Page 19

Diamond

By having Joelle follow him to his place, she continued to glare at him with an intense desire to punch him in the junk.

He was not having an I’m pregnant conversation in the middle of the forecourt where all his brothers could overhear. They loved nothing more than gossiping.

“Sit down.” He’d told her, showing her inside his condo. The gated complex of ten apartments belonged to him. With three bedrooms, his place was the largest. However, his entire place would fit inside Joelle’s bathroom.

“I’ll get you a drink.”

“I don’t want to sit. Or have a drink.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have told you like that, but I was annoyed. I was plucking up the courage to text you when you stormed into the restaurant.”

“Sit down, Joelle.” He growled.

“Does this bossy act work on everyone?” she huffed, but he was pleased when she chose the high-back armchair to perch on. “No wonder Titan took off with a sprint. He feared the big evil boss’s angry voice.”

“Titan isn’t scared of me, and neither are you. What do you want to drink?”

“A whiskey sour. Hold the rocks. And keep them coming.”

Her answer had him swallowing, and both his eyebrows winged up. Was she serious? As clueless as Diamond was about all things babies, even he knew a woman shouldn’t drink when she was pregnant.

“Tell Sonya I can take a joke.” A small smile tugged at her lips, as some of the anxious feeling rode down off his back.

“I don’t want a drink. Thank you for offering.”

“How are you pregnant?” he asked, leaning against the breakfast bar that separated the living room from the kitchen. “We didn’t fuck.”

“Oh, good. I get to tell the birds and the bees story after all.” When he only stared at her sarcasm, she sighed and rubbed at her temple like she had a headache. “I’m sorry for how you found out. I should have been more diplomatic. I also wasn’t thrilled to hear the news. So whatever you’re feeling, I’m there with you, buddy. We didn’t have sex, as you put it. But we did things, Diamond. And your stuff was all up near my stuff. I guess your little guys were determined to follow the map, no matter what they had to do to get there.”

There was laughter in the back of Diamond’s throat at her description. She glared at him when he let it out.

“So, what you’re saying is, babe, I jacked off on you. You were fingering yourself, and that’s how you got pregnant?”

“I don’t know, okay? Oh, my god . Could this day get any more mortifying? I wish I had a time machine; I never would have texted you that night. I should have called, I don’t know , a porn line. Do they still exist? Don’t answer.” The exhale she let out could have blown his hair back if it was long enough.

He had never witnessed Joelle being so easily rattled. She was fucking adorable.

“I went to the doctor and...”

“Why?” he interrupted.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“ Why , Joelle?”

“I thought I had a persistent flu, but she gave me this news instead, so yeah, I’m a little unsettled. And I don’t know what to do or what you’re thinking, so I’m freaking out even more.”

Diamond moved swiftly across the room with long strides and crouched before her. The second he put his hand on the front of her throat, she snapped her gaze to his and switched from breathing rapidly to not breathing at all.

“Take a breath, Joelle.”

“No, I don’t want to.” She frowned, and he smiled. He’d missed her sense of humor.

As soon as the prospect described the bombshell who’d left the clubhouse, he’d known it was her, and he’d about bolted to find her. He devised a weak excuse to justify what he did, thinking she was in trouble, but Diamond could’ve easily found any reason to see Joelle again. For weeks, he’d been stalking her just to catch glimpses. He was drawn to the woman who had an undeniable power over him, and it had slowly been driving him to insanity, not being near her.

If only he’d known she’d needed him, he would have punched his way through the brick walls to get to her again.

“Tough shit, you’ll breathe anyway.” He stroked the front of her throat until he felt it expanding with air. “Good girl.”

“Please don’t pander to me right now, Diamond. I’m seconds away from crying, and I hate crying. Are you mad?”

He frowned. “Why would I be mad?”

She rolled her pretty eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because a woman just told you that you’re going to be a father, and you’re not behaving how other men would. It’s freaking me out.”

“There’s no point in flipping out over shit that’s happened, babe.” He said, rising to his feet.

“I’m not asking for anything. Before that’s your next question. I don’t want your money, and you don’t need to be involved. But it’s only right that you know.”

“It’s my baby, too.” He growled through his teeth.

Did she think she could keep it from him? She was in for a hell of a fight if she tried. Kidnapping her was not beneath him. He’d fucking love any reason to do it. She’d finally be his, and Diamond didn’t care about coming up against her powerful father. No one would keep him away from his child.

“I know that. I told you ! There’s a baby, and I’m not aborting it or having it adopted. I’m going to have it. There, you have all the information I have.” She tipped her chin defiantly.

“You’re not getting rid of it,” he said, ready to spring forward to lock her up somewhere. The unhinged feelings she brought out in him were fucking ridiculous.

“I just said I wasn’t! Oh, my god . Can we sit in silence for a minute? My head is spinning. I feel like I’m in an episode of Days of Our Lives.” She then sat back in the chair and closed her eyes.

The most important thing on his mind when he woke this morning was how long he wanted to work out.

Now, the whole trajectory of his life had changed.

And it changed in an instant.

He was going to be a father.

And Joelle was the mom.

Christ, the universe loved laughing at him.

For all his magnanimous reasoning for not pursuing a woman out of his league, the universe had already conspired to put Joelle at the center of his life.

Now what the fuck did he do?

It was a no-brainer.

All his life, he’d been a doer.

He jumped in with both feet, never knowing the outcome.

It was how he came to the MC. He hadn’t known that would work out as well as it had.

It made sense he’d have a kid like this, not in the usual way with a wife and a life plan.

“You’ve had your say, babe. Now it’s my turn.” He said, witnessing Joelle’s eyes reluctantly open, locking onto him with a skeptical gaze.

He couldn’t blame her for the look.

Plenty of men would have denied her claim.

After all, they hadn’t fucked.

And if it were any other woman who was telling him this, he would have insisted she come back with a paternity test.

But it was Joelle. Sweet, mouthy, trustworthy Joelle.

And she wasn’t the vindictive type of woman to trap any man.

He sensed that in his soul, even without knowing every detail about her.

Never in his wildest thoughts had Diamond considered getting a woman pregnant without fucking it into her. And he was feeling cheated of the pleasure.

“You said you’re keeping the baby. You’ll be its mom. So, I wanna be his dad.”

“Do you even want children?”

“I never thought about it, but it’s happened now, so that isn’t a question for me anymore.”

“That’s a fair point.” Her face was pale and melancholy.

He was still percolating the news, but he knew one thing for sure. He would be in this with her all the way.

“We co-parent everything. That means it starts today, Joelle. Doctor appointments. If furniture needs building or buying, or you need to go places, I’ll take you.”

She seemed frazzled. “Diamond, that’s not...”

He cut her off. “This is how it’ll be.”

She blinked. Her brow folded in the middle. “But, we’re not together. That’s very coupley.”

“Do you want to get married?”

“Jesus.” She breathed. “Do I want to marry a man who ghosted on my messages? Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I didn’t tell you just so that you’d take the lead.”

“Lucky for you, babe.” He half-smiled, and her scowl became more prominent.

“Maybe you need time to think about it. These are big decisions. I’m still processing it, too. I haven’t figured it all out yet.”

“But we’re keeping the baby, yeah?” She nodded at his question, which appeased something in Diamond, and his tension unfurled. “That’s the major decision done. All the other shit will fall into place. I wanna be involved, Joelle, at every stage.”

“This went a lot different in my head.” She said, rubbing at her temple again.

“It’s gonna be okay, Joelle.” Diamond rarely had all the answers, and things usually worked out, even when they didn’t. He was still standing, so all his life decisions couldn’t have been that bad.

“Will it?”

“People become parents every day. I’m sure they’re scared shitless about it, too. We’re nothing special.” He watched her face flip through a gambit of emotions, and then she announced.

“Okay, we should do this together, but I’m not sleeping with you again. Sex will only make matters more confusing.”

“Baby, we haven’t slept together a first time yet, let alone again,” he chuckled.

He should be losing his mind, but surprisingly, he wasn’t. And he found her declaration adorable. There was a stirring of darkness in his soul for how right this felt. And if he’d known this would have brought Joelle into his life permanently, Diamond was confident he would have deliberately got her pregnant.

“People will never believe an immaculate conception. I’m like Mary. Only I’m not a virgin.” She whined and then put her head in her hands to continue moaning.

Diamond never considered himself a possessive guy. Nor a jealous one. Until Joelle came onto his page, and he wanted to tear every other man’s gaze off her with his bare hands.

One little dramatic statement reminded him she’d slept with others in the past before him, and his veins wanted to expand with possessiveness. She belongs to me .

“Who was the last guy you went to bed with?” Diamond narrowed his eyes, but he already knew the answer. He’d been witness to how Trent, the limp dick in his bow tie, couldn’t stop staring at her.

She rolled her pretty eyes. “That hardly matters now.”

It mattered to him. He needed the names of men he would toss into Kylie’s cremation machine.

“The party jerk with his tongue dragging on the floor for you, wasn’t it?”

She spluttered a giggle.

That fucking prick.

Diamond felt a surge of anger, remembering how he’d imagined the satisfying crack of that jerk’s head hitting a table. Now, he wished he had followed his gut that night.

“Diamond, are you jealous?” she sounded so pleased that he snapped his head up to see her smiling.

“No. It’s my baby inside you. Doesn’t matter if it was fucked there or not.”

“ Ugh . Did you have to remind me?” Her smile fell. “You are so crass.”

“Babe, I’m a biker.”

“Yeah.”

“Reality crashing in for you, huh? You realized you got a biker kid inside you.”

“I have my baby inside of me.”

“Ours.” He rasped.

“Yes,” she smiled with a radiant blush. “He’s ours.”

“Will this make things complicated for you?”

“Oh, I’m sure. But I don’t care right now. What will be will be. I’m going to be a mother. I need a minute to get my head around that before tackling other people’s opinion.” She inhaled and blew it out slowly. “I’m going to end up on Page Six, aren’t I, like Jesus’ mom?”

Diamond felt the rolling of a growl surging up his throat. “Don’t mention that party prick again, Joelle.”

She blinked, all wide-eyed and lovely. “I never mentioned Trent’s name.”

Another heated growl. “You talk about not being a virgin, and it puts that paper-pushing prick in my head and reminds me he slept with you, and I haven’t yet. It makes me want to snap his weak bones and make a pie out of his dust.”

“ Diamond .” She giggled, and then it was full-out belly laughing until she had to brace a hand on the arm of the chair. Then, before Diamond knew what was happening, she jumped to her feet and dashed off down the hallway. He followed instinctually and was in time to see her slamming the bathroom door shut.

Did he say something to upset her?

“Joelle, what’s happening? Are you sick? Are you crying? Open this door.” He was about to kick it in when he heard a flush, followed by the faucet.

The door whooshed open.

“Okay, new rule. Don’t make the newly pregnant lady laugh because I nearly piddled on the chair.”

Diamond’s head was whirling from all the different directions they were taking at full speed. “You laughed and nearly pissed yourself? Is that something?”

“It must be. It’s my first time being pregnant, and I don’t know how the hormones are mixing in there. It’s like a giant amalgamation pot.”

“How many rules will there be?” His brow arched high on his forehead.

She shrugged. “That’s another don’t know. Maybe a million? We’ll have to play it by ear.”

A million rules to have a baby together?

And no sex on top of those rules?

Fuck that.

He’d get his dick in this woman.

If they were going to be co-parents, they deserved the pleasure of making the baby.

Even if it happened after the conception.