Chapter Fifteen
Aspen
A few days had passed since Banshee told me he’d killed his father. It didn’t change the way I saw him. If anything, it only solidified him as the man I knew him to be.
He was a protector, an avenger.
I’d spent so much time angry at him for rejecting me all those years ago. But after he told me about his sister, and what she’d been through, I had to concede and be understanding as to why he’d done it.
I still didn’t like it, but I understood it. He did it for me. There was no way he could have known what my father would do. No way he could have known who I would end up with.
He’d told me he’d known I was his from the first time he saw me. I tried to remember when that could have been. The Silver Shadows were always making runs to our clubhouse. Who showed up varied. I didn’t remember the first time Banshee saw me, but I would never forget the first time I saw him.
“Banshee, come with me.”
I looked up from my book when my father called out a name I didn’t recognize. This was always the case when the Silver Shadows showed up for a pickup.
My father didn’t want me to know what the club did, but my mother insisted that if I was going to live in the clubhouse, then I needed to know what was going on.
I’d move into the clubhouse when I turned nineteen. My father wouldn’t let me go to university, not after what happened to my sister when she left home, but I didn’t want to live with my parents anymore. I needed a little privacy, and a little freedom.
This was his compromise.
His men weren’t allowed near me, so I had all the privacy I needed. Just none of the freedom. I had more rules living here than I’d had at home.
My father tried to shield me from what the guys got up to with the club whores.
And whores were what they were. Hey, I was all about sexual liberation and a woman’s right to choose what to do with their body.
But no self-respecting woman allowed men to run a train while they lay spread out over a pool table.
I shuddered just thinking about it.
My father didn’t need to worry, though. Once you’d seen a skanky whore sucking your brother’s dick, you left the room and stayed away—after you finished puking.
But it was daytime, and my mother had strict rules. She raised my siblings and me in this very clubhouse and swore it would be family-friendly between the hours of breakfast and dinner. So, it was safe for me to hang out and study. I enjoyed being around the club; they were family.
I had finished my classes for the day. I had two more years after this semester before I graduated college with a business and accounting degree. My hope was that my father would allow me to help Pontus with the club books.
It was most likely a fantasy, but hey, every girl had to have a dream.
The moment I saw him walk across the room headed to my dad’s office, all hope of studying was lost. He looked directly at me and winked as he walked by.
Banshee was gorgeous. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His dark brown hair hung over his eyes, giving him a youthful look. I didn’t know how old he was, but he was definitely older than me. My guess would be five to seven years, maybe more.
I let my eyes devour him as he walked away. He looked better from the back with the way those jeans hugged his ass.
“Irene.”
I startled at my mother’s voice. Twisting my head around, I found her grinning at me.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
She chuckled and lifted her finger to the corner of her mouth. “You got a little something dripping down your chin.”
I grabbed the pillow next to me and tossed it at her. “Shut up, he’s hot,” I said with a smile.
“He is. Banshee is thirty-six.”
I knew what she was saying. Fifteen years was a lot. I looked back toward the hallway.
“Just keep that in mind,” she said, walking away.
My father was almost fifty. That meant there were fewer years between him and Banshee than there were between me and Banshee. Not that it mattered. I slumped back against the couch. My father would never allow me to be with someone from a club.
Begrudgingly, I picked up my book and went back to studying. My eyes darted to the hallway every few minutes, waiting for Banshee to come back this way. He never did.
But I knew I would never forget him. He was branded on my prefrontal cortex. And I just knew that every man that came after him would never compare.
And I’d never even spoken to him, much less kissed him.
As I washed the dishes and thought about that first time, I heard the door close. Looking over my shoulder, Banshee held a brown paper bag, which he set on the table.
“What’s that?” I asked, turning back around to finish the dishes. He didn’t answer me; instead, he stepped behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist, leaning in to kiss my neck.
He’d been doing that a lot since our walk the other day. He’d randomly walk up behind me and wrap his arms around me, kissing my neck or the side of my head.
He’d also insisted on me sleeping in his bed, where he held me all night. He’d joked, saying it was the only way he could ensure I wouldn’t slip out the door in the middle of the night because he was too old to sleep on the couch.
He might be forty-five, but his body was still in peak condition. He might not have an eight-pack, or even a six-pack anymore, but he was hard in all the right places. Including the one that was currently pushed up against my ass.
He hadn’t touched me again, aside from holding me and kissing me. He never took it further, and I was beginning to wonder why.
“I had a prospect run out and grab a few things,” he said as he placed a small box on the counter next to me.
The sight of the box of condoms had the glass slipping from my hands and sinking back into the water that filled the sink. My panties were suddenly drenched at the thought of what that meant.
I bit my lip and looked over my shoulder. His smile was feral; his eyes filled with lust. His hand slid from my belly down to settle between my legs, and I shuddered.
“If you don’t want this, tell me no.”
I grabbed onto the edge of the sink. I’d needed something to hold me up as his words washed over me. My eyes closed as Banshee licked up my neck, taking my earlobe between his teeth.
“I need an answer, baby girl.”
One hand held my pussy, while the other burned a path up to my breast. He pinched my nipple, and I whimpered, leaning back against his broad chest. My arm reached around the back of his head and held him in place.
“Yes or no,” he whispered against my ear.
“Yes.” The word slipped out on a sigh.
Banshee spun me around and smashed his lips against mine. His hands held my hips as he ground his hardness against me. My arms slid around his neck and I lifted a leg to his hip. He grabbed it, holding it in place, then lifted the other so I could wrap them around him.
He set me on the sink behind me and trailed his lips down my neck to the V of my shirt. His hands pushed my breasts together, and he licked deeply into my cleavage before pulling the shirt down along with the cup of my bra and taking a nipple between his teeth.
I cried out, my hips bucking against him involuntarily. His own sounds came out somewhere between a growl and a groan as he lifted me and turned toward the bedroom.
“Wait!”
His eyes showed disappointment at my halting, and I smiled. “You forgot the condoms.”
He growled low, and I felt it through my body, pooling at the juncture between my legs, making me wetter than I already was. Banshee turned around, stepping back to the counter where I grabbed the box and grinned.
“Got ‘em.”
He kissed me hard and carried me down the hall, telling Diesel to stay. This time, he barely acknowledged us, as if he’d been waiting as much as we had for this moment.
The moment when we would finally be together. As one. The way we were always meant to be. Banshee wasn’t the only one who’d known from the start that we were meant to be together.
I’d known the moment I saw him he was the one. My mother had known as well. I knew she had to be the one to orchestrate the notion of the alliance. My father never would have allowed it had it not been for her. Though he’d pretended he was acting alone.
He hadn’t asked for her input the second time.
Banshee laid me on the bed, towering over my body as he kissed me. His hands went to my jeans, slipping the button through the hole and releasing the zipper. His movements were frantic, hurried, as he freed me of my clothes.
“This is going to be fast and hard. Then I’ll take my time with you.”
I bit my lip as he removed his shirt. I’d seen his naked chest before, but this time was just as thrilling as the first. My eyes roamed over the tattoos that covered his pecs and shoulders, trailing down his arms, until I stopped on his side.
I quickly sat up, seeing a tattoo I hadn’t noticed before.
“What is that?” I asked, my brow scrunched in confusion. My fingers brushed lightly over the image of a woman draped in fabric holding a baby. Irene, the goddess of peace. I looked up into his eyes. “How long have you had this?”
“Ten years. I had it done right after I saw you for the first time. I was a goddamn fool to walk away from you, baby girl. Never again.”
I cradled his face in my hands and pulled him in for a kiss. Tears slipped down my cheeks as I whispered, “I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment you stood up to my father. I hated that you didn’t want me.” He opened his mouth, and I covered it with my hand. “Please... just listen.”
He kneeled on the floor, his hands on my legs as he waited for me to speak. The words were lodged in my throat. Caught in the emotion of the moment, and what I wanted him to know.
“No one has ever told my father no, except my mother.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
My parents’ love was legendary in the biker world.
“And as much as I wanted you, wanted you to claim me. When you told him no; when you said I didn’t deserve to be used as a pawn.
..” I took a deep breath. “Calling out my father like that was dangerous. But you did it anyway—for me. That was when I fell in love with you.”
“I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you. Like I said before, you reminded me of my sister. Your spark, your light, was so fucking bright. I wanted you. But I was too fucking old for you. And when your father pulled that bullshit.” His jaw clenched.
I knew there was no love lost between my father and Banshee. I remembered the way they’d eyed each other that day. The only thing keeping them from beating the hell out of each other was the fact that we were in church. Church was sacred. It was something my father would never desecrate.
“I wanted more for you. I loved you so goddamn much I was willing to walk away and allow you to live the life you wanted. I wish I’d known then you wanted me.”
“Would your answer have been different if you’d known?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. “You were so young. Even now I know I’m too fucking old for you, but I don’t give a shit. I want you, and nothing will stop me from having you, from claiming you.”
“I’m married,” I reminded him. My heart sank at the revelation I had to say out loud.
“You won’t be for long. And the moment you become a widow, my patch will be on your back.”