Chapter Nineteen
Sledge
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Those were not words I ever expected to hear in my lifetime, yet I stood in the tacky-as-hell Vegas chapel with Elvis on one side and my club brothers, Diesel, Rocky, and Maverick, and their women on the other. Eliana stood in front of me with a shaky smile on her face. My wife.
I didn’t wait for permission, I just pulled her close and kissed her long and deep, until she melted against me and let out a little gasp.
I kissed her until her body softened against mine, until everything about the last week—the fear, the uncertainty, the constant edge—quieted for just a moment.
When we broke apart, she was smiling, her cheeks were flushed and she was breathless.
She was also mine.
Legally. Officially.
Permanently.
At least if I had anything to say about it.
Elvis stood between us as Priscilla snapped a few pictures of all three of us and then a few of just husband and wife.
Husband and wife. That shit was still a trip, but she was my wife.
She was too young for me, too naive to the ways of the world despite her childhood trauma, and most of all, she was going places in this world.
Places I was sure I’d never fit in, but now she was mine and I knew without a doubt that I wouldn’t let her go.
I wasn’t ready to name this feeling, but I knew it was the reason I felt possessive, protective, and ready to claim her for real.
I couldn’t have predicted this was the way shit would unfold when the guys forced Eliana on me.
But despite the danger Zoya was in, the shit Trish had pulled, and all the rest of it, I was happy.
Really and truly fucking happy.
Wonders never cease.
Back at the clubhouse, the mood was lighter than it had been in weeks.
Music played, beer and whiskey flowed and laughter rang out all around us, bringing the place back to life.
Someone shouted, “to the bride!” and Eliana immediately looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
Still, she lifted her glass with a wide smile that was only slightly brittle around the edges.
I slid up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her tight to my chest. “Regrets already?” I held my breath, expecting her to voice her regrets.
She gave me some of her weight and let out a small sigh before shaking her head. “No, not at all. It’s just kind of weird to celebrate something that isn’t real.”
That hit me wrong, goddammit, and I frowned. “It is real,” I growled.
Her body froze against mine.
I forced myself to remain calm because I didn’t want to scare her. “The license is real. The marriage is real. It’s real.” I spun her around in my arms, forcing her to look at me. “Everything that matters about this is real, Eliana.”
Her throat bobbed but she nodded. “Yeah, I get that. But you don’t love me.”
The words were soft, but they sucker-punched the breath out of me. “Maybe not yet,” I said honestly. “But I do care about you. And now you’re mine to keep safe. And I take that shit very seriously, Eli.” She didn’t know it yet, but she would learn soon enough.
Her eyes widened a little, like she heard something under the words I wasn’t ready to name yet. Hell, I didn’t even understand it all myself. I just knew one thing. There was no universe where I was letting her go.
Not now.
Not ever.
A smile tugged at her full lips, teasing but hopeful. “So you’re saying we should celebrate like it’s real?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, sweeping my thumb across her jaw and then under her plump bottom lip. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” My heart pounded the way it did before I went into war, before I stepped into a room to extract information necessary for my MC to thrive.
Eliana melted against me before letting her arms slip around my shoulders, pushing her body flush to mine.
“Well,” she whispered a second before her lips pressed to mine, chaste at first but a second later she moaned and slid her tongue along the seam of my lips, so fucking intoxicating I no longer needed the whiskey in my hand.
The kiss was slow and lingering, so deep I wasn’t sure I’d surface the same and I didn’t even want to.
Heat slid down my spine when her fingers curled in my hair and a low moan escaped. She fit perfectly against me and that, more than anything, solidified everything I knew and everything I was feeling about her. About us.
Mine.
“How’s that for celebrating?” Her smile grew and she was even more beautiful.
“It’s a good start,” I growled, sliding one hand down to squeeze her ass.
She nipped at my lower lip and laughed before pulling back with dark, heavy-lidded eyes that said she wanted me too.
Her smile shifted into a serious expression and her hands went to my face, staring deep into my eyes as if she could see all of my thoughts.
“We should probably tell Zoya about this. I don’t want her to feel blindsided. ”
There went another pinch in my chest, and those feelings were getting harder to ignore.
She always put Zoya first, more than her own damn mother ever had.
Initially we planned on just getting married on paper.
Carrying on as normal but having something we could show the courts.
But given how my club brothers were celebrating us, my little girl would no doubt be hearing about it.
“Yeah,” I eventually agreed. “Let me talk to her first.”
She didn’t argue or question my judgment, she just nodded. Trusted me.
That trust pushed the strange feelings I’d been having closer to the surface, making it harder to leave unnamed. “But first,” I whispered softly in her ear, loving the way she shivered against me. “I think we should go somewhere and celebrate being man and wife.”
Her fingers tightened on my waistband, a breathless gasp escaped her lush mouth. “Yeah, I think I’d like that a lot.”
Before anyone could distract us or before she could change her mind, I took her hand in mine and dragged her through the party, accepting congratulations without stopping.
The loud music turned into a muffled beat once we were deep inside the clubhouse.
“Come on.” I slipped through the door that would take us to the roof before stopping and tossing her over my shoulder.
“Put me down!” she squealed, pinching my ass.
“No can do, babe.” One hand slid up and down her thighs and I let my thumb brush the damp patch on her panties. “Consider this me carrying you over the threshold, at least until we’re back at home.”
She said nothing and I didn’t expect her to, but when she pinched my ass again, I smiled. When I set her on her feet, she looked around and sighed. “This is gorgeous. You can see all the way to Vegas up here.”
I nodded, curling my body around hers, and inhaling her sweet scent. “Yeah, but it ain’t shit compared to my view.”
She gasped and turned in my arms. “You like the dress,” she said with a smile.
I shook my head side to side. “Hell no, I fucking love it,” I told her, fingering the thin straps. “It’s been torturing me all damn day.” The pale pink silk hugged and highlighted her curves but right now all I saw was the tight peaks of her hard nipples.
“Good. That was the plan.”
“You wanted to drive me crazy?”
She nodded. “You’re kind of hot when you’re a little wild.” Her fingertips lightly traced the scar on the left side of my face.
“Hot?” I laughed. “I think maybe you need your eyesight checked.”
“Nah, I think I’m seeing you clearly.” There was something in her tone that snapped my control until I was hanging on by the thinnest threads. “Really fucking clearly.”
I had a feeling she was right.
“You see a scar and I see survival.”
I shook my head, not ready to hear the words or her tone so I slammed my mouth against hers, devouring her lips and her tongue, kissing her so deep that I couldn’t breathe.
I didn’t give a fuck, she was the only thing I needed.
I kissed her until my vision blurred at the edges. “Fuck, you make me crazy.”
She smiled, brushing the back of her hand against my cock, already hard and aching for her.
“The feeling is entirely mutual.” She bunched up the pink dress until a tiny scrap of hot pink was visible, hiding her pussy from me.
Eliana slipped her thumbs around the straps at her hips and dragged the thong down her legs, stepping from them before she handed them to me. “Wedding keepsake.”
I held the fabric in my fist and buried my face in them, inhaling her scent before I shoved it into my pocket. “Turn around.”
She grinned and gave me her back, hands planted on the edge of the building, smiling over her shoulder at me. “Like this?” she asked, arching her back.
“Fucking perfect,” I growled, letting my hands skate up the outside of her legs and then the inside.
Her pretty pussy, swollen and glistening, tempted me beyond all fucking reason.
I gripped her thighs, leaning in to tease her with my tongue.
It slipped between her folds, swirling around her clit until her legs shook with the need to come.
“Fuck, Sledge. Yes!” Her back arched even more, pussy flooding my tongue.
She tasted so good. Sweet and salty honey on my tongue. I knew I’d drown in this taste for the rest of my life. But right now, I needed more.
“Fuck me, Sledge. Now, please.”
I growled, dragging my tongue across her pussy, past her opening and up to her asshole before I licked my way up her spine. “How do you want me, Eli?”
She grinned, eyes meeting mine. “Hard and fast. So fucking deep I won’t ever forget you.”
Yes. It took seconds before my cock was freed, bobbing between us and leaking. I pushed against her clit, sliding through her folds until I was coated in her juices, her scent. Her essence. “Ready for me?”
“So ready,” she sighed.
My cock pushed inside where she was tight and pulsing, thrusting deep in one long stroke. “Fuck you feel so incredible.”
“So do you,” she moaned, pussy clutching me greedily.
I held her hips and pounded into her just the way she liked. Every thrust made her pussy flood, a delicious friction that made my eyes roll back. Her pussy quivered, pumping me perfectly, as her orgasm pushed to the surface. “God, this pussy is so fucking greedy. You feel that, what you do to me?”
She nodded. “I love it. Can’t. Get. Enough.”
“Good.” I fucked her harder, the sound of our skin smacking together combined with the rock music from below, the perfect wedding night soundtrack. My balls pulled up tight and I knew I was close, so I found her clit, slick and swollen. “You ready to come all over my cock?”
“So fucking ready,” she moaned. “I need it, Sledge. Please.”
Those words hit me in my spine and I stroked deeper, pinching her clit until her body shot off like a rocket. She squeezed my cock perfectly as she came, so hot and tight I was powerless to hold back. My cock exploded, and long, hot spurts painted her walls until she was full of me.
“Oh fuck,” she groaned, pushing back against me until her arms shook and she fell to her forearms. “Yes, Sledge! Yes!”
“Babe,” I growled, pushing harder into her until I was completely empty. “Oh fuck.”
She laughed, the sound breathless and happy. “That was so intense!”
It was. “It felt like the first fuck of my life, only better.”
She turned over her shoulder and looped one arm around me with a smile. “Yeah, exactly that.” And then she kissed me again, hard and fast until my cock grew inside of her and we came again. “Keep that up and I’ll be addicted to you in no time.”
“Good, because I’m already addicted to you Eliana.” It was the honest fucking truth. I was addicted to her smile and her laugh. Her big brown eyes. Lush pink lips. Her easy way with my daughter. The way she wasn’t afraid to stand up to me. “Totally fucking addicted.”
She gasped and turned to face me fully, moaning when my cock slipped free of her body. “This is going to get messy, isn’t it?”
“Nope. You’re mine and that’s pretty fucking simple.”
“But—” she began and I shook my head again.
“No buts, Eliana. You’re my wife. I’m your husband. How we got here doesn’t fucking matter. What we do with it does.”
That must’ve been the right answer because the smile she hit me with made me feel something I never thought I’d feel about a woman. “A veteran, a biker, and a poet? Lucky me.”
I kissed her hard before trailing soft kisses down her neck. “I’m the lucky one here, don’t ever forget that, darlin’.” I was lucky to have a woman like her and I knew it, and I’d make sure she never fucking regretted it.
“I think we’re both lucky so let’s just go with that.” Her fingertips danced across my jawline.
“Okay, now how about I fuck you just how you like it one more time before I go tell our daughter that we got married?” I slid a hand between us, groaning at the way her pussy coated two fingers as they slid inside her body.
She moaned. “Yes. Now, please.”
My fingers pumped slowly but I couldn’t look away from her face, serene in ecstasy. “Fuck I love it when you beg, Eliana.” My cock twitched at her sharp intake of breath. “And I love how you respond to my dirty talk.”
“And I love how well you control my body, Husband. So can you please fuck me?”
I smiled at her smiling face and gave her—my wife—exactly what we both wanted.