“Fuckin’ Danner,” he finally said with his boyish grin. “Always stickin’ his neck in where it doesn’t belong. Gotta say I’m grateful he’s takin’ care of H.R., though. God knows she needs watching over.”
“Don’t let her hear you say that.” I winked at him as I opened the oven and slotted the pie into the racks. “She’d have your balls.”
“She would,” he agreed proudly. “Still, I’m tellin’ you, Wrath, risking my balls and all, because my sister is my responsibility, and now, I’m hopin’, she’s yours.”
Wrath and King locked eyes, sharing something between them that only two men with a code of honour built on brotherhood and masculinity could fully understand.
“’S already done, to tell you the truth of it,” he finally said with that rusty chuckle. “She and Lion were bein’ idiots moonin’ over each other, so I stepped up. You hear talk she’s my woman now, don’t be surprised.”
King groaned and knocked his forehead against the table dramatically, making me laugh as I made my way toward him. Instantly, he pushed back his chair and made room for me to sit on his lap. “In bed with a cop and a rival MC biker…fuck me, if Zeus hears of this, he’ll come down on H.R. like the hammer of God.”
“We won’t let it come to that,” Wrath assured. “I got that situation under control so long as you keep takin’ care of my girl.”
We weren’t really taking care of her, but we had arranged for her to live with Eugene up in his secluded mountain cabin so that she would be out of sight and out of mind of her filicide-inclined father. Eugene wasn’t officially affiliated with the club so if for some reason one of the Berserkers went looking for Kylie, they’d only find her visiting a friend of her family or shacked up with some random older guy. Only King and Eugene knew of the arrangement with Wrath, and I knew King planned to keep it that way, both for Kylie’s protection and as an ace up his sleeve should he need to use Wrath’s info to deepen his position in The Fallen.
Just because he was the son of the Prez didn’t mean King was exempt from earning his spot in the club.
There was the sound of tires on the gravel outside, and instantly, Wrath’s face transformed from his normally taciturn expression to one of absolute ecstasy.
“She’s here,” he said, almost to himself, and then he was up and stalking across the kitchen to the front door.
King buried his nose in my hair and chuckled softly. “Should we leave them to it?”
“We could…but this is my favourite part,” I admitted, wriggling off his lap even though he playfully tried to grab me.
“My hopeless romantic,” he teased even as he followed me to the door.
“Hopeless before you,” I agreed as we halted in the door, and he wrapped his arms around my waist, chin perched on my shoulder so we could watch the separated lovers greet each other. “Not so much now.”
He pressed a kiss to my ear in silent acknowledgement of my sappiness.
And we watched.
Kylie was out of the car like a shot, slamming the door in her haste before sprinting toward Wrath, curling black hair flying behind her, long dark legs churning, arms outstretched.
“Wes,” she cried out seconds before she launched herself into the air like a pole vaulter and was caught in the large bracket of Wrath’s embrace.
Instantly, he contracted, bringing her tight to his body, her limbs wrapped around him like ivy, their faces tucked into each other’s necks as if they need to feel the other’s pulse beat against their cheeks. Reassurance, after so long apart, that they were both alive and well.
It made my heart ache to watch them, as it did every time they had reunited since Wrath brought her to us for protection some months ago. I couldn’t imagine being separated from King. The longest we ever went without physical contact was when he went on runs down the coast with the club, and that was never for longer than two weeks. He felt too elemental to me to be parted with for long.
As if sensing my thoughts, King used his nose to push my hair away from my neck and kissed my pulse point. “You know, sometimes, even when I hold you like this, bein’ with you feels like a dream I have no business dreamin’.”
“I pinch myself every day,” I admitted. “Who would have known the prissy school teacher would be so happy with the gorgeous rebel?”
“Didn’t doubt it.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved my hips back into him. “Born to be king, doesn’t doubt a thing.”
He laughed, and the warm waft of his breath on my neck made me shiver with longing. “Everyone’s got doubts. Even I’m not exempt from that. Just never doubted my longing for you, Cress babe. Not for a single fuckin’ second.”