Wild Like the Wind (Page 74)

Okay.

Official.

I loved Beverly’s new man.

My mother made a move toward me.

And suddenly, Tad was right there in front of me.

Dutch moved forward to stand beside him.

Jag went to his other side.

But Hound walked determinedly across the room, so determinedly, Sarah and Blair had to jump out of his way, and he disappeared in my foyer.

I heard the front door open.

“I’ll allow you to stretch the definition of immediate to now,” Tad rumbled.

Hound appeared in the opening to the foyer. “The door is open. Best be using it before things get any uglier.”

With looks through Tad and the boys at me, all of them started moving.

Hound stared them down as they passed him, so as best they could in the narrow space he gave them, they gave him a wide berth.

Tad followed them.

Dutch and Jagger followed Tad.

“You boys stay with your mother,” Hound ordered.

My sons stopped moving.

Hound and Tad disappeared.

Beverly tagged behind and I lost sight of her in the foyer.

“Get back to your girl, baby,” I heard Tad say softly.

Beverly reappeared.

She went direct to Jagger and put her arms around him.

This was probably because I was approaching Dutch, and when I made it to my boy, I slid my arms around him, my front pressed to his long, lean side.

His arm curled around my shoulders.

It took some time and that time included us hearing car doors slamming, vehicles starting and pulling out through the still-open front door.

But once those sounds ended, Hound and Tad came back.

Hound barely hit the room before his beautiful blue eyes moved between my sons and he declared gruffly, “I’ve never been prouder in my life of you two boys than I am right now.”

It was then I knew why he didn’t barrel in to take the situation in hand.

He was waiting for Dutch and Jag to do it.

Because he knew they would do it.

Shit, I was going to cry.

Hound turned to Tad. “And know you don’t need it, but serious as fuck, bud, you got my blessing.”

Beverly made a crying, laughing noise and Jag, holding on to her like Dutch was holding on to me, wound his other arm around her when the crying part won over.

Tad gave Hound a nod and then moved to claim his woman from my son’s arms.

Hound didn’t move.

But his gaze was locked on me.

“You good?” he asked.

I nodded shakily.

He looked to Dutch. “You got her?”

“Yeah, Hound,” Dutch answered.

And he did.

My oldest boy did.

He always had.

I held him harder.

“Fuck,” Hound whispered.

Then he came at us and he rounded us both in his arms.

Tight.

Jag pushed in and we became a huddle.

Beverly shuffled Tad over and we made room for them and it was Tad who was adopted into the Black/Ironside clan.

Through the wide chests of four men, Bev caught my eyes.

“I really need tequila,” she whispered.

“Probably the second most precious thing I’ve heard you say, sweetheart, after ‘yes’ when I asked you to marry me,” Tad joked.

I started laughing.

Jag started laughing with me.

Dutch joined in and then Bev and Tad did too.

Hound did not laugh.

He was looking at me telling me he loved me and he was proud of our boys.

I looked back at him telling him the same thing.

Then I broke out of our huddle to go get the tequila.

Weird

Keely

Through the mirror, as I was brushing my teeth the next morning, I watched Hound skirt my tub in the middle of the room on his way to me where I was at the sink.

It was the first day we’d woken up in my house where we didn’t wake up and then fuck, if not immediately, almost immediately.

This was because both my boys found reasons after the drama to spend the night.

Hound had no problem with this and I knew it wasn’t because he thought that they didn’t think Hound had this, taking care of me after a big, emotional drama.

It was habit, my boys taking care of me.

And Hound was totally down with that.

“Christ, woman, I got no fuckin’ clue how you don’t get a headache standin’ in this room for more than two minutes,” he muttered, reaching in front of me to get his toothbrush.

I grinned in the mirror and kept brushing.

“You got more shit on the walls in this one room than I got in my entire house,” he gave me crap.

I spit, rinsed, and with water dripping down my chin, I replied, “It’s awesome,” before I grabbed a towel and wiped my face.

“The floor alone makes Willy Wonka’s interior designer look sane,” he returned.

I tossed the towel by the sink and started giggling.

As I did this I noticed that Hound looked slightly amused but mostly intent.

So I quit doing it, leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his bare waist (Hound was not one for clothes if he could get away with being naked, and in my bathroom first thing in the morning, or any time he felt like it, he totally could do that).

“I’m okay,” I shared.

It felt like he was examining me before he found what he was looking for and said, “I’m not. I think I pulled somethin’, not landin’ a fist in Black’s dad’s face.”

I pressed my lips together.

“And his sister’s,” he went on.

I pressed them together harder.

“And your sister’s,” he kept going.

“They’re gone,” I reminded him.

“They’re a bunch of motherfucking twats. They were that years ago. They haven’t changed a stitch. I know the boys talk to them but they never shared if that got tight or not. Seemed not last night. But, babe, they gonna feel this?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know but I don’t think so.” I gave his waist a squeeze as well as a shake. “What I do think is that this was gonna happen. I should have thought about it and prepared them for it once they started up officially with Chaos. But they’ve been so far out of my life for so long, I didn’t give them that first thought.”

“We’ll keep an eye,” he muttered then said in his normal voice, “You gonna keep your tits pressed to me while I brush my teeth or what?”

“Would you have a complaint if I said I was?” I asked.

“No, but I’d tell you to lose the robe so I could get the full benefit of that if you do,” he retorted.

I started giggling again.

He bent and gave me a kiss that included a thrust of the tongue.

Call me crazy, but after beer and tequila and a night’s sleep, Hound still tasted awesome in the morning.

When he was done, I tipped my head to the side and asked, “Did you know Boz has a giganto dick?”

Hound immediately went from looking morning-just-tasted-my-woman content to looking sick.

He also did not answer.

So I kept talking.

“Apparently, Tad is well endowed too. It’s just that Boz is seriously well endowed so Bev didn’t have the right measuring stick for comparison, as it were.”

“Do we need to talk about this?” Hound asked.

“It’s not like you’re not lookin’ good down there too, baby,” I assured him. “Though you’re a winner in terms of formation and girth.”

“Seriously,” he growled, “can we stop talking about this?”

And again, I was giggling, but through it I said, “Sure.”