Prologue
Then
DELPHI
I squealas he catches me and swings me around before peppering me with kisses. I turn in his embrace, laughing, his grin making me roll my eyes.
God, it’s been so long since we laughed like this, but finally, it feels like we might be turning a corner.
“You cheated. You said you’d give me a head start.”
“Turns out it’s impossible to resist this ass.” He reaches down and squeezes it before he dips his head and kisses me again. After being married for six years, you’d think the passion would have ebbed as it does in most marriages, but I still wanted Lee as much now as the day I met him. And it wasn’t one-sided. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t make me feel like I was the most important person in his life. He showed me in a million different ways, and while my girlfriends went through boyfriends faster than they did iced coffee, Lee was my one constant. Well, him and the Raven Souls MC. When I first started dating Lee, he’d been a prospect. Four months later, he earned his cut and slipped a ring on my finger, pulling me into the fold right along with him.
I had no idea what MC life would be like. It wasn’t something that was on my radar in high school—not until Lee collided with me in the parking lot of a gas station, soaking my T-shirt with my cherry Slurpee. I’m not sure which was redder—my T-shirt or my face—but one look into Lee’s eyes and I was a goner. It didn’t matter what anyone said, and god knows every man and his dog had an opinion about us. I was too young, he was too rough around the edges, and I was throwing my life away on a happily ever after that didn’t exist. Everyone knew better than me, but they didn’t feel what I did.
We dated for a year, and on the anniversary of our one-year relationship, two weeks after I turned eighteen, we got married at the courthouse. I wore a simple white sundress, Lee wore his jeans and Raven Souls cut. It wasn’t the wedding most women wish for, but to me it was perfect. I didn’t care about all the pomp and circumstance, the expensive dress and three-tiered cake. I cared about the man who held my hair back when I puked, who wrote me poems when he could find the right words to say what he meant, and who protected me from anything and anyone who might want to hurt me.
“Why don’t you go take a bath before we go, and I’ll get you a glass of wine?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really thinking of drinking tonight,” I tell him softly.
“Just one to steady your nerves.”
“You know me too well.”
He winks at me. “Go soak. I’ll be up in a minute.”
“Yes, sir.” I salute, squealing when he pretends to chase me once more.
I head up and run the bath, sitting on the edge of the tub as it fills, trying to ignore the pang of guilt that always follows my laughter. I’m not sure I’m entitled to be happy anymore, not after everything.
With a sigh, I strip off and climb in, letting the warm water soothe away my worries for now.
“Here you go.”
I turn and smile when Lee walks in, taking the glass from him before he kneels next to me.
“Drink up, and I’ll wash your back.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” I gulp the wine before putting the glass down and handing him a sponge. “Hop to it, kind sir.”
“So demanding,” he teases. He washes my back without complaint before helping me out and drying me off.
As I tug my underwear, my stomach cramps and a wave of nausea hits me hard. I rush to the bathroom just in time to throw up.
“Shit, Del, you okay?”
I don’t answer because I can’t stop retching. I only stop when I have nothing left inside me to throw up, but I know it won’t be the last of it.
“I feel like shit.”
“No offense, you look like shit, too. Come on, let’s get you into bed. Hopefully you can sleep it off.”
“But the clubhouse.”
“Will still be there tomorrow.”
I sigh and give in, already feeling my stomach pitch again. “Okay.”
