Priest: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Viking’s Rampage MC: Tucson Chapter Book 2)

Groaning, I stretched out, easing sore muscles. The night had dragged on into the late hours as Mom and I had talked, ate, and watched multiple movies. I’d ended up falling asleep on the couch and Mom had dropped a blanket over me before she’d gone to bed.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I gasped. My neck was stiff and sore. I’d never been able to sleep on a couch comfortably. I needed my soft bed and even softer pillows or I ended up with a stiff neck.

Knocking on the door came again and I realized that was what had woken me up in the first place. Grabbing my phone, I checked the time, and muttered under my breath when I realized it was seven a.m.

It was Saturday and the start of my weekend. I’d been looking forward to sleeping in. Though maybe I owed whoever was at the door a debt of gratitude. If I’d slept on the couch a few more hours my neck would be completely messed up instead of only slightly.

I opened the door and froze, hand still massaging the strained muscles. “Priest.”

Here we were again, him at my door, and me being shocked to see him. I blinked in confusion at him. “What are you doing here?” Again.

His hands were shoved inside the pockets of his jeans, but his eyes narrowed on my hand. “What’s wrong with your neck?”

That had me continuing to blink. I wasn’t awake enough for this. “You came here to ask me that?” I dropped my hand, and even though my muscles protested, I refused to raise it again. “It’s early,” I told him, hearing the cold note in my words.

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Sorry about that. I couldn’t sleep.”

My brows shot up. “Why’s that?”

“My place is too quiet,” he muttered. “The girls are with their grandparents… And you weren’t there.”

I refused to apologize, though the words were right there on the tip of my tongue. It wasn’t my fault I hadn’t slept at his place last night. I knew he was hurting, but he needed to learn that he couldn’t take it out on me.

He shifted as the awkward silence stretched between us. “Taz. I’m sorry for how I behaved yesterday. This is all hitting me harder than I thought it would and I don’t know how to process it.”

My heart softened. This was what I wanted. It was such a simple confession, or at least the words were simple. For him to say it though, and to say it to me? That was huge. I stepped back and opened the door further so he could step through. I wasn’t going to make him bare his soul on the front porch. “You hungry?” I asked, extending the olive branch.

“Starving.”

Leading him into the kitchen, I started preparing omelets while he leaned against the counter nearby. “I don’t expect you to talk to me about everything,” I told him, cracking an egg into a bowl. “I know there’s going to be times where you can’t tell me stuff, because of the club. But I don’t want you to shut me out, or take it out on me.”

He opened his mouth, but I pointed an egg at him and he shut it. His lips twitched as he studied my face.

“You shut me out yesterday. If you’re having a rough day and can’t talk, just let me know. I’ll give you your space. I’m not unreasonable, but it hurts my feelings when you treat me how you did yesterday. You say you want me around, to be a part of your life. Act like it.”

“I know that,” he said, stepping forward and taking the egg from me with the same care that he might take a knife from a madman. He set it inside the carton before he wrapped me up in his arms.

Sighing, I leaned into his body. He was all muscles and heat and it felt so good to be held by him. “You need to talk things out eventually, Priest,” I told him, tone soft. “Otherwise it will eat you alive. It doesn’t have to be me you speak to, but it needs to be someone.”

“I want it to be you,” he replied.

“I want that, too.” Dammit, there it was again. That spark of hope that he always ignited.

“Not here,” he said, pulling away and casting a look down the hall.

My smile was understanding. “Whenever and wherever you’re comfortable, but my mother would never tattle to the cops,” I teased. “She’s a cashier, not a CIA Agent.”

He chuckled. “Old habits die hard. A lot of the habits I’ve had from the military and from the club bleed over into my everyday life.”

“I can live with that,” I told him, going back to cracking eggs.

He settled back against the counter, again a puzzled look on his face. “Why is that?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t grow up the way I did,” he said, looking around at the house, “clearly. Did you grow up around an MC?”

“No,” I answered with a laugh. “The guys in Austin were my first run in with bikers.”

“Then why are you okay with all of this?”

I turned toward him. I knew what he meant. It was the same thing I’d asked my friends in Austin. None of them had ever dated bikers before and had—for the most part—grown up as law-abiding citizens. I told him my own version of what Ming had said when I’d asked.

“Knowing you has opened my eyes to other ways of life. I was raised to follow the law, but sometimes it’s important to know when to buck authority. I still plan on continuing on the way I always have, but I don’t mind if you do what you have to do.” I stepped closer to him and laid my hands on his chest. “Even if the law doesn’t see you as a good man, I do. I know what lengths you’ll go to for your family. I know you’d protect me with your life.” His expression was grim, eyes flashing at the thought of me being in danger. “That’s all I need to know, Priest.”

“You put your job in jeopardy to help me with Caitlyn.”

I shrugged. “So maybe I’m not as law-abiding as I thought, but that little girl has been through so much I knew I needed to help her. You may not know it yet, but I’ll go to extreme lengths to keep my family safe, too. I’d do anything for you guys.”

It was scary how quickly I’d slipped into the mindset, but I knew it was the truth. It didn’t matter what society thought of Priest or his club. I loved them and I’d protect them in any way I was capable. If that made me a bad person, then so be it. I knew these men. I knew they had good hearts. That was all I cared about.

He dragged me against his chest again and his lips covered mine. I moaned into his mouth, letting the desire arc through me at his touch. It would have been all too easy to forget about breakfast and nibble on him, but someone clearing their throat had us breaking apart like a pair of teenagers.

I gave my mom a guilty grin. “Morning.”

“Good morning to you, too,” she said with a smirk on her face.

“Uh, Mom, this is Priest. Priest this is my mom, Joy.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Priest said, letting go of me reluctantly so he could shake her hand.

I didn’t miss the way Mom wrapped her robe tighter around herself and eyed him like he was candy. I didn’t blame her in the least. It made me realize that I needed to speak to her about dating again. She deserved to have her own man to cause her trouble. Then it wouldn’t be only me complaining during our movie nights.

We chatted during breakfast and I was happy to see that Priest and my mom were getting along. Once we finished and had shoved our plates away, she gave me a crafty smile.

“I’ll clean up here,” she said, her face the picture of innocence. “You kids go have a good time.”

I knew her games by now. She was making us leave so we could talk more. She was hoping we’d have enough privacy that Priest would grovel a bit. I didn’t really want him to grovel, we were past that, I just wanted him to open up and share with me. Though it was a monumental task to get a man to speak out loud about his feelings, I wanted him to so he would feel better. And maybe so I’d feel closer to him.

“It was nice meeting you,” Priest told her again. He wasted no time grabbing my hand and pulling me back to my room. I was still in my pajama shorts and shirt, so I appreciated him letting me get dressed first.

As soon as the door shut behind us he pinned me up against it. I gasped as his short beard scratched against my neck while his lips brushed over my skin. It created a delicious feeling that had goosebumps rising on my arms.

“Priest,” I hissed. “What are you doing?”

“She interrupted us before I got to finish that kiss,” he complained, his breath heating my skin.

“We’re not doing this here,” I told him with a laugh. My hands caught his wrists as his palms settled on my hips.

“We’ve already done this here,” he pointed out before he licked a path down my neck to my collarbone.

“Not while my mom was here!”

He grunted and dipped his head. He used his teeth to tear the buttons free on my shirt and groaned when he saw that I wasn’t wearing a bra underneath.

My head crashed back into the door when he took one aching tip into his mouth and sucked. I let go of his wrists and bit down on the meaty part of my fist. I would die if I had to be silent while he fucked me. It wasn’t possible. We had to get out of here.

My teeth loosened and I balled my fist tighter before punching him in the gut.

Priest let out a startled grunt and looked down at me in confused amusement. It’d worked though, he’d let me go.

I danced out of his grasp and across the room. When he started to stalk after me, I pointed at him. “No. Stay there. We’re not having sex with my mother here.” Folding my arms over my chest, I glared at him.

He chuckled and went over to sprawl out on my bed. It didn’t matter how good he looked, I wasn’t going to be tempted. Well, maybe a little tempted. The thought of crawling onto his lap while he opened his jeans and slid my shorts to the side had wetness pooling between my thighs.

Shaking the thoughts from my mind, I hurried over to my closet. I hesitated before undressing, glancing over my shoulder at him. His intense eyes were watching every move I made. It was embarrassing to undress in front of him. It didn’t matter that he’d already seen me naked—not to mention touched and kissed most of me—that was in the heat of the moment.

Still, the look in his eyes told me I could either get dressed, or he’d drag me out of here in my pajamas. Or worse, that he’d give into the desire sparking between us and I’d end up on my back trying to hold in my screams. That wasn’t an option, so I finished unbuttoning my shirt and shucked both it and the shorts.

It only took me a few moments to get dressed, but when I turned around I saw that his jeans were fitting a bit tighter in the front. I gave him a sultry smile. “Ready to go?”

“Fuck yeah, I am.”

I wasn’t sure if he meant leave, or he was ready to ‘go’. Both probably. I watched as he adjusted himself behind his jeans and bit back a smile. It felt so damn good to have a man like him be so attracted to me. There’d be times we’d fight—it was inevitable—but if he wanted to get rid of me, he’d have to scrape me off like a barnacle from a ship’s hull. I wasn’t going anywhere. He had everything I’d always wanted, both himself and a family.

I let him lead me out of the house and over to his bike, calling goodbye to my mom as we went. The ride back to the clubhouse would have been comfortable this early in the morning except the heat pouring off the two of us was supercharging the air around the bike. It felt like I was burning up.