Page 14 of Marked by the Protective Biker (Heat & Ink)

EMILY

Six Months Later

“Emily! I’m home.” Jack hollers as he walks into the house.

I’m standing in the bedroom, half naked, and I start pulling on clothes. Panic sets in, and I barely have time to calm myself before Jack is walking into the room.

He’s smiling ear to ear, which he’s been doing a lot lately, but one look at me and his smile disappears. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I keep putting clothes on. “Nothing. I’m good. You good? We’re going to be late.”

He comes to stop next to me. “Emily… what are you not telling me?”

I go to my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “Nothing. We don’t want to be late.”

I walk out of the bedroom and toward the kitchen. I fully expect him to stay in the bedroom to get ready so I’m surprised when he follows me through the house.

I try to ignore him, but he’s not having it. He stands next to me, pulling me into his arms. “Do you not want to go?”

I force a smile to my face. “We have to go. It’s Alice’s birthday, and she’ll come and find me if we don’t show up.”

He growls, and I pat him on the chest. “Stop. You know you love Alice.”

“Uh, yeah, I don’t love that she took you to a bar in Jasper to pick up men.”

I let out a laugh. “I wasn’t there to pick up men, I was her wing woman. I was trying to help her meet someone.”

He blurts out a laugh. “Yeah, you saw how that went. Gunner whooped the guy’s ass and then destroyed the bar.”

I nod, remembering it. “Yeah, it didn’t go well. What’s up with him and Alice anyway? Alice says they’re not together, but you wouldn’t know it by the way Gunner acts about her.”

Jack just shakes his head and holds his hands up. “I don’t know anything.”

I roll my eyes because of course he has an idea, but he’s just not one to gossip.

“Emily.”

I put some distance between us and sit down on the couch to put on my shoes. “Hmmm.”

He comes to sit down on the coffee table in front of me. He has me caged in between his thighs. “Talk to me. Something happen at work?”

I shake my head. “We both know if something happened you would already know about it, Jack. You have a bodyguard assigned to me and she never leaves my side.”

He shrugs. “Fine. Talk to me.”

I look down at my hands. “Talk to you about what?”

He puts a finger on my chin and lifts it so I have to look at him. “Talk to me about what’s bothering you.”

“Nothing,” I lie.

He moves to the seat next to me and then gently pulls me into his lap. I go easily without hesitation. I’m used to Jack pulling me into his lap, carrying me around and every other way he manhandles me.

Even as I burrow into him, I’m telling him we need to go. “We’re going to be late.”

“We will get there sooner if you tell me what’s on your mind.”

I clear my throat. “Okay, well, remember after we got married we decided that we would wait a few years before we had kids?”

He looks at me curiously. “Yes.”

I nod and swallow. “Right, well, maybe we should talk about this later.”

“Emily.” He says my name as he holds me tighter. “Talk to me. What is it? Did you change your mind?”

My eyes widen. I didn’t exactly change my mind on purpose, but it is what it is. “Well, actually, what do you think of having a kid sooner?”

He nods and kisses my cheek. “Let’s do it.”

This was too easy. I grab him and shake my head. “Jack, I don’t think you get it. Uh…”

He tenses and searches my face. “Wait… are you saying… are you pregnant?”

I bite my lower lip and since I’m unable to answer him, I nod my head.

I stare at him, eyes wide, wondering how he is going to react to the news. We talked about traveling. We’ve talked about a lot of things, and all of those included waiting a few years to have kids. Jack’s face goes from pure excitement to worry. “Are you okay with this?”

I’m trying to rein it in. I’m excited, but I’m also scared. We had plans, and this was not part of our plan. Instead of answering him, I ask him hesitantly, “Are you okay with this?”

He wraps his arm around my waist and holds on to me. “I’m going to have to be honest with you, Emily.”

I hold my breath. Good or bad, I want the truth. “‘That’s what I want.”

“I knew from the first moment I met you I wanted to have kids with you, and I know the timing is off from what you had planned...” I’m looking at him wide-eyed and worried as he continues.

“But this is exactly what I want, Em. I want a family with you, and I’m going to be right by your side the whole time. ”

I just stare at him, trying to process it all, but he continues. “Talk to me, honey, because you’re freaking me out a little bit.”

He’s still looking at me the same way he always does. I don’t know why I thought this would be any different or why this would change how he feels about me. Before I can say anything, he asks, “Are you having second thoughts? About me? About us?”

“What? No!” I exclaim.

He cups my face in his hands. “Do you want to have kids with me?”

I nod with assurance. “More than anything.”

As if he can’t hold back anymore, he presses his lips to mine in a kiss full of promises. When he pulls away, he is smiling happily. “I love you so much, Em.”

I nod. “I love you too. And I’m happy. I just didn’t want you to feel…”

He kisses my cheeks. “Feel what?”

I shrug, feeling ridiculous. “I dunno, like I’d trapped you.”

As soon as I say the words, I know how crazy it sounds. “Trapped me?” he exclaims. “Honey, I stalked you. I couldn’t stay away from you and you think you trapped me?”

The tears start to flow, and I’m wiping them away as fast as they fall. Jack’s mouth drops. “Emily, stop, no crying.”

I start to laugh then. “We have to go or we’re going to be late.”

“We can skip it.”

I pull back to look at him. “We can’t skip it.”

He holds me to him, burying his face in my neck. “I just want to be with you.”

I laugh, still wiping tears. “Me too. Let’s go, husband.”

He helps me finish putting shoes on and then stands up, holding me. I watch as he grabs the keys to my car off the key rack and I move up next to him. “What are you doing?”

He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “Did you change your mind? Want to stay here and celebrate?”

I grab at the keys in his hand. “No, I mean, why did you grab my car keys? We’ll go on the bike.”

He puts a hand at my belly. “Em, you’re pregnant.”

I grab the keys to his bike off the wall. “Yeah, and we’d better ride while we can.”

He shakes his head. He doesn’t like it, but I know he’s not going to tell me no.

He sighs, shaking his head. “Whatever you want, baby.”

I laugh and lean into him. “Are you going to be overprotective the next eight months?” Before he can answer, I’m nodding my head. “Of course you are.”

He laughs with me. “You love me just the way I am.”

I kiss him. “You’re right, I do.”

It took a lot of convincing, but finally Jack realized that I didn’t care about his past. All I care about is his future. Well, our future.

He grabs my hand. “Let’s go, Em. The sooner we go, the sooner we get back to celebrate.”

I fall into step beside him. “I like the sound of that.”

As I get onto the back of his bike and we ride across town, I can’t help but be grateful for everything that I have in my life. Marrying Jack was the best thing I’ve ever done. I never dreamed I would feel this level of happiness.

I tighten my arms around his waist and press my body against his. This, him, our baby, it’s everything I’ve ever needed, and I know the best is yet to come.