Jase (18 page)

She folded and refolded the shirt, waiting because she knew Melanie wasn’t finished talking. “He calls me Ruby and I like it. A ruby is precious, and that’s how he makes me feel. DeeDee, I think I’ve loved him for a while. I’m his Ruby.”

“I’m glad, baby. No one deserves a happily ever after more than you do. Slate’s a good man. He’s honorable, and he’ll protect you if needed, sweetie. I believe right along with you, because if he said it to you, then it’s true.” She hugged Melanie, softly kissing the top of her head. “Slate’s Ruby, I like the sound of that.”

She helped Ruby move most of her things into Slate’s room, and there was the smallest pang of guilt
at
not giving up the suite for them. But this had been her space since she moved into the clubhouse, and even though she knew she would depart the clubhouse herself in a few weeks, she hated to leave what had become comfortable.
The apartment manager had texted that morning to let her know she could take possession at the first of the month. She had already begun cataloging her belongings in her head, trying to remember all the things packed into boxes in storage, pushing away thoughts of anything that could complicate matters.

***

Several days went by and she kept careful watch, seeing Ruby’s demeanor change,
lightening
and easing. Her smile made a much more frequent appearance as the young woman relaxed into the new belief that Slate loved and wanted her. DeeDee was thrilled to watch her open up to Slate, but knew that left to her own devices, Ruby would avoid the topic of Demon for as long as possible.

Demon
. DeeDee shuddered at the name.

He was the dark shadow
in
Ruby’s past
, and while it was an ugly story, it was one Slate needed to know. She had seen Ruby withdraw into herself before from just a chance question or phrase, and she knew their shared bed would hold even more possibilities of terror. Slate had to know what had gone on before in order to understand Ruby. It was the only way to assure he wouldn’t misread her responses, and hopefully they could avoid a catastrophe triggered by
a bad
reaction.

Pulling all her courage together, DeeDee took a seat in Slate’s office and told him everything. The devastation Melanie suffered after the accident that took her best friend and surrogate father. How she
thought
she found something worth exploring with a visiting member of the Devil’s Sins, Demon. Talking about Ruby going
to
Michigan willingly…and then betrayed, kept as a prisoner, brought DeeDee to tears, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
Demon
.

Demon had isolated Ruby once he had her in Michigan, restrained and terrified her for months, abusing her daily…until she lost value in his game and he finally released her, pregnant. But even that hadn’t been enough for the man, and as a final blow, he had caused her to miscarry the baby while she waited alone for rescue.

From the Rebel
members,
over the years, DeeDee had overheard stories about the harder side of Slate, but she never truly understood how frightening he could be until that morning. During their conversation, she saw for herself the truth behind the rumors. He was furious at the treatment Ruby suffered, and even though she knew his anger wasn’t directed at her, it was still a terrifying thing to see. He made it clear Ruby was his first priority, but she was certain Demon would be paying for his evil before long.

At the end of their conversation, she
braced
herself,
and using the last of her courage, told him about the apartment, asking what he thought about her moving out of the clubhouse. More than anything, he seemed pleased she wanted to stay on, managing the strip club. When he said they were glad to keep her on, an enormous weight lifted off her shoulders. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how deep the fear ran that the
club
would think she wasn’t grateful for everything they had done for her, but he put those fears to rest. As she told Slate, it was just time to begin moving on.

***

For the next couple of weeks, every night before bed, she and Jase talked on the phone. She was growing accustomed to laughing and joking with him as he told her about his day and found herself looking forward to the sound of her ringing phone.
He had finally bought Road Runner’s bike and was excited about riding it down at the first opportunity so they could take a short run together. It would be a
while before he could,
because things were beginning to ramp up for his upcoming hockey season. Regular games ran from early October into the middle of April, and the team would be playing two or three games a week, sometimes more. In an effort to
soothe
him, she reminded him that
between
the cold and the
weather,
the time of year wasn’t usually conducive to rides anyway.

His descriptions of the team’s conditioning camp workouts sounded brutal. He sometimes called her while he cooked dinner for himself, and she smiled as she responded to his running commentary, hearing the exhaustion in his voice, but also hearing the determination that so personified him. Lying in bed or on the couch, he fell asleep more than once while they talked.
When he did, she stayed on the phone, listening to him breathe for a long time. Remembering the first time he slept beside her would bring a smile to her face before she called his name to wake him, laughing at his sleepy voice as they hung up.

Everything was chaotic with work and in the clubhouse, and there was so much to do that she nearly had given up trying to plan things out, just taking them day-by-day as they came. Frazzled, her nerves kept her on edge,
because it was down to less than a week before she moved, and she still wasn’t entirely ready. She began going to the storage building after she got off the phone with Jase in the evening. Exhausted, she would sort through boxes by flashlight until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Finally, she had all the necessities moved to the front, where it would be easy to grab them when moving day came.

Even trying to reserve a rental truck for the move was a disaster. When Hoss overheard her making arrangements, he reached out and plucked the phone from her hand, telling the agent that their services were unneeded. Then he scolded her, “DeeDee, hon. You’re family. We got you, babe. Slate and I already talked about this.”

Aggravated, she rolled her eyes at him and snapped, “I’m capable of organizing the move myself. Getting me out of the clubhouse is not your responsibility, Hoss. Not yours and not the club’s.”

“Capable don’t matter. Hon, you aren’t leaving the family, merely relocating your living space. Now, would you stop giving me shit?” He reached out, cupping the sides of her face with his palms. “Let us. You matter to us. Let us do this.” Leaning in, he kissed her forehead, pressing and holding his lips there for several seconds, the gentle act infused with such love and patience it took her breath away.

“Okay.” With tears in her eyes, she nodded when he pulled back, looking down into her face. She let him see her gratitude for so much more than help with the move, rewarded when his face softened in recognition. Swallowing hard and smiling up at him, she said, “Okay. Thank you.”

Slate and Ruby had moved out of the clubhouse two weeks earlier, and on her moving day, they were both at the apartment bright and early. Ruby boldly directed the members as they trooped in and out, carrying boxes and furniture brought from both the suite at the clubhouse and the storage unit.

DeeDee was standing in the kitchen when she felt an electric charge in the air and instinctively turned, finding Jase standing in the doorway behind her. “Hey,” he said, smiling crookedly, “heard you could use
a strong
back today.”

“Hey yourself,” she answered him, closing the distance between them quickly and wrapping her arms around his waist. She burrowed her face into his chest as his arms folded around her, holding her securely. Her
pleasure at seeing him and being in his arms
surprised her. “I didn’t know you were coming. What
a lovely
surprise.”

“DeeDee, where do you want—” Ruby abruptly stopped talking as she entered the room, her feet dragging to a halt when she saw Jase holding DeeDee.

Turning in his arms, she smiled at the young woman. “Ruby, this is Jase Spencer. Jase, this is Melanie Davidson, my daughter. She’s Slate’s Ruby.”

One arm still around her waist, he thrust out a hand and Ruby looked at it distrustfully, wrinkling her nose before drifting slowly over and offering her own for a quick handshake. Jase said, “I’m glad to meet you, Ruby. I’ve heard so many good things about you from DeeDee.”

She silently nodded at him and took a step back as Slate walked into the room, coming up behind her and cradling her into his side. “Jase,” he nodded as he spoke, and Jase offered him a chin lift and a gruff, “Hey.”

“Ruby, baby, where are we putting the desk?” Slate kissed the side of her head and smiled over at DeeDee, winking. He could have
simply
asked her, but Ruby had put herself in charge of the move and he was always looking for ways to build her self-confidence, even with such small things as furniture arrangement.

Ruby shrugged and Slate pulled her into the other room telling her, “Show me.” DeeDee smiled. He was patient and good with Ruby, and his adoration became more apparent every day.

She laughed as Jase’s arms tightened around her, going quiet when he asked, “What am I?”

“What do you mean?” she asked carefully, not
sure
what the question meant, but suddenly…intensely afraid of getting it wrong.

“You introduced us and told me Ruby was your daughter. But what am I to you?” He didn’t seem upset, only curious. “If you had to label me, what would I be?”

“I—Jase, what do you want to be?” This was dangerous ground, the footing treacherous, and this entire topic made her nervous.
Realistically, she knew they had only been together a handful of times over two weekends. And even though they frequently spoke on the phone in the interim, she had studiously ignored any desire to dissect their relationship, not wanting to clarify or qualify things.
Foolishly thinking she could skate along for a while yet, she hadn’t anticipated him showing up today, hadn’t thought she would have to introduce him to her family.

“I’m a little old to be a boyfriend.” He mused, “I could be your lover, but that might be awkward in some settings. Plus, it just doesn’t have the relationship validation I’m looking for. What about calling me your man?”

“If you’re my man, does that make me your woman?
Nuh-uh
, I don’t think I like that, oh, caveman,” she teased him gently, hoping to steer him away from the language club members used for their significant others. He wouldn’t understand that being someone’s old lady was like being married.

“You
are
mine,” he growled softly next to her ear. “My woman, my lover, my playmate, my sweetheart, my main squeeze. You’re my girlfriend, my partner, my plus one, my steady…I got a million of ‘em, baby. I can do this all night.”

Laughing, she turned to face him, tipping her head to the side, joining in with his joking as she said, “My confidante, my companion, my beau. Any of those strike your man-fancy?”

Nuzzling her neck, he lowered his head to kiss her collarbone softly. “My cherished, my treasure, my fantasy come true. My darling, my one and only,
mon amour, ma belle,
je
t’aime
, DeeDee.
Je t’aime. Sais
que
je
t’aime
.”

“I don’t know what you just said,” she rose up onto her toes to whisper in his ear. “But I’m drenched now. That is so sexy, Jase.”

Laughing hard, he cupped her ass with his big palms, pulling her tightly into his groin, letting her feel the erection pressing against the seam of his jeans. “I can’t wait to christen the bed with you,
ma belle
. Let’s get the rest of this stuff moved in and we’ll get you unpacked.” He kissed her softly. “Then I get you.”

***

Jase threw himself
backwards
onto the middle of the bed, bouncing on the mattress with arms outstretched. “And with the final box broken down and stacked for disposal, I pronounce that the move-in process is now officially
complete
. Woooo!” He punched his fists into the air, laughing. “Woooo, baby.”

DeeDee laughed at him. She didn’t know where he found the energy to be enthusiastic; she was exhausted. “I never asked when you have to be back in Chicago, Jase. You weren’t planning on riding tonight, were you?” She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand and saw it was nearly midnight. “I hope not. It’s so late.”

“Nope,” he said, laughing. “We’re on a four-day, good-weather weekend, baby. The
newlyweds wanted to spend time together
before the
season
starts, so I came here to spend that time with you.”

Smiling,
she
said, “Good. Stay.” Standing close, she reached out and stroked her fingertips on his thigh, asking, “What did you think of Ruby?”

“She’s a sweet kid, loves you a lot,” he said, rolling his head back and forth on the comforter, winding his hand around hers. “You should join me down here, baby. I’m comfy, but I’d be comfier if you were lying on top of me. Come comfy me. Please?”

Curling her hand around his, she smiled at his coaxing tone, but shook her head. “I need to go grocery shopping before I let myself relax too much.”

He raised his head, looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face. “Why? What do we need at midnight that can’t wait for the morning?”

“Well, coffee for one. Something for breakfast for another—” she said, and he interrupted, laughing.

“You didn’t see PBJ and Hurley when they came in, did you?” he asked, mentioning a club member and prospect as he rolled off the bed. “PBJ said Hoss organized the grocery run. Come look, they hooked us up. Let me show you.”