Page List


Font:  

Chapter One

“We’re all going to fucking die this holiday,”Hunter said.

“Hey!” Ugly Beast growled. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

There was a chorus of laughter around the church table, and Smokey wasn’t entertained. In fact, he was mightily pissed off. This hadn’t been a decision he’d come to lightly.

With the shit that went down with his woman, and then Raven, he was struggling. He wasn’t a romantic man, nor was he a man used to feeling so fucking useless when it came to women.

Ava had certainly shown him that he had a thing or two, or a fucking thousand, to learn. When it came to his woman, he was always fucking up.

“Dude, Hunter’s right. We love Abriana. You know we do, but come on. That woman needs to be banned from the kitchen. She has given us all food poisoning,” Big Dick said. “I think she has chipped my sister’s teeth a few times as well. Harlow will not even think about helping her to bake. Your woman is a disaster in the kitchen.”

Smokey couldn’t agree more. Abriana was a lovely woman. Her love for Ugly Beast surprised him. Their marriage had been an arrangement with the Garofalo mafia. After discovering the Boss was nothing more than a pedophile, intent on destroying the Hells Bastards MC, he’d been taken out. The mafia was now run by Carlos Santiago, who happened to be married to one of their own, Raven.

Smokey adored Abriana.She was good for Ugly Beast, who had turned into a somewhat reasonable human being. He was a good guy. A nice guy, but of course, anyone who said that to Ugly Beast would hurt for days afterward.

“Abriana doesn’t have to cook, and if she does, I’m sure Ava can fix anything she does,” Smokey said.

“So let me get this right,” Kinky said. “You want us to host Christmas here at the clubhouse. We’re to get the women to dress properly, or not appear, and we’re to what, embrace Ava?”

Smokey ran a hand down his face. His men were being purposefully obtuse dickheads.

“Smokey, dude, you’ve got to let that shit go,” Brick said.

He looked around the table at the club.

“He can’t let it go,” Raven said. “He can’t bring himself to stop thinking about it, right? Iget it.”

“Ava has forgiven us all,” Kinky said.

Smokey slammed his hand on the table. “I know she has forgiven us all, but I want more than that. I want her to have memories of this fucking clubhouse that extend past a few pleasantries. This is going to be a place where she comes all the fucking time. Where I want our kids to come to. This is my clubhouse, and I don’t want her to constantly remember my betrayal of her.”

At times, Ava was so hard to freaking read. She no longer seemed to be having the nightmares, which was a welcome relief, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty every time she was at the clubhouse. Even when Ava didn’t realize he was watching her, he saw how she sometimes jumped or flinched. She hid it with a laugh or a sudden movement. He spotted it. He noticed it.

The club hadn’t, but he had. And it drove him fucking crazy. So crazy that he had spent a great deal of time thinking about how he could make this work.

He needed to wipe out her memories and create new ones. It was simple. Thanksgiving, they’d enjoyed alone with their son, Umberto. It had been a quiet affair, and after he’d put his son to bed, he’d spent the whole night making love to her.

With Christmas coming, he knew she loved this holiday. Her bakery was already full of the Christmas treats she wanted to serve. Mince pies, mint candy cane cookies, the works. She had even taken Umberto back to workfor a couple of days a week so she could get into the festive mood.

Her shop was alsofull of decorations. Tinsel and fairy lights in the shop window. A tree in the corner, more tinsel and lights around the shop. It was a wonderland.

He’d known this about his woman. And he didn’t mind it. In fact, he loved to see her joy, but at the clubhouse, it was a pit.

No tree.

No tinsel.

No lights.

Nothing.

He looked toward Ugly Beast. “Do you want to spend Christmas with Abriana’s cooking?”

“I want to spend Christmas with my family.”

But he sawthe clenching of Ugly Beast’s jaw. A couple of Christmases ago, he hadn’t been able to make it to their church meeting because he’d been puking his guts up and shitting himself every two minutes. That was Abriana’s cooking.


Tags: Sam Crescent Romance