Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0)

by Christine Michelle

  “I appreciate all of that.”

  The guilty look swamped his face again before he managed to look up at me once more. “I think you should take some time and spend it with your family. That dynamic has changed quite a bit in the past week alone, and this hunt that we’re on is already taking its toll. Hell, we all heard Poppy, and saw your reaction. You didn’t know before she got pissed enough to blurt it out.” I started to interrupt him, but he staved off my words. “I know better than anyone how fleeting our time with our families can be and the precarious rope they sometimes rest on. Don’t make the mistakes I did. Don’t make your own, equally devastating, ones either. You told Walker out there that you aren’t stupid. Prove it. Take some time and be with your woman.”

  “What if me taking my time to be with her means we let someone slip through the cracks and they come for her next?” Ghost winced at that question. “Our time isn’t a given, but I can damn sure work to prolong it. She knows why it’s important, and the quicker we get this done, the easier our lives will be. I appreciate the sentiment and you looking out for us, but I can’t just step back and not take these fuckers out when we find them.”

  “I figured you’d say that,” he huffed out in frustration. “Hell, I can’t preach it, because I wouldn’t step back either. Bender was my brother. Soph and little man were family too.” He shook his head and I watched as the man’s eyes misted over. “We’ll do whatever it takes to see those fuckers pay for taking them from us. Now, go on and get out of here before your woman gets pissed at me.” He grinned up at me as he casually wiped at the moisture that threatened to spill out of his eyes and give his emotions away. “I’m a little terrified of her, truth be told.” He grinned up at me then.

  “As we all should be. Walker was right about one thing, she’s too good for any of us, but damn if I’m the idiot who will walk away.” Nothing more needed to be said so it was time to get my ass back to Poppy’s house and relieve whichever prospect had been charged with following her when she walked out the door.

  When I made it back to Poppy’s place, I watched through the window at first as she laughed at something Brantley had said. Brant was lying beside Bubba on the floor playing with his blocks while the dog looked happy to just be watching as the little boy knocked down whatever he’d been building and squealed with glee. It brought everything home for me. That one little picture of life without me in it. They could be happy. They could move on and forget that I was supposed to be there. Not that I thought they wanted to, but the thing was, the assholes who were responsible for killing my family needed to be brought down and soon. I needed it behind me, so I didn’t miss any more of these moments than I had to for my day job. I needed them gone because nothing was going to threaten the happiness of the people inside these walls. Resolving myself to the fact that I’d have to sacrifice a little more time from them now to make that happen, I knew the hard sell would be to Poppy once I got inside. I also knew it was time to start house hunting. We couldn’t all fit in Poppy’s place, and the apartment I had was not exactly pet friendly for a massive dog like Bubba.

  Letting myself in using the key Poppy had given me, it only took a second before Brantley was calling out to me.

  “Unc Moke, wook what I made.”

  “That’s really cool, little man!” I leaned down and kissed Brant’s head as he smiled his crooked grin at me. Then I flipped his hair and moved toward Poppy. She sat there waiting, and I could see the tension in her shoulders, the worry in her eyes, with each step. That’s when I decided direct and to the point was the way I’d need to go with her.

  “I get that I have failed to make myself clear with you,” I started and watched as the worry grew.

  “I thought I was clear, but according to your brother, you’re still confused so I’m going to lay it out for you and I need you to hear me.” She made the smallest movement of her chin to let me know that I could go on and she was listening. So I did. “I’m with you. Only you. I don’t want anyone else, Poppy. I am committed and I honestly don’t know how else to say that except that I thought it was straight forward that you were my old lady.” Her shocked breath told me I hadn’t been clear enough before. What the hell did she think I was playing at all this time? The ridiculous friends with benefits notion she had brought up that first day?

  “Don’t care that you’re still married to some other fool who was too stupid to hang onto the best thing he’d ever get.” I scoffed at the memory of my club brother and the fact he had been idiot enough to allow a woman like her to be neglected until the point she no longer loved him. “Better than he deserved, the idiot. You’re my old lady, I don’t see you any other way.”

  “Sophie told me you never told anyone that Julie was your old lady. I just thought,” I sat beside her and gave her thigh a gentle squeeze. It was enough to stop her in her tracks.

  “Julie never was. The difference is, I’ve already told every single man in the clubhouse and the firehouse that you’re mine. They understand that. Now, I need you to understand that I should have made that perfectly clear to you. I’m sorry I didn’t do better.” She looked like she was about to cry, but I gave her a moment. Poppy needed to absorb exactly what I was telling her. Her divorce still pending didn’t matter. We weren’t playing games anymore. I wasn’t waiting any longer. I’d claimed her, and while she adjusted to the thought of us, I hadn’t remembered that she was the most important person who needed to know that.

  “Now, tell me our news, because I don’t want to think about the way I found out. I want to hear from your lips to my ears like it was meant to be.”

  “I’m so sorry about that,” she apologized. “I got so frustrated earlier, and I just blurted it out. I hadn’t even told anyone. Well, Leanne knew, but that’s because she was worried I was getting sick a lot.”

  “See, that’s something we’re going to discuss, because I feel like a real asshole right now since I didn’t know you were still even getting sick.”

  She reached for me and smoothed her soft hand down my face as if she could wipe my regrets away with a simple touch. Hell, she almost succeeded. “I didn’t want you to know.” That took the calm she’d managed to sooth into me right the fuck back away. How could she not want me to know about the fact that she’d been sick? “I didn’t want you to think there was something wrong until after I knew for sure what was going on. At the same time you had things going on with your family, and when I found out I wanted to tell you right away, but that was the day you guys walked into the clubhouse with bad news.”

  That made sense and I hated to think that our happy news got delayed because of my family’s tragedy, but really what was she supposed to do? I could see where Poppy had been stuck between a rock and a hard place with trying to tell me. I sighed heavily, frustrated with the way the last couple weeks had played out, as well as the lack of resolution. “Then I was constantly running out every time you wanted us to talk.” I reminded the both of us why she hadn’t been able to tell me since. “I really fucked that up, didn’t I?”

  “No, you didn’t. This hasn’t exactly been an easy week for anyone, but especially not for you. I understand. I’m just sorry you found out that way. I’m sorry you weren’t the first one I told, because that was how I planned on it happening. I hadn’t even told Chief, because I wanted you to know first. I guess everything just hit me all at once and I really wanted it to sink in for Walker that I am never coming back to him.”

  “You said you were happy. Earlier, when you were talking to him.”

  Her smile was contagious as she answered me. “I am the happiest I’ve ever been, which makes me feel horrible at times, because this is such an incredibly inappropriate time for me to feel that way considering your loss, and Brant’s loss. I know he doesn’t really understand yet, and maybe he won’t until many years from now. Still, it’s crap timing for me to find my happiness and you to be so lost in grief and driven by revenge.”

  “Poppy, it’s not revenge dri
ving me. I want that too, but mostly I want to make sure that you and Brant are safe, even more so now that I know it’s not just the two of you I have to worry about.” I moved closer so I could reach over and touch her belly where our child was growing. I was still in awe of the fact that I’d managed to get her pregnant, especially since it was something she’d been trying for so long with her ex. “In case I forgot to say it, I am so damn excited about this.” I leaned over further and kissed her still nonexistent baby belly. “I will take good care of all of you, I swear. I will never step out on you. I will never take you for granted. Poppy, you are everything, and if I ever don’t treat you like that’s exactly what you are, you will kick me in the ass and set me straight, because I can’t lose you. Your idiot ex still doesn’t realize. Obviously, he thinks he does, but one night soon, he’s going to be sitting there with some cheap imitation of you, he’s going to hear about how wonderful your life is, and then it’s going to click for him that he could have been part of that. I think it’s starting to set in for him now, otherwise I doubt seriously he would have offered to raise another man’s kid today.”

  “I don’t care what he’s going through. He brought it on himself.”

  “I know that, honey. I’m just saying, you and me, we are never going to get to that point, because I know exactly what I’ve got right here.” I kissed her belly once more before sitting up and facing her again. “When do you need to go see the doctor?”

  “Soon. I haven’t made an appointment yet, because of the timing of everything else.”

  “Don’t do that. You take care of yourself and our baby above everything, you hear? There are plenty of people who can keep an eye on Brantley while you go to an appointment, and as long as you schedule it for a day I’m not with the firehouse, I’ll be there too.” I moved my lips to her and placed a gentle kiss there too. “Make no mistake, I want to be there. I want to be there for everything.”

  “That’s good because I want you to be there for everything,” she told me just as Brantley decided to make his presence known again and move into Poppy’s lap.

  “I be der for tings?” Brantley asked looking worried.

  “You will always be there for things, lil’ man,” she told him with a conviction that no one could deny.

  His smile was nearly as bright as hers was. “Good. Me likes tings.”

  I laughed at his response, because there was no telling what was going through his head. “Wonder what he’s actually thinking of?”

  “Who knows, but if I have anything to say about it, he’ll get everything he dreams of.”

  “You have everything to say about it now,” I informed her. She was our family now. Poppy, Brantley, our baby, Bubba, and me. There was no going back. She wanted a family, and she stepped right into one when she met me.

  Chapter 12

  Bent over the bed, Poppy screamed into the pillow as I plowed into her from behind. Besides the fact that we hadn’t had any alone time when we weren’t just dog tired and sleeping, we definitely hadn’t had time to enjoy one another lately either, and I was bound and determined to make up for that. I didn’t know if it was the time spent apart and appreciation for finally coming together again, her hormones, or what, but Poppy was soaking fucking wet and it was driving me wild. I hadn’t wanted to take her from behind like this. I wanted to be able to watch her face as she came apart in my arms, but with Brant right across the hall, and Poppy unable to be quiet during sex, that wasn’t an option.

  “So wet for me, honey.”

  She responded though I couldn’t understand the words that were muffled by the pillow she was biting into. It didn’t matter, because I knew whatever she’d been trying to say had only been encouragement to keep going. I wouldn’t disappoint her.

  I took a moment to run my fingers gently down her back from the nape of her neck where he hair was swept off to the side all the way down her spine to the crack of her ass. My eyes followed the trail of my fingers as I leisurely stroked in and out of her. I was memorizing her in this moment. The softness of her skin, the way little bumps erupted in the wake of the path my fingers had taken, and the way her hips tilted up just a bit more to urge me on even when she didn’t have a voice all settled deep into my soul. The moment locked in place, never to be forgotten before I reached around her and grabbed one of her tits with my right hand while I started stroking her clit with my other. All the while I never changed the tempo of my thrusts even though she attempted to buck against me in order to get me to pick up the pace.

  Finally, she turned her head up from the pillow and tossed me a grin from over her shoulder. “If you don’t pick up the pace, I’m just going to take a nap, stud! I’m creating another human here, and it’s sapping my energy.” She winked, letting me know she wasn’t tired at all. She was just demanding of my attentions, and what she didn’t realize was that she had also just stroked my fucked-up caveman ego. Hell yeah she was making a human. The one I fucked into her, and that was everything.

  I picked up my thrust game, giving it to her just a little bit harder each time but maintaining the same overall speed. The little squeaks the movements had her making were music to my ears, but it wasn’t until they had become a regular occurrence that I added speed to the harder thrusts too. With each one, her ass would ripple delightfully making me want to lean in and chomp down on that lush ass of hers. Instead, I angled her hips a little more, and drove home exactly what we’d both been needing. I took her, I gave her all of me, and within minutes, she was screaming my name so loud the pillow could no longer contain it. That was when she tightened up, squeezing the shit out of my cock as she came all over me. I slapped her ass and pinched down on her clit in order to prolong her orgasm as I chased my own. Just before she dropped her chest down as her shaky arms gave out, I was coming inside of her and growling out my own release and rode her body down to the mattress, pulling us into a position where I was the big spoon and she the little while my cock continued to rest inside of her.

  “Popwee Otay?” Brant’s concerned voice from the hallway had me searching for the covers to throw over Poppy since I couldn’t remember if I had locked the door behind us or not.

  “I’m okay, baby,” she called out to him.

  “Whys da door not wowked?”

  “It’s locked, little man,” I told him.

  “Unwocks it!” His little demand had us both chuckling. I had tossed Poppy one of my shirts and pulled on a pair of boxer shorts before heading to the door to let the little monster in who had nearly been a major cockblock. Hell, for a brief moment, I wondered if this was why Bender hadn’t managed to knock my sister up again, because of his mini-me cock-blocking son. Then, I wanted to throw up, because it hit me that they’d never get a chance to grow their family and they’d probably both gladly give that up to have their son interrupting mommy and daddy’s fun times.

  “Hey,” Poppy called out to me, worry etching her beautiful visage as she watched the thoughts play out across my expressive face. “They would have been thinking the same things,” she told me. I knew she was right, because I’d heard Bender joke about how they had to sneak in quickies because his son had sex-dar, as he called it. Radar for when his parents were having sex.

  “I know.” My voice came out too gruff and thick for my liking.

  “Me sweep wit Popwee?” Brant asked, but he wasn’t asking me, he was asking her while rubbing his tired eyes. I knew it was going to happen the minute her own sleepy eyes landed on him and I watched her face soften and that sweet smile of hers give all the answer that was needed before Brant climbed up under the covers. Then, the little shit looked right at me as he grabbed hold of her arm and pulled it around him so that she was now the big spoon to his little. I swear, I saw triumph in his eyes like the little shit just stole my woman. I looked heavenward and promised Bender and my sister retribution one day. I knew this was their payback for all the times I laughed about how interruptive their son was in their sex lives.

  I
left them to it and took Bubba outside one last time. When we came back in, he went straight to Brant’s room and whined because the little boy wasn’t tucked up in his bed. I just shook my head and laughed. “I see he already rules this house,” I grumbled. I didn’t honestly mind though. “Come on, Bubba. He’s in with Poppy.” As if the dog understood, he moved past me before I could even turn and made himself at home beside the bed where Brant had a hand and a foot dangled over the edge, and my woman’s arm still slung around him. I crawled in behind her and managed the most peaceful night of sleep I’d had since before my family was torn apart.

  My cell would not stop vibrating on the nightstand so finally, I rolled over and answered it at the same moment I realized Poppy, Brant, and Bubba were no longer in the room. “Yeah?”

  “Smoke, just checking in with you. Everything good?” Ghost’s voice sounded worn down and I wondered how much longer the man was going to keep up with being club president. He’d seen his share of club drama over the years, and keeping the men together was something that took a toll on a person.

  “I’m good. Shit, what time is it?” I pulled the phone away from my ear as I heard him chuckle. “Almost 11?” There was no way I’d slept in until almost 11 in the morning. Shit, it was almost lunch time.