hands going to her side, ready to jump up from the lounge chair.
“Stay still. I didn’t want you to burn.” Shade rubbed more lotion onto the backs of her legs.
“That’s enough. I was going to go in and get changed,” Lily protested in a strangled voice.
“Stay and relax. I brought us some steaks to grill. When they’re almost done, you can get changed.”
Unable to resist, he rubbed his thumb against the bottom curve of her ass before he stood up, going to put the steaks on the grill.
“How did you get in?” Lily asked.
She isn’t going to like this part, Shade mused, slapping the two steaks on the grill. “I have a key.”
“What? How?”
“Beth gave me her extra key when you were in the hospital. She’d asked me to pack some clothes for you.”
When she blushed, Shade knew she was remembering the red panties he had packed inside her suitcase.
“You can grab a quick shower. The steaks are almost done.”
Shade nearly had a fucking heart attack when she rose up from the lounger. Her ass had been remarkable to look at and touch, but her breasts inside that tiny swimsuit were fucking magnificent. He almost lost his composure as they jiggled when she stood up and walked toward the house.
She kept her face averted from his, but Shade wasn’t putting up with that. He slipped an arm around her waist as she passed, pulling her toward him.
“Wait a minute,” he said, wanting to lick the bead of sweat trailing between her tits. He satisfied himself by pressing a finger on the skin just above the flesh of her breasts, instead. “You’ve gotten too much sun. Put some lotion on before you come back downstairs. I’ll keep the steaks warm.”
“I’m a grown woman,” Lily snapped.
“I can see that for myself.” His eyes didn’t leave her tits.
“Jerk.”
Shade released her when she started to wiggle away; a man could only take so much.
“Get changed.” Shade grinned.
“I planned to.” Lily stomped away, and Shade appreciated every step before she glanced back and caught him watching her ass.
“Don’t say anything unless you want to learn my lesson on respect,” he said, seeing the fire in her eyes. Please, please, say something, he silently begged.
Lily muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
“What did you say?” he asked with a warning glint in his eyes, almost licking his lips in anticipation.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Damn,” Shade muttered under his breath.
Going inside, he found a pitcher of tea and fixed a couple of glasses of ice then carried them outside.
He had already placed plates with baked potatoes on the table and was putting the steaks on a platter when Lily returned.
“Exactly how long have you been here?” Lily asked, taking a seat at the table.
“Long enough.” Shade grinned, setting the plate of steaks down.
“I would complain, but the food looks too good,” Lily said with wry amusement.
Shade placed one of the big steaks on her plate before serving himself. Lily cut off a piece of the tender meat then took a bite.
“It’s delicious,” she complimented.
“You didn’t think I could cook?” Shade raised a brow.
“Why would you need to cook? You have a bunch of pretty women cooking and delivering it to you,” Lily teased without an ounce of jealousy in her remark.
Shade had trouble swallowing his own bite of steak.
“I’ll have you know that we all take turns cooking and sharing chores.”
“I bet that’s interesting. How often does Winter get stuck doing chores?”
“Not often, unless it’s a punishment. She has a way of finagling things to get her way,” Shade said wryly. She was becoming as good at playing cards as he was.
&nb
sp; “I know. It comes from being a high school principal. She was a mastermind at making the kids do things they didn’t want to do.”
“Really?” Shade cut his steak, absently listening. He really didn’t want to talk about Winter; she was a constant pain in his ass.
Lily nodded. “The seniors wanted to cut class on the first day of spring—it was a tradition at our school—yet students every year would manage to get into trouble. The previous principal had tried to stop it but wasn’t successful. Winter, on the other hand, acted all gung ho for us to have the day off. She told us that, if we volunteered to clean the kitchen of the school’s chef training program, she would let us have the afternoon off. What she didn’t tell us was that the students had made pizza the day before and hadn’t used pizza pans. It took us all day to clean those ovens. I had nightmares about burnt-on cheese for a month.”
Shade stopped eating. That sneaky bitch had managed to trick him out of his marker by using the same trick on him she had used on high school students. Hell, he would have given her the marker, anyway; he didn’t want to fuck her, but he would have made her work for it or held onto it for a rainy day.
Lily’s laughter said she knew Winter had fooled him.
“Don’t tell me she got you on that one?”
“Let’s change the subject before I decide to stuff her into our oven.”
Viper wouldn’t let me, anyway, Shade thought grumpily.
They talked the rest of the meal about the different things people ordered through the factory.
“Diamond is becoming our best customer. We had a new shipment come in the first of the week. I had to be up early to help unload the truck. Diamond was sitting in the parking lot. She brought me breakfast so I wouldn’t tell Knox on her.”
“Did you?”
“Fuck no. She brought pancakes.”
“Knox put Diamond on a budget,” Lily told him.
“She’s finally calmed down. She’s too busy decorating her new house.”