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CHAPTER

ELEVEN

Brick

“Son, you better be glad I fucking love you and don’t wanna answer to the brothers for taking you out,” my pops growls out once Ryleigh flounces upstairs to finish her abundance of wrapping.

All the brothers left for their respective chapters, bottles of good whiskey in their trucks in appreciation for their help, along with multiple tins of cookies that Ryleigh and the club girls baked. My ol’ lady even asked Murder what the wedding couple would like for their gift then jotted it down on her ever-present list.

“Not sure what you mean, Pops,” I reply nonchalantly, sipping at my beer while Kracken and Brew make faces at me behind his back. The rest of the brothers are all just sitting around, drinking a few cold ones, and enjoying the festive atmosphere, although I’m pretty sure they’re all dying to know what their stockings are currently holding, since my ol’ lady has been adding things every time she comes down with her hands full of wrapped gifts.

They’re all going to be spoiled, and right now, I can’t find it in me to give that first fuck. She’s having an absolute blast spending money, baking, decorating, and making lists of what she wants to do once the holidays are over. I’m not gonna stop her, that’s for damn sure.

He’s been bitching since they got back, although thankfully, not in front of my ol’ lady, because he fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, when she asked right after everyone took off if he could help her find a new wallet for Banshee since she didn’t know where the Harley store was at. With one prospect driving, and his wheelchair strapped to the back, he didn’t suspect a damn thing.

However, not only did they hit the Harley Davidson store, where according to him she dropped quite a bit of money, she also took him to an outlet mall where she dragged him through several stores on her quest to find a butter hut. Along the way, she found stuff for the kittens, me, the club girls, Pops’ nurse, the brothers, and even her best friend. Hell, I know for a fact she found a few things for Pops as well.

“You knew damn good and well that girl was going to do some shopping, not just hit Harley!” he exclaims.

“Pops, did you have a good time with her?” I question, knowing damn good and well he did based on what the prospect already told me.

His head drops even as he nods. “You know I did. She’s a witty little thing, ain’t she?” he grumbles, tossing back a shot of whiskey. “Very observant about all kinds of shit.”

“She doesn’t remember her real dad, Pops. That means you gotta be there for her,” I gently remind him. “You gotta be able to tell her their stories.”

“I can do that, but I think I’m full up on shopping until about fifty years after I’ve died, son,” he laments, causing the rest of the brothers to burst into peals of laughter.

“Gotta admit, she sure adds life to this fucking place,” Phantom remarks. “We haven’t had a dull moment since the night Voodoo walked in here and said we had to go find your ol’ lady.”

“Ain’t that the fucking truth.”

“Do you know what they’re cooking for dinner tomorrow?” Brew asks, already patting his stomach. “Fuck, she can cook. So can her best friend, Cassie.”

“Thinking they’re doing a couple of hams with all the trimmings,” I answer, vaguely recalling her talking over the menu with Leathyr last week.

“After the holidays, I’m gonna have to start exercising,” Phantom confides while snickering. “No sense doing it now, so close to the new year and all that shit.”

“Does she know about clubs? Ryleigh’s friend, that is,” Jingles inquires, a wistful look on his face.

“Why do you ask, brother?” I ask while glaring at him.

“Because she’s cute and intrigues me, Brick.”

“You ain’t messing with her best friend, Jingles,” I warn. “Especially not if you’re just looking for some fun or a one-time hook up. Cassie ain’t that kind of girl and I won’t have my ol’ lady upset or hurt if you fuck things up for her friend.”

He throws his hands up and replies, “It’s not like that, Brick, I swear. She kinda reminds me of a girl I grew up next to, back when I lived in Ohio, before my old man moved me to Roanoke, is all. I know she’s the kind of girl you don’t fuck around with, she’s the kind you wife up or in our case, claim as your ol’ lady.”

Sometimes, you do both, but I don’t say that out loud. While I’ve done the majority of my shopping online simply because of everything going on, Ryleigh has absolutely no clue how overboard I’ve gone because the club girls have been hiding everything away except for a few select packages which I have under our tree in our suite. Some others are under the big one in the common room.

Rapping my knuckles against the table, I stand and grab my empty bottle as I make my way over to the bar for another. “Prospect!” I call out, only to have him already handing a fresh one to me. “Y’all don’t destroy it too much down here. I know she’s planning on doing a brunch thing around eleven before she lets y’all see what you got for Christmas.”

I hear their groans but know every single brother will ensure it’s pristine down here so when she comes into the room, her vision of how it should look won’t be ruined by empty beer bottles, trash, and other shit. Hell, they’ve even been making sure the ashtrays on the screened porch are kept emptied just in case she wants to go out there and sit to get some fresh air.

“Is it safe to enter?” I call through our bedroom door after rapping my knuckles on the door. I can hear her giggling then some paper rustling, before the door is unlocked and flung open.

“Hey, handsome,” she cheerfully states, waving her arms around. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was drunk, but she seldom drank before she found out she was pregnant, and she definitely doesn’t now. Maybe it’s the Christmas-y smells in here. I can see several candles on the mantle are lit and burning, their scent heavy and somewhat cloying, but not annoyingly so.

“Babe, how… I mean… what the hell?” I sputter out, looking at the sheer disaster our suite is in, right now. “You’ve been up here for an hour at most by yourself.”

She snickers while picking up empty paper rolls and folding them over before shoving them into a garbage bag. “Well, you see what had happened was, I kind of forgot I had more things to wrap, and they were for you, so I had to hurry.”

“Ry?” I cautiously ask, watching the garbage bag rustle.

“Hmm?”

“Babe, where are the kittens?”

“What? Oh, they were on their cat?—”

Her voice trails off when she glances over to the corner and doesn’t see either kitten. Then, she looks at the bed but nope, still no fuzzy bodies. I watch her check under the bed, in the bathroom, under the couch and even under the tree, my arms crossed as I try to hold in my mirth. When her face drops and her lip starts to tremble, I finally relent, take her by the shoulders and turn her toward where the garbage bag has now made it to our bedroom door.

Her peals of laughter are pure music to my ears as she flops onto her knees then quickly roots around inside the bag, finally coming out with a kitten in each hand.

“Boys, don’t you know Santa is watching? What if we didn’t notice you were in there? You could’ve died or something!”

Since I don’t want her getting all worked up, I quickly interject and reply, “Babe, there’s no way I wouldn’t have realized they were missing, or hell, even that the garbage typically doesn’t roll around the room.”

She gazes up at me, her eyes sparkling as she starts laughing. “You make a good point, handsome. I guess I need to finish putting all of this up so we can get ready for bed. Did you tell the brothers I was planning to cook brunch around eleven or so?”

“I did.”

“Thank you.”

“Told you, Ryleigh, if it was in my power to give you something or do something for you, I was gonna do it. This is one of those things. Now, let me help you get this sorted out if you’re done because I wanna start a Christmas Eve tradition with my ol’ lady.”

Ryleigh

“I like this tradition, Brick,” I moan out, his hands gripping my hips as he thrusts upward while I try to keep my balance as I roll my hips in an effort to get more friction against my clit.

“We might have to get a bit creative once the baby gets older, but I think we’ll find time, don’t you?” he replies, grinning up at me.

“Hell yeah,” I say, my breaths now coming in short pants as I feel my pussy fluttering. “Brick!” I keen out, clamping down on his girth as he roars out his own orgasm.

As I flop onto his chest, my lungs begging for oxygen, I kiss the spot right over his heart. “Love you.”

“I love you more.”

“Let’s just stay like this for a little while,” I coax, unwilling to move from the cocoon that is his arms banded around me as his hands stroke up and down my back.

“I’m good with that, sweetheart.”