WRAITH (Iron Kings MC, #1)

give it to him.
Hell, with my life currently at a standstill, I had a lot of it.

14
~Wraith~
 
“I COULD STAY HERE FOREVER.”
She was too cute for words.
I swung my head her way, grinning. “You’d get bored.”
“We’ve been here for a couple of weeks and I’m not bored.”
“Weeks are a lot different to forever.”
She huffed and sat up on the plaid blanket, giving me one of her exasperated looks, the one that let me know I’d pissed her off. I’d become quite familiar with it since I’d known her. “You’re being way too literal, baby.”
Baby.
That was something that had evolved over our time here together. It was sweet when she said it as a loving endearment, yet, somehow also incredibly sexy when it came with that lilting rasp of hers when she was turned on. It floored me that those two things could actually exist as one. But, then again, Ashley was an enigma to begin with. A refreshing, captivating, addictive enigma.
“Well, being straight to the point and logical are kinda my thing.” The direct opposite of her dreaming and creative nature.
Somehow it worked.
It had been working well.
After our blow up and explosion of truths a few days ago, things had shifted.
I felt warm and lighter than I’d ever felt before. She brought a sense of optimism to my life. She exuded hope and possibility. For so long, I’d thought my lot in life had been settled. In some ways, I’d considered it my penance. In others, it had been my prison, keeping the monster contained and away from everyone.
But with Ashley, that irredeemable part of me didn’t seem so prevalent. At times, it was little more than a dying shadow of a memory.
She swung her leg over me, settling herself onto my lap. Rubbing my shoulders, she said, “Don’t you find it romantic, though? You and me being here alone, cut off from the world? These picnics? Our walks through the forest and the mountains?” Lust sparked in her eyes. “Christening every room of the house?”
It’d been almost two weeks since I’d taken her virginity and she’d been insatiable, wanting it all the time. I had more stamina than most, but I was still pushing forty. Her twenty-three-year-old sex drive was more than a little trying. Of course, I’d had an idea of what I’d been getting into with our age difference. But, with the added virgin thing, it’d been even more taxing than I’d predicted. Once a newbie got a taste of what they’d been missing, it’d been known in many cases to spark an addictive need in them. I knew it’d calm down soon. But, for now, it was kicking my ass.
It was a good thing I’d always enjoyed a challenge.
“Yeah, I can see the romance in it,” I admitted.
“Really?” she asked, her whole face lighting up in that beautiful way that did things to me. Jesus. I was smitten as fuck with her.
While it was more than a little unnerving, it also felt really good.
“Don’t you also think that—”
I pressed my finger to her lips. “Uh uh. I know what you’re doing, sweetheart.”
She batted my finger away. “And what is that?”
“You’re procrastinating.” I gestured to her notebook and papers scattered all over the blanket in the area that she’d been sitting on before climbing onto me.
“Fine,” she muttered, sliding off me and returning to her work.
I’d discovered a few days ago when I’d happened upon her working on her tattoo designs, that she had a draft of a business plan for her proposed tattoo parlor, TRUE INK. Apparently, she’d been working on it for the last few months. Owning her own place had been far more than a mere dream far into the future. She’d actually been taking steps to make it a reality. I’d encouraged her to go ahead with it, to finish up the business plan. It had taken some convincing, because she felt everything that had happened lately had stripped it away from her. But I’d reminded her that it was only temporary. It had relit that spark of hope and positivity in her and she’d been working on it ever since. I’d given her some pointers, because I’d had my own business too. But Spartan was the guy she really needed to go to about it. He had been running a successful empire for years via Iron Kings. He was the true expert. She wasn’t ready for that yet, but when things calmed down, maybe she’d realize what a vital resource he was.
When things calmed down?
If they calmed down, was more like it.
The situation with the Rogues had been dragging on for far too long.
From my daily check-in calls with Spartan, it was clear that nothing had been resolved.
He was playing it safe. Too safe.
I got it. There was a lot on the line. Many people depended on him for their livelihoods, as well as their safety.
But there was a point where slow and easy wasn’t good enough.
And I’d brought that home to him during our last call, where I’d also laid out an idea. He was an accomplished strategist and he always weighed things over thoroughly first before making a decision.
I’d just hoped he’d seen things my way.
I couldn’t stand the idea of being cooped up here for as long as I had been when I’d first gone to ground after Hammer’s betrayal.
And the idea of Ashley losing that much of her life wasn’t acceptable to me by any means.
A little grunt of frustration from her had me casting a look her way. She was crossing out something she’d written. Then she sighed, calmed herself, and got back down to it, words flowing out of her and across the pages at a rapid, determined pace.
I smiled to myself and laid back on the blanket, staring up at the clear blue sky overhead.
I let the picturesque surroundings infuse me with a true sense of relaxation that I hadn’t felt in an age. It had me reveling in it, kidding myself