Page 19 of What He Wants
I rolled my eyes and swung back to Cooper. “I hope you’re not expecting anything like that.”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I always ask before I attack a pretty woman’s mouth.”
Yeah, right,I thought to myself. “So, what’s going on?” I was certain that there was more to their visit than simply Clay seeing Jasmine’s car in my drive.
Clay and Jasmine finally came up for air. “Club trouble,” Clay explained. “We’re going on lockdown.”
“Club trouble in this storm?” I said with mild disbelief. It occurred to me that I didn’t really know what ‘club trouble’ meant.
“The weather has nothing to do with it,” Clay said gruffly. “We go on lockdown, means we bring our families in for protection.”
“Am I going with you?” Jasmine asked, smiling up at him. She really was smitten with the biker.
“You are, sweetheart. You’re my woman, which makes you family.”
“Where?” I wanted to know.
“The clubhouse,” Cooper replied. “No one in, no one out, once we go on lockdown. We have just enough time to gather up our families and get them there. It’s easier to keep them safe when they’re all together.”
I crossed my arms. “Protect them from what?”
“Club trouble,” Clay grinned, hugging Jasmine closer to him.
I rolled my eyes and released an irritated breath. We were right back to where the conversation had started. Jasmine laughed, getting Clay’s undivided attention.
“She wants to know what kind of club trouble.”
“I know that, sweetheart. But we don’t discuss club shit with anyone.”
“Okay then, how long is this lockdown going to be for?”
Clay shrugged. “As long as it takes.”
I was getting tired of his answers, which didn’t reveal much. And Jasmine was gazing up at him as if she were high as a kite on something, which was so totally unlike her. “So you expect her to just go off with you for an unspecified amount of time?” Jasmine’s expression said that she was cool with that, as long as she was with Clay. I resisted rolling my eyes again.
“You, too, darlin’.”
My jaw dropped, and I looked at Cooper as if he’d grown an extra head. “What?”
“You’re family to Jasmine. We were told to bring you in, too.”
He had to be kidding! “By who?” I demanded to know, slapping my hands on my hips. “I’m not part of this!”
“Big John wants−”
I snapped my gaze back to Clay. “Big John? It’s what he wants? You can tell that oversized Neanderthal that I’m an adult, and that no one tells me what to do!” Ever! Anymore, anyway. “I’m safe here.”
“Maybe you should go.”
I glared at Jasmine, and then took a deep breath to regain control. It wasn’t her fault that any of this was happening. It wasn’t her fault that she was involved with a biker and was at the point in their relationship that she would have followed him to the freaking moon. In the year that I’d known her, I’d never seen her like this with a man. She must really like Clay. I glared at him for a minute. He was hot, I’d give him that, in a kind of rough, military way. He winked at me, which drew me out of my silent musings.
“You go if you want but I’m staying here. I’ll be fine.”
“Big John’s gonna be pissed.”
“I’m not afraid of Big John.” I thought he had a lot of nerve for even suggesting it.
“Sweetheart, you got anything you want to bring with you? We can make a quick run to your house,” Clay offered. “We might be on lockdown for a few days.”