by Levine, Nina
“Fuck off,” Kick said, and I practically felt the possessive vibes circle me.
Shit, my man’s caveman side had kicked in.
And I kind of liked it.
King laughed, and Jesus, if that man was hot before, he was fucking sexy when he laughed and his eyes lit up.
Another guy entered the room and zeroed in on us. Shit, another good-looking dude. This one had short dark hair and a beard. His arms were covered in tattoos and his brown eyes held a sadness to them. He smiled at me, but it was like his mouth was pretending because the smile sure as hell didn’t hit his eyes.
Kick introduced him, “Nitro, this is Evie.”
“Hi darlin’,” he said, his voice deep and husky.
Good Lord, he would make some woman very happy one day. Kick had sent him over to look out for me once but he’d stayed outside so I hadn’t gotten to lay eyes on him, and what a damn shame that was.
“Hi,” I said, watching as his gaze on me changed from looking at me to pretty much looking through me. His eyes turned vacant, and I wondered where he went. My arms wanted to circle him in a hug and make it all better for him, whatever it was.
He excused himself to go and get a drink, but almost as soon as he’d left us, another two guys wandered in and came straight to us.
Huh . . . turned out Kick’s friends were mostly all hot. Out of these two, I found one of them extremely attractive with his almost bald head, tattooed muscles and piercing blue eyes. It turned out his name was Devil, and I instantly liked him the minute Kick introduced us. The other guy scared the hell out of me. Sure, he was good looking, but I couldn’t get past the hard, cold eyes that tracked my every movement, or the indifference I heard in his voice. It was like there was no feeling there, and as far as I was concerned, people who felt nothing were the scariest of them all.
“Hyde,” he introduced himself.
“Evie,” I replied, giving him a small smile. Even if he scared the shit out of me, I could still be polite to him. He surprised me with a smile back.
“Do you want a drink?” Kick asked.
I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to chance it interfering with my painkillers.”
“Shit, I forgot about that. Good call, babe,” he said.
“You want a beer, Kick?” Devil asked.
“Yeah, thanks, brother,” Kick replied, and Devil left to take care of it for him.
Hyde walked away, too, which left only me, King and Kick. King lowered his voice a little when he spoke. “The info you gave me on that drunk driver last week? I took care of him for you.”
Kick stared at him and then nodded. I had no clue what they were referring to, but kept silent. If Kick wanted to fill me in, he would. And it turned out he did. He looked at me with a new sadness in his gaze that hadn’t been there before. “The guy that killed Jeremy,” he said softly, and I felt the pain in his words.
“Oh,” I said, not sure what else to say, guessing that when King said he took care of him, he meant he took care of him.
King’s face clouded over with anger. His gaze shifted between Kick and me when he said, “Assholes like that don’t deserve to fucking live, sweetheart.”
I sucked in a breath. He was right. “No, I don’t suppose they do,’ I murmured, holding his gaze.
He stared at me for a couple more moments, the angry mask still in place, and then he broke out in a grin and turned to Kick. “I like her,” he declared, and then he left us to go and talk to the woman behind the bar.
I soaked in the atmosphere, looking around the bar at everyone having a good time. Without knowing these people, I could still sense the family vibe. Kick had spoken to me about his reasons for joining Storm, and the main reason was the family he found within the club. And I could grasp that now.
Devil came back to us, handing Kick his drink. Eyeing me, he said, “I hear you’ve agreed to marry this fucker.”
I laughed and nodded. “Yes, not that he actually proposed to me.”
“Bullshit,” Kick said, “I proposed.”
My eyes widened, and I placed a hand on my hip. “Oh, really? Was I asleep or knocked out from painkillers when you did it? Because I don’t remember it,” I challenged him.
Chuckling, he leant close to me, and let his lips brush mine before saying, “I suggested we should get matching rings. Do you seriously not remember that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my god, Kick, that is not a proposal.”
Devil interjected. “What would a proposal look like, sweetheart? Like, say, if Kick were to propose right now, what should he do?” There was a glint in his eyes that I couldn’t pinpoint, but I decided to play along anyway.
“For a start, there’d be a really big, fucking ring. And then he’d get down on one knee and tell me how much he loves me and that he can’t live without me. And he’d assure me that I was the only one for him and that we’d be together forever.” I stopped and took a breath. They were both staring intently at me, and it unnerved me.
Devil raised his brows. “Anything else?”
I looked at Kick and shook my head. “No,’ I said softly. He was watching me with a strange look, almost as if he was soaking in everything I’d said and filing it away for later use.
And then Kick made my heart expand and find more space inside it to fill with love for him. With his eyes firmly on me, he reached his hand out to Devil who placed a box on his palm.
A ring box.
He took it and got down on one knee. Devil put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention. Kick looked up at me through eyes that were full of love. Taking my hand, he said, “Evie Bishop, I’ve loved you since I was a kid. I’ve never stopped loving you. And I never fuckin’ will. I can’t live without you, and I’m not just saying that. When I don’t have you, I wander aimlessly; I have no purpose. But with you by my side, I belong, and I know what I’m doing. And as far as there being any other woman for me . . . no woman even comes close, never has, and never fuckin’ will. I could be in a room of women and all I’d see would be you, and all I’d want would be you.” He paused and pulled the ring from the box. It was a really fucking huge diamond ring. “Sweetheart, will you let me get us some matching rings? And then spend the rest of your life with me?”
Tears threatened to fall down my cheeks. I smiled through them, though, and nodded. “Yes,” I whispered, and as he slid the ring on my finger, the room erupted with whistles and cheers, and lewd comments being yelled out at us. I was too damn happy to pay any attention to any of it. Instead, I threw my arms around Kick when he stood. I ignored the pain shooting out from my ribs. This wasn’t an occasion to let a little bit of pain interfere with. “I love you, Kick Hanson,” I said as his arms came around me.
He kissed me, and when he ended it, he said, “I love you, too, baby. And I’ve always known we’d be together forever. It just took us a little time to figure our shit out.” He grinned and added, “You made me work for it, but I knew you still loved me, and that I’d eventually get you to relent.”
“You’re a sneaky bastard,” I chastised him.
Grinning harder, he admitted, “Only where you’re concerned. Anything for you, Evie Bishop.”
I let the tears fall then.
Tears of happiness.
It had been a long, hard journey for us, but we’d eventually made it to where we were meant to be.
And I was so damn glad he’d made me relent.
Epilogue
Kick
I listened to the words coming out of Devil’s mouth, and let him get them all out before I said anything. “It’s been three months of bloodshed and loss, at their fuckin’ insistence, and now they want to call a truce?” I flicked my gaze to King. “What the fuck do you think, Prez? ‘Cause, for the record, I’m against it. I say we bury those fuckers. And if you ask Nitro, he would say that, too.”
King contemplated this new information regarding Silver Hell. I’d expected him to agree with me, but he threw m
e off when he didn’t come straight out with it. Fuck, he’d experienced loss at their hands, too. Why the hell wasn’t he saying ‘fuck yes, bury them’? Instead, he said, “Kick, it’s your wedding day. Can we just get you the fuck through this and then make a decision?”
Devil seemed as stunned as I was. “I’m with Kick, I say bury them,” he said.
A vein in King’s neck ticked and he lost his loosely contained shit. “I say we don’t fucking decide today!” he roared. “I just want one fucking day without those motherfuckers ruining it. Do you think we can have that?”
Jesus.
I shoved my fingers through my hair and then stretched my back and arms. Nodding at King, I agreed, “Yeah.”
King huffed out a harsh breath and desperately tried to shake some of the tension out of his tightly wound body. “Good. Now let’s get this wedding underway.” He slapped me on the back as he pushed past me to head out of the clubhouse bar to the marquee we’d set up on the land we owned out the back of the clubhouse.
We watched him leave, and then Devil asked, “You ready for this, brother?”
I grinned. “More than fuckin’ ready.”
“You’re a lucky asshole, to find a woman as good as Evie.”
Fuck yeah.
“Kick!” We turned to see Lina rushing into the bar, looking stressed.
“What?” I asked, my own stress levels rising. Fuck, with all the shit we’d been through over the last three months, every little fucking thing stressed me.
“Evie’s here. You need to get outside so you’re waiting there when she walks in.”
“For fuck’s sake, Lina, don’t do that. You had me worried something had happened to her or to someone else,” I complained.
She pursed her lips. “Just get your ass out there.”
I did as she said and walked out to the marquee to wait for Evie. I hadn’t seen her since yesterday morning and, fuck, I ached to see her. How the hell I’d gone three years without her, I had no clue, because these days, being away from her a mere twenty-four hours was hell.
I’d asked Braden to be my best man, and he leant next to me now and said, “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“What?” I asked, not taking my eyes off where Evie would enter from.
“The day my brother got married.”
Something in his voice caused me to turn and face him. He was emotional about this. “Yeah, me either,” I admitted, “but thank fuck she came back to me.”
“Who would have thought, all those years ago when you two were kids, that you’d end up married one day?”
I wasn’t the kind of person to look back too often in life. My motto was to keep going forwards, but Braden was a sentimental bastard. Instead of replying to him, I simply nodded in agreement.
“You know,” he mused, “it’s sad, but I think in a way Shelly’s death brought you two together.”
My eyebrows drew together. “How the fuck do you figure that?” Jesus, what a morbid fucking thought.
“No, think about it. After her death and all the shit our families went through with our parents cheating, and then all the shit Evie went through, she needed you, and, in a weird way, you needed her. It brought you closer.”
“I still don’t follow,” I muttered.
“You do realise Evie blamed herself for Shelly’s death, right?”
Fuck.
“No, I didn’t know that,” I said softly.
“Jesus, Kick, you really were ignorant, weren’t you? When Shelly fell out of the tree, Evie was supposed to be watching her, but she was too busy flirting with you. She blames herself because of that, I’m sure of it. And on top of the blame she dumped on herself, she ended up doubting herself after being bullied. You helped her and gave her the confidence in herself she needed. In return, she ended up loving you unconditionally, and gave you the sense of family you didn’t get from ours.”
I stared at him. “Well fuck, Braden, what are you? Some kind of psych?” I was fucking impressed with his analysis, though.
He grinned. “Fuck off.” He tapped his head and said, “I’m just the brains of the family, asshole.”
A hush came over the marquee, and I turned to see Evie entering. Fuck, my wife-to-be was beautiful. She had on a fitted white long dress that made her tits pop just enough for me but not so much that every fucking asshole here would be ogling them. And she had her hair up, which I loved because it gave me full access to her neck.
As she walked towards me, our eyes did not leave each other. I was so captivated by her gaze, I couldn’t even drag mine down her body to check out her killer curves. Over the past few months, Evie had stopped worrying so much about her weight and dieting and all that bullshit. And I was fucking rejoicing because her curves had returned.
She’s made me a happy man in more ways than one.
When she came closer, her father, who had walked her down the aisle, gave me her hand, and I did my best not to snatch it. Fuck, I had it bad today.
Once I held her hand in mine, I pulled her to me and whispered, “Fuck, baby, you look beautiful.”
She blessed me with a smile that could take a man’s breath away. “Thank you.”
She really had nothing to be thanking me for because I was the one who should be thanking her.
Evie had brought peace to my life.
* * *
Evie
After he’d unlocked the front door of our home, Kick scooped me up into his arms. “Welcome home, Mrs Hanson,” he said with a huge grin on his face.
Mrs Hanson.
I grinned back at him, my tummy still full of the butterflies that had inhabited it all day. My wedding day truly had been the best day of my life. “I love you, Mr Hanson,” I said softly.
Kick entered the house, closed the door behind him with his boot, and walked intently down the hall. My body buzzed with desire. It had been a long day and I was exhausted, but never too exhausted to play with Kick.
As he walked down the hall, my gaze landed on the frames we’d hung. Photos of us and of our family lined the walls. I remembered the day we’d hung them. Kick had announced his desire to fill the walls with photos of our children. He wanted three and couldn’t wait to get started. I’d gone off birth control immediately and he’d spent every morning and night since working on making it happen.
I had good news for him tonight, but first, I would let him play because I feared once he was told, he would turn all overprotective, and pull back on the rough play.
When we reached our bedroom at the end of the hall, he entered it and dumped me on the bed. I bounced a little and then rested on my elbows, watching him, waiting for his next move.
His intense gaze roamed over my body as he removed his cut and placed it on the armchair in the corner of the room. I loved that armchair. It was where he often sat and watched me while I slept. Waking up to find Kick’s hungry eyes on me was the best way to wake up.
He slowly removed the rest of his clothes, and my desire built as he drew it out.
I was impatient for my man.
When he crawled onto the bed, over me, I thought I would burst from the desire. “Kick -”
“Shhh,” he whispered, placing his finger over my lips to silence me. He pushed me onto my back and then bent to take one of my nipples into his mouth.
Yes.
I gripped the sheet and dug my toes into the bed. I’d been without Kick’s mouth for over twenty-four hours. This was like coming home.
He let my nipple go and raised his head to look at me, his need raw on his face. “You got any idea just how ready I am to fuck you?” he growled as he pressed his erection into me.
Fuck.
I reached my hands to grab the back of his head and pulled his face to mine. Our lips collided a second later in a rough kiss; the kiss we’d both been aching for all day. While he kissed me, he began tearing at my clothes. My wedding dress was practically sewn onto me, though, and he quickly grew impatient and frustrated with its remov
al.
Pulling his lips from mine, he complained, “Fuck, Evie, are you trying to block my access tonight?” His gaze moved over my dress and I could see his mind trying to figure out the best way to get it off.
I pushed him off me and moved off the bed. Turning around to show him the back of the dress, I said, “You’ve got some buttons to undo, and don’t even think of ripping it off. This dress cost me a fortune.” The buttons ran the length of the dress and Maree had warned me Kick would get frustrated with it, but I’d loved it too much to worry about that. Plus, I figured by the time he got me out of it, he’d be so worked up that I’d be guaranteed some rough sex.
He came to me and began working on the buttons. When he was about half way down my back, he said, “Jesus fuck, woman, I was a fan of this dress until now.”
I grinned to myself. Smiling sweetly at him, I said, “Sorry, baby, I thought you’d like it more.”
He practically growled and his touch grew rougher as his fingers worked harder and faster to get the buttons undone. A couple of minutes later, he had the dress and my underwear off and he spun me around to face him. I sucked in a breath at his face. I’d never seen him so desperate to have me. And I felt that desperation deep inside.
I reached out to take hold of his cock, but he grabbed it before I got there. “I think I’m gonna have to cuff you tonight, sweetheart,” he said, his breathing growing ragged. He let my hand go. “Wait there,” he commanded and walked to the drawer where he kept his toys.
After rummaging through the drawer for what felt like ages, he shoved it closed, and muttered, “Fuck.” Looking over at me, he asked, “Do you remember where the fuck I put the cuffs?”
Shaking my head, I said, “No.”
Without saying anything else, he stalked out of the room. I did as he said and stayed where I was, hoping he would hurry back.
A minute later, he stalked back into the bedroom, no cuffs in sight. I sensed his frustration and when he grabbed something from the drawer and slammed it shut, I heard that frustration. Kick was not a patient man.