“Yeah, it is, babe,” I murmured softly. “Only woman I could think of having kids with is you. Whether it was now or ten years down the line. Although I’d be an old fucker by then.”
“Everyone would think I was your sugar baby,” she joked, and it made me smile to see her being chirpier. More like her real self.
“I could deal with that. To be fair, angel, everyone already thinks that.” I laughed. “Or maybe they thought I was yours. You were a lot richer than me.”
She snorted. “‘Were’ being the keyword there.” She winked. “I can deal with that. You’re a hunk.”
“A hunk?” I sputtered.
“Yeah. You know it too. Those come to bed eyes? Yum.” Her grin at my discomposure widened. “You should see the look on your face.”
“There’s a mirror over there—is it worth me moving?”
“No, if you move closer, you’ll be nearer to me on the toilet.” She covered her face with the hand that wasn’t holding the plastic cup. “I can’t believe you’re in here.”
“I can’t believe you’re still in here.”
“You try peeing in a cup.”
“You think I’ve never had to take a piss test before?” I barked out a laugh. “Angel, you know you’re tangling with a biker, don’t you?”
“This is the perfect time to remind me you’ve been in jail,” she mumbled with a huff.
“Only on misdemeanors.” I smirked at her. “Pinkie promise.”
“I’ll bet.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t mind if you have, but let’s not tell Mom?”
“Agreed. She has enough of a problem with me as it is.”
She gulped. “Oh.”
“Oh?”
“I think I can go now.”
“So go,” I prompted with a shrug.
“Eww! No way! Go outside. I’m not peeing with you in here.”
“You’ve used the bathroom when I was in the shower before,” I retorted, amused by her logic.
“That was when you were in the shower and the running water covered the noise of me using the bathroom,” she hissed, wafting her hand at me. The cup went flying, of course, and she moaned.
“You know I’m going to be in the room when you’re giving birth, don’t you?” I reasoned, as I strolled forward and grabbed the container before I passed it over to her.
She snatched it with a mumbled, “Thank you.”
“Don’t you?” I reiterated, wanting her to know I wasn’t messing around.
“I know, I know,” she retorted with a huff.
“Good. And along the way, when you’re as big as a house, I’m going to have to help you shave your legs and shit.”
“Yeah, that’ll be then. As it stands, I still have standards, let’s not break them until I’m desperately in need, hmm?” She grunted. “Like now? As in, get the hell out while I can still have control over my bladder.”
“If I was a dick—”
“Which you’re not,” she growled, her cheeks turning pinker than before.
“No, but if I was, I’d stick around just to prove a point.”
“What point would that be? That you are a dick?”
I winked at her, but as I twisted around to open the door, I stated, “Nope, to prove that every part of you belongs to me, and nothing we do, nothing we have, could ever be that gross…”
With that, I left her, giving her the privacy she needed which, to be honest, I got. I just wanted her to know I was there for her.
No matter what.
I’d seen Keira, Storm’s Old Lady, back when she’d carried Cyan. The stuff he’d done for her back then had blown my fucking mind. I’d never thought I’d find someone whose hair I’d hold back when they were puking from morning sickness. Never thought I’d be the kind of guy to find fucking ice cream at three AM because she desperately needed it.
But it just proved that the imagination was limited. Because the second you found that one woman who just made things click, you’d do all that crazy shit and more.
In fact, you’d look forward to it.
And if that wasn’t insane, I didn’t know what was.
Tiffany
“Thank you.”
He shot me a look. “For what?”
“For being there today.”
His lips curved into the sweetest smile. “You’re crazy if you’d think I was going to miss that.”
“No, that’s the reason I waited. I knew you’d want to, but I mean thank you for wanting that. For being that way.”
He tipped his head to the side. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yeah, I do. I’m grateful, and it’s only right you know that. That’s how this works, doesn’t it?” I said softly. “Communication?”
“It is, but you’re going to break my fucking heart, angel, because I know why you’re thanking me.”
My brow puckered. “What do you mean?”
“You’re comparing me to your daddy.”
“I’m not actually,” I told him, not angry because I understood his logic. “Mom never got pregnant again. Not as far as I remember anyway. And the two times she was in the hospital, he pretty much camped out in the ward with her.”
He hummed. “Ah, so you’re grateful I’m like him?”
The question had me snickering as I leaned over and slipped my fingers over the fade at the back of his neck. “Babe, you’re nothing like my dad.”
“Thought little girls married their daddies.”
My nose crinkled. “That’s a very simplistic way of looking at things, but yeah, we have a tendency to seek out mates who are like our earliest representatives of gender roles.”
“What does that mean?”
“Did you never get a little crush on your mom when you were small?”
He snorted. “Fuck no. When I was little, I knew she was a cunt. That opinion didn’t change much over the years.”
My heart hurt for him. “I promise I’ll be a good mom.”
He grabbed my hand and tugged it onto his lap. We were seated on his sofa, Netflix was playing my favorite—Disenchantment—and I was curved into him, my attention more on him than the show.
He’d been a star today. I’d been freaking out in the bathroom when he’d barged his way in, and he’d made me smile, calmed me down, and somehow helped me provide the sample the doctor needed. He’d been there for the sonogram, held my hand when the doctor had confirmed I was nine weeks pregnant, and we’d just…
Fuck, we’d just been together for it all.
I hadn’t expected it.
I mean, I didn’t know what I expected, I guess. Just not that.
For him to be a biker.
For him to be squeamish or something. Or maybe belligerent when the doctor had to roll in another piece of equipment when the first sonogram machine didn’t work.
Aside from stereotyping, I wasn’t even sure why I thought that. He was a biker, therefore he was arrogant?
I knew better than that.
I knew Sin.
He was a hard ass in business, but I felt sure that he was never that way to people who didn’t deserve it.
“What’s going on behind those pretty eyes of yours, hmm?”
I sighed when I pushed my face into his palm. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie, angel.” His lips curved. “It’s okay.”
“What is?”
He grinned. “You didn’t expect me to be like that because I’m a biker.”
I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. I moved away from his hand and smushed my face into his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m such a bitch.”
“Naw.” His lips twisted, showing me his lack of offense at the insult I’d given him. “You’re just not used to me and this life yet.”
“But I am. I totally am,” I rasped, guilt hitting me even more at his understanding. I mean, I was so glad he wasn’t angry or offended, but that he wasn’t made me feel worse. Rightly so, too, when he’d always treated me the same way—like I was precious.
“You’re used to me. Not me as a biker.” He shrugged. “I get it. We were insular back in the beginning, now the club’s coming more into our world. You’re hearing shit, seeing it too, stuff you don’t like… I get it.”
“I know you’re not like that though. That’s why I feel like a bitch and why I’m so grateful. You were so good to me today, Sin. So good. I wouldn’t have expected that from anyone, but you gave me that. I’m fucking this up, but I just wanted to say thank you for being you.” Recently, I’d thanked Lily for the same thing, but losing Dad? It put things into perspective.
The ones who stuck around, even if you were a pain, deserved appreciation.
“Well, it’s not like I can be anything else,” was all he said before he kissed the crown of my head. “Not unless you’re into role play. That I could do.”
I snickered, grateful he was teasing me and hadn’t taken offense. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had been insulted. “Oh yeah, what would you want me to dress up as?”
“Not sure you want to hear the answer to that,” he rumbled, and when I slapped his belly, he snorted out a laugh as he curled upward into a sitting position, frickin’ guffawing all the while.
“What the hell is so funny?” I demanded, chuckling with him just because he was so tickled by whatever he’d been thinking.
“My first thought,” he sputtered, and I eyed him in surprise because his face was bright red from laughing so hard.
“Oh man, you have to share it with me now.”
“P-P-P-Princ-cess,” he managed to snort out. “F-F-Fionna.”
I gaped at him. “The princess from Shrek?”
“Yeah.” He started wheezing, and when he flung himself back against the sofa, I just carried on gaping.
“You have an ogre fetish or something?”
I snickered when he roared some more, wondering what on earth was going on with him. Jeez, had he been sniffing laughing gas or something?
My lips started twitching at the sight of him though because, fuck, it was contagious. I’d never, ever, ever seen him like this before, and damn, the reason why hit me.
He was happy.
Happy.
God.
Even as I started to laugh with him, my eyes grew wet with tears.
It made me happy that he was happy, and damn, I figured that meant I knew I was in love for real, because that was the best feeling in the world. Everything was in perfect alignment with us both to the point where he could laugh like this, be free with me like this, and that filled me with a joy so pure I knew I’d never felt it before.
I’d had relationships before, but men had never made me feel like this. My ex-boyfriends were all probably starting their careers, the lot of them as white collar professionals, but not a one of them would have come with me to the doctor’s office like Sin had today.
If anything, they’d have shepherded me for an abortion. Hell, they might not have even given me the money for it.
But this man, this beautiful, beautiful man, wanted this child we’d made together. He wanted it so much, he was excited for it. His eyes had shone with joy at the sight of the heartbeat on the screen, and he’d been calm personified when we’d been waiting in the corridor for our appointment, easing my nerves exponentially just because it was so restful being with him when I was so on edge.
Everything about him was tailor-made for me, and that meant that I might have been born a rich kid, daddy’s girl princess, but in my heart?
I was a biker bitch because I was this biker’s bitch.
My lips curved, pleased by the thought, and when Sin finally started getting himself back under control, I had no choice but to launch myself at him.
This biker daddy of mine deserved more than just a verbal thank you for rocking this fucking hard, and I wasn’t afraid to show him my appreciation with more than just words.
Eleven
Sin
I looked around the spare room, eying up all the boxes that housed shit I’d collected over the years and, rather than feel horror at the prospect of emptying them, I kind of felt excited.
Yeah, surreal.
But this?
It was going to be the baby’s room.
Fuck, there was gonna be a kid in here in the future. Seven months were nothing, they’d pass in the blink of an eye, and soon, there’d be a mini Tiff or a mini Padraig roaming around.
The thought fucked with my head, even as it made me happy. It was a good kind of fucked up, which I knew didn’t make that much sense.
It was weird how the world was still spinning, but inside this house, I was happy in my world. With my world. A place that Tiffany was now a part of.
I’d known we gelled before my exile, but getting back here only confirmed it. We slipped seamlessly into each other’s lives, moving around one another like things were choreographed. She was the easiest ‘roommate’ I’d ever lived with. Even if she was messy where makeup was concerned.
I leaned against the doorjamb, trying to visualize where the furniture would go. I didn’t know much about babies, but I knew they needed a shit ton of stuff. Back when Cyan, Storm’s kid, was born, he’d yet to be promoted to VP, and he’d complained about how expensive shit was.
Money wasn’t a problem, but I knew we’d need to go shopping. The prospect of which didn’t exactly fill me with fucking glee.
I rubbed my chin as I thought about the details, then I felt her slip up against me, sliding her arms around my waist as she asked, “Whatcha thinking?”
Her breath made my back heat up where she’d pushed her face against me, and it felt fucking good. I loved that she wasn’t nervous about holding me. About coming to me.
Some days, I felt like we’d been born this way.
There’d been none of the shit I’d seen my brothers go through with their women. No stupid arguments, no crazy ‘play hard to get.’ We’d just clicked. Straight from the start.
I’d say it was fate or some shit like that, but I wasn’t sure a fucker like me deserved that. I was a sinner, born and bred. I’d done shit that meant I didn’t deserve a woman like Tiff at my back, but she’d found me, and it wasn’t like she’d let me go.
“Why did you think we were over when I was in Ohio?” I inquired softly.
“That’s what you’re thinking about?”
“No, but it just came to me.”
She sighed. “Most men don’t do long distance well.” Her shrug had her tits digging into my back—definitely wasn’t going to complain about that. “That’s without the clubwhores and stuff you guys have on tap. I just never imagined you’d—”
“I’d what? Wait for you?”
“Yeah.”
“We need to work on your self-esteem.”
She fell silent. “Huh?”
“We need to work on your self-esteem,” I repeated, “because it says a lot about you that you don’t think you’re worth waiting for, angel.”
She didn’t reply, and I didn’t say a word either. I wanted that to sink home. Then, of course, I felt the wetness on my shirt, and I knew she was crying. When I went to turn around, she didn’t let me. She squeezed my waist tighter, pressed into me deeper, and whispered, “I love you.”
“I know you do.” I sucked down a breath, preparing myself to say it for the first time, only, when I did? It came out easy. None of the discomfort I’d expected as I told her, “I love you too.”
Fuck, see? This was how we worked. Sliding against each other, rippling around one another.
Was this what it felt like when you’d found a soulmate?
It had never been this easy with my ex-wife. Ever.
“I missed you.”
“Missed you too.”
“When you were gone, the world was going to shit, but you were still there. I kept expecting you not to answer the phone when I called. Every day, when you did, it filled me with hope. I didn’t want to lose you, and I thought I had.”
“You didn’t. I’m going nowhere
. What we have, Tiff, you have to see it’s special.”
She cleared her throat. “I just didn’t know if you knew that.”
“I’m not an idiot,” I grumbled gruffly.
“Never thought you were. Just thought you were a man.”
I snorted. “I’d make you pay for that, but then I have a few brothers who are dicks, so I get it.”
She squeezed my waist. “You gonna tell me what you were thinking about before I turn into more of a cry-baby?”
“Just where we should put a crib and shit in here.” When I felt more tears leak into my shirt, I muttered, “Tiff?”
She whispered, “Just ignore me.”
Confused, I grabbed one of her hands and gently slipped my fingers through hers. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I think I just fell a little more in love with you is all.”
I snickered at that. “I think I can deal with that.”
“Good.”
Tiffany
I eyed him, then I eyed the sandwich. Then, heaving a sigh, I turned my attention to the yard where we were both sitting.
“Why do you keep huffing?”
“No reason,” I muttered, shoving a carrot stick into my hummus.
Hummus was like my favorite food. I considered it a whole food group of its own. That was how much I fucking loved it.
But here? Now?
It was nothing compared to the ham in Sin’s sandwich.
What the fuck was going on with me?
I glowered at the hummus and contemplated tossing the carrot stick into the yard for a bird to eat or something. Then a thought occurred to me. “Do birds eat carrots?”
Sin paused. “I dunno. I’ve never thought about it before. Google it.”
“Nah, I was just thinking out loud.”
“Dangerous brain you’ve got there.”
My lips twitched. “Says you with your Princess Fiona fetish.”
He grinned at me, his eyes twinkling. “I already told you it was before she turned into an ogre.”
“Yeah, right,” I drawled. “That’s what all the men say.” I winked at him. “I need to invest in green face paint.”
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 78