She shrugged. “There’s nothing to say. It’s already happened and it’s already taken place. Colt stayed over that first night on the disgusting furniture he ‘furnished’ the place with, and then he was gone by the morning. I didn’t even get to see him leave, and I hadn’t seen him since. Until he pulled up beside me and motioned for me to pull over into the parking lot you found us in,” she said.

  “I take it he was bitching you out for being back.”

  “Oh, yeah. Very much so. I want to consider him family, but I really don’t. He hasn’t been a genuine part of my life since I was ten or so. He didn’t even know about Sierra until we spoke in the parking lot.”

  “He didn’t know you had her either?” I asked.

  “How could he? He was never around. I never knew how to get in contact with him. I didn’t figure out I was pregnant until six days after he left me in that townhouse in the middle of a city I had no clue how to navigate.”

  “What did you do, then? Who did you tell?”

  “No one, at first. I dropped out of the community college and found a job waitressing in the restaurant I manage now.”

  “But when you told them you were pregnant, they would have known the child was mine,” I said.

  She nodded. “Another reason why they sided with Colt. When I finally broke down and told them what was going on, my father came to stay with me for a little while. Said he’d help in any way he could. But that him and Mom and Colt felt it was best that I stayed in Chico. They made excuses, like there were better doctors in the area and shit like that. But, something in my gut told me that they either didn’t want me around you or that Colt had told them about the crew himself. Like he had done with me.”

  The more she spoke, the more I grew to hate the man I had called my best friend for years. I joined the Black Hornets because of him. I became a prospect because he sponsored me. I grew into the young man I was because of his guidance, and I was finding out that he was the reason I had Eden ripped from me in the first fucking place. It boiled my blood. It made my vision drip with red. I kept my breathing steady as Eden tucked the blanket around her body. The deeper we got into the conversation, the more physically closed off she became. I knew she felt as if she was on display, but I didn't want her feeling like that around me.

  I wanted her feeling safe.

  “Did I never make you feel safe?” I asked.

  Eden’s eyes panned up to mine as she swallowed hard.

  “Why would you ask that?” she asked.

  “There are so many reasons for why I ask, but the main reason is the fact that you keep tucking yourself deeper into the couch. Into the blanket. Like you don’t trust me. Like you think I’m going to lash out at you. Is that what you think?”

  “I don’t really know what to think anymore,” she whispered.

  “Eden, your life was turned upside down. I can’t imagine what you went through. What you endured. How that must’ve felt at eighteen and freshly graduated and having your family come at you like that. But did you really not think you could come to me? Did you really not think you could talk to me?”

  “I guess I was angry at you. I was angry at a lot of things, but knowing you kept a secret like that from me for so long. I guess it just broke my trust in you.”

  “And your brother leaving you and your parents high and dry didn’t?” I asked.

  “Look, I made a lot of shitty decisions. And not all of them were rational. I can’t make it make sense because it doesn't make sense. I was a seventeen and eighteen-year-old girl in love with a boy that was a prospect for a motorcycle club and he hid it from me. I was an eighteen-year-old girl who didn’t know she was pregnant yet being bombarded by her long-lost brother and her parents to start a new life elsewhere. Forgive me if I didn’t consider every possible angle in the process.”

  “I figured the father of your child would've been a pretty big one,” I said.

  “I didn't even know I was pregnant until I was already in Chico!’

  “But you said you thought you might have been, right? Why didn’t you come to me with those thoughts?”

  “Because you were keeping secrets from me. So, why the hell should I have told you all of mine?”

  And there it was. The root of it all. The reason behind all of the choices made. She was pissed off that I hid something from her, so she hid something from me.

  Revenge.

  The most powerful motivator in the world.

  Chapter 16

  Eden

  “I have to go. I’m sorry,” I said.

  I went to go stand up from the couch, but Duke’s hand wrapped around my wrist. Not commanding or demanding like I figured it would have been, but soft. Calming. Very much unlike the reaction I expected to get. It stopped me in my tracks and I turned around, watching as Duke stood from the couch. His muscles rolled effortlessly underneath his taut skin. My eyes fell down his body, taking in his cock that swung between his legs. It was coated in me. He smelled of me. And it set my body ablaze again. My eyes fluttered closed as he crooked his finger underneath my chin. My head tilted up. Guided by his strong, reassuring grasp.

  “Look at me, Eden,” he commanded softly.

  And my eyes opened of their own free will.

  I gazed into his hazel eyes. His arm slid around my waist. He cupped my cheek and held me close to his body, the blanket the only thing separating us. Oh, I’d missed being held by him. Being reassured by him. In another life, things would have worked. In another life, we would have been a family. But it was too late for something like that.

  Right?

  “You know I would have kept you safe. All you had to do was come talk with me about this,” he said.

  “How could I, Duke? This was so different than any of the other things we did. This wasn't me losing my fake I.D. or not being able to get out of my parent’s house to see you. This was a child, Duke,” I said.

  “We talked about anything and everything. Your schooling. Your degree. What you wanted to do with your life. Why wouldn’t we have talked about something like this? Something that directly impacted the plans I helped you make for your life?”

  “Because I wanted you to be part of those plans, I guess. And, in my mind, you couldn’t be. Not with all the obstacles I saw in our way. I made a mistake, Duke. And you’re right. I should have come and spoken with you. But I didn’t. I chose to listen to Colt in the hopes that it would preserve my relationship with him. Because in my mind, I had already convinced myself that you were no longer an option. And… I guess I was wrong on both counts.”

  His thumb slid across my cheek and my eyes fluttered closed again. His touch was soft, even though his words were harsh. Even though his voice was low and commanding. Like tires rolling over a gravel driveway. His thumb slid across my lower lip. My lips puckered up and kissed the tip of his finger. And when I did, he pressed harder into my body. His muscles blanketed the softness of my form.

  His cock jumped against my body.

  “I’m sorry I was so scared,” I whispered.

  “I can only imagine how frightened you must have felt,” he said.

  “I never stopped thinking about you. Throughout the pregnancy. Throughout labor. Raising Sierra. She came out looking just like you. I got no reprieve from the sins I committed as an eighteen-year-old.”

  “Sh-sh-sh-sh.”

  “I’m so sorry, Duke. You have to believe me. If I could go back and make—”

  His arms cloaked my back and he pulled my body into his. And for the first time since high school, I cried into his chest. Like I always used to do when things got to be overwhelming. He settled his chin onto the top of my head and slid his arms up and down my back. His movements slowly pushed the blanket down my body. I let it drop. I favored holding him over keeping myself covered. This was Duke. The one boy that set the standard for how I thought people should have treated me.

  He had grown into the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. And I wanted him to set another standard for me.

  I wanted him to set the standard for how men should treat me.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered.

  “I’m so sorry,” I choked out.

  “I know you are. I know. And while I’m upset that I’ve missed out on so much of my daughter’s life, I’m not upset with you.”

  I sniffled as I pulled back, looking up into his eyes. “You’re not?”

  He shook his head. “No. I want to be. I want my frustration with the situation to be put somewhere. But it isn’t with you. It can’t be with you. You were eighteen, Eden. Caught between a brother’s wishes you hadn’t seen in years and a fear your parents were implanting into your head. You didn’t stand a chance against their assault.”

  “I should have been stronger for you.”

  He pressed his finger against my lips before cupping my cheek again.

  “You’ve been the strongest, Eden. I mean, I caught a glimpse of the girl Sierra is growing into. The sass. The spunk.”

  “She’s so much like you,” I groaned.

  Duke chuckled. “It takes a strong woman to do what you did alone. To do what you’re doing alone. But I have to ask you something.”

  “Okay.”

  “What’s the real reason why you didn’t tell anyone you were pregnant?” he asked.

  I sighed, leaning my forehead against his chin and feeling his lips kiss my skin.

  “For the same reason I did everything else. Fear. I was scared of what Colt would say. What my parents would say. They were so quick to shove me off to Chico and uproot me from everything that I was scared they’d make me do something I didn’t want to do. Like give the baby up for adoption. And that wasn't happening. That was the only part of you I had left, and I wasn’t giving that up. I refused to, no matter how much it cost me.”

  “But your parents eventually found out.”

  “Yes, and that was exactly what my mother tried to make me do, actually. It was my father who finally stepped in on the nonsense. He was my greatest supporter. My greatest advocator. And damn it, I miss him more than I can stand,” I whimpered.

  “What happened to them, Eden?”

  His lips kissed down my nose. Down my cheeks. Down my tear trails. His lips made their way to mine and I felt him hovering over them. His nose nuzzling against mine softly. I felt his breath. Smelled his scent. Tasted him on the tip of my tongue. My nipples puckered. My body heated up underneath each pulse of my heart.

  “My father died when Sierra was two of a heart attack and my mother committed suicide last year after not being able to live with her grief any longer,” I whispered.

  His lips fell to mine and my brain stopped swirling. Explanations stopped pouring to the front and everything fell to the wayside. His arms cloaked my back as his tongue pushed through, blanketing my mouth in the warmest, sweetest sensation I’d ever known. His muscles rolled against me. He bent down and scooped me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling him carry me effortlessly down the hallway as his chiseled body tensed to support my curves.

  Curves I had developed from having his child.

  I didn’t stop kissing him until my back hit a mattress. Duke climbed between my legs and I spread them for him. His body sank down into mine. His lips fell down to my neck. His teeth raked against my pulse point, sending shivers up and down my spine.

  But I didn’t want him to take me again.

  I wanted to take him.

  In a flash, I rolled him over onto his back. My tits pressed into his chest and my hands explored his body. I let my tongue trace every outline of his muscles. My hands danced along his sides as his hips rolled into my body. I traveled lower, letting my tongue rumble over his chest. Over the rings of his thick abs. My fingertips slid over his hips, holding him down as his cock jumped for me. I fell between his legs. I nuzzled my nose against the aching vein that bulged from his cock. He groaned for me, his hand fisting my hair as my tongue darted out to lick it.

  And when I tasted him on my tongue again, I lost all sense of control.

  “Holy fuck, Eden,” Duke groaned.

  I wrapped my lips around the tip of his cock and sucked the precum leaking from his tip. I swallowed it down, rejuvenated by the taste of his salted arousal. I inched him into my mouth. Down the back of my throat. I gagged around him, breathing deeply and relaxing myself as his hand pushed me down further. Guiding me to be where he wanted me the most. I hummed around him. His cock throbbed and grew. Reaching girths and length I’d never known him to have. My body shivered against his thighs. His hips pumped as he slid in and out of my mouth. I wrapped my arms around his thighs, pulling him closer as my eyes fluttered up to meet his.

  And the look of pleasure in his darkened hazel eyes shot electricity straight to my gut.

  I hollowed out my cheeks. I watched him lose control. His chest broke out in a sweat and his skin flushed for my viewing pleasure. He growled. Grunted. Thrusted his cock into my mouth as I held on tightly. His hand twisted so deeply into my hair I thought he was going to pull it out.

  Until he pulled my mouth away from his cock.

  He tossed me down onto the bed. He turned around, slinging his leg over my face. His dripping cock dangled just beyond my swollen lips. Just beyond my leaking mouth as spit dripped down my cheeks. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his thighs again. Around his aching, swollen thighs as his cock and balls hung over me. He pressed my knees open and my scent filled the room. His room.

  The room we were about to paint with our juices.

  The second his tongue hit my clit, I gobbled him down. I sucked down every inch until his balls rested on my nose. He fell into my body, rolling his hips as his knees dug into the mattress. And all the while, his tongue ravished me. Lapped at my clit. Swirled around it and shivered my body as my throat closed around his cock.”

  “Holy fuck, Eden. Don’t stop,” he groaned.

  “Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm.”

  It was all I could say with his cock filling my face, and when I did, his hips stuttered. He fucked my face, pulling out of my throat and sliding back in as I hollowed out my cheeks. His fingertips pulled my pussy lips apart. I dripped onto the bed as I bucked my hips into his face. I bobbed my head. My lips swelled so painfully I thought they were going to burst. Every drop of precum he had for me, I willingly took. I didn’t waste a drop, and as the bulging vein in his cock pulsed against my tongue, I felt my thighs contract. My heels pressed into the mattress. My hips rose to his mouth as his tongue raked against my swollen nub.

  “Yes. Yes. Yes. Duke. Fuck. Duke. Oh!”

  “Didn’t someone teach you not to talk with your mouth full?” he asked.

  My world erupted. My eyes rolled into the back of my head as he swirled his tongue quickly around my clit. He sucked it between his teeth as my body shook. Quaked underneath his chiseled body. My nails dug into his ass cheeks. I pulled him as deep as I could get him. I swallowed every inch down, feeling my throat close around his cock as he growled into my wet pussy.

  “Oh, hell yes, Eden.”

  His hips stilled as my body continued to quake. Duke’s tongue raced down the slit of my pussy, lapping up every drop I had to offer him. I heard him swallowing. Humming. Praising the sweetness of my body as I offered it to him. And before I could catch my breath, his cock sprayed forth. Pump after pump fell effortlessly down my throat. I curled my nails into his ass cheeks, keeping him against my face as he pulsed against the walls of my throat. He collapsed into me, his soaked face lying against my thigh as his balls emptied themselves into my stomach.

  “Shit. Fuck. Holy mother of—Eden!”

  I cleaned him up. Ran my tongue around the base of his cock before I slowly pulled him from my throat. My lips were so swollen I couldn't speak. Sweat dripped down my brow as he settled his hips off to the side. He rolled off my body. Collapsed onto the bed as the two of us heaved for air. His hand searched for me. Searching for mine before he found it and laced our fingers together.

  I stared up at his ceiling, watching it spin and tilt as pleasure rushed through the marrow of my bones.

  “I have to text the babysitter,” I whispered.

  “What was that?” Duke grunted.

  My thumb smoothed lightly over his rough skin as I closed my eyes.

  “I have to text my babysitter. Let her know I… that I…”

  My eyes were already falling closed. My body already giving into sleep. The only thing that kept me even remotely awake was the fact that I had to get back to Sierra. I had to get back to my daughter. I couldn't leave her alone all night. I tried to move, but my body wouldn't let me. It shook so violently with my exhaustion it frightened me. I fell back onto the mattress as I tried to move again, whimpering and grunting as my joints cracked and popped.

  “Where’s your phone?” Duke asked.

  He released my hand. The bed beside me dipped and groaned. My eyes fluttered open just long enough to see him standing by the bed and rummaging around for something on the floor. They fell closed again and the darkness almost overcame me. I almost slipped into the best slumber I’d ever received before I felt Duke’s lips pressed against my ear.

  “What’s the password to your phone and what’s the babysitter’s name?” he whispered.

  “8-9-0-7 and Lauren,” I sighed.

  And as Duke left the bedroom, I rolled over onto my side and passed the fuck out.

  Chapter 17

  Duke

  After opening up her phone and seeing a few messages from someone named Lauren, I quickly gathered that it was the babysitter. I shot off a quick text, letting her know that I’d make sure she was paid double to stay overnight with Sierra. She said it wasn’t a problem, and that it wasn’t necessary. Then, she also mentioned something about getting Sierra calmed down for the night. Whatever the hell that meant. I tossed Eden’s phone onto the couch and went in search of my wallet. After digging around on the floor for a little while, I found it slung in a corner somehow. I pulled out a few twenties and went in search of some things I needed.

 

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