by Zoey Parker
“We have to protect him,” Brent said. He reached out to wrap an arm tentatively around Kira’s shoulders, slowly tugging her against his side. “You and me. Together.”
For the first time in her life, Kira considered the possibility that she might not be alone, that she might have somebody on her side, fighting for her without hesitation or complaint. Brent had said “we” like they were a unit. Like they were a family. No matter what the circumstances. That one single word made her heart pound slowly but heavily in her chest, like the thrumming rhythm of a song that she’d known her whole life without ever singing along.
He’s a criminal, Kira reminded herself as she looked up into his glassy, gorgeous eyes. He’s probably a murderer. He can’t be trusted. He can’t be loved.
Aren’t you tired of this? Kira’s other internal voice said back. Aren’t you tired of fighting against the entire world? Aren’t you tired of forcing yourself to feel nothing? Aren’t you tired of being alone?
All at once, Kira realized that she was done lying to herself about what she wanted. It was time to stop pretending. It was time to stop punishing herself. It was time to start living. It was time to start loving.
“Okay,” she whispered to Brent. She reached down to grab his hand, lacing their fingers together. “We’ll take care of our sons. Together.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kira
Kira and Brent brought Lucian home from the hospital the next day and put him to bed next to Dylan. They decided that they needed to share a room, at least while they were both still having nightmares. They could comfort each other and help each other get back to sleep, pushing the bad thoughts out of their minds.
For the time being, at least, Dylan and Lucian were fast asleep, snoring lightly as Kira and Brent closed the door on them and headed down the hallway to Brent’s bedroom. Kira didn’t even hesitate before leaping onto Brent’s bed, letting her body sag against the mattress. “Jesus Christ, what a week.”
Brent flopped down beside her and tangled their fingers together, gripping hard enough to keep Kira awake even though her thoughts were racing. “You can say that again,” he said softly, leaning over to press a kiss against the side of Kira’s head.
“You gonna tell me what happened with the MC?” Kira asked, trying to keep her tone light and casual even though she was honestly desperate to know the details.
Brent blew out his breath and averted his eyes when Kira turned onto her side to look directly at him. “I don’t know, Kira. Is it really important?”
“Yes,” Kira said. She rolled over until she was right on top of Brent, pressing down on his chest and looking him directly in the eyes, not giving him any opportunity to look away. “It’s very important. It’s a part of you. I need to know all of you if we’re really going to do this.”
Brent nodded slowly and swallowed, his throat working visibly as he worked up something to say. “It was just…any other day.”
“A firefight at the MC’s clubhouse was just like any other day? Is that supposed to reassure me?” Kira said sarcastically, punctuating her sarcastic question with a kiss on Brent’s lips, just to break the unbearable tension between them.
Brent smiled. His eyes gleamed with an inner light that Kira had never noticed before. She wanted to bathe in that light, soak up its rays until she felt warm on the inside, comforted by the mix of desire and respect she saw lurking there. “It wasn’t my first time fighting for my life, no,” Brent said. He rubbed his way up from Kira’s hand to the top of her shoulder, kneading at some of the tension hiding within her muscles.
“So, what, is that normal?” Kira asked. Some of her fear leaked into her voice. “I mean, do you do that a lot? Fighting with guns?”
Brent let his hand trail up from her shoulder to her neck. Kira’s eyes fell shut as his nails skimmed up her sensitive skin and danced along her neck until they finally found a resting place behind her ear. “It happens from time to time, yes,” he said, tangling his fingers into the hair on the back of her head gently. “But not every day. It won’t happen again for a long time, now that I’ve got the MC under control. They’re mine again. We won’t have to worry.”
Kira licked her dry lips before leaning in again to press her mouth against Brent, wishing she could subsume all of her anxiety into his body, let his beautiful strong form swallow up every last worry that was lurking in her mind. But unfortunately it didn’t work that way, at least not in Kira’s experience. She sighed into Brent’s mouth, making him pull back and look at her quizzically until she leaned back, bracing her weight on her arms on either side of Brent’s body. “I don’t know,” she said, thinking out loud. “I just want us to be safe. That’s all.”
“We are safe,” Brent argued. He pulled at her head until he could consume her lips again in another deep kiss. “I’ll take care of us. I promise.”
“How can you say that?” Kira asked. She sighed deeply as she let her anxieties flow out of her mouth. “I mean it. How can you really believe that? Larry could—”
“Larry’s going away for a very long time,” Brent cut in. “He’s not going to hurt us. I swear, baby. I’m not going to let it happen. Even if I have to kill him with my bare hands—”
“I don’t want you to do that,” Kira said firmly. She furrowed her brow to show how serious she was about that. She sighed again and let her body collapse on top of Brent’s, relaxing a little more as his hand came up to rub some of the anxiety out of her back muscles. “I don’t know, Brent,” she said, thinking out loud. “I’m just going to have to get used to it, you know? The way you had to get used to being a dad. I’m going to have to take some time to get accustomed to being…” She trailed off, uncertain of what she was trying to say, exactly.
“To being the queen?” Brent suggested, a bright, wide grin splitting his face in half.
“Shut up,” Kira said, playfully slapping the side of his body. “Stop teasing me.”
“I’m not teasing!” Brent said. He sat up in bed and pulled Kira along with him. “You are the queen now. Because I’m the king, and I chose you. That’s the way it works.”
Kira hesitated before saying anything, unsure if Brent was making fun of her. “Seriously?” she finally asked.
Brent nodded, and the shit-eating grin faded from his face, replaced by a sober, almost somber expression. “Yes. You’re the queen of the MC now, baby. You better get used to it.”
A little shiver went down Kira’s spine, but it didn’t feel cold. It felt…weirdly hot, like a trail of flames was licking its way down her bones, splitting her cells open and making them feel things that she’d never allowed them to before. “I’m the queen,” she whispered out loud to herself, trying to get used to the idea.
Brent smiled again, his eyes full of brilliant light as he stared directly into Kira’s eyes, running a gentle hand down her spine, making her squirm a little bit under his touch. “Yeah, baby. You’re the fucking queen.”
Kira swallowed heavily, willing all the shaky nervousness to fade from her body, but even though she tried to stay steady and cool headed, her voice shook a little as she asked, “So what does the queen do, exactly?”
Brent leaned up a little, pushing Kira back on the bed until she was fully sitting in his lap. He wordlessly encouraged her to wrap her arms around his neck, so she complied, settling so that she was comfortable sitting on his legs. “A queen,” he started to say, his voice a low whisper, “gets what she wants. That’s what a queen does.”
Kira grinned. The movement of her muscles felt almost painful after spending such a long time frowning and worrying in her jail cell. She leaned in to press her lips against Brent’s, squeezing his back more tightly. “That sounds good to me,” she murmured against his mouth.
“Mm, yeah, I thought so,” Brent said softly, sticking his hands up the hem of her shirt to get at the bare skin of her back. “But there’s one catch, though.”
“Oh, yeah, what’s that?” Kira said in between sof
t, teasing kisses, dragging her lips along the side of Brent’s face, trying to get him to fall apart as quickly as possible without touching his cock directly.
But Brent was stronger than he looked. He forced her to look him directly in the eyes, saying with a serious tone of voice, “The queen has to obey the king…in bed, that is.”
“Mm, sounds hot,” Kira whispered, dragging her tongue lightly along the seam of Brent’s lips. “I could get into that.”
“Yeah?” Brent asked. His hands traveled down to grip Kira’s ass, kneading her cheeks for a minute before rearing back to spank her. Hard. Hard enough that she lurched forward into his arms, giggling as she collided with his chest. “You like that?” he whispered. His tone was sexy, teasing, but there was a real note of concern hiding within his words, a genuine interest in how she felt. Kira felt absurdly turned on by that, just from realizing how much Brent cared about obtaining her consent. God, he seemed to respect her so much. It made her feel more special than anything else in the world.
“Yeah,” Kira answered him. She ducked her head to press her lips against the big pulsing vein in his neck, licking along his tendons until he was moaning softly in her ear. “Yeah, I fucking like that,” she muttered under her breath. She reached up to keep Brent’s head in place as she nibbled at the underside of his chin.
“Mm, baby, yeah,” Brent murmured. He groaned
a little as she licked and sucked at the tip of his earlobe, pulling it into her mouth to tease at it with her tongue. “Yeah, that’s good.”
“Yeah, you like having me as your queen?” Kira whispered back, dragging her nails down the back of his neck, making him arch up into her touch.
“I love it,” Brent said, and before Kira could realize what was happening he flipped her over, pinning her down to the mattress underneath his weight. “You like being royalty, don’t you?”
Kira nodded, grinning shamelessly. Butterflies floated around in her stomach as Brent melted above her, leaning down to kiss her neck softly. “God, you taste so good,” Brent whispered into her skin.
“You’re forgetting something,” Kira said as she wrapped her hand around the back of Brent’s head, tangling her fingers through his hair to scratch at his sensitive scalp.
“What’s that?” Brent asked.
“I have to obey you,” Kira said. “In bed, at least,” she added with a wink.
“That’s right,” Brent said, pulling back a little to stare at Kira, his eyes flashing with unbridled desire. “I can tell you what to do, if you want to obey me.”
“I do,” Kira said with perfect confidence. Her heart thundered in her chest like the hooves of a thoroughbred horse let out of the racing gate. “Tell me what you want me to do, my sweet king.”
Brent grinned again, his beautiful sharp smile shining brightly. He leaned in to bite at her neck, sucking at her skin so hard that Kira’s whole body jolted upward, her hips lurching forward like she was already being fucked. God, she wanted that so badly. She needed to be united with Brent, to join with him in body and in soul. She needed to be his queen, really and truly, in every sense of the word.
Brent focused on biting her for a few moments, dragging his teeth down her neck and sucking on the sharpest part of her collarbone before he sunk lower, pulling her shirt aside to suckle at the tops of her breasts. Kira had almost entirely forgotten about the obedience thing when Brent pulled back suddenly, leaving her whining lowly in response to the loss of contact. “What…” Kira muttered out as Brent beamed down at her, looking at her like he’d just won a grand prize at the carnival.
“Strip,” he said to her. He stuck a hand under her ass, encouraging her to get to her feet. “Strip for me, baby.”
It took a few seconds for Kira to register what he said, but as soon as she did she sprung to her feet, jumped off the bed, and stood in front of him, grinning. “Put on some music,” she told him as she began to let her hips sway from side to side.
“Oh, you’re giving orders now, huh?” Brent said, laughing as he leaned across the bed to grab his phone from the nightstand.
“Hey, it goes both ways,” Kira said with unbroken confidence. She moved her hips from side to side, watching with satisfaction as the desire in Brent’s eyes mounted, growing more and more obvious with each passing second. He wants me, Kira thought to herself smugly. He fucking wants me. She felt a tremendous surge of power shoot up her spine, her whole body tingling with the unmistakable sensation of control. It was intoxicating, and she felt like she was in a haze, but she didn’t feel even a shred of doubt. She knew what to do here. She was going to fucking own his ass.
Brent played a slow, rhythmic R&B song from his phone, and Kira moved along to the beat, playing with the hem of her shirt, teasing it up little by little until the bottom of her stomach was exposed. “Mm, I like that,” Brent said. He leaned back on the bed and folded his hands behind his head.
“Yeah, I bet you fucking do,” Kira said teasingly. She arched her spine as she rolled her entire body, smirking when she saw Brent’s jaw drop open in shock and arousal. “I know what you like,” she whispered as she lifted her shirt up higher to reveal the bottom of her ribcage. She rolled up the bottom of her shirt and tied it up so it stayed in place and then danced slowly and smoothly, feeling a natural confidence that she didn’t know she possessed rising within her with each beat of the song that filled the room around them.
“God, you’re fucking hot,” Brent said as he watched her, his eyes never leaving her body even for a single moment, totally entranced as she moved along to the rhythm of the song.
“I am,” Kira agreed without thinking about it. She felt perfectly secure in her body for the first time in her life, totally assured of the power between her hips. She reached under her shirt and undid her strapless bra, then pulled it out and threw it across the room, smirking as she watched Brent’s eyes fixate on her nipples, which now showed through the thin fabric of her shirt.
“Yeah, you want me?” Kira whispered. She slowed her movements even further and rocked her hips along with the bass line of the song, her heartbeat matching the beat, pounding throughout her whole body.
Brent nodded furiously, licked his lips, and reached his hands out to touch her.
Kira slapped his hands away gently and pushed them aside so that they couldn’t get to her breasts, which was their intended target if his gaze was anything to go by. “Not yet,” she said, chastising him by waving a single finger in the air. “You haven’t earned it yet.”
“Oh, I’ve got to earn it now?” Brent said. He bit down on his bottom lip as he watched her move to the music.
“Mm-hmm,” Kira answered without hesitation, rolling her body up from her breasts down to her legs, thrusting in the air like she was already fucking him. She wanted him to be desperate for her. She wanted him to beg for her, wanted his cock to leak for her, already on the edge before it even got inside her. She wanted him to need her as much as he needed anything in his entire life. “Gotta be patient,” she murmured as she dropped her hands down to her pants, playing with her button.
“Whew, fuck,” Brent said, blowing out his breath and shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re a fucking special one, Kira.”
“Yeah, I am,” Kira said. Her head felt light and airy, full of a dangerous level of self-confidence. This is the kind of self-assurance that dictators have, Kira thought as she undid her button and zipper, tugging her pants down to her thighs, revealing her underwear to Brent’s hungry eyes. I could get used to this.
“Take it off,” Brent said. “Please.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely,” Kira said. She smirked as she kicked her pants gracefully off her legs, revealing her naked limbs. She leaned her elbows on the bed, letting her hips writhe back and forth like she was riding an imaginary cock.
“Jesus Christ, you’re so fucking hot,” Brent said. He rubbed his eyes like he was trying to clear his mind of a mirage. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, baby,” Kira
murmured, lifting the hem of her shirt higher and higher, revealing the bottom half of her breasts, just under her nipple, her skin prickling from the cold air hitting her bare flesh. “You want me?”
“You already know the answer to that,” Brent said. He was practically salivating at this point, his gaze glued to her breasts.
“Say it,” Kira demanded, her voice as firm as it had ever been. “Say it, baby.”
“I want you,” Brent said. “Jesus Christ, I fucking want you.”
“So what are you waiting for?” Kira asked. She her eyebrows innocently as she slid her shirt over her shoulders and head and tossed it to the ground.
“Fuck!” Brent cried out. He crawled forward on the bed and stopped just short of touching her. “Jesus Christ.”
“Mm, what’s wrong?” Kira asked teasingly. “Don’t like what you see?”
