Chapter 7
Coal
Well, this was the first time I woke up before my woman.
And yes, she was my fucking woman.
Seeing her dark hair sprayed out on my pillow, the softness on her features as she still slept.
My hand was running softly along her spine, and I had a thought, a deep-rooted thought, one that caused me to want to see my mark on the back of her left shoulder.
If I told you the reason why I wanted it on the left wasn’t that it would be closer to the single finger that held the one vein that led directly to her heart, it would be an all-and-out lie.
Just as I was thinking that she started to move around slowly.
My hand trailed down her spine, over the curve of her perfect ass, and then my fingers found the folds of her pussy.
Slowly, meticulously, I twirled my index finger around her clit.
However, as my fingers went to work, my eyes never left her face.
Slowly, I watched as her eyes started to open, I lived for moments like this when I had her eyes on me. Those stunning sea-green eyes I’d never seen anywhere else.
As soon as her eyes locked with mine, she whispered, “Morning.”
“Morning, Soulshine,” I felt my lips tip up into a rare smile. A rare smile that only she could bring out.
“Mmm, now, this is nice,” she whispered as she ran her hand through my hair.
And just with that one touch, I was harder than a fucking rock.
An hour later, I was in the shower, when I heard the door open, and then close softly with a click. Hearing someone move around and then seeing the figure hop up on the edge of the counter through the shower curtain, it wasn’t long before I heard, “Can I ask you something?”
Because it was her, my Soulshine, that response came quickly, “Ask me anything. Thought you knew that.”
“I umm… I wasn’t sure. I mean, I can tell things have changed, and I’m here for it, but…”
When she trailed off and didn’t say more, I asked, “You’re scared?”
When nothing but the sound of the water hitting the floor vibrated through the room, I didn’t hesitate to whip the shower curtain open, step out, and cage her with my wet body at the vanity, “You listen to me. I know you know this, but now I’m going to spell it out in black and white for you. You ready?”
At her gasp, and her nod, I continued, “You are the only person on this planet that never has to fear me. There is nothing you could do or say that could ever bring me to hurt you. Emotionally. Physically. Nothing. I don’t want you to be scared of me, ever. It’s why I stopped drinking. It’s why when I go into a rage, that my mind is only able to pick you out through a sea of red haze.”
Bringing my hand up, I cupped the side of her face, and whispered, “Even if I ever wanted to hurt you, the monster inside me would never allow it.”
I watched as her eyes closed, and then, I could feel it, the indecision, but my woman was strong, she was the strongest woman I had ever met.
And she showed me this when she leaned forward, pressed her forehead against mine, and whispered, “Will you tell me about that side of you?”
I kissed her nose, “One day. One day when I am strapped down, and I can’t move, I’ll tell you about it.”
I knew she wanted to know more, but she let it be.
Softly, I asked, “So, are we good now?”
She tilted her head to the side and then shocked the shit out of me, because I’ve been waiting for her to ask me, and I was surprised it had taken her this long to do so. “Why do you call me Soulshine?”
I smirked, “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out.”
I lived for moments that I stumped this woman, winking at her, I asked, “Do you have your phone on you?”
At her nod, I said, “Search for the song, Soulshine by The Allman Brothers, and play it. And Adeline, need you to take the words in. Feel ‘em. Believe ‘em. Trust ‘em.”
Once she searched for the song and hit play, I stood there, uncaring that water was still dripping down my body, and I could tell, it didn’t bother her either.
And then… then I watched her eyes flare, shoot to me, as the words, Boy, in the darkness before the dawn let your soul shine.
“That song tells me that I’m your woman,” she whispered.
And my only course of action was to whisper back, “You listened right.”
When I say that at my three words, she attacked me… I mean she really attacked me.
Her clothes were gone faster than I could blink, her lips were on mine, her hand was on my already hard cock, and she was guiding me into her entrance.
Her legs were wrapped around my hips, her heels digging in, pulling me closer to her, and her nails scraped my back.
The moment my cock slid into her tight heat, I lost all concentration and celebrated with her.
Yeah, she was mine.
After… we found ourselves in the shower, and the softness on her features after I washed and conditioned her hair, I couldn’t stop myself from placing a kiss on her temple even if I had wanted to.
I had just stepped out of the shower, tagged a towel, handed it to her, tagged my own, and started drying off.
Once she had the towel wrapped around her, I asked, “You sure, that’s all you wanted to know?”
“For now.” She winked and then ran from the bathroom.
In. Nothing. But. A. Fucking. Towel.
I bellowed, “Anyone sees you like that, I’m putting a bullet in his brain, and then marking your ass.”
Her following laughter was music to my fucking ears.
But the three words she said to me right before she exited my room, was the fucking bible to me, “I love you, Coal Baby.”
But that didn’t stop me from looking into the mirror as I dressed and thinking that I had way too much blood on my hands to ever be worthy of her.
What I didn’t know, was that she had turned back because she forgot something, and apparently, I spoke those thoughts aloud.
***
There wasn’t a person on this planet who could take this feeling away from me.
The feeling of that organ that rested in my chest cavity being sewn back together with little touches, little smiles, laughter, and most importantly love, and all of it from one woman.
One woman named Adeline.
Or so I fucking thought.
That was until someone pulled up outside the clubhouse after I had pressed a kiss to Adeline’s temple before she headed to school.
And the man that folded out of his car… the woman that folded out of the passenger side?
Now they could do it.
They could cause me to breathe the promise I made to Adeline only an hour ago.
And that was when it hit me.
That was when the date hit me.
Fucking. Hell.
For the next seven minutes and forty-eight seconds, my brain, my body, everything about me… was frozen.
Bitch asked, “We are your parents. The least you can do is help us out?”
I didn’t say anything.
Asshole said, “You’re nothing but goddamned trash.”
Bitch said, “I should have let that man have you when he wanted to.”
Bitch said, “Everything you touch turns to filth. I should have aborted you when I found out I was pregnant with your ungrateful ass.”
He was right. She was right.
So, what the fuck was I doing letting my blood-stained hands, touch something as pure and as sweet as Adeline?
Someone who shone with goodness from the very depth of her being.
Especially after what had been done to me. And what I had done.
I didn’t watch as Asher, Priest, Trigger, and Whit forcefully removed the two of them from the property.
I didn’t listen when they told me to shake whatever shit had spewed from their mouths.
Except when I heard Rome say, “You need to call Adeline.”
My head whipped up so fast it was a wonder I didn’t break something, and then menacingly I threatened, “You bother her? I’ll kill you.”
And with that, I headed to the shed.
Hours later, with their words running through my head, the feeling of those hands on me, the looks, the fucking touches, I couldn’t beat it back.
So, I grabbed the bottle of Jack and took a pull from the bottle.
Followed by another.
Then another.
And then another.
I could feel the looks of the brothers on me.
But I didn’t give a good goddamn.
I didn’t speak.
Since I didn’t normally speak, nobody caught the change in me, no one.
Or so I thought.
Someone was watching me from his stool.
Someone that had never let me down.
And I would soon find myself forgetting that fact.
I would also soon realize just how much Adeline loved me, even though she never spoke the words.
But that there was only so much she could take.
***
“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” I muttered into my bottle as the brothers mingled with another club that we were thinking of allying with.
Shocked that those words had even come to fruition in my brain.
Shocked that those words found themselves on my tongue.
Shocked that I found myself not regretting putting them out in the world.
And I should have been shocked that I had flinched from Adeline’s touch earlier, and then I should have put a bullet in my head for causing a look of hurt, and pain to mar her beautiful features.
Alas, that was why I didn’t drink.
But this day, and what else it really signified, I couldn’t beat it all back.
“Holy. Fuck. Who the fuck is that? Momma slap my ass and call me yours,” I heard Stud ask but paid it no mind like I always did.
“Who is she?” Stud asked again.
And yeah, he earned his name Stud.
It was a wonder at all the trash he had slid his dick into that it hadn’t fallen off.
And that was when everything came online.
Because it clued me in as to who he was asking about.
Furthermore, I realized that my brothers were all looking at me.
It was that… it was the looks from all of them that clued me into who he was asking about.
I felt my fucking gut clench.
And then repeated the words I’d said to myself this very morning as I sat in that chair in my shed that was bolted to the cement floor by the drain.
She’s too fucking good for me.
I don’t deserve to touch her with how much blood is on my hands.
Let her go.
I locked eyes with Asher and gave him a chin lift. Because no one but Adeline knew I had made her my woman this morning.
He stared at me; it was almost as if I could read his thoughts in my head.
‘Boy, you do this, you’re going to fuck up.’
But I beat it back.
And didn’t make another fucking move.
Asher shook his head, and I knew he was calling me a dumb fuck.
And I was. I knew I was. But everyone saw how sweet she was. Fucking one of a fucking kind.
And then there was me. Trailer fucking trash. Damaged fucking goods. A killer. Someone who had taken their first life at the age of fifteen. And then at the same age, on the same day, had taken the life of another.
“Her name is Adeline,” Asher told Stud.
“Adeline. Never done a girl with that name.” The fucker said with a lustful smile on his face.
As he headed over to where Adeline was swaying to the music with Gabby, Sutton, Chloe, and Stella, I bit the growl back.
Then I watched as Stud jerked his head over to where we were all leaning against the bar.
I watched as Adeline’s eyes found mine, and then I saw her smile, she opened her mouth to say something but closed it when Stud whispered something in her ear.
…And I felt it.
Pain.
Sorrow.
But something occurred.
Something that I thought I was ready for, but as they disappeared from my view, not having her in my sight, I let the growl out.
As I pushed away from the bar to put a fucking stop to this shit, someone, someone who was about to be a dead man, grabbed me by the arm.
I stopped.
Looked down at the owner of the hand that was about to lose it, lifted my head, and locked eyes with my Pres., uncaring that he was my Pres., I lowered my voice to a dangerous whisper and said, “Get your goddamn hands off me.
Asher shook his head, “No. You’re going to let this fucking happen. You won’t make her your ol’ lady, even though we all know she’s yours. It’s why none of the brothers will go near her.”
“You’re being a fucking idiot. Brother, I fucking love waking up with one woman. Then falling asleep with the same woman in my arms. No other feeling fucking like it.” Pipe muttered before he took a pull from his beer.