Chapter 24
Maniac
“Plot twist? He really said plot twist?” Wren peeled off in another round of giggles she couldn’t control.
“He said a bunch of other crazy shit, but that was the funniest.”
She laid her head on my bare chest and sighed. “We should probably get out of bed soon. Karmen, Nickel, and Cole will be here any minute.”
It was three days after Karmen had finally managed to push out her almost nine pound baby, and they were going to stop by the clubhouse around noon.
“You were the one who pulled me back into bed after I got out of the shower.”
“And you were the one who decided to walk naked out of the bathroom. What did you expect me to do?” She lazily traced circles on my chest and sighed.
“You okay?”
She laughed. “I think I might start getting sick of you asking me that all of the time.”
There was a time she wasn’t okay, and I was terrified that was going to happen again. “Just bear with me, darlin’. You not being okay is going to forever be in the back of my mind.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then I suppose I’ll try not to yell at you every time you ask me.”
“Much obliged.”
“I could ask you again if you’re okay after everything that happened with the Hell Captains.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Because what you did was a lot, Maniac. You killed eigh—”
I pressed my finger against her lips and shook my head. “They deserved what they got. I’m sure you weren’t the first person they had done that too. The world is a much better place without those eight fuckwads walking around.”
“They said on the news they weren’t investigating the explosion.”
“As they shouldn’t since it was a faulty gas line that happened to run under the clubhouse.”
“Funny how things like that happen,” she laughed. She rolled out of bed, pulling the blanket with her.
“Where are you going?” I called.
She flounced to the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe. “Away from you or we’ll never leave this room.”
I leaned up on one elbow. “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I drawled.
“It normally isn’t, but I’m anxious to see Cole again.”
I fell back on the pillow. “Replaced by a baby,” I grumbled.
“For a couple of hours. We need to give it a rest or we’ll be joining the mommy and daddy club.”
I covered my eyes with my hands. “Maybe someday, darlin’, but right now, I just want you for myself.”
“How old are you, Maniac?”
My head popped up. “Thirty.”
She bit her lip.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Why do I feel like this should have been something we knew about each other a while ago?” I laughed. Wren and I had fast-forwarded through the normal relationship milestones and barreled right into living together. And love.
“It’ll make things more interesting. It’ll be like falling in love in reverse.”
“Say that again.” She had said love.
“Um, like falling in love in reverse? You know, like, we love each other now, but we’l—” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh fuck,” she muffled.
I laid my head back down and raised my hands up in the air. “You just said you love me.”
“No, I didn’t” she protested.
“Why the hell can’t you tell me you love me? I tell you all the damn time.” I was frustrated as hell.
“I’m gonna go shower.” She stepped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her.
“Oh, fuck that,” I growled. I tossed the covers off and stalked to the bathroom. Steam rolled out the door when I opened it, and Wren had already slipped into the shower. I had already showered, but I wasn’t going to let this shit go on for any longer.
I pushed back the curtain, put my back to the steaming water, and pulled her into my arms. “Why are you running from me?” I demanded.
“I’m not running. We need to get ready,” she insisted.
I grabbed her arms, pulled them over her head, and pushed her against the wall. “Stop lying to me.”
The light was in her eyes, but there was something else there. Something I didn’t know what it was. “Dammit, Maniac, I’m not lying to you.”
“Then tell me what is going on. I see it. I can feel it. Something isn’t right. I thought it was a little game you won’t tell me that you love me, but there’s more to it.” I pressed my body hard against hers. “I know your body is mine, but I don’t know if I have any other part of you.”
She closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the wall. “Why do you do this to me?”
“Make you do what? Not lie to yourself? I don’t know what I’m doing to you if you don’t talk to me.”
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much it scares me. It scares me to know you have a piece of me. A piece I gave to you. A piece you could break, and I would never get back.”
“Open your eyes.”
She shook her head. “I told you. Please stop. I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t know how not to be scared.”
“Then give it to me,” I growled. “Give it to me like you did with the Hell Captains. I’ll figure it out. I’ll prove to you I love you and will never break your heart.”
She hung her head. “Why does everyone manage to make my problems seem like they’re nothing?”
That wasn’t what I was trying to do. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to make her feel like she was dumb for feeling the way she did. I delved my fingers into her hair and raised her head. “Your feelings are not nothing. Your feelings are yours, and you have every right to feel them. All I am saying is, I can’t help you work through them when you aren’t telling me what you feel.”
“I love you, Maniac. And after what you just said, I didn’t think it was possible, but I love you more. With every second that passes, I love you even more.” She wrapped her arms around my waist and face-planted into my chest.
Fucking hell. It was like pulling teeth to get her to talk to me. The normal small talk and everyday shit, she was good at, but when she started feeling something different, it was like she shut down and didn’t know how to deal with them.
“Darlin’, you gotta talk to me. You can be scared. You can feel whatever the hell you want. Just. Talk. To. Me.”
“Loving you is so easy, but my head just gets in the way. I can’t seem to shut my brain off.”
Finally. Fucking honesty. “I love you so fucking much, Wren. More than my next breath. More than my God damn club. I know I told you that you were equal with my club, but if all this were to go away tomorrow, I wasn’t in the club, but I still had you, I would die a happy man. You are my world, and you are my life.”
Her arms tightened around me, and she sobbed. She buried her face in my neck, and I just held her.
“You really are a crier,” I mumbled into her hair when she finally calmed down.
She smacked me on the shoulder and rolled her head to the side. “It’s all your fault. You can’t say things like that and not expect me to cry. Badass biker alphas don’t say shit like that.”
“Keep that to yourself, or it’ll ruin my street cred.”
“Your street cred?” she laughed. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” She ran her hands over my slick chest, tracing the small heart.
“What are you thinking about, darlin’?”
She tilted her head back. “That I hope we have a love half as good as the one your parents had. I’ve never really seen love last. I want that.”
“All you need to do is stay with me, and you’ll see it first-hand.”
Her hand trailed down my arm, and she threaded her fingers with mine. “First-hand you say?” She ran the tip of her nose up my cheek and pressed her lips next to my ear. “Can I see that right now?”
My fingers sunk into the soft flesh of her ass, and I lifted her up. Her legs instantly wrapped around my waist, and my dick was lined up perfectly with her sweet pussy. “I had you not even an hour ago, and I’m hard and ready for you. If that doesn’t say we were made for each other, then I don’t know what does.”
A moan escaped her lips as I lowered her onto my dick and felt her wet pussy envelope me. “Always better than the last,” she moaned.
She took the words right out of my mouth. I clutched her close, and she arched her back, tilting her pussy up, allowing me to go even deeper.
I let her ride me, driving deep inside her while the walls of her pussy clenched my dick. My eyes held hers, my lips a whisper away from hers, and our breath mingling. “Tell me again,” I demanded.
“I love you,” she whimpered.
“Louder.” I wanted the whole world to hear her.
“I love you,” she repeated, louder.
“Yes,” I growled. “Give it to me, Wren. Give me everything.”
Her eyes slammed shut, and she tossed her head back, her orgasm crashing over her.
I plunged into her, each thrust of my hips faster than the last. There was no way to describe the way Wren made me feel. My need for her burned through me to the point where I couldn’t stand it.
A groan ripped from my lips, and I held her close. I pumped one final time and emptied my come inside her. “Mine, mine,” I chanted over and over.
Her body grew limp in my arms, yet she still held on to me. Her head rolled to the side, and she opened her hooded eyes. Her content gaze met mine, and she smiled. “I like your shower.”
My body stilled, and I threw my head back laughing. “And I like you in it, darlin’.”
“I also love you.”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead and eased her legs from around me. “And I love you, Wren. That wasn’t so hard to say now, was it?”
She shook her head. “You seem to make everything easy for me, Maniac. You helped to heal my body, mended my soul, and put back together every piece of my heart.”
“It wasn’t easy, but you were well worth it.”
“That’s because I’m worthy of you,” she whispered.
She was.
Wren was whole.
Wren was loved.
Wren was mine.
*