King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC #6)(70)

He stopped all movement and stared down at me. Shaking his head as he let my hands go, he said, “I fucking love you, woman, but you are gonna cause me no fucking end of headaches.”

I stilled, all previous thoughts whooshing out of my mind. Gripping his biceps, I said, “You cannot tell me you fucking love me while shaking your head at me, King. If you really mean it, you need to tell me while not shaking your head.”

He continued staring down at me, silently now. And then he angled his face so he could kiss me. This time it wasn’t as savage or as urgent. This time it felt like he had all the time in the world to devote to my mouth. I lost myself in this kiss. I never wanted it to end. When King took it upon himself to give a girl a kiss she would never forget, he outdid himself. And when he did finally let my lips go, I felt every ounce of his hesitation to do so. “I fucking love you, and I’ll show you how to use my gun, but I will do everything in my fucking power to ensure you never need to use it like you did today.”

All my fight disappeared as I smiled up at him. “I love you, too, baby,” I said softly.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he thrust in again. “You fucking kill me.”

He then spent the next two hours fucking me before wrapping me in his arms in bed and holding me close. We didn’t speak for a long time until I finally said, “I’ve listened to everything you’ve had to say about me not trying to protect you, and you need to know something. Your job is to worry and protect. My job is to nurture. And sometimes, part of nurturing is protecting. Just so you know.”

His lips twitched ever so slightly and then he kissed me before saying, “Are you good if I get back to the clubhouse and take care of some shit?” He watched me intently for my answer, almost like he wasn’t convinced leaving me was a good idea.

I nodded. “I’m made of some tough stuff, dude. Today was hard and it sucked and I’m not keen to ever have another day like it, but I’m okay. My kids and sister are going to be home soon, and I’m gonna spend the afternoon hugging them tightly and loving on them. And then you’re gonna come over tonight and love on me. So yeah, I’m good.”

He lifted a brow. “Dude?”

I grinned. “Yeah. Dude.”

He kissed me one last time before leaving the bed and dressing.

After he’d left, I thought about what I’d said to him. I did feel like I was made of tough stuff, but I was shaken by the events of the day. I wouldn’t make a huge song and dance about that, though. King had enough on his plate, and if I believed one thing, it was that while I would share my life with him, I would do what I could not to add to his worries. Life was never easy, but every hardship built a little more strength and a little more character. And I had the grit to weather any storm so long as I had him by my side. He could do the worrying. I would do the nurturing. And together we could protect and look out for each other.





29





King





“You want a beer, King?” Kree asked late Friday afternoon as the boys started rolling in after taking care of business for the day.

I shook my head. “I’m heading over to Lily’s soon.”

She smiled as she wiped the top of the bar. “She’s good for you.” At the lift of my brow, she said, “I saw you smile today. She’s good for you.”

Kick sat on the stool next to me, grinning as he overheard what Kree said. “I saw him smile yesterday, too.”

“Fucking hell,” I muttered. After Kree had moved on to take someone else’s order, I said to Kick, “You sort Brian out?”

“Yeah, I gave him that cash and took care of the repairs that needed doing around the place. And he said to tell you Ivy has found a job.”

“Good.”

Hyde joined us, a pissed off look on his face. “I just heard the news report on Gambarro. We should have moved sooner on him before they arrested the asshole.”

“Yeah, brother,” I agreed. “But we’ve waited this fucking long to get to him, we can be patient for a while longer.”

Hyde frowned. “What the fuck, King? Did you take some happy fucking pills or some shit today?”

I moved off my stool and grinned. “Think about it, Hyde. Gambarro fucked a lot of people off who are in prison because of him. Way I see it is that now he gets fucked over in there while they all take their turn with him, and then we can either have him taken care of inside or we can wait our turn and take care of him ourselves when he gets out. Either way, he’s gonna get a lot of what’s coming to him and we won’t have to work as hard to make that shit happen.”

The feds had arrested the motherfucker this morning. He’d been my first gift to Isabel Stark. I’d thought long and hard about whether to hand shit over to her so she knew where to look for her evidence, but in the end, I decided my club had been through enough. We were finally beginning to get back to normal business; I didn’t wanna put them through another hard battle. I’d let Gambarro go to prison and see where the dust settled. Patience might not have ever been a strength of mine, but a man could fucking change.

A text came through on my phone.



Lily: I think I’m about to take up smoking again.

Me: Why

Lily: Zara.

Me: Fuck