Club Ties by Mara McBain Page A

between them and looked at him expectantly. She had to pat the bed before the invitation sank in. He didn’t have to be asked twice.
    She curled against him the moment he was settled, her cold feet brushing his leg. Mox smiled in the dark. This one he knew. Rolling her over so he could spoon with her, he trapped her chilled tootsies between his calves. She murmured in surprise, but didn’t pull away. A soft sigh escaped her and she wiggled her pert ass into his crotch.
    He grinned again, thinking of the times he’d heard Zeke tease Ginny about her cold feet and ass. Pulling the blankets around Eva’s shoulder, he burrowed his nose in her hair. Warming a beautiful woman was no real sacrifice. The promised rewards were priceless.
     
     
    Chapter ~ 6
     
    Muscles burning, Eva adjusted her grip and inched up another step. Her arms trembled with fatigue. The pillar hadn’t seemed so heavy in the back of the truck. Using her knee, she hefted it a little higher and climbed another step. Tongue slipping out between her lips, she craned her neck to peek around her armload and gauge her progress. She groaned. At the moment, five seemed an insurmountable number.
    “Honey, that’s way too heavy for you. Zeke!”
    Eva didn’t have the breath to protest when Mox’s father stepped down the stairs to take the table base from her arms.
    “I’ll take that, little girl,” he said, giving her a wink.
    She blushed despite herself. The whole family had been so nice to her the past four days.
    “Let the men get the heavy stuff, honey,” Ginny admonished. “Actually, why don’t you grab your purse and we’ll run to Walmart?”
    “I should stay and help…”
    “There are quite a few things we need to pick up to get you kids settled. I’d like your opinion.”
    “Really, I don’t know their taste and I’m just…”
    “She’s not going to take no for an answer, so you might as well save your breath,” Zeke muttered, brushing past and back down the stairs. 
    Eva glanced back at Ginny and the woman smirked at her, not a hint of shame in her sparkling hazel eyes. 
    “I’ll get my purse.”
     
    Fingers playing over the buttery-soft leather upholstery, Eva stared out the window as Trinity Falls fell away to woodland and farmers’ fields. The wad of cash Mox had forced into her jeans pocket burned against her thigh. Guilt gnawed at her.
    Since their night together, Mox had let it be known she was his. Eva had been afraid it would cause tension with his brother, but Rhys had accepted it with only a few verbal spars. There she went, overestimating her worth again. She grimaced, glad Mox couldn’t read her thoughts. He was adamant she not put herself down. There had been genuine understanding in his eyes when he’d told her there was no point in getting down on yourself when there was always someone willing to do it for you.
    How could someone like Mox understand that feeling? Tall, athletic, handsome, he had it all going for him. How could he know what it felt like to be on the outside looking in? Eva had thought she’d escaped that feeling along with the cruelties of adolescence when she’d met Rocco. Little had she known that his world came with a whole new set of problems. 
    She closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against the cool window. What was she doing? Mox deserved so much better than her.
    “Sometimes, circumstance brings people together for the right reasons.”
    Eva’s head spun around. Maybe Mox couldn’t read minds, but she wasn’t betting against Ginny at the moment. The older woman shrugged at Eva’s stare.
    “A wise man told me that once when I was doubting things.”  
    “How do you do that?”
    “I’m a mother. It’s part of the super-power package,” she said with a smile.
    “He doesn’t know anything about me. He deserves better.”
    “He’ll get to know you the same as you’ll get to know him.”
    “You didn’t argue he deserves better.”
    “I’m his mother. I’m not