“You’ve got a kid?” It might all be in my head, but I swear his voice is deeper as he says it.
I wince as I turn in my seat to see Reese and a few other brothers with him. Not sure when they all came over, but here they are. Once we got to the club, Ruby stole me away—her words—and I’ve been enjoying myself with the girls, sneaking peeks at my guy across the room whenever he walked in my line of sight. I must have missed him moving around when we started this whole kid talk.
“Um, no. No kids.” He just raises one eyebrow, and I look at the rest of the group standing, then the girls sitting. Everyone is still waiting for me to say something more. “I, uh, I own a lingerie clothing line, and we cater to all shapes and sizes, to include new moms.”
“Holy shit, you’ve been holding out on us,” Ruby sputters as she leans in close on the table. “What’s the name?”
“A Little Spice. Not that the name gives it any justice. There is awholelot of spice, and most of it’s naughty.” Jules looks at me with a waggle of her eyebrows that I just roll my eyes at.
Izzy squeals with delight. “Oh my God, that’s your store? I love your stuff. I just bought something from there last week.”
“You did?” is echoed by at least three others, none of which are me, but I notice at least one is her guy.
She blushes a bit as she looks at him from under her eyelashes and nods.
“Have I seen it?” He folds his arms across his chest and takes an open stance that has all my bells firing, screaming at me that I’m witnessing a real live Dom. Not sure how I know, but I totally get that vibe off Bulldog, especially from the submissive way Izzy seems to be acting right now.
“No. I mean, no, sir. It’s an online order, and it’ll take another week to get here.”
“Wait, you don’t have a store locally?” Ruby asks as she pulls out her phone, no doubt checking herself despite asking.
I shake my head. “No. I built the store for online deals only. I used to do all the packaging and shipping at my place, but it got too big, so instead of shipping the products to me, I opened up the shop local to the vendor on the East Coast and hired a team to run the day-to-day operations. I still do the operational side, like meet with corporate buyers and test products, but my supplies and shipping needs are at my East Coast warehouse. But I might have to open one up on the West Coast if we keep growing like we are.”
“Is lingerie that much in demand?” This from Cheyanne a second before she’s lifted and then sat back down, but this time on her guy, Mad Max, as he took her seat.
“Duh! It’s lingerie. Who doesn’t want to have sexy undies to wear or sleep in?” Ruby says, her eyes on her phone as she scrolls.
“I don’t. Never seen the need for them.”
This has Ruby looking up at Cheyanne. “You’ve never owned lingerie?”
“No, I never wear underwear to bed.”
“Lucky fucker,” Bass mumbles to Mad Max as he walks away. Guess he doesn’t find lingerie that interesting unless it’s on a girl.
“Damn, girl, this stuff is legit,” Ruby cries out.
“I want to see,” Maddy says as she tries not to jostle Wyatt.
“Me too,” Jules exclaims, which is ridiculous since she’s already seen the site before.
Almost every woman at the table starts pawing at Ruby’s phone, and I smile wide at the praise. It’s not often that I get this close to a customer. I keep myself removed for the sole purpose that I don’t want to influence the sales, either negatively or positively. But this is nice to see.
I feel him a second before I look to my left. My guy’s squatting down next to me with a smile on his face and a beer in his hand. He pushes my hair behind my ear, and I can’t help but lean into his touch. “Fucking knew you were something special. Pretty and smart. Whole damn package, baby.”
“You’re, um, you’re not weirded out that I own a lingerie store?” I don’t know why I ask. Maybe because I’m a bit self-conscious about some of the sex toys we sell too. They’re more on the tamer, tasteful side of things, but they’re still there, and anyone can figure out what they are if they look at them.
“Not one damn bit. Only problem I have is why the hell I haven’t seen you in any of them yet.”
“I wear them daily. It’s not my fault that you don’t waste time unwrapping your gift before you push things to the side to get to the goods.” I chuckle at my lame joke, and he does too.
“All of you is the good stuff, baby. Every single inch, clothed or not.”
Swoon.I think I just realized how much I love this man.
Thank God he never gave up on wanting me. I would have missed out on the best part: being his.
Chapter 27—Gator
