So I knew when I pushed open that pink door that Lou would be asleep in her bed but I wasn’t prepared for what the sighta her curled up in a fuckin’ frilly white-and-pink bed would do to my cock.
I felt like the fuckin’ monster under the bed come to play with the little girl bedded down in it.
My cock hardened with each step as I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed to take off my boots.
She didn’t stir.
It was the first night she hadn’t spent in my bed in a week and there was no way after a night like the one I’d just had that I was okay goin’ to bed without her warmth beside me.
When I’d shucked the boots, I shrugged off my leather jacket, unbuckled my jeans and tugged off my shirt before leanin’ down into the bed to get a closer look at the girl who’d stolen this monster’s cold heart.
Her eyelids were pale purple and there were faint bruises at the tops of her cheeks. I frowned as I brushed a thumb over the silky bruises and wondered if I wasn’t lettin’ her get enough sleep. Those lids pulled slowly open when I slid my workingman’s hand ’cross her cheek and down her neck.
She stared at me without fear, her pure blue eyes filled with wonder instead.
“Zeus,” she breathed like I was a fuckin’ dream come true. “You’re here.”
I kissed her warm, sleep-soft mouth. Without hesitation, she kissed me back, sliding her small wet tongue against mine in an innocent way that had me groanin’.
When I pulled back to look into her face, she was frownin’.
“Bad day for my guardian monster,” she whispered, her hand comin’ up to stroke my cheek and into my hair.
Fuck but her sweetness did me in.
“Roughest in a while, all good now I got my girl with me,” I told her honestly.
“What happened?”
“Not tellin’ you much, Lou. Not ever and that’s for your own good, yeah? But there’s stuff goin’ down with another gang, Nightstalkers, and shit’s gonna get violent and real before it gets gone. Need you to know and need you to be fuckin’ careful, yeah? Don’t leave Mute’s fuckin’ side when you’re not with me.”
“You’re more than angry. I think you might even be scared,” she noticed like the sharp shooter she was.
I rubbed a weary hand over my tired eyes. “They went after King’s woman last year. Seems they’re gearin’ up to go after family again.”
“But why?” she asked, and I forgot that she was so fuckin’ innocent in all of this.
“Got a business that keeps me cash rich and morally poor, Lou. Lotsa people want a piece of that, good ones and bad. This club wants what The Fallen has and they’ve decided the best way to take it is by cripplin’ us with death and debt.”
“Fuck.”
“Burned down coupla our operations but it’s the threats, I’m not down with. Can’t have my kids getting’ hurt,” I leaned down to suck her bottom lip into my mouth. “Can’t have my girl getting’ hurt, either.”
She bit the lip I’d sucked, not realizin’ how it made my dick twitch. “I think my dad’s involved in it somehow. I heard him talking to Lionel after my cat-fight with H.R. earlier and it seemed like he was in trouble.”
I went solid. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
She did, her eyes faraway as she told me the names involved in the scheme.
“Don’t know who the fuck Mitch, Jack and Javier are, but Ace fuckin’ Munford is the motherfuckin’ rat who’s the reason things went down the way they did at First Light Church the day of the shootin’,” I told her. “He’s Blackjack’s deadbeat dad.”
I didn’t realize I was vibrating ’til Lou’s warm hands slid up my arms and squeezed. “Text someone else to take over for the rest of the night and get in here with me. The bad guys and conspiracy theories will still be there in the morning. I want to feel my man beside me.”
My heart burned ’cause the old thing wasn’t used to feelin’ so much. Her easy acceptance of my violent life and me was a gift I’d never get tired of receivin’.
“Lose the pants,” she added when I got up to get in.
I chuckled softly but did as my girl wanted and lost ’em. Her eyes tracked over my chest and abs, down my legs and back up to the hard-on pressin’ hard against my boxers.
“I’m in your little girl’s room, you think that’s not a fuckin’ turn on?” I asked her as I slid into the bed and hauled her against my body.
She settled warm and womanly against me and laughed. “You think I wasn’t wet the second I saw you in here like some dark demon come to use me?”