The men I’ve known are intense, overbearing and overprotective. I don’t know any bikers who aren’t like that, and while I love the Wind Dragons to death, I don’t need more of that. I have enough of that in my life already.
I need something different.
“I guess what’s meant to be will be,” I reply, nodding to her pool cue. “Now stop trying to distract me from the fact that you are losing.”
“I know you better than that,” she says in a dry tone.
“Can I play the winner?” Atlas asks, taking the empty barstool next to Cara, eyes on the table.
I share a look with Cara, whose own eyes twinkle with amusement, and then reply to one-half of the twins we were just discussing. “Sure. Winner can buy the next round.”
“I already offered you a round. I believe you turned me down,” he says, arching his brow as he takes a sip of his beer. He turns to Cara and I can tell the two are pretty comfortable with each other by their body language and how relaxed my sister is. It’s weird to think she moved here and has had this whole other life I haven’t been a part of until now. First with a new half sister, new friends and now even a whole new motorcycle club.
I feel like I’ve been missing out on a lot.
It is so odd that Cara not only is a part of the Wind Dragons, but now the Knights of Fury. It’s like Cara was made for motorcycle club life. How are we related?
The Wind Dragons have always had allies, and enemies, but with the Knights, it’s like they are almost a part of the Dragons, too. They seem to trust each other and act like friends. I was always raised to only trust your own club, so it’s taking me a bit to wrap my head around this.
“Thanks for the cupcakes you sent Con at work yesterday—they were delicious,” I overhear him saying to her.
He knows Con? Ever since Cara found out she has a half sister and that they are closer in age, I have to admit I’ve been a bit uneasy. At first it was because I was worried for Cara. But if I’m being honest with myself, I think I was jealous. Jealous that there was another person who could call Cara a sister. It sounds absorbed, I know. It’s not like Cara will be less of a sister to me because she has a new one. I still don’t know Con too well, but I know Cara would like us all to hang out more now that I live here.
“They were for the baby, not you,” Cara replies, laughing. And yeah, Con’s pregnant with Rhett’s baby. Cara has a weird freaking life here.
“The baby isn’t even born yet,” Atlas points out.
“Yes, but she was craving red velvet cupcakes, and that means the baby wanted it. And what the baby wants, he or she will get.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining. Keep sending whatever the baby wants to the garage, in bulk,” he replies, playfully nudging her arm.
Cara is about to become an aunty. It’s a little weird, her having family that isn’t mine. But as long as she’s happy, that’s all I care about.
Con is not blood related to me at all, and while I like her, I don’t have that same bond with her that Cara does. She’s more like a friend of a friend to me, or something like that. But anyone that loves Cara and makes her happy is okay in my books. I didn’t love that she ended up with Rhett, but if Cara can accept that, then so can I.
I pick up my drink and finish it off, the motion catching Atlas’s attention. “Suddenly thirsty at the thought of losing to me?”
He’s playful and cocky, and I’m not going to lie, I find both appealing.
I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a little banter, right?
I love a man who can dish it out and take it right back.
But there seems to be a little edge to his tone that I don’t like. Is he angry at me about something? I don’t even know the guy, but the energy I’m getting from him has slightly changed in the last twenty minutes.
“I don’t lose. I win or I learn,” I reply.
I beat Cara, and then she heads back to the bar with Decker and Aries, leaving me alone with Atlas.
“I guess you’re about to learn, then,” I hear him say when I’m about to break. “You don’t always get to win.”
I pause and look up at him. His blond hair curls slightly over his forehead, longer on top and shorter at the back. Even with the lighter hair, his blue eyes are framed in thick, darker lashes. His nose is straight, his lips full. He’s an attractive man. Shame he’s such a pain in the ass. “Anyone ever told you that you talk a lot of shit?”
His lip twitches. “No. No one would dare.”
I grin and take my shot, two of the balls sinking. If he wanted competition he got some, because I don’t like to lose, no matter what line I gave him just before.
I was the valedictorian of my high school.