I breathed, I spoke, I beat, and I stood strong.
But everything had shifted this infinitesimal bit. The cadence of my breath, my speech, and my heart had shifted from a perfunctory tone to something deeper, something rhythmic that moved more than my body.
Whatever force had moved me through life before had shifted, and it had shifted to her.
A tilt of gravity that indicated a future fall, but for the moment, it only left me slightly changed, but changed enough to note it and note the cause for it.
Her.
“Yeah,” I finally said, voice thick in my throat. “I remember.”
“You marry that woman, King,” he warned me. “You marry her for you, and you marry her for me ’cause I love that woman, and I love ’er for you. Nothin’ would make me happier, even stuck in ’ere, than you givin’ her our Garro name.”
“She might not go for it,” I said because it was true.
Cress loved my dad near as much as I did.
“You bring her in, and I’ll talk to her.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, lookin’ every inch the biker Prez even locked up and decked out in orange.
“Hear ya.”
“And about the vote, I get what you’re not sayin’, and I get why you wanted the position for yourself. It’d make sense one day, it’s meant to be one day, but the club is a democracy, and I’m not gonna interfere in that. If brothers voted Buck, he’s it.” He paused, devilry sparkin’ in his. “But a man’s gotta do what he thinks best, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed with an answering satanic smile. “And there’s nothin’ I wouldn’t do for this family and for you. Hope you get that.”
“Not a day goes by I don’t.”
* * *
Apples.
The entire cabin smelled of apples and cinnamon when I dragged my tired ass through the door of Shamble Wood later that day after droppin’ Lou and the kids off back home. The scent revived me like smellin’ salts, and even though a minute before I would’a said nothin’ could make me smile after visitin’ my dad in prison, the sight of Cress rockin’ out to the Zac Brown Band on the radio, singin’ into a wooden spoon at Shadow who looked incredibly unimpressed with her from where he sat on the counter, made me burst straight through to laughter.
When I finished, she was standin’ in the middle of the kitchen with that smile of hers she made just for me, somethin’ like exaltation in the curve of that pretty, pouty mouth.
“Babe,” I said, still chucklin’ as I moved forward to take her in my arms. “You are such a dork.”
She tossed her hair and scowled at me, but the hands that wrapped around my waist said she wasn’t mad about my gentle teasin’.
“I’m a biker babe, King, I have to rock out when the spirit moves me,” she corrected primly.
“Whatever you say.”
Her mouth tasted sweet and hot with fruit and spice, so I ate at it until the sweetness faded on my tongue. When I pulled back, she swayed, eyes closed, lips swollen, and I instantly went hard at the sight of her eagerness for more.
“Made me some pie?” I asked her, kissin’ the tip of her nose. The spring sun had brought out the freckles on it, and they were cute as fuck.
“Mmhmm, for a picnic.”
“Babe, got so much shit to do…you know how much chaos is goin’ down at the club. Got plans to use Paula to our advantage tonight.”
“Okay, but after our picnic. We need to have some fun, King. You’re not Atlas, you don’t need to bear the entire weight of our world on your shoulders. Let someone else take up the mantle for the afternoon and come away with me. You taught me what happiness was, and now it’s my turn to give it back to you.”
“My girl’s sweet,” I muttered, feelin’ it like a toothache. “But if you want me to have some fun, why don’t you lose the dress and I’ll fuck you right here on the floor? We can have a picnic right on the carpet after to recuperate.”
Her eyes flared, desire catchin’ the brown and turnin’ it gold, but she still shook her head. “I want to be on the back of your bike with you, and I want to go back to the cliff, if that’s okay? It’s gorgeous, and it’s been a minute since we just let ourselves experience some beauty.”
“Experience it every mornin’ I wake up next to you,” I argued, kissin’ down her neck and palmin’ her ass through the silk of her white polka dot dress.
“Stop trying to seduce me and put the food in the saddlebags. I’ll grab the pie.” She shoved me back and flounced over to the fridge, bendin’ low so I got a glimpse of the little white panties coverin’ her sex.