“The time was right from the moment I saw her, but obviously I wanted to wait.” He laced those words heavily with sarcasm, and Lucas flipped him off.
“I know you guys aren’t going to break up or anything, and have been together for a long fucking time, but you’re both only twenty-two.” Lucas closed the box and handed it back to Nico. “You got a long time to decide if this is what you want.”
“You don’t think I should propose?” Nico asked with a bite in his voice. He respected his brother’s opinion, but no one would sway him from doing what he really wanted.
“Fuck no, I am not saying that. I think Alexis is a cool ass girl, and the two of you have been going at it for like six years. I am just saying really make sure you want to do this.” Lucas shrugged. “You know I love Alexis like a sister, and will support you, but what if Brick says fuck off when you tell him you want to marry her?”
Now it was Nico’s turn to shrug. “Listen, I respect the fuck out of Brick and his opinion of me, but I love Alexis more than anything else, and I won’t let anyone stop me from being with her.” The sound of the locker room door opening and slamming shut had him and Lucas glancing over at it. Brick stood on the other side, his gaze right on Nico, and this annoyed expression on his face.
“Lucas, give us a minute,” Brick said in that harsh, stone-hard voice of his.
His brother gave him a sympathetic look and ducked out of the room, leaving him alone with a very intimidating biker. There weren’t a lot of things that could crack Nico’s hard composure, but having the Sergeant at Arms staring him down, and making it known that he knew what the fuck was going on, was a pretty good foundation shaker.
“I assume you heard all of that.” Nico didn’t phrase it like a question.
“I heard enough to know what the fuck is going on.” Brick took a step closer, his voice low and intimidating.
Nico might not take shit from anyone, and could hold his own, but this was Brick, a male to be fucking reckoned with. Nico stood his ground and lifted the black box up. He popped the lid and showed the ring to Brick. The bear shifter didn’t show any expression as he stared at the ring.
“You talk to my daughter about this?”
“We have talked about it, but it was just talk. She doesn’t know I want to propose, or that I had planned on talking to you—asking your permission for her hand.”
Brick looked at Nico, and although the man was about forty years his senior, they were the same height and build. “You guys have been together for a long time.”
“Yes, sir, we have.” Nico never addressed anyone with a formal title like that, but right now he wasn’t speaking to one of his MC brothers, a bear shifter, or the Sergeant at Arms. Right now he was speaking to the father of the woman he loved and wanted to marry.
“And you love my girl.” Brick stated it as a fact.
“Yeah, I do.”
“And you’ll protect her with your life? Take a fucking bullet for her and take out anyone that means to harm her?”
“With my last breath.” Nico said that with so much determination that Brick nodded and grunted in response.
“God, because I don’t want some pussy man trying to be with my daughter.”
“Brick, she’s my world, and has been since I was little. I’d do anything for her, and before I put the question of marriage to her, I wanted to make sure you were okay with it.”
Brick stayed silent, and his scar seemed even more pronounced the longer he stayed silent. “I know you want to say more than just that, son.” Brick crossed his arms over his sweaty, bare chest, and his muscles strained forward. Yeah, even just standing there he could be one intimidating asshole.
“She’s going to be mine whether you give us permission or not. I love her, she loves me, and if she says yes, and you say no, I’ll still make her my wife.”
Brick didn’t respond for several seconds, but Nico didn’t waver from his stare. “You got some balls there, boy.” He narrowed his eyes at Nico and then dropped his arms. “I should kick your ass on the grounds that you think you can come in here and talk to me that way.” There was this uncomfortable and tense moment between them. “With that said, ain’t no one going to take my daughter from me that I don’t approve of, you hear me, boy?”
Yeah, Nico figured Brick would give him shit. It didn’t matter that Nico had been with Alexis this whole time, and that he had never once done anything to fuck it up. Brick, as well as all the Grizzly bikers with daughters and old ladies, was overprotective to the nth degree. But then again if and when Nico ever had a daughter he assumed he’d be the same way.