Unintended, page 23
James makes quick work at teasing me with his fingers and mouth between my thighs. The wiry hair of his beard rubs over my sensitive skin. “Nothing better than this.” He grips my hips, holding me in place. “Don’t know what I did to deserve such an angel,” he murmurs.
“I’m no angel. But, babe, we’ve sure been through plenty of hell.”
It’s been months since we got rid of the toxic bitch who poisoned our lives for years. Part of me is still on edge waiting for Ruthie’s next move from beyond the grave. I’m getting all I ever wanted. I should be happy, and for the most part I am. And yet I keep waiting for it all to fall apart. For something bad to breeze into our lives and ruin all we’ve fought so damn hard to build.
Can it be this easy and natural? For so many years I fought for him to see me. To be with him. I dreamed of nothing but this only to have his wife at the time shoved in my face over and over again. Of course this was all due to bad timing and fucked up circumstances out of his control. I wasn’t innocent. I know I’ve done wrong. James is the only good I’ve ever had outside of being Wylla Mae’s mother. I don’t know how to accept that this is it. We’re finally proving everyone wrong. My parents—everyone who said we’d never last.
I’m days away from saying those two precious words. I do. This Valentine’s Day is twenty years in the making. No sneaking around. No stolen kisses. Random hookups.
This is freedom.
Me in his bed and him in mine.
No games.
Simply this.
Us.
I stroke his jaw. “I love you.”
“You better.”
“Do you doubt it?”
“Not even for a second.”
James gets down to business eager to make a baby.
I wish I could give him a son, but the thought is truly terrifying. I can’t go it alone a second time. Not that I think he’d walk out on me, but what if something else happens to take him away? I won’t survive losing him a second time.
“Whatever thoughts you got running through that overactive mind of yours, shut it down, Lex. If you got more on your mind than my dick right now, I gotta work harder.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” I shake my head and my man stops what he’s doing.
“Cold feet?”
“No.”
“This baby business?”
“I’m scared.”
“I’ll never do a damn thing to hurt you again. Promise you.”
“It’s not that. Its everything else. You’re the President of an outlaw motorcycle club and yeah I’ve always known that and how dangerous it is, but I can’t lose you a second time.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
“Baby, stop worrying and go with it. Life is giving us a real shot. Let’s not fuck it up with what ifs.”
I know he’s right.
“You gonna stop all that worrying so I can eat and fuck you?” his finger slides back in my sweet spot. That mouth gets back to devouring me and yeah, I’m good. Better than good. I’m great.
I got the guy.
May have taken us twenty years to get here but we’re here.
James switches positions, moving to line the head of his cock up with me. “Fuck, pretty girl. Every time I slide right in its as though God himself has opened the gates to Heaven for me.”
I smile at that because I know exactly what he means. When our bodies meld together, only then do I truly feel whole.
38
“Everyone in?” I glance around the table, noting that Hardy, AKA X, isn’t present. Brother did it and left for the Anchorage, Alaska Chapter. Good for him. Prodigy is back after spending some time out west looking after his mother. Crawl slips in at the last second.
East gives me a nod.
“Right. Where are we with this Cloud Nine business?”
“More reports of bodies turning up. Shit is hitting our streets hard. Lost another dancer from the Kitty Kat. She had two kids.” Hound shakes his head.
“Banks, see to it them kids are good.”
“Will do.”
“Anyone know where them Dry Ridge punks have set up shop?”
Crawl shrugs. There’s no point in asking Prodigy being he hasn’t been around.
“Not yet.” Viking sniffs. “Got my feelers out to the guys at the gym.”
“Need this shit settled.” I jerk my chin up when I realize I’m down another man. “Where’s Holy?”
Sandman grins and rubs his jaw. “Got a hit on his phantom. Went after her.”
“Right,” I mutter. Few months back I sent Viking and Holy after my niece and she gave them the slip. Holy takes it personal or some shit. “Call him back.”
“Last I spoke with him he said he’d be back in time for the wedding. Also told me to make sure I had a design ready for his brand,” Roane informs me.
“Shit. Bastard went and fell in love.” I massage my temples. Not even laid eyes on my blood and that little prick has already laid claim. Fuckin’ hell. “Best see to it you do then. Back to business. Anyone sees them sorry fucks pushing that shit in my town don’t take them out. Get eyes on’em, eventually it’ll lead us to the source. Those shit for brains has gotten smarter. They gotta have someone else bringing it in for them. I want to know who.”
I slam my gavel and excuse all my men except my VP.
East leans in. “You ready for this weekend?”
“Been waiting twenty years for it. I’m past ready.”
“Got the prospect getting the spare rooms ready for our guests. Should start arriving Friday.”
“Good. Good. Make sure the bar is stocked and Pam has extra food on reserve.” I pull out the blunt I’ve been saving and give it a sniff. “Wylla Mae say anything about this girl’s night?”
“What about it?”
I shrug. “What kind of entertainment they got lined up?” I fire up that blunt, suck in a heavy pull, smoke moves through my lungs, and I hold it in then exhale slowly, before passing it off to my son-in-law.
“Usual. Strippers and shit.”
“You good with that?”
“Fuck no. My woman doesn’t need to stare at no dick but mine. All due respect.”
“She’s grown. And hell, I like knowing she’s with you. Know you treat her right.”
“You know the men expect you to throw one hell of a party. I got Link and Viking putting it together. Tomorrow night. You gotta make an appearance. Show’em you ain’t growing soft and pussy whipped.”
Fucking hell. Who knows what them dickholes got planned? As for being pussy whipped, I know what the fuck I got, and I’m not going to mess it up. Got my woman. My dream girl in my bed every night. Finally have a relationship with my daughter after all this time. Got a granddaughter who means the world to me.
Got a VP worth a damn at my side. Everything is coming together. The club. My life. “You keeping the baby while this shit goes down?”
“Yeah, Link, Roane, and me are on baby duty. Meeting up at Link’s. You’re more than welcome to hang but I don’t think milk and cookies is your thing.”
“No, but it could be if Lex gives me what I want.”
“She still hardballing you about this baby business?”
“Fuck if I know. Woman says one thing and does another.”
“You think a baby is a good idea, especially right now with this Cloud Nine and Dry Ridge Sinner business?”
“Not putting my life on hold again. I know what I want. Grab Hound. Let’s pay our buddy Ollie a visit.”
East shakes his head and puts the blunt out. He goes to hand it to me, but I shake my head.
“Leave it for next time.”
I go on out to climb on my Road King with East and Hound behind me. Ollie is no friend, but we have an understanding. He can sell his pills long as he doesn’t deal to my men or kids. If anyone has a line on this Cloud Nine, it’s him.
I ride up to the gate and Ollie’s man gives me a chin lift.
“Boss expecting you?”
“Nope.”
The dumbfuck speaks into his walkie talkie, “Got some bastards here to see you.”
“Put’em through,” Ollie’s gruff voice rings out.
He knows we’re an enemy he doesn’t need. We ride through the maze of crushed cars and piles of scrap metal, weaving through the wreckage and debris until we reach his trailer in the back.
Ollie sits in his broken-down recliner weighing a good three fifty. Bet he’s not seen his dick since he hit puberty. A shotgun propped up next to him and a pistol in his lap. You don’t sell drugs unless you’re willing to pay the costs. Spitting a wad of tobacco onto the cement porch, he shifts to sit straighter and taller. “What brings you boys by? You come to scrap them scooters?”
Hound growls.
“We still good on our agreement?”
“Not sold to your men or any school kids if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What about Cloud Nine? You been running that?”
“Nope.”
“You know who’s bringing it in? Gotta be bad for your bottom line having that competition.”
His beady eyes narrow. “I don’t like your tone.”
“Yeah, and I just plain ol’ don’t like you, but I tolerate your presence.”
“We got a problem between us?”
“Not as long as you remember our arrangement. You start pushing Cloud Nine then I’ll burn this shit hole you call home to the ground with you in it. Got me?”
“Don’t know shit all about no Cloud Nine. I hear something I’ll give you a ring.”
“You do that.”
“Now if that concludes are business get the fuck off my property. Don’t bode well for business you sniffing around my lot.”
“Let’s go,” I tell Hound and East. We ride out. East veers off to go home. Hound stays with me till we get to the Devil’s Playground. “Prospect,” I boom as I walk through the door.
“Yeah, Prez?”
“Time to prove your worth. Head to the Kitty Kat and talk to the girls. Find out what they know about the dead girl and where she was scoring. I want names. Get with Viking. I want a pop-up drug test done on every single one of them. Any of them try to get out of it tell them to pack their shit and get gone. And, Rio?”
“What?”
“You aren’t there to stare at no tits and ass. You fuck this up and you’re good as dead.”
“You can count on me.”
“Good that’s what I like to hear, son. Now get the lead out.”
39
I finish running my flat iron through my hair, then touch up my makeup. I sense his presence and glance to the doorway through the mirror.
“You cut your hair?”
“You like it?”
“Looks damn good on you, babe, but hell you’d look fit as fuck no matter what you do.”
“Stop sucking up. It’s not getting you anywhere.”
“You sure you can’t cancel,” his gruff tone sends the good kinda shiver up my spine and back down it.
“Pam went to a lot of trouble putting this night together. She’s finally being nice to me. I’m not getting on her bad side again and dealing with her cold shoulder bitch routine for another twenty years.”
“Get that, Lex. C’mere.”
“I need to get dressed. If I come there, you’re going to kiss me, and we both know that it won’t end there.”
“Where you think it’ll end?” he grins knowing damn good and well where it ends.
“Exactly where you’d keep me if I’d allow it.”
“What can I say? I’m addicted to your pussy.”
“That all you keep me around for?”
“Like that mouth. No love that mouth. Them tits. That ass. My woman has it all, but most of all I love the way you love me, Lex.”
“Why you gotta get all sweet on me?” I take the two steps it takes to reach him. “Guess I’ll be late, huh?”
“Yup. Kiss me,” he orders, and I comply.
I touch my lips to his. James glides the tip of his tongue along the seam of my mouth demanding entrance. I give in even though I know he’s going to ruin my makeup and my hair. It’ll be worth it. My man always satisfies me, so I’m thrown off my game when he’s the first to break away.
“Thank you. Now go get ready.”
“Seriously?”
He licks his bottom lip rolling it inward. “Mhmm. Go on and get all worked up watching them strippers or whatever it is Pam has going on. Then when you’re ready, you call me, and I’ll fuck you.”
“You know most male strippers are gay and besides, you have something they don’t.”
“And what’s that?”
“My heart. Your ink on my skin. And…” I trail off and bring his hand to my stomach. His eyes go big and round. “I found out something today.”
“What’s that,” he croaks.
“Sooo, I thought I was going to wait to tell you, but I got to talking with the girls at the salon today and planning our wedding around my period came up. Then it hit me. Honey, I should’ve started last week. I didn’t. So one of the girls went and got me a test. I took it.”
“And?”
“Guess your swimmers and my eggs like each other as much as we do. I’m pregnant.”
“Fuck,” he mutters and a tear forms in the crease of his right eye. “You being real with me?”
“I wouldn’t fuck with you, not about this.”
He nods and tucks my head into his chest, embracing me tight enough to cut off my airway.
“Can’t breathe, James.”
He eases up. “You tell anyone else yet?”
“No. Wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Good. Keep it that way for now. You can tell Wylla Mae if you think she can keep it to herself.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to be worried about. Club business.”
“Must be something if you don’t want me announcing this pregnancy. I can’t live with secrets, James. I won’t do a repeat of the past twenty years. There’s always something or someone coming between us.”
“This is different. Less you know the better but there’s some trouble with the Dry Ridge Sinners moving back in with Cloud Nine.”
“Drugs?”
“Yeah. I’m trying to get to the bottom of shit before it gets out of hand. Been losing dancers at the Kitty Kat to that demon. This last one left two kids with only the grandma to raise’m.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It is. That’s why I’m asking you to hold off until this is under control. I don’t think you’re in danger but…”
“I could be,” I finish for him. “I’m no stranger to the life. To your life. I know what I signed on for.”
James grabs both my arms and squeezes me. “I know you did, but I’ve put you in harm’s way one too many times. I won’t lose you or jeopardize this baby.” He stares at me long and hard.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go out tonight.”
“No. That’s not what I meant, babe. I want you to go and have a good time. Like I said you don’t need to worry. Club will take care of the problem and exterminate the infestation. I don’t want to intrude on your night. Though you should know I’ll have one of my men keeping an eye.”
“Okay.”
“Should call you dream maker, Lex. Cause you sure as fuck makin’ all mine come true.”
“If you get any sweeter, I’m going to think you’re an alien.” I lean up to kiss him. Then I look at the clock and scream. “I’m going to be late.”
“Thought we already established that.” Lacing his fingers through mine he walks me toward the closet. “I’m going downstairs because if I don’t, I’m going to strip you out of this robe and celebrate you having my baby.”
“Where have you been? Pam glares at me as I squeeze between Wylla Mae and Jules.
“I got held up.”
“Mhmm,” she says on a groan. “Time to catch up. These are for you.” She slides three shots in my direction.
I shake my head. “I’m not drinking.”
“And why not?”
“You know watching my figure and avoiding carbs. I gotta fit into my dress.”
“You ain’t ever been big a day in your life other than your chest and backside.”
“Ease up, sister,” Jules cuts in.
Pam narrows her eyes on me. “You’re lying. Out with it.”
“It’s nothing. I don’t want to drink. Geez. Get off my ass.”
“Mom has never been a big drinker.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. I’ll be fine with a water.”
“What kind of lame ass party you think this is? I got a reputation to uphold. Unless.” Her eyes widen and her lips stretch into a devious smirk. “He knocked you up, didn’t he?”
I shake my head. Damn Pam and her meddling and always in everyone’s business. “We can have a good time without getting shitfaced.” I swirl my straw around in the ice water my daughter pushed in front of me.
“If you say so, but this is a kid free night mind you, and I intend to take advantage.”
“My not drinking isn’t stopping you.”
“It’s no fun to drink alone.”
Wylla Mae chews on her bottom lip and Jules looks away.
“What’s with you two?”
“Go ahead and tell her,” Pam presses then downs the shots I refused.
Jules sips her Coke. “Roane and I are having another baby. I wanted to wait until after the wedding before I said anything.” A sheepish smile crosses her features.
“And you?” I turn to my daughter.
“Um. You see…what happened was…”
“Pfft. We know what happened,” Pam cuts her off with a snort. “East couldn’t wait the six weeks after Mila was born for her to start birth control and went and knocked her up again.”
“Seriously? I thought you were planning to go back to school. I’m going to kill him. What about your plans?”
“I can still go back.”
“And who is going to be changing all these diapers while you’re at school? I tell you who it won’t be is me.”
