Page 85 of Biker's Property
“Your mom…”
“Is out of her fucking mind,” I whisper, leaning forward to kiss Joslin. “Trust me, baby… there will be lots of screwing around later. Where she can’t interrupt us. But…let’s go eat.”
Joslin doesn’t immediately jerk away.
“I don’t think my mom would ever accept… this.”
Fuck.It’s not that I haven’t thought about Joslin’s mother and how the separation might continue to affect her. I didn’t want to spoil her freedom or make her feel any pressure to go somewhere she clearly didn’t want to be in the first place.
I touch my finger to the bottom of Joslin’s chin.
“Doyou want to see her? Whatever you want with her… I can make it happen. I’m your husband… not your owner.”
“Not according to that tattoo you keep talking about.”
I smirk. “Fair point. But it’s a tattoo… not a law… I know better than anybody that nobody on this earth can make you do something you don’t want to do.”
I push Joslin’s hair out of her face, giving her less room to hide from me than before. This time, I want the truth from her and I’ll stay quiet until this woman feels safe enough to share her heart with me.
“I don’t wantto see her,” Joslin says. “It’s too dangerous for both of us and… she knows I’m alive. I just want to leave the past in the past.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do…”
The secondI press my lips to hers, my mother’s voice blares from the other side of the door.
“RYDER SINCLAIR I MADE YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST AND IF YOU DON’T GET DOWNSTAIRS IT’S GOING TO BE COLD.”
Joslin nearly leaps off me in fear because my mother’s voice sounds so much louder and closer than either of us could have expected. Neither of us heard her creeping up the stairs. We should have never been such devious teenagers, honestly.
“I am a grown ass man,” I growl. “I’ll get to breakfast when I’m ready for it.”
She pounds on the guest bedroom door again. “You had better be ready now! I can already tell you’re starving your wife to death.”
I don’t know why Joslin had to catch a stray bullet of criticism, but my mother’s voice motivates her to search for a pair of sweatpants in the guest room dresser, and I walk over to the door to crack it open and give my mother a piece of my mind. She honed her skills when her twin boys reached five-foot-eight by the time we were eleven.
“Mom… I am an adult and Joslin is my wife. You can’t disrespectfully yell at us just because breakfast is ready.”
“I can yell at whoever I want in my house. Look at her! She’s been with you for how long? And here she comes around with the skinniest legs I’ve ever seen. Do you eat allherfood? You used to do that to your twin brother.”
“When I wasfive…Now, mom can you please give us some–
“HURRY!”
I’m just in boxers,but Joslin finds some old clothes that are a mixture of mine and Magnum’s to put together a breakfast outfit. I would much rather take her somewhere I can dribble pancake syrup over her bare tits but… I’m sure my mom’s special breakfast is just as good. Joslin hands me a pair of sweatpants and I slip them on while my mom beams at her like she’s an angel.
“Sweetheart, I will give you my personal line. That way wherever Ryder takes you… I can get you out of there.”
“I’m not taking her anywhere dangerous,” I respond gruffly. “So you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh so the ex-con suddenly has a plan?”
“We’ll discuss it at breakfast,” I mutter, giving Joslin an apologetic look. To my concern, she appears to be utterly smitten with my crazy ass mother. I don’t know what I could have suddenly done to deserve this fate.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
JOSLIN
Inever thought I would settle in Missouri of all places. My escape plans and fantasies all fixated on Denver. The second I set foot on the little patch of land Ryder bought for us, I knew that the little split-level ranch I saw in my dreams was nowhere near Denver — but was right here. The house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac with a little pond where Ryder says I can keep some ducks if I want to next spring.