Page 17

Chapter Fifteen

Every bone and nerve in my body hurts. Even my fingernails ache.

“I’ll follow behind you,” Gray tells Low as I’m getting into the passenger side of the truck she drives. I try not to watch them as he escorts her to the driver’s side with a hand pressed to the small of her back.

She can deny it all she wants, but there’s something between them. More than friends. There’s a spark that crackles in the air around them when they are together. When they round the other side of the truck, they are just outside of my view for a moment. Long enough for them to share a secret kiss.

When she climbs in, she grins like a loon.

She asks me, “Ready?”

“Yup,” I pop the P.

“It’s getting late, but if you’re hungry, we can swing by Remy Lou’s drive-in for some chicken strip baskets.”

I almost tell her I’m not hungry, but then I remember that I’m eating for two. “That would be great. Thanks.”

“No problem. They have the best peach lemonade and frozen Coke. You have to get the frozen Coke.”

The drive-in reminds me of something out of a retro movie or classic tv show. The servers all roll up to your window on roller skates. The neon signs shaped like ice cream, hot dogs, and fries give it that special touch.

Working here looks like it would be fun if I wasn’t pregnant.

I still haven’t processed the news.

A baby is the last thing I need. Especially one fathered by Thad.

Will our child be mean like him?

Will Thad try to take this baby from me?

Will he kill me anyway when he catches up to me, or will he allow me to give birth first?

Low orders for us, and Gray parks off to the side. I catch her smiling at him through her side mirror a few times while we’re waiting. Watching the two of them eye fuck each other is a welcomed distraction from my own problems and the aches and pains racking my body and nervous system.

“How long have you and Gray been a couple?”

Her cheeks redden, giving her away before she opens her mouth. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You’re not fooling anyone. Especially not me. I see the way you two look at each other. How you trade smiles and touches when you think no one is watching.”

“I’ll tell you about Gray when you are honest with me about your relationship with my brother.”

“Things with him are complicated. I doubt there will be an us to discuss. Not after tonight. There’s too much standing between us.”

“If it’s Faye you’re worried about, you shouldn’t be. He doesn’t love her. He’s tried, but I think he married for club politics. He’s not said as much, but we were all surprised when he told us. Everyone hates her.”

“I’m pregnant. By my husband. Even if Faye wasn’t in the picture, he’s not going to want me. Why should he? I’m more trouble than he needs. I come with a lot of baggage.”

“Those few days on the road... I’d never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. It was like watching love at first sight happen.”

Before I can tell her she’s wrong or crazy, our food and drinks arrive, and we go back to the clubhouse. When we get there, she offers to stick around, but I can tell Gray wants to get her alone and it’s cute watching them dance around each other.

I take my food and my frozen Coke to my room and find Woods waiting for me.

“Hey,” I whisper, losing what little of an appetite I’d built on the way here. “What are you doing here?”

“Last I checked, this is my club and my room. And you’re here, butterfly.”

“Didn’t you hear what I told you at the clinic?”

“Yup. What about it?”

“I just thought...”

“Thought what?” He puts my food on the dresser and takes my hands in his.

“That where I am is the last place you’d want to be.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I’m pregnant with another man’s baby.”

“That doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

“You hardly know me. We started all wrong. We’re both married to other people. When Thad finds out about this baby, who knows what he will do?”

“Who is going to tell him?”

“He deserves to know.”

“Does he?”

“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “This is all too much. Too fast.”

“I ended shit with Faye. And yeah, part of that was because of how I feel about you, but that course was already set. One of us just needed to pull the plug.”

I nod. “I need time to process my life choices. It’s not only me I need to worry about. I’m going to have a baby and every choice I make from here on out will affect them. I need to think long and hard about what comes next, and I don’t know that I can think clearly when I’m with you.”

“You don’t want to be with me?”

“I like you. A lot. But I should take a minute to breathe and process everything. I mean, your wife kidnapped me and my husband wants my head on a platter.”

“More reason to be with me. The second I claim you as mine, the cartel won’t touch you.”

“I appreciate that you want to protect me. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me, but I think we’re moving too fast. Let’s get to know each other before we jump into something that you might regret.”

“What makes you think I’d regret you?”

“Not me, but I can’t expect you to take all of this on. It was selfish of me to climb onto the back of your bike and to sleep with you again after knowing you were married.”

“If you think you’re doing me any favors by pushing me away, you’re wrong and babe, I’m not the kind of man who makes promises he intends to break. I’m not walking away from this.”

“Then don’t walk away. Just maybe take a few steps back.”

“Is that what you really want?”

“It’s what we should do, right? I mean, this is crazy, isn’t it?”

“Take a breath. Sit down. Eat your food. And worry about everything else tomorrow.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Nothin’ worth havin’ is ever easy.”

“And this is what you want? To be with me? A woman you barely know that’s pregnant with another man’s baby.”

“We could be fuckin’ great. We could be a goddamned mess. Eat your food before it gets cold. I’m gonna shower. You can have it after me or you can join me.”

Woods leaves me with my thoughts, but what I really want is to not think at all.

I nibble on a chicken tender and scrape my spoon around the edges of the frozen drink.

The shower comes on in the next room. My feet lead me there.

To Woods. I find him undressed, gripping his cock, head thrown back, water dripping down his tattooed and muscular form.

The sight of him is beautiful. Breathtakingly so.

Staring at him at this moment, all I know is I’ve never wanted anything more.

The cartel could show up tomorrow, guns blazing, and take all of this way. Take me away from him. End my life.

“You going to just stand there and watch, or are you going to join me?”

Life is too short to not reach out and grab real while you can.

So that’s what I do.

Stripped down and bared to this rough and growly biker, I reach out for him and hold on tight, hoping when he says he’s never letting me go, he means it.

Because I want this. Whatever we are. Fucked up and raw. Ugly. Broken. Real. Mine.

Warm water drips down him as I lather his body with soap. Every movement hurts, but I push through the pain for him. Dirt swirls in the drain. The fucked up day I’ve had washing away like magic. As if none of it happened.

We switch places, and he washes me in return, pausing over the small curve of my belly.

“Did they say how far you are?”

I shake my head.

“I’ll get you an appointment. I don’t want you to worry. I’m going to get the cartel off you and take care of Thad.”

“Take care of him, how?”

“I’m going to kill him. Does that bother you?”

“A normal person would say yes.”

He chuckles and kisses my forehead. “Glad you recognize neither of us is normal.”

“Fuck, butterfly. You’re taking me so good.” Woods grips my hair as he slowly fucks my mouth. “Keep doing that,” he praises me. “My naughty girl.”

A growl rumbles from deep in his chest as I stroke the bottom half of his shaft and lick and suck the rest of him, doing my best to work every inch of him with my mouth.

I hum my appreciation of his thick and veiny cock.

All I want is to get him off.

“Touch yourself for me. Let me see you make yourself come.”

My cheeks bloom pink. I’ve never let anyone watch. Being with him is like flying too damn close to the sun. His warmth and happiness. Euphoria. But he has the potential to utterly destroy me if this goes bad.

And fuck if this doesn’t have every chance of ruining his life. Mine. The life of my unborn child.

But it could also be the best thing to ever happen to me.

The best fucking thing.

I close my eyes and give this man…my man, what he wants.

“That’s it. Show me how you like it. How you want it,” his deep voice beckons, and a shiver moves through me. I could get off from the sound of his voice alone when it gets that husky sound. The tone I’m coming to realize he only uses with me.

The thought of him talking like this to any other woman makes me crazy. So fucking crazy I could cry or smack the piss out of him when it’s not even his fault I’m jealous at the thought.

The idea of it makes me take him deeper into my mouth to show him that I’m all he needs while alternating my touches between my nipples and my clit.

“You goin’ to swallow like a good girl?” he questions. His cock twitches. A guttural groan escapes his lips as he tightens his hold on my hair, quickening his thrusts.

My mouth burns as I stretch it wider to take him to the back of my throat.

His salty and sweet taste erupts on my tongue and, like his good girl, I swallow every damn drop.

He rewards me with his mouth between my legs and his thumb in my ass.

The man goes absolutely feral, licking, sucking, touching, and claiming me like a wild animal taking his mate.

Marking my inner thighs with possessive bites that don’t hurt.

The action is tender and loving. An act that says you’re mine.

My biker feasts on my pussy like it’s his last meal, and he’s a starving man.

“Tell me you’re mine and that you’re never leaving me.” He flips me over and smacks my ass. “Tell me,” His demand comes out like a desperate plea. As though the mere thought of losing me pains him.

“I’m yours, all yours.”

Slap . “And you what?”

“I’ll never leave you, honey.”