Page 74 of Lick

Dammit. How can I disagree with that?

34

Lick

Ilie on the floor, staring up at the ceiling as sweat drips from every pore in my body.

“You’re killing it, Lick,” my PT instructor, John, tells me.

“I’m killing something,” I mutter, barely catching the water he throws my way.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you in the last few weeks, but you turned into a beast, and I’m here for it.”

I knew what had gotten into me. The voice of a woman who’d overcome something worse than me, and instead of letting it beat her down, she adapted and became a badass. If she could do it at fifteen, then I had no fucking excuses. I was acting like a punk-ass bitch. Yeah, it sucked this happened, but I’m still here, still alive, and with a newfound determination since Jinx lit a fire under my ass.

“Tell me about her. The woman you fucked over?”

“I didn’t fuck her over, I⁠—

“If you say set her free, I’ll pull off one of my blades and beat you over the head with it. You didn’t set her free. You didn’t save her from loving you. You basically took her choices away. You implied she wasn’t woman enough to deal with your needs.”

“That’s not fucking true.”

“No, that’s not what you meant, but I guarantee that’s what she heard.”

I bang my head on the table, not sure if I’m trying to knock some sense into myself or just trying to knock myself unconscious.

“Now tell me about her.”

I lift my head and glare at the woman who doesn’t know when to quit.

“She’s funny,” Hammer says, taking one of the empty seats.

I groan when Dot takes the other. “She’s sweet.” He gives me the evil eye before sipping the beer he brought with him.

“So, she gets on with all your club brothers. That’s good. What else?”

“She’s pregnant with my grandbaby,” my father adds as he walks back over with Splinter and Knight.

I curse. “Why does this feel like a fucking intervention?”

“Maybe you need one.” Dot grunts. And I get it. He cares about Emma, and since I fucked everything up, she’s been absent from the clubhouse.

“She’s pregnant?” Jinx questions.

I nod warily when I take in her expression.

“With your baby?”

I nod again.

“You, sir, are a fucking idiot.”

Dot smirks while my father outright laughs.

Jinx leans forward. “Let me ask you something. Firstly, close your eyes for me and picture…”

My father fills in the blank. “Emma.”