VJ

12 - My Greek God

Sophie

I stare at him from across the room, the man I can’t stop thinking about. He’s so handsome it makes my heart ache. He’s six-foot-three, full of muscle, with dark hair and brown eyes, and stands with such confidence it would make Dracula jealous. I’ve lusted after him for years — my brother’s best friend.

You’re not supposed to want your brother’s friends. My big sister, Nova, told me there’s some law or something that forbids it. Not an actual law, but an unspoken one. I guess that’s why I have never made a move on Bones. He’s never made one on me either. However, I know that he’s finally noticed me.

This past year, he’s looked at me differently. He’s noticed the woman I have become. All the working out I do has shaped my body. My boobs aren’t big, but they never have been. My ass is big, though, my thighs a little on the thick side. My waist is slim, and I’m not short. I’m five-seven without heels.

I first realized he’d noticed me a couple of months ago. We were at a hog roast here at the clubhouse, my daddy’s last as President. I’d brought a guy with me, a guy who was nothing but a friend from school, a gay one.

No one yet knows Philip is gay. He was the school jock, and they would have crucified him. I brought him to the hog roast because he needed a friend. He’s one of my best, and I’m one of the only two people he confessed to about his sexuality. The other is Julie, our best friend.

Anyway, I was laughing at something Philip said, his arm around my shoulder when my eyes caught Bones. His eyes were narrowed, his hand so tight around his bottled beer that I thought it would shatter. He visibly ground his teeth. He was angry that I’d brought a man here. My heart was pounding, my puss.y along with it.

Bones had to know that Philip was just my friend. I made it clear enough to everyone there that day. I wanted to talk to Bones and explain who Philip was, but I blinked, and he’d disappeared.

He’s avoided me every day since, and it’s crushing me because I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. I don’t know how much my heart can take. He’s been deliberately flaunting women in front of me. It hurts seeing them wrapped around him, his hands on them. I stopped coming around the clubhouse because of it. Bones wanted to hurt me, and it worked.

That’s why I’ve been looking at moving away with Julie. My family is so close-knit that I decided not to go to college out of state. I wanted to stay here and go to a local college for cosmetically, which I have been for two years, after deferring for a year because I needed a break from things. I wasn’t doing too well after high school. I’d been dating a guy who ended up beating me to a pulp on Prom Night because I didn’t want to have se.x with him. He disappeared once VJ found out, and his body has never been found.

I love my brother, but he should have left things to the cops. It was Bones who told me the cops wouldn’t do shi.t. The kid had a wealthy family and would have somehow gotten off with the charges. I pointed out that Draven Vidal wouldn’t have let that happen. But Bones chuckled and told me VJ wouldn’t call Vidal for anything when he could sort things himself.

It took me months to recover. I needed therapy for the PTSD the attack caused me. I felt like a failure because even though I gave as good as I got, Kalvin, the guy who hurt me, was much bigger and stronger. It took a while for me to realize none of it was my fault.

I pulled myself together and got on the course I wanted at college. I’ve been doing so well, but I’m not sure I can stay here anymore when my heart hurts like this.

He’s looking at me again as I sit here in my jeans and a white blouse, drinking lemonade all alone. I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone. I’m happy my brother is home, I wouldn’t have missed VJ’s homecoming for anything, but I want to go home now.

I abandon my lemonade and walk over to where my mother stands with Willow, my eldest sister, twenty years my senior.

“Mom, I think I’m gonna go. I have a headache.”

“Oh, sweetheart. Are you going to be okay to drive?”

I nod with a smile on my face.

“You sure, Soph? I can take you if you’d like?”

“No, it’s okay, Will. You know what Hilly is like if you leave her.”

Hilly is Willow’s four-year-old daughter, and she’s extremely clingy to my sister. Hilly is also the image of her mother in every way. Like me, Hilly is much younger than her three older brothers. Noah is fourteen, Conner is thirteen, and Curtis is ten.

I kiss my mother’s and my sister’s cheek and leave. I wish I had somewhere else to go right now. I still live with my parents, but at twenty-one years of age, I don’t feel ready to move out just yet. That probably makes me sound childish, but I like living at home. Living by myself does not appeal to me right now.

“Sophie, wait!”

What the hell?

I turn and almost smack right into Bones as he rushes after me.

What the hell does he want?

“I need to speak with you.”

“About what?”

He doesn’t answer me. He looks around to see if anyone is watching. No one is, so he grabs my arm and drags me into the alley at the side of the building.

Again, what the fuc.k?

Bones pushes me against the wall. “I’m sick of this, Soph.”

“Sick of what? Have I done something wrong?”

I watch him raking his fingers through his hair. I want to reach out and comb my fingers through that long hair as I pull him against my aching body.

“I’m a bastard, Soph. I’ve done such bad things in my life.”

I know this; he’s a biker, they’ve all done bad things. However, Ethan–Bones–Kallas, my half-Greek, half-American God, is not as bad as he makes himself out to be. I’m not naïve to the world these men live in; I grew up in it; it’s the only life I know. So all that they do is normal to me.

I’m a strong woman. I am because of the men and women of this club and the things they’ve taught me. However, I am still a woman, and I hurt as much as anyone else. Hearing Bones bash himself is hurting me.

“I don’t deserve anythin’ good in this world, but fuc.k if I don’t want you.”

My mouth hangs open in shock.

Did I fall asleep inside the clubhouse, bang my head, and now I’m dreaming?

“Ethan,” I whisper his name, and it draws his stare on me.

He comes closer, hands against the wall on either side of my head, trapping me. “That name belongs on your lips, ómorfos.”

“What does that mean?” I ask him breathlessly.

Bones smiles and slides his hand to my face. “Beautiful. It means beautiful.” The way he speaks the Greek language is beautiful. “You’re my beautiful rose, Sophie. For the past few months, you’re all I think about.”

“I find that hard to believe when you flaunt all those women in front of me.”

He chuckles, making me want to punch him out. Not that I could, but he’s making fun of me!

“Don’t look so mad, Soph. I’m sorry I did that. I wanted to make you jealous. I had to know how you felt. I knew you wouldn’t tell me yourself.”

“So, you sleep with any woman you can get your hands on? Smooth, Bones.” I fold my arms around myself and roll my eyes.

“I didn’t sleep with any of them, Soph. Fuc.k, I haven’t been able even to think about fuckin’ anyone else but you for months.”

Oh. My. God!

“Tell me you don’t wanna be mine, and I swear to God above that I’ll never bother you again.”

I search his eyes for the lie, the joke he’s pulling on me. However, I see nothing but the truth. God, I could cry with how happy I feel right now!

I slam my mouth against his, catching him off guard. I grab the back of his head and hold him to me. Bones kisses me back, kissing me as if his life depended upon it. It fuckin.g feels like mine does right now.

He pulls away gently, his forehead against mine. “Does that mean you...”

“Yes.” I cut him off with a chuckle. “I have wanted you for so long, Ethan. I want to be yours. I want you to be mine.”

“I am yours, beautiful, and you are mine... God, VJ’s gonna kill me. Not to mention your dad, and...”

I press my fingertips to his lips. “We’ll talk to them together. We’ll make them see that we want this. I’m safe with you, the man I have known most of my life.”

“Damn right, you are. I’ve spoken to Jett.”

“You have?”

Bones nods his head. “I spoke to him this morning. I told him how I feel, and that I wanted to claim you.”

“And he agreed?” I swallow the lump in my throat. I know the answer already because there’s no way Bones would be doing this if Jett warned him off. However, my stomach still churns in case.

“Jett told me to tell you how I feel, and if you feel the same way, then he won’t stand in our way.”

I smile wide with excitement. Not that my big brother should have the right to tell me whom I can date, but he can force Bones to stay the hell away from me.

“It ain’t gonna be easy, baby. VJ won’t understand.”

“Maybe not, but I’ll make him understand. I want to be with you; that is all I have ever wanted. No matter how hard things seem, please don’t give up on me.”

“Never. You’re worth the fight, Sophie. You’re worth it all.”

The fight is going to be brutal. Of all the males in my family, it’s VJ that we have to worry about. He is literally the most dangerous man I have ever known. My own brother is a dangerous man on another level. Bones knows, as well as everyone else, just what VJ is capable of. I only hope somewhere in his cold heart that VJ loves me enough to let me be with the man I love. And I do love Bones. God, do I love him.