Bayou Devils MC: The Complete Series

by A. M. Myers

  “I asked them not to,” I whisper, shaking my head as my stomach rolls. I don’t want to hurt him but if I’m going to tell him this, I have to tell him all of it. “I was so ashamed of what had happened while you were gone and I didn’t want you to know how weak I had been. Plus, Dr. Brewer thought I used you as a crutch instead of dealing with my issues and that I needed to learn how to cope on my own.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  “No, Wyatt. It isn’t… I’ve learned a lot in the years we’ve been apart and Dr. Brewer was right. I leaned on you to right my world after my parents were killed so when you were gone, I didn’t know how to stand up on my own two feet.”

  I can see him working through everything I’ve told him before he sighs and nods, turning back to me. “And now?”

  “Now, I have better ways to cope with the trauma I went through and when I struggle, I call Dr. Brewer or I go to my support group.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me all that? Why did you feel like you couldn’t trust me?” he asks, pain etches across his face as he closes the distance between us and sits down on the bed. I drop my gaze to the blanket as a tingling sensation rushes up the back of my neck and my cheeks heat. I shake my head as my chest tightens.

  “I’m not proud of what happened back then, Wyatt. I was so incredibly weak and I didn’t want you to…”

  He cups my cheek and slams his lips to mine, silencing my fears with a kiss hot enough to burn the room down around us. It consumes us, wrapping us up in its flames and transporting us to my favorite place in the world - the one where only Wyatt and I exist. His kiss still holds the intimate details of our love and with his lips pressed against mine, it’s like the past ten years didn’t happen. It’s like we were never apart. Whimpering, I climb in his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. He kisses me hard, commanding my body with an expert touch and when he pulls away, we’re both gasping for breath.

  “Whatever you were going to say, I don’t want to hear it, Pip. You are not weak and what happened wasn’t your fault. I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me but this right here…” He pulls me closer, molding my body to his. “This is where you belong.”

  “I don’t want to hear you apologize either, then. You didn’t do anything wrong and as painful as it was… I think I needed to be away from you or I never would have learned how to handle my issues on my own.”

  He blows out a breath. “I should have come looking for you when I got back… I just let my damn pride get in the way and it cost us everything.”

  “It’s not…”

  He silences me with another kiss and I melt into him, my entire body rejoicing as his hand slips under my t-shirt and presses against my back. My skin tingles with need and I slip my fingers into his hair and grip a chunk of it just like I’ve been dying to do since he got here. Growling, he trails kisses down my neck and I drop my head back, releasing a moan. I can’t believe I ever thought this feeling, this connection between us was gone and dead.

  “Fuck,” he rumbles, his hands all over my body and he pulls me into him, clinging to me like he can’t get me close enough. “I missed you so much, baby.”

  I nod as a few tears slip down my cheeks. “I missed you, too, Wyatt. So, so much.”

  “I’m never letting you go again. We’ll do whatever we have to do to fix this but I refuse to live another second without my wife,” he vows and a few more tears slip from my eyes as I nod. I don’t want to lose him either. I’m scared as hell to try again and I know we’ve both changed over the past ten years but I’m ready to give this relationship a real shot. I just hope it doesn’t break me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Wyatt

  An alarm pierces the silence followed by a groan and a slapping sound that I can only assume is Piper smashing the offending object into a thousand pieces as the noise cuts off and I reluctantly peel open my eyes. A mass of red hair fills my vision and I smile as my gaze trails down the curve of her naked body as it calls to me, tempting me from the other side of the bed. Images of the hours we spent wrapped up in each other last night, making up for lost time, fill my mind and I bite back another groan. Scooting across the mattress, I pull her closer and press the front of my body against her back. She wiggles, rubbing her ass against my cock before she finds a comfortable spot and lets out a contented sigh. It’s the most glorious fucking sound in the world and I want to hear it again.

  Immediately.

  As I’m sinking into her…

  Shaking my head, I blow out a breath and push the thoughts from my mind. As much as I would like that, I also can’t bring myself to wake her up just yet. She looks so damn peaceful like this, something I don’t think I’m used to yet. In a lot of ways, my woman is the same that she has always been - fun, sexy, sweet, and a whole lot of sassy - but in the past, there were always ghosts in her eyes and a struggle on her face like surviving each day was a challenge. When she looks at me now, I see this newfound strength shining in her eyes and not only do I find it sexy as hell but it also makes me so damn proud of her. She lived through hell but she came out stronger on the other side.

  She’s a goddamn phoenix.

  It still kills me to think about how hard it must have been for her when I deployed, though and I shake my head as guilt crashes down on me. I close my eyes as I press my lips to her shoulder, breathing in her scent. War is brutal - a kind of ugly that I can’t even begin to describe but Piper was at home, fighting a war of her own and I hate that it never even occurred to me. I knew about her issues but I was a stupid kid and too wrapped up in my own fears for our time apart to realize what she would be dealing with. I can picture her in that little house on base, seeing the man who killed her parents and seeing me dead, scared out of her ever-lovin’ mind and all alone. My chest aches and I shake my head again like I can somehow deny the pain. From the moment we met, I was her protector. When she was with me, she never had to be scared of anything because I always had her back and I hate myself for just walking away from her.

  The morning after we got married, I woke up before she did and I laid in bed with her in my arms as the realization crashed down on me that I had to find a way to take care of her. Not only that but I knew Piper deserved the moon and stars so I had to find a way to give it to her. I didn’t have the money for college so when I saw an ad for the military, it seemed perfect. It guaranteed me a regular paycheck, health insurance, and a house for the two of us. I thought it was perfect but if I had known what it would do to her and everything it would cost me, I never would have enlisted. Piper was and always will be the most important thing in my life.

  Opening my eyes, I prop myself up on one arm and stare down at her face, thinking over everything she told me last night and the pain in my chest grows. Over the past week, I’ve gone through a hundred scenarios of what happened back then to make her leave but I never considered that I was the one at fault. The last time I walked away from her, most would consider what I did noble and brave but it was just a means to an end. It was about Piper and giving her the whole world which is what she deserves but now, I can’t help but think that maybe I don’t deserve her. How could I when I just abandoned her without considering that it might be too hard for her to handle?

  I imagine her living in her car - dirty, hungry, scared, and I grit my teeth as I fall back to the bed and roll to my back. Fisting my hair, I close my eyes and drag a breath into my lungs. Why the fuck did I leave her? It was such a dumb shit move and it doesn’t matter what my motives were because I almost lost her forever. Hell, I don’t even know that we’re really back together but like I told her last night, I’ll do whatever it takes. There was always one thing I was sure about in my life and that was Piper so I can’t let her walk away from me again.

  Releasing my hair, I ball both of my fists and pound them into the mattress at my sides, wishing I could put one of them through a wall. Maybe then I would feel better. A knot forms in my throat and I try to swallow it dow
n but it refuses to budge as my mind wanders to what happened the night Piper’s parents died. Years ago, she told me the basics - a man broke into her house, looking to rob them and instead he killed her parents but she has never revealed any of the details to me. It didn’t matter how many times she woke up screaming in the middle of the night or how often I caught her stroking the scar down the side of her neck, she still wouldn’t tell me. Thinking over everything she shared last night, I can’t help but wonder if that led to her breakdown when I left. She mentioned that she never learned how to deal with the trauma of that night and as I roll my head to look at her, I wonder if she’s able to talk about it now. Hell, I wonder if I would be able to handle the details of that night. Seeing the scar on her neck is enough to send me into a rage if I think about that man hurting her.

  Scrubbing my hand down my face, I blow out a breath. There is still so much we have to talk about and I still have a few questions about what happened when she left me but all of that can wait. Right now, my only mission is to convince Piper to go all in with me again. Last night, when I told her I wasn’t ever going to let her go again, behind the happiness shining in her eyes was a little bit of fear, a slice of hesitation, and it killed me. I will do whatever it takes to erase those feelings. It doesn’t matter if I deserve her or not because if the last ten years has taught me anything, it’s that losing her is not a fucking option. With renewed determination, I roll to my side and slip my arm around her waist, pulling her back into my body and she sighs again, a soft smile stretching across her face. I press my lips to her shoulder before moving up her neck and drawing a moan out of her as I kiss behind her ear.

  “Wake up, darlin’,” I whisper and she groans, shaking her head as she reaches down and pulls the covers further up our bodies. Chuckling, I shake my head and pull the blanket back down before kissing her neck down to her shoulder. Playfully, I nip at her skin and she gasps, spinning to her back as she glares up at me.

  It’s fucking adorable.

  “It’s too early.”

  I kiss her cheek. “Too bad. Your alarm went off five minutes ago.”

  “Just five more minutes,” she groans, rolling back to her side and wiggling her ass against me. I grit my teeth as I grip her hip and lower my mouth to her ear.

  “You keep doing that and your ‘just five minutes’ are going to be spent with my cock inside you, baby.”

  She fights back a grin and shakes her ass again but before I can do anything about it, her phone starts ringing and she lets out a long exaggerated groan as she reaches up and grabs it off the bedside table. As soon as she accepts the call, she puts it on speakerphone and tosses it onto the mattress next to her.

  “What?”

  “Good morning, Pip-Squeak! It’s time to wake up,” a female voice calls through the phone and I grin as I glance down at Piper.

  Pip-Squeak.

  Why didn’t I think of that one?

  She peeks open one eye and glares at the phone. “I’m awake.”

  “Liar.”

  I bite my lip to hold back my laughter as Piper rolls to her back and opens her eyes. “I’m awake, Edie. I promise.”

  Ah…

  So this is the infamous Eden.

  “Uh-huh, that’s what you always say and somehow, you’re usually ten minutes late.”

  “I’m awake,” Piper repeats, rolling her eyes and she pins me with a glare as I start laughing.

  “Either get out of bed right now or I’ll be forced to come over there and drag you to work myself.”

  Piper shakes her head. “You live on the other side of town and do you hear this thing I’m doing right now? It’s called talking and it means I’m fucking awake.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” I add, laughing, and Piper’s gaze flies to me as her lips part as silence hangs heavy on the other side of the phone. Her eyes are wide as she gives me a “what the hell did you just do” look and I shrug. Isn’t this exactly what Eden wanted when she set us up on our little reunion tour?

  “Who is that, Pip? Please tell me that’s not James… Please tell me you didn’t do something massively stupid and fuck up the whole Wyatt…”

  Piper scrambles for the phone and takes it off speakerphone before Eden can say anything else and presses it to her ear.

  “I will talk to you about this later,” she growls through gritted teeth but my focus is on that name Eden dropped as my mind spins. I clench my teeth as my chest burns and lights flash in my vision.

  Who the fuck is James and what does he have to do with my wife?

  Piper hangs up and sets the phone back on the bedside table before peeking over at me. I arch a brow, pinning her with a look.

  “Who the hell is James?”

  She sighs. “My ex…”

  The burning in my chest intensifies and a knot forms in my stomach. It’s not fair of me to act like this to news that she has an ex when I haven’t been a saint over the last ten years either but the thought of another man with his hands on her body makes me want to kill someone.

  “How recent?”

  “We broke up a couple of weeks ago.”

  Nodding, I fling the covers off of my legs and climb out of bed.

  “Wyatt? Please don’t be mad… You know how complicated this situation is and I didn’t think we would ever be…” She motions between the two of us. “Here.”

  “I know,” I snap as I run my hand through my hair and start pacing at the end of the bed. It’s not fair but no matter how many times I say that to myself, it doesn’t ease the ache.

  “It was never anything… I was just trying to fill the void… Trying not to feel so broken without you…”

  My gaze snaps to hers. “You broke up with him or he broke up with you?”

  “Does it matter?” she asks with a scowl and I narrow my eyes as I nod.

  “Yeah, it fuckin’ matters. Did you break up with him?”

  She nods.

  “And why would Eden think you were with him?”

  “We ran into each other when I was out with the girls last night. He said he wanted to grab lunch sometime and talk but I blocked him on my phone after he left. I’ll show you.”

  I stare at her for a second before releasing a breath and squeezing my eyes shut. I have to remind myself repeatedly that she never really cheated on me, there was never another man and I have no reason to not trust her before the tension slowly seeps out of my shoulders. Nodding my head, I open my eyes and hold my hand out for her, needing her touch to feel right again. She climbs up onto her knees and walks across the bed until she reaches me and wraps her arms around my neck. Peace settles over me and I release a breath.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, my voice soft as I brush my thumb over her cheek and she nods.

  “I don’t like thinking of you with other people either, Wyatt, but if we’re really going to make this work, we have to find a way to deal with it.”

  I nod and slip my hand into her hair as I lean down, pressing my lips to her. She makes that perfect little sigh again and I want to beat my chest. I bet that James fucker never got her to make that sound. I bet he never knew that kissing her behind her ear will make goose bumps pop up all over her body and I know he never owned her heart.

  It’s mine, all mine.

  Just like she has always been.

  Pulling away, I smile and press another quick kiss to her forehead. “Come on. Let’s get dressed and go get some breakfast. I saw a little cafe a couple blocks over on my way here last night.”

  “How about we stay in? I have bacon and eggs downstairs. I’ll cook for you.”

  “I don’t think so, Pip. Today is all about you,” I tell her, picturing her perfect naked body in my lap as she eats and my dick hardens. She arches a brow and glances down before shaking her head and meeting my gaze again.

  “Didn’t you get enough last night?”

  I tweak her nipple and she gasps. “Did you?”

  “No,” she breathes and I grin as I lean in for
another kiss and grab her ass. A moan slips past her lips just before I claim them and she melts into me. My tongue tangles with hers, teasing and urging each other on as she leans into me further, trying to get as close as she can. Her phone pings from the bedside table and she pulls away, glancing back at it.

  “That’ll be Eden.”

  I arch a brow. “Checking to make sure you didn’t go back to sleep?”

  “Something like that,” she answers, rolling her eyes and I laugh as I nudge her chin and guide her gaze back to me. I plant a quick kiss before pulling away.

  “Come on. I’m getting hungry.”

  She flashes me a grin as desire pools in her eyes and she grabs my old Marines t-shirt off the bed before pulling it over her head and hopping off of the bed. I turn, watching her as she walks out of the room. My t-shirt stops halfway down her ass and it sways back and forth with each step, teasing me.

  Shit.

  I should have made her stay in bed.

  “You keep swinging that ass at me, baby, and you are going to be breakfast,” I call and she laughs as she shakes her hips and continues on down the stairs.

  “God,” she fires back but I can hear the smile in her voice and in my head, I can see her rolling her eyes at me. “I forgot what an ass man you are.”

  “I’ll show you ass man,” I grumble as I scoop my jeans off the floor and pull them on as I chase after her. She squeals and takes off running. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I grab her and toss her over my shoulder with her ass in the air as I smack it. She gasps and pounds her little fists against my back. I spot the counter where I bent her over and took her a couple of nights ago and grin. “You teasing me cause you’re looking for a repeat performance?”

  “I suppose that depends.”

  “On what?” I ask, setting her down in the kitchen. Heat pools in her eyes and I lick my lips, picturing lifting her up and setting her on the counter before spreading her legs and dropping down between them to devour her.

  “You going to walk out without a word again?”