Chapter 20
SHEP
“What? I can’t do that.” She looked appalled by the idea, which wasn’t what I was hoping for with my woman.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because–”
She cut herself off and for good reason. There was no reason.
I had a growing list of dickheads I wanted to track down.
Rocky Trout for literally being an actual fucking pimp and keeping…
eighty percent. To her father who bailed on her.
To her brother who really bailed. And screwed her over.
And made her fucking homeless. To her landlord for kicking her out when it was below freezing.
I knew that being a Wilder was special. Growing up, I’d never been alone. With eight siblings, there was always someone in your shit. Someone to hang with. Still was, now. It had been crazy. Noisy. No matter how different I felt from them, even living inside that chaos, I knew I had it lucky.
I knew someone had my back. All of them did.
That’s what a real fucking family did.
I imagined Ma bringing me home when I was two, sitting me down at the kitchen counter and fixing me a snack, just like she had Frankie. Willing to keep her forever if it made her life safe and happy.
But not everyone was as lucky as I was, being brought into the perfect family as a toddler. Frankie wasn’t.
To think that my girl was in my auto shop to seek shelter from a fucking storm because she had nowhere to go?
I was an asshole to take one second of my life for granted.
I really did want to be like the rest of the Wilders. Finding my person and making her my whole life.
Starting now.
“Give me the money back,” I told her.
“What?” Her pretty eyes widened as stopped and stared at me.
“The six hundred dollars. If you still have it, give it to me. Then I won’t have paid you for sex.”
“What are you saying?”
“That you’re mine, cherry. Ever since I saw you, I’ve been crazy for you.
I fucked you not because I paid you, but because I had to make you come.
I had to satisfy you as my woman. To know the only person who’s ever gonna give you pleasure and take care of you is me.
Good stuff. Bad stuff.” I patted my chest. “Me.”
“It still happened,” she reminded. “Even if I give you the money, it still happened. Rocky knows what we did. It could get out. Use it against us.”
I thought of that idea, but quickly tossed it aside. Even though Rocky could do some damage since Colt was sheriff–he’d love to see my brother arrest me–it wasn’t going to happen.
I shook my head.
“It’s a stalemate. Rocky won’t want to stop the parties. As you’re well aware, he makes a shit ton of money, and gets laid in the process. He outs me, I out him. His parties are over. We’d all be ruined together.”
“So if you mess with him, he’ll mess with you, so that ensures no one messes with each other,” she clarified.
I nodded. “Exactly. This is our secret, Cherry. How we met. You can give me back the money to clear your conscience or just move on. Either way, you’re mine. And Rocky? He won’t touch you. I promise. I take care of what’s mine.
She started to cry then, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Reaching out, I grabbed her hand and tugged her back onto my lap. This time, I pulled her down so she straddled my hips. We were face to face and I could hold her to me as she cried.
And cried.
I patted her back, said soothing things and just held her. I could only imagine how afraid she’d been. How alone. How much she’d had to hold onto to take care of herself. With the auction only adding to it all, fuck.
Only when she started to wipe her cheeks on my flannel shirt did I know she was done. I cupped her face, lifted it so her eyes met mine.
“What do you think about being my girl?” I asked.
“I work for you?”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Colt said Pops would be thrilled to take the credit for bringing us together. I think he’s right.”
That brought a smile to her full, kissable lips.
“I’m not firing you, cherry. Hell, as a business owner, I’d be dumb to get rid of my best worker.”
“Yeah?”
“Plus, I want to see you every single day.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Plus, I’ve been thinking about all the ways I want to fuck you in the shop, and you should feel confident to know that you’re the only mechanic I’ve imagined that with.”
Now she outright grinned. “You’ve thought of me… like that?”
I swiped my thumb over her cheek. “I’ve thought of nothing else since Saturday night.”
The way she dropped her eyes from mine and flushed had my dick stirring. “Have you been thinking naughty things, cherry?”
I leaned in and kissed her, because, well, because I couldn’t wait a fucking second longer.
She was just as eager as me, kissing me right fucking back.
“That’s my girl.”
“Shep,” she breathed when I kissed along her jaw. “Is this real?”
I pulled back, then rolled my hips up so she felt how hard I was with my dick pressing right into her pussy. She moaned.
“This is real. It was real from the second we laid eyes on each other. Agreed?”
She laughed, and I loved that sound. “I agree. But it’s happening so fast. Too fast.”
I cupped her hip. Gave it a squeeze. “Nah, I’m a Wilder. We see the one we want to marry and never turn back.”
Yeah, it felt right. It sounded right. I had no idea why I’d been so lost for so long. Doubting something that had been true all along. That I had in me exactly what the rest of my family had. Love.
I’d had it from my entire family ever since I joined the crazy clan.
I had something different now, the closeness I’d find in a life with my cherry.
Just like Ma and Pops. Trig and Ellie. Colt and Molly.
Bray and Katie. Lainey and Beau. Cam and Taylor.
Zeb and Cammie. And someday soon, Buck and Hayes would find their women and know what all the rest of the Wilders felt like, including me.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I repeated back.
“I know I took your virginity on Saturday night, but tonight, this?” I squeezed her hips again, then slid them up to cup her tits through her heavy sweatshirt. “It’s just you and me.”
She nodded.
“Except I think you liked to be watched,” I guessed.
She blushed furiously and I picked her up, her legs instantly going around my waist as I carried her around the couch and to my bed. Our bed.
“It didn’t bother me as much as I thought,” she said as I laid her on her back and came down over her.
“I’m not sharing, but if my girl’s got a kink, I’ll take care of it.”
“I’m not going back to that auction.”
I practically growled with my fierce agreement on that one. “Maybe I’ll fuck you over the back of a car and you’ll have to come all over my dick before someone drives by and sees us.”
Her eyes flared with heat. Oh yeah, kink unlocked. “You like that idea?”
She bit her lip, then growled.
“Naughty little virgin, aren’t you?” I pushed off and sat back on my heels, my knees on either side of her thighs. “What should we do tonight, all alone?”
She pushed up onto her elbows, her long hair dangling behind her. Her dark eyes roved over my body–my plaid flannel and jeans weren’t that exciting–then met mine. “I’ve never seen you bare. I want you naked and then I want you in my mouth. I want to taste you.”
Holy hell. I spurted pre-cum in my boxers. Her mouth wrapped around my dick? She didn’t have to tell me twice.
I popped off the bed and stripped in record time. If Cherry wanted me bare, she could have me fucking bare.
She sat up fully and watched, then took in every inch of me once I was naked. My dick stood out, curved up and brushed my navel, swiping pre-cum all over my abs.
“I haven’t seen you, either. You want my dick?” I gripped the base, stroked it from root to tip. “Gotta get naked, too.”
From her knees, she took off her baggy sweatshirt, then the layers beneath until she was bare from the waist up. Fuck, I was gonna come just seeing her tits like this for the first time.
Then she dropped back and shucked her sweats, panties, and socks.
“Fuck,” I said, my gaze roving over her perfect body. I didn’t know where to look first. Or second. Or even fucking third. She was curvy and lush. Pale and soft. And no guy’d seen or touched her but me.
Hypocritical, yeah, but I didn’t give a shit. Cherry was mine.
“Now?” she asked, eying my dick.
I stroked it again and another drop of cum slipped out.
“Hell yeah.”
She dropped to her hands and knees–shit, that was a pretty sight, and crawled close. Then… holy hell. Then she flicked her tongue out and licked the tip.
And that was fucking it. I was Cherry’s and there was no going back.