7. 2
A smirk made its way to my lips as she stepped inside and I closed in behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist softly. She leant into my body, humming her approval as I kissed her neck.
“No one is going to touch you or those girls again, I promise you that.”
She turned in my arms, and looked in my eyes. “This isn’t on you, Cooper, but I know you’re not going to listen to that. You put too much pressure on yourself. You saved my daughters from god only knows what tonight, and I know you would raze this entire town because of what he did to me, but I would never ask you to do that. I know that in my soul, in my heart, but I also know you are the very best man for me, and those girls upstairs are probably fighting over the best room right now.”
I smirked as I heard their faint arguments above us. It sounded like heaven, I wasn’t going to lie.
“I wish I was their father,” I admitted. I had no idea where that had come from and it obviously showed on my face.
She smirked, chuckling softly and pulling from my grasp to head up the stairs.
“What’s so funny?”
“Ryleigh said the same thing to me earlier today. She wanted you to be her dad.”
The admission took me by surprise, more surprised than when it had fallen from my lips. “She did?”
Sheridan nodded. “Yeah, plus you’ve been more of a father to those girls in a few days than Neal ever was for sixteen years. We are all so lucky to have you, Cooper.”
I closed the distance between us on the stairs and swept my lips over hers softly. She moaned, but I knew there was no way we could do anything. Not until she was healed.
“Come on,” I said, taking her hand and leading her the rest of the way. Ryleigh and Shauna were fighting over the first room on the right.
“Girls,” Sheridan said, wearily. “Please, don’t fight.”
“You do realise there are about six rooms you can choose from,” I told them. They looked at each other before they bolted from the room in search of the best room.
“Why did you do that?” Sheridan asked. “Now they’re going to act like chipmunks on crack all night.”
I chuckled. “At least it’s taken their mind off their ordeal. Now, come on, you need to lie down.”
Sheridan smirked at me, which only added to the frustration that I couldn’t have her, not for a little while, but I’d waited this long to have just a piece of her.
I could wait another lifetime if I had to.
SHERIDAN
I looked around the huge house while Cooper slept. I was feeling a little better, but I didn’t dare look in a mirror any time soon. As I stepped down the staircase and into the foyer, I looked around at the stained oak bureau with letters on top of it, waiting for him to open them. I ran my fingers over his name on the front. Hardly anyone called him Cooper anymore, it was Ace or Prez, but to me, he’ll always be Cooper.
There was a hardness to him now that he hadn’t had back then. A hardness that I knew he’d earned over the years he’d been with the Nomads. One I knew he wouldn’t have if he stayed, but I was glad he hadn’t, because I don’t think he would have survived his father’s horrific ways. Cooper was nothing like Donald, and I was so glad for it.
I wondered if Casey had told him about what happened all those years ago yet. Had he known?
I moved down a darkened hall and into a kitchen. The black marble countertop was shiny and brand new, a loaf of bread sitting on the top of it. I moved through the kitchen and saw that he only had a couple of plates and bowls, and none of it matched.
Somehow it made me think that was sweet and charming, even though I loved to have everything matching in my kitchen. I continued through to the dining area with a big table with at least eight chairs around it. I smoothed my fingers over the top of it, loving the feel of the wood.
I smiled when I looked out at the patio. Two lounge chairs sat between an umbrella and a wooden table between the chairs for drinks.
This house was exactly what I described to Cooper the night we almost hooked up. I couldn’t believe he’d remembered everything I said.
I wished I had made him stay that night, told him to take my virginity, and not go back to his Dad. It had been the second worst decision of my life.
The first was letting him leave without putting me on the back of his bike.
“You okay?”
I jumped at his deep voice behind me. When I turned to face him, his smirk was there on his lips, ready and willing to piss me off.
“How did you build this place exactly how I explained all those years ago?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I remembered.”
“You weren’t just trying to get me naked?”
“I won’t lie,” he replied. “It was high on my list of priorities that night, but we both know that didn’t work out. I liked how you described the house of your dreams. It made me want that.”
He closed the distance between us, wrapping his arms around my waist and turning me around so he could pull me up against his chest, and snuggle into my neck.
“One day, this will be our home,” he said, his voice almost a whisper, but I knew it wasn’t just him saying it, it was a damn promise. “And no one will dare come after my girls.”
A spark of passion ran its way down my spine and directly to my pussy, a need to have him inside of me. I loved how he protected me, and my girls.
I also loved how he called all of us his girls .
“What are you going to do?” I asked him, suddenly feeling the need to wrap him up enough that Neal couldn’t get to him.
“You know I can’t let this last shit go unpunished,” he said, pulling from me. I instantly missed his warmth. He leant against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. He knew I wasn’t going to like this. That’s what he did when he wanted to protect me from the truth. “This town needs to know who is in charge, and it ain’t going to be a sadistic prick like him.”
I nodded. “I know. I just wish it was all over now.”
“It will be, Sher,” he said. “Then you can know what it’s like to be an old lady of a MC when we’re not at war. Until then, I need to make sure you’re safe.”
She nodded. “Who were the men that came to the club earlier?”
“Friends,” he said. “I met them when I was doing their uncle a favour, but they grew on me.”
I chuckled. “You do seem to pick up friends easily.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “They needed help. I helped them. Now we need help and they came straight away.”
“What should we do now? Me and the girls, I mean.”
“Well,” I said. “I do have an idea, but I don’t think you’re going to be okay with it.”
“Spill it, Cooper.”
He groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “I want to send you to stay with the O’Farrell’s. You, Ryleigh and Shauna. They have a strong defence and no one will hunt you there. You’ll be safe, and I won’t keep worrying about you.”
“You want to send me away?”
“I don’t want to, Sher, but when you’re here, I can’t focus and I make fucking mistakes, and you end up hurt.”
I felt the pain in his voice as he admitted his weakness. We were his weakness. I closed the distance between us and hugged him tight. His arms wrapped around me, my ribs hurting a little, but I didn’t dare pull away.
“We’ll go,” I said on a whisper. “But you make sure you take care of this, I don’t want to miss out on more time with you, Cooper.”
His hands were on the sides of my face, tender, soft, so as not to hurt me. I could see the pain in his eyes, just as it was in my heart. His lips touched mine softly, so softly that it was barely enough for me.
“I fucking love you, Sheridan Sullivan.”
I melted into him, feeling every inch of his words. I loved him too, more than I had loved anyone, except for my daughters. I’d never fallen out of love with him. It was because of my love that I had let him ride away with the Nomads, leaving me here to deal with my abusive father, my broken mother and to find Neal. The one who had posed as my knight in shining armour, only to reveal his true colours once I was pregnant and married to his ass.
“When are you gonna start calling me Sheridan Malone?” I whispered in his ear. It was meant to be a joke, but I found myself wanting him to say it would be soon. I needed him to want me as much as I wanted him.
He looked down into my eyes. “Don’t play, Sher. I’ll take you down to the clubhouse now and wake Butch to marry us right fucking now.”
I smiled, loving how much he wanted me, how much he would give me anything I asked. “Would that I could, babe. I’m still married sadly.”
“There’s a simple fix to that, Sher.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, the second I get my hands on him, I’ll drive my knife through his chest, throw him in the lake and you’ll be declared a widow. I’ll have you nine ways to Sunday on the lakes’ edge, right after I say I do.”
“That shouldn’t make me so hot for you,” I laughed, kissing him.
“Ew!” I heard Ryleigh squeal as she came into the kitchen. We separated immediately, both of us smiling. “God, can’t you two keep it in your room?”
“Sorry, darlin’,” he said. “You hungry? I don’t have much in the house yet, but I can whip us up some bacon and eggs.”
“Actually, that sounds good,” Ryleigh said, sitting down at the table. “Are they as good as Shona’s?”
He rolled his eyes. “Better, darlin’. Call your sister down.”
Ryleigh sighed. “She’s on the phone with her friends. When she smells bacon, she’ll be down.”
Cooper laughed as he opened the fridge and pulled free the contents he needed.
“Need any help?” I called out.
“You sit,” he said, pointing at me with a spatula. “I got this.”
Ryleigh looked over at me with a smirk. “If he puts on a frilly apron, I’m outta here.”
I smacked her hand playfully, but all I wanted to see was my man in an apron and only an apron. I looked over at him, and he smirked at me as he caught me staring.
“Jesus,” Ryleigh said, annoyed at us. “Me and Shauna will be out of the house soon going to university. Can’t you two keep it in your pants until then?”
“How long until that happens?” Cooper asked.
“Two years,” I moaned in mock annoyance.
“Jesus, it’s gonna be a long two years.”
“You know what,” Ryleigh said, getting up in frustration. “Go at it on the kitchen bench, you can deliver my bacon and eggs to my room.”
I moved over to her, pulling her into a hug. She stiffened for a moment, before she hugged me back just as tight. Finally, she pulled away, and looked from me to Cooper.
“I still want breakfast in my room.”
Cooper and I both laughed as she stomped off to her room. I slid from the table and moved over to him at the stovetop. The sizzle of the bacon allowed my senses to kick in, and the smell overtook me. I was near drooling.
“This is great,” I said. “They don’t feel scared here. They finally feel free I think.”
“They were scared in his house?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I saw the anger swell in his eyes and the tension in his shoulders returned. “Fuck I hate this guy.”
“Me too, baby,” I kissed him on the side of the face.
“I’m going to kill him.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“Will you hate me?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t want him hurting my girls anymore. He lost his right to live when he tried to sell them to his buddies.”
Cooper nodded. “He lost that right the first time he raised a hand to you, baby.”
He leant down and kissed me gently on the lips, careful not to hurt me. I could live the rest of my life in this man’s arms and be totally content.
I’d never thought I could ever say that about anyone.
Cooper Malone was mine.
Finally.
ACE
“Where are the girls?” Hawk asked me as I stepped inside the clubhouse. Killian and Conor were sitting on the lounge by the pool tables with Chains, Razor and Viper. Shona was behind the bar with Kirby and Kendrick while the latest prospect, Joshua, washed the glasses.
“At the house,” I said. “I need to talk to Killian.”
Hawk followed me over to the lounge where the conversation stopped when I arrived.
“I have a favour to ask of you,” I said to him.
“Name it.”
“I need you to take my girls and hide them at your place for a few days until this blows over,” I said.
“Done.”
Conor stood up. “I’ll take them. Killian, you stay here. I’ll send Lorcan in my place and look after them all. They’ll be safe with me, I promise, Ace.”
I nodded, my heart in my throat. This was best for them and I knew it, but the thought of them being vulnerable and without my men struck something deep inside of me.
“They’re at my place. Hawk will take you there. Send Kirby and Kendrick with them.”
He nodded at me and they took off. Killian sighed. “How serious is this?”
“I need to kill the chief of the police in Kilkenny and to take back the power the MC once had here.”
Killian nodded. “Cool, so a simple job then.”
He smirked at me, and I saw how playful he could be, but I was no fool. Killian had a reputation for a reason. His family had been the mafia kingpins in Ireland for generations, and Killian was known as the calm assassin because he took his time to dismember and mutilate while singing a jaunty tune.
He relished the kill.
Whereas I did it out of need.
We both had a common goal though, and that’s why I needed him here.
“Do we have time for a drink?” Killian asked.
“Yeah, we got time. I still need Savage to track down Neal. We will ride tomorrow. For now, we party, we drink, and we plan a way to fucking end this fucker before he takes everything from me.”
Killian patted me on the back as he got up. “He’s as good as dead, my man.”
The clubhouse was loud and obnoxious as the party raged on. Hawk, Bear and I were all partying hard when we heard the bunnies arrive. Viper and Razor were both headed their way to knock some pressure loose before we took on our enemy. I was long past those days. Even when I hadn’t been too old, I still didn’t have much need for them. I preferred a release, sure, but I never wanted to wake up next to any of them the next day.
None of them could compare to my Sheridan.
That was why I needed this shit to be done and dusted so I could spend the next few years learning all about Ryleigh and Shauna and to be a dad they deserved before they went to university, and then I could have Sheridan all to myself.
The bunnies all filtered throughout the clubhouse, trying to find their next victim as I headed toward the bar. Shona saw me and started pouring my drink before I got there. A cool hand landed on my arm, and I looked up to see a familiar face.
“Amanda,” I replied, moving my arm away from her to take my drink. “It’s been a while since we saw you around. I thought you were still up with the Nomads.”
“I was,” she hesitated, as if she were trying to see if I remembered her in her drugged out state. I did, but I didn’t want to embarrass her. She looked sober enough, so I was cool with her being here. “I came here because I really missed the girls.”
“That’s fair,” I said. “Well, you’re welcome here any time. Have a good night.”
Her hand moved back to my arm, and I felt her nails drag across my skin. “Did you want to play a game of pool, or we could go and listen to music in your room?”
I saw the flame of desire in her blue eyes and I sighed, moving my arm away from her again. “I’m off the market, Mana. There are plenty of other men wanting some company tonight.”
She made a move to block my exit. She had always been a feisty, persistent woman.
“Take the hint,” Shona called out. “Prez is taken.”
Amanda moved her eyes over to Shona, a woman you didn’t want to mess with, and she stepped back.
“Sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Like hell,” Shona glowered before she moved off. I headed in the opposite direction, away from Amanda, and toward church. It was our room where we conducted meetings that we couldn’t let anyone else hear. It used to be my favourite room of the place before I caught my father in here with one of the bunnies. She’d been crying, and I knew it was because he’d probably taken her in the ass without her permission.
I’d lost my trust for the man that day, and made the decision to take off with the Nomads. It was the same week I had said goodbye to Sheridan. I’d hoped she would stop me, that she would tell me to stay. I would have…for her.
But she didn’t.
I wanted nothing more than her to jump on my bike and give me every reason to stay in Kilkenny, for her, for us, but she’d wished me well and told me she thought it would be a great adventure.
My heart had broken in pieces that day, and for years, I hadn’t touched a woman. I couldn’t. Even when I started to take lovers, I knew my heart still belonged here with her.
“It’s been a while since you called church here,” Hawk said from behind me. He pushed past to take his seat in the VP position. He hated being VP, loved the thrill of being Sergeant at Arms but when Dog betrayed the club, I knew I needed someone I could trust. Hawk had been at my side for as long as I could remember. There was no one I trusted more.
“What’s eating you?” Hawk asked me. I moved over to the President seat and looked at it, remembering how my father would covet this seat. “You’re not him, you know.”
I chuckled. “You always could read my mind, brother.”
I sat down in the chair and looked over the carved table in front of me. It had the names of all our members that came before us carved into the wood.
“I mean it, Cooper, you are everything good about this club. He was what was wrong with it. He’d gotten drunk with power.”
“The last thing I remember in this room was him sodomising Celeste in here. That’s when I chose to leave. I couldn’t stay here and watch him rip apart this whole damn club.”
Hawk sighed. “Fuck, I wondered what happened to her. She lost her way around the time we left. I remember. Got into drugs and shit.”
I nodded. “I should have reached out and helped her after, but I was too heartbroken after saying goodbye to Sheridan.”
Hawk nodded. “It was a massive change. Did you tell Sheridan why you were leaving?”
I shook my head in response. “No. She never knew how much of a deviant my father was, thankfully. I’m glad she stopped coming here, even if I didn’t understand at the time.”
Hawk didn’t respond, but he ran a hand down the back of his neck and looked away. He only did that when he was nervous or worried about something. Immediately, I felt off with the reaction.
“What?”
“I gotta tell you something,” he said. My heart rate picked up. I never liked it when Hawk was serious. “She made me promise never to tell you, but it’s been long enough, and the old man is dead.”
“If you so much as tell me she hooked up with my dad, I’m gonna be really fucking pissed off.”
“No,” Hawk said immediately. “She would never do that, and you know it.”
“Then fucking tell me before I launch you through that window, Casey.”
“Jesus,” he said, holding his hands up. “He tried okay? You weren’t there one night, and he came onto her. She pushed him away but he threatened her that in his clubhouse, he had whatever he wanted. I came in and rescued her from him when I saw what he was doing and copped a hell of a beating for it, but it was worth it. She was safe.”
“Those bruises you wouldn’t tell me about,” I said, realising the time he was talking about. “That’s why she stopped coming.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Donald was a prick and he knew how much you wanted her. She was your weakness, he knew that too. ”
I sat back in my chair, hating everything about this. Why hadn’t she told me? “How can she possibly look at me and think I’d be the perfect man for her when my old man did that to her?”
Hawk sat forward. “Because she knows you aren’t him. Sheridan has always fucking loved you. Always, Cooper. You know that. Nothing fucking happened, that’s why she didn’t want you to know.”
“I wish he were alive,” I grit out. “So I could kill him myself.”
“That would make you someone else. You wouldn’t be the man you are if you did that, Cooper. You know that. Sheridan loves you for being the man you are.”
I nodded, knowing he was right. He was always fucking right.
Needing to change the subject before I lost my mind, I turned on him. “When are you going to settle down, Case?”
“Oh come on, man,” Hawk laughed. “You know that life ain’t for me.”
“One day, mark my words, there’s gonna be a woman who comes in and completely fucks your shit up for good. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “You always say it but if it didn’t happen with Shae, it ain’t gonna happen with me.”
Shae had been great for him, but even she didn’t want to settle down and eventually broke his fucking heart. She’d been a bunny for a long time with us, and damn if she hadn’t had Hawk wrapped around her little finger. Just when I thought he was going to make it official, she fucked off and we never heard from her again. I wondered what he had done to scare her off. It didn’t take long before he was back to his whoring ways again, never with one woman, always with a handful every night.
“Have you heard from her?”
He shook his head. “No, and I don’t want to, truth be told.”
I heard the pain in his voice, and was surprised by how much it hurt me to hear it. He was the closest thing I had to a brother, and knowing that I hadn’t taken his heartache seriously really annoyed the shit out of me.
“She wasn’t the one, then, brother.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t want just one, Ace.”
I rolled my eyes, realizing he was back to being the Hawk we all knew and loved. That was his armour. Casey was the one who could love and be hurt. Hawk was the one everyone knew and loved. If only he let a woman in, I was sure he’d be as happy as I was.
The door opened, and Viper leaned in. “You’re not going to like this.”
I groaned, getting up. Could we catch any fucking break here?
Hawk pushed out before me and stopped in the pathway. I shoved him to the side and looked over at Sheridan standing in the clubhouse, her smile lighting the entire room, until I realised she should be on her way to Galway by now.
I moved over to her, pulling her into my arms. “What the fuck happened?”
“Nothing,” Chains said, coming up behind her. “She wouldn’t go with them.”
“What?”
“You need me here,” she told me. “Look, I know what you said, and I took it all into account but I also know Neal better than anyone. I can help you.”
I sighed, hating that she was right. Slinging an arm around her neck, I pulled her into me, placing my lips on her forehead and kissing her there.
“You stick to me like glue, you hear me?”
She nodded into my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Amanda leaving the clubhouse. I hoped she wasn’t going to make trouble now that Sheridan was here. Maybe she saw that there was no way between us and she would go back to the nomads, but I already knew that this wasn’t over.
I led her over to the hallway and down to my room, closing and locking the door. “Come on, we got a big day ahead of us.”
“You want to play?” she asked me.
“No,” I said. “You’re still hurt, we can’t.”
“Or…you could lavish me with your attention…slowly and carefully.”
I felt the smile pull at my lips as I watched her remove her top. The bruises still affected me every time I saw them, but it didn’t take away from her beauty. If anything it made her tougher, fiercer, and damn it, she was hotter than I’d ever known before. If that was even possible.
My warrior old lady.
I pulled my cut off, followed by my shirt, and got down on my knees, crawling my way between her legs. She bit her lower lip as she watched me slowly undo her jeans and pull them down those silken legs.
“Imagine if I’d gone, what would you have done all night to relax?” she asked me, a dangerous glint to her eye.
“I don’t know…probably imagine you would be safe, and would have listened to me.”
“What kind of fun would that be?” she replied.
My little minx.
If she weren’t black and blue right now, I’d be spanking her ass until it was red raw.
I pulled her thighs up, leaning them over my shoulders, as I fit my mouth over her panties, licking over the wet material, and plunging my tongue and the cotton past her folds. She groaned, throwing her head back as her back arched.
Slowly, I licked up and down her slit, massaging her ass cheeks with my hands, edging my fingers toward her entrance.
Sheridan fisted the sheets of the bed, pulling the corners up as I played with her, taking it ever so slowly. I was winning the battle, her thighs trying to squash my head and push me into her further. I held her at bay, dipping my tongue into her, pushing the cotton of her panties to their limit inside of her.
“Fuck,” she grunted. “Take me now, Cooper.”
“You said slow and steady, Sher. Unlike you, I do as I’m told.”
She sat up, resting on her elbows behind her. “I told you to take me now!”
Chuckling, I pulled at the elastic of her panties and yanked. The panties ripped at the side, pulling the material up into her slit. She let out a deep moan as I pulled at the scraps of material until she was bare for me.
Her pussy was wet with her arousal, begging for me to take her, but I had no intention of doing that tonight. There was no way I was going to cause her pain for my own enjoyment. We had a lifetime for that.
I flicked my tongue in between her folds, finding her clit and moving my fingertip over it in slow circles, followed by my tongue taking over. Her thighs were slamming shut on me again, her hand going into my hair as she bucked against my face.
God I loved it when she smashed my face into her. My nose nudged into her, my mouth on her core as she took what she needed from me. I threw open her legs, holding them out wide so I could move in at my pace.
Her eyes were glazed over as I looked up at her. She held onto the edge of the bed, and I plunged my tongue back down onto her clit, pushing two fingers into her. I pushed them all the way in, until my knuckle was grazing against her lips.
She tensed as her body stretched out over my fingers. I curled my fingertips inside of her, hitting that spot she loved. Her head fell back against the mattress, her breasts high in the air as she arched her back. I flicked at her clit, moving in the same rhythm with my fingers plunging in and out of her.
“Oh fuck,” she moaned as I felt her pussy start to pulse around my fingers inside of her.
“Uh uh,” I said, surprised at how low my own voice was. “Not yet, princess.”
I pulled my fingers from her to her loud protests before I sucked on her clit, feeling her body tense immediately as she tried to buck against my face. I held her hips down with my forearm as I went to town on her clit, moving two fingers back inside of her, tickling the wall of her womb with my fingertips before I pushed a third finger inside of her.
She screamed out as I felt my cock start to throb painfully behind my jeans. Her pussy squeezed the life out of my fingers, making it hard to move inside of her. Sheridan’s hips bucked, and I let them as her orgasm ripped through her, my fingers being squeezed inside of her as I rode out her release with her. When her pussy released my fingers, I removed them and dove between her legs again. My mouth over her core, tasting her, moaning into her pussy as she bucked against my mouth, her groans making my cock push against the denim of my jeans so painfully I was afraid I’d be injured soon.
Sheridan’s moaning picked up again and she grabbed my hair, pulling but I didn’t move so easily.
“Shit,” she screamed out. “Cooper!”
A fresh rush of her arousal coated my tongue as I finished her off until she fell back against the mattress, depleted. Her breathing heavy in the air. I helped her more fully onto the bed, letting her body relax into the sheets as I undid my jeans and pulled them down. My cock was at attention, begging for her to touch him. She hadn’t noticed yet. I moved into the bathroom and almost as if I were a teenage kid again, I silently jerked myself off so she didn’t exert herself to do it herself. It didn’t take long. Sheridan was my dream, and seeing her crumble around my mouth twice was enough to have my cock primed for release.
White, hot jets of cum spewed from the top of my dick, over the sink. I washed it down the drain and moved back to the bed. Sheridan’s eyes were closed and I heard the soft spell of her breathing that told me she was asleep already.
Crawling in beside her, I pulled her into my arms, wrapping my arms around her waist, holding her to me to protect her from anything and everything that came our way.