16. Silas
SIXTEEN
SILAS
AGE TWENTY-TWO
The men in my father’s club all looked at me differently now. When I was a kid, they’d sneer at me, even push me around, always trying to toughen me up. Either they didn’t know the purpose of Alec and me being there, or they just didn’t care.
Their cruelty only pushed me harder. Now as an adult, being here of my own volition, and not simply because a custody agreement said I had to be, they seemed to look at me in a new light. Their glares would linger, and a few would drop down to my hands, but most of them had fear hardening their stares. My reputation as The Roman had spread, even to surrounding clubs, and now when we had opposition, it was a whispered plea that I wasn’t the one to dole out punishment.
I was tired of this though.
Exhausted really, but every time I thought I might be getting somewhere with dismantling this club, or my father’s role here, something else would happen that would draw it out. Most recently it was the arrival of his brothers, who offered extra protection, and by extension, stepped in to take on new roles within the club, which helped reinforce the various ways I had weakened it.
For years, I had systematically been sabotaging my father’s plans, his runs, and different connections. Inventory of new weapons would arrive, and I made sure they were destroyed in a freak accident. When negotiations were supposed to go down for a meet up with members from the cartel, I made sure to tip them off so they were able to steal the product my father planned to leverage.
He had no idea it was me, neither did Alec, but my efforts were working. I just needed to keep at it.
The problem was consistently trying to tear down his club meant I was away from my wife.
Shutting the door to my room in the club, I pulled out my phone and navigated to the text thread with her.
Me: I miss you
A few minutes passed before she saw the message, then the dots bounced around for nearly another minute before she replied.
Natty: I miss you too…a lot actually. Any way you can cut your trip short and come back to me?
I felt her words like a punch to the gut. Come back to me.
Me: I will do everything within my power to return to you as soon as I possibly can.
She didn’t message me back for a while. I lay down and rested my eyes, thinking of her. My mind constantly threw back the images of her from our wedding.
Lance took us out to the dock in our grove, carrying a lantern and a Bible.
He had hung the lantern with the swinging rope we’d tied to a tree, then, under a sky full of stars he married Natty and me. She had on a white dress with pink roses printed all over in little patterns. Her hair was braided into a crown around her head, and her smile couldn’t be rivaled. I’d never seen her so happy.
Originally I’d had plans to ask her when things had settled down a bit, and when we married, I wanted it to be a big affair. But Natty didn’t have friends, unless she’d made a few at work…otherwise it was just Mom and me.
So, this was better. We’d driven into town after our vows and had a man named Jackhammer ink two similar tattoos under our ring fingers.
“This will likely fade,” he’d warned. Natty and I just smiled and welcomed the challenge.
Natty: You’ve been gone for almost four months, Silas. Please come home.
I stared at her text, feeling nervous and worried. That gut feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling me surfaced.
Me: Is everything okay?
She took her time responding again, and it was enough to get me moving. I wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on back home, but I knew she needed me. I hated being away from her, and for her to ask me twice…nearly begging me, meant something was off.
I got on my bike and within the span of two hours, I was rolling to a stop in front of the house. My phone still hadn’t gone off with a new text since I had asked if everything was okay, and I had no idea where Natty was.
From the side where the Death Raiders club entrance was, I heard a noise and suddenly Dirk was walking out, laughing with a few of his men.
He spotted me and paused.
There was something about his expression, and I would never forget the way he’d looked at Natty when we’d started dating at seventeen. I never had been able to get the way he stared at her out of my system. Was I missing something where he was concerned?
“Silas. You’re back early,” Dirk muttered, walking closer.
I didn’t respond, but I did get off my bike and unclasp my helmet.
“You know where my mother is?” It was safer to ask about her, than bring attention to Natty.
Dirk looked concerned, like he was in deep thought .
“Last I saw, she was doing that farmer market bullshit with that blonde girl.”
I dipped my head, ignoring what it did to hear him talk about Natty.
“She’s real clumsy by the way…” Dirk said with a chuckle. I froze, the blood roaring under my skin was a violent scream.
“What exactly do you mean?”
One of Dirk’s men shifted behind him, smothering a smile. It put me on edge.
“She was at work I guess…don’t know, I heard it third hand from Sasha. Apparently, she was trying to carry a tray of drinks or something and ended up breaking a finger. Can you believe that?”
No. I actually couldn’t, but I needed to talk to Natty.
Ignoring Dirk and his men, I resumed my position on the bike and headed for the town square where they held the farmer’s market.
We were in my mother’s Jeep, parked up on a hill where the stars stretched over us like a velvet blanket. The moon was a sliver in the sky, and my wife looked like she belonged up there with them. It took me back to being seven, opening that wardrobe door and seeing her for the first time.
I assumed she was a star.
“Why are we out here?”
Because I didn’t believe her when she told me everything was okay.
“Just wanted you to see stars.” I opened my door and walked over to hers.
She quirked a delicate brow at how I had phrased that, but she seemingly brushed it aside as we made our way toward the front of the car.
“Here.” I held her hips and lifted her to the hood, where she sat with her feet dangling. She was in one of her flowy dresses that covered her knees. Her finger was in a splint, her story about work being the reason still had me on edge.
We settled in, her on the hood, me standing next to her while we tipped our faces back and stared at the sky. Natty let out a sigh and then toyed with my hair.
“What do you want in our future, Silas?”
She wasn’t supposed to be the one spearheading questions, but I humored her.
“You.”
I couldn’t see her, but I knew she was rolling her eyes as she let out a sigh.
“Okay, you have me. What else do you want?”
I knew what I didn’t want, but I was too afraid of ruining it by saying something out loud.
“Tell me.” She tugged harder on my hair until I was turning to look at her.
I turned and spread her thighs apart, then shoved her dress up until she was just sitting before me in her brown boots, and the tiny scrap of pink fabric covering her pussy.
“I know what I don’t want.”
Her hands cupped my jaw as I stroked up and down her thighs.
“What’s that?” she breathed, nearly on a whisper as my thumbs traveled up to where the edge of her underwear met her thigh.
“I don’t want you to lie to me, or tell me things are okay, even when they aren’t.” Not looking up, I pressed a kiss to her knee as I pulled her waist closer.
“I don’t lie to you, Silas.” Her whisper cut through me as a rogue breeze swept over us.
She did though, I could feel it. I just didn’t know how or why.
“So you promise everything is okay?”
She was spread deliciously wide, her legs cradling my chest as my face hovered low, near her stomach.
Her hands wound through my hair, dragging me closer to where she was likely soaking the fabric.
“I promise. Now are you going to tease me, or do you have plans for me?”
The pad of my thumb brushed over her slit, forcing out a hiss.
I smiled and pushed against her stomach. “Lean back.”
Natty complied, which had her hair fanning out over the windshield. I looked up, piecing every inch of her to memory, and then I leaned in and pulled the fabric covering her pussy to the side and then gently pried her open with my tongue.
She tasted how she always did. Sweet, intoxicating and completely mine.
With a guttural groan, I gripped under her legs and pulled her closer until her ass was nearly hanging off the hood. Then I buried my tongue into her heat, sucking and licking until she began writhing against my face.
This was where her and I existed in the most perfect rhythm.
Loving her, tasting her and owning her, it was the only drug I’d ever allow myself to become addicted to.
“Silas,” Natty moaned as loud as she wanted, giving her happiness to the stars. Her hips rotated, making a slick sound as my tongue ravished her cunt. I pushed back on her thighs, spreading her wider, and then I stood staring down at her like a crazed man.
The cold air hit her exposed center, her legs pushed up, so all of her was bared to me.
Her head lifted, likely in question, but I gently pushed three fingers into her and groaned.
“Let the stars see you, Caelum. Let the heavens witness how depraved and fucked I am to take you out here, right where all of them can bear witness to my obsession. I’m nothing but darkness, and I’ll continue to steal your light for as long as you have air in your lungs and you carry my heart within your chest.”
I tugged the button on my jeans, and pushed them down just enough to release my cock.
My wife tried to close her legs, but I held them open.
“You’re going to take my cock, Natty. You’re going to keep these legs open and let me fuck you so hard that it’ll take you a few days to even close them properly.”
She wheezed something incoherent, but I didn’t wait; I pulled her down against my thickness, engorged to the point of pain and let out a groan.
“More.”
I nodded, trying to breathe through not coming already and then I moved, slowly pulling out and sliding back inside my wife’s tight heat .
Her back lifted from the hood, her hair swayed in the breeze and her tight pussy clenched around my heavy erection.
“Yes, Silas. Yes.” Her nails had found my shoulders, her chest now aligned with mine. We fucked slowly as I rotated my hips, and she ground against me. Her nails scraped against my scalp, and I wondered how we must look to those bright, shining stars above us.
Two people in love, desperate for each other to the point of obsession but torn apart too frequently to ever move forward.
“You asked what I want.” I slammed home, while she dug her nails into my skin, rasping for more in my ear. “I want a future, Natty. I want to fuck you when I wake up and kiss you before bed. I want to watch you dance in a home that belongs to only us. I want firelit winter nights and star speckled summers.”
Natty tossed her head back and shattered.
I kissed her shoulder and found my release shortly after hers. Our heavy breathing filled the air as I held her to me, her ass just barely touching the hood of the Jeep.
“I want to be a peaceful man, Natty. Someone who helps the earth grow, especially after doing so much to take from it.”
Her wild eyes found mine, shining under the stars. Her hand found my jaw and she leaned in to kiss me.
Soft.
Gentle.
“Then build your hope inside of me, Silas Silva. I’ll keep it safe and I’ll make sure our dreams come true for the both of us.”
My chest pricked with the reminder that I didn’t deserve her or her holding my dream in her chest.
I let her have it anyway.