by Levine, Nina
I lifted her hand and removed it from my leg. Moving my mouth next to her ear, I muttered, “I’d love you a fuckload more if you stopped fucking with my dick when I can’t do anything about it.”
She curled her hand around my neck and blasted a smile at me. “Tonight we play five fucking questions and then you get to do whatever you want to me,” she said softly enough so only I heard.
I finished my beer. She didn’t know that tonight I’d only be playing one fucking question, and if she didn’t give me the answer I wanted, I’d fuck it out of her.
* * *
I stretched my legs out on Lily’s bed and rested my back against the headboard while I watched her fuck around getting ready for bed. We’d just taken a shower together where I’d warmed her up for the night. I planned a long night, but first I needed to get her to stop screwing around doing whatever the fuck she was doing.
“Lily,” I said, and waited for her eyes.
She didn’t give them to me, though. She carried on rifling through drawers.
“Lily,” I barked.
Her head snapped up and she turned to me instantly. “What?”
“Bed.”
“I’m just looking for the T-shirt I wanna wear tomorrow.”
“Leave it.”
My tone registered with her, and she hit me with a glare. “No. I don’t wanna be running around in the morning, stressing over finding shit. You can wait five minutes for me. And besides, you’ve already had your way with me tonight.”
I moved off the bed and closed the distance between us. Standing behind her, I wrapped my arms around her and gripped both her wrists, halting her movements. Mouth to her ear, I growled, “I haven’t had my way with you yet, not even fucking close. I need at least two hours with your cunt before we’re even talking close, so stop what you’re doing and get your ass on the bed.”
She finally fucking did what I said, and I positioned us so she straddled me while I sat how I had been before. Placing her hands on my bare chest, she said, “You’re lucky I like your bossy, filthy mouth. I’m not sure there are many women out there who would put up with it.”
“I only want one woman, and she’s the one who can’t get enough of my mouth.”
“Let’s not get carried away.”
I arched a brow. “I stop giving you my mouth in any way for a month and you’d lose your shit.”
She wiggled her ass, grinding herself against my dick. Gripping my face, she said, “You stop giving me your mouth for even a day and you’d lose your shit.”
She wasn’t fucking wrong.
“Okay,” she said, letting go of my face, “let’s do these five fucking questions, so you can get to your favourite part of the night.”
I wrapped my hand around her neck and rubbed my thumb over her throat. “It’s my turn to ask the questions tonight.”
Her eyes lit up. “Ooh, okay.”
I kept my hand around her neck. “Beard or no beard?”
“Beard.”
“Good fucking answer.”
She grinned.
“Morning or night?”
“You are so freaking predictable with your sex questions.”
I gripped her neck harder. “Morning or night?”
“Night, but only because there are more hours for you to get your mouth on me at night.”
I eased my grip a little. “July or August?”
She frowned. “Huh? What’s in July or August?”
I pulled the blue box from my pocket and opened it. “July or August?”
Her eyes widened. “Holy fuck, King.” She glanced between the ring and me. She stared at me for the longest time, and then she crashed her lips to mine, her hands grasping my face with the kind of grip that turned me the fuck on. When she’d had her fill, she tore her mouth from mine and said, “Oh my freaking God, yes!” She looked at the ring in the box again, bending her face close, her eyes lighting up, and then looked up at me. “This ring is fucking beautiful.”
Jesus, I’d been hard for her all fucking night; I wasn’t convinced I’d make it through this proposal without ripping her clothes off and sinking my dick as far inside her as I could.
I pulled the ring out of the box and got it on her finger before she changed her mind. As she held her hand up to her face, checking out the ring, I growled, “Lily.” When she gave me her eyes, I demanded, “July or August?”
A smile spread slowly across her face. “You mean you’re actually giving me a choice? You’re not gonna just boss my ass into one of them?”
Fucking hell, this woman.
“You have exactly three seconds to choose one. After that, I’ll boss your ass into a fuck of a lot more than just the month.”
She leaned in close and brushed her lips across mine before saying, “July, but only because it comes first. If I had my way, I’d choose September because it would be warmer.”
“July it is.”
She looped her arms around my neck. “I love you, King. You might be a hard-ass out there in the world, but for me, you’re everything I need.” She studied the ring for a moment. “And this ring is perfect. Thank you.”
I’d taken a photo of her grandmother’s necklace that Holly had sent me, and asked a jeweller to design me a ring that matched it. A diamond bow, it matched not only her necklace, but also half her fucking belongings.
I took her face in my hands and kissed her. Deep and slow to begin with, it quickly became the usual demanding kind of kiss we both craved. When we were done, I rasped, “I fucking love you, woman. If I could, I’d marry your ass tomorrow.”
Fuck, as long as I lived, I’d never get my fill of this woman.
She’d breathed life into me when I hadn’t thought there was any life beyond what I already knew.
She’d given me hope after I’d forgotten what it was.
She’d fucking helped quiet the demons raging deep inside me.
And I was holding on tight.
Wherever Lily went, I would follow.
She may have thought I was running this fucking show, but she was wrong.
She owned the fucking show.
Epilogue
King
4 Years Later
I stood on my back deck and watched the kids running around the backyard as I sucked back some beer. Holly pushed Cade on the swing I’d built last weekend while Zara carried Meredith on her hip, laughing at something Lily said. Robbie and the girl he’d invited over for the party sat on the wooden bench I’d built for the back corner of the yard. Lily’s meditation bench. The one she spent a good fucking half hour on every afternoon while I played with the kids inside. She called that half hour her Sacred Pause. I didn’t give a fuck what she called it so long as she had it. Lily without that pause was wired for my blood. With it, she was wired for my dick.
“Hey, brother,” Hyde said, stepping out onto the deck. “We finally made it.”
I glanced at him, my gaze going straight to his daughter, Sage, who held her arms out to me. Letting her climb across to me, I said, “Your dad being an ass today?”
“King,” Monroe said as she and Tatum walked past us to head downstairs. Her voice held a warning like it always did when I had her daughter. I cut back my language around the kids, but as far as I was fucking concerned, ass wasn’t a word I needed to watch.
“Mama,” Sage called out as she spotted Monroe. I put her down, and she ran to her mother who scooped her up and carried on towards Lily.
“Everyone here?” Hyde asked, surveying my backyard where club members and their families hung out laughing and drinking.
“Everyone except Fury.”
Hyde met my gaze. “You got him out on a job today?”
“Yeah. I doubt he’ll make it.” Not with the messy shit he was taking care of for me today. Detective Stark would breathe easier tonight thanks to Fury.
“King!” Kick called out. “We need you to settle something for us.” Elizabeth whipped past him, distracting him for a moment.
Mostly, though, I figured it was his wife who did that as she chased after their daughter. He’d announced her second pregnancy last week. Fuck, we were having a fucking population explosion in the club these days between Hailee almost ready to pop a kid, Lily two months pregnant, and now Evie, too.
I headed down to where he stood with Devil and Nitro.
“Devil thinks that when you guys built this place, Lily got the final say in everything, because there’s no way you would have chosen half the shit here,” Kick said.
Lily’s hands slid around my waist as she pressed her body to mine from behind. “Wrong,” she said. “Well, kind of wrong. I did get the final say in everything, because let’s face it, King wants his dick sucked at night, but he chose more than half the shit in this place. My man has immaculate taste.”
“No shit,” Devil said, smiling at Lily. Fuck, every fucker in the club had a soft spot for my old lady. A hell of a lot of respect too, which was deserved. The past four years had shown Lily’s grit in ways I fucking wished we hadn’t had to live through.
“No shit, asshole,” I said. “Now give me a minute with my wife.”
As they walked away from us, I turned to face her, my gaze landing on the bruises on her neck. Tracing my finger over them, I said, “Fuck, I need to go easier on you.” Especially now that she had our child in her belly.
“Don’t you dare.”
I found her eyes. The heat in them caused my gut to tighten. I’d had her cunt twice already today, but it wasn’t enough. I’d arranged for her mother to take the kids tonight so I could dedicate a long stretch of time to her. We’d need it before I headed away for up to a week tomorrow. I had shit to take care of in Melbourne. Shit that was giving me nothing but fucking headaches.
“I spoke with Jackson yesterday,” I said, broaching the subject guaranteed to piss her off.
She frowned. “Why?”
I kept my gaze pinned to hers. “Because he needs to hurry shit the fuck along and make you part-time already. He’s been promising you that for months.”
“Fuck, King, I told you to stay out of that. I can fight my own battles with Jackson.”
“You’ve been fighting this one for too fucking long. I’ve sat back and let you handle shit, but I’m done waiting. I told him I wanted a call within the week to confirm your part-time status.”
“King,” she started, but I shook my head and cut her off.
“Lily, you’re exhausted. Hell, if I had my fucking way, you wouldn’t work at all. But I know better than to push you for that, so I’m pushing you and Jackson for what I know I can get.”
She stared at me silently for a few moments, before muttering, “You drive me fucking crazy half the time.”
“You return the fucking favour.”
Moving closer, she jabbed me in the chest. “I’m going to push you on something then, too.”
Jesus. “What?”
“You need to quit smoking.”
“Fuck, woman, we’ve already discussed this. Don’t give me hell over it again.”
“Your doctor said—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what my doctor said.”
Her face softened. “Yeah well, maybe you should, because I don’t want you to die sooner than you have to.” Tears welled in her eyes, and as she wiped at them, she grumbled, “God, I hate pregnancy hormones.”
That fucking made two of us.
“Daddy!” Cade ran at me, arms outstretched, and I bent to lift him up as he said, “Auntie Skye got me a twuck for my birfday!”
I jerked my chin at Skylar who’d just arrived with her latest boyfriend. I gave him a month at the most before she kicked him to the kerb. Skylar couldn’t seem to find a man who would stand up to her and her bullshit, and this dickhead didn’t fit that category either. I’d told her to get some advice off Annika who had finally married the guy she’d met two years ago. He had some fucking balls on him that I could respect.
I eyed my son. It was his third birthday today. I’d managed to knock Lily up fast after I’d married her. If I had my way, she’d have a baby in her belly more often than not, because my kids made my fucking life. But Lily had told me six was a good number to stop at, so after this current pregnancy, I’d be heading into a new kind of battle. The day we were married, I’d told her I wanted four more kids, and I hadn’t been fucking about. I intended to win that battle, but fuck, I wouldn’t complain if it was a long, drawn-out one. Going to battle with my wife got me hard as fuck and led to some crazy shit going down between us. It was the kind of shit a man could die happy having experienced.
I smiled at Cade. “Why don’t you and Meredith play with it in the sandpit?” Eyeing Lily’s mother, sister, Jamie, and Adelaide coming down the stairs, I added, “Grandma’s here.”
He squealed with delight, wiggled out of my hold, and took off in Hannah’s direction.
Building this place had been one of the best damn decisions Lily and I had made. We’d sold the place in the city after the shit that went down there and bought this land. And neither of us had looked back. Lily had surprised the hell out of me by how she’d handled the D’Amato shit, but it had just been the first in a line of incidences she’d had to stand tall against as my old lady.
“Oh God,” she muttered, her hand landing on my chest, scrunching a handful of my shirt.
“What?” I asked, following her gaze.
“Zara. Shit, shit, shit. Now is not the time for her to get distracted from her studies.”
I found what she was looking at, and I didn’t fucking like it either.
“I’ll have a word with him,” I said firmly as my shoulders tensed.
Lily looked at me. “King, don’t be hard on him. It’s not his fault Zara’s watching him.”
I clenched my jaw as I watched Fury making his way through the party toward me, oblivious to the fact my daughter had her gaze trained on him. “That may be the case, Lily, but if I’m not hard on him, he won’t have a reason to keep his distance from her.” And no fucking way was a man like Fury getting anywhere near my daughter. She may have been eighteen now, but I still saw her as the fourteen-year-old I’d handled little shits for.
Fury stopped when he reached us. Glancing between Lily and me, he said, “Hate to interrupt, but I need a word with King.”
Lily smiled and nodded at him. “Sure.” Then she turned and gave me her wide eyes that meant I should pay attention to what she’d just said about not going hard on him. I had no fucking intention of doing that so I ignored those eyes.
Fury watched her leave and then said, “I’ve taken care of what you wanted. There was some collateral damage, though.”
“How bad?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. It’s all been cleaned up.”
“Good.”
“You got anything else for me today?”
“No, but it’s come to my attention that my eighteen-year-old daughter has eyes for you.” My voice dropped to a hard command. “Under no fucking circumstances are you to look at her, speak to her, or fucking touch her. If I find out you’ve done any one of those things, I will make it so you wished you fucking hadn’t.” I paused for a beat. “We clear?”
His brows lifted. “I’m not into eighteen-year-olds, King, and I’m sure as fuck not into anyone related to you, so yeah, we’re clear.”
“Good. Keep it that fucking way and we won’t have a problem.”
“If you don’t have anything more for me, I’m gonna go off-grid for the day.”
“Do that. We’ve got a fuckload of shit on when we hit Melbourne, so make sure you’re ready for that.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He passed Zara on the way out and didn’t so much as look at her.
I found my wife again. “I’ve sorted the problem.”
“King, I hate to break it to you, but the problem is Zara. Not your guys. And that’s the kind of problem I have no clue how to sort.”
Zara had given Lily hell for years when
it came to boys. And since Zara had turned her attention to Storm members, it had become my hell, too.
“Well, as far as I’m concerned I’ve handled it. Now, are we gonna do the cake, because the sooner we get this party done, the sooner I can clear people out, and the sooner I can get inside you.”
“They only just arrived like an hour ago. You can’t start kicking them out soon.”
I lifted a brow. “You wanna fucking watch me?”
She shook her head at me, but her eyes had that heat in them again. Moving into my embrace, she said, “I’m so glad I decided to grow old with you and your filthy ways.”
My hands landed on her ass. “You had no fucking choice in the matter. I decided for you.”
She smiled up at me. “Yeah, baby, you did, because you’re bossy like that.” She kissed me long and hard before adding, “Right, I’ll go get the cake. You round everyone up. And then we start working on getting them to leave.”
My gut tightened as I watched her walk across the lawn, up the stairs, and into the house. I hadn’t ever imagined finding a woman like Lily. She was my opposite in almost all ways, and yet we worked. Fuck how we worked. And now I couldn’t imagine a life without her.
I’d laid myself bare for her.
I’d bled for her and wouldn’t fucking hesitate to do it again.
I fucking breathed for her.
And while my family and my club were everything to me, I existed for Lily.
King: The Epilogue Collection
Note From Nina
Dear Reader,
This book was a complete passion project for me. It’s the ‘what happens after the HEA’ story that I couldn’t get out of my head. We all know King is a hard man to be with and to live with. I wanted to explore how they each navigate the journey from falling in love to living together to getting married. This is that part of their story. I hope you love it as much as I do.
I’ve also included some extra chapters for you, showing other slices of their life together. Some are in the future and some are from the past (those ones feature King, not Lily, but I wanted to include them here for you as well because they help show you more of King).