EPILOGUE
Cain
Not even a year later, if he’d been told that he’d be sitting within a Renegade Souls MC territory with many of the Souls members, and he wouldn’t consider anyone in the packed pub an enemy, Cain would have assumed the person had lost all sense.
But here he was at the main table with Rider and Hawk, who he still couldn’t think of as his uncle, so he didn’t, but they got along fine. Preacher, Capone, Lawless, Alpha, and Hero were also there. Some of his Cali friends had traveled through. Damon had spent the year trying to make it right with Harper by buying her affection with coffee and cake gifts. He’d be at the wedding tomorrow, but it was up to Harper if she wanted him stabbed.
It made his Harper happy when he made an effort with her people, and he’d walk into hell for that woman and roast marshmallows on Beelzebub’s brimstone ash.
“Are you nervous?” smirked Zane. He was the quieter Marinos brother and probably the one he liked the most, but give him a few more years, and he’d grow into a hero hellraiser in his own right and be able to step out of Knox’s limelight.
“Nothing to be nervous about,” Cain answered, drinking from a glass of scotch.
“It’s your last night of freedom. You’re getting married tomorrow.”
He was already married. But it was a secret he and Harper would keep between them. Her tender heart couldn’t take hurting her family if they knew they’d been married for nearly two years. So, to everyone else, tomorrow was their wedding day.
“Let me tell you this, Hero.” He said, realizing he had everyone’s attention. “You find the right woman who accepts you as you are. You realize that’s the freedom you want.”
“Man, you’re whipped.” Zane laughed.
Cain smirked. Not at all offended. “By Harper, yes. If she wanted your head delivered in a roller skate decorated in flowers, she’d have it by midnight.”
“Fuck.” The younger boy cackled, rubbing at his chin fluff.
Cain smirked at his brother-in-law to let him know he was joking, unless Harper asked for it.
It might have been an hour later when Knox stood up and declared. “Oh, fuck.” Then he smirked Cain’s way. “Buckle up, buddy.”
Cain didn’t know what he meant until he locked eyes with his woman strolling through Bar Icy – the pub named for his mother-in-law.
Oh, that woman of his was in so much trouble.
But he’d won his bet.
He thought he’d be the one to track her down, probably having to break into her childhood bedroom because he couldn’t stand spending the night without her.
It had been Harper’s bright idea. The night apart before they married, the sassy little brat was gatecrashing his bachelor party.
Cain tipped his chin and watched her. He was always watching that woman as if she were the only focus he had in life. He was endlessly captivated by the fiery passion in her eyes and her renowned attitude he loved taming.
She didn’t approach the club’s area; she sauntered up to the bar with her girl posse but sent him her fluttering little lashes in glances occasionally as she sipped from a clear drink.
“I remember this dance,” chuckled Preacher, holding a beer in his big hand. “She’s testing you, boy.”
Yeah, Cain knew that, and she was about to win because his skin was fucking buzzing not being near her.
Some might call it a sickness. But she was his greatest strength, his strongest motivation.
Cain couldn’t pretend to be a changed man.
He was who he was.
He still had tainted blood in his veins that couldn’t be made right.
But Harper loved who he was and never asked him to change.
They lived in the gray area together, where they were happiest.
Finding the love of his life in the most unexpected place hadn’t morphed Cain into a good guy. How could it? His woman was forced into a marriage to him, and he’d done any other number of diabolical things to keep her.
A decent man would at least regret them.
Cain didn’t.
He’d do everything again if it put Harper in his life.
He’d slay anyone who got in his way of having her. He shared a look with Rider, who was watching him watching his daughter, and the guy got it. He understood how insane he felt about Harper. Rider also knew Cain would protect Harper first over everyone else, and likely accepted him because he respected that. Harper was safe with him because he’d take every bullet coming their way. There was no liveable life without Harper at his helm.
He was content to let Harper have her fun until a dead man walking sidled up to their group, trying to muscle into the middle.
The dead meat had eyes only for Harper.
Cain’s eyes narrowed. Observing the guy take his last pulls of air.
He got to twenty seconds of the guy trying to gain Harper’s attention when he climbed to his feet. He stepped away from the table before he looked back to find an amused audience. It was his father-in-law he directed his question to.
“How do you feel about the bar being smashed up, Rider?”
“Not favorable. Zara would break my bones, and then I’d have to break yours.”
That was unfortunate, since he was going to kill a motherfucker.
“I once stabbed a guy’s hand to a bar for touching Gia.” Offered Hawk with a smirk, and Cain felt closer to the guy. He did always carry a pocket knife.
With that cheery thought floating around his white meat, he strode over to where his woman was lapping his steps with her delicious gaze.
Almost beckoning her villain to come out and play.
Well, here he was. Ready to be fucking villainous.
Standing behind the oblivious guy who was trying his best chat-up lines on Harper, Cain grabbed him by the back of his neck with vicious fingers digging in, pressing his mouth to his ear.
His woman was beaming with lust in her eyes. Little brat.
“You have three seconds to get the fuck out of here before I bounce your head off this bar,” Cain gave his only warning as the guy tried to wrench out of the hand lock.
“What the fuck have I done?” he whimpered.
“You put your eyes on my woman. Do you see her? She’s mine .”
“I am,” chimed in his woman sweetly, flashing Cain a smile so perfect his cock ached. He discarded the guy like a piece of lint, and he shot away.
Cain never would have scurried off.
If Harper had a man when he met her, he would have sniffed around her like a fucking dog, made sure he was the only one winning her, and wouldn’t have let anyone scare him off.
That was the type of man that got his woman wet. And he knew if he slipped a hand down into her leather pants, she would be sopping inside her cotton panties.
Cain pressed his chest to her back and nipped her earlobe.
“Troublemaker,” he growled playfully to hear her tinkle a laugh, leaning into him with all her sweetness. Her girls all grinned at him like he was a hero, but Cain, especially Harper, knew there was nothing heroic about how he felt about her.
He would be the biggest fucking villain in the room to earn her heart.
“You said you wanted to spend the night apart.”
She turned, nestling closer like she couldn’t stand even an inch of space between them.
It was the same for him.
“Were you going to stick to that?”
“No,” he told the truth. “I was going to climb into your bedroom window after your parents slept.”
She chuckled and rubbed her face on his chest, inhaling him.
“I couldn’t stay away from my devil. I missed you too much.”
It was music to his ears.
Before she knew it, Cain had his woman in a corner out of everyone’s eyeline. Only then did he take her mouth in a primal, claiming kiss. She moaned into his throat and clung to the back of his hair.
“My wife.” He groaned into her lips.
“Husband.”
After tomorrow, he wouldn’t have to hold those two words to himself. Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough so he could paw his woman in private, but making her moan now was a close second to perfection, so he dipped into her mouth again and sucked on Harper’s tongue until she was a little mewling mess.
“Oh, that’s not fair. I want you.” Her eyes were glassy and shining lust. “Will you still climb into my window tonight? I’ll leave it unlocked.”
He snorted, and she grinned impishly. She knew no lock could keep him away from her.
“Yes.” He answered as she rubbed against his hard dick. “Be naked in your childhood bed, Harper.”
The lust in her eyes turned smoky, and she started stroking his chest like she wouldn’t mind if he mounted her right there and fucked ten orgasms out of her.
“I’ll pretend to struggle for my burglar.”
Now it was his turn to grunt, burying his face into the side of her sweet-smelling neck. His dirty girl wanted to roleplay, and he was down for that.
She was feverish in his arms, but she always was, and he fucking loved when she clawed her desire out on his body.
“You wore these leather pants to tease me, didn’t you?” he asked in a low voice, skimming kisses around her exposed neck. He then brought his hand around and smacked it between her thighs.
She gasped, and her eyes flared.
“Answer me, sweet baby.”
“Yes, I did. I poured myself into these in hopes it would make your cock ache.”
Bad girl. He adored every inch of her. “Everything you do makes my cock ache.”
“I can’t wait until you’re my husband, Cain.”
“I already am.”
“Officially, to everyone other than us. I’m so happy, Cain.” She said dreamily as he cupped the side of her face. He knew she was, especially since he was moving permanently to Colorado. They’d tried traveling back and forth. His girl could work remotely, and as much as she loved his mom, she had the worst homesickness; she missed her family and needed to be around them.
It was a straightforward decision.
Damon would run the Cali offices, and Cain would set one up in Colorado; he’d brought some of his people with him.
“Your perfection is unparalleled.” He confessed just to see her blushing.
Ever since he’d made his girl take his cock down her sweet virgin throat, she’d gotten a taste for outdoor activities, and he had the urge to pull her outside to check how wet she was. But his lust would keep until later, and Cain promised himself she’d be speaking hoarsely at the altar tomorrow from how deep she sucked his cock tonight.
“Kiss me,” she demanded, and he lowered his head. He tasted her slowly and drew back before it got out of hand.
She pouted, and he pressed a thumb on her lips.
“Behave.”
“That’s rich,” she huffed. “You never do.”
Cain smirked. She had him there.
After spending a few minutes more together, he returned Harper to her friends.
The hips on his wife would get him locked up one day if he killed every man for taking a double glance when she walked away from him.
Knowing his spitfire, she’d visit him daily in skin-tight denim shorts to show off what he was missing.
“Hey, you.” he whistled, and her head turned his way, not caring who was watching them. When Harper’s eyes were on him, they might as well be in the world alone. Her smile was slow and seductive, love right there.
“Who? Me?”
“Yeah, you. Love you, sweet baby.”
Her smile was everything. “I love you, too, Cain.”
Everything expanded in Cain, and Harper drew her eyes away first to rejoin her girls. Later that night, he’d sneak into her bedroom window and take the dirtiest advantage of his wife while holding a hand over her mouth.
And he couldn’t wait.
* * *
Harper
The next day
“That’s it,” he issued hoarsely as she experienced an all-over body shudder into a climax so acute, she felt like her spine had broken.
After a few damning thrusts that caused Harper to wrench forward on her hands, Cain let go and pumped her full of his come. The groan reverberated around the church side room until all that was left behind was the sound of his ragged breaths as he fell over her back, pressing her into the chaise lounge. She’d known instantly why he’s sneaked into her room and what he’d come for and nearly tore her slimline wedding dress in her haste to raise it to her hips.
“Needed to fuck my wife before I married you again,” he grunted into the back of her neck. She couldn’t claim it for sure, but sex with him felt like angels were singing. And for a villain, that was quite the miracle right there.
Cain put her back together with loving hands. She was boneless and watching him through heavily fucked dreamy eyes.
“They’re all going to know.” She complained, not too much, because she loved his spirit and adored her husband’s reckless nature. He grinned as she checked herself in the full mirror to see if she could tell she’d just had the soul fucked out of her. Her inner thighs were wet, but no one but Cain was going to look there.
“You look incredible.” He said instead of an excuse that he wouldn’t mean.
She beamed and shooed him out of the church room to wait at the front for her. With one last kiss, he left. But her dad was at the door when Cain attempted to sneak out.
“You couldn’t wait five fuckin’ minutes.” He grumbled, and Cain laughed, unrepentant.
“I needed to check my girl wasn’t climbing out the window.” He turned to wink at her. “See you out there.”
“Be right there,” she told him, smiling at her father, who inhaled when he saw her.
“Doodle-bug, you are beautiful.”
“You think so?” She’d spent the morning with her bridesmaids and her mom, but this moment with her dad was something she’d ached to share with him. It was the main reason she’d wanted an official wedding so that he could give her away.
“I know so,” He stated, taking hold of her hands. Her eyes filled with tears, and she had to fight to keep them at bay.
“I love you, Daddy. Thanks for giving me away.”
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else, sweetheart. You know, as dads, we dread this moment. Losing our little girls. You used to ride around on the front of my bike with me, or you’d beg to go out in the truck when it was snowing. You’d wake your mom and me by jumping off the top of the dresser, laughing like a lunatic with glee. And now here you are, looking like a queen, ready to marry the man you love. Time fuckin’ flies by, doodle-bug.”
Emotion was a tight hold on Harper’s throat and her heart, gazing at the man she’d always adored. And no man had ever matched up to the awesomeness of Rider Marinos until Cain.
“I love you, Daddy. And you can still drive me around when it snows. Cain isn’t a fan of the cold weather.” She promised. His blue eyes twinkled.
“You and your mom with your love of snow. What did I get into, huh?”
“You adore us.”
He grinned, and she knew he did.
“Okay, doodle-bug, it’s time. Are you ready?”
She nodded as she looped his arm leading out to the church entrance. The music started, and he turned to her.
“I know you love the guy, but it’s not too late. I can have you over the Canadian border in hours. I doubt he’d find you,” he said jokingly. Harper snorted, leaning up to kiss his beard.
“You and I both know Cain would be three minutes behind us. But thanks for the offer. I think I’ll keep him.”
“I thought so.” He replied. “I know he’ll take care of you. I already warned him what would happen if he didn’t.”
“You did?”
“Fuckin’ right I did. It’s a father’s privilege to scare the future groom.”
“And was Cain scared?” she bit her smiling lip as her father scowled.
“I doubt it.”
“Dad, I keep telling you all, he’s a lunatic. Now, please take me to him. I need to be his wife.”
An hour later, everyone knew she was Cain’s wife, and Cain was her hubby. She had a second marriage certificate and a big rock on her finger to prove it.
“Got you at last, husband.” She said on their first dance.
“Did you now?” he hummed against her lips.
“Yes. This whole thing was my devious scheme all along. You fell right into my hands.”
“Thank fuck for that, sweet baby. Now I can stop being the evil one.” His eyes flared with amusement.
“Don’t you dare.”
His lip skimmed her cheek and then around to her ear. “I love you, Harper.”
“Forever and days more.” She agreed, letting herself be twirled around the dance floor.
She was a legacy.
They might not be following precisely in her biker family’s footsteps, but she and Cain would put their stamp on the world.
One epic moment together at a time.
The end was just the beginning.
And she was hopelessly, wildly excited to be there.
* * *
Cain
Forever and days later
His beloved kids were absolute wild animals.
He blamed his sweet baby.
He blamed their biker relatives.
It couldn’t have anything to do with his tainted blood.
With Harper perched comfortably on his lap, his hand squeezed her hip as he let go of a shrill whistle, so his six-year-old hellraiser son turned his way.
For a kid with a biblical name, Elijah sure was showing signs of being a descendant of the devil as he sniffed around Juicy’s eldest son’s Harley, like he was trying to figure out with all of his six-year-old brains how to hot wire it.
“Eli, you’ve already been warned about keeping away from the bikes.”
“Aw, Dad! I’m only looking. Jeez.” He said, kicking the ground and moving on to look at Dax’s ride.
“Jeez, Dad.” Teased Harper in his ear, suppressing her laughter.
Their daughter was no angel, either, except in Cain’s eyes. He always disregarded Eleanor’s mischief. She was only eight. She’d grow out of it. And was precious and precocious, just like her mom.
“These kids are your doing.” He kissed the shell of Harper’s ear.
“Excuse me .” She turned accusing eyes on him and laughed in his face. “Was it me who threatened to dig out my birth control? No, that was you, lunatic.”
“I was kidding.” Nope, he’d wanted to see her full of his babies.
“And then just when I’d given birth to Eleanor, who insisted we have a second baby? Because it wasn’t me.”
Cain smirked and rubbed her thigh.
They were at a family picnic, and he watched his two hellions run at full pelt over to their grandparents when they pulled up in an SUV.
“That sounds like me. But my wife makes shit up.”
Harper snorted and elbowed him.
If not for complications, he would have kept putting babies in her. When the doctor told them it would be wise not to, he’d immediately booked in to get fixed. Nothing was more important than his wife.
“I think you’re delirious from chasing that bounty this weekend.”
“You’re going to be deliriously stuffed with my cock down your throat if you keep acting like a brat.” He warned huskily, making a necklace of his fingers around the front of her throat so he could draw her back to kiss her cheek.
Her little girl moan was heaven. It always would be.
“Cain.” She warned breathily, and he smiled against her cheek as she gripped his forearm.
He loved turning her on when she couldn’t display how much she wanted him. When she started rubbing her thighs together, he told her in hushed, graphic details how he’d treat her once they were alone later.
All these years later, they were still like newlyweds. Best friends who liked to fuck a lot.
Cain would often break into his own house to do villainous things to his sleeping wife.
Harper called it his love language.
He knew it to be his eternal obsession with his sweet baby wife.
Don’t all great love stories begin with a moralless monster forcing a woman to marry him for blackmail?
Cain and Harper’s did.
And they couldn’t be happier.
He’d be happier still later when she was full of his cock.
“Harper?”
“Yeah, my love.” She smiled, tracing her inked name on his forearm. “I adore you, too.”
She always knew that was what he was going to say.