Forever Lucy (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 5)

by Terri Anne Browning

  “All I know is that Trinity is a tomboy, and I like it that way,” he told his bandmates and the Demons still standing with the group. “But if I had to choose one of these boys to love my daughter as much as my son loves Lucy, I would pick Lyric over there.”

  At the mention of my youngest brother, I glanced back over to where Shane had crouched down in front of the twins and Violet. Luca’s jaw was clenched, and he was still holding on to Violet’s hand. Or, more accurately, Violet was holding on to his hand and was stubbornly refusing to release it. But Shane’s attention was on Lyric, who had distracted the raging Demon, and the two seemed to be having a serious conversation about something that had relaxed Shane’s face a little.

  “Hey now,” Liam protested. “My Piper has already called dibs on him.”

  “She can call dibs all she wants, but we all know he’s gonna fall in love with Shaw,” Axton argued.

  I lifted both my hands, stopping them all before they started fighting over my little brother. “Hey, let’s not marry my baby bro off to anyone for the time being. Let’s let them be kids and allow fate to do her job.”

  “Who’s marrying my son off?” Mom’s voice asked from behind me as she joined our group. Her hand touched my waist, and I hugged her side before she turned her eyes first to Dad then the rest of the rockers. “Who is Ric marrying?”

  Dad nodded his head to the others. “These three are calling dibs on him marrying their daughters. I say just make them sister wives and be done with it.”

  That had the three rockers cursing under their breaths and shooting Dad nasty looks, but Mom snorted and rolled her eyes at them all.

  “And on that note, I’m taking our daughter away from your craziness,” she said with a laugh. She tucked her arm through mine and steered me away from the group.

  No sooner was I away from the guys than Kin appeared as if out of thin air. I had no idea where she and Jace had gotten to when we first arrived, but I was thankful for her reappearance. Mom didn’t even blink as my best friend linked her arm through her other elbow. From the moment I had first brought Kin home from school with me, Mom and Kin had bonded. Kin had needed a surrogate mother figure badly back then, and she naturally become one of the family. Mom gave Kin a warm smile as she walked us over to where all the rocker wives were chatting.

  As we neared them, Lana lifted her gaze to mine and gave me an assessing once-over. I gave her the same smile I had given Dad when he’d first hugged me earlier, but she was used to seeing below the surface now that she knew my secret. She and Drake could read me nearly as well as Harris could these days. Definitely better than Mom could, that was for sure.

  “There’s the girl of the hour,” my sister said with a laugh as she pulled me away from Mom and wrapped me in a hug that soothed something deep within me. “Where the hell did you get those boots?” she cried when she pulled back a few moments later and eyed me from head to toe.

  Laughing, I hugged her again. “If you’re nice to me, I’ll let you borrow them.”

  “Borrow? Baby, I want them for my own!”

  “Too bad, so sad. They’re mine, shoe whore.”

  Lana took my hands and entwined our fingers, practically dancing with excitement. “Oh! I meant to call you, but the girls distracted me. Nev and I found you the perfect shoes for the wedding.”

  “I haven’t even found a dress yet,” I reminded her with a laugh.

  “Doesn’t matter. These babies will go with whatever you decide. I bought them for you. I’ll bring them when we go dress shopping next weekend.”

  “Great! Can’t wait to see them,” I said, starting to feel the excitement of actually finding a wedding dress. After my initial talk with Dad about the moms taking over the wedding planning, I’d forced myself to relax and let them work their magic. This might not be turning into the wedding I had originally foreseen for us, but honestly, I was just happy to be marrying Harris.

  “Don’t forget we have an appointment at the bakery on Wednesday. Harris is coming, right?” Aunt Emmie cut in, forcing Lana and me to separate and turn to face her.

  That was the first I had heard of his coming. Hell, it was the first time they had even brought up his name when it came to the planning part of the wedding. I was surprised they even wanted him to give his opinion on anything. Between Mom, Aunt Emmie, and Natalie, all Harris had to do was show up and say yes when the officiant asked if he took me for his wife.

  But I doubted she was even talking to me because it was Natalie who gave her an affirmative. Then it was like always, and they started going on and on about all the things we still had to do. Or rather, the things that I still had to “decide” on. I put my smile firmly in place and nodded whenever eyes landed on me. But on the inside, I was mentally begging them to just shut the fuck up. This was my engagement party, damn it. I didn’t want to talk about the wedding—or the million things I still had to deal with in the not so distant future.

  Thirty minutes into it, with all the rocker wives putting in their two cents and reminding us how their own weddings had been, I was tempted to say “banana” and let Kin get me out of there. As if he could sense my tension from across the room, however, Harris broke away from the group he had been pulled into.

  “Ladies,” he said with a grin. “Don’t you think we should be celebrating instead of micromanaging? Wedding planning is for later. Lu, there’s a few people I want to introduce you to.” He took my elbow and guided me backward from the group. “You can have her back later if you promise to stop talking about the wedding. If not, she’s all mine for the rest of the night.”

  Before he could drag me completely away, I snatched hold of Kin’s hand and pulled her along with us. Harris took me back to the group he had just left, which included Jace and Nate, one of the assistant managers and full-time bartender at First Bass.

  “Hey, stranger,” I greeted Nate with a grin. “Did you enjoy your vacation?”

  He lifted a thick shoulder carelessly. “I wasn’t working, so it was heaven.”

  “Good. You deserved some time off. But I know Harris missed you this past week. It takes three people to cover what you do on your own every night.”

  Nate smirked. “I’ll remember that when it’s time to ask for a raise.”

  Harris nudged me ever so slightly, letting me know he still tended to be a little jealous of the other guy, and forcing me to focus on the rest of the group. I smiled at Barb, the woman who was the other assistant manager at First Bass. Barb was thirty-five and one of the butchest lesbians I’d ever met. She was just as much one of the guys as anyone else in this group, and I adored her.

  “I’m so glad you got to come, Barb!” I said as I hugged her. “Thank you for being here.”

  “Lu, this is Cal Newton,” Harris told me, and I directed my eyes to the man he was now introducing.

  As soon as I met the beady brown eyes of the only other person in the group, I stiffened. Beside me, Kin muttered a nasty expletive, and we instantly moved closer to each other. She’d had her own run-ins with this asshole over the last few weeks. Whereas mine had been mostly just lecherous looks and sneering smiles, Kin’s had been more vocal ones.

  “Cal, my fiancée and love of my life, Lucy Thornton.”

  “We’ve met, actually,” Cal said with a smug-ass grin that made me want to throat-punch him. “But I had no idea Perfect Tits was your girl, man.”

  Every single person around me froze at the backhanded compliment the creeper had just given me, but my eyes were solely on the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. Harris blinked at the man for a long moment while I held my breath. I knew he wasn’t going to overlook the comment about my tits, and the way his hand balled into a fist told me he was trying to rein in his temper. “You’ve met?”

  “He lives in our building, Harris,” I hissed under my breath.

  “I know he lives in our building,” he muttered back, still looking confused but more and more menacing now that he was getting the fu
ll impact of how unhappy I was. “I got him the apartment. Cal’s my liquor supplier.”

  “Oh yeah? How long has he been your supplier?” Kin asked over my head.

  Harris was still watching me closely as he answered her. “A few months now. Cal can get me a few things the other guy couldn’t.”

  “Hmm, well good for Cal,” Kin sneered.

  “What’s with you, babe?” Jace questioned, pulling his girlfriend close, and if she hadn’t been holding on to my hand, I probably would have missed the way she trembled against him.

  “Remember the slimeball I was telling you about?” He nodded, and I could feel the spark in the air around us as she lifted a hand toward Cal. “Meet Mr. Sleazebag Creeperton.”

  “No fucking way,” Jace growled in a voice I’d never heard from him before. I pulled Kin away from him as his eyes became wild.

  Harris turned to stone on my other side, and I lifted my gaze to meet his eyes. “This is the guy who has been harassing you and Kin?”

  I shrugged. “He hasn’t really said anything to me. Just makes me uncomfortable. But yeah, he’s harassed Kin.”

  “And Kassa,” Jace snarled.

  Oh, shit.

  I hadn’t known Cal was doing the same to Jace’s sister. My eyes darted from Harris across the room and straight to where Gray Knight was drinking beers with his friends Kale and Sin. They stood by a table where Jenna, Angie, and Kassa were sitting and laughing together. Even as I looked at Gray, I watched him tear his eyes from Kassa and turn them to Kale, but seconds later, they were back on her again. It was a little heartbreaking for me to watch them. Kassa and Gray were best friends, but I could see there was something more. Only neither of them seemed willing to change that.

  Yet.

  Barb, the cooler head in our little group, tried to defuse the tension we could all feel was simmering. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but maybe we could take this outside so the happy couple’s special night isn’t ruined.”

  “Barb’s right. I think we should definitely take this outside,” Jace gritted out.

  Cal, seeming immune to the atmosphere now, grinned like he didn’t have a care in the world. “What? You want to punch me in the face for talking to a little piece of ass?” His eyes raked over Kin then me, and I knew someone was about to get hurt.

  Breathe.

  I closed my eyes and held my breath, waiting for it to all be over.

  Just breathe.

  I felt someone move, heard the sound of skin hitting skin and a loud thump as Cal hit the floor at my feet.

  The entire room was suddenly deathly quiet, and all I could hear was the sound of my own breathing.

  “Shit,” Barb muttered.

  Just. Breathe.

  Chapter 2

  Harris

  “…perfect tits … piece of ass…”

  Those words kept echoing in my head as I glared down at Cal’s motionless body at Lucy’s feet. I hadn’t dealt with Cal all that much personally, just enough to be friendly in passing whenever he came in to First Bass to have me sample some new products his company was trying out with their other clients. Barb mostly dealt with him since I had stepped back a little from the club to spend more time with Lucy. When Cal said he had broken up with his latest fuckbuddy a few months back, I had let him know that a few apartments in my building were available for rent.

  That had been the end of it. I’d had no idea which apartment he’d rented other than that he had indeed gotten one of the three. Hadn’t even suspected he was the motherfucker who was making Lu uncomfortable to so much as ride the damn elevator alone, not to mention talking so lewdly to Kassa and Kin, and even Jenna a few times.

  Realizing I was the one who had put this sleazebag in their path was killing me, but I was going to remedy that, and soon. It would take a few phone calls, but I would find out who was renting to Cal and have his ass out of my building by the end of the week. Because if this sorry piece of shit ever looked at Lucy like he just had again, I was going to do more than knock his ass out.

  I’d kill the motherfucker.

  “Barb, find me a new liquor supplier. And make sure this idiot’s boss knows why we won’t be doing business with them ever again,” I barked.

  “Sure thing,” she assured me, stepping over Cal’s prone body with a disgusted twist of her lips.

  “Harris.” Lucy’s voice was calm, but when she touched my throbbing hand, I felt her fingers trembling. Lowering my eyes to her, I watched as she carefully stroked her thumb over my knuckles, and I realized I had split the skin across them.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Jesse Thornton’s voice boomed as he and my dad came over to us. The loudness of his voice only emphasized to me how quiet the rest of the room was. With this many people in the same room, that was a feat all its own, and I mentally cursed the scene I had caused at our engagement party. But I didn’t regret knocking that sonofabitch out for a single second

  “Nothing,” I muttered.

  “Nothing? Son, you just knocked this guy out.” Dad’s eyes scanned over the rest of us. “Want to clue us in as to why?”

  “I didn’t like the words coming out of his fucking mouth,” I snapped, wishing Dad would just shut the fuck up about it. I wanted this over, wanted that piece of shit out of here so I could forget about his ass and get back to what was really important. Celebrating with my future wife. “So I shut him up.”

  The two drummers shared a look then shrugged. “Right,” Jesse said with a nod, seeming calm as hell, like this wasn’t a big deal. Like he dealt with this shit all the time. Back before he had married Layla, that was pretty damn close, but not now. “Well, we’ll just get this cleaned up for you, boy.” Bending, they each grabbed an arm.

  “Wait.” Jace stopped them before they could drag a still unconscious Cal away. I didn’t have to look at my friend to know just how pissed he was. He’d been ready to knock that fucker out too. I’d just beat him to it. “Let me and Gray help you with that. Gray!” he called over.

  Dad chuckled as Gray jogged over and picked up one of Cal’s legs. “Sure, boys. The more, the merrier. Like old times, eh, Jess?”

  “Yeah, man. But I’m starting to remember why this shit got so old fast. Bodies are damn heavy when you gotta carry their dead weight.”

  I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I kept my own trained on Lucy’s bent head. She was being quiet, too quiet. “Lu?”

  “I don’t think you need stitches,” she murmured calmly as she continued to examine my hand. If it weren’t for her still trembling fingers, I wouldn’t have realized just how much the scene had affected her. She lifted her head, but she looked up at me through her lashes. “Come with me to the bathroom so I can clean you up.”

  “Lucy?” Layla called out as Lucy led me toward the bathrooms.

  “Harris, are you okay?” Natalie took a step toward us, but I lifted my free hand to ward her off and shot her a look that told her now wasn’t the best time. I didn’t want to have to explain to my stepmother why I’d just ruined my own engagement party. All I wanted was to get Lucy away from this crowd and find out if she was okay.

  She had been unusually quiet during most of the exchange with Cal, and that wasn’t like her. I didn’t know if she was just upset I had invited the bastard to the party or if she was keeping something from me. My girl usually came out swinging when stupid idiots like Cal said shit like he had. Hell, she’d nearly broken her hand at First Bass when some guy had tried to talk to her like that.

  Outside the bathrooms, she glanced behind us to make sure no one had followed and then pulled me into the women’s bathroom. The room was empty, and she locked the door as soon as it was shut before tugging me over to the sinks and turning on the warm water. She released me to grab a few paper towels and dampened them.

  I watched her work on cleaning my knuckles, trying to figure out if I should be apologizing or demanding she tell me what was going through her head.

  “Lu…” I started b
ut stopped when she lifted her head. Our eyes locked, and my lips twitched with the beginnings of a smirk at the banked need I saw shining out of her brown eyes. “Fuck, sweetness. Why didn’t you say something? I would have taken care of you.” I took the paper towels from her and tossed them in the trash can behind me before grabbing her by the waist and lifting her onto the sink.

  Her fingers fisted in my jacket and pulled me closer. I had to bend my knees to give her what she wanted, but as soon as my lips were close enough, she made that damn little whimpering sound, and I knew it was game over. That sound told me she was aching, and I couldn’t let her hurt.

  Lifting her with one arm, I pulled the skirt of her dress up over her hips then tugged her panties down. As soon as her perfect ass was planted on the tiled top again, I was cupping the sweet heat of her pussy. When I thrust two fingers into her tightness, she made that damn whimpering sound again, and I touched my lips to hers. “Try to be quiet for me, sweetness. Too many ears here for you to give me those little screams like when we’re at home.”

  Her fingers started working on my belt. “Can’t make any promises,” she panted as she easily undid my button before reaching inside my boxers and cupping her silky fingers around my throbbing cock.

  I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against hers. “We shouldn’t do this here,” I groaned, trying to hold on to my control. I would get her off, and then we could go back to the party. Or home. Fuck, I wanted to take her home so damn badly.

  “I need you. Now,” she whispered with the smallest trace of a sob. “I missed you all day, and then seeing the way you dropped that asshole out there… I’m so wet for you, Harris. I need you so fucking much right now.” I thrust a third finger into her, felt her stretch and then clench around them. “Please!”