Chapter 1
Chet
I lifted my head, watching as William tried sneaking back into our room.
He knew I couldn’t sleep without him right beside me.
The moment he’d gotten out of bed, I’d been aware he was leaving me, and I’d been awake since, despite my mind still being fuzzy and my body absolutely worn out from being tied to the bed and punished for being a brat earlier before William proceeded to fuck me like a man starved.
“Where did you go?” I mumbled.
William looked over at me and sighed. “How long have you been awake?” His voice was pitched low and gravelly, like always. He rarely talked to anyone. I was the only person he wasn’t bothered actually speaking to.
I shrugged and tugged the blankets closer around me, wanting to cocoon myself.
“Since you left.” I peeked out at him from beneath the blankets.
“Why did you leave?” I hated the pout in my voice.
To everyone else, I was a jokester. I loved running my mouth and being the life of the party.
But William brought out the side of me that made me more vulnerable.
He let me be vulnerable. Sure, William was a jackass, and sometimes, I wasn’t sure he was all human.
But he was mine , just as I was his, and I knew he would never abandon me.
That was what made him so special to me. I was so codependent on this man that I knew when he died, I’d follow right behind him. I didn’t know how to breathe without him.
William studied me for a moment, then wordlessly strode over to the mini-fridge in our room, grabbing a bottle of water, a small bottle of juice, and one of the mini-tubs of chocolate ice cream.
William liked to give me chocolate after a particularly brutal session, but I wasn’t a fan of the candy itself, so he compromised and gave me chocolate ice cream.
I was always a fan of ice cream, no matter the flavor. It tended to mess my stomach up though, so he never gave me much—just a few spoonfuls.
“You should be resting,” William reprimanded as he came over to the bed. I pushed myself into a sitting position, wincing when my body protested. I was going to be covered in bruises in a few hours, but that was fine. I liked being covered in William’s marks just as much as he liked marking me.
“You left,” I said, an accusatory note in my voice. He arched a brow at me, and I sighed, leaning back against the headboard. “Well, you did,” I muttered petulantly. “You know I can’t sleep when you’re not with me.”
William grunted and grabbed the juice. After cracking it open, he handed it to me, and even though I wanted to fight him because he was being his usually mute self, I obediently drank the juice, my throat parched.
After finishing it, I twisted the cap back on, then tossed it onto the mattress at his feet.
He cast me a warning look, but I stubbornly tilted my chin up.
Grabbing a plastic spoon from the little cup he kept full on the nightstand, he stabbed it into the ice cream, then tugged me against his side so he could feed me. Despite being put out with him, my heart melted.
William was one hundred percent a dick, but he loved me. He wasn’t a man of many words, but his actions spoke volumes.
“An issue has arisen that I need to take care of,” William quietly informed me, his chest rumbling against my shoulder with every word he spoke. William’s voice was deep and almost growly, filling me with warmth. But the way he spoke also had a way of commanding anyone’s attention immediately.
“An issue?” I mumbled around a mouthful of chocolatey goodness.
William tapped my chin. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, Chet.
” I obediently kept my mouth shut. He was talking to me, and I knew being a brat would just make him shut down again…
and earn me another punishment if I wasn’t careful.
I was good for a while after the last one, thank you.
My ass was still smarting from the paddle.
“Sorry,” I mumbled after swallowing the ice cream.
He fed me another bite. “The Savage Dreams found information on you.” My gut tightened, and suddenly, I didn’t want the ice cream anymore. I shoved his hand away, shaking my head when he tried to give me another bite. “Chet…” he warned.
“I can’t,” I choked out, feeling panicky. My stomach roiled. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
William quickly set the ice cream aside and grabbed the trash can just in time. Because right after he shoved it in front of me, I proceeded to puke, my entire body trembling.
Someone else knew about what I used to do. What I was forced to do. Did that mean…
“They also know about your father and have threatened to contact him,” William quietly informed me.
I shook my head, feeling dizzy and nauseous.
William set aside the trash can, then tugged me onto his lap so I was straddling his thighs.
He hugged me close, his arms banding around me like steel.
“He will not touch you again, baby, you hear me? You’re mine , and no one gets to take you from me. They don’t even get to attempt to.”
“But he’s a cop,” I choked out.
William pressed his lips to my temple, holding them there until I ceased shaking in his arms. “I don’t care what the fuck he is,” William growled.
“Hyram has already given me the okay to take him out. I’m taking Malachi with me.
I’ll be back in twenty-four hours, you hear me?
” When I didn’t answer, he gripped my hair and forced my head back so our eyes locked. “Do you hear me, Chet?”
I nodded, feeling like I was splintering apart.
While I was no stranger to being an outlaw since I was a patched member of the Ghost Born MC Oregon charter, William had kept me sheltered from my past. He’d made life so fucking good for me, I’d never had to worry again.
He took all that worry and stress away because that was his job as my Dom.
And once again, he was rescuing me. Saving me.
“You better not get caught,” I croaked. I couldn’t do life without him right here with me.
He rested his forehead on mine. “And let someone take me away from you? No chance, baby.”
I relaxed and softly kissed him, my fingers lacing in his soft, dirty blonde hair. The curls sifted through my fingers, feeling like silk along my roughened fingertips. “I love you.”
He hummed and kissed me again. “I need you to listen to Hyram when he gives you orders while I’m gone, understand? I can’t do this if I think you’re going to be a brat.”
I huffed and rolled my eyes. “Fine,” I grumbled.
William kissed me again before gently setting me aside. “Finish that ice cream, baby. I’ll be back before you know it, okay? And I know sleeping will be hard, but I need you to try.”
I grabbed the ice cream from the nightstand as William tied up the trash bag I’d thrown up into. “I’ll try,” I muttered.
He ruffled my hair. “Good boy,” he praised, and I couldn’t stop the sappy little sigh that passed my lips. Then, he slipped from the room, and I knew he wouldn’t be coming back up to tell me goodbye. Because we didn’t do goodbyes. They felt too final to me and freaked me out.
Instead, I grabbed my burner phone and shot him a text.
Chet:
I love you.
William:
I love you, too. Be good.
Because I was feeling a little extra bratty since he was leaving me again, even though I knew it was for my own good, I responded:
Chet: