King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC 6)

I stared at the messages, at the simple and uncomplicated way with which Lily acted. She’d put up a fight when I’d told her we weren’t done, but I’d expected that. I’d anticipated that would continue longer than it did, but something had shifted in her since last night, and she appeared to have let it go. I’d fucking make shit up to her for what I did, but that she didn’t play games or screw me around meant a fuck of a lot.

I left the clubhouse an hour after she’d messaged me about the milk, grabbed some on the way over, and arrived just after she’d had a screaming match with Zara. I knew this because she yanked the front door open with the force of a crazed woman, eyes wild, stepped outside, and dragged me onto the front lawn before producing a cigarette and begging me, “Do you have a lighter on you? Zara may be fucking pregnant, which may mean I’m about to kill some fucking teenage boy who should not have chosen my daughter to mess around with. And I need a fucking smoke to deal with this, which means I will have to kill that little fucker twice, because I’m supposed to be quitting cigarettes, and if he got my kid pregnant, I am most definitely not quitting cigarettes.”

I eyed her, trying like hell not to smile. Lily had a way of lighting my fucking world, just by being her. She didn’t have to do shit for me or work any special magic. All she had to do was look at me or smile at me or go on about the shit she was dealing with, and I felt better than before I saw her.

Pulling out my lighter, I said, “That’s a fuckload of fucks, woman.” It was unlike Lily to swear so much, which only told me how worked up she was over this.

She ripped the lighter from my hand, still crazed as fuck. “Yeah, because they are necessary!” Lighting the smoke, she sucked nicotine deep into her lungs.

“What’s going on with Zara? You know for sure she had sex?”

“No, she won’t confirm it, but I read some texts on her phone from that little shit, and I’m almost completely certain she has.”

Lily was fucking hot when she was worked up like this. I had to work harder than usual to drag my mind from thinking about the shit I wanted to do to her. “Right, so you get through tonight, and then tomorrow you force a pregnancy test on her.”

She pulled a face as she took another drag of her smoke. “You have to wait a little while before those tests will work accurately. God, unless she had sex weeks ago, and I didn’t know. Fuck.”

In an effort to take her mind off her daughter, I said, “How’s Brynn?”

Her shoulders lifted and then dropped as she let out

a long breath, almost like she’d been holding it forever. “She’s confused and not really with it.” She gave me a small smile. “But she’s awake and that’s all that matters.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, because that really was all that fucking mattered.

She reached for the milk after she finished her smoke. “Are you hungry? I put some steak and veges in the oven for you.”

I closed the space between us and grabbed her around the waist. I needed my hands on her. Hell, I needed a lot more than that, but it was what I had to settle for. “I’m fucking starving.”

She stared up at me, aware I wasn’t referring to food. Her eyes flared with the same heat running through me. She surprised me when she said softly, almost hesitantly, “Are you sure this is what you want?”

I tightened my hold on her. “Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

Continuing to watch me with uncertainty, she said, “I’ve only ever dated a handful of guys in my life, and have mostly been with Linc, so I’m not experienced in this whole relationship thing, but I will tell you one thing—I don’t do games. I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing, at all, but I am saying, the idea of you walking away again hurts. It hurt the first time you did it, and I don’t wanna go through that again. So if you’re—”

I put my finger to her mouth. “I don’t like games either, and I don’t engage in them. I’m not going anywhere, Lily. And if you ever mention those motherfuckers you dated again, I’ll put you over my fucking knee and spank that out of you.” Bending my head, my lips grazed her ear as I growled, “You’re mine now, and I don’t fucking share.”

Her hands found my face and she took hold of it so she could direct my mouth to hers. Her grip was hard, determined, and when our lips met, she kissed me with an urgency and passion she hadn’t yet. This kiss was hot as hell, and all I wanted to do was rip her clothes off, lay her the fuck down, and slam my dick inside her.

I gave her a minute longer with my lips than I should have before tearing myself away. Jesus, it had been hard enough not having her last night—I had no fucking idea how I’d make it through tonight without getting my fill of her.

“Fuck, woman, don’t kiss me like that when I can’t do anything with it,” I rasped as I took a step away from her.

She watched me, breathless and just as aroused as I was. “Well don’t tell me I’m yours and that you don’t fucking share. That shit is hot and makes me wanna climb you.”

Jesus fuck.

“We need to move this inside,” I muttered as I put my hands to her hips and spun her around.

“You do realise that manhandling me only gets me hotter, right?” she threw over her shoulder as we walked inside.

I ignored that and focused on getting us inside so I could eat my dinner and take my mind off screwing the hell out of her. There was only so much a man could take when he was as hard as I was, and I’d reached my limit. At this point, I was calling on divine fucking intervention, and that was saying something, because like I’d told Lily today, I didn’t believe in that shit.

Robbie came screaming into the kitchen as we entered, irritation plastered across his face. After a quick glance at me, he grumbled, “Mum! Zara won’t get out of the bathroom, and I want to have a shower.”

Lily looked at her son. “She only just hopped in the shower. You need to give her some time.”

His eyes widened. “But I need a shower now!” He’d worked himself up into a state over this and looked like he was about to completely lose his shit.