Sydney Storm MC Complete Series

by Levine, Nina

  “Awesome,” he said as he ran out of the room. The girls hit me with smiles, too, and then followed him. Hannah and Brynn were busy in the kitchen, leaving Lily and me alone.

  “You don’t have to stay and watch the movie,” she said, fidgeting with the tablecloth.

  “Do I strike you as a man who does shit he doesn’t want to do?”

  The uncertainty disappeared from her face and she smiled. “No, you do not.”

  I stood. “You watching it with us?”

  “Ah that would be a no. I’ve already seen it like four times. I’m going to go take a bath while you babysit.”

  “Fuck,” I muttered. “I did not fucking need that mental image when I’m about to hang out with your kids.”

  She grinned. “Enjoy the movie, King.”

  I left her and made my way out to the living room where the kids had the movie ready to go. This night had turned into the strangest fucking night, but I couldn’t deny it felt good to be with Lily and her family. Even when Hannah joined us and didn’t shut up during most of the movie, I felt more relaxed than I’d felt in years.

  * * *

  Lily was still in the bath two hours later when the movie finished. The kids scattered to their rooms, and Brynn and Hannah had gone home a little while before the movie finished. I turned off the television and went looking for Lily.

  Leaning against the doorjamb of her bathroom, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Have you been in there all this time?”

  She cracked an eye open and shook her head. “No, I did some laundry first and got some stuff ready for tomorrow.”

  “What’s happening tomorrow?”

  “The girls are both hanging out with their friends while I take Robbie to karate and then to the science centre. It’s gonna be another long-ass day.”

  “Today was long?”

  She sighed. “Every day is long, King.”

  Fuck, guilt hit me over pushing her into adding to her long days by working with Skylar. “Maybe you should cut your sessions back with Skye.”

  She sat up, and my eyes were drawn to her tits that were now on display above the bubbles. “What is this?”

  I frowned. “What is what?”

  She pointed her finger between the two of us. “This. You having dinner with my family and then watching a freaking movie with my kids. You being nice to my mother. God, you being nice to me. Where’s the moody man I know so well? And why are you saying I should cut back my sessions when you told me just yesterday not to?” She stood and got out of the bath, coming to me, water and bubbles dripping everywhere. A fierce expression had settled on her face. Jabbing me in the chest, she added forcefully, “You are so freaking confusing!” Then grabbing her towel, she wrapped it around herself and walked into her bedroom.

  I reached for her arm and yanked her back to me. “I don’t know what the fuck this is, but I can’t stay away. That smart mouth of yours, and sweet fucking ways turn me the hell on. And your family? I like them. They’re honest and real, and you don’t fucking find that often anymore.”

  Her eyes searched mine for a long few moments before we got to what was really doing her head in. She pushed out of my hold like she was trying to keep some distance between us. “You made it clear you don’t want anything but sex, and I figure you’re not just getting that from me. Which is fine. I’m not saying it’s not. But I’m not into that, King. I thought we were just going to sleep together once, and I was good with that. Kind of. But then I met Ivy and I realised I am so far from good with it, it’s not funny. So you should go back to doing what you were doing before you met me, and we should call it quits.”

  Fuck I liked a woman who got to the fucking point and didn’t play games with me.

  I pulled her close again. “We need to get a few things straight. One, I’m not fucking Ivy. That’s an old relationship that will never be revisited. Two, I’m not fucking anyone else. And three, there is no fucking way you and I are calling it quits.” I gripped her waist and backed her up against the wall. “I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and I can’t say it’s high on my priority list, but I also can’t say I don’t want to keep seeing you. What I can say is that I don’t want to see anyone else.” My mouth brushed her ear as I added, “You are the only woman I want to fuck.”

  Her hands came to my chest and she tried to push me away. “King—”

  I refused to budge. Taking hold of her face, I angled it up to mine. “I’m not letting you walk away from this, so don’t even think about that.”

  Her eyes widened. “So what, you’ll just force your way into my life?”

  “I won’t need to. You want this as much as I do. And fuck, the way you opened up to me when I fucked you, you can’t deny how good that sex was.”

  She contemplated that before scrunching my shirt into her hands. “Has anyone ever told you how infuriating you are? Because you are. And yet, all I wanna do is kiss you. It’s freaking maddening to me how you manage to get away with shit.” And then, before I had a chance to kiss her, she pushed me away and escaped my hold. Walking to her wardrobe, she threw over her shoulder, “FYI, my body is still sore after you fucked the hell out of it, so there won’t be any sex for you tonight. Plus, my kids are here tonight, so there’s that, too.”

  Fucking hell, this woman.

  “I didn’t come here for sex, Lily.”

  She dropped her towel, giving me half a minute with her body before she covered it back up with a T-shirt. Nowhere near fucking long enough. “So are you staying or are you going? I’m good with staying, because I like having you to cuddle up to.”

  I jerked my chin at her bed before pulling my shirt over my head. “Get your ass in there.”

  She grinned. “Now there’s the King I know.” And then she made my fucking day by doing what I said.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Lily

  I wasn’t sure what I’d agreed to with King. All I knew for sure was the man was pushy with a capital freaking P. The other thing I knew for sure, and I was surprised as hell at, was that he could get through a night in my bed without trying to fuck me. That’s not to say he could go a night without having his hands all over me, and his body pressed as hard to mine as possible, but I had to give him credit for respecting my wishes.

  I woke up this morning wrapped from head to toe by his arms, torso and legs. When I tried to move, he tightened his hold on me. The weird thing was he was still asleep. It seemed King liked to look out for those around him while he was sleeping just as much as he did while he was awake.

  I managed to wiggle my way out of his embrace and get up to use the bathroom. Entering the bedroom when I was finished, I found him awake, arms rested behind his head, watching my every move. “Morning,” I said.

  “Morning.” Those eyes of his held a smile I wasn’t sure I’d seen before. It was subtle, but it was there. And I liked it.

  “I’m going to make a coffee. You want one?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  I hit him with one last smile before leaving the bedroom. Thoughts of what I was going to tell my kids about him sleeping over filled my mind as I headed into the kitchen. I’d dated a few guys after divorcing Linc, but none of them had ever stayed the night, not even the couple of relationships that lasted longer than a few months. I’d never been comfortable having them sleep over, and I had to wonder why I’d thrown all those hesitations out the window for King. Maybe it had to do with the fact my kids seemed to really like him. Or maybe I really was that distracted by the man that all common sense eluded me.

  I’d just filled the kettle and switched it on when Linc’s voice sounded from the back door. “What the fuck, Lily? You changed the locks?”

  I stalked to the door and glared at him through the glass. “Yes, I did, to keep you out. You don’t live here anymore, Linc, and I’ve asked you multiple times not to come by whenever you want or let yourself in. So I changed the locks.”

  “Fuck. Let me in, woman.”

&n
bsp; Oh my God, he did not just call me that. “Don’t call me that! I am not your damn woman.”

  “Lily, for fuck—” He abruptly stopped talking as his gaze was drawn to something behind me.

  Turning, I found King watching Linc with a murderous expression.

  Oh goodness.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Linc demanded.

  King’s nostrils flared. He stepped forward, closer to me, and I knew simply by looking at him that this situation was about to go bad.

  Placing my palm on his bare chest, I said, “King, let me deal with this.”

  His jaw clenched, his eyes coming to mine only briefly before locking back onto Linc. Ignoring my request, he growled, “You need to pull your head in and apologise to her.”

  Linc scowled at him. “She’s my fucking wife, mate.”

  “And that’s why you’re standing out there and I’m standing in here,” King said. His shoulders were like rocks. “Back the fuck up, apologise, and then leave.”

  Linc rattled the door. “Open this fucking door, Lil, and let me in.”

  Before I could say or do anything, King slid the door open and stepped outside. I knew that if I allowed this to continue between them, someone was going to get hurt. And I was fairly sure it wasn’t going to be King. Moving as fast as I could, I got in between them and pressed my hands to their chests, trying to keep them apart.

  Glancing madly between them, I said, “You two both need to take a step back. I have three kids in this house, and I do not want them to wake up to a punch up.” I glared at Linc and added, “Especially not one involving their father.”

  Neither backed down straight away. It wasn’t until I pushed both of them that King came to his senses and took a step back.

  I looked at him. “Thank you.” And then to Linc, I said, “The locks have changed. Deal with it. We’ve been divorced for three years, Linc, and we’re never getting back together. I am not your wife anymore, and you can’t keep dropping in here whenever you want. I’m not going to say this again. And also, you should know that I took your name off my gym membership, too.”

  He stared at me like I had three heads. “You’re fucking kidding, right? We’ve been together since we were kids, Lil. Suddenly you meet a new guy, and I’m out in the cold?”

  I expected King to get involved again, but he impressed me by staying back and letting me handle this. It was clear from his body language, though, that if I wasn’t able to deal with Linc, he’d be more than happy to step back in.

  “You cheated on me, Linc! Remember that? This has nothing to do with King, and everything to do with me finally figuring out that I need to set some boundaries with you. I can’t expect you to respect me if I don’t respect myself enough to do that.” I jabbed a finger in the air at him. “Things will be changing around here, and that includes your freaking child support payments. I’m not accepting any bullshit from you going forward.”

  “You’ve turned into a bitch, Lily,” Linc said.

  King lost his shit at that. Moving to Linc, he grabbed him by the shirt and threatened, “You call her a bitch again, you and me are gonna have trouble.” He then shoved him away and guided me back inside, closing the door after us.

  Linc got the message after that and stormed out of my backyard. His car screeched away from the house soon after. Less than a minute later, I burst into tears. Crying over Linc wasn’t something I was in the habit of doing, but dealing with his shit had become a heavy burden to carry. Usually I just got on with it, but there was something about having King’s support that affected me. I didn’t feel so alone with this now.

  “Fuck,” King muttered, pulling me into his arms. “Don’t let that asshole get to you.”

  His arms around me felt good. Soothing. I buried my head against his chest and took a moment to gather myself. King was right—I wouldn’t let Linc get to me—but it didn’t hurt to let my emotions flow rather than bottling them up like I had been.

  I took a deep breath and lifted my head, looking up into King’s eyes. “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t do much, Lily.”

  I smiled. “You did.”

  The last three years as a single mum had been a hard slog, but if I were honest, the few years before that were just as hard, even while still married. People often said to me how difficult it must be to raise my kids on my own, and sure, it was, but what they didn’t realise was that even when you were in a marriage, it could sometimes feel like you were doing it all alone. Linc had checked out of our marriage long before he’d cheated on me. He also hadn’t been the kind of man who was always there for me as a husband or a father when I needed him to be. I’d learnt to rely on myself pretty early on. King didn’t understand that in the short time I’d known him, he’d come through for me in ways my husband never had.

  “Morning,” Zara said sleepily, wandering into the kitchen. She eyed King, and I waited nervously for her reaction. I needn’t have been worried. She hardly acknowledged his presence before grabbing a drink of water and wandering back out of the kitchen.

  I made our coffees and as I was finishing up, King moved behind me, placing his hands either side of me on the kitchen counter. With his mouth to my ear, he said, “I need you tonight. Can you make that happen?”

  I nodded, my body shivering just thinking about it. “Yes.”

  My need matched his, and I would do whatever it took to make that happen.

  * * *

  “I owe you big time,” I said to Brynn over the phone later that day as I watched Robbie geeking out over stuff at the science centre. We’d had a busy day between grocery shopping, housework, karate and now the science centre. Brynn had just agreed to babysit the kids tonight so I could spend time with King, but I was wondering if I’d even have the energy that sex with him demanded. The man was brutal in both how he fucked and for how long he fucked.

  “I’ll sleep over so you don’t have to worry about getting home at a certain time. And then tomorrow we can go to that farmer’s market I’ve been wanting to go to for ages.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned. I was so not a market girl, but Brynn loved them and was always trying to get me to go with her. “Really? That’s how I have to pay you back?”

  “Is King not worth the market?”

  She had me there. Sex with King was worth all the markets. “Fine,” I grumbled. “We’ll do the market tomorrow. And you can tell me all about your hot fishing date on the way.” We hadn’t found the time yet to talk about her date with the prostitute. I was hanging to hear all about it. “Did you ask him how many women he bangs in a week?”

  She laughed. “Let’s just say we had other things to do rather than talking about that.”

  “Oh my God, Brynny! You fucked him?”

  “That will have to wait until tomorrow to be discussed. You need something to look forward to if you have to go to the market.”

  “You are so right, but this is gonna be the longest wait of my life.”

  “Okay, I’ve gotta go. I’m going to cook the kids something special for dinner, so I’ll be at your place from about three, okay?”

  “Sounds good. They’ll be excited,” I said before ending the call.

  Robbie came running over to me, excitement plastered over his face. “Can we stay for at least another half hour? They’re doing a special show soon, and I really wanna see it.”

  I smiled. “Of course, baby.”

  He threw his arms around me and hugged me. “You’re the best mum!” And then he was gone again.

  I would miss his affection when he grew out of it. I definitely missed Zara’s. She still hadn’t completely forgiven me for the boyfriend thing, but she’d definitely calmed down over it. That kinda made me nervous, though, because I wondered why. I made a mental note to follow up on that tomorrow. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down for one second with that child.

  But for the rest of today, I was focused on myself and getting laid. I sent King a text t
o let him know tonight was on.

  Me: Babysitter sorted. Let me know what time to come over.

  King: Any time after seven.

  I started to type out a sexy reply, but then deleted it. King didn’t seem like the kind of man who made time for sexting. I thought about it some more and decided to hell with it, he could just choose not to reply if he wasn’t into it.

  Me: I can’t stop thinking about your hands around my neck.

  He didn’t come straight back to me. It took him about five minutes, but I figured I hit the mark by the reply I got.

  King: Fuck

  Me: And I really liked your belt around my hands.

  Again, five or so minutes passed before he texted back.

  King: I’m in the middle of shit

  I stared at the message, a little unsure of what he meant.

  Me: And?

  This time he didn’t text, he called and got straight to the point when he said, “I’m dealing with club business, and your texts are distracting as fuck.”

  I grinned, loving that I’d stirred him up. “Are they getting you hard, King?”

  “Fucking hell,” he muttered. “That’s a fucking understatement.”

  “So I shouldn’t send you any more? Or what about a boob pic?”

  “I have to go. Don’t send me any more shit. I’ll see you tonight.”

  The call ended, and I sat on the chair watching my son having a great time while I grinned like a loon. Somewhere along the way, life had gotten really freaking good.

  * * *

  Sometimes in life, you didn’t see things coming. They blindsided you. I’d had a few of those moments in my life—when my father had walked out of it right before my twelfth birthday and the day I’d caught Linc cheating on me. Each of those times, my sister had been there for me. We’d got each other through the heartbreak of our father leaving, and then she’d gotten me through my break-up with Linc. We shared a connection I held dearer than almost anything in my life. With Brynn by my side, I felt like anything was achievable and any situation could be survived.