Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
I laugh and shake my head. “Better luck next time, brother. Come on. We gotta get someone here to pick up the girls and get them to Nova. He needs to stitch them up.”
Shades pulls out his phone just as it starts ringing. “What’s up, sugar?”
I head back down the steps to let Dix know what’s up. “Another dead Iron King,” I tell him with a grin.
“What? Shit, keep everybody away from the windows. We’ll be there soon.”
Dix and I turn to Shades with expectant expressions. “What’s up?”
“Nogales and a couple of his men showed up at the clubhouse and tossed bricks and Molotov cocktails at the windows. Nothing got through. Let’s go.”
Dix nods. “I’ll stay back with one of the prospects. Have the other come back with a van to pick up the girls.”
Me, Shades, and Lucky head back to the clubhouse to check on everyone, and I can’t wait to get back to Maven. The moment I step inside, there she is, calming down Kenna and some of the club whores, who are visibly shaken by the Kings’ attack.
“Everyone good?” Shades asks as we walk in and goes straight to Letty, wrapping her in his arms.
She looks up at him with a small smile. “A little shaken up, but we’re all good.”
I go to Maven and take her hand. “Got a moment?”
She nods and flashes a small smile at the women before I take her hand. She lets me lead her down the hall to her room. “What’s up?” she asks as I open the door and head for the bed.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a few days,” I say as we sit side-by-side. “I need you to know that I want you, Maven. Not just in my bed, though having you there is a fucking treat, but in my life. At my side as my woman. Mine.”
I wait for her to say something, anything, but she turns to me with wide eyes and an open mouth.
No words.
No smile.
Nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Maven
Wilder says he wants me, which is great, but what does that even mean? I am literally old enough to be his mother, and I can’t even think about how pathetic it would look to be on his arm. More than that, I don’t want to deal with the stares of people, wondering if the nice young man is helping his elderly mother.
“Maven?”
“Wilder,” I say in return, my tone half-wild and half-sarcastic.
“Are you going to say anything?” He folds his arms, impatient or angry, maybe both.
I sigh and shake my head. “Honestly, Wilder, what do you want me to say? That I’m all right with the huge age difference between us? That I’m happy to spend the rest of my life with people staring at us wondering if I’m your mother—or your grandmother, for God’s sake? Some pathetic old woman hanging on the arm of a hot younger man, much younger man!”
“That’s not what this is about, and you know it,” he says, his eyes boring into mine. “I don’t care what other people think. I only care about what you think. And I know that you feel the same way about me as I feel about you.”
He leans closer to me, closing the distance between us. I can feel the heat emanating from his body, and it’s making me dizzy.
“Please, Maven,” he whispers, “say you’ll be mine.”
I want to say yes. I really do. But I can’t. It’s just too complicated.
I suck in a breath. I can’t deny him. “What will people think? The people here, your brothers?”
“Fuck what people think,” he growls at me. “Maven, listen to me, babe. You see me. All of me. Even though I fucking kidnapped you and put you in a room, you were able to see beyond me being a criminal. A biker. Even beyond me being a super-hot biker, to see what’s beneath all that. The fact that you, the woman I love, can see that is the only fucking thing I care about. If anyone has a problem with that, I’ll tell them where they can stick their fucking opinions.”
I can’t help but smile at his sweet but gruff words. He’s right, but he’s also not the old woman in this relationship.
“Wilder, you’re young. You may want children someday. And a hot, young wife. And it would kill me to have you leave me once you realize you chose half a life with me.”
“Half a life? Seriously? Maven, babe, you make me feel whole when I didn’t even know there were pieces of me missing. Do you know how good that feels?”
“Incredible?” I ask with a hopeful lilt in my voice.
“Incredibly fucking amazing,” he says and presses his forehead to mine. “Soon enough, we’ll have plenty of ankle-biters around here, babe.”
I smile. “McKenna did skip the booze last night.”