Cyrus (The Henchmen MC Book 9)

by Jessica Gadziala

  "That's it," Cy growled near my ear, his thrusts getting even harder, deeper. "Come for me," he demanded as his fingers turned inside me, raking over my G-spot as his cock kept filling me, as his thumb worked my clit.

  And then, I did.

  And I was pretty sure the entire world ceased to exist for a moment as an almost blinding, alarmingly intense pleasure started forcing its way through my system.

  I was still riding the waves when Cyrus planted deep, folding over me, and therefore forcing me to fold forward, as he came with my name hissing from his lips.

  I didn't know how long we stayed like that. It felt like hours, like days, yet still somehow not long enough to recover fully.

  A while later - but too soon - Cyrus planted a kiss into the side of my neck as he slowly pulled out of me, then reached down to pull my pants back into place before he moved down the hall toward the bathroom.

  I forced a long, deep breath that felt uneven still as I moved over toward my living room couch on shaky legs, easing myself down, and trying to force any kind of rational thought back into my head.

  It was useless.

  It was all a mushy mess up there.

  Cy came back a moment later, head tilted to the side, watching me as he walked up, then dropping down onto the coffee table in front of me. His hands went to my knees, giving them a small squeeze.

  "You okay?" All I could manage was a nod. "Sure?" Ah, yeah, more nodding. "A little come-drunk?" he asked with a small smile.

  I could find a word then. Just a single one, but it counted. "Yeah."

  "Can't say I hate hearing that," he told me with a very satisfied smile I certainly couldn't begrudge him. "Not too much?"

  I shook my head, reaching for the hand on my knee, and pulling him until he came onto the couch beside me. Swiveling on my butt so my legs went over his lap, I tucked my head under his chin, smiling when his beard half-covered my face, filling my nose with the smell of his beard oil. It was the most comforting smell in the world, I swear.

  There wasn't even a pause before his arms went around me, before his lips pressed down into the top of my hair.

  "I'm sorry my brothers bothered you at the compound," I remembered to tell him a little while later.

  "Don't be. They are looking out for you, Ree. I have a sister. I respect that."

  "I want to meet her," I admitted. "And your brother."

  "You will," he promised, giving me a squeeze. "And I will meet your mom and sister and aunts and grandma and in-laws and friends on Sunday." My head tilted up, brows lowered. "I'm invited to Sunday dinner," he told me, smiling, touching my chin.

  "Oh, that's going to be interesting."

  EPILOGUE

  Reese - 6 days later

  "Why are you so nervous?" Cy asked as we pulled up in front of my mother's townhouse.

  "I'm not nervous!" Yeah, I totally said that way too quickly and in way too high a pitch.

  Truth be told, I was absolutely nervous.

  I had never brought a man to Sunday dinner before. Sure, I had dated a few who I probably should have introduced my family to, but I guess I always knew it was temporary and didn't want to have my family get their hopes up about me settling down.

  Honestly, I had no plans on bringing Cyrus so soon either. Not because I didn't see us going somewhere because we totally were. I just wanted to be able to keep him to myself a while longer.

  Also, you know, not be subject to the never-ending teasing I was going to get from all my female relatives. I could practically hear it already.

  "You so are," he said, reaching for my hand, sliding his fingers between, then pulling upward so he could kiss the back of it. "But we have no choice. Gina needed me to bring the ice."

  She totally didn't need him to bring the ice. Her freezer had an ice maker. She just wanted to be able to contact him directly. And she hadn't asked me for the number. My mother, though, had her ways. I imagined it involved stopping over at Cash's townhouse to bring him some kind of baked good to butter him up, then casually asking him for Cy's number for some reason that was absolutely not what it seemed. And because Cash loved my mom - and likely wanted to see how it played out - he had given it to her.

  "Alright, well, let's bring it in before it melts," I declared, taking a deep breath as I reached for my door.

  "Bunny rabbit, relax," he said, putting his free hand at my lower back as we made our way up the driveway. "They are going to love me. I mean, have you met me? I'm fucking lovable as hell."

  He was that.

  I felt it down to my toes, up to the tips of my hair.

  Love.

  I mean, of course, I hadn't told him that.

  I wasn't that psycho.

  I would tell him in a reasonable amount of time. Or, you know, after he said it first. Yeah, that seemed about right.

  But regardless of when I would say it, I felt it. I felt it more deeply than I even knew I was capable of.

  And it wasn't sappy. As I knew it wouldn't be. As I couldn't stand in those cheesy, over the top stories I was never able to finish.

  I could live without him.

  He could live without me.

  But, good God, it was so much better not to.

  "Uh oh," I laughed as Alex appeared out the front door, looking annoyed. "What happened now?"

  "I have a new skill," she declared, throwing out an arm. "I now also make it so that bread doesn't rise. Oh, yeah. I was just told that."

  "As if your ability to make lettuce wilt wasn't enough!" I teased.

  "The guys are out back," she told Cy. "But the women want to get their claws into you first. So gird your loins and get ready to lay that charm on as thick as we all know you are capable."

  She reached to take the ice from him, and he rubbed his hands together like he was gearing up.

  "Alright, show me to the women!"

  Cyrus -

  "So," Kenzi said, coming up beside me where I was leaning against the wall, watching Reese throw her head back and laugh at something Breaker and Alex were bantering about.

  I liked seeing her like this.

  I liked it more than I ever could have anticipated.

  Because Reese wasn't often this laid-back, this un-self-conscious, this quick with a witty comeback.

  Sure, she was that way with me a lot as she got more comfortable with our relationship, but outside of the times when we were alone, there were always shields, always a wall of uncertainty about her that made her come across as standoffish or shy.

  She wasn't like that around these people, this ragtag group of various criminals and ex-criminals that made up her extended family.

  I had never heard her laugh as much as she did in just the couple hours that we were in her mother's house. Hell, she even laughed at the none-too-subtle ribbing her mother was giving her about bringing a boy over.

  "So?" I asked when she didn't go on, just kept watching me watch her baby sister.

  "I've had longer to come to grips with this little plot twist," she went on. "But I think I was probably even more skeptical about it than Paine and Enzo. All those years they were off living their little criminal lives, I was right there with her. I watched her go through all her shitty relationships. I watched unworthy guys steal her time. I watched her settle and never truly be happy with anyone. Which was why she was so deeply buried in those books of hers."

  My gaze moved away from Reese, an act that actually took effort. My eyes just always seemed to drift in her direction no matter what we were doing or where we were.

  "So when I heard she was going out with a Henchmen, well, you can imagine what I thought."

  "That we are a family-friendly, mismatched group of immensely good men?" I suggested.

  "That every last one of you has a reputation of being a slut."

  "Kenz..."

  "Until you find your girl," she cut me off. "I mean, Reign adores Summer. Wolf and Janie are relationship goals for anyone. Then there's Cash and Lo, Repo and Maze... the list
goes on and on. The problem was, I didn't know what Ree was to you. If maybe she was just one of those stepping stone girls until you found your diamond, or if she was it for you. I can see now that she's it. Every woman should be so lucky to be looked at like you're looking at my sister."

  "You mean how Tig is looking at you now?" I asked, nodding my chin to the huge, hulking man who was in a conversation with Amelia, Shooter, and Paine, but whose gaze kept slipping over toward Kenzi.

  "Oh, please. That's his 'don't say it, Kenz' look," she said with a smirk. "He didn't want me coming over here and threatening you or something."

  "Are you? Threatening me?"

  "Oh, babe, if you so much as make one goddamn tear slip out of her eye, your balls will be bronzed and sitting in my store. But, I don't think I even needed to tell you that. Any man who will take her to Bookjam must be in love with her. I once brought her to Books-a-million because she had never been there before when we were in PA. Cy, we were there for five and a half hours. She's my sister. I think she's the greatest thing since sliced bread. But that was a true testament to my love for her. So you willingly signing up for that? Psh."

  "I like that you are protective enough of her to possibly bronze my balls some day, Kenz. That's the kind of sister she deserves."

  It was that exact moment, when Kenzi shot me a smile and bumped her shoulder with mine, that Reese looked over.

  She'd never admit it to me, but having her family approve of me meant the world to her. So looking over and seeing her sister giving me that smile and some casual contact, it was what she needed to know it was going to work out in the long run.

  Cyrus - 2 weeks

  "You've got to be fucking kidding me," Duke exploded at the news, the words bursting from him before Reign even fully finished saying them.

  And, well, we all had to kind of agree.

  Even those of us who weren't around for the worst of it like Reign, Cash, Wolf, Repo, Duke, and Renny.

  To them, the name meant more than a crazy story that happened before their time. To them, it was a name that was attached to the worst event in Reign's entire spell as president of The Henchmen MC.

  Abruzzo.

  They were supposed to be an extinct species.

  Reign had taken a crew and wiped them out after they killed the majority of his men.

  "Take a breath," Reign demanded quietly, holding up a hand at Duke who was about to launch into some tirade about it not being a situation to calm down over. "Let me talk," he added. "The Abruzzos didn't just pop up out of nowhere when they started picking off our men. The Abruzzos had had one of their men go through the police academy to get a job on the NBPD. That Abruzzo was relatively harmless except for getting Wolf locked up for a crime he actually did commit," Reign said, smirking a little. "The thing was, back then, we sicced the Grassi family on them, them not wanting more Italians trying to step in where they have had a foothold for generations. They had taken care of it. I visited with them to confirm. Unfortunately, apparently, Marco Abruzzo is a hard man to kill."

  "And now he's back, running the cocaine trade," Repo concluded.

  Reign nodded. Apparently, Roan had made the man several days before, a fact that was kept from the rest of us. Had I maybe been around as much as I should have, I likely would have found it weird that one day, Reign, Cash, and Wolf had all come to the clubhouse early, gotten in a SUV, and headed out.

  Reign, unbeknownst to us, had had a meeting with the man.

  "That about covers it," Reign agreed.

  "I get that it's not my place to question you," Sugar said, making it clear he was about to. "But how the fuck could you go off to a meeting like that without backup?" There was a shared look between the prez and the vice, making us all realize he had had backup. "Roan on that too?" Sugar asked, looking over at the man.

  "Contracted out," Reign admitted, pulling back his shoulders, readying himself for the objections he knew were coming at that.

  And come they did.

  "Alright, shut the fuck up for a minute," Reign interjected a moment later, cutting through the arguments of the men. "I have two men in my club capable of what I needed that morning - a long-range sniper - and I wasn't taking Repo since, if shit went down, I needed him to step up in my place if me, Cash, and Wolf got taken out. And Virgin, well, I don't know you well enough to put the lives of all three of us on the line. So I contacted Shooter, paid his metric fuckton fee, and had him keep an eye while I had a talk with Marco. Marco, the part you all should be fucking focusing on right now, not how I chose to protect my fucking self."

  "How'd it go?" Renny asked, calm, reasonable, head cocked to the side as he leaned back in his chair.

  "He just wants the cocaine trade. For now," Reign added, giving us a look. We all knew how power went. You got some, you wanted more. That was how it almost always goes.

  "Then why the drive-bys?" Laz asked.

  "First, to take out Lyon, obviously. Second, to flex. He wanted everyone to know there was a new game in town, and to fuck off and let him do his thing."

  "Which is what you are going to do," Duke concluded, tense.

  "Listen, if I had more men, I'd put a show of power right back on, but I don't have that fucking luxury. Like it or not - and I don't fucking like it - we can't be the power we once were in this town until our ranks are rebuilt."

  "Been in a few MCs in my day," Sugar commented. "Never seen a prez as picky as you are with your men."

  "When I was eight years old," Reign started, surprising me enough to sit up straight to listen. We didn't often hear about shit that involved his fucking childhood. "I watched a man beat one of the clubwhores nearly to death when my pops was out of town. That being said, were he there, I don't figure he'd have stepped in to stop it either. I won't be having that kind of shit in my club. So if that makes me fucking 'picky,' so be it."

  Given that we all had respect for women, that story made more than a few of us shift uncomfortably in our seats. To be fair, most MCs were like that - violent toward the women. But I had always been thankful that Reign's club wasn't that way.

  "And what about V?" Repo asked into the silence following Reign's words.

  "Didn't want to bring attention to the fact that that is an issue for us," Reign said carefully. "That being said, it's a major fucking issue for us. So until we know she's dead, Roan and whomever else he can train to be able to do the job, will be keeping tabs on that situation."

  "So that's it?" Duke asked, obviously feeling the issue was far from over.

  Reign waved his hands out, obviously feeling useless on the matter as well. "That's all we can do right now. You fuckheads want to go out and start finding me some new goddamn probies, feel fucking free. Until then, this is how it has to be."

  And so it was.

  Reese - 2.5 weeks

  It was only the second time I had been to the compound. And, well, my face was actually heating as I climbed out of my car and made my way up the path. Would they all still remember how I had, ah, been less than discreet with Cyrus the last time I had been there? The morning after, I had dealt with the girls club, then been in a rush on my way to work, so I hadn't needed to face any of them. We hadn't been back since, choosing to spend nights at my place.

  But Cy and I were going out to dinner with Cash and Lo, and we were all meeting at the compound.

  So I just had to take deep breaths, and hope they all had a little bit of tact about the whole situation.

  I mean, they were bikers, so those chances were rather low.

  But one could hope, right?

  All the worry, though, disappeared the moment I walked through the doors, and found not bikers - aside from Cy and Cash - but a bunch of the girls club, and about half a dozen of the kids.

  Most of the kids were still foreign to me, though I knew names and reputations - especially in Ferryn's case. But there were two little girls that I was very familiar with.

  And those two little girls didn't belong to Henchmen. />
  They belonged to Shooter and Amelia.

  Bri and Alexis were standing in front of Cy who was kneeling on the floor, a crown of pink, purple, and yellow flowers on his head, and various other ones just shoved into his beard, pressing fairy wands onto his shoulders to, it seemed, knight him.

  Hearing the door slam, the girls looked up, seeing me, and breaking out into almost identical grins. "Aunt Ree!" Bree greeted me with a wave that made her whole body sway.

  "Hey guys. What are you doing here?"

  "Shoot is out of town. Amelia had a group," Maze supplied. "They are the closest to Seth's age," she said, gesturing toward her son. "Even if he always has to play princess games."

  He sure did, too.

  He had a flower crown on his head, and was apparently in charge of watching the royal babies.

  I looked back to find Cy watching me with dancing eyes. "Don't be jealous that I'm so beautiful," he said, shrugging. "I'm Sir Cyrus of Henchmenland, lowly maidservant to Queen Bri and Queen Alexis."

  "Wait," I said, shaking my head. "You're a knight... and a maidservant?"

  Cy's lips twitched up at that. "What can I say? Apparently, Henchmenland is a very thriving matriarchy where only women get to be in power and all the boys have to do their bidding. Or so I am told, right Queen Bri?"

  "Girls can be in charge!" Bri asserted with a firm nod.

  "Darn right they can," Maze agreed. "Who wants a juice pouch?" she asked, getting all of their attention.

  Cy stood up, moving over to me, not bothering to reach up to remove his crown, perfectly comfortable putting his masculinity aside for the enjoyment of the kids, a fact that I could never have known I would find as sexy as I did right then.

  I reached up, pulling a flower out of his beard.

  "You like kids, huh?"

  His head ducked to the side, small smile on his lips. "You gonna give me some?"