His question got two “Yeahs”, one from Wood, one from Chace with a, “Uh… yeah, Deke. It’s only you,” from Tate.

Ty just grinned at him. Max grinned at the table.

Then Max looked at Chace. “You need me to give Mick a head’s up about this?”

The Mick he was talking about was Mick Shaughnessy, the top guy at Gnaw Bone’s Police Department.

“You wanna do that, it’d save me time,” Chace answered. “He has questions, tell him he can give me a call.”

“Will this reach to Gnaw Bone?” Max went on and Chace kept his gaze.

Then he replied, “It happens. Yes. Two men vulnerable in Gnaw Bone. One sits on the City Council. One has an office down the hall from your wife.”

Chace watched Max’s face get hard then he whispered, “Fuck.”

“Don’t know what they got on him and don’t know who Darren’s squeezin’. Just know he’s made payoffs in the past and he’s provided free legal advice,” Chace informed him.

“This does not make me happy,” Max informed Chace.

“It wouldn’t make me happy either,” Chace agreed. “But my understanding is, Nina put out her shingle and shares office space with George but she didn’t partner with him. If Newcomb’s after George then he’s runnin’ scared. He’ll do all in his power to keep this from Nina. My guess only, she’s legally and financially clear, unless he’s outed and dishonored, she never has to know and there’s no need to drag her in. She’s your wife, your call. But you tell Mick. He’ll have her back.”

Max pulled in breath through his nose before he sighed and sat back and what Chace knew of Max, by that evening, both Mick Shaughnessy and Nina Maxwell would know. What Chace knew of Nina Maxwell, by Monday, George Nielson, a prominent attorney in the area, would have the side of her tongue, something feared widely since she knew how to use it, and possibly he’d be looking for new office space. She’d moved in with him when she’d moved to Gnaw Bone to marry Max. Still, she’d get the offices. Nina Maxwell was also not one to back down from a fight, she fought on the side that was right and she rarely lost.

“Right, so, our shit storm might not be over. Bad news but f**k it, we’ve been livin’ with worse,” Wood said at this point. “Now, what I wanna know is,” his eyes came to Chace and his lips surrounded by his goatee twitched, “are you seriously datin’ the town’s librarian?”

At this point, Chace sighed.

“Saw her with him and Bubba’s,” Deke confirmed then said with emphasis and a scary grin, “Tight.”

“You think I’ll man up while you trash talk Faye, I’ll shut that down now,” Chace said low and there were more lip twitches.

“Is it possible to trash talk Faye?” Tate asked then went on, his lips surrounded by a full on beard curved upwards, “Pure as the driven snow.”

Fuck.

“Been around,” Wood muttered, grinning at Tate. “Done a lot. Never been down a road no one’s ever taken.”

Fuck.

“Sweet,” Deke whispered, his grin aimed at Chace.

Chace took a healthy slug of beer this time as he rose. After he found his feet, he put the bottle on the table and announced, “Now, I’m shuttin’ this shit down. Thanks for the beer and the time,” he said to Tate then moved his gaze through the men before he began to leave.

“You don’t get it, Keaton,” Ty’s voice stopped him and his tone made Chace look back. “Clean pu**y therefore undoubtedly sweet pu**y, we’re happy for you, man.”

“Not sure I like you referring to Faye as ‘pussy’,” Chace warned, not giving that first f**k Ty had five inches and a shitload of bulky muscle on him.

“Lex don’t like it either but she got used to it. You will too,” Ty replied.

“Terrific,” Chace muttered not thinking in a million years that Ty Walker would be his bud. Now after getting the Walker Style “you’re in my posse” statement, he was at odds with how he felt about it.

“He’s not lyin’, Chace,” Tate said quietly and Chace looked to him. “That works out, pleased for you. You get a good woman in your bed, life has a way of straightening itself out.”

“Road can’t be murky, it’s got light shinin’ on it,” Ty added. Chace shook his head, not at odds with how he felt about Tatum Jackson and Tyrell Walker, two of the biggest badasses he knew, demonstrating signs they were pu**y whipped and didn’t give a shit.

“She’s got any friends, I’m on the market,” Deke put in at this point and Chace was done.

To communicate this, he lifted a hand, dropped it, moved to the door and the sounds of deep, low chuckles followed him out.

It took him two steps to shake that shit off.

Firstly, because it wasn’t nasty or jacked so it wasn’t worth getting irritated at.

Secondly, because he had a shitload of food at his house including a bottle of hazelnut half and half.

Chapter Eight

Cats and Dogs, Birds and Bees

I drove to Chace’s place attempting to control my breathing. This was because I was near on hyperventilating.

And this was because tonight was the night.

I’d decided.

Tonight I was going to give Chace my virginity.

Chace didn’t know this yet, of course. It was my decision. Although I was fraking nervous, I was sticking with it.

I’d made this decision for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, because I’d fallen in love from afar with Chace at sixteen and now we were dating. I’d known for thirteen years he was the man I wanted to give it up to. Therefore, even though we hadn’t been dating long, considering I’d been into him for thirteen years, I figured it was high time I got down to doing that.

Secondly, because I was twenty-nine, I finally had a boyfriend so it was also high time I got laid.

And last, because with all the necking and early morning phone calls, Chace a touch away or his voice, sleepy and sexy coming to me over the phone or his tongue in my mouth, for the first time in my life, I needed to get laid.

The problem with this was, I had no clue how to go about doing that.

I knew Chace was experienced. I knew this through living in the same small town as him as well as experiencing firsthand that, well, experience albeit limitedly. Men had to get some too (I thought) and he was around me enough he couldn’t be getting it elsewhere (I hoped). So I didn’t really get why he wouldn’t allow it to go beyond necking.