King's Wrath (Sydney Storm MC 5)

She was silent for a beat. “No. He told me he likes to do it with someone, but that none of his friends like it.”

“Well, dude must be hot. You hate fishing. Make sure you ask him how he selected his profession. I’ve always wondered why someone would have sex for cash. I mean, it’s hard enough to have good sex. I can’t

imagine having shitty sex more than once a day.”

“That’s because Linc didn’t know what the hell he was doing and neither have any of the guys you’ve dated since him. Maybe Mum will hook you up, too, and maybe the guy’ll know what he’s doing.”

I finished my smoke as I said, “If she sends a guy my way, I’ll put him to good use in my kitchen while I go take a bath and a nap.”

“Hey, before you go, how did you go with Zara and the boy problem?”

“Ugh, did you have to remind me about that?” My fourteen-year-old was giving me grey hairs long before any woman should have them. Her obsession with boys was out of control. “I told her the only way she’d have a night-time date with that boy was with me or her father in attendance.”

“You know, just because you didn’t have these issues with Holly doesn’t mean you can bury your head in the sand over this. At some point, you’re going to have to let her out on a date.”

“I do. She can go out with him in the daytime, but no fucking way am I allowing her out at night with him.” It was beyond me how I’d managed to raise such different girls. Holly was all about study rather than boys, while I was fairly sure Zara didn’t even know what a textbook looked like.

“What’s the difference?”

“There’s a huge difference! Babies get made at night.”

“Oh, God, please tell me you aren’t that naïve. Babies can get made during the day, too.”

“Brynn, I’m not that naïve, but I know from what Linc and I did when we were kids that there’s more likelihood of sex at night. I do not want Zara having a baby at seventeen like I did.”

“Jesus, Lil, it doesn’t matter what you and Linc did. The fact is that if Zara wants to sleep with this boy, she won’t care if the sun is shining or not.”

I knew she was right. God did I know that. But for the life of me, I couldn’t get my brain to think any differently than it did, and it was screaming at me not to let my daughter out at night with a boy. I was so fucking terrified of my girls making the same mistakes I had. I’d managed to get Holly to sixteen without a pregnancy so far, and I’d do whatever it took to get Zara there, too.

“I’m hanging up on you now. And let me tell you that when you have a daughter, I’ll be the first one to say ‘I told you so.’ Girls plus boys plus no sun equals babies.”

She laughed. “Fine, be stubborn. I promise I’ll be the good aunt who is there to make sure your kid is okay when she refuses to talk to you because you’ve turned into your own mother.”

“I am not turning into my mother.” Good fucking God, I better not be.

“Lil,” she said softly, “you are. But I still love you. Just don’t start sending me male prostitutes. I’ll have to reassess the relationship if you start doing that shit.”

The door to the patio opened and my ex stuck his head out.

“Shit, Brynn, I’ve gotta go. Linc’s just turned up.” And I’m going to fucking kill him.

“I’ll get on my knees and start sending prayers up for Linc’s life.”

I ended the call and took a step toward the man who consumed way too much of my time these days. “Did you have a brain fart, Linc? Because I could have sworn I asked you to stop showing up at breakfast time without warning.”

His face pulled into the scowl I could trace with my eyes closed I’d known it for so long. “Why you gotta be such a smartass all the damn time, woman? And why can’t a man show up at the house where his children live whenever he has something for them?”

Oh, he wanted to get into it, did he?

I moved closer to him, fixing a shitty look of my own on my face. “One, don’t call me woman. I’m not your woman, and I haven’t been your woman for a good three years. Two, it’s a pity the father of my children only wants to show up to visit said children when it suits him. And three, my bank account seems to be minus a few numbers this week, so if you have something for the kids, you suck. They’d rather have their excursion fees paid and their swimming fees paid and their—”

He raised his hands in defence. “Okay, I get your point, Lily. You don’t need to go on. The money should be going in your account today. And for the record, you never used to be this bitchy.”

I lifted my brows. Fuck him. “And you used to handle your shit.”

Shoving his fingers through his hair, he muttered, “Fuck. I’ve had a bad month. There’s not much work coming in, okay?”

“Okay? Are you kidding me? I get that things are tight, but would it have killed you to warn me? Or to pick up the phone and let me know that the cash was going to be late? Because let me tell you, this mama already has enough shit to stress over. So don’t come at me, all casual and ‘I’ve got presents for the kids’ when I’m over here spending my nights trying to figure out how to pay the damn electricity bill because you didn’t uphold your end of this parenting gig.” And not for the first time.