Sealed In Strength

by Ryan Michele

  I’d get him a new one.

  Sophia struggled to get up. She must’ve needed help, and what kind of host would I be if I didn’t help her. Grabbing her hair, the silkiness of it was amazing. Maybe one day, I’d ask her how she did it. Oh hell. Who was I kidding, that would never happen. It would be a cold day in hell first.

  Gripping it with both hands, she tried scratching mine as I pulled and she screamed. She was light, and moving her was easy. She definitely needed to eat a cheeseburger or two and get some tits and ass.

  Five feet from the front door, all the while dragging her, it swung open wide.

  Crow stood there, smile on his face, eyes searching. When they connected with mine and he took in the situation, the smile fell away. As much as I hated that, I didn’t let him see. Instead, the smile kept firm on my lips.

  “Hey, Grizzly. I was just takin’ out the trash. Can you hold the door open for me?”

  Sophia was struggling to get free, but my grasp was tight. She flipped to her stomach trying to get her knees under her. “Crow!” she cried out.

  “What the fuck’s goin’ on here?” Crow barked, and I didn’t give that first shit. If he was mad, that was on him. He knew how I felt about this woman. End of story.

  “She’s hurting me, Crow!” Sophia yelled as I pulled harder, feeling some of the strands tear. Oops. Maybe she’d have a piece missing to remember me by when this was done.

  Ignoring her and focusing on Crow, I said, “Sophia here was just leaving. She decided to clean your house for my homecoming. Wasn’t that sweet?” The poison dripped from those words.

  “Christ,” Crow bit off. “Let her stand up.”

  My eyes narrowed, not liking him standing up for her. “No.”

  To this he smiled, and I tried to get a read on him. “Pixie. Sooner you let her go, sooner she’ll be the fuck out of here.”

  This was acceptable to me. Therefore, I released her locks while strands of it coated through my fingers. I hurriedly pulled it off and brushed it to the floor. It could be vacuumed again.

  Sophia got her feet under her, and her face was a mask of fury. This made me laugh. She wasn’t tough enough to handle me. How in the fuck did she expect to handle this life? She’d get her ass handed to her on every turn.

  “Crow, she pushed me into the table.” Her hand flung out pointing to the crushed piece. “Then dragged me by my hair! Tell her to leave.”

  My stomach started cramping as the laughter burst through making its presence known. Her eyes scored me, but I didn’t give a fuck. She was acting like a fucking child, tattling. She may be older than me, but she was a fucking pussy who couldn’t take me on woman to woman. She acted as though if she told Crow to get rid of me, he would. Yeah, fuck her.

  “Why are you here?” Crow asked Sophia. She blinked, coming down from her tantrum slightly, obviously thinking he’d tell me to go instead.

  “Because I was cleaning for you.” Her face turned soft to him. Bitch.

  “Why? I didn’t give you access to my house,” Crow bit off, and Sophia’s head shook as if to clear it or something.

  “I have a key, Crow.”

  Well that explained that one. It was going to be a top question for Crow. At this, I turned to Crow and said, “That’s gonna be a problem for me.” He needed to know my hard limits, and anything to do with Sophia was.

  Crow’s focus didn’t leave Sophia’s, but he answered me, “Me too.”

  This made something inside of me relax. It was that coil of doubt that lingered, hanging over us like a thunder cloud got a little lighter, the sun peeking through. That, I liked. A lot. Even that small amount felt like a boulder off my shoulders.

  “Give me my key and get out, Sophia,” Crow ordered.

  “You want to be with me,” she said instead of going for her keys and pointing to herself. “And if my son’s gonna be here, I’m gonna have a key. You can’t keep me from Greer.”

  “Greer has a fuckin’ key. Therefore, you don’t need one. Woman, you’re my kid’s mom. That’s it. Told you that before, sayin’ it again for the last fuckin’ time. This shit you’re pullin’ isn’t gonna happen.”

  “Told ya you threw away a good thing,” I chimed in, not giving two shits they were having an important conversation, because fuck her. This was my life now, and I didn’t hide in the background. I was front and center, ready for whatever shit came my way.

  “Shut up!” Sophia yelled at me.

  “Hating me won’t make you get Crow, because he’s mine.” Crow and I were standing next to each other, Sophia looking at us both.

  Her focus went to Crow. “You kissed me! Me. Not her.”

  My head rolled around as I looked at the ceiling, not wanting to dredge this shit up again. “And here I thought that was laid to rest. Damn thing is like the Walking Dead. You think it’s dead, but it keeps making itself known. Annoying.”

  “You are not funny!” she barked at me.

  I looked to Crow whose lip slightly tipped. He was pissed off so I counted that as a win on my side. To Sophia, I shrugged. “Get that a lot, woman.”

  “You’re mine. Will always be mine,” Sophia growled, giving her attention to Crow.

  “What the fuck has gotten into you? You never acted like this before,” Crow accused.

  “She’s been swiping pills from Walgreens. We should call the cops and have her arrested,” I teased, but was getting done with this shit. It was fun for a while, but boredom was setting in. And fuck it, I hadn’t even been able to kiss my man. It’d been way too long since I’d seen him.

  “You bitch!” she yelled.

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I moved a few paces toward her. “Look. You love him. Got it. The man has told you he doesn’t want to be with you. I’ve made it clear, I don’t like you nor that you think you have a right to my man. Get it through that thick skull of yours—he doesn’t want you.”

  “He liked my mouth in front of the club.”

  I couldn’t help it. It was automatic because I was sick and tired of hearing about it. That fucking kiss was a black spot in Crow’s and my story. We needed to move on and see where this was going, not keep reliving it over and over again.

  My fist connected with her eye so hard I heard a bone crack. She collapsed to the ground holding her face and screaming out.

  “Pixie,” Crow started, but I held up my hand to him, and he stopped.

  “Am I your ol’ lady?” I asked him point blank, not giving him an inch. He’d either answer this with a yes or I was gone.

  His lip tipped. “Yeah.”

  “Then you let me handle this shit. Know she’s your kid’s mom and you gotta deal with her, but this shit isn’t flying with me. I want her gone. If she doesn’t want to get gone, I’ll make her gone.”

  He studied me for a moment and nodded his understanding. This wasn’t some hot shot shit. This was an ol’ lady staking her claim on her man. Getting rid of the shit that would cause problems for her man.

  Crow might not have liked it, but he understood how this worked. No ol’ lady would put up with another woman’s shit. No ol’ lady would stand there and listen to some bitch staking claim on their man.

  Men in the club were ruthless and strong. The thing that many didn’t understand was that the woman behind the man was just as strong. Men didn’t want a weak woman. There was strength in many different ways: physical, mental, emotional. It wasn’t always brute force that made the woman.

  It was the woman that these men came home to at night to help them take the weight of their day off their shoulders. It was the woman who took care of their men by any means necessary. Any means.

  Crow stepping into this situation would be disrespecting me as his woman. He wouldn’t want to make that same mistake twice, and by his face, he knew this.

  Instead of pulling her hair, I grabbed her under the arm and pulled her up as she tried to hit me. She cursed and was a handful, but it was manageable.

  The door was still open f
rom Crow’s appearance. Without a second thought, I roughly pushed her through the door where she staggered. “Don’t make there be a second time, Sophia. This was easy. If there’s a next, it won’t be and I’ll be diggin’ a fuckin’ grave.”

  I slammed the door, locked it, and turned to Crow. “Hey.”

  His lip tipped. “What the fuck was that?”

  On a shrug I walked to him, about to wrap my arms around him when loud banging came at the door. “Give me my bag and keys!” she yelled.

  On a heavy sigh, I made my way to the kitchen island and grabbed her shit seeing her keys. Crow was watching me, therefore when I threw the keys at him, he caught them with ease. He knew what I meant without words and started rifling through them.

  I could hear the rustling of keys as I unlocked the door and threw it open, tossing her opened bag out the door, her shit scattering to the ground.

  “Bitch!” she growled.

  “If that’s the best ya got, you’re fuckin’ screwed.”

  Crow whistled as I turned seeing keys flying at me. Catching them in the air, I turned to Sophia holding the metal in my hand. “Stay away. Unless it’s about your son, you’ve got no business here.” On that, I heaved the keys as hard as I could into the street.

  “Oops.” The door slammed as I flipped the lock and turned to my man. “You sure you want me around here?”

  Welcome to Rebellion, Rylynn. This was day one of the rest of my life.

  3

  Crow

  That was interesting to say the least. Not exactly the way seeing Rylynn again for the first time was planned to go. All I knew now was she was here, with me.

  There was no damn reason for Sophia to be in my house. She wasn’t invited. In sixteen plus years, never had she come over to my house to clean. Not even when Greer was little.

  Years ago, I gave her the key because of Greer. She would come to drop him off, but I wouldn’t be home so she’d let herself in. That was it. Not for her to be a fucking maid.

  Not only that, she had to fucking be here when Rylynn showed up after all the shit went down. There was no doubt in my mind that Sophia answered the door for Rylynn instead of her using the key. Giving Sophia the benefit of the doubt wasn’t going to work anymore. She was playing a deadly game. There was no doubt in my mind Rylynn would carry through if Sophia made her. I didn’t want that for my kid. It would need to be ironed out sooner rather than later. I’d spent so much time keeping Sophia happy, that it was a tough pill to swallow seeing her like that.

  There were some bold lines you just didn’t cross. I’d told her explicitly we were done, and yet she pulled this shit.

  I had to give Rylynn the reins here. What happened between Sophia and I was both our faults. In this situation though, Rylynn needed to be in control because she had none the last time. I got that. Understood it.

  While seeing Sophia’s hair being pulled to the door was a shock, stepping in would’ve made Rylynn look weak. The queen never looked weak. Ever. And her king stood behind her, no matter what.

  This would piss my son off royally once Sophia got home, but I’d deal with that when the time came. He was already on my shit list, and that needed to be handled as well.

  Never once in my life did I ever think the showdown that just happened in my living room would occur. It was an unusual feeling. I wasn’t naïve in thinking Rylynn wouldn’t say anything, but to have Sophia here wasn’t what I’d thought.

  But I wanted Rylynn here with me, and I had to prove to her that I was hers. Not Sophia’s in any way.

  One of those damn tight ropes again. One misstep and it all fell to shit. This time it wouldn’t happen. I’d make damn sure of it.

  “Come here,” I said, holding out my hand. Hers came into mine, and I pulled her into me with a tug. Her body crashed into mine, her other hand coming to my chest. Leaning down, I took her mouth, hard and deep.

  Missed this fucking mouth. She kissed me back, giving as good as she was getting. Fuck, this woman could turn me inside out with a damn kiss. Her taste. Missed that too. Even in my memory banks it wasn’t as good as the real thing.

  She pulled away and looked into my eyes, the want and need stark in them. I’d thought she would come back in, but instead she said, “You’re mad I did that, aren’t you?” surprising the shit out of me.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” Her hand was clasped around the back of my neck, while my arms were holding her as close to me as possible. Her plump tits pressed against my chest had my dick hardening.

  I wouldn’t bullshit her on this, knowing it would be the end. There wasn’t going to be an end. “Didn’t like it and don’t know the whole story, Pixie. She could’ve said somethin’ to set you off. I don’t know. So I’m not wadin’ into that shit. She knows where I stand, and what she does is on her.”

  Her eyes searched mine. “Know she’s your kid’s mother, Crow, but if she doesn’t stop the shit she’s tryin’ to pull, I will make her stop.”

  “You threatened to kill her,” I stated as fact.

  She nodded her head. “Yep. That piss you off?”

  “Doesn’t make me happy because she’s my kid’s mom. I don’t want that for him. I never had a mom, and to take his away…” I trailed off then continued. “Let’s just cool it with that part of the equation for now.”

  Her brow quirked, but it wasn’t in frustration. It was more of a joke from the phrase, “Cool it?”

  “Pixie, let’s just deal with the shit that comes at us at the time. You handled yours today. Let’s let it be.” My lips brushed against hers. “Know that I only want you. Only you. I haven’t seen you in days. I don’t wanna waste time talkin’ about Sophia. I want you. Again, only you.”

  “You’d better,” she said, taking my mouth. Yes, it had been too long. Our lips danced, and I needed her like air.

  Still connected, we stripped each other of our clothes only to separate briefly to fling off shirts and underwear. Naked, I lifted Rylynn under her thighs and grabbed her ass. Her legs went around my hips as I carried her to the couch, sat and put her on top.

  Her kisses were frantic with so much desire bottled up it was ready to explode. Rylynn lifted, grabbed my cock, and poised it at her entrance. She went down hard sinking her heat around me. Fuck, that felt damn good. It was like coming home.

  She was home.

  “Fuck, I missed you,” I groaned in her mouth. Then she moved. Up and down slicking me with her arousal. My hands on her hips, I matched her thrusts, kicking up my hips on the downward thrusts. She screamed out, her pants and moans echoing through the house.

  Her lips connected with mine again as I held her tight and rode her, even though she was on top. My hips bucking had her screaming out her orgasm, her breathing labored.

  She got hers, now I got mine.

  Flipping her to her back, I fucked her hard and rough, lifting her leg to give me better access. Her moans and cries only added to my fever to be so deep inside of her, I’d never come out.

  My spine tingled as the orgasm hit me. Ramming inside her, she clutched my cock practically stilling it with her pussy, drawing out my orgasm and her own. She milked me completely dry, and I collapsed beside her on the couch.

  Good thing it was a big ass couch.

  She turned, resting her head on my chest as our breaths were labored. My heart was pounding rapidly as my arms wrapped around her. I grabbed her hand that was resting on my chest and brought it up to my lips kissing it softly.

  “So fuckin’ happy you’re here, Pixie.”

  “Me too.” She sighed contently.

  We lay there for a while, coming back to ourselves and enjoying just being in each other’s arms. Wrapped up in her, nothing existed but us in that moment.

  It took awhile, but Rylynn broke the silence. “How long were you with Sophia?”

  That put a damper on the mood. “How about we save that for another time.”

  “No. I want to know, Crow. Need you to level
with me here.” Her head had turned, her chin resting on my chest while her eyes probed mine. This was not the talk I wanted to have with my cock still hard, ready to go round two.

  “About two years. We were together my senior year of high school. She got knocked up. I wanted her to marry me and make a family for our kid.” She jolted at this, and I rubbed her reassuringly. “Wanted that for my boy. His mom and dad together under the same roof, somethin’ I never had. But it didn’t work out that way. She didn’t want the MC life. She didn’t like it when I came home with my knuckles torn up and blood oozing out of them. She didn’t like the guns in the house around Greer. She thought she could change me to go on the straight and narrow.”

  “And that didn’t work,” she added in.

  “No, that didn’t work. No woman should want to change a man. Especially a man who knew from the time he was born, he’d be a member of the Ravage MC. It’s all I ever wanted to be, and that wasn’t going to change.”

  Her fingers began to draw lazy circles on my chest, the touch faint but there. “I get that. I also get her.” My body jolted as she continued. “She loved you. You were probably her first, and those kind of relationships always feel like they are going to last forever. They engrain themselves so deep that the thought of making it a lifetime takes over. The want and need of it. Sophia’s the same. She wants to live through those years again. She doesn’t want to be alone. With me coming, it was the nail in her coffin so to speak.”

  Damn. Women’s minds, I’d never understand them. Everything got twisted up when the answer was easy. Simple.

  “She’s not the one I want, Pixie. You know that.”

  “Yes. I do. Just want you to know that she’s a problem for me. If she continues to be a problem, I will take care of the problem, Crow. I know you need to talk to her about Greer and will see her around town. It’s when she’s making moves on you, I will not stand for. She knows my place. She needs to respect that and know hers.”