Biker Baby (The Kings of Mayhem MC Book 3)

by Penny Dee

  I followed him out of the store, silently chastising myself for hating on the sales girl so much. It wasn’t her fault she was young and pretty, and just his type.

  “Where to now?” I asked as we climbed into the car.

  “Like I said, it’s a surprise.”

  I rolled my eyes and put on my seatbelt. My mood was getting flatter by the minute because my hormones were all over the place like they were on some kind of amusement park ride. I was a slave to them and their ridiculous thoughts.

  “Everything okay?” Caleb asked, glancing over as he steered the SUV through traffic.

  “Just tired, I guess.” It was a lie. I was busy thinking about him having sex with the sales girl and it was slowly making me insane. And I hated how insane I was being. One minute I wanted us to be friends, and just friends. The next, I wanted to wrap him up and keep him all to myself.

  Clearly I was falling for him.

  And insane.

  Maybe it was because I was about to have his baby

  Or maybe I was genuinely falling in love with him.

  Either way, it was bullshit. A big, pile of bullshit. Nothing good could come of whatever my heart was up to, and I had to stop it before it went any further. I could hear my mother’s voice echoing through the years to reach me. “Don’t trap a man with a baby, Honey. He’ll just end up resenting you.”

  I looked over at him driving and my chest tightened with longing.

  He glanced over at me, then suddenly pulled the car off to the side of the road and killed the engine. He rested a strong, muscular arm across the steering wheel as he turned to face me.

  “Okay, what’s going on?”

  I looked at him blankly. “What do you mean?”

  “Ever since we left the store you’ve been . . . flat.”

  “Really?”

  I tried to sound surprised.

  Because there was no way in hell I was admitting anything.

  But Caleb wasn’t fooled and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Nuh-uh. Something is going on with you. Now spill.”

  The sudden urge to cry hit me like a wall of water and it was impossible to hold back.

  “Do you want to date her?” I blurted out, knowing I sounded like a jealous, crazy lady but unable to stop. Because apparently, I no longer had a filter.

  Caleb looked mildly perplexed. “Date who?”

  “Old Sally smiley face back there!” I exclaimed.

  Caleb’s mild perplexity turned to outright confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “But I don’t!”

  “The sales assistant! The one with the big boobs and the flirty eyes!” I cried. “The one you couldn’t keep your eyes off.”

  “The girl in the baby store?”

  “Yes, the girl in the baby store! Could you have been more obvious about wanting to fuck her?”

  Caleb looked at me like I’d spoken to him in Dothraki. But I ignored him and continued headfirst into my meltdown.

  “Admit it. You can’t wait to get me home so you can turn back around and go fuck her.”

  “In the store?”

  “No, on a date, you ass!” I exclaimed. “You’re going to dump me home and then call up fucking . . . whatever her fucking name is . . . “

  “Sally Smiley Face, if memory serves,” he said calmly.

  “Yes, fucking Sally fucking not pregnant Smiley face!” I wailed.

  “That’s a pretty long name to cry out when I come. You know, since I’m going to be fucking her later.”

  My eyes turned to saucers. “See! I knew it. You do want to fuck her.”

  “I do not want to fuck her,” he said calmly.

  “Oh, sure. Then why did you get her number?” I asked.

  I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he had gotten her number but I was almost sure that he had. He basically confirmed my suspicions when he didn’t deny it. And for some stupid reason I was determined to make him admit it.

  “You’re being crazy,” he said unfazed.

  “Don’t change the subject. Did you get her number or not?”

  “Yes, I got her number. Technically.”

  My heart sank.

  “Thank you,” I said, trying to stop my quivering chin. “For proving my point.”

  Caleb sighed. “I’m not sure what point you’re trying to prove. But if it makes you feel better—”

  “Just take me home!” I said, shoving my arms across my chest and turning to stare out the window. My heart beat wildly in my chest.

  Caleb looked at me for a moment, probably trying to work out my special brand of crazy before sighing and easing the car back into the traffic. A horrible tension sat between us like a brick wall. I glanced over and noticed his jaw was ticking. He was wearing sunglasses so I couldn’t see his eyes, but he was gritting his teeth so I knew he was pissed. Or frustrated. Or both. And I couldn’t blame him. He’d knocked up a psychopath.

  HONEY

  We rode home in awful silence which was only made worse by my desperate need to cry. My face was stiff with the cold ache of unshed tears, but I refused to cry in front of him.

  As we pulled into the parking space outside our apartment, the car was barely stopped before I climbed out and started across the parking lot.

  I felt worked up.

  Confused.

  Jealous.

  Insane.

  And—

  Whoa.

  My baby moved like she was doing tumbles in my tummy.

  “Wow!” I said.

  Caleb came up behind me. “Are you okay?”

  Again, our baby moved and my meltdown was completely forgotten.

  “I think your baby is an acrobat,” I said.

  Caleb smiled and it glittered in his eyes. I took his big hands and spread them across my baby bump. But nothing happened. When it looked like our baby had gone back to sleep and wasn’t going to move again, he let his hands drop to his side.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t feel it,” I said softly.

  “Seems my boy is active. I’m sure we’re going to feel him more and more.”

  “You’re calling Bump a boy. Is that wishful thinking?”

  He smiled. “You keep referring to him as a her.”

  “Well, one of us has to be right, I guess.”

  He laughed. “I suppose you’re right.”

  The frost between us began to thaw.

  “I’m sorry for arguing about the sales girl,” I said, casting my eyes down at my feet. I don’t know what had come over me to make me feel so vulnerable.

  He lifted my chin. “You don’t need to say you’re sorry.”

  “I’m not usually so difficult.”

  “It’s okay.” His face was gentle, and in his eyes was an unbearable tenderness. “Remember what I said, I’m not going to be with anyone else.”

  “I know.” I sighed and relaxed. It was easy to forget all the reassurances he gave me when my hormones were doing mini drive-bys past my sanity.

  “Are we good?” he asked.

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Good. Now are you ready for the second half of your surprise?”

  I nodded. Unsure of what I was agreeing to.

  “We’re going to dinner.” He gave me a broad grin as he gave me his arm. “Let’s go enjoy ourselves before you get too big and I can’t get you out the front door.”

  He winked but I punched him in the arm anyway.

  He took me to Catfish Kelly’s, which despite its name was a very upmarket restaurant in town where bookings were hard to come by. We ate over-the-top hamburgers and ridiculously-priced sweet potato chips, while sitting out on the deck overlooking the water. I was relaxed and he was happy. It was easy between us again and my meltdown over the sales girl was forgotten, although the fact he got her number still lingered. But our conversation was easy and comforting, and in my heart I knew things were going to be okay. Somehow.

 
; After our hamburgers, he didn’t seem to be in a rush to get home, so we drove up to Cavalry Hill and sat under a starlit sky, watching the twinkling lights of Destiny below. It was a magical night, and he told me stories about his granddaddy, and how when he was young, his granddaddy would take him out to the cabin by the river and teach him how to do all sorts of things, like fix engines, build forts, cultivate marijuana plants, and how to use a slingshot.

  “But the best thing he ever taught me was how to draw,” Caleb said.

  “He was an artist?”

  “He had a sketchbook, and when the noise in his head got too much he’d sit out on that porch by the river and draw. I can’t tell you how many nights we sat out there, an old man and a boy, just quieting the noise in our heads with our pencils and sketchbooks.”

  Later, when it started to get cold, we climbed back into this car and he drove us home.

  When we pulled into the driveway, I noticed the light was on inside the apartment.

  “Did you leave it on?” I asked, suddenly worried.

  Ever since the break-in, I was on edge about someone getting inside the apartment again.

  But Caleb simply gave me one of his disarming smiles.

  “Relax, it’s not what you think,” he replied calmly.

  Confused, I climbed out of the car and followed him inside. Right away, I could tell things had been moved about the apartment, and as I stepped farther inside I could see all of Caleb’s belongings, like his bed, blankets, and boxes of his clothes in the corner of the living room. Alarmed, I glanced at him, but he seemed perfectly at ease.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, looking at him suspiciously.

  He smiled and turned me to face him. “Do you trust me?”

  “Caleb—”

  “Do you?”

  I nodded.

  “Then relax and close your eyes.”

  I looked at him questioningly but relaxed and did what he asked. I closed my eyes and let him guide me across the room. When he told me to open them again, I was standing in the doorway of his dark bedroom.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  I nodded and he flicked on the bedroom light.

  And a gasp fell from my lips.

  Before me, his room had been magically transformed into the most beautiful nursery I had ever seen. Everything I’d picked out earlier that day at the baby furniture store was assembled and in place. The crib. The chest of drawers. The changing table. Shelving.

  “Oh my God, Caleb . . .” I walked into the room, gazing around me, slowly absorbing everything. “How—?”

  “While you were walking around the store picking things out I asked the sales girl if I could have two very mean looking Prospects come and pick it all up.”

  “That’s why you got her number?”

  “The one and only reason. I gave it to the Prospects so they could organize the pick up and bring it back here. My mom, Indy, and Cherry met them here and helped them put it all together.”

  I gazed around the room, dazed and slightly overwhelmed by the gesture. In my chest, my heart overflowed with appreciation.

  “I don’t know what to say.” Tears welled in my eyes. “It’s so beautiful.”

  “You like it?”

  “Like it, Caleb, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”

  I wanted to cry. This man. This rugged, handsome, beautiful man. He was so thoughtful and kind.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  He smiled and it was devastating. This whole fairytale moment was so completely and utterly devastating. How I could I not be in love with him?

  I couldn’t.

  Because the truth was, I was crazy, madly, deeply head over heels in love with him.

  “But what about you? Does this mean you’re moving out?”

  My heart sank at the thought.

  “No,” he said, reassuringly. “I’m going to take the couch for a while.”

  “You didn’t have to give up your room.”

  He came toward me and put his hands on my growing stomach. “My baby needs his own room. I can sleep anywhere.”

  I couldn’t find the right words to thank him. None of them seemed right. So I leaned up and kissed him on his cheek. “Thank you.”

  He smiled down at me, and the moment got weird. His smile faded and so did mine, and when his eyes dropped to my lips, I couldn’t help but lick them. My heart stopped. My breathing, too. And I had to swallow deeply to get them both moving again.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, finally, moving away from me. He headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  While he was showering, I stole another few minutes in the nursery, wandering around the room and taking it all in and appreciating all the hard work that had gone into it. I couldn’t believe he’d corralled everyone to come over and get it set up as a surprise. My heart twisted. Even the little mobile with the bumblebees and teddy bears was in place and dangling down over the crib.

  When Caleb came out of the shower, I was already dressed in my pajamas and in bed, sitting up against the pillows. He appeared in my doorway, dressed in a pair of boxer shorts and a white t-shirt.

  Again, a sense of longing spread through me.

  “Good night,” he said.

  “Thanks again for today.”

  His grin was beautiful, his voice husky and warm. “It was my pleasure.” He winked. “Good night, Honey.”

  “Hey,” I called out to him. “Don’t take the couch. You can sleep in here. For tonight, you know, until we get the couch sorted.”

  The couch was currently piled high with his belongings.

  “You sure?”

  In response, I pulled back the covers and patted the bed next to me. “After what you did today, I’m not having you sleep on the floor.”

  He climbed into bed next to me, and I mashed the covers down with my arm, making a barrier between us in the sheets.

  Darkness engulfed us as he turned off the lamp on the bedside table. He smelled soapy and warm, and I couldn’t lie, him lying next to me was comforting and nice.

  “What you did today was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me,” I whispered. “Thank you, Caleb.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I felt him shift next to me.

  “Was this just a ploy to get into bed with me?” I asked in the darkness.

  I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him grinning.

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  CALEB

  A noise woke me a little after 2 AM.

  And for a moment I had no idea where I was. But as the cobwebs of sleep slowly cleared, I realized I was in bed with Honey and she was curled up behind me, her long legs tangled around mine. She was warm and soft, and I had a raging wood throbbing in my shorts.

  My phone vibrated on the bedside table next to me and I realized it was what woke me. I reached for it.

  It was Cade.

  “Get over to Mom’s now,” he rasped. “She just got a call. It’s Chance. He’s been injured.”

  I sat up. “What happened?”

  Ice ran through my veins.

  “His unit was caught in an explosion. They’re not sure if there are any survivors.”

  My brother’s words were like a sword running through me.

  “What do you fucking mean, Cade? What the fuck?”

  Honey stirred and woke up, blinking her eyes and looking up at me from the pillow.

  “Just get over here. Mom’s on the phone with the military now. We’ll know more by the time you get here.”

  Cade hung up.

  “What’s wrong?” Honey asked, slowly sitting up. “Are you okay?”

  No. I was fucking far from okay. I was stunned. Nausea pulsed in my stomach and fear crept up my spine. I ripped off the bed covers and reached for my black pants on the chair next to the bed.

  “Caleb?”

  “It’s Chance. He’s been injured or . . . ” I shook my head. No. I wasn’t go
ing to go there. My older brother was not about to become another fallen hero. “I’ve got to get over to my mom’s.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “No. You sleep. I will call you when I know something.”

  But Honey was already climbing out of bed. She came to me and took me by the hands.

  “You need to stop. Okay? Catch a breath before you drive over to your mom’s.” Her big blue eyes were full of concern. “Let me come with you. And whatever happens, I’ll be there for you, okay.”

  Honey was the calm to my storm and I loved her for it.

  She moved away from me, and for a moment, I did what she said. I paused and took a breath. And I watched her slip out of her pajamas, her sexy body six months pregnant with our baby, her breasts swollen, her belly round, and in my chest my heart filled with an immeasurable love for her. Slowly, my racing heart began to calm and the tingle of foreboding at the base of my spine was slightly tempered, although not completely gone.

  I crossed the room to her.

  “Stay here and sleep.” My voice was husky because I was tired and anxious about Chance. But also because being this close to her, I longed to touch her, hold her and feel the calming thump of her heart against mine. I slid my hands over her belly where our baby was growing. “You need to rest.”

  She looked at me, her eyes searching my face, and then she nodded. “Okay, but you call me when you need to.”

  My hands lingered on her for a moment longer. “I will.”

  In five minutes, I was gone, riding into the darkness and toward something I had to accept may change everything forever. A numbness spread through my chest as I pushed the Harley farther into the night, memories of my eldest brother playing in my head. Of us as kids. Of him teaching me to ride my first bike when I was four. Of him showing me how to bait a hook and cast a fishing line, of the hours we spent down at his favorite fishing spot on the river. Of him yelling at me for borrowing his Tom Glavine baseball card, only for him to come into my room later that night and slip it into my hand while I slept because the next day I was going in for my first operation on my ears.

  My jaw ticked and I bit my teeth together. With a jerk of my wrist I roared faster through the deserted streets of Destiny.

  Growing up, I spent more time with Chance than anyone. Cade was always with Indy but Chance was a loner, preferring the quiet solitude of home where he could play his guitar, or fish down by the river. When he was in high school, I guess you could say he got popular. Girls were always calling our house. And he was always going off to parties. But no matter how popular or busy he became, he still had time for his kid brother.