Mace (Untamed Sons MC: Birmingham Chapter #1)

26. Maylie

TWENTY-SIX

MAYLIE

For two weeks, I exist in a state of bliss. Mace stays over almost every night, and we have pretty much nonstop sex. I don’t know how I went so many years without it, because now, I can’t even last a full six hours.

My brother and sister are flourishing too. Mace has taken Toby under his wing, and the influence of a man in his life is transformative. He seems more confident and somehow taller. Riot also has been a good influence on him, and my brother is pushing harder at school, though he has developed an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Ivy’s pregnancy is progressing. Her bump seems to have popped since she hit the twenty-week mark, and despite all my fears and concerns about money, I can’t wait to meet my niece or nephew.

This morning, I wake alone. Mace is on a club run to one of their other chapters, and I miss him with a fierce ache. He’s due back later today, and I’m counting down the hours until he arrives .

I reach over the bed to the cold sheets where he usually lies and huff out a breath. I can’t wait to see him.

Forcing myself out of bed, I get ready for the day before starting breakfast. Toby has school today, and Ivy’s home studying for her final exams. Although there’s only a few weeks before the summer break, I’m so ready that I’m dragging. These early mornings after late nights at work are killing me.

I shove bread into the toaster, and while it’s doing its thing, I flick on the kettle. I would love to crawl back into bed. I never slept next to anyone until now, and it’s ruined me. I couldn’t stay asleep for more than a few hours without him next to me.

I’m like a lovesick puppy. It’s pathetic.

“The toast is burning.” I startle at Ivy’s voice as the smell hits my nose.

“Shit!” I rush to the toaster, popping it and grimacing at the charcoaled bread. “I’m sorry,” I mumble as Toby steps into the room and sits at the table with Ivy.

“That stinks,” he complains.

Ivy grabs for the milk on the table before he can. “You know, you could learn how to make your own breakfast so Maylie doesn’t have to wait on you like some kind of servant.”

He scoffs. “You’re not exactly stepping up to the plate.”

Her hand slides down to her stomach, her baby bump hidden beneath her sweater. “I’m growing a person.”

“You can’t use that as an excuse to get out of everything, Ivy.”

“Why not? What are you doing that’s so pressing?”

“You’ve never done shit to help.”

Normally, their bickering wouldn’t faze me, but this morning, it sets my teeth on edge. “Would you both give it a rest?”

They fall silent as I sag into the counter, my shoulders loose. Fuck, I’m officially tapped.

“You okay?” Ivy asks.

I force my back straight and turn to them with a painted-on smile. “I’m fine, but you two need to learn to get along. This constant bickering is annoying.”

“Sorry,” they both mumble.

I sink down into the chair and lean my elbows on the table so I can drop my head into my hands. “No, I’m sorry. I just… I miss him, and it’s pathetic, but I hate that he’s not here.”

Toby snorts. “You two are weirdly dependent on each other.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Ivy says, poking him in the ribs. “You both clearly love each other.”

The wistful tone in her voice has my head lifting out of my hands. “You think Mace loves me?”

Her brow arches as if I’m stupid. “Do you think he’s just hanging out here for shits and giggles?”

My pulse quickens as I mull this over.

“Believe me, he wouldn’t be here putting up with all our bullshit if he didn’t love you,” Toby says, wiggling his eyebrows. “Me and Ivy are annoying.” He throws my words back at me.

“You’re not annoying.”

“Yeah, we kind of are,” Ivy agrees with Toby for once. “Though Mace putting up with me and Toby is not how I know he loves you. It’s the way he looks at you, Maylie.”

“Maybe…”

“Do you love him?” my sister asks .

I don’t even need a second to consider my answer. “Of course.”

She smirks, but before she can say anything else, the sound of someone knocking on the door reverberates through the flat.

My stomach ices over. Mace wouldn’t knock, and he would tell me if one of his club friends was dropping in. I don’t want to scare my siblings, though, so I push up with a smile.

“Wait here,” I say to them, walking out into the hallway.

Fear churns my gut as I reach the peephole and roll to my toes to look through it.

It’s not Link on the other side… it’s fucking Bernie.

I consider not answering the door, but he’ll only come back, and if he does when Mace is here… well, I don’t want to test what might happen.

I slide back the chain and pull the door open. Bernie gives me that creepy, weird smile of his as his gaze drops to my lips and then my chest. I’m glad I pulled on one of Mace’s hoodies this morning. It drowns my body, hiding anything from dirty Bernie.

“I already settled the account,” I say before he can speak a word.

Mace staying over so much means some of the financial pinches I was feeling are less. He pays for groceries and towards the bills, though I know if he moved in, those would no longer be my responsibility. His help took enough pressure off my shoulders that I was able to settle my debt with Bernie.

Which means I have no idea what he’s doing here.

He stares at me like I’m a prize cut of meat. “Yes, I got your payment, Miss Fernsby. The problem is that several times now you’ve been behind, and since you weren’t willing to discuss alternative payment methods, I had to take matters into my own hands.” He dips his hand inside his coat, pulls out an envelope, and hands it to me.

“What is this?”

“It’s an eviction notice. You have four weeks to leave, or I’ll have the bailiffs toss you out on the street like the piece of trash you are.”

My heart sinks even as my anger flares.

“I’m not too trashy for you to try to bully me into sleeping with you, though, am I?”

His smile scares me, and I step back into the doorway, intending to close it, but his foot slides between the open gap, stopping me.

I glare at him, my nostrils flaring with rage. “If the only way you can get women to sleep with you is to threaten to make them homeless, then I feel sorry for you.”

That smile morphs into something far more dangerous, something I’ve seen many times working at Temptation. “You bitch?—”

He barely gets the words out before he’s dragged back from the door. My eyes widen as Riot shoves Bernie against the wall with enough force to press the air out of his chest.

My eyes flare wide. I’ve only ever seen the humorous side of this man, but there is no laughter in his expression now. Riot looks ready to murder Bernie. I swallow the lump in my throat as he slams a balled-up fist into Bernie’s side, making him cry out.

Oh… fuck .

I step back as his elbow presses against the back of Bernie’s neck, holding him in place.

“Call her a bitch again, I fuckin’ dare you.” The low growl in his tone is terrifying, and if it was directed at me, I would have curled into a ball.

My heart pounds behind my ribs, and for a moment, I feel a little sorry for Bernie. He is massively out of his depth. “I didn’t?—”

“I fuckin’ heard you.” His arm still pressed against Bernie, Riot glances in my direction. “You okay, sunshine?”

I nod, even though my body feels numb. “Yeah… I’m fine.”

That might be overstating things, but I’m breathing, unhurt, and untouched.

Riot pulls his arm off his nape and tears Bernie off the wall, shoving him away. My landlord stumbles, his face red as he glares at me. “Your guard dog doesn’t change anything.”

My stomach sinks. This is the last thing I need right now. I’ve only just got back on an even keel, and now, I’m facing the expense of moving. Shit.

Riot bares his teeth like the dog Bernie accuses him of being. “I will fuck you up,” he threatens. “You’re lucky it was me who saw this. My brother wouldn’t have been so fuckin’ polite.”

Bernie’s eyes widen before he shoots me a dark glare and slicks back his hair with one hand. “Four weeks, Miss Fernsby.”

He takes off like the devil is chasing his heels, and I sink back against the wall, my gaze lifting to the ceiling. Can I catch a break? Tears prick my eyes and my throat burns with the exertion of holding them back.

“Four weeks until what?” Riot asks.

My treacherous tears fall, and I let them careen down my cheeks before I swipe at them. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Maylie? Hey, come on, you ain’t alone anymore. My brother not make that clear? Tell me the problem.”

I’m not alone…

A problem shared and all that, and even if I keep my secret now, Riot will tell Mace, and I can’t keep this from him.

I thrust the letter in his direction, staring at the ceiling as the sound of paper rustling fills the silence of the corridor.

“What the… you ain’t moving out. Mace will sort it.”

My smile is wry. “Maybe it would be better to go somewhere else. Bernie is an animal.”

His eyes narrow on me as his arms fold over his chest. “Has he done something to you?”

Shit . “Apart from be obnoxious?” Riot’s expression tells me he doesn’t believe me.

“Maylie, if he’s done something, Mace’ll find it out. My brother is like a bloodhound when it comes to the people he loves.” He’s the second person today to tell me Mace loves me, and my pulse flutters of its own accord. “Talk to me.”

I rub at my neck, which suddenly feels constricted. This is the last of my secrets, though I thought Bernie was in the rearview mirror considering I’d paid him. I didn’t think I’d ever have to admit the disgusting proposition he made to me. “He?— ”

The front door opens, cutting off my words as my sister peers around the frame.

Her cheeks heat as she locks her gaze on Riot. My sister would never admit it, but she likes him, even though Riot treats her like a little sister.

“Are you okay?” She directs this at me. “We got worried when you didn’t come back. Hey, Riot.”

“Darlin’.”

I understand why my sister is hot for Riot when he says that, because it has the same effect on her as it does when Mace calls me endearments. My stomach sinks. This is not a good relationship for her to pursue, and not just because Riot is twenty-eight. He’s also a total whore. Every time he leaves the flat after sitting with my siblings, he doesn’t go home to bed—he goes to find a girl. Ivy’s still processing what happened between her and Link. She doesn’t need to rush into another situation that could potentially get her hurt, and I don’t mean physically. Riot would never hurt her that way, but he would inadvertently crush her heart.

“Are you staying?” I ask.

“I was just checkin’ in, but now, yeah, Maylie, I’m stayin’ until Mace is back.”

Ivy smiles at him. “I’ll make you a coffee.”

As soon as she heads inside, I swivel my gaze back to Riot, folding my arms over my chest. “She likes you.” It comes out more accusatory than I intend.

“What’s not to like?” It’s not delivered with the usual cockiness he has, which makes my eyes roll.

“No, Riot, she likes you.”

He snaps his gaze to me. “What? Shit, Maylie, you know I’d never. She’s only seventeen. I’m not like that fucker.”

His words offer me relief, though I feel a little kernel of sadness for my sister. Unrequited lust is never a good place to be in.

“I know, but you seem kind of oblivious about it, which is weird considering you’ve slept with most of the female population of Birmingham?—”

“Not most,” he interrupts.

“Enough of them.”

“Babe, I wasn’t even lookin’ for it because she’s young. Ain’t anything gonna happen between her and me. She’s a minor and she’s also pregnant. I ain’t lookin’ to be anyone’s stepdaddy.”

He shudders at the thought. “Okay. Thanks.”

That eases my fear more than anything because I don’t picture Riot with the family and picket fence life.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “You know I have to tell my brother about this shit, right?”

“Ivy?”

He snorts. “No. There’s nothin’ to tell there. I mean the eviction and that prick.”

My shoulders slump, but I would never expect Riot to lie to his brother. Mace would never forgive him if he did.

“I’ll tell him,” I promise. “I don’t want secrets between us.”

There’s approval in his eyes. “Good. Secrets tear people apart, Maylie.”

He’s right, and I should have told Mace about Bernie sooner, but I figured once I paid what I owed, he would just disappear. I should have known better. Nothing in my life is ever that simple .

Riot joins us for breakfast, careful with his words around my sister, and when we’ve finished eating, Toby heads to school while Ivy reluctantly goes to her bedroom to study for her exams.

While I work at the kitchen table, Riot plays on Toby’s console in the living room. Mace sends a couple messages, normal routine things, which tells me Riot hasn’t told him what happened with Bernie. I’m grateful for that because I need to be the one to tell him.

When Toby gets home, Riot orders pizza, and we all settle down to watch a movie.

I’m just drifting off when I hear keys in the lock. It jolts me fully awake, and I try to contain my excitement, but when he appears in the doorframe looking hotter than hell, I forget my resolve.

I shove up from the sofa and rush him, throwing my arms around his neck as I kiss him like he’s the breath in my lungs. Fuck, I missed him so much. He smells of outside and his aftershave, and the familiarity of him washes through me.

“If I knew I was gonna get this kind of welcome, I’d go away more often.” He tightens his hold on me as I shake my head.

“I missed you,” I admit.

“I missed you too,” he says, kissing me with a quiet desperation that tells me he’s not lying.

If we were alone, I’d already be shoving his shirt off, but I’m hyperaware of the eyes boring into my back. It takes all my strength to pull away, and I don’t miss the heat behind his exhaustion.

“There’s pizza left in the kitchen if you’re hungry,” Riot says .

He’s positioned himself at the end of the couch, Toby on his other side, and I’m sure that was a strategic decision considering our earlier conversation. My sister isn’t the most subtle and keeps shooting him covert looks when she thinks he’s distracted.

“Thanks.”

Mace takes my hand, leading me into the kitchen, but he doesn’t go to the pizza box. Instead, he presses me against the wall, one hand resting on my hip, the other on the back of my neck. Surrounded by him like this, my body feels alive and alert, every part of me craving him like a drug.

I cling to his kutte, the leather soft beneath my fingers. “I need you.”

“You have me,” he says, his eyes soft as he takes me in. His hand slips between us, rubbing me through my clothes. Instantly, wetness floods my pussy. “I’ve missed this sweet cunt,” he says, pulling a full body shiver from me.

I let out a wanton groan before I manage to find my senses. I can’t let him touch me like this without giving him the truth. I don’t want him to feel like I’ve used him or hidden things, even though I have.

It takes monumental effort to refuse what he’s offering, but I grip his wrist, stopping his motion. “I need to talk to you,” I say, and his hand stills.

Concern flickers across his face as he scans me, as if searching for a gaping wound. “Is everything okay? Nate never mentioned anything?—”

“I asked him not to say anything because I wanted to talk to you myself.”

His brows come together in consternation, and my mouth is suddenly dry as he leans into my space. The wall at my back is as unmovable as him. “About what?”

“About my landlord.” This is not going to go well, so I brace as I deliver the news. “I got behind on my payments. That’s why I wanted to dance.”

“Maylie,” he growls my name, his jaw clenching, “what the fuck?”

“I know, I know. This was before we were together. Anyway, I owed quite a lot, and he was understandably pissed. He came to the flat to talk about a… payment plan.”

His hand braces against the wall next to my head as he dips his chin towards me. “How much do you need?”

The fact he offers straight away makes warmth spread through my chest. No questions asked, just what do I need. This man is something else. He also doesn’t realise what I mean by a payment plan.

“I don’t need money. I settled the bill already, and that’s not why I’m telling you this. There are a few reasons, but I don’t want there to be lies between us or half-truths. I thought Bernie was out of the picture, but now, he’s punishing me for refusing to play his games.”

“What games?”

I lick my lips, but there is zero moisture in my mouth right now. “Well, when he first came here, I didn’t have the money to pay him. I gave him what I had, but I was still short, so he suggested I could pay him with a different kind of currency.” I wince even as I say it. It sounds so ridiculous.

“What kind of currency?” The granite tone to his voice is matched by rage lashing in his eyes. He already knows the answer, but he wants to hear it from my mouth .

I tighten my fingers in his kutte, scared if I let him go, he might decide to do something rash. His fury is a palpable thing.

“I need you to stay calm, okay?”

“Ain’t promising that.”

“Right.” Fuck, just rip the plaster off. “He suggested if I slept with him, my debt would be cleared. I said no, obviously. He’s gross and sleazy. I paid him everything, but he showed up this morning with an eviction notice.”

His jaw tightens and begins to tick, and I thought he was furious before, but the darkening clouds in his eyes are terrifying.

“Mace,” I whisper when he says nothing, “are you okay?”

The air is thick and charged as cold fingers brush along my spine. “He wanted to sleep with you to pay off your rent arrears?” Each word is colder than the last.

“He’s a dirty, gross man, but it’s done, and it doesn’t matter anymore since he’s punishing me for refusing. Not that I feel comfortable living here anyway. Maybe it’s just the push I needed to finally look for somewhere else to live.”

Mace leans into me, his face a mask of rage. “He wanted to fuck you? That fuckin’ guy wanted to fuck my woman?” He grinds his molars together, his nostrils flaring. “I want every scrap of information you have on that fucking prick.”

Oh, shit . That response is not entirely unexpected, but I also don’t want Mace to go to jail for killing Bernie. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Your brother smacked him, and he left.”

That seems to help some of his anger, but not all of it. “You’re right. I don’t want you living here. There’s too much shit attached to this place. My apartment is too small, it’s only two bedrooms, but the club has a tonne of property in the city. What do you think we’ll need? Three or four beds? I know the baby will sleep in Ivy’s room for a while, but… what?”

I’m pretty sure he asks that because I’m staring at him with such a goofy, lovesick look on my face. He wants to move into our own place. Together. The thought of Mace coming home to me every night, of his clothes in our room, his boots by our door, is dizzying.

“You want us to live together?”

“Do I want to stop living out of bags and wake up every morning with my cock inside your cunt and my arms around you? Babe, you’re mine, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re already living together. I just never said anything because I didn’t want to freak you out.”

“I’m not freaked.” I wrap my arms around him, hugging him so tight. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For taking care of us.”

He lifts my chin, his gaze locking to mine. “I’ll always take care of you, Maylie. Always.”