Center of Gravity (Marauders Book 3)

by Lina Andersson

  But when he opened the door, it wasn’t Anna. It was his favorite detectives, Gordon the Gorilla and Evans the D-cup.

  “Do you have a warrant?” he asked. He was in no mood to play games, and he frankly couldn’t have cared less what they had to say.

  “Do you have an alibi for last night?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I was at the ballet.”

  “Do you think this is a joke?” Gordon the Gorilla asked.

  “No, it was actually boring as fuck. I don’t recommend it, but I was there, and I was seen backstage after the show, too. I was also seen arguing with a woman at a restaurant.”

  “Anna Dobronravov?” Evans asked with a smile.

  “Yeah. Good work on learning the name,” he added.

  “Is she here?”

  “No. What is this about?”

  “Do you know a Patricia Haney?”

  His fucking heart stopped. “The woman who owns the shop on Jomax Street?”

  “So you do know her?”

  This was bad. So fucking bad, because there weren’t that many reasons why they’d ask him about Patricia. And if it was Hump—and he was pretty fucking sure it was—this was to spook both him and Brick. Probably a very quick retaliation for the pimpled hacker—who they’d fucking left alive! Also, that was the shop across the street from his mom’s place. Hump wanted them to know he could get to them. It also made Mitch wonder if they were tailing him and knew he used to shop there. That was a really fucking scary thought.

  He realized he hadn’t answered the cops’ question, and it took him an extra second to remember what they’d asked. If he knew her.

  “She’s got a shop by my mom’s place. I’ve bought smokes there now and then.”

  “She was killed leaving her shop last night, and she had the same number painted on her car as your stripper had,” Evans explained. “But since you have an alibi…”

  “Yeah,” Gordon growled. “We’ll leave you for now, but we might have some questions later. This still reeks to the high heavens of Marauders, and when we figure out how you’re involved, we’re coming for you.”

  Gordon the Gorilla was probably trying to sound threatening, but Mitch was really fucking fed up with his dick swinging and decided to do the IT equivalent of a rectal exam on Detective Gordon. He was going to find all the fucking dirt he could on him, because he had a feeling that Gordon’s affair with Evans wasn’t his biggest problem. It was always good to have dirt like that on a cop.

  They had just barely left when Mitch called his dad to explain the situation and to make sure they had a guard on his mom. She’d go crazy, but she was a practical woman, and she’d understand why she needed one.

  “Do I need to come in for a meet?” he asked while he was trying to find a clean t-shirt.

  “No,” Brick answered. “I’m on top of this for now. Is Anna with you?”

  “No,” he muttered. “We had a fight—again. And she’s my alibi again. She’s gonna love that.”

  “Wow! You just keep fucking up.”

  “I think you’ve already said that. I’ll try to get a hold of her.”

  “I’m sending someone to sit outside her house for now.”

  “Someone discreet. I don’t need more shit from her right now.” He scratched his head. “I’m gonna look into one of the cops. I think we could find something to use on him.”

  “The one banging his partner?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Keep me updated.”

  Mitch spent the full fucking day on the phone with one person or another. He soon realized that it probably would’ve been easier if he’d just gone to the clubhouse, but he managed to keep in contact with Mech online; they went through everything and kept in touch the entire day. He also had a quick talk with Sisco, his mom called and yelled at him about pretty much everything she could think of, and then it was the rest of them. He just barely had time to eat, and when he finally got a few moments, he realized what had happened.

  Patricia was dead.

  He didn’t really know her, but she’d been a great woman, and she had a young daughter. He’d been under the impression that she was raising her all by herself; he’d at least never heard of a man in her life. A fourteen-year-old girl had lost her only family, and it was partly on him. He couldn’t deny that, and the weight of it was crushing. There was no way he could make it up to the girl.

  When the doorbell rang that night, he just hoped it wasn’t the cops again. And it wasn’t—it was Anna.

  “I think we need to talk,” she started as she passed him and sat down on the stairs leading up to his bedroom. “I’m not really sure were we stand, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to complicate this even more. And you pissed me off yesterday with your… male chauvinist possessive crap. It’s not that I don’t want to have sex. I’d probably have sex with anyone. I actually scoped out a guy at the bus, and he was really old—”

  “Anna,” he tried to interrupt her, but that just made her angry.

  “No! Listen to me. I know you think it’s just to… have sex when you’re horny, but I don’t work like that, and I don’t do it that often. Definitely not like I did with you, and look what that led to,” she said and pointed at her belly. “And it wasn’t fair of you to just jump me when I said I was horny. Maybe I just wanted to talk about it.”

  It was obvious to Mitch that he would never ever, under no circumstances, understand women, or at least not Anna.

  “You wanted to talk about being horny?” he asked.

  It was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard, and he was too tired to even try to hide how stupid he thought it was. Luckily, Anna seemed to realize how stupid it was, too, because she blushed.

  “Okay, that was silly, but still, the point of me telling you this was just so you’d—”

  Mitch decided to trust Mac, since his track record with relationships was a lot fucking better than his own. Mac had loved only one woman in his entire life, and had been able to keep her happy for years, so he did what Mac had suggested. He interrupted Anna and just fucking went for it.

  “I love you.”

  And Mac had been right. Anna’s eyes grew wide, her mouth fell open, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Most importantly, she shut the fuck up. He squatted down in front of her.

  “I do. This isn’t about sex. I was in love with you before I found out you were pregnant, but I was scared I’d fuck you up completely if I pushed for more right then. But I love you. I see you every fucking day, so this is the closest thing I’ve had to a relationship since I was a teenager, and I miss you when you’re not here, and the only fucking reason we’re fighting all the damn time is that we’re trying to stay friends and not have sex. It’s fucking insane, Anna. I love you, I don’t want to be your friend.”

  “What if you get bored?” she whispered.

  “You baffle me on a daily basis, so I don’t see that happening, but no matter what, could you please give me a shot at this before you decide I’m a cheating asshole?” He took her hands, and she kept studying him. “This isn’t working. You have to know that, too. We’re driving each other insane like this, and we never fought before.”

  She looked at his hands, and looked up at him again. “The cops came by again.”

  Well that was a very direct way of changing the subject, but he kind of assumed it was part of the subject, too, in a way. He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Did you know her?”

  “Yeah. She owned a shop opposite my mom’s hair salon.” He tried to smile. “I’ve never had sex with her, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Mitch, what’s going on? Can I ask that, or… Like I said, I’m not sure where we stand, what I can ask or what parts of your life aren’t for me.” She gently stroked his beard. He took a deep breath because he had a boner. A slight touch was all it took. “You seem really stressed, and I don’t think it’s just because of me.”

  He closed his eyes again, and he wished he
could’ve told her that all parts of his life were for her, that he’d never keep secrets from her, but it wasn’t true—and she would know that, too. The best way of doing it was probably to be honest, and be honest about when he was keeping secrets from her, too.

  He was having a hard time focusing, though, because her hands on him were just awesome; he’d missed them. He’d been touching her a lot, but she hadn’t really touched him since… since before she’d gone to New York.

  “It’s a really long story, and I’ll tell you as much as I can, but you’re gonna have to stop touching me.” He tried to stand up, but she pulled him back down. “Anna, please,” he tried to make it sound like a warning, but it was more of a whimper.

  “Why?”

  He could have sworn she was teasing him. “I haven’t had sex in a while. As opposed to what you think, I’m not having sex with others.”

  “That’s why you wanted me to ask,” she murmured, and he could feel how close she was to him because her warm breath was stroking his face along with her hands. “Mitch.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I just scoped out a really old dude on the bus.”

  He chuckled. “Was he hot?”

  “No. Not at all, but he had a penis and that was all I cared about.”

  “You always make me feel so special,” he mumbled and leaned closer. “You’re not gonna back off and let me tell you anything right now, are you?”

  He opened his eyes. She was looking at him and slowly shook her head. She was so insanely beautiful. He reached up and stroked her cheek, and now it was her turn to close her eyes with a deep breath.

  “How about I carry you up to bed, Gimp?”

  “Say that again,” she smiled.

  “How about I carry you up to bed?” he asked, since he wasn’t sure what she meant. That was neither hot nor romantic as far as he could tell, but then he wasn’t the one scoping out random senior citizens.

  “No. Call me Gimp. I’ve missed that.” She circled her arms around his neck. “And maybe give me head, I’ve missed that, too.”

  His heart swelled, that’s how it actually felt, and he had to laugh. It was as if he either laughed or his fucking chest would explode.

  “Want me to suck your clit, Gimp?”

  “Yes,” she groaned, and her lips crashed against his.

  He didn’t have time to register what was happening before her tongue was in his mouth. She tasted just like she always had, and the familiarity of it turned him on more than anything else. This was his Anna.

  It didn’t seem like a good time to hesitate, so he lifted her up and carried her up the stairs. It was definitely different with the bump between them, but it wasn’t weird; it was even kind of sexy. This was his woman with his baby inside of her.

  He laid her down on his bed and pulled off her t-shit. That threw him off for a second, and he put his hands on her belly.

  “Mitch,” she panted. “I don’t mind you being happy about this girl, but you need to get your damn hands off my belly and make me come.”

  With a laugh, he tore off his own clothes and went to work on her tights and panties.

  “And I thought you were horny before I knocked you up,” he mumbled while getting down on his knees in front of the bed. When he stroked his fingers along her slit, she arched, and she was soaking wet. “Once isn’t gonna be enough, is it?”

  “No way,” she groaned. “Please.”

  He pushed his fingers inside of her and latched on to her clit at the same time. Her insides immediately gripped him hard, and she cried out. Holy mother of god, he was pretty sure she had just come. She was not kidding about being horny.

  “Mitch! More!”

  He kept it up until he was sure he’d made her come, and then he couldn’t wait anymore.

  “Babe,” he said and got up to get her higher up on the bed. “You’re not the only one who’s horny.” He picked up a condom. “I haven’t gotten around to getting tested and—” he started.

  “It’s okay. I get it. We’ll get to that,” she smiled.

  He rolled the condom on while kissing her. She arched from the bed the second he was at her opening, and her legs latched around his hips and pulled him in. He was suddenly worried about the baby and tried to hold himself up to avoid crushing her belly, but she didn’t seem to care at all. It was so good. It was Anna, which meant it was the fucking best. He’d missed her––missed this. When he felt her coming, he seemed to get his brain back, and he rolled them both over, getting her on top. That seemed safer. Unfortunately, she was extremely horny, and she wasn’t holding back––at all! She was riding him hard, and eventually he sat up, his arm around her, to try to get her to calm down.

  “Babe, you gotta slow down.”

  “No!”

  “I’m gonna come,” he tried, but she grabbed his cheeks and kissed him. “Fuck!”

  “Then come!” she growled.

  And he did. Holding a bruising grip on her hips, he came.

  Her arms were around his neck, and he hugged her tight just to feel her close while he calmed down. With his hands under her arms, he lifted her off him and gave her bump a kiss. She lay back down on the bed with a contented sigh.

  “Better?” he asked as he pulled off the condom.

  “A little, but I want more.”

  “Of course you do,” he said with a laugh and lay down next to her. “You always want more. Gotta give me a few minutes, though.”

  He lay silently next to her, stroking her belly. He felt perfectly calm for the first time in months. There was still a lot of shit he needed to explain, a lot of things going on, but right then, in that moment, things were fucking perfect. He kissed her shoulder, and with a small sigh she turned around.

  “So what now?” she asked when she opened her eyes.

  “I was thinking we’d keep up like we were, with the addition of sex and making out for a while, maybe you spend some nights here and then... we should probably find someplace to live.”

  “Move in together?”

  “Yeah. There’s no hurry, but you’re gonna bring every fucking thing you got from the sex shop here—tomorrow—I’ve been dying to find out what you bought.”

  She laughed and nodded.

  “Lisa said some of the things were good to use with a partner.

  “Anything in a sex shop is great to use with a partner if you have some imagination.”

  “Bet you have a dirty enough mind for that.” Anna gave him a soft kiss. “Think you can give me a couple of months before we move in together?”

  “Absolutely. Think we should do it before the kid is born, though.” He moved her over to her back, stroking her breasts. “After all, I’m the one who knows anything about kids.”

  “Maybe you’ll be disgusted when I get fat.”

  “Doubt it,” he mumbled and gave her nipple a lick.

  “I fart a lot.”

  “I fart.”

  “And... I hog the cover.”

  “I’ll buy you your own cover.” He finally had her on her back and leaned over her, avoiding putting pressure on her belly. “I’m starting to feel like a crazy stalker here, Gimp. You could at least tell me you have a crush on me.”

  She laughed and held his cheeks. “I love you. I do and I’m sorry that I... I’m still scared. Really scared.”

  “I know. We’ll figure this out along the way. It’ll be bumpy and you’ll be scared and I’ll be pissed, but it’ll turn out fine.” He leaned down and kissed her. “And we’ll have the most beautiful little girl.”

  He moved further down and kissed her belly before resting his head on it.

  “You should get tested,” she mumbled.

  “Oh, I’m gonna. I’ve had sex with you without rubber once, and I fucking missed what was happening.”

  She laughed. “I’ve been thinking about that, too!”

  He rose up on his hands and hovered over her. “Do you ever say fuck or fucking, Gimp?”

  “Sure I do.”
/>
  “I’ve never heard you say it.”

  “Fuck me,” she smiled and pulled him down on top of her. “I think we should be fucking some more.”

  -o0o-

  Much later that night, Mitch carefully got out of bed to go find his phone. He’d totally forgotten about everything that was going on, and he wondered how pissed his dad would be about it and how much he’d have to pay in fines for ignoring the club phone.

  There were a number of missed calls and texts, he eyed through them, realizing he’d been right about how pissed Brick was—until he got to the last one.

  ‘Wrench told me Anna’s at your place. Told him to go home. Call when she leaves, and I’ll let him know. Check in tomorrow morning or I’ll kick your door in.’

  There were no other messages, and Mitch chuckled. Apparently managing to fuck the mother of your kid gave you a free pass in Brick’s book. Mitch sent him a text to let him know she was still there, and that he’d come to the clubhouse the next day around lunch.

  He went back to the bed and Anna. She’d rolled herself in the cover, and he had to almost wrestle it from her to be able to get under it, so he decided to get her a cover of her own the very next day.

  But when Anna moved closer and threw her leg over him, resting her head on his shoulder, and pressing Sprout against his side, he changed his mind. One cover was pretty fucking nice.

  They’d never gotten around to the talking. Anna hadn’t been kidding, she was horny as fuck, and he’d lost count of how many times she’d climaxed. He knew he’d had three, but he’d worked pretty damn hard between the fucks too. She’d basically passed out after that. It had been different with that bump between them, and he’d been worried he’d hurt Sprout. Anna didn’t seem as concerned as he was, but he was gonna check with Lisa about it. But even so, Anna was going to get a lot bigger, so they had to figure out some good positions. Given how flexible she was, and how she generally liked trying new stuff, he thought it might be fun. He was even looking forward to it.