Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 349

Chapter 349

Sprocket POV

Nugget was a child, but a strong–willed one, cute as a button.

When Skittle asked him if he remembered what she said, she gained the attention of the whole

table:

None of us expected Nugget to climb off Skittle’s lap and onto Nightingale’s. Now, only

Nightingale can stuff this up, or do the work that Skittle had done to get him to sit on her lap to work out. It was obvious that both were unsure what to do, and in Nugget’s fashion, he turned his attention away from the elephant in the room, onto his toy, easily distracted as a child should be.

“Behave, and you know where to find me if you need me,” Skittles said softly to Nugget, who looked up at her and waved goodbye, a smile on his face.

“What would you like to do?” I asked as we headed to the car park.

“Move my bike out of the way, now there’s room to do so. The truck should be here soon, with our things. I want to put away what I can and stow the rest. Get things ready for Monday. A bit nervous about moving to a new job, the other morgue was the only place I had ever worked before.” I could hear her nervousness in her voice just talking about it, but on the outside, she walked and talked confidently; unless you got to know her even a little bit, like I feel I do now, you wouldn’t know she

was that worried.

We moved her bike next to mine, in a back shed I built while we were refurbishing the place, more or less my personal shed. The things that Skittles wants to store can be stored there, too.

“With these keys,” I gave her the keys to this shed and to my, our, room. “I am asking you to be mine, exclusively, while we navigate our friendship, and you settle in here at the club, and your new job. I want to give you the chance to be you, without all the guys hitting you and putting pressure of a different kind. I will provide you with my protection and guidance when you need them. If you want space, I will give you that too. I ask you to be open and honest with me, and not hide behind your fears. I can’t promise you it will be easy. Talking about things that have hurt you is hard, I know, but I will keep an open mind. If you need to vent, do it; if you need someone to spar with, to let off steam, I can be that, too. I like a good workout. Both kinds. I have never had a girlfriend before, so I expect to make mistakes, but I want to try. You’re the first woman who has held my interest enough to ask this. Unless you want to call a childhood crush who tried to exert power over me and hurt me because of my crush on her, she tried to be the boss, and that didn’t end well for her; ! only let her get away with it twice. The first I forgave, the second was enough for me to turn my back on her. I know it’s soon, but we have known each other since childhood, and although we have been apart, I want to see if I can find that girl. I remember the one who put her pigtails in the paint pot and made her hair purple, who laughed at my corny jokes, and who was carefree and

lovely. I know she is still there somewhere. Will you give me the chance to find her again?” I am

going with my gut here. Right from the moment she arrived, Skittles did something to me, as no

girl had before. I was stirring inside, which I thought was dead.

I waited as she walked beside me. The truck arrived as we headed back, so we changed direction

and went to greet the driver. Stinger arrived at the same time.

“Hi, buddy, how’s it going?” I asked as we reached the car park, where the truck stopped at the

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