Bull (The Kings of Mayhem MC Book 6)

by Penny Dee

  I couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m pleased I didn’t disappoint.”

  He started to move into me again, slowly.

  “I don’t usually take a plus one,” he said.

  “So why now?” I asked.

  “Because I want to know I’m taking home the hottest woman there.”

  I raised an eyebrow up at him. “I think Maverick gets to do that.”

  He flinched inside me again, and I gripped him tighter with my inner muscles in return, making him groan.

  “Be my date.” He traced his tongue up my throat to the sweet spot beneath my ear. “Don’t you want to come with me?”

  I felt him grow harder.

  “I’ll never pass up an opportunity to come with you. But a date?”

  He grinned back. He was fully erect now, and the shallow motion of his hips grew deeper.

  “Then don’t think of it as a date. Think of it as the prequel to amazing sex. Foreplay, if you will.”

  Despite my reservations, I smiled. “People will talk.”

  “I hope so.”

  “That doesn’t bother you?”

  His hips rolled into mine. “Do I look like a man who’s bothered?”

  “No. But you’re the boss and—”

  He brushed his lips against mine. “What will it take for you to say yes?”

  He found my clit and started to grind against it, making me gasp, causing my toes to curl into the mattress as warm pleasure began to move through me.

  “If I keep doing that, will you come with me?”

  I moaned and my answer came out in a puff of breath. “Yes…”

  More grinding.

  More friction against my clit.

  “I’m sorry… I can’t hear you…”

  Oh God, if he kept doing that I was going to come again.

  “Or would you prefer I stopped?”

  He paused, and the sudden loss of friction was devastating to my building orgasm. I shifted restlessly, searching for him, my clit needing the contact, my body craving the pressure rubbing up against it.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll go with you,” I cried desperately.

  Heat darkened in his eyes. “That’s more like it.”

  He thrust into me then, and I saw stars. Actual fucking stars behind my eyes.

  I gripped the sheet beneath me. “Oh God…”

  I started to move beneath him, in sync with the leisurely strokes of his cock, knowing he was taking his time, knowing he was stoking the fire. He was so self-assured and confident. He knew it would only be a matter of minutes before I was a writhing mess beneath him, coming and calling his name as I scratched my nails down the length of his back tattoo.

  And he was right.

  Barely moving his upper body, and without his eyes leaving my face, he let his pelvis and cock do all the work until I came undone beneath him with a heady, drawn-out climax. Blinded by ecstasy, my nails bit into his skin and drew blood down his back, making him come with a primal roar and a fierce tremor.

  He collapsed against me, his face buried in my shoulder so I could feel the violent pounding of his heart against my chest. Our skin was slick and sticky, our minds drunk with pleasure. I felt him pull out of me. Felt the immediate loss of heat as he rolled onto his back.

  Pulling me into his chest, he wrapped his arms around me and I relaxed against him, too spent and lost in the afterglow to think of anything but him.

  Being his plus one was a bad idea.

  But he was my addiction.

  And I wasn’t ready to get clean.

  BULL

  “You know there’s still time to run,” Joker said, giving Maverick a pat on the shoulder.

  “Ha ha, motherfucker. You’re so fucking funny,” Maverick growled, giving Joker a dark look. He tried to look tough but failed. Looking a little green, he was moments away from bringing up the three shots of whiskey he’d just downed.

  “Just letting you know your options, buddy.”

  “I didn’t propose to Autumn seven fucking times to suddenly decide five minutes before the wedding that I don’t want to marry her.” He straightened the cufflink on his jacket sleeve. “Plus, the woman owns a shotgun and knows how to use it. She’d shoot my balls off and use them as earrings.”

  Joker shook his head with a grin. “You’re so pussy-whipped.”

  “Don’t think she wouldn’t shoot off yours for encouraging me to ditch her at the altar.”

  I watched the exchange between the groom and best man from the couch where I sat with Cade and Caleb.

  We were on the River Queen, a nineteenth-century paddle wheeler that cruised up and down the Mississippi hosting weddings and other celebrations. She was a tame old girl now, but once upon a time she was the queen of the river. Her colorful past was steeped in debauchery and intrigue, including a stint as a floating brothel during the turn of the last century, and an illegal floating casino during the prohibition. Local lore also talked about bootleggers and a stash of treasure buried somewhere along the intricate trails of secret tributaries and estuaries of the Mississippi that only an experienced steam pilot would know about.

  “Is that why Autumn picked a boat to get married on? So you’d have to swim ashore to get away?” Joker asked.

  Caleb and Matlock started to laugh.

  “Don’t fucking encourage him,” Maverick said, still fussing with his cufflink.

  Taylor appeared in the doorway, and my heart went to my throat. She looked stunning.

  “Indy asked me to tell you that they’re starting in ten minutes.” For a moment our gazes locked before her beautiful brown eyes moved over to Maverick. “Wow, don’t you scrub up well.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m twenty seconds away from tearing off this damn shirt and putting on a t-shirt. Whoever invented cufflinks was a sadist.”

  Taylor stepped into the room. “Here, let me help you.”

  I watched as she helped Maverick with his cufflinks, my stomach tight with an unfamiliar longing.

  “There,” she said, once she’d secured them onto each cuff. “You look perfect.”

  “Perfectly terrified,” Joker said.

  “Maverick, I love you, buddy, but I think you’re just not made for a shirt and tie,” Matlock added.

  “Don’t listen to them, Mav.” Taylor gave him an encouraging wink. “You look very handsome!”

  Maverick’s face softened as he looked at her. “Thanks, T.”

  She stepped back and gave him a reassuring smile. “Good luck.”

  I walked over to her.

  “You look beautiful,” I said, taking her hand and feeling a strange comfort in the feel of her cool fingers tangled with mine.

  Fuck.

  I felt like a love-sick teen on prom night. Giddy and full of goddamn butterflies.

  And it was crazy. I didn’t know what had come over me.

  All I knew was that she looked fucking beautiful, and I wanted to lose the night kissing her.

  She looked up at me and stars twinkled in her eyes. “You look pretty good yourself.”

  I leaned down to kiss her. “Ready for your first Kings of Mayhem wedding?”

  She grinned. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Ruger joined us, dressed in a suit and tie, his baby son secured in his big arms. Jenna, one of the old ladies, appeared beside him.

  “Would you like me to take Will during the ceremony?” she asked.

  He shook his head and gave her a wink. “He’s right where he needs to be, darlin’.”

  After nearly losing his wife and son, Ruger wasn’t letting them out of his sight.

  We followed him out of the room, and I slid my arm around Taylor’s waist. The top deck of the River Queen was set up with rows of chairs and a red carpet leading up to an altar. Behind it, the Mississippi glittered in late afternoon light, the sky turning gold and pink as the sun dipped lower.

  We took our seat in the second row of chairs, while Maverick, Joker, Matlock, and Caleb walked down the aisle to
the small lattice archway that had been erected near the bow of the boat. The heavy perfume of the magnolias and marigolds woven into the latticework filled the warm air, while silk bows draped from the ceiling rippled in the gentle river breeze.

  Behind us, a three-piece string band started to play and we swung around. The first bridesmaid to appear was Indy, followed by Chastity, Cassidy, and Honey, all of them in soft pink dresses and clutching white flowers. Then, Autumn appeared on her father’s arm, her wild red curls piled on top of her head, her dress a tight sheath of shimmering white silk. As she stepped onto the red carpet, she took one look at the man waiting for her at the altar and she started to cry. I glanced over at Maverick and the six-foot-six tower of muscle with the wild hair and hands so big they could crush you, started to cry right back.

  I reached for Taylor’s hand, my throat tight with emotion, my pulse rapid, and she sank against me, resting her cheek on my shoulder as she watched Maverick observe his bride walking toward him with tears streaming down his face.

  I didn’t see much of the ceremony after that because I was lost in the quiet storm taking place inside me. Walls were crumbling. Old emotions were fading to black.

  And I was entering a frightening, unfamiliar territory.

  After the ceremony, I sat with Ruger on the deck.

  Across the room, Taylor sat with the bridesmaids, and Maverick and Autumn.

  “She’s beautiful,” Ruger said.

  “Yeah, Maverick has done good,” I replied.

  He gave me a knowing look. “I’m not talking about Autumn.”

  I drank a mouthful of bourbon but said nothing.

  “Don’t do that,” he said.

  “Do what?”

  “Pretend it’s not happening.”

  I took another sip of my bourbon. Crunching ice between my teeth. “I don’t know what you’re rambling on about.”

  “You look at her like you’re burning her image into your brain.”

  “Jesus Christ, listen to you,” I said, shaking my head.

  I hadn’t told anyone about my feelings for Taylor.

  Unperturbed, Ruger raised an eyebrow at me. “I haven’t seen you look at a woman like that in a long time.”

  I looked down and focused on the amber liquid in my glass. I knew what he was talking about, and it made me curious what he would think if I told him he was right. “What do think about that?”

  “I think it’s about fucking time.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “You have to let her go, man. Hell, you should’ve done that years ago. You know she wouldn’t want you to be alone.”

  His words made me think of the random hallway singer singing “Blue Bayou” and grabbing my hands. And a tremendous shiver quaked through my body.

  “You know, a crazy thing happened to me when I visited Sybil in the hospital the other day?” I told him about the random hallway singer. “Pretty crazy shit, huh.”

  “No, it doesn’t sound as crazy as you think.”

  “No?”

  He shifted forward in his seat. “I don’t know if now is the right time to tell you this.”

  “Tell me what?” I could see him wrestle with whatever it was he wasn’t telling me. “Ruger…”

  “When I got shot and I died for those few minutes, I saw Wendy.”

  “You saw her?”

  “And spoke to her.” He cleared his throat. “Now I don’t know if it was the drugs they had me on, or if it was the chemical changes occurring in a dying brain, who knows, I’ve given up trying to make sense of it. But what I do know is that I saw Wendy in what was supposed to be my final moments.”

  I felt my jaw tighten. “And what did she say?”

  “She told me to pass on a message to you.”

  I became very still. “What was it?”

  “She said you need to move on.”

  His words spiraled through me with the force of a tornado.

  “You never told me.” My voice was edgy. “Why?”

  “You would never have believed me.”

  He was right. I wouldn’t have. Hell, I hardly believed what I’d seen and heard myself.

  I wasn’t a guy who believed in visions and ghosts. And monsters weren’t devils hiding under the bed waiting to consume you in your sleep. They were flesh and blood. Men who did bad things. Very bad things. I believed in the tangible. The tactile. Not the supernatural.

  Yet, here I was, face to face with it.

  I couldn’t make any sense of it. It went beyond what I believed in. But I was still a fucking human being who could be left standing in front of something he couldn’t explain.

  I exhaled deeply as I asked, “Can I be real honest with you?”

  “Always.”

  I must be crazy. Or the alcohol was fucking with me. But I needed to admit how I felt to someone.

  Fuck, my feelings for Taylor had me wanting to open up like a teenage girl.

  “I’ve spent every day for the last eighteen years missing Wendy. Every morning. Every night. Craving her. Wanting her. Feeling guilty for her death. Dying inside because I couldn’t fucking touch her. I would wake up and she would be the first thing I thought of, and for a few seconds she wasn’t dead and I had that small moment of respite from the pain. But then I would remember, and all the darkness and guilt, and all the bullshit, would seep back into me again.”

  Ruger’s brows pulled in.

  “Fuck, Bull. You’ve been living this way for almost twenty years?” When I nodded, he shook his head as if it was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. “That’s not right, man.”

  “I know, I know. But then I meet this girl.” My eyes honed in on Taylor across the deck, and my heart filled with an unimaginable warmth. “And I don’t wake up like that anymore. I don’t wake up thinking about the past. About the guilt. I wake up and I’m at peace. Hell, I wake up and I feel fucking happy.”

  Ruger chuckled. “Then things aren’t as casual with Taylor as you thought.”

  I shook my head and drained my glass. “I don’t know what the fuck any of this shit means.”

  “I do,” he said, his voice low. “It means you finally went and did what Wendy has been asking you to do. You’ve finally found someone else and moved on.”

  TAYLOR

  While Bull was talking to Ruger, I sat with Indy, Chastity, and Honey at one of the tables near the balcony. On the dance floor, Cassidy was lost in her husband, Chance, as they danced slowly to a romantic song. Next to them, Bull’s sister Ronnie was slow dancing with her new husband, Ari, and Cool Hand was wrapped around his heavily pregnant wife, Heidi.

  “What did you think of your first Kings of Mayhem wedding?” Honey asked me.

  “It was really magical.”

  And it was.

  Watching Autumn and Maverick exchange wedding vows had been beautiful. The way they looked at each other, the gentle touches, the soft smiles.

  “I really liked it when he gave her the crown pendant.” I glanced at all of them. “I notice you all have them too.”

  “It’s a tradition,” Chastity explained, her finger toying with the pendant around her neck. “When you marry a king, he gives you his crown.”

  “It started way back when Hutch Calley gave one to Grandma Sybil,” Indy added.

  “I like that,” I said, sitting back with a smile.

  I glanced over at Bull and felt my heart tug with desire. He looked so handsome. So utterly beautiful in his tailored black shirt and black slacks. In his cut, he looked powerful and delectable. But dressed more formally, he was absolutely mouth-watering. It was moments like this that made me want so much more with him. That made me wish things were different, that I wasn’t hiding a terrible past from him. A past he would find unforgivable.

  When Chastity left to feed Will in one of the bedrooms below deck, and Honey snuck off to apparently have sex with Caleb somewhere on the boat, I was left alone with Indy.

  “It’s a wonder they don’t have a thousand babies,”
Indy laughed as she watched Caleb lift Honey up into his arms and carry her out of view. “I’ve never seen two people who are more addicted to sex than those two.”

  She was right. When you were with Caleb and Honey, you could feel their chemistry. It was off the charts.

  “You okay? You’ve gone a little quiet.”

  “I have?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

  “Yeah. Is there something on your mind?”

  She must’ve gotten me at a low point, because all of a sudden, I wanted to confide in her. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Try me.”

  Indy had a presence about her. She was stoic. Stubborn. For the first time in a long time, she made me feel like opening up.

  “Have you ever regretted something? Like really regretted something to a point that it eats you up inside?”

  “Yes.”

  Yes?

  Indy didn’t seem the type to regret anything.

  “You have?”

  “When I was eighteen, I caught Cade in bed with another woman. And when he told me that he didn’t know it wasn’t me…I didn’t believe him. I was so full of anger and grief, and a desperate need to escape from the club and lifestyle, I didn’t stop to really listen to him. Didn’t stop to really think about what that meant. I learned later, much later, that he was set up by his father…but at the time I was too selfish and immature to realize that, and so full of doubt about everything, so I ran away from him…” She dragged in a deep breath and I could see it in her eyes; her regret ran deep. It was almost comforting to know that someone so confident and stoic as Indy might share the same depths of remorse as I did. It gave me hope. “I turned my back on him when he needed me. And boy, that’s a lot of regret to work through right there. If the roles were reversed, he would’ve done the complete opposite. He would’ve believed me. He would’ve found out who was responsible and made them pay. But me…I ran like a coward.”

  “You were young—”

  “—and very stupid.” She exhaled deeply. “Now that I know what happened, and what I turned my back on…well, let’s just say we’ve done our fair share of therapy.”

  I knew what it was like to make a mistake when you were young. And then have to pay for it as an adult. I was living with that every damn day.