Hurricane Hearts Read online

  Hurricane Hearts

  Nina Levine

  Contents

  Hurricane Hearts

  Storm Universe Timeline

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Nina Levine

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright © 2019 by Nina Levine

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editing by Becky Johnson at Hot Tree Editing

  Cover Design by Letitia at Romantic Book Affair Designs

  Cover Image by Wander Pedro Aguiar

  Model Josh Mario John

  Hurricane Hearts

  A STANDALONE STORM MC RELOADED NOVEL

  She walked away from me five years ago.

  She ran and took my heart with her.

  Now I want it back, and hers too.

  She can tell me no.

  She can try to hide.

  She can take her time.

  But I’m a man on my knees.

  Birdie Beaumont will be mine again.

  * * *

  My first lie had been to save us.

  My second lie had been to save him.

  My third lie broke me.

  I still love him just as much as I did when I left him.

  But I can’t have him.

  Not after what I did.

  Not after keeping it from him all this time.

  Winter Morrison will never forgive me for what I did.

  * * *

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  * * *

  If you’re on Facebook, I have a reader group you can join to chat about my books with me, enter exclusive giveaways and read sneak peeks of upcoming books.

  Storm Universe Timeline

  My previous two Storm MC series followed a linear timeline. The sequence of events as I wrote them followed on from each other. Club business carried through from one book to the next. The Storm MC Reloaded series is being written a little differently. I’m switching shit up and I will do my best to help you follow along easily.

  * * *

  Hurricane Hearts is the beginning of Winter’s journey in the club. The events in Hurricane Hearts take place right before the events that happen in King’s Wrath. If you read the Sydney Storm series, you’ll know that King sent Winter to Melbourne. In this book, he’s still living in Sydney.

  * * *

  This book doesn’t belong in the Sydney Storm series because Winter belongs firmly in the Storm MC Reloaded series. You are going to see him grow from the man he is in this book to a hardened MC president throughout the Reloaded series. This story starts to give you his backstory. OMG I can’t wait to reveal more of it to you as we go! But patience, lol, you need this part first!

  * * *

  I hope you love it as much as I do.

  * * *

  Nina xx

  * * *

  PS If you love the Brisbane chapter, you are going to LOVE this Reloaded series! I’m bringing all the chapters together in this series!

  To Anthony & Leanne,

  You never gave up

  You’ll never know what an inspiration you are to me

  Love you both always

  xx

  Prologue

  BIRDIE

  I slid the photo from his wallet and stared at it in surprise.

  He kept me there all these years?

  Looking up, I found him watching me intently.

  “Come home with me tonight.” He said the words I hoped he wouldn’t.

  A shiver raced across my skin. His voice had always done that to me. “No,” I said, when I wanted to say yes and chase him to the ends of the earth. I’d always wanted to chase him there. I’d spent years making plans and dreaming all the dreams of a life together. But life had a way of beating the dreams out of us. Of forcing us to let them go even when we clung hard.

  The taxi we shared from the airport slowed to turn a corner.

  God, what were the chances of running into your first love after you’d both returned from different corners of the world? “Share a taxi with me,” he’d said after we’d caught up over a few drinks at the airport bar. I should have said no then because, with every passing minute, he drew me further into his orbit.

  His fingers laced through mine. “If I could change the way shit went down with us, I would, Birdie. Fuck, I’d take back all my choices and make better ones.”

  My heart squeezed, and the pain that had never left roared to life. “Don’t say that. We know you wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t have wanted you to. Those choices were you, and I loved that about you.”

  His features darkened. “You loved that I chose war over us? That every time I said I was done, I changed my mind and let you down?” The bitterness in his words slashed through the air. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, baby. I fucked it all up. Call it for what it was.”

  Five years worth of my own guilt twisted deep in my stomach. He thought this was all on him when that was as far from the truth as you could get. I had my own stake in our ending, but it would kill him if he knew the truth. Or maybe I was more concerned it would kill me for him to know. For him to hate me for what I did.

  He’d always wanted a child. Being a daddy had been higher on his list of goals than fighting for his country. And I’d fucked that up for us. Walking away from him had been for him, not about him. I wanted him to be the daddy he’d always dreamed of, and I couldn’t give that to him anymore, so I’d stayed away when he finally came home.

  “I can’t do this….” My voice cracked, and I gulped hard as tears threatened.

  If I could take back my choices and make better ones, I would. My choices had been far worse than his.

  He moved closer, taking my face in his hands. Before I knew what was happening, his lips were on mine, claiming the kiss that could be my undoing. Because God knew, I’d thought about his kisses every single day I hadn’t had them. His kisses were everything, and this one was no different.

  He set me on fire like he always had, and I felt myself falling down the abyss of need he’d always had a way of creating.

  I still wanted him just as much as I had when I’d first fallen for him.

  But I couldn’t have him.

  Not anymore.

  Not after what I did.

  I pulled my mouth from his and pushed him away, thankful when I realised the taxi had pulled up outside my house. Ignoring the torment in his eyes, I said, “We can never go back,” and exited the taxi as fast as I could. Stumbling up the path to my front door, I prayed he wouldn’t come after me. My resolve wasn’t as strong as I wished, and
if he pushed for this, I could crumble.

  As I stepped through the door, I glanced back at the cab. He stood beside it watching me. I held his gaze for what felt like forever, but neither of us moved.

  When I finally closed the door behind me, I sagged against it and slid down to the floor.

  Love was agony.

  The choices I’d made that had ultimately destroyed us had been made for love.

  The first choice had been to save both of us.

  The second one had been to save him.

  Both had broken me in the process.

  1

  BIRDIE

  3 months later

  * * *

  I lifted my cocktail and smiled at my bestie. “Here’s to a long and happy marriage, and all the sex you can handle.” I lifted the glass a little higher. “And for the love of God, let that sex always be as good as it is now.”

  Cleo’s mouth spread out into a huge grin as she nodded. “Hell fucking yes!”

  We both took a long swig of our drinks and then Cleo broke out laughing. I had no idea why, but it wasn’t an unusual occurrence for her.

  “Okay spill, dude. What’s so funny?”

  She took another long drink, her laughter increasing. “I was just thinking about him fucking me this morning. We were going for it, and he almost had me there when he got a leg cramp. He lost his footing and knocked a heap of shit off the kitchen table and then it was one crazy thing after another. You had to be there, but fuck, I love him so hard. He makes every day fun.”

  I smiled so big for her. Cleo had been through some assholes, so I was happy she’d finally found Mark. “I love that, babe. You guys are perfect together And I’m so glad your honeymoon was amazing.” She and her husband, Mark, had just returned from Fiji where they’d spent a week.

  Her smile eased a little, a serious expression crossing her face. “You’re gonna find your forever guy, Birdie.”

  Cleo and I had been BFFs since high school so she knew me and my life inside out. She’d cheered on every one of my successes and cried with me over every heartache. She knew I’d screwed up my forever love years ago, but she still chose to believe another one would come along. I wasn’t so sure.

  Eyeing the rest of our friends who were out on the dance floor, I said, “You wanna go dance?”

  She squeezed my hand. “I know what you’re doing and I get that you don’t want to think about your love life, and I’ll support that choice right now because we’re all about the fun tonight, but I will never ever give up on finding the right guy for you.” She threw me a grin. “Just so you know.”

  “I love you, lady, but if you continue this matchmaking thing you’ve got going on, I’m gonna have to seriously reconsider our friendship.”

  Her eyes widened in mock surprise, because Cleo knew I was so not on board with her mission. “What? You don’t like the guys I’ve been sending your way?”

  I smiled as I shook my head. It was hard to get mad at her because she was the kindest and most thoughtful person I knew. I drank some more of my cocktail and said, “Well, that last dude you found on that dating website did have a hot ass. I’ll give him that.”

  “How do you know that? Did you meet him and not tell me?”

  “No, he bombarded my inbox with photos of it.”

  She emptied her glass and hit me with a wicked grin. “Any dick pics?” Motioning with her hand, she added, “Show me.”

  Laughing, I passed my phone over as I stood. “Knock yourself out.”

  She looked up at me. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to get supplies. We need more drinks.”

  “Babe, I’m fucked. Like, if I drink too much more, I might not recover in time for work on Monday.”

  She was right, we were both drunk enough already, but I wasn’t ready to stop yet. “One more! And then you can go home and do dirty things to Mark.”

  “Ha! I bet he’s already passed out.”

  The boys were out tonight too, and there was definitely a 99 percent chance Mark was snoring loudly already.

  “You’re having one more drink with me, and then I won’t force any more on you. Be back soon.”

  I pushed my way through the rowdy crowd and headed for the bar. A million thoughts filled my mind, so I wasn’t paying much attention to anything or anyone until a deep rumble sounded from beside me when I reached the bar.

  It was like time stopped and the world spun as that voice worked its way into my soul.

  Oh God.

  No.

  No, no, no.

  I turned to face him, hoping my brain had connected the dots incorrectly. Hoping that when I laid eyes on the guy standing next to me, it wouldn’t be the man who still owned my heart.

  His smile hit me first. Laidback and sexy, just like it was in the memories etched into my heart.

  Then came his jaw—strong and chiselled. God, how I loved that jaw. It matched everything else about him.

  But it was his brown eyes that did me in. The way they watched me with the kind of hunger that told me he’d been starving for way too long caused my knees to buckle.

  Winter Morrison.

  The universe worked in cruel ways sometimes.

  He dragged his gaze from mine and ran his eyes over my face like he was committing every line and angle to memory. There was no need for that, though. God, how I knew there was no need for that. A decade together meant all those lines and angles were so deeply a part of us they could be recalled in the same way lyrics of a long-forgotten song could be.

  “What are you drinking?” he asked, finding my gaze again.

  I shook my head. “I’m not doing this again, Winter.” Our last catch up three months ago was enough for me to know a repeat was dangerous. Especially when I was already drunk. God knew what I’d agree to with this much alcohol in me.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but the bartender cut in, eyeing Winter. “What do you want, man?”

  Winter watched me for another moment before answering the guy. “Two Jack and Cokes.”

  Shit.

  I tried to get the bartender’s attention, calling out, “Make that one, not two,” but he was already making the drinks. I hit Winter with a glare. “I said no. And besides, I’m here with Cleo and I have to get back to her.”

  “What’s she drinking?”

  I continued glaring at him. “You’re not listening to me.”

  “One drink, Birdie. Just give me that.”

  His request slayed me. Not so much what he asked for, but what I could hear in his voice. The pain that still lingered there.

  I cursed under my breath at the same time Cleo’s voice sounded from behind me. “Babe, I’m bailing on you. Mark just called—” She stopped abruptly when her gaze landed on Winter. “Oh shit…. Maybe I should stay after all.”

  I didn’t want to be the reason she changed her plans, so I did what any best friend would do in this situation and faked the confidence I wished I felt. “No, you should go. I’m good here.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you sure? I can stay.”

  I shooed my hands at her. “I’m sure. Besides, I’m going to go soon, too.”

  She glanced down at the text that just hit her phone. “Mark’s outside. Turns out he couldn’t get through tonight without me.” She shoved my phone at me. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret tomorrow!” With that, she rushed off to find her husband, leaving me alone with Winter.

  I closed my eyes briefly, trying to centre myself enough to deal with him, before opening them again and taking a deep breath. The desire for him I’d always felt deep in my soul skittered across my skin and fluttered in my stomach. This was going to get messy. I knew that as surely as I knew I’d never stopped loving him.

  He slid my drink to me. Eyes focused intently on mine. “You look good.”

  The gravel in his tone affected me exactly how it always had. Fuck. I gulped my drink, emptying half the glass. “I look like shit.” It was true. Work had
been kicking my ass for a good couple of months and sleep wasn’t my friend. I needed a month-long nap.

  “Shit is never a word I’d use to describe how you look, Birdie. Even on your off days you kill it.”

  I stared at him, willing him to stop talking and to walk away. He wouldn’t, though. I knew that for sure, too. Winter hadn’t wanted our relationship to end. He’d done everything he could to convince me not to leave. It had taken me moving cities to finally show him we were over. Running into him three months ago, on the day I’d come home to Sydney for good, had rattled me. I’d been concerned he would try to see me again. When he didn’t, I figured it was a sign he’d moved past us. But the look in his eyes told me otherwise.

  In an effort to talk about anything but us, I glanced around and asked, “Are you here with anyone?”

  His eyes didn’t move from me. “No.” When I tried to avoid eye contact, he said, “Have a couple of drinks with me, Angel. I won’t let you do anything you’ll regret.”

  My heart beat faster and my breaths quickened as my eyes found his again. Memories of our life together flooded my mind. Ten years couldn’t just be wiped from memory when you ended a relationship. Neither could the feelings. And him calling me by the name he’d made mine, and making me a promise I knew he’d keep because that was the kind of man he was, softened my resolve.