Page 36 of Lulu
Sybil brought over my beer. I took a long drink before setting it down.
“So tell me again why we had to come here tonight?” Annabelle asked.
It made sense that she would ask considering that she very rarely went to either clubhouse, Demon or LD’s. She wasn’t as privy to whatever talk might be going on among the brothers or their women. Being that Jolene was the only one there married to one of the presidents, all eyes eventually turned her way.
“Club business,” Jolene responded, getting a loud chorus of giggles at the usual comment that came from the men.
Annabelle rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “God, I hate that expression. So there’s trouble in the club again? And being that you’re all married to possessive, overbearing men, it was here or nowhere, right?”
Several head shakes confirmed it. Her eyes made a sweep of the crowded room. “So where are they?”
“They promised to let the prospects handle things tonight if we came here,” Jolene quipped.
Jolene was a beautiful, statuesque woman who’d won the heart of one of the most feared men in the club. As goddess-like as LD was a beast. I’d thought I was in love with him once, a long time ago. Before Jolene, LD had always come to me for sex, and I’d foolishly forgotten the club rules of being a club whore. I’d developed feelings for him. Once he’d found out, he’d stopped using me, and that had been an eye-opening, heart-breaking reminder of what I truly was.
I didn’t hold it against Jolene that she’d won him over. I’d been happy that LD had finally found someone he could love, because that man had been locked up in a world of pain and heartache for so many years. She’d calmed the beast inside him, soothed his demons, and they were perfect together.
“I guess that’s something,” JoJo said with a downward twist of her lips. “I love Oz, but honestly sometimes I need just as much time away from him as the kids.”
All in all, these women had good lives. They were treated like queens, and they knew it. But I could fully understand their desire to have a night away where they could drink and dance and get their groove on somewhere outside of the clubhouse and away from the overpowering authority of their men.
“What do you think, Lulu?”
Holly was married to Sax, Demon’s VP. They almost hadn’t made it, but after a year apart they’d realized that they couldn’t live without each other. The fact that Sax hadn’t wanted kids had been the catalyst that had almost ended them. Then Holly had been kidnapped and raped and had gotten pregnant. At the time, she hadn’t known who the father was. Thank God it had turned out to be Sax’s baby.
I returned her smile. I’d been a club whore, but I’d been accepted into their bunch early on because I’d respected the boundaries and had left their men alone once they’d been claimed. They in turn hadn’t judged me, and liked me for being me, not for what I was, and I loved every one of them.
“I’m the only one here without a man,” I pointed out. “But one thing I do know is that you bitches are all lucky.”
Laughter erupted. “I second that!” Raven lifted her beer, encouraging the others to follow suit.
“We need to change that.”
I turned to JoJo, raising a brow in question.
“Find you a man,” she went on to explain.
“What about Doc?” Annabelle suggested with the naivety that came with not being fully familiar with MC culture. “I just saw you with him.”
“Figured that.” I took a sip of my beer.
“He’s hot!” she went on.
The others at the table groaned, already knowing what she had obviously forgotten. “Club girls don’t usually become old ladies.”
“Yeah, I know the whole reason is because the guys don’t want a woman who’s been with all his brothers, but Bobbie managed it.”
Bobbie was Demon’s wife. She’d gone to the MC to be a club whore, but the men hadn’t touched her when they’d realized that their president wanted her. He’d just been too stubborn in the beginning to go after what he wanted. He’d pushed her away, but circumstances had brought them back together, and in the end the stubborn man had claimed her.
Most of us knew their story. “That was different,” I said. “And then there’s this--I’m not interested in Doc in that way. We’re friends.” I leaned across the table and patted Annabelle’s hand, the one with the giant rock on it. “Don’t worry about me, honey. I’ll find my own man.”
I tried not to think about Brody because really, I didn’t like the man, especially after he’d just dropped Buttercup off at the clinic for boarding with the explanation that he was going to be out of town for a few days. When I’d shown up for work that morning and found out he’d gone, I wasn’t sure what had pissed me off more--that he hadn’t said goodbye, or that he hadn’t asked me to keep the dog for him. I took her home with me at the end of the day. I guess I should have been happy that he’d at least thought to bring her to a place that would take care of her.
Brushing thoughts of him aside, I sat back in my chair. “So tell me, who’s pregnant now?”
Everyone laughed and a chorus of “not me” went around the table.
“Although we are trying,” Millie admitted when the comments stopped.