by Levine, Nina
If there was one kind of person I respected the hell out of in life, it was a parent who cared enough about their child to stand the fuck up for them. Hannah Bennett might have been a pain in my ass at times, but fuck, she’d earned my respect after that speech.
“We won’t have a problem, Hannah.”
She nodded slowly. “I hope we won’t.”
Lily’s arms came around my neck and she pressed her lips to my cheek before saying, “What are you two sitting over here discussing?” She’d had a few drinks and was more relaxed than I’d seen her in weeks. But then, she’d been relaxed from the minute she’d stepped foot on our land for the wedding, which had made my fucking day, because seeing that kind of happiness and peace in my woman was what I lived for.
Hannah stood. “I was just welcoming King into our family, darling.”
As she left us, Lily whispered into my ear, “Why are you laughing?”
Reaching back, I pulled her around onto my lap. “I’m not laughing.”
She ran her fingers through my hair, pushing it back off my face. After brushing her lips across mine, she murmured, “Yeah you are. I can feel the chuckle in your body.”
I ran my hand down her leg. “Your mother amuses me sometimes.”
Reaching for my hand, she stopped my progress down her body. “I know where you’re going with that hand, and you need to stop. My kids and mother are in this bar.”
“Well, we’re gonna need to get the fuck out of this bar then, because there’s no fucking way I can keep my hands off you for another minute.”
Her eyes searched mine. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“More fucking serious than I’ve ever been, Lily. This is the longest I’ve gone without you.”
She moved off my lap and headed in the direction of my office without waiting for me. Sashaying that sweet fucking ass of hers like it was her job.
I caught up to her as she walked past the table with the cake on it. Slowing, she turned and said, “If Tatum organised this cake, you owe her big time.”
“I owe Tatum far too fucking much for today,” I muttered, “But for this cake, I owe her nothing.”
She frowned. “Who then? Was it my mother? Or Brynn? Not many people know of my love for that cake, King.”
I spun her around and said, “Keep fucking walking and think about who else knows of your love for that cake.”
After taking only one fucking step, she turned again and, eyes wide, she said, “It was you, wasn’t it? You organised our cake.”
I lifted her and threw her over my shoulder and stalked out of the bar. Carrying her to the office, I said, “I’ve never seen anyone love a cake more than you love that six-fucking-layer chocolate cake. I’m pretty fucking sure that if push came to shove some days, you’d choose that cake over my dick.”
We hit the office and I sat her on the desk after I kicked the door closed behind us.
Without wasting a second, she reached for my shirt and lifted it over my head. “That might be true,” she started, but stopped abruptly when her eyes landed on the new tattoo on my chest that I’d had done in Brisbane. “Oh my God.” Her gaze cut to mine. “This is beautiful.”
The tattoo had been inspired by Lily and featured a skull with roses, with elements hidden amongst the design that only she and I would find meaningful. I had no intention of telling her what they were since the tattoo was for me, not her, but I knew she’d spend time searching it and find them.
“I see a bow! Oh my God, and the number 5!” Her eyes shined with happiness, hitting me fair in the fucking chest. Taking hold of my face, she kissed me. Long and deep and fucking fierce, that hit me fair in the fucking gut. When she pulled her lips from mine, she said breathlessly, “I will love you until the day I can’t love you anymore. You have no idea how you’ve changed my life, King. How you’ve made it the life I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
I wrapped my hand around her neck and kissed her again, my mind, body, and soul consumed by love for her. “I thought I knew what love was before I met you, but I had no fucking clue. You make me a better man, Lily, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making you a happy fucking woman.”
That sexy mouth of hers spread out into the kind of smile I’d work hard for. “That would be Mrs King to you.”
“Fucking hell,” I growled, reaching for her skirt. “Nothing sounds better on your lips than that. Fucking nothing.”
Love had always been something I’d struggled with. It had been a cruel bitch at times, and had turned me into a ruthless bastard at others. But I’d finally found the person who didn’t make me think love was hard. Because loving Lily was the easiest damn thing I’d ever done.
I hope you loved this novella as much as I loved writing it. You’ll note there’s some unfinished club business in this story. You’ll see more about that in coming books.
Now I have some chapters for you featuring King & Lily, as well as some of the Sydney Storm couples. I’ve written these chapters over the years of writing this series. You may have read some of them, but there is one that is completely brand new. They take place at various times throughout the timeline of the series. I’ve noted where they fit at the beginning of each chapter. The ones that take place four years after the wedding take place after the epilogue that was in King’s Reign.
Enjoy!
PS If you love reading bonus scenes, make sure you join my VIP list so you can get access to my Alpha Vault where I store all my bonus scenes! Catch up with Storm couples you love!
One Month After The Wedding
King
“King! Are you listening to anything I’m saying?” Lily demanded while she shimmied in an effort to get her dress into place.
I’d heard every word she’d said, but I was more interested in what she was doing than what she was saying. Stepping closer to her, I placed my hand on her hip while running my gaze over her tits. “This dress is far too fucking tight and way too fucking short,” I said.
She looked down at her dress. “You never care what I wear. Why now?”
Curving my hand over her ass, I pulled her flush against my body. “I don’t care that you’re wearing it; I’m only concerned it’s not gonna stay on you for long.”
She sucked in her breath as desire flared in her eyes. Pressing her palms to my chest, she attempted to push me away but I kept her firmly in place. “King, you promised me a date night and you’re making good on that promise.”
“I am making good on it, but you wanna wear shit that gets me hard, you need to accept where that leads.” My voice dropped to a rough gravel as I added, “And tonight, I’m pretty fucking sure that’s gonna lead to me fucking you while we’re out.”
Skylar’s voice sounded from outside our bedroom. “Lily, can I borrow that navy dress of yours? You know the one you wore to Robbie’s award ceremony last week?”
“Fucking hell,” I muttered. “How fucking hard is it to get you to myself for fucking once?”
Since our wedding a month ago, life had been hectic and I hadn’t had my wife to myself for even a day. My time with her at night had also been cut into because she’d been exhausted from work and family stuff.
Lifting up onto her toes, she kissed me before saying, “I’m going to sort everyone out and then we’re leaving. And you’re going to play nice with your sister or I’m going to withhold husband privileges tonight.”
Gripping the back of her neck, I growled, “Like fuck you are.” Reaching my other hand down, I roughly slid it under her dress and up to her panties. “I haven’t had you for two fucking days; there’s no fucking way I’m not having you tonight.”
She moaned as I circled her clit and pushed two fingers inside her.
Skylar knocked on the door. “King, stop whatever you’re doing to Lily; I need to talk to her.”
I watched Lily wage a silent war over wanting me to finger fuck her versus giving my sister what she wanted. In the end, she said, “King, stop. I’ve barely spoken to Sk
ylar this week. You’re going to need to give me a little time with her.”
With a fuckload of regret, I gave her what she wanted and let her go. Stalking to the door, I yanked it open and looked down at my sister. “You—”
Pushing me out of the way, she cut me off. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re shitty and I only have one minute with Lily, blah, blah, blah. Go take a chill pill and gimme some time with my girl. I’ve hardly seen her all week.”
She was raving to Lily about some shoes she’d seen yesterday before I had a chance to get a fucking word in, so I left them to it, calling out over my shoulder, “Five minutes, Lily.”
I ran into Robbie as I headed into the kitchen. He rounded the corner and collided with me. “Sorry!”
Steadying him, I said, “What’s the rush, mate?”
His eyes blazed up with excitement. “Zara said she’ll play Monopoly with me while you and Mum go out for dinner!”
Robbie loved board games; Zara not so much. I’d pulled her aside earlier today and asked her to help Skylar look after him tonight while we were out. The kids at school had been giving him a hard time lately, and I knew that some time with his sister would be good for him. Holly usually came through for me when I asked her to look out for him, but she was at a sleepover with a friend tonight, so I couldn’t rely on her. Zara had surprised the fuck out of me when she’d said yes with no arguments.
I followed him into the lounge room where Zara sat on the floor setting up the game. She glanced up at me with a smile. “Did Robbie tell you his plan for all of us for tomorrow night, King?”
“No.”
“For family night, he wants us all to eat tacos for dinner and then do a marathon of Harry Potter movies.” She was fucking grinning at me because she knew I didn’t have it in me to watch those movies one more fucking time. Hell, Robbie could watch Harry Potter every day he loved it that much. I’d already sat through all the movies with him three times since moving in.
Robbie nodded enthusiastically as he sat across from his sister. “It’ll be fun!”
Fuck, I couldn’t say no. Not when it lit him up like this. “I’ll grab the stuff for tacos in the morning while I’m out.”
“Don’t forget Grandma’s coming for dinner tomorrow night, too,” Zara said, that grin still in place. She also knew I’d reached my limit of Hannah time this week after spending almost a full day with her fixing her car and doing some other odd jobs around her house.
“Smartass,” I mouthed at her while Robbie had his head down. Then, out loud, I gave it back to her. “Don’t forget you said you wanted to play Battleship with Robbie tonight.”
Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything, Robbie’s head snapped up and he said excitedly, “This is the best night of my life!”
Lily’s arm slid around my waist as she stood next to me. “Wow,” she murmured, “You’ve got the kids all sorted and happy by the looks of it.”
I stretched my arm across her shoulders. “Yeah. Zara’s made Robbie’s night by agreeing to play games with him for hours.”
Zara hit me with a dirty look before shaking her head and getting back to the game.
“I’m playing, too,” Skylar said, joining them on the floor.
“Don’t wait up for us,” I said to her.
She looked at me. “Breakfast is at seven in the morning. I’m making pancakes and waffles. And I’m waking your ass up if you’re still sleeping. You promised to come with me to help me get a good deal on new tyres.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled. My plan had been to get the kids to all their activities they had on tomorrow morning before coming home to fuck Lily. “I can’t in the morning. We’ll go in the afternoon.”
“No, I’m busy all day tomorrow. The only time I have is first thing.”
Lily squeezed me and said to Skylar, “He’ll do it in the morning.” Then to me, she said, “We need to leave or we’re going to miss our reservation.”
Once I had her out of the house, I reached for her and said, “Change of plans. We’re skipping dinner and—”
“No, you are not changing our plans, King. I’ve been looking forward to dinner at that restaurant all week.”
Wrapping my hand around her throat, I growled, “And I’ve been looking forward to burying my dick inside you for fucking days, so I’ve changed the reservation for later and booked us a hotel room. If that pisses you off, feel free to take it out on my body, but there’s no fucking way I’m waiting to strip you and fuck you.” When she looked like she was going to argue with me, I added, “I warned you about wearing that dress. You chose to wear it.”
“Fine,” she said with the kind of attitude that made me want to slam inside her right fucking now. “But there will be dinner later and you will be sitting through two desserts with me. I checked out their menu and I can’t choose between lemon meringue and cheesecake, so I’m having both. If you get to change our plans, I get to have two lots of dessert. And you also have to walk along the river with me after dinner. Oh, and when we get home, I really want you to watch Lucifer with me.”
Taking my time at dinner was not something I was good at, and walking anywhere was not something I enjoyed. And I fucking hated that TV show. I did my best to avoid doing any of those things, but hell, it turned out loving Lily meant I was doing shit all over the place I’d rather not do.
“Get on the back of my bike before I bend you over it and make your ass red,” I rasped.
Christ, this woman held my fucking heart in her hands and she had no idea how much power she had over it. No fucking idea at all. I loved her like I’d never loved anyone and I’d go to my grave trying to make her happy. Even if that meant eating two fucking desserts, watching a show I couldn’t stand, and walking along a fucking river.
Four Years After Wedding #1
King
I took one last drag on my smoke and then stubbed it out as I contemplated the fact I had to head down to Melbourne again. In the last month, I’d been away from home nineteen days. Days I didn’t want to be away from Lily and the kids. The only thing that put my mind at ease was that she’d finally stopped working and could rest. Her nausea and vomiting had eased, however her energy levels hadn’t picked up much. I didn’t like leaving her like this.
“I thought you said you’d try to quit from today.”
I turned at the sound of Lily’s voice. She exited the house to join me out on the back deck. I took note of the tone in her voice and her body language; she was in a mood and coming my way with the look of a woman ready for an argument.
Fuck.
After a long hard day handling club business, I knew I didn’t have the patience to deal with her pregnancy hormones tonight, especially if this was her choice of argument. She’d been on my case about giving up smoking for a couple of months. It was the last thing I wanted to think about right now.
Ignoring what she said, I asked, “Are the kids down?”
She moved next to me at the railing and scowled. “Don’t do that, King. Don’t ignore me when I say something to you.”
Scrubbing my face, I muttered, “Fuck, Lily, can we not get into this shit tonight? I just want one night without an argument with you.”
Her eyes widened. “I don’t argue with you every night. I just—”
“It sure fucking feels like it lately.”
“Well lately you’re hardly home, so I don’t know how it sure fucking feels like it.”
“Jesus, is that what this is about?”
“No, this is about you doing what you said you’d do.”
“I never fucking said I’d quit smoking. I said I’d think about it.”
“And let me guess, you’ve thought about it and—”
“Fucking hell,” I snapped, “Enough! I didn’t come home from a shitty fucking day so I could cop more shit from you.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “You should go back to the clubhouse then.” With that, she pushed off from the railing and stalked towards the door to g
o back inside.
I stalked after her, my own anger flaring, ready to lash out. Grabbing her arm, I yanked her to me. Eyes glued to hers, I growled, “No fucking way am I going back to the clubhouse. I’m leaving first thing in the morning for Melbourne and I have no clue when I’ll be home, so this is not a night for me to be away from you. I don’t fucking care if I have to carry you kicking and screaming to bed, you will be sleeping right fucking next to me tonight.”
She slapped me away, fighting me in a way she didn’t usually do. Lily often got worked up, but not this much. When I caught her wrists in an effort to stop her, and pulled her into my embrace, she lost her shit completely. “King! Let me go! I’m not in the mood for your bossy asshole shit tonight. I’m just here trying to look out for your health, but honestly I don’t know why I bother because you don’t seem to give one shit about it. You want to bring children into the world, but you don’t care enough to do everything in your power to ensure you live as long as you can for us.”
I tightened my grip on her instead of loosening it. My temper was close to breaking point, and while I worked hard to keep it from spilling over, I wasn’t gentle with the way I held her. “Are you fucking finished?” I demanded.
She jerked in my hold, a storm of fury and passion. “No I’m not fucking finished! I hate nagging you. Like, I really fucking hate being that woman, but I’ve had four years with you and they’ve been the best four years of my life, so I don’t want you to die anytime soon. That’s why I’ll keep nagging you about this. And you can keep being the same old King you’ve always been when it comes to our arguments, pushing and bossing your way into whatever you want, but I’m not ever going to stop fighting you on this.”