“Holy crap, h-hol-y crap!” Michelle mumbles, teeth chattering away endlessly.
“You all right?” I ask her, opening the front door and flicking the light switch on. I spot a blanket and rush over to wrap it around her. Shit, and she doesn’t think I’m prince charming material.
“Number two. You’re really racking up the moments t-tonight,” she jokes, her long blonde locks in a wet mess, mascara smeared half way down her face and where she had lipstick is just a smear.
I can see the outlines of her lip liner but to me she’s the most beautiful creature on earth. “You go get in the shower and warm up. I’ll fix us something to eat while you’re doing that.” I place a hand on the small of her back, gently urging her in the direction of the bedrooms. They all have their own ensuite, so she just needs to pick one and then go get herself warmed up. I can sure as hell get her warmed up, but if I do what I want to do to her…I’ll fuck this up. Her and me. I’ll ruin it before it even starts if I make her feel like she’s just another pussy for me to get my dick wet in. I’m just thankful she doesn’t remember us fucking the other night. If she did, she wouldn’t have given me the time of day, and I’m starting to think that she’s warming up to the idea of being with me again.
Michelle walks over to one of the doors and slips inside the bedroom. While I walk over into the kitchen and survey what we have in the freezer, I decide to give Reed a call and see what it is that he’s been up to. My eyes land on a frozen supreme pizza and I grab it, popping it in the toaster oven that sets on the counter.
“Yes?”
“Someone sounds chipper.”
“You have any clue what time of night it is that you’re calling?”
“Mhm. About the time that Michelle and I just got to the lake house while driving in that shitstorm.”
“Oh. You two went up there early?” His tone is full of accusation and judgement.
After the years, you’d think that Reed would learn to mind his own business, but there is no such thing when it comes to family.
“I’m not callin’ you about Michelle. I was just wonderin’ when you were plannin’ on telling me that Wrath, Hound and Crimson were coming back into town.”
“They’re here? Where’d you see them?”
“Gee. I dunno. All of them were sittin’ at a table at Bubba’s, while Michelle was working the bar.”
“Shit,” Reed mumbles,
“Yeah, so you know exactly why I’m not in the best of moods right now. Don’t you?”
“I could take a guess.”
“Why wouldn’t you at least tell me he was coming? And why the hell wouldn’t you tell Michelle? You know they do not have the best relationship and him poppin’ up out of nowhere, after all these years can’t be doing a world of good for her.”
“I imagine it isn’t. I didn’t know if they were actually going to come. I had asked, but I didn’t think they’d manage to get their asses here before we made a move on Dwayne. Can’t say I’m disappointed, we need the extra help and Fist isn’t exactly offering much right now.”
“Why’s that?” I ask, needing to know why right now Fist can’t offer to help but every other time he seems to be the first to offer up men.
“They just finished dealing with the majority of their Demons problem, but the Bears are causing issues and from what we can all tell, the Bears and the leftover Demons are teaming up. That combined with the fact his son was sleeping with Grizzly’s daughter, shit. That is some next level Romeo and Juliet shit. I’m surprised the old man didn’t have a heart attack when he found out.”
“I can see why he isn’t exactly offering to help right now,” I comment, checking on the pizza. It’s only been five minutes, damn. “So you don’t have them here to help ambush Dmitri and Slash?”
“No. I told you I wasn’t going to ruin Bellamy’s wedding.”
“Actually, you didn’t.”
“Well, I meant to tell you.”
“Mhm,” I mumble into the receiver, not believing a bit of it.
“I’m not. Dwayne is bigger on my hit list then Dmitri is. I’m actually thinking about talking to them after the wedding, and I’d like you to be there with me when I do that.”
“You got it,” I tell him, “Look, I’m just worried with everything going on. I don’t want any rash decisions to be made, especially not in the heat of the moment.”
“Neither do I. We have families to protect now, it’s not just about our girls anymore, Kyle. We’re all growing families now and no way are we gonna let anything happen to them. Speaking of family, we need to figure out a game plan on what to do with Ramirez. I heard through the grape vine that he’s stirring up a lot more trouble then what we thought, and it’s not just us anymore.”
“That could be of benefit to us.” The enemy of our enemy is our friend. We could use whoever else he’s pissed off.
“Yeah, it could. Now I’m gonna go back into bed where my very hot wife is waiting to get fucked. Don’t call me unless the house is burning down. Actually, don’t even fuckin’ call me. Call the fire department.” With that, I’m hung up on and it’s perfect timing because the timer goes off for the pizza.
I look around for a pan, and don’t find anything to put this stupid thing on. So, I just grab a dish towel, yank the metal part out of the toaster oven and put it on the stone. Yup, that’ll work, and if there’s any germs it’ll just help boost our immune systems. Kids eat food off the floor all the time. This can’t be any worse than that.
I find a knife in the drawer, yank it out and dive it into the crust. It makes a crunchy sound, telling me that I baked the living hell out of this pizza. Kyle is no more, just call me Emeril. Pizza down, filet mignon is next. I carve out a decent slice for me and then one for Michelle. Soon I realize we don’t have any plates in this house either, shit. I should’ve been smarter and gone shopping before we decided to come up. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll grab some shit tomorrow whenever someone with a grocery getter gets here.
I hear squishy steps headed my way, and when I look up, I see Michelle in my old red flannel shirt. It more looks like a sexy nightgown on her…but I’d much rather see her in it than me. Fuck, she could make a rag look hot.
“Yum. I’m starved.” She swipes my slice of pizza out of my hand and starts going to town, moaning as she takes bite after bite.
“That was mine.”
“Yeah, key point being was. It was also the bigger piece too. Don’t think I’m dumb. I invented the game, Kyle and if you’re gonna play, you’d best remember who it is that’s your competition.”
“You know me too well.”
Michelle cocks her head to the side while she looks at me, shaking it back and forth. “No. I know you just enough.”
I grab the pizza out of her hand and put it on the paper towel, setting it on the counter quickly before I crush my lips down onto hers.
She yanks herself away, and glares at me like I’ve just committed treason. “The next time you ever take food from me will be your last. I will cut your hand off.” She pulls a knife from the butcher block and waves it around. “You know how serious I am about my food.”
I nod, handing the pizza back to her. The woman always has a way of making me laugh, no matter what the hell is going on around us.
She eats it up quickly, licks her lips and comes right up against me, staring me in the eyes.
“What?”
“You can do that thing you were doing a minute ago now. I’m fed and happy.” She bats her eyelashes up at me like the cutest thing on this planet, and if she wasn’t so hot, she would be. She can’t be cute and hot, so hot just has to take the win.
“Remember when you used to worry about bad breath before you kissed me?”
“Remember when you used to just kiss me and not give a fuck?” She counters back, causing me to pull this sarcastic smart ass straight into my arms and kiss her the way that I’ve wanted to for years.
I’m kissing her like she’s mine.
>
Cause she may not know it yet, but she is.
Chapter 16
Your gorgeous chaos was a danger to my beautiful ordinary life, and I knew that. Then suddenly, we became extraordinary together.
R. M. Drake
Michelle
I stretch my arms, feeling the clad hardness of something right up against me. Rolling over, it’s more difficult than I imagined with the gorilla’s arms wrapped around my torso.
“Kyle!” I yell, trying to get out of his super sonic death grip.
After he kissed me in the way that every girl has been dreamed of being kissed, I walked straight over to the couch in the family room and turned on the TV. There was a Halloween marathon going on and we’re both avid horror buffs, so I sat right next to him during the whole thing, until he wrapped an arm around me and I must’ve fallen asleep, leaving us to where we are right now.
“Ssssh, it’s sleepy time,” he whispers, sounding aggravated at the loudness of my voice.
“Uh huh, it sure as hell will be whenever I can get my elbow up to your fat head and knock you out!”
“Dammit, Michelle. Can’t you relax a little bit?!”
“No.”
Kyle busts into laughter, removing his arm from around me and I soon join him. He rises up enough to where I can slip over him and walk into the kitchen, doing what I really need to, finding something to eat. I open the fridge, and what my eyes settle on is truly shocking.
There’s nothing.
Not one damn thing.
“Go get my bag. We’re going out for breakfast. There’s not even a slice of cheese here. Where the hell did you find the pizza?”
“In something called the freezer.” I huff, glancing over to him and roll my eyes.
A couple minutes later, Kyle has come back from outside and hands me my bag.
I quickly walk into the bedroom I was supposed to sleep in last night and change into an oversized sweater and a pair of jeggings. Sliding on sneakers, I walk out of the room and back to where Kyle still is.
“Chop, chop. You know how I get when I’m hungry.”
“Hangry,” Kyle corrects.
I smile, nodding my head.
Kyle and I get on his bike and he takes us into the closest town, which is about twenty minutes away. There’s not much around these parts, but we don’t need a whole lot. I’m just really craving a good ol’ chocolate chip pancake…and maybe some eggs…and sausage. I just really want to eat something yummy. He pulls us off to a small little diner that looks good enough, and when we walk inside everything is adorable and completely fifties style. Super retro.
“I feel like this would’ve been a good place to come to for lunch. Betcha they pack a mean burger and shake,” I mumble, looking at the menu and my eyes land on exactly what I just said. “See! Momma’s mean milkshakes!”
“Mhm.”
“Hi Darlin’s. Can I get ya both started off?” Asks the sweet waitress who just approached our booth in a deep red dress.
“He needs about a gallon of coffee, and I would love a peach milkshake.”
“Sure thing babycakes!”
“Peach?” Kyle judges, scrunching up his face in disgust.
“They’re only the best in town. See!” I point to the menu like an excited little kid, knowing that it’s aggravating Kyle more.
Before he has his coffee, he’s a nightmare.
“Damn, girl. Chill,” Kyle grumbles and I just smirk, not letting his grumpiness bother me one bit.
We have a few minutes of silence until our waitress comes back with my milkshake and Kyle’s coffee. He’s quick to order for the both of us, and I know he doesn’t want to keep hearing overly excited bullshit. That just means I’ll have to take our conversation a little bit more serious.
“Daisy came to Bubba’s last night,” I tell him, not really planning on giving him the luxury of information that came from my discussion with her.
“Oh?”
“Yup. She basically blasted me for breaking girl code. How I shouldn’t be dating you, how I should have asked her permission first because it was the right thing to do since she dated you.”
“What did you say?” Kyle asks, bringing his coffee to his lips. I take this as the golden opportunity that it truly is, and respond at just the right time.
“I just had to remind her that I was the one with your dick in my mouth first. She took it really well!”
Kyle chokes on his coffee, glaring at me. He coughs for a minute and I offer him my milkshake to drink, which grants me another murderous look. “You didn’t actually say that.”
“No, but I did put her in her place in the most respectful way possible. It was bullshit how she came at me like that. Total and complete bullshit, and completely uncalled for. She’s happy with Sea’, she doesn’t get to hold you back from being happy or me for that matter.”
He looks up at me, leaning back in the booth he crosses his arms in front of his chest and smirks, not saying a word.
“What?”
“You just said that I make you happy, kind of.”
“Well, you do.” I didn’t plan on telling him that, but he does. Kyle’s always made me happy, even when he was being a complete asshole.
“Good. I’m aiming to make you happy and seein’ as I’m prince motherfucking charming, it isn’t that hard.”
“You just lost a prince charming moment, princes don’t curse.”
“Sure they do,” he argues.
“No, they don’t. I’m the princess in this scenario and my prince doesn’t curse. Obviously, you must be the bastard brother trying to weasel his way onto the throne.”
“Bet you my brother doesn’t even like anal then, seeing as he doesn’t curse. I don’t think you’re going to like marrying him.”
“Who says I’m marrying your prince of a brother? It’s a little presumptuous,” I counter, loving this game of prince and princess that we just made up.
“You’re right. I always knew you were the kind of woman who appreciated a good bastard. You want to be with the nice guy, the one in charge, or at least that’s what you thought. But what you really value is a man who sees you for everything that you are, flaws and all, your beauty with your scars. You want a man like me, Princess. You don’t want the good man, you want the bad one.”
Chapter 17
Be with someone who understands how rare your love is.
Anonymous
Michelle
“Dais’ told me about the catty bullshit she said to you. I don’t know what the hell that little puta was thinking trying to keep you away from Kyle. It’s not like she wants him back anyways, she’s got Ryder and that ‘big redheaded ox’ she keeps flapping her jaws about.” Maria waltzes over next to me, sitting on the front porch of the cabin we’ve dubbed ‘Bride Zone.’ This is where Bellamy should’ve been getting ready, about twenty minutes ago. I don’t know where she is, but I also don’t really give a shit. It’s not my job to locate the missing bride, nope. That’s all Elena right there.
I laugh, cause Maria is right. It’s not like I haven’t thought about everything she just said. Daisy is happy, so why she feels the need to try to hold me or Kyle back from that…I don’t get it, but whatever. I refuse to keep focusing on said bullshit.
“How’s Chaos?” I tease, looking her up and down, noticing the little hickeys she has plastered all over her neck.
“Uh, you know. Chaotic and all. He’s fine. Not really sure,” she sputters it out, completely unprepared for my questioning.
“And Pain?” I inquire, drawing my brows together and assess her features.
“….Good…what are you getting at?”
“It’s not like you talk to us about what you’re doing with those two, but brothers are always a bad choice girl. You’re going to tear them apart, or they’ll do it to you.”
“I can only tear them apart if I have the intention to pick between the two of them, and I don’t. I would never do that to them. I…I would never bre
ak up a family.”
“You don’t think that Chaos is going to make you pick, though?” I lean back and watch her think about what I’ve just said. I really don’t know what’s going on between the three of them, but if the flirtatious shit that’s been flying around is any indication – I already “know”. Pain has always been more reserved, while his brother has been just the opposite. Chaos is in your face, loud and incredibly obnoxious. In a ‘I will destroy everything in my path’ kind of way. The fierce, broody man kind of sexy. Pain…he’s not like that. He’s…well, Pain. I can’t describe that man if I tried.
“Chaos wouldn’t.”
I don’t say a word, and just stare at her.
“He won’t.”
I keep my silence, knowing its better than saying anything to her about it. She’s just going to think I’m a bitch if I do.
“He wouldn’t make me choose between them.” I nod to what she’s said to me, but that’s only because I’ve seen it happen so many times before. Pretty girl comes to club, two brothers like her, girl belongs to two brothers and then girl ends up splitting said brothers apart. It’s inevitable, part of the heart break process. Ya know?
“Whatever you say, Mar.”
“Dios Mio. Where is Bells?!” Maria grumbles, surveying the property. “Is she getting warm feet?”
“You mean cold feet?” I correct her.
“Yeah, whatever. Same difference.”
“She is most definitely not getting cold feet. She adores Butch way too much to ever do that to him, I say.
Maria and I sit out on the porch for another twenty or so minutes before we decide to make our way inside the cozy cabin. It’s a giant bedroom, with an ensuite bathroom and a small kitchenette. The club could really make a nice bit of cash if we ever decided to rent these out on AirBNB or a website like it.
Reclaimed (Skulls Renegade MC Book 6) Page 6
