“Nico?” she said sleepily.
“Yeah, baby?”
She turned her head to the side and cracked an eye open. “Lie down next to me.” Her voice was low and drug-like in its post-euphoric quality.
“Of course, baby.” He moved beside her and lay down. Wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, Nico leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Her breathing started to become easy and regular, and he knew she was sleeping. He looked at her face, traced her dark, crescent shaped eyelashes with his gaze, and knew that he was so ready to move forward. He had been thinking a lot about marriage and starting a family, and there wasn’t anyone else he wanted that with. This was the woman he was going to marry, but the only problem was getting Brick’s approval on that. If Brick said no it certainly wouldn’t stop Nico from proposing to her, but Nico wanted the Sergeant at Arms’s permission to marry Alexis. They were a family, and the MC was his life as well as in his blood. He just hoped Brick didn’t go all parental and kick his ass.
Chapter Seven
Nico was across the room, lifting weights, but focusing on Brick. The Sergeant at Arms was working out as well. They had built the gym behind the garage years ago to help ease some of the wild energy in the newer members. The older Grizzly members knew how to control themselves, but when a bear shifter was in his late teens and early twenties his animal was more wild and volatile. Maybe it was the increase in hormones, the rush of testosterone, and the feeling that they were invincible that made them so reckless. It had been a week since Alexis had come back to Steel Corner, but she had been pretty busy with her mom and Stinger as they got her used to the books for the club. But that didn’t stop Nico from trying to get her to have a nooner in the back room. Even now he grinned at the way her cheeks turned red when he had slipped his hand up her skirt when the guys had just been in the next room working on a Harley engine. Lucas sat beside him doing arm curls with some massive weights, and the sound of his twin’s heavy breathing, and the scent of his sweat couldn’t even drown out the focus Nico had on Brick.
“Man, if you keep checking him out he’s going to come over here and slap that expression off your face.”
Nico looked at Lucas and glowered. He hadn’t told anyone his intentions of proposing to Alexis. It wasn’t because he was afraid, but that he just didn’t know how to go about telling anyone. Besides, these assholes drank too much, and he wasn’t sure one of them wouldn’t blurt it out in front of her in one of their drunken stupors. Lucas set the weight on the ground and rested his elbows on his knees. He stared at Nico with this indistinguishable expression on his face.
“Everything good?” Lucas asked and breathed out roughly. Sweat dripped down his face and bare chest. “Ever since Alexis came back you’ve been acting fucking weird, man.”
Nico looked away from his brother and at Brick again, and saw that the other biker was staring right at him. The man was a beast even though he was in his sixties. He worked out just as hard and fiercely as Nico and the younger guys did, but what they lacked was that Brick had this deadly intent that came through his eyes like a knife to the jugular. The other original members were old as fuck, too, but they were the meanest, toughest motherfuckers around. The scar on Brick’s face made the other man look like he’d have no problem taking someone down without even breaking a sweat, and that wasn’t just an assumption. Brick didn’t have a conscience when it meant taking care of club business, but that was what The Grizzlies needed, and why Brick was the muscle of the MC.
“Come here.” Nico stood and gestured for Lucas to follow him. They made their way into the locker room, and Nico made sure they were alone before he grabbed his gym bag and pulled out the small black velvet box from inside of it.
“Whoa, is that what I think it is?” Lucas asked, his eyes wide. He moved closer and looked down at it.
“Yeah, and I’m trying to get big enough balls to bring this up to Brick.”
Lucas shook his head. “Man, you need steel balls that are the size of your head to ask Brick to marry his daughter.” Lucas took a step back, as if he didn’t want to be near it.
Nico popped the lid open and showed off the one-carat solitaire inside.
Lucas whistled low under his breath and moved closer to look at it. “Damn, that must have cost some change.” Lucas grabbed the box and lifted it higher to his face.
“Yeah, I’ve been saving for a few years, just putting some cash away here and there until the time was right.”
“And the time is right now?” Lucas asked without taking his eyes away from the ring.