Page 44 of Property of Stone (Kings of Anarchy MC: Pennsylvania #1)

With his hands planted on either side of her to prevent her escape, when she turned, they stood only inches apart.

Her stomach fluttered and her pulse began to race.

Not because she was afraid of him—even though she should be after what she witnessed—but, for shit’s sake , because she missed his touch. She missed that time spent together in the dark, just the two of them. Cementing the fact that once again, she was the queen of bad decisions.

Maybe she fit in with the Kings better than she’d like to admit.

“Said you had to process shit. Gave you three fuckin’ days to do that. Now I’m done. Now you’re done. The processin’ plant is now fuckin’ closed.”

She hadn’t been lying to Stone when she said she needed to process what she’d seen. She did. She came up with the conclusion: she either had to accept the MC life as it was or reject it completely.

If she rejected it, she needed to reject Stone, too, since he was a King and a biker at his very core.

If she rejected Stone, she really needed to leave.

But she already convinced herself to stay. For Wren’s sake. If she didn’t have him, it would be easier to disappear. Easier to start over. She would only have herself to worry about.

However, she did have Wren and she wouldn’t give him up for the world. Especially to her ex who decided using fists was more effective than words.

She would do whatever she had to do to protect her son. Unfortunately, she had limited options on how to do that.

She couldn’t deny Stone had stepped up.

She couldn’t deny she was attracted to him.

She couldn’t deny she was developing feelings for him, too. And, of course, that discovery was eye-opening and a bit worrisome.

Of course their little patchwork “family” had rips and tears. It was far from perfect. But with a little work, they could turn something holey into something whole.

She mentally groaned. Maybe she shouldn’t have drank that damn glass of wine. Any sense she had apparently fled like a bank robber after the alarm was pulled.

“I’m back in my bed. So are you. You need to process more shit, you do it with me next to you.

You need to talk shit out, willin’ to listen.

But what I won’t do is change. Not for you.

Not for anyone. This is my fuckin’ life and I like it the way it is.

Is it perfect? Fuck no. Will it ever be? Fuck no.”

At least he didn’t try to sugar coat his lifestyle. He was who he was and wasn’t afraid to admit it. “Stone?—”

“Got a girl I’m tryin’ to raise. I say tryin’ ‘cause no one knows better than me that I’m failin’.

Don’t mean I’m gonna give up. But by makin’ that deal with you, thought I was doin’ better for her.

Still fuckin’ believe that.” He lightly brushed the back of his knuckle down her cheek. “You’re a good momma bird.”

Why did that low tone of his send lightning down her spine?

“She doesn’t like me,” Taryn whispered.

“She does. She just don’t wanna admit she was wrong. She’s fuckin’ pigheaded like that.”

A chip off the ol’ stone. “Like you, you mean.”

His brown eyes softened and so did his tight mouth. “Yeah, like me,” he breathed. “Unfortunately for her, she got the worst of us. Need to dig deep to find the good and help coax that out.”

“And you think I can help with that.”

“Yeah, I do. She ain’t blind. She ain’t deaf. She sees and hears how you interact with Baby Bird. She’s never seen that shit before. With Sheena, she’s only seen the bad. Wish it hadn’t taken her mother gettin’ pinched for me to get her full-time, but if you wanna know the truth, glad it did.”

His daughter definitely needed a fighting chance. It was easy to see Sunny was afraid to be happy. Or at least show it. Maybe because her happiness kept getting ripped away.

Taryn didn’t know the reason, or even the answer to how to help her. Taryn wasn’t a therapist, she was a mother. Unfortunately, she often questioned if she was a good one herself .

She could only do her best and hope it was good enough. Stone needed to do the same.

She had to remember if she gave up on Stone, she’d be giving up on Sunny, too. Despite her attitude, Taryn had no doubt Sunny was either a hurt or scared little girl deep inside.

Damn him for tugging on her heartstrings.

For using his daughter as an excuse to keep her there.

But he was right, not only should she stay for Wren’s sake, but for Sunny’s as well.

His daughter needed a better female influence.

One who wasn’t a sweet butt or a woman in prison, even if that woman gave birth to her.

“So, about the bed situation...”

“No discussion needed. Already decided.”

“I didn’t have a say.”

He put his lips to her ears. “Sayin’ you don’t want me slippin’ between your thighs later?”

A ribbon of heat wove its way through her, landing between her legs.

“Don’t want my tongue flickin’ your clit?”

Her eyes slid shut with that memory. She squeezed her thighs together to stem the ache his words caused.

“Don’t want me makin’ you come so fuckin’ hard you claw my back and scream my name?”

The only time she screamed out his name was when the kids weren’t asleep down the short hallway. When they were, she contained it in her head. Too many times to count.

“Pussy got your tongue?”

Her eyes opened when she rolled them.

Was she going to let him back in the bed? Did she really want to continue a relationship with someone like him? Because them sleeping together, having those intimate moments, was a relationship. It might not be a serious one, but was one none-the-less .

She could deny it.

Stone could deny it.

But they’d both be lying.

Another worry was: if she stayed, she’d only fall harder.

Did that scare her? Hell yes.

She pushed at him hard enough to give her enough space to escape. But before she could slip out of his reach, he clamped a hand on her arm, stopping her.

She stared at his hand but he didn’t remove it. Instead, he spun her to face him again. “Had enough time to get the fuck over it, Taryn.”

“You killed one of those men. And badly hurt the others.” She was having a hard time wiping the gaping throat of one of the Twisted Souls from her mind. He lost his life just for being on the wrong patch of Earth.

“I didn’t kill the fucker.”

Semantics.

She lifted a palm. “You had a part in it. You also didn’t do anything to stop it.”