“Just after one,” he said. “They’re setting up for the barbecue outside. You should stick around for a while. You already know some of the club from the bar. Might as well get to know them a little better.”

His eyes held mine steadily, his face unreadable.

“Um, wouldn’t that be weird?” I asked, hating the fact that a small part of me was all excited because he wasn’t ready for me to leave yet. “I thought we weren’t doing anything like dating or whatever.”

“It’s not a date,” he said, his voice relaxed. “It’s hamburgers with a bunch of bikers. Beer. Maybe even some kids. It’s a family event, at least until later tonight.”

“Will Rebel’s club be here?”

“Maybe. We invited the support clubs. Although it’s not a mandatory event, so they aren’t required to show up.”

“About Rebel…”

Shade rolled me up onto his body, sliding his hands down to my butt and squeezing.

“Really like this ass of yours,” he said. “Usually I go for the boobs, but with you it’s a tough call. Let’s not talk about your ex-boyfriend. I don’t like thinkin’ about him fuckin’ this ass.”

I stilled. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Just a second—” I said, pushing against his chest. Shade ignored my puny efforts, gripping me tighter. His cock twitched and I realized he was staring at my breasts. “No—stop! We aren’t doing this anymore. First, this is a one-night stand and it’s light outside. That means it’s over. And not that it’s any of your business, but Rebel didn’t fuck my ass. We had a lot of fun together, but I’ve never actually done that and I don’t like the idea of him going around talking about our sex life.”

“How many one-night stands have you had?” Shade asked, his voice curious. I was too busy trying to wrap my head around the fact that Rebel had told Shade—of all people—that I was into butt sex to answer the question. Jesus. What a fucking douche.

“Mandy.”

“What?”

“How many one-night stands?”

“Um, counting this one?” I asked, trying to focus. His hands were starting to wander, which made thinking even harder.

“Yeah.”

“One,” I admitted, wondering if he’d laugh at me.

Shade nodded, his face serious.

“I’ve had a lot more than one,” he said. “Which means of the two of us, I’m the expert on random fucking. I know all the best practices and shit. And I’m tellin’ you, buying a girl breakfast before taking her home is just the decent thing to do.”

“Taking them out to breakfast probably makes it easier to get rid of them, too,” I blurted out. Shade laughed.

“I’ll plead the Fifth on that,” he said, shifting me slightly to the side, casually raising a knee between my legs. One hand started up my back, his strong fingers finding my muscles and massaging them. It felt good. Really good. “Where I’m going with this is that we missed breakfast, but as a good one-night stand, I still owe you some food. Stick around for a burger before work. You can go to the barbecue, eat and have a good time without fucking up the one-night thing. Then I’ll take you home in time for work.”

I shifted against him, considering. Biker barbecues were fun, at least the ones I’d gone to with Rebel. And if I was going to keep working at the Pit, I’d have to get over seeing members of his club. Speaking of…

“Okay, I know this is crazy, but you didn’t kill Rebel, did you?”

Shade burst out laughing this time, his entire body shaking. My face burned and I groaned, feeling stupid. Of course he hadn’t killed him. Not over something as stupid as a girl.

Technically it would’ve been the $500 and not you, Wonder Woman reminded me.

Bitch.

“No, I didn’t kill him,” Shade said, still laughing. “I may have swung by his place with some of the brothers and shared my feelings about what he tried to pull, but that’s it. His own people were smart enough to kick him out before the Reapers had to take action. You’re the one who destroyed his truck, not me. Last I heard, he was catching a bus to Boise.”

I buried my face against his neck, wondering if I could just make myself disappear.

“What, you can’t tell me you regret doing it?” he asked. I shook my head.

“No, but the guys in his club—you’re sure they aren’t pissed at me? Amelia said it was okay, but what if someone gets me alone and wants revenge?”

“One, you’ve been watching too much Sons of Anarchy,” Shade said, and while he wasn’t laughing out loud anymore, I could tell he was still amused. “This isn’t a violent, bloody revenge barbecue. It’s the peaceful kind, where you eat burgers, drink some beer and hang out. But even if it was, it wouldn’t be about you. It was never about you, babe. This was a thing between Rebel and the Reapers. His club knows that, which is why he’s out bad. Dishonorable discharge.”

Pushing back up, I stared at him, embarrassment fading back into outrage. “Of course it’s about me. He tried to trade me for part of a motorcycle. A hunk of metal. He had no right to do that, and that’s very much about me. You’re just the guy he tried to trade me to.”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“Nope. That’s not how it works,” Shade said, sliding his hand up into my hair. “It was about a member of a support club lying to the national president of the Reapers. He tried to cheat me out of five hundred bucks by promising something he didn’t own. We can’t let guys like Rebel get away with that shit. Wouldn’t matter what it was about, the principle’s the same.”

“There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don’t even know where to start. I…I literally can’t figure out what I want to argue with you about because it’s all wrong. All of it.”

“It’s how our world works,” he said, rubbing up and down my lower back. He might’ve been trying to soothe me but my thoughts were spinning too fast. “There’s good and bad. Part of the good is that when you belong to someone in a club, it’s not just his job to protect you, it’s the whole club’s. I’d die for Dopey’s old lady and I don’t even like the bitch. He’s my brother, though, and she’s his property. It is what it is.”