King (Sydney Storm MC 7)

“Hey you,” I said. “Where are you?”

“Not too far away now. I’m just checking in to see how everything is going there? Did Linc come through for you?”

An unexpected feeling of serenity washed over me. All week I’d been stressing and having meltdowns over the phone with King, and all week he’d moved mountains to ease my stress and get home in time. Sure, he’d been his usual moody, bossy self doing it, but the fact was, he always had my best interests at heart. And the thing I’d finally come to understand was that when I just allowed him to care for me, that in itself was one way I could care for him. Because when King knew those he loved were okay, he was okay.

This realisation didn’t mean I was about to always just blindly let him take over our lives, but I was going to pick my battles with him more wisely.

“Yes, Linc came through. The kids are with him while we take care of the final preparations here, and then he’s going to bring them home early tomorrow morning to get ready for the wedding.”

“Good. I’m hoping this road is going to open soon, which should put me home by morning.”

I gripped the phone tighter. “I miss you.”

He turned silent for a moment. “Yeah.” It came out on a gruff rumble, and I knew that one word conveyed so many more words that didn’t come easily to him, but that he felt. My man was economical with his words, but I felt his feelings from miles away.

“King,” I started and then stopped.

“What?”

“I don’t need any more boundaries surrounding our love. I love us just the way we are. And I love you just the way you are.”

Silence again, and then—“Fucking hell, I should go away more often.”

I smiled, bigger this time. “You should not.” And then, to play with him a bit, I said, “Just so you know, I’ve never been hornier than I am this week. I’m really freaking hoping you get home before the morning, because I’m not sure I can wait for you to fuck me tomorrow night.”

“Who the fuck said anything about waiting until tomorrow night?”

Lust flooded my veins. “Okay, we need to end this call now because I’ve got a house full of people and can’t do what I really want to do.”

“Is your mother there?”

I sighed. “No.”

“Lily. Get your ass over to her place and fix this because the wedding isn’t going ahead if she’s not there.”

That surprised me. I didn’t think there was anything that would stop King from marrying me. “Turns out you like my mother, huh?”

“Fuck,?

?? he muttered, “One of you will be the death of me, and I’d rather it be you than her, so sort your shit out and let me know once you have.”

“I love you even more for loving her, even if you won’t admit it.”

“Get some sleep tonight.”

They were his final words before he ended the call. I dropped my phone on the couch and savoured the moment.

I was happy.

The happiest I’d ever been in my life.

It seemed that even in the storms of life, calm existed. In amongst the chaos and turmoil of relationships, peace existed. And it seemed, happiness weaved its way through it all. We just had to allow it in instead of fighting against it.

“I’ll wait out here while you go in and talk to her,” Brynn said half an hour later as we sat outside our mother’s house.

“Why?”

“Ah, because you’ve both been awful to deal with this week and I don’t want anything to do with this conversation. You know, out of all the fights you two have ever had, this one feels like the worst. I’ve never seen Mum so upset.”