Brick by Brick: Rebel Souls MC # 5

Bubbles 1.0

Another wake up call, another damn hangover. They seemed to get worse and worse. How much more could I drink before my liver finally said fuck you and decided it didn't want to work anymore. I rolled over in my bed, in the empty, undecorated room I'd been given by Bullet, the president of the South Fork Charter of the Rebel Souls. It was bare, only a bed and a dresser, a few towels, nothing else. The guys were friendly enough, but it wasn't home; they weren't my brothers.

And none of them would ever be Colin.

Fuck, I missed him so damn much.

Clenching my eyes shut, I refused to let the tears fall. I was almost thirty-five years old. I'd been with countless women and never shed a single fucking tear for one of them. But a year of my life with him and I'd cried more times than I could count.

I cried the first time we'd fucked, cried when I realised I loved him. I'd cried when he told me he loved me too, but that on matter how much he did, he couldn't keep being my dirty little secret. It had taken me months to win him back after that. The only reason he'd finally caved was because Boomer had bailed on the security detail for Tank and Brenda and I'd volunteered myself, forcing us into a secluded spot. We'd fucked all damn night, laying on the grass, bent over the bikes, unable to stop after spending months apart. I'd promised him I'd come out, finally claim him as my old man.

And I had. When he'd gotten shot at Tank's house, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I'd heard his cries of pain while I'd been guarding the back door. I'd never raced up a set of stairs so fast in my life. Boomer had been holding him up and blood had been covering his pants. Rushing to him, I'd pushed Boomer out of the way and helped him to the couch, settling him in my lap. Boomer had looked confused, but hadn't said anything. I hadn't cared that Boomer was watching, holding pressure on his bleeding wound. I'd kissed Colin deeply, moaning into his mouth and whispering how much I loved him.

"Congrats," Boomer had said, making Colin laugh against my lips. I'd sat there, holding him in my arms, deciding then and there that I'd never let him go. I'd almost lost him.

When the rest of the club walked in and looked at us, Tank had been the only one to not look completely surprised. If I'd had to bet, I would have bet on Bender being the one to figure it out first. "Fuck it," I'd said before kissing him again.

And nobody in the room had given a single fuck. All the months of worrying about what they'd think had been completely wasted. They all already knew Colin was gay. Why would it matter if I was too? It didn't.

The only person with a problem with my sexuality was me.

I'd spent thirty-three years thinking I was straight. And then Colin walked into the clubhouse. He'd been a hang around for two days before the club let him prospect, one of the quickest in history. He'd earned his prospect patch by breaking up a fight between two of the other hang arounds. Alcohol had obviously been involved, and knives. But based on the scar on his neck, he wasn't a stranger to knives. I wouldn't find out what caused the scar until months later.

As soon as Prez had offered him a position as prospect, he'd accepted, but said that he was gay, and if that was going to be a problem, he'd walk right out the door and not look back. It hadn't been a problem.

My crush on him hadn't started instantly, but had built slowly, over time, so slowly that I hadn't even realised I'd been falling until it had happened.

Everything had come to a boiling point on the night of his patch party. The club had been full of gay guys. I'd watched him dance with countless guys all night before I watched him head off with one to his room.

No way I'd been about to let that happen. I'd chased him up the stairs, ripping the man off of him and telling him to get fucking lost. Colin, who I still only knew by Brick at that point, looked confused, even more so when I pushed my lips to his. He'd taken a moment to recover, but when he had, he'd kissed me back and we'd stumbled into his room. I'd never kissed a guy before, and it was nothing like kissing a woman.