I turned on my heels and ran away from the man I’d dreamt about for months.
I tried to get away from the father of my child.
Chapter 8
Cade
The baby was mine. I knew it. The fear in her eyes when I asked the question. The way she rushed away from me. She wasn’t ready to talk about it, and I understood that. But she was doing this alone, and that wasn’t okay with me. That didn’t sit right with me, and I wasn’t going to let her get away.
Not this time.
I picked up my pace as the police officer headed towards me. I rushed after Harper and ran around the corner she took. I was ready to corner her if I needed to. I needed to hear it from her. All she had to do was tell me, and my support would be hers. All she had to do was admit that the baby was mine, and I would do whatever I had to in order to keep her and that child safe from whatever threat was looming over their heads.
But when I rounded the corner, I saw her talking to her father.
The audience was beginning to disperse, and it was causing a ruckus. I turned around and locked eyes with the police officer before he put his hand to his ear. His eyes glanced over at me before he sighed, then he turned on his heels and made his way towards the crowd.
“Cade. Where the fuck are you? This thing’s shutting down,” Doc said.
“It’s taking a while to get the daughter to the car. I’m making sure she gets there safely,” I said.
“Good. I’ve got the mom in the car,” Ink said. “Blade, you see anything?”
“Nothing from up here. Cade. What’s going on with the daughter?”
“She’s talking to her father right now. Hold on,” I said.
She was murmuring lowly with her father before I saw both of their eyes turn towards me. Her father wrapped a protective arm around her and ushered her towards the car. His eyes stayed hooked on me before he broke his gaze just long enough to put her in the car.
Then he locked eyes with me and nodded.
There was a grateful little grin that crawled across his cheeks. One I didn’t expect to see. I figured Harper was telling her father who I was. Or that I was harassing her. But instead, as Ryan Thomas held his hand up to me in a thankful wave, I figured Harper hadn’t done anything like that.
She must’ve told him I was helping her or something.
“Cade. Figured you should know. The daughter’s in the car, and she was talking with her mom about a tall guy who helped her out of the bathroom. Good work,” Ink said.
That’s what she’d said. She’d told her father she had been sick in the restroom and that I had helped.
Well, at least she wasn’t throwing me under the bus.
“Glad she’s safe,” I said. “Let’s wrap this shit up and go home.”
“Here here,” Doc said. “I could use a drink to wash down the taste of bullshit that man spewed.”
“Good thing I’m not the only one that thought it was,” Blade said. “What’d you think, Cade?”
“He’s an asshole. I’m just not sure why yet,” I said.
“Spoken like Cade. All right, everyone. Let’s go home,” Vex said.
I headed back out to the rally and found my bike. I threw my leg over it to stabilize myself, but the memories were coming full-force. Seeing Harper had opened the floodgates, and getting onto my bike after seeing her pregnant with my child only made matters worse. I could see her in front of me, her beautiful blue eyes smiling back at me. I could remember the feeling of her nose as it crinkled underneath my fingertips. I kissed every single one of those beautiful freckles that night. They illuminated her skin and separated her from the pack. Her freckles made her look innocent, but the fury she was able to take from my punishments told me she was strong.
I could still feel her ass jiggling underneath the palm of my hand as I sat on my bike.
“You good, Cade?” Doc asked. “You’re just sitting there.”
“I’m fucking hungry, man. Give me a second,” I said.
“I got a protein bar in my cargo tin,” Blade said. “Want it?”
“No, I don’t want your week-old chalk bar,” I said.
“That’s what the taste like!” Vex said. “Chalk bars!”
“Let’s not be so damn loud next time,” Ink said. “I almost lost an eardrum.”
The blood was rushing through my ears. Harper was the only woman I’d ever stayed the night with. Usually, I flirted, fucked, and fled. But there was something about the way she curled into me that night. About the way, her body trembled against mine. How she clung to my skin and begged for me to stay. The way she came down from her high was breathlessly and intriguing. She wrapped her entire body around me that night as I stroked her hair, kissing her and telling her how beautiful she was to me.
I woke up that morning with her naked body pressed against my muscles, and I could still remember how the sun looked in her hair. I could still smell her pussy underneath my nose, and I could still feel how her body begged for more as I marked her with my hands.
With my teeth.
With my tongue and my cock.
I was so lost in her I didn’t even use a condom. And I was never that reckless. She was open to anything and everything I threw her way. Exploring her sensual side as I punished that ass of hers. I bit the insides of her thighs until bruises formed and pulled her hair until she cried out for mercy. I fucked her face until tears poured down her face, and still, she begged for more.
I used her body for my own pleasure, expelling my own demons in her orifices.
And still, she wanted to curl up next to me.
How the fuck was I supposed to concentrate when all I could think about was her? How the hell was I supposed to sit through some dumbass debriefing meeting at the clubhouse when all I could think about was the fact that she was pregnant with my child? There was a woman on this planet walking around with my child in her body, and I wasn’t there to take care of her. To look after her and get her the shit she needed. I wasn’t there for the doctor’s appointments or to hold her hair back when she did get sick.
What the fuck kind of man did that make me?
I closed my eyes as people from the rally began to dissipate. I remembered the first time she begged for my punishment. She was strung up by her hands with her legs spread on the bed. I was teasing her body with hot wax, then flicking the dried wax off her skin with the blade of my knife. Her eyes had been wide with terror, but her nipples were puckered to painful peaks. Her body shook with fear, but her pussy spilled with want. I’d flick the wax off and catch her stare, her eyes wide as she took in the experience.
Then I’d lean over and bite into her skin just to feel her writhe against me.
She’d call out my name, a mixture of moaning and grunting. She’d tug at her restraints and try to move her ankles, but her movements were fruitless. I had her right where I wanted her that night, and so long as she allowed me access to her body, I would do disgusting things with it. I had slid into her dripping pussy easily, fucking her as I poured wax upon her nipples. She arched into me and whimpered, her hips trying to buck into me as I pinned her to the bed.
I slammed into her body until she shook with her orgasm, her juices spraying out onto my pelvis. I leaned down and captured her lips at that very moment, swallowing her whimpers and tired cries of mercy as she came down from her high.
Then I took to my blade and watched her eyes grow wide as I flicked the hardened wax from her nipples.
That was my favorite memory of her that night. Not because she was spread for me and not because she sprayed me with her arousal. Not because my cock slid effortlessly into her tight pussy and not because she was tied down for my taking.
It was the fear she was fighting through in order to experience something new. It was the inherent trust she had for me that night that I wouldn’t hurt her. I came at her with a knife and hot wax, wanting her to experience something she’d never had before. She had a safe word. She had a way out.
&nb
sp; And instead of taking it, she fought through her fear to experience something.
That was how I knew she was strong. That was how I knew she was capable of becoming so much more than she was now. So much more than the scared little girl being ushered around by her bullshit father. She was scared of something. She was being tied down by something. I knew what it looked like to tie her down. I knew what that fear in her eyes looked like.
Which meant that whatever was tying her down was more frightful than a stranger coming at her with a knife.
Whatever the hell was going on with my Harper, I was going to figure it out. I was going to figure out how the fuck to fix it, and then I was going to figure out how to help her.
Her and my unborn child.
“Cade?”
I panned my gaze up to Doc, who was giving me a funny look.
“You good?”
“Yep,” I said.
“Your intercom not working?” he asked.
“Just in my own head. What’s up?” I asked.
“Uh huh. Well, we’re all heading back. Everything’s cleared up, and no threat will be happening today. We’re gonna go celebrate a smooth gig. Come on.”
“Sounds good to me. I could use a drink,” I said.
“To get out of your head?”
I threw Doc a blank stare before he hopped onto his bike.
“Come on, Thinker. Follow me.”
Chapter 9
Harper
Back in my room, with my head in my hands, I wept. I couldn’t believe I’d just seen Cade. I never thought in a million years I would ever see that man again, but here he was. In the same damn city, I was in. Affiliated with the biker club that guarded this town. My mind raced with the implications as I curled up in bed, listening to my parents argue once again.
“She wouldn’t let me in the bathroom with her, Ryan,” my mother said.
“You were supposed to stay with her at all times, Patrice. That biker guy had to coax her out of the bathroom and get her to the fucking car!”
“Well, she got there, didn’t she?” my mother asked.
“Yeah, and now an entire group of people knows how screwed up our family is,” my father said.
“Oh, and that’ll… what? Affect your votes? You think those outlaw bikers fucking care about this town?”
I pulled the covers over my head and buried myself in my pillow. Of course, they cared about this town. Anyone who grew up here knew of the shit they did. The painstaking lengths they went to in order to protect this city. Sure, there were rumors of ‘guns for hire’ and pedaling firearms and shit, but they protected their own. Their family. The place they loved.
There was a lot to admire about that.
And it told me a lot about Cade.
Shit. It was just supposed to be a night of fun. A night of losing myself to a life I wished I live. Experiencing freedom and tasting what it was like to be away from my parent’s expectations. And I had to admit, when I found out I was pregnant, part of me was excited. Cade had altered my life in many ways that night. He helped me to understand things about myself I would’ve never found out otherwise. In those few hours we spent with one another, he taught me about trust. Lust. Punishment and reward, and how the two could intertwine for some of the most powerful orgasms I’d ever experienced. He taught me about beauty, and what it felt like to be cherished.
He taught me what a real man would do to a woman, and how he could make her feel.
The idea of having a part of Cade with me forever helped me to get through the morning sickness. It helped me to get through the restless nights and the vivid dreams that plagued me. It helped me through the screaming match when I broke the news to my parents that I was pregnant.
And it helped me now. Whenever they were fighting about me for whatever fucking reason.
But that was all it was supposed to be. A part of him. Not all of him. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was never supposed to pop back up. When I left that rally in South Dakota, all I’d wished for was a piece of him to remember him by. Which was exactly what I’d gotten. A piece of him was growing within me, changing me for the better and pushing me towards a life I knew I needed but was always afraid to reach out for. The desperate need to get this child away from the toxicity of this home was what was pushing me. Shoving me towards a life I knew I deserved-- a life I needed-- in order to flourish in a way that would make me happy.
But now Cade was here. And Cade knew I was pregnant.
We would never work as a couple. We lived in two different worlds. I lived a very public life because of my father, and on a good day he led an invisible one. Things could never work between him and I. Our lives just weren’t meant for that type of thing.
But the look on his face when he saw my stomach. The way he started to piece everything together. The way he grabbed my arm and the strength behind his muscles. I closed my eyes and recounted his beautiful stare. His pillowy lips. Just his hand coming down on my arm reminded me of how he commanded my body. How he took what was his while cherishing every inch of me.
Seeing him again made me want him again. Now that he was so close, I could taste him. I could remember what it felt like to have his cock between my lips. What it felt like to have his body filling mine to the brim. I wanted to wrap my legs around his waist again. I wanted to be bent over his lap again. I wanted him to tie me down and make me cry with frustration until he rolled climax after climax over my body.
Would he see me again? Did he even want to? He lived in town, and I led a public life. But was it possible for me to see him again?
Now that he was so close, it was all I could think about.
My parents continued to fight in the other room, but I was too busy thinking about Cade. A smile crossed my face at the thought of feeling his lips against mine, but my father busting into my room ripped me back to reality. He ripped the covers off me, and I took in his angry stare, my mother hot on his heels as she tried to drag him out of the room.
“Just leave her alone, Ryan. This is between us,” my mother said.
“The next time you go off like that without your mother and embarrass me like that, I’ll be the one pulling you out the restroom. Do you understand me, Harper?”
I nodded mindlessly before I cast my gaze on my bed.
It would never work between us. If I ever saw Cade again, I would have to be strong. I couldn’t approach him, and he couldn’t approach me. If my father ever found out that he was the father of my child, his grip on me would tighten, and everything I’d been planning would be jeopardized.
I’d never be able to leave again, and my child would be stuck in this cycle of destruction.
As much as I wanted Cade, I couldn’t have him, and as tears ran down my cheeks, I heard my father storm out of my room and slammed the door.
“Come on, sweetheart. Why don’t you and I go get some dinner?”
My mother’s voice sounded so far away as I laid back down onto my pillow.
Just three more weeks.
Three more weeks and this nightmare would be over.
Chapter 10
Cade
Ever since the rally, I couldn’t get Harper off my mind. It was distracting me from my work and keeping me up at night. I had to find a way to talk with her. To get her away from her parents and have a conversation with her. It felt like her parents were manipulating her. Parading her around for her father’s sake. If I could get her alone, secured away from her family, I knew I could get her to talk with me.
The light in her eyes was no longer there. That fierce light that guided me to her had dimmed in her beautiful stare. I saw it the moment she turned around and looked at me. She was scared. Fearful. Timid.
Not at all like the young woman I’d met at the rally.
The only way I knew I could get around her without throwing red flags was to get Ryan to hire us. Permanently. As his private protection through the rest of his campaign. I went through our files and found his office number,
then called him up on my cell phone. It would register as an unknown number on his end, but I was hoping he would pick up anyway.
And sure enough, he did.
“Ryan Thomas speaking.”
“Mr. Thomas. My name’s Cade. I’m a representative of The Black Angels.”
“Why in the world are you calling me on my office line,” he said in a whisper.
“I wanted to call and offer our services for the rest of your campaign,” I said.
“Well, my family and I are just fine. Nothing happened at the rally so that we won’t be needing your services any longer.”
“That isn’t true,” I lied. “We just got done debriefing. The reason I had to run backstage was because there were some rowdy guys that slipped by the police officers posted in the back. The only reason I went in search for your daughter was because I figured she was their target.”
“Wait a second, what?” he asked.
“We didn’t want to cause any more of a scene at the rally, but since I was the one that went after them, I told the club I would call you.”
I was lying through my fucking teeth, but I didn’t care. I could tell by his silence that he was mulling it over. Turning over my proposition in my head. All I had to do was get him to agree, and for the right price, we would be all over that fucking family. If I could convince Ryan that I was in it to save Harper, he might even appoint me as her personal bodyguard.
Which meant I could get that alone time with her.
“How many rowdy men got by the police?” Ryan asked.
“Three that I could find,” I said.
“That you could find.”
“Yes, sir. And the police weren’t any help. They were ready to talk, and it wasn’t until I threatened them that they kept their mouths shut.”
“You what?” he asked.
“Listen. There is a threat looming out there, and it was proven at the rally. And the police? You can’t make the police department sign a waiver not to talk. If they continue to guard you and something happens, someone will talk to the press. But with us? We’ll sign whatever you want. For the right price, of course.”
Snake (The Road Rebels MC Book 3) Page 21