Iron Heart (Lords of Carnage Ironwood MC)

by Daphne Loveling

  “Well, that’s convenient,” Savannah jokes.

  “Okay, well, if that’s all you need me to do, I’m gonna head out. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow, babe,” he says to Savannah, pulling her close and giving her a kiss.

  “Thanks, Jeremy.” I give him a hug. “And thanks for lending your fiancée to me tonight!”

  “Just don’t let her get into any trouble,” he winks at me.

  “The only trouble we’re likely to get into is at the bottom of a Ben and Jerry’s container,” Savannah quips. That gets a laugh out of both of us.

  Since Dante is out of town, Savannah is staying over for one last girls’ night together before she gets married. We pull out the old mattress from my bed, which is still in the hallway, and spend the evening camped out in the living room with a huge mound of pillows propped up around us. We pop popcorn, drink wine, and sit up watching rom-coms until we both fall asleep. It’s a perfect night with my best friend.

  The next morning, Savannah helps me set up the garage sale and stays to hang out and chat with the other women until Jeremy comes to pick her up. The day passes quickly, and the garage sale is a success. And best of all, I have good friends around me that make it hurt a little less that I’m saying goodbye to a lot of the memories from my favorite aunt’s life.

  Thank you, Aunt Jeanne, I tell her, hoping she’s somewhere out there. Thanks to you, I’m okay now.

  Bailey, Laney, Bethany and I spend the day talking and laughing as we work the sale. Paisley and Addi — Bethany and Bailey’s little girls — run around my yard and get into mischief, as all little girls do. Because I knew they would be here today, I splurged and bought a plastic wading pool for them. They have a blast together splashing each other and “swimming” in it.

  As we watch them laugh and play, Bailey pipes up. “So Tori, I notice your house has lots of room for babies. That’s kind of exciting!”

  “Oh, God, the gorgeous babies you’re gonna make with Dante,” Laney sighs. “I can only imagine.”

  “Let’s just hope they aren’t as huge as he is. Can you imagine pushing one of those bruisers out of your hoo ha?” Bethany giggles.

  “I’d make a great godmother. Just sayin’,” Bailey winks at me.

  “Wow, you guys move fast. One thing at a time,” I laugh. “Though, I will admit, I sort of love the idea of starting a family with Dante. Funny, I never really thought I wanted kids before I met him. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Those babies will be beautiful,” Laney croons. “Just think, a little girl with Tori’s blond hair and Dante’s dark eyes? Amazing.”

  “Laney, I think you might be more excited about the prospect of us having kids than I am!” I tease her.

  “Well, I think I might have babies on the brain,” she admits. “Rourke and I are going to start trying.”

  “Oh, my God, so exciting!” Bailey claps her hands. “Just think, Addi and Paisley will be old enough to babysit soon. I love this. The MC family needs more babies.”

  When the sale ends, I’ve made close to eight-hundred dollars. As the ladies and I are putting the few things that didn’t sell back in the garage, Dante pulls up on his bike.

  “Nice timing, D’Agostino,” Bailey calls to him. “You missed all the hard work.”

  “That was the plan all along,” Dante shoots back with a grin. “How’d you do?”

  “We’re rich,” I tell him, holding up the money envelope. “Seven-hundred ninety-four dollars.”

  “Holy shit, no kidding we’re rich.” Dante strides up and catches me around the waist. “Wanna take me out for a swanky dinner tonight?”

  “Can I take a rain check? I had a peanut butter and pickle sandwich a couple of hours ago. I’m still full from that.”

  Dante grimaces. “Man, those things are vile. It’s a good thing I didn’t know about your sick tastes in sandwiches before I fell in love with you. No way I would have stuck around. Now it’s too late.”

  “You find me adorable and quirky,” I scoff.

  “Sadly, yes, I do.” He pulls me to him, planting a kiss on the top of my head, inhaling the scent of my hair. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  “Okay, I think things are starting to heat up around here,” Bethany announces, giving both of us an arch look. “I’m out of here, before I see something I shouldn’t.”

  Laughing, the other ladies agree. I hug each one of them and thank them for their help. Bailey goes inside and grabs fresh towels for the girls, then helps dry them off. Fifteen minutes later, the garage door is closed, and Dante and I are alone in our house for the first time since he got back.

  “Upstairs,” he orders sternly.

  I pretend to be offended. “Is that an order?” I ask.

  “Damn right.” He reaches down and slaps my ass. “Now go.”

  The truth is, he didn’t need to ask twice. I’m already shivering with anticipation. I walk up ahead of him, slowly, swaying my hips as I go. I peel off my shirt and dangle it over the railing before letting it drop. Then do the same with my bra. By the time I’m at the top of the stairs, the only thing I have on are a pair of short shorts, the top of which I’ve unbuttoned.

  “Jesus,” Dante breathes when I turn around and give him a smirk. “Feels like I haven’t fucked you in a year.”

  I lick my lips slowly, letting my eyes drag down to the sizable bulge in his jeans. Then I saunter into the bedroom.

  Dante’s shirtless in an instant. His jeans follow next. He stands before me, cock huge and at attention. He reaches up and gives it a long, slow stroke. The sight of it makes me hold back a moan.

  “Strip those little shorts off, baby,” he says.

  I do as he says. Soon, I’m as naked as he is. I’m so wet the air is chilly between my legs. My mouth waters as I watch him pleasure himself.

  Before he can make a move, I’m kneeling down in front of him. He groans loudly as my mouth finds the hot head of his cock. I wrap my lips around the velvety skin and take as much of him in as I can, my tongue swirling, reveling in the taste of him. He’s so big my jaw hurts a little when I do this, but I love it so much I don’t care. I suck and lick, the ache between my legs growing. Since he’s been gone there’s a frenzy to our motions, and I know this time will be quick, urgent. Later, we’ll go again, and make it last. For now, we both need relief. I feel it in the way the throbbing of his cock matches the one between my legs.

  Dante reaches down and pulls me up to him. We both tumble onto the bed, our mouths finding each other, frantic, searching. “Need you,” he grunts.

  “Dante,” I moan. “I need to ride you.”

  His only response is to grab my hips, pulling me on top so I’m straddling him. The ache in my pussy eases just a little as I slide myself down on his shaft, and I sigh in relief as I start to ride him, my hips moving on their own as our bodies finding their rhythm. I angle myself forward, so the slick heat of him slides deliciously against my swollen clit. “Oh, God, that’s it,” I moan. “Dante, I’m there, I’m gonna…”

  The explosion overcomes me, cutting off my words as I cry out, my body going rigid, then beginning to shake. Dante holds me by the hips, his own continuing to rock, faster, harder. Seconds later, he follows me over the edge, pumping deep inside me as he fills me with his seed.

  God. I don’t know how anything could possibly feel better than this.

  In the afterglow, Dante strokes my hair and kisses me on the forehead as he tells me as much as he can about the club run he just got back from. I tell him about my slumber party with Savannah and the garage sale.

  “Bailey and the others were saying this house is perfect for a big family. Plenty of room for kids,” I murmur.

  “Well, we already have that plastic pool,” Dante jokes. “So I guess we’re ready to go.”

  “Good point,” I laugh.

  “You better be careful, though,” he warns me. “In my family, we tend toward boys, and they’re a handful.”

  “I think we can manage
that,” I say. “You’re an Enforcer, after all. You’re used to dealing with unruly.”

  Dante chuckles. “Maybe. I never thought of it like that.”

  “So… I have some ideas for names,” I venture.

  “What, already?” Dante leans on an elbow and considers me, brow cocked. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  I have to giggle. “No, no. Nothing like that. I was just thinking, when the time comes… Since you say your family tends to run toward boys, we could name the first one Dominic.” I pause, searching his face. “And the second one Vaughn.”

  Dante’s eyes lock onto mine. When he speaks again, his voice is hoarse.

  “That sounds like a pretty good idea,” he rasps.

  We lie there quietly, both of us fantasizing about the future. About our lives together. And the family we’ve only indirectly talked about starting until now.

  I let myself dream about a big Italian family of unruly boys…

  And maybe one girl.

  With blond hair, and dark eyes.

  She’ll be perfect. They’ll all be perfect.

  Even if one of them turns out to have my heart condition.

  We’ll be together. Getting through everything together.

  Dante, me, and our little family.

  Here’s the thing about being broken. You’d do anything to not be broken anymore. So it’s easy to let the small part of you that’s broken make the rest of you feel defective, too.

  We’re all a little broken inside. In one way or another.

  But sometimes, you get lucky enough to find the person who heals the broken part of you. It’s like when you glue together a broken bowl, and if the glue is strong enough, the part that’s been put back together is even stronger than the rest of it.

  That’s what I have with Dante.

  Together, our hearts are strong.

  But our love is stronger.

  * * *

  Thank you so much for reading IRON HEART!

  I hope that Tori and Dante’s story touched your heart. It’s a story about finding out how our vulnerabilities can actually be strengths. And love is the strongest thing of all.

  If you want more of the Ironwood MC, you can read Rourke and Laney’s story right now! IRON WILL is on Amazon, and free to read in Kindle Unlimited.

  One-click IRON WILL now!

  Gage and Bailey’s story is a sexy insta-love Christmas novella called DIRTY SANTA! It’s a perfect fun read any time of the year!

  Click here to find out more about DIRTY SANTA!

  Daphne Talks Out Her Ass About IRON HEART

  IRON HEART is my twentieth novel.

  Can you believe that? Twentieth! I have written twenty romances. I have made twenty couples fall in love — despite their best efforts to fight me all the way.

  I love every single one of these couples. They all made me laugh, and I’m pretty sure they all made me cry at least once.

  Not all books are created equal, though.

  And I mean that quite literally: the process of creating each one of these books was absolutely unique.

  Some of them were fairly “easy” to write. By that, I mean that the plot came quickly, the characters cooperated, and I didn’t struggle to “see” the story in my head the whole time. CRASH, the second book in my Stone Kings series, was like that. Amazingly, that book came to me one night in a dream. I woke up the next morning and knew that my two main characters were named Levi and Cherish. I knew what the first scene was. I knew the backgrounds of the two characters, and what their shared past was. I could hear their voices in my head.

  Some of them have been much more of a fight. Characters sometimes keep secrets. And my job as an author is to figure out what they are, and why they’re so desperate not to reveal them. That means sometimes, they try as hard as they can to hide things from me. But I don’t let them get away with it.

  The jerks.

  This book falls somewhere in between the two. Interestingly, the idea for it did come to me as I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep. I had brainstormed some titles for this Ironwood series, so I was mentally sifting through the titles, wondering which one would be best for this one.

  Then, all of a sudden, my mind seized on the word “heart.” And the seeming contradiction of the two words of this title.

  Iron: strong, cold, unyielding, eternal.

  Heart: soft, fragile, warm, ephemeral.

  Then, out of nowhere, came the face of my heroine. I didn’t know her name yet. But I knew two things about her.

  She thought she was fragile. She thought she was weak. Damaged. So much so that the dreams she had for herself were never going to be possible.

  But in reality, she was strong. Stronger than she knew.

  And life — and love, true love — would teach her this.

  If you happened to read the front matter of this book, you’ll notice that I dedicated IRON HEART to you.

  Yes, you.

  I may not know you personally. I may never have met you face to face. But I do know that we all have moments in our lives where we think we aren’t good enough. We aren’t strong enough. We don’t have what it takes to get through our fears, to where we wish we could be.

  But that’s not true. We do have that strength within us.

  It’s just buried a little deeper than we can see it right now.

  I believe that. I hope you do, too.

  And I hope that this book — this story of love and faith — helps some of you to remember that we all have both iron and heart inside us. We all have both the soft and the hard.

  And both of them are strength.

  Embrace them both.

  As I said in the dedication:

  Your heart is made of iron.

  You just might not know it yet.

  BOOKS BY DAPHNE LOVELING

  Motorcycle Club Romance

  Los Perdidos MC

  Fugitives MC

  Throttle: A Stepbrother Romance

  Rush: A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance

  Crash: A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance

  Ride: A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance

  Stand: A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance

  GHOST: Lords of Carnage MC

  HAWK: Lords of Carnage MC

  BRICK: Lords of Carnage MC

  GUNNER: Lords of Carnage MC

  THORN: Lords of Carnage MC

  BEAST: Lords of Carnage MC

  ANGEL: Lords of Carnage MC

  HALE: Lords of Carnage MC

  DIRTY SANTA (novella)

  IRON WILL: Lords of Carnage Ironwood MC

  Sports Romance

  Getting the Down

  Snap Count

  Zone Blitz

  Players: The Springville Rockets Collection

  Paranormal Romance

  Untamed Moon

  About Daphne Loveling

  Daphne Loveling is a small-town girl who moved to the big city as a young adult in search of adventure. She lives in the American Midwest with her fabulous husband and the two cats who own them.

  Someday, she hopes to retire to a sandy beach and continue writing with sand between her toes.