I decided not to protest.

Firstly, because Buck still seemed in a mood, and secondly, because it felt comfortable and nice. It was weird and I couldn’t imagine the position was comfortable for Buck, though he didn’t seem to mind.

It was also extremely proprietary in a way I liked.

There was no one there to see him stake his claim so the claim he staked seemed less possessive and more protective with not a small amount of him simply wanting to be close to me.

As with all things I was discovering about Buck, except an albeit important few (that “few” being only one), I liked this.

A lot.

I silently let the Hardy men have their own thoughts, and as I did this my belly began to feel warm.

And this was because, a week ago, if you told me I’d be sitting on the deck of a secluded house set in a beautiful hill outside Phoenix, sipping coffee with a handsome biker and his equally handsome son, I would have told you that you were insane.

But here I was.

And I’d had Pop-Tarts.

I stifled a giggle at the same exact time Buck suddenly and inexplicably roared, “Get your ass out here!”

I jumped and looked at him to see he was twisted to look into the house.

I looked too, and when I did, I saw Tatiana, wearing a girlie set of drawstring pajama shorts and a little camisole opening the door.

I watched her wince at the sun and saw she looked both pale and a little green at the gills.

She closed the door and made the decision to approach our congregation on Gear’s side. She leaned heavily on her arms on the railing like she couldn’t quite hold herself up and stared at the view with squinty eyes.

I was happy to note she had a big tumbler of water in one hand.

“Can we do this shit later, Dad? I feel like crap,” she muttered.

Gear moved in his chair and I looked at him to see he looked like he didn’t know whether to smile or bolt.

“Say again?” Buck asked in his spitting-venom voice, and I instantly understood Gear’s reaction.

He knew Tatiana’s question would not be met favorably and he was torn between watching his sister get it and getting the heck out of Dodge.

I was feeling the same dilemma.

I braced as Tatiana let out a heavy sigh before repeating, “I feel like crap.”

“Yeah, could guess that, Tatie, seein’ as me and your brother mopped up your puke last night,” Buck remarked.

“Dad—”

“And smelled it after you hurled into the toilet, Clara rubbin’ your back,” Buck added.

She sighed again, straightened and turned toward us, but leaned against the railing and took a sip of her water.

Thus positioned, she invited on a resigned yet annoyed, “Just get it over with.”

Oh dear.

“You got one warning,” Buck stated, his voice low and sweltering, “put away that fuckin’ attitude.”

I made a move, whispering, “Maybe I should—”

I stopped when Buck’s arm around my thighs got tight and he ordered, “Do not fuckin’ move, Toots.”

“She can go,” Tatiana put in.

Oh…dear.

Gear went solid on my one side while, from the other, I felt the heat coming off Buck sear through me and Gear on a direct path to Tatiana.

“You forget last night, girl?” Buck asked quietly.

“No,” she snapped.

“So you’re sayin’ you didn’t forget Clara pulling your hair outta your face so you didn’t puke in it?”

I bit my lip and watched Tatiana turn her head to look at the view, taking another sip.

“Girl, eyes…on…me,” Buck demanded, and Tatiana looked back at him and raised her brows.

I wasn’t sure, I was never sixteen and in trouble with my dad for over-imbibing, but I was thinking she wasn’t playing this right.

“Answer me,” Buck ordered.

“I didn’t forget,” Tatiana snapped.

“How ’bout rubbin’ your back, givin’ you water, coverin’ you with towels? You forget any a’ that?” Buck asked.

“No,” she clipped.

“I get Clara bein’ here is new to you. It’s new to me. It’s new to your brother. And heads up, girl, it’s also fuckin’ new to Clara. I’m guessin’ your brother sees the upshot to this and has noticed that I got someone in my house I like bein’ with and he digs that.”

At these words, surprising ones, lovely ones (in a biker-lovely way), I held my breath and felt my belly get warm again.

Buck kept talking.

“I also get that it may take you longer to see your old man has found himself a good thing. That said, I did not raise a fuckin’ kid who gets sick in the toilet because she acted like a fuckin’ moron, and my woman took care of her, only to have that kid be a fuckin’ brat the next morning. You work out your issues with your brother, with me, and you ask, I bet Clara would talk to you, you’d get to know her and even she might help you work them out. You wanna be a pain in the ass, you do it so Clara doesn’t feel it and Gear doesn’t have to pour you, shitfaced, in his car and leave his friends because you’ve decided to be a pain in the ass. I talked to you about this nice last night. You didn’t listen. Now, I gotta know if you’ve heard me. So, Tatie, tell me, have you heard me?”

I felt that was pretty intense, and maybe a smidge too intense.

Then again, I’d never had a dad, much less a biker dad, so I didn’t know.

Though, I’d had foster fathers, but I’d always put every foot right and didn’t taste my first sip of beer until I was nineteen, so this was completely foreign to me.

At the end of the day, however, this lecture had been delivered in this manner because Buck had tried it a different way, Tatiana hadn’t listened, and the heart of it was that Buck cared, Buck worried, and Buck wanted all of us to get along.

And Tatiana was not with that program in any way, and she didn’t seem to be swinging in that direction.

So perhaps intense was appropriate in this situation.

Not to mention, it explained Buck’s Saturday morning bad mood.

“I’ve heard you,” Tatiana gritted between her teeth, her eyes glittering, her face still pale, and I had the distinct feeling she blamed this on me, and I had that feeling because her glittering eyes shifted to me frequently while her father was telling her off.

Fantastic.

“Now, say thank you to Clara for bein’ cool with you last night and then you can do whatever the fuck you need to do.”

Okay, according to me, that was taking it too far.

“I…that isn’t necessary,” I put in quickly, and said to Tatiana, “You don’t have to thank me.”

Buck’s arm gave my thighs a squeeze. “I said she did, Toots, that means she does.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Whatever,” Tatiana muttered. “Thanks…” She hesitated then sneered, “Toots.”

“Tat, sis, be cool,” Gear advised.

“Whatever,” Tatiana repeated and looked at her father. “Can I go now?”

“Oh yeah, you can go. But fair warning, girl, I see you and you’re still throwin’ attitude, I’m not gonna like it.”

I watched her clench her teeth. She looked to the scenery again, took a sip of water then pushed away from the railing and walked to the door.