Caution to the Wind (The Fallen Men, #7)

by Giana Darling

She was a dragon, fierce and beautiful, and I wanted every fuckin’ inch of her, even her sharp teeth and hooked claws.

“You take my cock so fuckin’ well,” I praised her, watchin’ as the words made her shiver and drove her higher. “Always knew you were made to fight, but God, were you made to fuck, too.”

“Come all over my cock,” I told her. “Let me watch you break apart around me. So fuckin’ pretty when you come hard on my dick, Rocky.”

“I’d be yours forever, if you asked. Even if you never do, I already am.”

“Last time we tried to corner these fuckers, they took three years of my life and a finger from me. Won’t let them have you, ya hear?”

I could handle myself. It didn’t mean I was immune to his concern. In fact, it felt like a direct hit of sunshine to know he was near beside himself with worry.

I held my finger to my mouth as I stood to my full height behind him, bettin’ she wouldn’t breathe a word, and then I snapped his neck. I helped him to the floor so he didn’t make a noise. “Thank you,” the girl, not more than fifteen at most, whispered to me.

The chaos had stilled around us, and I looked up suddenly, searchin’ for Mei amid the carnage. When I found her, I let out a bark of shocked laughter. She was sittin’ on the table the triad members had been meetin’ at, sippin’ from a glass of leftover sake with two dead bodies on either side of her, both their necks obviously broken.

“A little messy,” she noted dryly, takin’ in my blood-splattered body and drippin’ axe with a small smile. “But now I know why they call you Axe-Man.”

I laughed again, shocked to find myself enjoyin’ a moment with Rocky in the aftermath of battle even though I shouldn’t’ve been....

I caught sight of Priest up noddin’ at her in respect as he cleaned his wicked knife on his tee and fought the inapp...

“Axe-Man,” I said on a shiver. “Don’t tease me right now.” “Call me Henning,” he demanded. “And I’m gonna fuckin’ devour you, Rocky. Don’t worry.”

“Better than I deserve,” he whispered back, smoothing a big hand down my hair as he turned off the shower and hauled me out into the bathroom with a grunt. “But I’ve never been afraid of hard work, and I’ll work to deserve you.”

“I know you got a low opinion of yourself,” he told me when he was done drying me and tossed the towel into the other sink so he could cup my face in his rough hands. “But your brain goes there, you gotta remember that there’s never been a moment, even when I thought I hated you, that I didn’t admire your spirit. You’re the most loyal, lovin’, and sacrificin’ person I know, and your beauty and worth have got everythin’ to do with that and nothin’ to do with your exquisite fuckin’ face. But that doesn’t hurt either.”

She was inside me now. Lodged under my rib cage, beatin’ like a second heart. Or maybe, she’d always been there, hidin’ in the dark recesses of my chest, waitin’ for me to recognize her for what she was and give her the light she needed to thrive within me.

This madness had lain dormant inside me for years, not ’cause I hadn’t met the person I was born to love but ’cause I had, and we just hadn’t been ready to go there. So, for eight years I’d been in this holdin’ pattern, livin’ but not for myself, goin’ through the motions. And it was only when Mei arrived back on my doorstep that I woke up again.

After all the battles I’d fought in my life, it should’ve occurred to me fate would give me a fighter to stand at my side and have my back. Someone as fierce as she was lovely.

“Glory of the father,” I muttered the definition of Cleo’s name and the reason I’d always called her Glory. “Always, sweetheart. You and me against the fuckin’ world.” “You and me and Mei,” she corrected and when I blinked, caught out ’cause there was somethin’ in her voice I hadn’t been expectin’.

She laughed. “Right?” “Right,” I drawled, takin’ a sip of joe to collect my thoughts. “Fuck it, you know, then?” She laughed again and it was bright and loud and long. I wondered if it would wake Mei up and decided even if it did, there could be no better alarm.

Cleo laughing like this is making me so emotional 😭

“Dad, you think after watching some of the most epic romances in history play out in front of my eyes the last five years, I don’t recognize soul mates when I see them? Whether you want to admit it or not, I’ve been quietly rooting for you and Mei since I was seventeen.”

“There was a lot to hide behind. She was your daughter’s best friend, seventeen years old, from the right side of the tracks when we were decidedly from the wrong side even if Mei liked slumming with us there. It wasn’t the right time.” She peered at me from under curly lashes. “Is the time right now?”

“We’ve always been a family. And I’ve been through too much to ever be, I don’t know, jealous about the way you love each other. You and Mei have the biggest hearts I know; there’s room enough for all types of people and all types of love between us.”

I wrapped her up in a big hug, pressed my nose into her fragrant hair, and just let myself feel awe and gratitude and sweet as fuck relief that she was still here with me. That The Prophet hadn’t succeeded in robbin’ me or the world of Cleo’s loveliness and magic.

“What happens when a dragon fights a tiger?” she asked, paraphrasin’ a Cantonese sayin’. “A freaking stalemate. Just, don’t fuck around here, Dad. For all our sakes. You guys deserve to be happy, and you both have a bad habit of forgetting that.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” she decreed, shockin’ the hell outta me by swearin’. “He’s nothing but the man who contributed half of my DNA. My real dad is and always will be you. The man who quit his dream job to take care of me. Who went to jail to keep my best friend safe and free. Who created a home for mum and me for the first time in our lives. How can you ever think I’d care to meet a man who didn’t protect us when the dad I ended up with has proven again and again he’d give his life for me? No,” she bit out. “No fucking way do I want to meet this guy.”

Draggin’ a hand through my hair, I tried to find the simple words to ask a complicated girl on our first date after years of shared history. “Come here, Rocky,” I started.

“Came down to tell Glory this mornin’, but she beat me to the punch,” I admitted. “Seems my daughter is smarter than both of us ’cause she knew this was inevitable.” Mei looked at her best friend, who smiled so widely it brightened the whole fuckin’ room. “Told ya so,” she said, cheeky and proud.

I hadn’t allowed myself to think much about revealin’ our relationship to Cleo until I’d decided to do it this mornin’, but thinkin’ on it now, it was obvious Cleo’d only ever be happy for us. The kinda friendship those girls shared was somethin’ sacred, without jealousy or bitterness or regret to bog it down. And my girl loved me as much as I loved her. We wanted the moon and the stars and the sky for each other. She’d even realized before me that I had that already in Mei.

“Come here, Rocky,” I repeated from where I leaned against the counter, openin’ my arms for her. The smile that slowly broke open her face was like seein’ the sun after years of darkness. She came to me then, a skippin’ graceful lope that gained speed until she was crashin’ into me. I closed my arms around her and imprinted her shape into my body, bendin’ my head to kiss her hair.

Lila rolled her eyes. “C’mon, babe. Nova told me what Axe-Man inked onto you without your permission. You still want to tell me it’s casual?” “Oh! What did he do?” Tayline leaned forward with huge brown eyes.

I stole a glance at Cleo who sighed heavily, even though her eyes sparkled. “You better tell us, Rocky, before Tay tackles you and searches you herself.”

I stood up, pulling the silky fabric of my dress up over my ass cheek, exposed by my underwear. The words were a rich black in thick gothic s...

“Jesus,” Maja, Buck’s Old Lady, gasped, waving a hand to cool herself. “I think ...

“You okay he marked you like that?” Cressida asked softly. “Men like ours can get a little…territorial. Still, he should’ve asked you before making it permanent.”

“It’s always been true,” I admitted with a shrug, feeling that truth keenly. “He just inked it into the surface. I’m not mad.” I was elated, to be honest.

When I lay in Axe-Man’s arms at night, overfull with love, so close to bursting I thought I’d split apart atom by atom and die if I didn’t confess how much I wholly and ardently loved him, I comfort...

Loulou studied me with pursed lips, Angel asleep in her lap, her hand carding gently through her daughter’s abundance of golden curls. “You know, sometimes the things we love the most, we also fear the most. It requires a lot of trust to admit to a vulnerability. Especially for men like The Fallen who think they need to be unconquerable. Especially for a man like Axe-Man who’s already lost so much.”

“It’s my wedding day,” Harleigh Rose interjected, sitting in a white lacy nightgown even as Hannah did her makeup dramatic and bold, the contrast somehow suiting her to a T. “So let me give you some of my honesty, too. To be the best kind of lover, you have to be a fighter. Don’t stop fighting for him if you love him. I fought and literally almost died for Lion, and I’d do it again today, tomorrow, and any day following.”

The left side of my mouth curled up as I traced the design inked into my left pec; five stylized slash marks with dragon’s talons peekin’ through at the ragged ends, like I’d been cut open by one. And I had.

I’d already told Mei she had her teeth and claws in me, and I wanted to tell her the rest of it. That I was so in love with her, I felt mad with it. That I wanted her to stay here in Entrance with me forever. That I wanted to tie us together with more than just ink and paint and words. I wanted ceremony and legal papers with our names on them. I wanted decades of adventures as the Off-White Knight and his Rocky.

I was almost forty-one years old, and I’d only just found the love of my life after years of strife and loneliness. I wanted to start our life together right this fuckin’ minute. But I’d never been much good with words, and I couldn’t seem to find the right ones to explain to her the magnitude of how I felt. So I’d reverted to action. Somethin’ I knew would mean the fuckin’ world to her as she meant the world to me, ’cause she...

“You guys about ready to head over?” Lion asked, comin’ into the main room of the clubhouse decked out in an emerald-green suit with a white rose in the lapel.

fuck yeah dapper as hell Lion

“Eager?” Nova teased. Lion leveled him a solemn look. “Damn eager. Can’t wait to make Harleigh Rose Danner my wife.” Zeus scowled as he joined our group. “Still think she should keep her maiden name. This is the twenty-first fuckin’ century.”

King knocked into his dad with a laugh. “Sure, old man. You couldn’t even wait for Lou to graduate high school before you made h...

“The man who gave up his sterlin’ reputation with the law to come over to the dark side with his lady love and her Fallen family.” Lion laughed good-naturedly as Bat filled the shot glasses, and Dane and Wrath handed them out. “It wasn’t just for my Rebel Rose,” he admitted, hoistin’ the glass into the air to address the club as we gathered around him. “Found a home and a family with her and hers, and I’ll be grateful to you all for that forever.”

“Are you cryin’?” King asked Curtains who was dashin’ somethin’ from his cheek. Curtains scowled. “Fuck off, you’re the one who writes poetry.” “Yeah, but you don’t see me cryin’ over Danny’s lame-ass toast,” he quipped.

It was Smoke, our oldest member and one plagued with hideous asthma, who stepped up with his rollin’ oxygen tank and slapped me across the face. “Get it together, man.”

why is this so funny 💀

“Are Boner aa-and Ransom okay?” she almost yelled in her haste to ask. It made my heart, already threatenin’ to break outta my chest, swell larger with love. “Are the girls okay?”

“I knew you’d find me,” she cried, clutchin’ me hard, nails diggin’ into my wet, ruined shirt. “I knew it!” “Always,” I swore. “Always, little dragon. But swear to me right fuckin’ now, you won’t pull this sacrificial shit again. Swear to me!” “I swear,” she said instantly, shudderin’ against me, pullin’ and clawin’ to get me closer as if she wanted to crawl beneath my skin.

“I was so scared, but I knew you’d come. You were made to keep me alive.”