“Just a quick taste…” I promised in between licking and sucking her nipples. “Fuck, you taste so good.”

“Scott…” she moaned my name as she climbed into my hold again.

She needs me as much as I need her.

I didn’t wait until I had a firm hold of her – I couldn’t. Instead, I thrust inside, my eyes rolling shut as I groaned at how fucking good her pussy felt pulsing around my dick.

She clung to me as I fucked her.

Finally.

I’d been thinking about this moment all day, and while I knew once tonight wouldn’t even begin to satisfy my need for her, this was a damn good start.

We chased our release as hard and as fast as we could, and it didn’t take long. Pleasure exploded through my body as we came together. It touched every part of me, both physical and mental.

This part of sex with Harlow was what I had been missing all my life. I’d had a lot of sex before finding her, and none of it had ever come close to touching me in the way it did with Harlow.

Harlow joined all the pieces of my soul together.

She made me whole.

21

Harlow

All my life I dreamt of the day I would walk down the aisle and tell the man I loved that I would spend the rest of my life with him. I was a romantic from way back. But I never imagined it would be like this. Never did I imagine the love I found would be what Scott and I had.

Magic.

That’s the only word I could use to describe it that would do our love justice.

The day of our wedding had arrived and I was in full preparation mode. Roxie had done my hair, and Velvet had made my face look more beautiful than I’d ever seen it.

Cassie smiled at me. She was my only bridesmaid and looked beautiful with her long hair up and her face also done beautifully. We’d chosen a long, strapless, red dress for her and the colour was perfect against her tanned skin. “Babe, we got ready in record time. Scott would be impressed that you’re ready early.”

My mum laughed as she joined us. Roxie and Velvet had just worked their magic on her, too. She took hold of my hand and squeezed it. “You look beautiful, Harlow.”

Catching sight of myself in the full-length mirror, I had to agree with her – I felt beautiful. With Madison and Cassie’s help, I’d chosen a strapless organza gown with a fitted bodice of ruches and a cascading skirt of ruffles that flowed to the ground. Silver glittered in the narrow band of embroidery at the waist. While the dress was beautifully elegant, I’d still managed to add my country style to the outfit with my turquoise boots. We’d left my hair down in soft curls and Roxie had swept the front part of it back and secured it with my mother’s silver clip that she’d worn at her wedding.

Madison swept into the room, her hands full with things I couldn’t quite make out. Smiling as she came to me, she said, “So, you’ve got the something old, but you still need new, borrowed and blue.”

Touching my necklace, I curled my finger along the chain. “Scott gave me this the other day, so it’s my new.”

Madison narrowed her eyes on the necklace. “Oh my goodness, that is beautiful.” She looked back up at my face. “My brother has surprised the hell out of me this week. Who knew he could be so deep?”

Scott had the necklace designed with a swirly S and H that were connected in the middle with a lightning strike. My heart beat with happiness just thinking about the thought he’d put into it. “I didn’t know the symbolism of lightning until he told me. Apparently the Celts believe that wherever lightning strikes, it is a spot of the sacred and holy, and signifies a connection with infinite power. The Chinese associate lightning with fertility – it’s a blessing that leads to nourishing rains and new life.”

“I knew that man was good from the moment I met him when he brought me a fridge,” Mum said softly, her eyes misting with tears. “It’s because of him that I know I can go away and leave you in good hands.”

Madison’s eyes had brimmed over with tears, too. “Shit, now he’s making me cry and it’s going to ruin my makeup.”

Velvet handed tissues out. “I’ll be having words with that man for making you all cry and wrecking my makeup job.”

Laughing, I said, “I feel like I should be the one crying, and yet, I’m the only one here without tears in my eyes.” I glanced at Roxie and winked. “Well, besides our resident non-crying, practical ballbreaker over here.”

She raised her brows back at me. “What can I say…me and romance have a long, hard relationship, and it takes a lot to crack through my heart.”

“Wait!” exclaimed Madison. “Did you say you’re going away?” she asked Mum.

“Yes, after the fire at the café, I’ve decided to travel for a few months. I’ve wanted to visit Italy for as long as I can remember, and I’m not getting any younger, so now’s as good a time as any. And with Harlow wanting to pursue her art, and our lease on the café almost up, it feels like the universe is speaking to me and telling me to go.” Her eyes lit up as she added, “I leave at the end of next week. But I’ll be back in time for the birth of my grandchild.”

“You better be!” I said, not being able to imagine getting through that without her.

“So, tell me, how are you getting to the church?” Roxie asked as she packed up her stuff.

“Oh, she’s not getting married in a church,” Madison said with a sly smile.

At Roxie’s enquiring look, I said, “I don’t know where I’m getting married. Scott kept that from me, but I do know that King is driving me there. He’ll be here soon to pick me and Cassie up.”

“King?” Velvet asked, clearly confused.

“Yeah, Scott asked him to stay for the wedding. They’ve got this whole bonding thing happening after King saved my life. I mean, it’s not like the bonding thing that girls experience, but I think it’s safe to say that for the rest of his life, if King asks Scott for help, it will be given, no questions asked. And I think that asking King to be involved in the wedding was Scott’s way of expressing what King’s actions meant to him.” I paused for a moment before adding, “Or I could be reading far too much into male thinking and none of that is true. Really, who knows what our men are thinking…”

Madison agreed with me. “Too true, but like I said, Scott has blown me away this week while we’ve been arranging this wedding. I’ve seen a side to him that I’ve never seen.”

“You and Scott organised the wedding?” Roxie said.

“He did most of it and just asked for my help on a few things,” Madison replied. “I think Wilder did a lot of running around for him, getting stuff for the reception sorted out.”

“King’s here,” Velvet announced, peering through the curtains in my lounge room.

Butterflies fluttered in my tummy. Not nervous butterflies, though. These were of the excited kind – the butterflies you felt when you couldn’t wait for something to happen.

A few moments later, King’s boots sounded on the front steps and then he knocked on the door. Cassie opened it and greeted him, and I didn’t miss the way his eyes lazily checked out her body. “Well, hello there,” he murmured.

Cassie shook her head. “You bikers just don’t give a fuck about subtlety, do you?”

He grinned and it had to be said, King had sexy covered. It wasn’t just the muscles he barely hid underneath jeans and a fitted black tee that screamed ‘hot biker dude’ that qualified him as sexy in my mind, it was more about the ease and confidence with which he moved, and the attitude he projected that even if shit was going down, he had it covered. And the effortless way he moved between the different emotions he felt – nothing seemed too hard for King. “Subtlety doesn’t warm a bed at night,” he said as he entered the house.