Page 45 of Priest’s Sunbeam (Renegade Souls MC: Next Generation #2)

Sebastian

The side room within the Armado Springs hospital was packed with his brothers.

The Souls had only been five minutes away when he’d made the call.

That was family, Seb thought, watching them all talking over each other.

Despite the fucked up situation that might play on his mind at another time, it felt right.

It was normal. It was his family. Those he’d always fight alongside.

Even now, he knew the situation at the motel was being handled as if it had never happened.

But then, amid their noise, he heard the rush of feet outside the door. The slapping steps came closer, and Seb’s heart picked up speed as he swung his legs off the side of the bed.

“Make room,” he said as bodies moved from the doorway. “My wife is on the way.”

And then there was his Sunshine.

The woman who owned his life.

His small pocket rocket, the one he lived for, was hurling herself through the door like a destructive tornado. Their eyes locked, and Seb’s world righted again, the air exiting his lungs. Emotions swelled in his chest; his love for her had no bounds.

It was as if the world disappeared, and he was already reaching out a hand to her when she threw herself through the parting brotherhood and came for him.

One step. Two steps. He saw her mouth his name, and then Sunny was in his arms, and they both sighed simultaneously.

She was shaking as she fixed her arms around his shoulders.

“I’m okay,” he reassured her, palming the back of her head, holding her as close as possible, drinking in her scent. She was trembling from head to toe, and Seb squeezed her slight frame tighter in his arms, like he could fuse them as one. The half a day apart felt like decades.

While she crawled onto the bed and into his lap, he looked over her shoulder at everyone. “You guys don’t need to stick around.”

Feet shuffled out.

“We’ll get some food from the cafeteria,” his mom said. She leaned over and kissed Seb’s head. Preacher did the same, and Tanner gave two thumbs up at Seb before they all exited. But Seb heard Ruby say. “Now we can discuss this crazy idea you have about leaving, Tanner Shane.”

He didn’t know what that was about yet; Seb’s entire focus was on Sunny; once they were alone in the hospital room, he stroked a hand up Sunny’s back and under her hair to hold her nape. “You can let it all go now, baby.”

She broke a second later.

A wail of anguish left his wife like nothing he’d ever heard before and never wanted to hear coming from her again, but he knew his Sunny needed the release from holding herself tightly together.

She sobbed in his arms for long minutes as a lone tear of relief dripped from the lower lashes of Seb’s eye.

“I thought we weren’t going to see each other ever again,” she said around a sob. Seb cupped her face and brushed the falling tears away with his thumbs.

“That won’t ever happen. You’re stuck with me. No more crying, yeah? You’re breaking my fucking heart, sunbeam.”

Cupping his face, her warm fingers traveled over Seb’s bruised face, and he watched her watching him. She next brushed his hair from his forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay? Your face is turning purple.”

“I’ve got you in my arms, so I’m good, baby.”

Sunny didn’t seem convinced and spent the next moments examining him with tender touches. He was ready to go home, but they made him stay for observation due to the drugs and his blacking out.

But it was okay because he kept Sunny with him.

There was no way either of them was spending the night alone. Once the families had taken off, he showered and pulled her into the too-small hospital bed with him. She rested her head on his shoulder, clasping his hand to her chest, playing with his wedding band.

She hadn’t asked about what had happened yet with Dwayne. He’d prefer she didn’t know, but he’d share if she wanted to know, and it would be the last time he spoke that man’s name. He was dead to Seb in all ways he could be dead to him.

“I’m sorry for the things I said over the phone. You know I didn’t mean them, don’t you?”

He thought she was going to ignore him when she finally spoke. “I don’t think I’ll ever recover from hearing you breaking up with me, Sebastian.”

Oh, god, his wife was gearing up for a dramatic performance, and he couldn’t fucking wait as his mouth twitched at the edges.

“Even in sixty years, when I’m serving you dinner, I’ll still wonder, is it today he breaks up with me again?” she fake sniffled, but smiled with it.

That was his resilient Sunshine.

She was his heart and his strength.

“You claimed me long ago and tied me in a lifetime contract, Sunshine.”

She smiled into his chest, snuggled deeper, and his hand found her hip.

There’d been a moment earlier that day when he thought about how her life would look without him, but as dire as the shit with Dwayne had been, he couldn’t accept him not being at the center of Sunny’s universe and vice versa. The only option had been to fight to live to be with her.

And he’d fight every single time to stay with her.

He skimmed his lips over her forehead. “Try to get some sleep, baby. We’ll go home early.”

“I won’t be able to let you out of my sight for a while, Seb.” She pre-warned.

He smiled in the darkened room and closed his eyes. “That’s fine with me.”

Sunny was true to her word. She stuck to him like glue for weeks, flying into a panic if she couldn’t reach him instantly. Seb did everything he could to settle his wife until their lives were normal again. Dwayne, and the shit he’d brought, forgotten about forever.

That night, three weeks later, they were holding a going-away party for Tanner in the clubhouse. The Priest brothers sat side by side near the roaring bonfire, with matching mannerisms, each having a beer.

The little shit had decided out of the blue to travel around other chapters, and he was taking off in the morning.

It was the first time a prospect had gone nomadic.

His little bro said he wanted more experience to help the Souls later. Seb wondered if Clover was the reason Tanner had changed so much lately. He noted his sister-in-law was absent from the party.

“Are you sure you wanna go? You’re breaking Mom’s heart.”

Tanner pulled on the beer for a long drink. “She’ll be fine. She still has you and Dad, and I won’t be gone for that long.”

It would later turn out to be a lie.

“I hear the Tennessee chapter gets wild.”

“Keep out of trouble,” Seb warned. “I don’t wanna have to ride through the night to bail you out of shit.”

“But you would, right?” Tanner smirked, and Seb cuffed him around the back of the head.

“Yeah, but I won’t be happy about it.”

“You think you’ll make me an uncle by the time I come home?”

“You better bring your ass home long before then. Sunny wants to become a teacher first, before we have kids.”

“She might talk to me by then,” Tanner remarked, flattening his lips.

Sunny had spoken to Tanner some over the weeks, because, like his wife, his brother had also kept close tabs on Seb, like they thought he would fall apart for killing his father. But their exchanges had been coolly polite at best on Sunny’s end.

“She’ll be talking to you much faster if you weren’t running away.”

“It sounds like you’re gonna miss me, bro.”

“I know I push your ass,” Seb stated, “but I still want you around, not in backwaters Alabama.”

“I might settle in the New York chapter, become a yuppie biker.” He chuckled, and Seb joined him.

Right then, Lily, Tag’s sweetheart daughter and everyone’s friend, stormed by the pair, her hair flying behind in her haste, and she was yelling.

“Don’t even think about following me, Zane Marinos, I will file a restraining order against your pestering ass.

” Sure enough, a second later, Zane, also named Hero, prowled after the petite girl, a look of determination and fury on his face as his thick biker boots ate up the space, and Seb watched as he grabbed Lily’s wrist to stop her.

Seb expected her to crack Hero across the face, but she only glared up at him, and then, soundless, Hero pulled her behind him, leading her into the clubhouse.

“What’s going on there?” he jutted his chin toward the door.

“You don’t wanna know. Hero’s lost his marbles, that’s for damn sure.”

“She’s serious about the restraining order?”

That would be a first for the son of the president.

“Who fucking knows with Lily? No one knows what’s going on there. Hero won’t say.”

“Have they been dating?”

“You know as much as I know,” Answered Tanner, “I never caught any vibes from them. I thought she was dating some CEO yuppie.”

He’d ask Sunny later.

And now his wife was in his head. It was time to find her.

He ditched the empty bottle into a nearby trash can and told Tanner he’d see him early for their last family breakfast. He strode over and plucked Sunny out of her seat, making her laugh as he strode off with her in his arms and into the clubhouse, where it was quieter.

“Do you want to go home?” he asked, placing her on his lap when he fell onto a couch.

“I enjoy hanging out. But we can head out if you want to.”

“Long as you’re happy.”

“Sebastian Priest,” she said, looping both arms around his neck. She came closer and nuzzled his nose with hers. Her smile lit him up from the inside. “Don’t you know yet? The day I met you, I was the happiest girl alive.”

“Sweet talker,” he gruffed, feeling the same. Seb caressed a hand down her spine and back up to clasp her around the nape, keeping her face close enough to see the flecks of light blue in her eyes. “But what I wanna know is, will my wife become a dirty talker tonight in our bed?”

“Fuck me, not something I wanna overhear.” Alpha was walking by at that precise moment. Seb saw his friend grimacing before striding across the clubhouse floor toward the back door.

Sunny was giggling on his shoulder. “I think we frightened Alpha.”

“He’ll survive. Well?” his fingers danced along her nape, and he watched Sunny’s eyes flare with desire. He loved touching his wife and watching how his hands affected her.

“Do you mean I should tell you to fuck me and never to stop?” she whispered against his lips, and Seb’s body went solid all over. He groaned into her lips, forcing them open for the dirtiest kiss until she was mewling around his tongue and gripping his hair.

Lust burst out of Seb’s gut, and only a shred of sanity made him stop before he unbuttoned her jeans and pushed his throbbing dick into his wife right there on a club couch.

Nothing on earth felt as good as when he joined with her.

His fucking soul outside of his body was his Sunshine.

Every day, she led him around by the heart, the invisible thread keeping them fastened tight together.

In whatever life they were in, if there were others, he knew he’d be chasing that woman like a randy dog, begging her to let him worship her.

“That’s my dirty girl,” he praised, watching how she blushed shyly. “I love you, Sunshine.”

“I love you, my Seb.”

How different things might have been if he’d never come into her world and let a tiny, curly-haired, toothless sprite claim him as her best friend.

They sat there for a while, cuddling and discussing the coming weeks.

Eventually, Sunny fell asleep, cradled in his lap, and he pulled his discarded gray hoodie around her, letting her sleep for a few minutes before he took her home. Then Hawk strode through and stopped in the room, spotting them.

Something like acceptance passed through the VP’s eyes, and Seb jutted his chin at his father-in-law. He knew Sunny was protected and loved beyond measure with him. Hawk nodded back and strode off.

And that’s where Seb stayed for a few minutes.

He had his universe in his arms as she sleep-talked about wanting balloons and a new baby cow.

Fuck him . How was he going to wrap a baby cow for her next birthday?

He smirked, then kissed her forehead.

A sunbeam hand-picked him to own.

Seb reckoned that made him richer than any man.