Relent (Sydney Storm MC 1)

Shit just got real.

***

I gazed at Evie sitting in the bed. She’d progressed from lying down all the time to sitting for a while each day. I knew from experience how painful broken ribs were, and I also knew how long they took to recover from.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, keeping her eyes on mine.

I smirked and pushed off from the wall to walk to the bed. Sitting next to her, I said, “I was thinking that my dick could shrivel up from lack of use over the next month or so.”

“Really? Such deep thoughts you have, Kick,” she said with a wink.

“That was your opportunity to tell me we could work without your pussy on this.”

“Well, we could . . . you’ve always got two hands to take care of business,” she responded, with a teasing gleam in her eye.

“Sweetheart, I’d much rather your hands sign up for this job.”

She laughed and fuck if that didn’t turn me the fuck on. Jesus, Evie only had to look at me these days and I was almost blowing a load. Her laugh didn’t last long, though, because it caused her pain and she winced. But then she grew serious and asked, “Do you ever think we’ll get to play with your toys?”

I shifted off the bed and threw my hands in the air. “Fuck, baby, you can’t do that to a man when he’s got no fuckin’ hope of getting a hard-on taken care of.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bring your toys up.” She really did look apologetic, but that was no good to me once my dick was already hard.

I placed my finger to my lips. “Shhh, don’t mention the toys again. At least not until you can fix this shit,” I said, pointing to my hard cock.

Nodding, she opened her mouth to say something, but we were interrupted by a knock at the front door. I left her and went to answer the door. My brother and sister stood on the other side, surprising the hell out of me. Lina pushed past me before I could stop her, and asked, “Is Evie in her bedroom?”

I’d forgotten she knew this house; Evie and Lina had been close until the last time I broke up with Evie. “Yeah, just go on through,” I muttered, knowing full well my sister wouldn’t listen to me if I told her to wait.

Braden grinned at me as he took a step inside. “How are you, little brother?”

“Fuck, man, I’m tired. It’s been a long week. And you?” I closed the door behind him.

“I’m good. Heard you had a blow up at Mum.”

I raked my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, that woman . . .” my voice drifted off as thoughts of her cut through me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever work my anger at her out of my system.

“I get it. I told her not to come around my place anymore, too,” he admitted.

“Good. She doesn’t deserve a place in our lives.”

We’d made it to Evie’s bedroom and she caught the last piece of our conversation. She looked up at me and asked, “Who doesn’t deserve a place in your life?”

“Mum.”

Lina piped up. “Oh, speaking of people who don’t deserve a place in our lives . . . Dave has been given a transfer for work. He’ll be leaving in a week.”

I was concerned for her, and what this would mean but at the same time, I was over the fucking moon he wouldn’t be around to harass her anymore. “Are you okay with that?” I asked, watching her closely for her real feelings on the matter.

Her face lit up with a smile. “Yes, because it gives us both space to move on, and it also gets him away from me and the kids when he’s been drinking, which seems to be more often than not these days.”

Evie reached for Lina’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “That’s great, Lina,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah, thank fuck,” I said, meaning every word of it.

For the first time in a long time, it felt like our families were healing and growing, and good shit was happening.

It had been a long time coming.