Chapter Four
McKenna
I tossed my law dictionary into my bag and zipped it up.
Stick a fork in me, I was so done.
Between my early morning gym session, three back-to-back classes, getting my hair cut (which Pee Wee hadn’t even noticed), my meeting with Memo, changing out kegs after Pee Wee bailed for church, and four straight hours of studying—I was beyond pooped.
The only thing keeping me upright was the thought of going home, baking some cookies, taking a hot shower, and face-planting into my pillow.
Which was exactly what I was about to do .
Glancing around Pee Wee’s office, I double-checked to see if there was anything I needed to tidy up before leaving. Finding nothing out of place, I slung my backpack over my shoulder, grabbed my water bottle off the corner of the desk, and headed for the door with my head down.
I hadn’t even made it two steps when it was flung open and in stepped the wicked bitch of the west, Diana-fucking-Reid.
Her eyes widened momentarily when she saw me, but she recovered quickly, her surprise morphing into a condescending smirk.
“Where’s Brock?” she demanded, planting a hand on her hip as she flipped her over-processed, bleach blonde hair over her shoulder, making sure I saw the gaudy diamond ring on her finger.
Bitch!
My blood instantly began to boil. There wasn’t a person on this planet I hated more than Pee Wee’s wife.
I’d learned about Diana right after sleeping with Pee Wee for the first time.
Don’t judge .
I’d been fucking furious—so mad I’d quit on the spot and told him to go fuck himself. I wasn’t a home wrecker, and never would have slept with him if I’d known he had a wife and kids at home. Something he’d neglected to mention.
After a week of avoiding him like the plague, the psycho broke into my apartment and demanded that I hear him out.
He clearly hadn’t gotten the message that I wasn’t a woman who put up with crazy assholes and their bullshit.
So, like the pissed off Italian woman I was, I started launching dinner plates at his stupid head and threatened to call the cops if he didn’t leave me the hell alone. I wasn’t a woman who suffered fools.
Not. At. All.
I’d expected him to take off after that, but he didn’t. Right before my eyes, the big guy broke down, begging me to hear him out.
That was when I learned that seventeen years ago, Diana had pulled the oldest trick in the book—she’d purposely gotten pregnant to trap him.
I had my suspicions that she poked holes in the condom, because from what Pee Wee told me about his wife, that was exactly the kind of thing she would do.
“He’s not here,” I growled, my jaw clenched tight.
Diana smirked and shut the door behind her. “I feel sorry for you, ya know?” Her eyes slid over me like I was something she’d scraped off the bottom of her designer heel.
I snorted. “You can shove your pity up your ass.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Do you think you’re the only whore he’s had since he married me, little girl? There’ve been more than I can count. You’re nothing special.”
Her aim was true, and I flinched. For all the sass I could throw, I was insecure about my relationship with Pee Wee because it was more than just sex for me. I loved him, but I didn’t know how he felt about me.
“He fucks me every night when he comes home,” Diana said, examining her manicured nails.
She had to be lying. Pee Wee swore he hadn’t touched her since the night he knocked her up, and I believed him. Except now, with what she was saying, that little grating voice in the back of my head wondered if she was telling the truth. What if he was still sleeping with her?
“I don’t have time for this bullshit.” I shouldered past her toward the door.
Before I made it out, Diana grabbed onto my arm. “Stay away from MY husband,” she hissed, her face inches from mine.
I jerked my arm free. “ Get your hands off me,” I snapped. “And get the fuck out of here before I have the prospects toss you out on your flabby ass.”
Diana’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Just remember what I said, whore. He’ll never be yours.”
“He’ll never be yours either,” I threw back.
Eyes blazing, she turned on her heel and stormed out.
As much as I hated Diana, she was right.
With the way things were, Pee Wee would never be mine.
An hour later, I was standing barefoot at the kitchen island, flipping through my criminal procedure textbook while the scent of peanut butter cookies filled the air.
When Pee Wee moved me out of the projects and into this house, I’d been mad as hell. Not that I was unappreciative of his generosity, because I wasn’t.
It was a very nice thing to do.
The man just had a bad habit of doing things without talking to me about them first. If he had spoken to me first, I would have told him the four-bedroom house was way more space than I needed .
I turned the page in my textbook, trying to focus on the section about search warrants and probable cause. This stuff was especially relevant after what Memo had found in Jaxon’s case, but Diana’s words kept pushing forward, trying to take center stage.
He’ll never be yours.
“Fuck you, Diana.” I didn’t know why I was letting her get to me.
My mood lifted slightly when the oven timer beeped. Grabbing my favorite ‘ Don’t make me poison you’ oven mitt, I pulled out the third batch of cookies I’d made since getting home.
Mmmm…. peanut butter cookies.
They were Pee Wee’s favorite, and somehow I’d found myself making them tonight even though I was still a little bit pissed off at him.
I didn’t really know why I was mad. It wasn’t like he did anything he didn’t always do. The club came first and always would. I knew that.
Setting the hot tray on the cooling rack, I checked the clock.
It was after eight, and I still hadn’t heard a word from him.
Not that he had to check in with me. I wasn’t trying to keep tabs on him, and he wasn’t a child.
But damn, was it that hard to pick up the phone and send a text to your girlfriend about what was going on? I didn’t need the details, just let me know everything’s okay, ya know?
It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen it in his eyes as he was leaving. Something was going on with the club. Not that he’d ever tell me about it. “Club business” wasn’t something he shared with me.
“Ugh! I’m driving myself crazy!”
As I transferred the cookies to a plate, I started thinking about the past year.
Pee Wee and I had grown closer, but our situation was starting to wear on me. I was tired of always coming last. I understood the situation with his kids and his club. That I could live with. It was the coming last to everything else that hurt.
Just once, I wanted him to show up for me.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to my textbook. I need to focus. This was what mattered. My future. Getting through school, becoming a lawyer, helping Jaxon.
The lock on my front door clicked, and my heart jumped into my throat. There was only one other person who had a key.
Pee Wee stepped inside, his massive frame filling the doorway. He looked tired, the lines around his eyes deeper than usual, but the moment his gaze locked with mine, something inside me melted.
“Hey, baby,” he said, his voice sounding rough.
“Hey,” I replied, trying to sound like I hadn’t been half-worried, half-pissed all evening.
He closed the door, locked it, and tossed his keys on the counter. His eyes roamed over me, taking in my tank top and sleep shorts, then shifted to the plate of cookies as he came near. “You baked.”
“I was stressed,” I admitted.
He came to a stop in front of me and pulled me into his arms. “My baby’s had a rough day?”
And just like that, all my frustrations faded away.
“Yeah,” I mumbled into his shirt as I melted against him.
His calloused hands slid underneath my tank top, and I shivered. “You can tell me later,” he growled, his lips finding my neck. “Right now, I need you.”
The rest of the world faded away. Diana, school, Jaxon’s case—all of it disappeared as Pee Wee’s mouth moved down my throat.
God yes. I needed him too.
His hands gripped my hips, lifting me onto the counter.
“The oven,” I gasped as he pushed my tank top up.
Without breaking contact, he reached over and turned the oven off. Then in one smooth motion, his strong arms grabbed onto my thighs and he scooped me up.
“Bedroom,” he grunted, already carrying me down the hall.
Locking my legs around his waist as he walked, I buried my face in his neck, biting down gently on the corded muscle there.
“Shit,” he growled, the rumble vibrating through his chest into mine.
“Hurry,” I pleaded, desperate to finish what we started earlier.
He grunted, tossing me onto the mattress and following me down, his body covering mine. His mouth claimed mine in a brutal kiss.
“Please, baby,” I whispered against his lips. God, I needed him like the sun needed the sky.
His big hands made quick work of my clothes, stripping them off, then standing so he could shed his own clothes, and the whole time his eyes never left mine.
God, he was so beautiful.
Hard muscles and tanned skin, covered in dark tattoos that told the story of his life.
“Baby,” he growled, looking at me like I was his everything, like he would burn down the damn world just to keep me warm.
My heart thundered in my chest. I loved this man.
He moved back over me, his weight pressing me into the mattress, and I wrapped myself around him.
There was no foreplay, no slow build-up. We were both too desperate.
Holding my stare, he snapped his hips and then he was inside me, filling me completely.
“Yes,” I hissed, arching up into him.
“Fuck.” Groaning, his forehead pressed against mine. “Your pussy’s so wet. Fuck, Kenny. You feel so damn good.”
I rolled my hips, taking him deeper, and his breath hitched. “Minx.”
My lips tipped up. “Fuck me.”
His eyes went electric, and he started to move. Harder and faster, pushing me higher and higher until I felt myself spiraling toward the edge.
When his fingers slid between us, finding the spot that made me see stars, I came apart with a cry of his name.
Pee Wee followed seconds later, his body tensing as he groaned against my neck.
“God, I needed that,” I panted.
Mmm… he hummed in agreement.
We stayed just like that, chest to chest, bodies tangled up in each other, until finally he rolled to his side, pulling me with him so we were face to face.
“Why was your day shitty?” he asked as he brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes.
“Diana came by your office today,” I said quietly, watching his face.
The muscle in his jaw twitched, and I could tell he was pissed. “What did she say?”
I told him everything, watching his face for any reaction, any hint that what she’d said might be true, but his expression remained unreadable.
“Babe,” he sighed, pulling me closer, his arms tightening around me. “None of that shit is true. You can’t let her get in your head.”