Page 17 of Judge (Devil’s Rose MC #7)

Judge

F uck. She’s been doing this on her own for the past six years?

I don’t know what to say, so I just stare at her, hoping that she can read everything I want to say to her but just can’t find the words.

She has a dark look on her face, and it’s not the first time I’ve noticed.

I know I should ask, but it won’t be just after I find out that her only parent passed away.

She sniffs, pulling herself back together before giving me a tight smile.

She’s good at pretending, my woman, but not good enough. I want the whole story, but I can wait.

“Anyway, we decided it was time for a fresh start, so we came here. Close to where I grew up, but bigger, you know?” I nod.

I do know. Rose Grove is larger and nicer than our little podunk town.

“Um, while you’re here, do you want to look at some pictures of the kids when they were little?

I guess you have only seen the one I emailed you that time.

” She brushes everything off, and I’m thankful for it.

“Yeah, course,” I say, trying to play it cool. Inside I crave seeing the twins, the life they’ve led, every little facet that I’ve imagined.

She grins at me and then bounces up off the couch, headed for the dining room.

Her ass in those tiny shorts is visible under the hem of her oversized t-shirt and I try to not gape at her as it jiggles away from me.

Clearly I don’t try very hard, because my cock starts to thicken in my jeans.

Kaia was always fucking hot, but now, with a little bit of softness and weight on her, she’s stunning.

“Here it is!” She waves a laptop in the air.

All that does is cause her braless tits to jiggle under her shirt, pulling a groan out of me.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, just need to stretch, I, ah, spent a bit of time on the road today.” Raising my arms above my head I swivel my hips so she can’t see my wood.

Fucking hell, it’s like I’m a teenager again.

Using my teenage tricks I hook my stiff cock into the waistband of my jeans, hoping that by angling it up it’ll be less noticeable.

She plops herself down on the couch, patting the seat next to her awkwardly. “It’ll be easier to see from here.”

I nod, taking a seat next to her. She has one leg tucked up under her lush behind, her brown skin glistening in the warm lighting of her living room. I try not to sit too close, but she scoots closer, her knee touching mine, laptop placed between us.

“Um, I think this is the folder,” she murmurs.

She clicks into it and immediately a picture of the kids smiling at the beach, arms around each other fills the screen.

They look so happy and sunkissed, missing teeth and all.

She flicks through to the next, then the next, pausing on each one, telling me what was happening that day or what she can remember.

I laugh along with her, while all the time my stomach clenches knowing that I could have been there.

She comes to the last photo in the album, and it’s a picture of her, lying on a hospital bed, IV drip in one arm, looking exhausted.

There’s a curtain cutting off the bottom part of her body, and a nurse stands on one side, holding one baby, her father on the other, holding the other twin.

Frowning, I lean closer for a better look, realizing that she’s in an operating theatre with the way everyone is dressed. Gloves, masks, those weird hats.

“What the fuck? Are you in surgery or something?” My eyes dart to hers in shock.

Her face screws up as she tries not to laugh in my face. And she better not, this shit isn’t funny.

“Leo, I carried twins . Big ones because they took after their Daddy,” my heart skips at her use of the word Daddy.

“I had to wear slippers all day everyday because my feet were so swollen. Yes, I had a c-section to remove them. They knew fairly early on that I was too small to birth them naturally. They were born perfectly fine, and I was well and safe the whole time.” She smiles at me gently, as if talking to one of the kids, but that still doesn’t make me feel any better.

She was pregnant without me, her best friend and father of her children. She cried, she was afraid. She had fucking surgery to get my kids out. She raised them, first with her dad and then alone because I was too much of an idiot to check my emails. Fuck’s sake.

A warm hand cups my cheek, turning my face toward hers. Shit, I wasn’t even aware I was staring at my clenched fists.

“Leo, it’s fine. They’re OK. We’re OK. Has it been easy?

No. But I can tell you now, everything, every hardship, every challenge, it has all been worth it.

” Her eyes dart between mine, imploring me to understand, to listen.

Not my strong point, but I’ll try. “You’ll find out that it’s all worth it.

” Her thumb grazes my beard, tickling my cheek, before pulling away.

I want to follow her hand, to have her touch me again but I hold back.

I stare at her for what seems an age, so long that she looks a little uncomfortable.

Thoughts bounce around my skull, none of them landing, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Can I see it?”

“Huh?” Her top lip lifts in the comical way it does when she’s confused. I forgot it did that until now.

Clearing my throat, I ask again. “Can I see the scar? I just, I don’t know, I just can’t believe you went through that. That they got them out that way, I guess,” I mumble, now knowing that it was an unhinged request.

“Out the sunroof,” she snorts. Her eyes dart away before she blows out a breath. “OK, just, um, just know that I don’t, um, I don’t look like I did.” She mumbles, holding her hands over her stomach.

I place my much larger hands over hers, almost covering her whole waist, “I think you look beautiful.”

Pink stains her cheeks and she huffs, moving to stand in front of me. I gaze up at her and she narrows her eyes at me.

“Not a word about my belly, OK? I know I’m chonky and no one has seen it for -” she stops abruptly before looking away, “-ah, for a while. Besides, it’s just a belly,”

“Breathe.”She takes a deep breath at my command, then pulls her shirt up a little.

I stare at the fine, silvery lines that cover her lower abdomen, not expecting her to hook her thumb in her little shorts, and pull them down until I can see the top of the dark hair underneath her superhero panties.

She reaches one hand down, pressing against her soft tummy and pulls upwards slightly, so I can see under the slight fold she has.

There, hidden away, is a fine silvery line running from almost one hip, to the other.

Kaia

He doesn’t breathe for the longest time and my cheeks begin to heat.

I get that I’m not supermodel material or anything, but the least he could do is say something.

I move to step back but Leo’s large hands shoot up to grip my hips, stopping me.

His eyes flick to mine before he slowly moves to his knees in front of me.

One large, rough finger gently traces my c-section scar, before it’s replaced by his soft, full lips.

He presses gentle kisses from one side to the other and if his hands weren’t spanning my hips keeping me upright, I would have melted into a puddle at his feet.

“Leo, I-”

The words die on my lips as his bright green eyes stare up at me in awe, a tear trailing down his bearded cheek.

“Thank you, Kaia.”

“What for?” I whisper, not trusting my voice.

“For giving me everything.”

Reaching out a hand I lightly run it over his shaved head, the stubble prickling my hand as he leans in.

I marvel at how we’re so comfortable, as if we’ve remained best friends this whole time, and yet we’re essentially strangers.

I know he’s been through some shit, and lord knows I have too.

There’s so much to say, so much to tell him, and yet it’s all too heavy.

It’s not stuff you share with someone you’ve not seen in a decade and a half.

“Mom?” My head snaps to the stairwell at the sound of Annie-Bella’s voice, “Who are you talking to?”

Leo moves to his feet gracefully, while I stumble back, landing on my ass on the couch. I’m a mess of emotions. Whatever just happened between Leo and I, it was like the world shifted just enough to knock me off my feet.

“Just me, sweetheart,” Leo calls out, his eyes on me the whole time. He cups my face, skimming a thumb over my cheek before he takes a step back, craning his neck at the sound of the stampede coming down the stairs.

“Da-Leo!” Annie runs full force into him, almost knocking him off his feet as she throws her arms around his waist. “I thought I heard your voice,” she beams up at him.

I marvel at how close they have gotten even with the two weeks we’ve been away from the farm.

Ever since my ex, Annie has been hesitant around men.

She’s getting better, working at the diner.

She’s friendly and warm, but that’s usually because her brother is always watching, two steps behind.

I can still see the hesitation she has every now and then, I see how she’ll quickly glance around to make sure Jax has her back.

But with Leo? She’s a total daddy’s girl, like he’s always been in her life.

Same goes for the rest of the men from the DRMC.

It’s like she inherently knows she’s safe.

Hell, even Jax thrived under their attention, not looking at them with distrust like he usually does.

“I wanted to stop and check in.” He smiles down at her.

She beams at him before shooing him to take a seat. He catches my eye and grins, doing exactly as she asks while she sits her little heinie next to me, curling up under my arm.

“Ugh, it’s been a total ball ache.” I shoot her a look and she grins unapologetically.

I’ll be having words with Rider, he’s the only person I know who has been using that word every time he talks about his healing nipple and the dent in his ass.

“But we have a soccer game on Saturday, so I’ll take my aggression out on the field. ”

Leo barks out a laugh, and I roll my teeth between my lips, because clearly, he has no idea what Annie is like on the field.

“You are coming, right? It’s mine and Jax’s team.” She grins at him as he raises his brow.

“You play with boys?” His voice lowers and his fist slowly balls up.

“Yeah. Rose Grove is too small to have a girls team, so Mom complained to whoever would listen and ripped the school a new one so I could play. They don’t like it, but I don’t care. And our coach is a woman so she’s cool with it.” Annie shrugs as if it’s nothing.

Judging by the look on Leo’s face, it is most definitely something. “And you play against other boys?”

“Yup. Wait, did you just growl?”

“Nope. But I’ll be there.” Leo manages to grit out, ignoring my shaking shoulders as I silently laugh.

“Oh oh! Why don’t you come here first thing in the morning and we can all go together!

” Annie pauses for a moment, “And maybe you could ask your parents to come too? I’d love to meet them.

Oh this is such a good plan, I’m going to go through my baby albums and choose some photos for them to take home,” Annie bounces up off the couch with way too much energy for someone who worked an eight hour shift alongside me.

Leo’s eyes follow her up the stairs. He takes his phone out of his cut, thumbs flying over the screen before he shoves it away, a smirk playing on his lips.

My brows pull down, “What was that?”

“What was what?”

I wave my hand in a circle, in his direction, “That whole texting and then the evil smirk afterwards.”

“Nothing,” he shrugs one meaty shoulder, avoiding my eye contact. “I know that look, you’ve just done something.”

His eyes flick to mine, a playful look crossing his face. “Maybe.”

I inhale, about to unleash but then I think, “What the hell?” What’s the worst that can happen? I’ve survived a Frozen Spiderman mashup five-year-old twin party with twenty-five guests. I can handle whatever he throws at me. But can he handle soccer day?

“Fine. Meet us here at 9am. We have to be there early to warm up.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” He grins, eyes flicking to the clock on the wall. “Time for bed, Kai,” he moves to stand and my heart lurches a little hearing my old nickname fall from his lips like it never left them.

I follow behind his big frame on my tired feet, holding the door open as he moves to leave, spinning at the last moment.

I stare up at his handsome face, the intensity something I remember from a fleeting moment in the past. Leaning forward he stops, just shy of pressing his lips to mine.

His gaze flickers between mine, and I know he’s giving me the power.

The only problem is, once the anger and regret melted away, I was hit with the realization that I don’t have any power when it comes to this man, especially not this version of him.

Rolling onto my toes I close the distance between us, pressing my lips softly to his in barely a whisper of a kiss, but a heavy promise of something more.

His lips curl beneath mine, and when I pull back he’s beaming.

“Night, Kai.” He presses his lips to my forehead, his large palm cradling the base of my neck, and then he’s gone.