15, You just don't know what strength is

Nash

I didn’t give Tite time to object or make up an excuse. I got up from my seat and took her hand and pulled her with me.

“I’m going to finish your lunches then,” Shadow called to us. I didn’t pay him any attention, mostly because I was too distracted by the sensation I felt in my hand which held Tite’s. It felt all tingly, like when you accidentally fall asleep on it. I looked at our hands as we walked. Tite was shaking hers to get it out of my grip.

“Stop manhandling me or I will make sure to teach you a new concept of blue balls,” she hissed at me. I let go of her hand and the tingling stopped. We were in a back corridor in the clubhouse. It was private enough for the conversation I needed to have with her.

“You can’t just go around thinking you can force the club to become like your fluffy club back home,” I told her. I sounded harsher than I had wanted, but she needed to get a grip.

“My fluffy club back home?” she asked. I was relieved she didn’t scare easily.

“Come on, Kitten. We both know your club is on the softer side,” I told her. She looked me straight in the face and laughed.

“Please, Nash. My club eats clubs like this for breakfast on a lazy day. Why do you think your club came to us thirty years ago? Because we give nice back rubs? Because our face masks are famous?” I enjoyed her sass, I also enjoyed watching how the colour of her eyes shifted from pale blue to deep navy as her temper got the best of her. I took a step closer to her.

“I will give you that you used to be the biggest and baddest club around. But now, you have gone soft,” I told her.

“Fuck you! And fuck going soft. You just don’t know what strength is,” she told me and took a half step back to create space between us. I followed her. She frowned and when I took the next step forward, she didn’t move. Instead, she squared up to me, letting me invade her personal space. I could almost feel the electricity in the air.

“I know it’s not having cosy family evenings, using the bikes as ornaments instead of riding them,” I retorted. She actually snorted.

“Right. Because being strong means drinking beers with your friends, ogling women in skimpy clothes and boasting about how you once decked a man in one punch, each night going to bed with a new woman and waking up alone in bed. That isn’t being strong. That is being pathetic,” she said, looking me in the eyes. That hit too close to home for my liking.

“And what do you think strength is?” I asked her between clenched teeth.

“Strength is to be brave enough to open up to someone else, to give someone your heart even though by doing so you hand them a way to utterly destroy you. Strength is to protect what you love and help your brothers and sister to protect what they love. It’s to be there for the people you call family,” she told me.

“Are you saying we wouldn’t help our brothers? Fuck you, Tite! I would die for each of my brothers!”

“Yeah, that is easy to say, easy to do. The big gestures, going out in blaze of glory with your brothers by your side. But yesterday when one of your brother’s house mouse was being disrespected by a sweet butt. Did even one of his brothers stand with him? Did anyone have his back? No. He had to go after his woman on his own and no one even disciplined the sweet butt. It’s easy to say you will give your life for your brothers, but it means nothing if you can’t stand with them in the small things,” she said. I didn’t know when we had got even closer. We stood toe to toe, looking into each other’s eyes and I felt the need for her grow with each breath I took.

“Why do you need to make it harder than it is?” I asked her.

“The mission or your dick?” she asked with a smirk. I stared at her for a moment and then burst out laughing. I loved the mouth on this woman.

“Both,” I said. She shrugged.

“If I’m doing something, I might as well do it properly. Sorry, but I can’t help either of them,” she told me. I let my hand go to the small of her back and pulled her to me.

“Oh, I think you can,” I whispered and let my usual sexy grin show. “We could just go up to my room,” I said, leaning a little closer. Tite was watching me. She wasn’t objecting. I pressed my body into hers, I could feel her breath on my face. “It will be easy. Just you and me, one long, steamy session. I will have you screaming, Kitten.” I could hear her breath hitch. I knew she was close to give in. “One enjoyable roll in the bed with me and we will get rid of this tension between us, freeing us and allowing us to think clearly again,” I told her. I felt the change in her body the second the words had left me. I knew I had messed up before her palm hit my chest, forcing us to separate.

“Not interested,” she said.

“Are you some kind of virgin, or what is your hang up?” I asked. She laughed, but it didn’t sound genuine.

“No. Not a virgin. You should have seen me in my wild teenage years. Half of the shit I did was to get out of my head, half was to piss my father off. Neither worked. Then I grew up and came to the understanding that sex with random men or a night in bed with someone isn’t a cure. It usually ends up causing more trouble than it’s worth.” Her words held something beneath the surface that I could only just pick up on. Sadness? Whatever it was, I wanted to protect her from it.

“Tite,” I started, but I didn’t know how to finish. I wasn’t capable of things like that, there was a reason I didn’t do relationships.

“Look. You may see it as me weakening the club. But I won’t stop. You may not see it, but I do. The bonds holding you together are weak, all talk no shop. I will try and change that while I’m here. I will look into what is happening and write the report for my father and then I will be out of your hair. No need to fixate on whatever this thing between us is,” she told me and then she turned around and walked away. If I didn’t know her, I would say she looked defeated. I had no idea why the thought of it made me so uncomfortable. She was my responsibility while she was here. I would do my best to protect her. But that was where my responsibility ended, I told myself. I didn’t even believe it myself.