Dec's Downfall: (A Brothers of Devil's Comfort Book 5) (Brothers of Devil's Comfort MC) (19 page)

“The only issue I have Ivy, is that I’m going to miss you working here. No matter how hard I try to convince Ellie, she insists on working for that bastard Adam.”

“Hey, I’m sure it’ll be slow to start off at the store and I could do a couple of hours invoicing for you.”

Fudge shook his head as he tried to hide his smile behind his coffee mug.

“You’ll be finding yourself busy enough Ivy… What time are you leaving for your folks?”

“As soon as I finish here.”

“It’s a shame you decided to pick this weekend to go home. With the barbeque and all happening.”

“Fudge, I doubt you’ll see much of me after today or at the club.”

Fudge raised his large body off the couch and laid a kiss on my forehead before returning to the workshop. As he left, I think I heard him mutter something about Dec, but was uncertain.

With a shake of my hands, I transferred the last invoice on the system, and then stretched my body before removing my lunch from the office’s fridge. As I was playing with the bread, a body flopped into the chair next to mine.

“If you’re not going to eat that, I will.”

“Baby Blu.”

“Do you know how miserable Dec is?”

“He’s a big boy and I’m sure he can look after himself.”

“Err, he may be able to look after himself, but he’s not and everyone is giving him a wide berth at the club.”

“Did you come to talk about Dec?”

“Nope, I came to offer you a job.”

“I have one thanks.”

Baby Blu rolled her eyes as she began to talk. What she wanted was to smarten up the club, especially a couple of the private rooms.

“Damn it Ivy, I don’t know when Inferno’s room last saw a coat of paint.”

“Did you run this by Inferno?”

I wasn’t sure if I was willing to take this job on. Dec would be round the club during the day and if I had to watch him with the club whores, I would end up killing one of us.

“Yep, and he agreed.”

The sparkle in Baby Blu’s eyes has me hesitating to ask what she had to do to obtain his agreement. Shit, there went my only valid excuse for turning the job down. Besides, I need the money and it was a start.

“I’ll think about it.”

“There’s no rush, but you start Monday and I expect you at the club at eight-thirty.”

Then she left, just as quickly as she had arrived.

When Ellie walked into the garage just as I was about to leave, I began to suspect some kind of intervention.

“Fudge left about a half hour ago.”

“I know he sent me a text.”

Yep, this was a flipping intervention.

“Is Dec getting the same treatment?”

Ellie’s blond eyebrow rose as she laughed and sat on the sofa, which Fudge had vacated earlier in the day.

“Dec’s our friend Ivy and we’d hate for him to lose something this good for him.”

“He didn’t lose it Ellie. He threw it away by being an asshole.”

“He’s a romantic asshole. I’m still waiting for Nick to serenade me after one of his sulks”

The night I had walked out on Dec, I had deleted his video off my phone, only to go onto the social media and download it again, and play it several times over.

“He was sweet that night.”

“Tell him Ivy. It’s easy. All you have to do is talk.”

“Maybe when I return from my folks.”

DCMC

The weekend at my parents was just what I needed. All the family descended again and we caught up. When I informed them about my plans for the shop, they promised to put feelers and leads out for me. When it came time to leave, my mind was made up. Mama and I talked for a long time about relationships. During our talks, mama revealed how she nearly jilted Papa at the altar. That she had sat in the wedding car for nearly an hour, and every so often Papa would come to the door to see what was happening and Grandpa had spoken to him. Eventually Papa came over to the car and eased her fears. With a smile, Mama placed her hand on mine.

“I love you Ivy and it appears you’ve finally found your place in this world. Now go and work at it.”

By the time I arrive back in Comfort Springs, it is late afternoon and the barbeque at Devil’s Comfort would be well underway. Tonight was not the night for talking. When I pull up in front of the Tattoo Studio, there was a Harley and its rider, patiently waiting as pale green eyes watch me walk over to him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was told you wanted to talk.”

“It could have waited.”

“It’s waited nearly a week. We’ve no more time to lose.”

“How did you know I was back in Comfort Springs?”

“I rang your parents.”

Mystery solved. The next time I speak to my parents, I was going to let them know they have to stop interfering in my life.

Dec hasn’t touched me, or reached out towards me as I walked up to the gangway, which led to the apartment. Yet my body is tingling in the knowledge he was close behind me. That I could feel his breath in my hair. When we finally reach the apartment, Dec removed the key from my hand and held the door open.

“Ivy before I come in. There’s something you have to know.”

My heart is beating rapidly and the backpack, which I was carrying, was thrown onto the sofa as I turned to Dec and waited.

“That night I was crass. I have excuse after excuse for my behavior, but there isn’t one… When you said Unicorn, my heart stopped beating as I realized what I was letting go.”

“Dec.”

“Ivy I love you.”

Chapter 31

“I love you. Is that all you have to say.”

Ivy flung my declaration of love back at me, and it hurt. Attempting to hide my recoil from her words, I remained by the door, hesitant to go in.

“Did it escape your attention that I called unicorn Dec.”

Escape, every day we’ve been apart, the word is constantly vibrating in my mind. Each time an image of Ivy came up, it was closely followed by the image of a unicorn standing between us. And considering Ivy wasn’t a virgin that shouldn’t have been happening. Also, apparently Ivy isn’t going to invite me in. Well, I wasn’t having this conversation in the hallway, and I came into the room, firmly but quietly closing the door behind me.

“Rules are flexible Ivy. Besides using your safe word to end our relationship was a little cowardly. Don’t you think?”

Ivy’s foot was tapping and I couldn’t remove my gaze from the way her foot bounced against the wooden floor. A smile spread across my face, my witch was thawing, and I stepped closer to her. Damn, it’s been nearly a week since I last spoke to her. The glimpses I have caught of her round Comfort Spring have just been that. At this precise moment, I was drinking in the image of Ivy. Quietly I prayed for my drought to be over.

“Stay where you are Dec.”

Yep, Baby Girl wasn’t unaffected, and the smothering blanket around my heart eased a little, giving me air to breathe.

“Ivy I gave up on love a long time ago. Damn it, I wasn’t a good husband to Lydia.”

“I don’t remember asking for your hand in marriage Dec. All I said was I love you and you turned into a boar.”

“Okay, so it wasn’t my finest hour.”

“You were lousy Dec. I was still cocooned in my euphoria and you threw a bucket. No a tub of cold water over me.”

I was closer to Ivy now, and had reached out for her hand. Yet instead of letting me take hold of it, she slapped my hand away.

“No Dec. You think you can come in here and sweet talk me. It’s not that easy.”

“I’ve told you I love you. Tell me what else you want Ivy?”

Ivy moved from the arm of the sofa to stand by the window. Her profile was turned away from me as she gazed into the street below. It was still early evening and the sun was lowering.

“For you to stop doing things for me. Stop running my life.”

“Running your life. How”

“The decorating job at the club.”

“That’s all Baby Blu. I’ve had to listen to Inferno complain about the loss of his only refuge all week.”

Ivy gradually turned from the window, her gaze finally coming to rest on me.

“Yes, really… If I can help you, I will. We’re in this together.”

Ivy came to sit next to me on the sofa, and although her body is turned away from me, she was close enough that I could smell her.

“Am I forgiven?”

“I still called unicorn Dec.”

“Did you mean it, or did you say it in anger Ivy.”

Ivy chewed on her lip as she studied the back of her hands. Finally, she looked at me. Her brown luminous eyes, swallowing me.

“Anger. Damn it Dec I was angry with you and I meant it at the time. Why have you waited until now to talk to me?”

How do I tell Ivy it was because I had lost control of the situation? That the words had just come tumbling out of my mouth, and they refused to stop pouring out. That once the avalanche had started there had been no way of stopping them, until they had run its course and done the damage. Then for a week I was buried underneath the words and one word stood out. Luminous and terrifying and I had to obey it. Unicorn.

“Ma.”

“Mary.”

Finally, I gave into the temptation and took a strand of Ivy’s red locks and played with the ends. The silky tresses, soothing to my bruised ego.

“Yeah, Ma. She reminded me how life is short. That it didn’t matter if we spend fifty or sixty years with the person we loved. It still wasn’t long enough.”

Ivy smiled up at me.

“Ma was right, I had Pa for forty years, and I miss him Ivy. I’ve had you for far lesser a time and the way I missed you tore into my gut.”

Silence descended into the room as Ivy took hold of my hand; her finger’s following the lifeline on my palm.

“I was coming back Dec. I spent the weekend talking to my folks.”

Ivy stopped talking as she looked up at me. Her smile, giving her face aglow.

“Will we ever be as wise as our parents Dec.”

“Ivy when it comes to parents. You and I were lucky… Why were you coming back Ivy?”

“Not because my parents became sentimental. Papa told me to stop floundering in self-pity. That I was a Reynolds and we fought for what we wanted.”

“And were you going to fight for me Ivy?”

Ivy shook her head, her hand gripping mine tightly.

“I was going to fight for us. You’re a boar Dec. But you’re my boar and none of the skanks at the club are having a piece of my man.”

With a chuckle at the vehemence in Ivy’s voice, I lift her chin so that our eyes met.

“Ivy from the day I rode to Las Vegas to collect what was mine. There has never been anyone else. The skanks are behind me.”

Tenderly I bent and placed a kiss on Ivy’s lips.

“Why would I want any of them when you are perfect for me?”

What I told Ivy was the truth. By the time I was on route to Las Vegas, I was laying claim to what is mine. What I can never tell Ivy. Is that on the day she called unicorn, I had willingly killed the man who had run her off the road.

There had been no intent. All I had wanted to do was punish the bastard for hurting what was mine. Yet, as the grief for my father poured out and with the loss of my woman. Each punch I had delivered had become lethal. Slowly the image of Pa had changed to that of Ivy’s. Somewhere out in the swamps of the bayou was a body decaying. He may be someone’s kin, but he had dared to hurt the only woman I truly loved.

The feud between The Hybrid Reapers was only just starting. Clipper had grief with his former club, The River Demons. He also had problems with the Scarlet Runners and with Ant, which made it a Devil’s Comfort problem. Yet the man who hurt Ivy can no longer inflict pain on anyone.

Leaning against the back of the sofa, I pull Ivy’s body into mine and kiss her hard on the lips. Ivy’s arms wrap round my neck as she straddles my body, the v of her junction, rubbing against my crotch. The kiss turned sweet as Ivy thrust her tongue into my mouth. Not wanting to hold back any longer, I swiftly pulled Ivy’s top off. With ease, I slid down her body until my mouth found the hard nub of tit, and I lathered the flesh with my tongue, whilst playing with the other bud with my fingers.

As Ivy’s moans became louder, I undid the zipper on her jeans and pushed the material away from her hips. My fingers slid in between the wet flesh and I rubbed the hard swollen nub, pressing against it when Ivy’s moans become louder. Eager to be in her wet pussy, I spun us around until Ivy was lying on her back, and I had shucked myself out of my own denims. Then I slid home, thrusting into Ivy. As I slide in deep, Ivy’s legs hooked into my back, pulling me in closer. Several thrusts later and my sperm tumbled into Ivy’s womb. The feel of her bare muscles convulsing around my hard throbbing bare cock has me groaning aloud. When I search for Ivy’s mouth to kiss her, her own body shook with its orgasm. While we were still joined, my body inside hers’, Ivy raised her hand and swiped the damp hair from my face. Her face was just as damp and flushed.