Chapter Twenty Five
Nashville
She’s here, she’s safe, she’s in my arms and I can’t go another fucking second without telling her how I feel, except Charley isn’t giving me the chance, she is clawing at me, pulling on my shoulders and gripping me tight to her with her thighs.
Her breasts are rubbing against the thin fabric of my T-shirt which she clearly doesn’t like because she rips it over my head. Whatever she needs to make her feel safe, to know that she has me and I will always be here for her, then I’m going to give it.
I shift backwards and grab her shorts, taking them off and I throw them on the floor as she opens my jeans and takes out my very hard cock.
“Callum,” she whispers.
“I’m here,” I take her cheek in my hand and hold my cock with the other, guiding it inside of her. “I’ll always be here,” I kiss her again as I push all the way inside.
Our bodies move together like we were made to be joined. I swallow all of her little gasps and moans as I give her what she needs, letting her know she got through this horrible thing.
“I’m never going to let you go, Charley,” I grip her chin and make sure she is looking at me. “You mean too much to me. I was scared shitless when I thought you were hurt. I can’t feel like that again. Not without letting you know what this means to me.”
She arches her back, clamping down tight on me and I groan but I have to tell her.
“Fuck Charley. I’ve never loved anyone before, but I know,” I groan again and thrust deeper. “I know with you, you’re the only woman I want.”
“Callum,” she moans again and pushes against me, rolling her hips back and forth.
Between us, I watch my cock going in and out of her and grit my teeth against the need to fill her.
She cries out when I cup her ass cheeks and pull her hard against me, pumping into her.
Her mouth drops open, and she lets out another cry, which I smother again so no one can hear as my girl comes all over my cock.
Charley is panting and gasping as I keep thrusting in and out, chasing my own release. It doesn’t take long before I’m filling her up and I clutch her to me by the back of her neck and her lower spine. Her head lolls to the side as I kiss her throat, lightly sucking on her perfect skin.
This is probably very wrong given where we are, and what is going on, but Charley needed it. Not the sex. The closeness, the knowledge that even though something awful has happened, she is alive, here with me.
She lets me kiss her all over her neck and throat, then palms my cheek and pulls me up so she can kiss me, long and deep. It’s a life altering kiss, which I will never recover from, this woman owns me.
It’ll fucking kill me if she walks away from me again, even if the last time was only a few hours and I dragged her ass back, that feeling of her being gone slayed me.
“Do you mean it?”
“Yeah,” I grin. “I didn’t say it very well.”
“You said it perfectly,” she smiles back at me. “You said it like only you could.”
“Like an ass,” I laugh but she frowns so I straighten my face and be serious about it, because this is what I want, and I never say anything I don’t mean. “I will never stop showing you that you belong here with me.”
Her eyes soften as she leans back and stares at me. “I want that too,” she whispers, then frowns at her words, as if they’re not enough.
I’m about to tell her that is good enough, but she says the words that make my heart soar with more conviction.
She leans in and brushes her lips against mine, the gentlest of touches but it holds so much promise.
This woman will bring me to my knees, I can already see it and I’ll gratefully go there if she agrees to be mine.
“I love you too, Callum.”
Her little smile has me wanting to throw my head back and scream at the fucking ceiling but I finally remember where we are and why, and having her sitting here naked is not the greatest of ideas.
There is just one more thing I want to say and this might not be the right time either but I can’t go another minute without her knowing.
“I know you don’t know how things work in motorcycle clubs. This is one of the things I don’t know much about either. What I do know, with you I want to try. I can’t imagine you not being in my life Charley.”
“What are you saying?”
“I want you to be my old lady.”
Her eyes widen. Guess she knows what that means.
“It’s a little more than a girlfriend, not quite a wife but either way, it means you’re mine. And I’m yours.”
Her throat works as she swallows and we stare at one another. “You really want me?”
“I want every single fucking part of you Charley. No matter what you think you’ve done, no matter what happened in the past, none of that matters. You’re the only thing that matters.”
Charley leans forward and wraps her arms around me. Her words are a whisper by my ear. “I never thought anyone would want me like this.”
“No one else gets to want you like this. Or have you. This,” I lean back and look at her. “Is real. I fucking love you and I might sound like an asshole but I’m not letting you go,” I grin at her and she laughs.
“Well,” she tilts her head. “I’m okay with that.”
“Good. Now get down and put some clothes on before I do something reckless like bend you over.”
“This is really bad of us.”
“No,” I stroke her cheek. “You needed this. After what you just went through, it’s perfectly normal to reach out for human touch, Charley.
Maybe the kind I gave you was inappropriate for the location,” I duck my head.
“I will always give you what you need. Mind, body and soul. And jokes, and kisses and all the good shit.”
“Okay,” she pushes me back and hops down off the counter, looking around at the discarded Elegance uniform. “We need to check on Ellie,” she bites her lip.
Charley lets me help her into my shirt and I button it up for her, then grab her shorts and panties to throw in the garbage.
“Stay here,” I tell her. “Lily has your clothes.” She grips my arm before I turn. “What?”
“You’ve made this place my home, Callum. You’ve made me want to stop running.”
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you always feel that way,” I smirk and lean in to kiss her. “I’ll be back.”
A few of the men look up when I walk over. Nero checks behind me to see I’m alone and arches a brow but doesn’t say anything. Lily stands and looks between me and Nero, she is holding Charley’s bag. When I ask her to take the clothes to her, she hurries away.
I turn back to my brothers. The whole council isn’t here but I don’t care.
Nero is staring at me, to most people he’s unreadable but I’ve known him a long time, he understands what this moment is. I indicate for the ranked members to step away from the other brothers, which they do without question.
“I know it’s meant to be discussed and agreed by everyone,” I tell them. “But I’m telling you all right here, right now, she is mine.”
“Who?” Rebel asks.
“Fuck off,” I glare even, though he was taking the piss out of me. “I want Charley to be my old lady.”
“You know the council votes unanimously on that,” Nero tells me.
“Like we did when you claimed Taylor,” Rebel scoffs.
“Yeah well, that was different,” Nero shrugs. “Plus I’m President, I don’t ask permission.”
“By that logic neither does Nashville,” Rebel says. “Does that mean we start breaking all the rules?”
“It’s not like this is something we’re used to,” Beast says, for a moment not lost in his own head over Ellie. “Until Taylor.”
He’s right. When Nero took over, he appointed a whole new council to work alongside him. None of us had an old lady or expressed any interest in getting one.
“That’s true,” Rebel agrees. “Still, it’s protocol.”
“Fuck protocol,” I keep my eyes on Nero. “She stepped up for the club tonight, Nero. She put herself in danger to protect Ellie.”
He glances toward the door where Charley is, then looks around at us all. “We can vote here and get the others approval after,” he says.
“Fine by me,” Rebel says. “If it’s what you want,” he looks to me and I nod.
“Be careful with her,” Beast tells me. “Ellie thinks she’s special.” He swallows hard. “I’m good with it too.”
I dip my chin in thanks and look at Nero.
“Told you.” He says it with a smirk. “Make sure she knows how things work.”
“She already does,” I reassure him.
He looks over my shoulder and I turn around to see Charley and Lily coming back into the waiting room. She is wearing her own clothes but still has my shirt on over her top. Nero walks over to her, and she looks at him without any fear, making my heart swell.
“You protected the club tonight, Charley,” Nero says to her.
“I had to stop him hurting Ellie.” She says it like she doesn’t want any praise for what she did.
Charley looks at me with a question in her eyes.
“You’re staying right here, where I can see you,” I tell her.
“I was going to anyway,” she says. “I want to be here when Ellie wakes up.”
“Me too,” Lily says.
Nero eyes the two women in turn and I see the smile he’s trying to hide.
I kiss Charley’s temple. “Why don’t you both go sit down, I’ll see if I can find you some coffee.”
While the women go sit down, I hand over a bunch of cash to Wheeler to get drinks. We could all do with it, given Ellie is in surgery for God knows how long.
Nero has taken a call but hangs up when I go back over.
“I’ve just called Jesse to get Taylor and Oscar to his place.
” Jesse lives in a penthouse at the top of one of the most expensive and secure buildings in the city.
“With a Kivisto in Baltimore I want everyone safe,” he glances at Charley, he knows why I’m keeping her close.
“I’m even considering a lockdown,” he adds as Rebel comes over.
“You think it’s that bad?” Rebel asks.
“I think too many of what Storm sees as our weaknesses are getting hurt.”
He’s right and now I’m even more concerned.
“Lockdown is a big call,” Rebel says, rubbing his chin.
“And one I will not make lightly,” Nero tells him. “The last thing I want is Storm thinking he has us on the back foot. Risking our families isn’t an option.”
“Raven will tell me to eat a bag of dicks if I try to make her hide,” Rebel grunts out.
“Raven will fall in line if she has to,” Nero says, an amused half smile on his lips despite the seriousness of the conversation.
“You can be the one to tell her then.”
Raven will listen to him over her brother, even if she doesn’t like it.
“I’ve told Fury and Stryker to take him to the warehouse when they find him,” Nero says.
“It doesn’t take all of us to question him.
I’m going to call Razer, I want the council all here for this.
Nashville, sort out some guys to go down there and take his place, people Storm won’t recognize.
I don’t like all these new players coming out of the woodwork.
We need to find out everything we can and fast.”
I move away to make the calls, keeping an eye on Charley the whole time. She has a coffee and is chatting with Lily, both of them looking anxious but now and then she seeks me out and that anxiety lessens just a little when our eyes meet.
Nero is right about the people we care about being targets.
It might not have been as obvious with Sheridan because she was never a major part of Nero’s life, but their son is.
And Storm knows how important Ellie is to the Disciples and the things she has done for the club.
She can get even the strongest of men to break down and feed her information and has done numerous times in the past.
It’s worrying that Storm made a play to take her out of things. We have at least one advantage now. This Kivisto guy was not meant to be seen. The way he attacked Ellie, his plan was that she was supposed to be found after he got out.
It was only that Charley saw him and stopped him part way through that we know someone from their family is in Baltimore.
I was scared as fuck when I saw her go after him in that video but looking at her now, I see the strength in her.
She is so fucking scared of what happened with her family she doesn’t realize how strong she is. I’m going to make sure that is all she sees from now on.
We finally have something that Storm is not aware we know. We have to figure out how to make this turn to our advantage. I’m not sure how, but finding the bastard who tried to kill Ellie is our first move.
Beast is leaning against the wall staring at nothing. Grabbing two coffees I go over and stand beside him, handing one to him. He takes it but doesn’t say anything.
“She’s gonna pull through.”
He’s quiet for a long time, then looks at me. “You didn’t see what he did to her.”
“Ellie won’t go out like this, Derek.”
He shakes his head slowly, not that he is disagreeing, He’s just finding it hard to believe.
“You and Charley,” he says after a while and a few sips of the coffee. “Should have seen that coming.”
“Yeah? How’s that?”
“You couldn’t take your eyes off her. Every time she smashed the shit out of more of my glassware and expensive champagne bottles, you didn’t think it was amusing or get angry, you thought it was fucking endearing.”
“I thought I had a better poker face than that.”
“Women can make us stupid, Callum. Showing that you care is what can get them hurt.”
Well, if that isn’t a telling fucking statement, and not about me and Charley. I don’t agree with him. I don’t think we should sacrifice our happiness and be afraid of what might happen, when we can be happy and be there and protect them.
“No, they make us stronger. When you find the right one.”
“Now you sound like Nero,” he scoffs, but he looks away.
If I was going to bring it up, now would probably be the time, but it's not my business to step into whatever is going on between him and Ellie.
As long as Ellie does what we all need her to do. And I’m really beginning to worry that hoping and praying is not going to get her through this.
I slap Beast’s shoulder then head over to Charley and sit down. She reaches for my hand. Beast really is wrong. Nothing could make me feel stronger than having this woman at my side.
I just hope he gets the chance to experience it too.