Indulgence (297 page)

“Hyde,” he introduced himself.

“Evie,” I replied, giving him a small smile. Even if he
scared the shit out of me, I could still be polite to him. He surprised me with
a smile back.

“Do you want a drink?” Kick asked.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to chance it interfering
with my painkillers.”

“Shit, I forgot about that. Good call, babe,” he said.

“You want a beer, Kick?” Devil asked.

“Yeah, thanks, brother,” Kick replied, and Devil left to
take care of it for him.

Hyde walked away, too, which left only me, King and Kick.
King lowered his voice a little when he spoke. “The info you gave me on that
drunk driver last week? I took care of him for you.”

Kick stared at him and then nodded. I had no clue what they
were referring to, but kept silent. If Kick wanted to fill me in, he would. And
it turned out he did. He looked at me with a new sadness in his gaze that
hadn’t been there before. “The guy that killed Jeremy,” he said softly, and I
felt the pain in his words.

“Oh,” I said, not sure what else to say, guessing that when
King said he took care of him, he meant he
took care of him
.

King’s face clouded over with anger. His gaze shifted
between Kick and me when he said, “Assholes like that don’t deserve to fucking
live, sweetheart.”

I sucked in a breath. He was right. “No, I don’t suppose
they do,’ I murmured, holding his gaze.

He stared at me for a couple more moments, the angry mask
still in place, and then he broke out in a grin and turned to Kick. “I like
her,” he declared, and then he left us to go and talk to the woman behind the
bar.

I soaked in the atmosphere, looking around the bar at
everyone having a good time. Without knowing these people, I could still sense
the family vibe. Kick had spoken to me about his reasons for joining Storm, and
the main reason was the family he found within the club. And I could grasp that
now.

Devil came back to us, handing Kick his drink. Eyeing me, he
said, “I hear you’ve agreed to marry this fucker.”

I laughed and nodded. “Yes, not that he actually proposed to
me.”

“Bullshit,” Kick said, “I proposed.”

My eyes widened, and I placed a hand on my hip. “Oh, really?
Was I asleep or knocked out from painkillers when you did it? Because I don’t
remember it,” I challenged him.

Chuckling, he leant close to me, and let his lips brush mine
before saying, “I suggested we should get matching rings. Do you seriously not
remember that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh my god, Kick, that is
not
a
proposal.”

Devil interjected. “What would a proposal look like,
sweetheart? Like, say, if Kick were to propose right now, what should he do?”
There was a glint in his eyes that I couldn’t pinpoint, but I decided to play
along anyway.

“For a start, there’d be a really big, fucking ring. And
then he’d get down on one knee and tell me how much he loves me and that he
can’t live without me.
And
he’d assure me that I was the only one for
him and that we’d be together forever.” I stopped and took a breath. They were
both staring intently at me, and it unnerved me.

Devil raised his brows. “Anything else?”

I looked at Kick and shook my head. “No,’ I said softly. He
was watching me with a strange look, almost as if he was soaking in everything
I’d said and filing it away for later use.

And then Kick made my heart expand and find more space
inside it to fill with love for him. With his eyes firmly on me, he reached his
hand out to Devil who placed a box on his palm.

A ring box.

He took it and got down on one knee. Devil put his fingers
in his mouth and whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention. Kick looked up at
me through eyes that were full of love. Taking my hand, he said, “Evie Bishop,
I’ve loved you since I was a kid. I’ve never stopped loving you. And I never
fuckin’ will. I can’t live without you, and I’m not just saying that. When I
don’t have you, I wander aimlessly; I have no purpose. But with you by my side,
I belong, and I know what I’m doing. And as far as there being any other woman
for me . . . no woman even comes close, never has, and never fuckin’ will. I
could be in a room of women and all I’d see would be you, and all I’d want
would be you.” He paused and pulled the ring from the box. It was a really
fucking huge diamond ring. “Sweetheart, will you let me get us some matching
rings? And then spend the rest of your life with me?”

Tears threatened to fall down my cheeks. I smiled through
them, though, and nodded. “Yes,” I whispered, and as he slid the ring on my
finger, the room erupted with whistles and cheers, and lewd comments being
yelled out at us. I was too damn happy to pay any attention to any of it.
Instead, I threw my arms around Kick when he stood. I ignored the pain shooting
out from my ribs. This wasn’t an occasion to let a little bit of pain interfere
with. “I love you, Kick Hanson,” I said as his arms came around me.

He kissed me, and when he ended it, he said, “I love you,
too, baby. And I’ve always known we’d be together forever. It just took us a
little time to figure our shit out.” He grinned and added, “You made me work
for it, but I knew you still loved me, and that I’d eventually get you to
relent.”

“You’re a sneaky bastard,” I chastised him.

Grinning harder, he admitted, “Only where you’re concerned.
Anything for you, Evie Bishop.”

I let the tears fall then.

Tears of happiness.

It had been a long, hard journey for us, but we’d eventually
made it to where we were meant to be.

And I was so damn glad he’d made me relent.

Kick

I listened to the words coming out of Devil’s mouth, and let
him get them all out before I said anything. “It’s been three months of bloodshed
and loss, at
their
fuckin’ insistence, and now they want to call a
truce?” I flicked my gaze to King. “What the fuck do you think, Prez? ‘Cause,
for the record, I am against it. I say we bury those fuckers. And if you ask
Nitro, he would say that, too.”

King contemplated this new information regarding Silver
Hell. I’d expected him to agree with me, but he threw me off when he didn’t
come straight out with it. Fuck, he’d experienced loss at their hands, too. Why
the hell wasn’t he saying
‘fuck yes, bury them’
? Instead, he said,
“Kick, it’s your wedding day. Can we just get you the fuck through this and
then make a decision?”

Devil seemed as stunned as I was. “I’m with Kick, I say bury
them,” he said.

A vein in King’s neck ticked and he lost his loosely contained
shit. “I say we don’t fucking decide today!” he roared. “I just want one
fucking day without those motherfuckers ruining it. Do you think we can have
that?”

Jesus.

I shoved my fingers through my hair and then stretched my
back and arms. Nodding at King, I agreed, “Yeah.”

King huffed out a harsh breath and desperately tried to
shake some of the tension out of his tightly wound body. “Good. Now let’s get
this wedding underway.” He slapped me on the back as he pushed past me to head
out of the clubhouse bar to the marquee we’d set up on the land we owned out
the back of the clubhouse.

We watched him leave, and then Devil asked, “You ready for
this, brother?”

I grinned. “More than fuckin’ ready.”

“You’re a lucky asshole, to find a woman as good as Evie.”

Fuck yeah.

“Kick!” We turned to see Lina rushing into the bar, looking
stressed.

“What?” I asked, my own stress levels rising. Fuck, with all
the shit we’d been through over the last three months, every little fucking
thing stressed me.

“Evie’s here. You need to get outside so you’re waiting
there when she walks in.”

“For fuck’s sake, Lina, don’t do that. You had me worried
something had happened to her or to someone else,” I complained.

She pursed her lips. “Just get your ass out there.”

I did as she said and walked out to the marquee to wait for
Evie. I hadn’t seen her since yesterday morning and, fuck, I ached to see her.
How the hell I’d gone three years without her, I had no clue, because these
days, being away from her a mere twenty-four hours was hell.

I’d asked Braden to be my best man, and he leant next to me
now and said, “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“What?” I asked, not taking my eyes off where Evie would
enter from.

“The day my brother got married.”

Something in his voice caused me to turn and face him. He
was emotional about this. “Yeah, me either,” I admitted, “but thank fuck she
came back to me.”

“Who would have thought, all those years ago when you two
were kids, that you’d end up married one day?”

I wasn’t the kind of person to look back too often in life.
My motto was to keep going forwards, but Braden was a sentimental bastard.
Instead of replying to him, I simply nodded in agreement.

“You know,” he mused, “it’s sad, but I think in a way
Shelly’s death brought you two together.”

My eyebrows drew together. “How the fuck do you figure
that?” Jesus, what a morbid fucking thought.

“No, think about it. After her death and all the shit our
families went through with our parents cheating, and then all the shit Evie
went through, she needed you, and, in a weird way, you needed her. It brought
you closer.”

“I still don’t follow,” I muttered.

“You do realise Evie blamed herself for Shelly’s death,
right?”

Fuck
.

“No, I didn’t know that,” I said softly.

“Jesus, Kick, you really were ignorant, weren’t you? When
Shelly fell out of the tree, Evie was supposed to be watching her, but she was
too busy flirting with you. She blames herself because of that, I’m sure of it.
And on top of the blame she dumped on herself, she ended up doubting herself
after being bullied.
You
helped her and gave her the confidence in
herself she needed. In return, she ended up loving you unconditionally, and
gave you the sense of family you didn’t get from ours.”

I stared at him. “Well fuck, Braden, what are you? Some kind
of psych?” I was fucking impressed with his analysis, though.

He grinned. “Fuck off.” He tapped his head and said, “I’m
just the brains of the family, asshole.”

A hush came over the marquee, and I turned to see Evie
entering. Fuck, my wife-to-be was beautiful. She had on a fitted white long
dress that made her tits pop just enough for me but not so much that every
fucking asshole here would be ogling them. And she had her hair up, which I
loved because it gave me full access to her neck.

As she walked towards me, our eyes did not leave each other.
I was so captivated by her gaze, I couldn’t even drag mine down her body to
check out her killer curves. Over the past few months, Evie had stopped
worrying so much about her weight and dieting and all that bullshit. And I was
fucking rejoicing because her curves had returned.

She’s made me a happy man in more ways than one.

When she came closer, her father, who had walked her down
the aisle, gave me her hand, and I did my best not to snatch it. Fuck, I had it
bad today.

Once I held her hand in mine, I pulled her to me and
whispered, “Fuck, baby, you look beautiful.”

She blessed me with a smile that could take a man’s breath
away. “Thank you.”

She really had nothing to be thanking me for because
I
was the one who should be thanking
her
.

Evie had brought peace to my life.

Evie

After he’d unlocked the front door of our home, Kick scooped
me up into his arms. “Welcome home, Mrs Hanson,” he said with a huge grin on
his face.

Mrs Hanson
.

I grinned back at him, my tummy still full of the
butterflies that had inhabited it all day. My wedding day truly had been the
best day of my life. “I love you, Mr Hanson,” I said softly.

Kick entered the house, closed the door behind him with his
boot, and walked intently down the hall. My body buzzed with desire. It had
been a long day and I was exhausted, but never too exhausted to play with Kick.

As he walked down the hall, my gaze landed on the frames
we’d hung. Photos of us and of our family lined the walls. I remembered the day
we’d hung them. Kick had announced his desire to fill the walls with photos of
our children. He wanted three and couldn’t wait to get started. I’d gone off
birth control immediately and he’d spent every morning and night since working
on making it happen.

I had good news for him tonight, but first, I would let him
play because I feared once he was told, he would turn all overprotective, and
pull back on the rough play.

When we reached our bedroom at the end of the hall, he
entered it and dumped me on the bed. I bounced a little and then rested on my
elbows, watching him, waiting for his next move.

His intense gaze roamed over my body as he removed his cut
and placed it on the armchair in the corner of the room. I loved that armchair.
It was where he often sat and watched me while I slept. Waking up to find
Kick’s hungry eyes on me was the best way to wake up.

He slowly removed the rest of his clothes, and my desire
built as he drew it out.

I was impatient for my man.

When he crawled onto the bed, over me, I thought I would
burst from the desire. “Kick -”

“Shhh,” he whispered, placing his finger over my lips to
silence me. He pushed me onto my back and then bent to take one of my nipples
into his mouth.

Yes.

I gripped the sheet and dug my toes into the bed. I’d been
without Kick’s mouth for over twenty-four hours. This was like coming home.