“Stop.”
There was that one morning that I had said some bad things abou—
“Madison.” His hand came to my cheek and he turned my face toward him. His eyes pierced into mine. “I said, stop.” Then his thumb brushed softly over my bottom lip, his eyes watching the movement. “Stop overanalyzing and overthinking my move, for once.” He paused and then continued. “Usually, this would be the part where I’d say ‘you can’t figure me out, so give it up,’ but I’ve come to the realization that…” he grinned. “I’m a fucking liar.”
“A what?”
“A liar.” His thumb stopped moving and instantly, I missed the caress of his rough touch. “It’s fucking you, Madison. You’re the only person walking this earth that could ever figure me out. You’re the only fucking person walking this earth that I truly know I’d kill a motherfucker for, and you’re the only fucking girl walking this earth that has me.”
“Has you?” I whispered, tears threatening to surface. I wasn’t sure how to fully take in this side of Bishop. I had seen snippets of it in the past, but as quickly as I had seen it, it had been ripped away from me again before I could fully comprehend, or even enjoy, what I was feeling. “I have you?”
A small smile tickled his lips. It wasn’t a cocky smile or a smug smile. It was genuine. “You’ve always had me, Madison. You know that.”
Do I?
Pulling my bottom lip into my mouth, I take my gaze off him and look to the floor to ceiling window in front of me, this would be my side when I was staying. I didn’t want to risk the chance of breaking whatever moment we were having right now, but I needed to know before I took another step in the direction of what was Bishop and Madison.
“Can I ask you something without you flipping your switch on me?”
“Anything,” he expressed, his voice low and soft.
I took a deep breath. “I know about your deal with your father.”
Pause.
I continued, “So I need to know one thing, and I will only ask you once.” Then I finally let my attention go back to him. He was watching me, and I him. “Is this real, or is this a game?”
He searched my face. “Madison, does this—what we have, the connection and everything that we’ve experienced since we met—does that all seem fake to you?”
There was no second-guessing that answer. “No. But I never second-guessed my feelings, it was yours I was unsure about.”
His arm snaked around my waist as he lifted me up, placing me down on his lap so I was facing him with my legs straddled around his hips. His hands fell to my ass and he squeezed. “I may not fully understand my own feelings when it comes to you, and I never have, but when I do, you’ll be the first person to know about it.”
I smiled, my hand coming to his face. If that was as close to a ‘I love you,’ that I was going to get for now, I was happy. I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck.
“Now, can you ride on my dick for a few hours so we can sleep.” My head tipped back as I laughed, just as he pulled me down onto the bed and tore off my little dress. “This is sexy as fuck, Mads.” His fingers traced the mesh material.
“You like?”
His eyes flew to mine. “It’s a favorite for sure, but right now, it needs to be on the floor.” Then he threw it across the room before his hands came to my back, and he pushed my chest down onto his face.
“Wait!” My hands came to his chest. “I almost forgot.” I arched my back so I could access my back pocket and took out the 10kt heavy white gold curb chain. The shotgun bullet shell that dangled off of it was lightly engraved. BVH + MMV. It was cheesy, and I was scared.
He took it, his eyes searching mine and then going back to the chain. “Baby…”
“Happy birthday.”
He kissed me hard, wrapping the chain around his fist. He leaned back. “Put it on?”
I nodded and got up, taking the chain from him. When it was securely around his neck, he turned around quickly, shoving me back onto the bed. My laughter was cut short by his teeth catching my nipple. He bit down, and I moaned, my head tilting back. I could feel his hardness pressing against my clit and I slowly rubbed myself over him. His hands fell to my hips and he squeezed tightly, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as his tongue slid out and wet his bottom lip. Sexy. As. Fuck. He caught my smile, narrowed his eyes, and then flipped me onto my back. I screamed out in shock, then his head dove into my neck while his knee hitched my leg up, pressing himself into me while his tongue licked over my collarbone.
I guessed he liked his present.
“I want you to think of a wall, a bulletproof one that no matter how hard any weapon hounds on it, it could never break.” Rob had said, pacing up and down in front of the seven of us. We had been close all our lives, whether by family or by choice, they were my brothers. I chose to care for them, no amount of family influence could have forced the kind of brotherhood we shared—which made us the most lethal Kings created. The generations before us, my father had said they always fought or struggled to get along sometimes. Whether it be by girl or just by personalities not being compatible, it never happened. They never had a generation that flowed fluidly like we did, so they had big plans for us.
“A wall?” Nate snickered. “You brought us here to teach us about a wall?”
Rob waved him off diffusely and continued his army march backward and forward in front of us. “I want you to start building this wall inside of your brain, but before you do so, I want you to make sure there are six seats there beside you. Not eight, not two, not any other number but seven total,” he paused, looking down at me. I wasn’t a short kid. For a ten-year-old, I was pretty tall, but staring up at Rob in this moment, I felt two-feet. “I want you to start building this wall today. Work on it, I mean really train your brain to build it, because by the time you initiate in, I need that wall to be solid. To be unfuckwithable. This”—Rob gestured around—“was who you trusted. No one else.”
“What about my dad?” I argued, looking at the guys who all glared at me like “shut the fuck up.” Rob was scary, but I didn’t scare easily.
“Even your dad. He went through the same when he was your age, and so will the next ones who come after you.”
“What, as in we have to have kids?” Hunter scrunched up his face.
“Yes.” Dad interrupted, walking around the back of the cabin dressed in one of his fine suits. “You will have kids one day.”
“No, I’m good. I don’t want kids.” I knew at a very young age that children didn’t appeal to me, and I doubted that would change in the future. Call it the only-child curse.
“Oh I bet you will, I bet you and Khales will have kids by the time you’re sixteen,” Eli snorted, only no one joined him.
“No. I don’t want them.”
My dad kneeled down in front of me, searching my eyes. “You will, son, and lucky for you, I have someone lined up.”
My eyebrows pinched together. “What? Who?” I was still not having kids, but I’d ask him who he thought I could be matched with anyway.
He reached into his front jacket pocket and pulled out a small photograph, flipping it around to show me. It was a little girl, had to be around the same age as me or younger—unless she was just really small. She had brown wavy hair, chubby cheeks, a bright smile and blue eyes. A couple of freckles were scattered over her cheeks and she was holding a hunting rifle. “This girl.”
“That girl?” I questioned, obviously my dad was off his meds. That girl wasn’t anything great, I had seen better at my school, but she had something contrastive about her, an imbalance if you will, but her eyes. Her eyes ate up the distance between us, even if it was a photo that she was staring at me from. “Who is she?”