by Penny Dee
Her hand bit into my shirt. “You listen to me and you listen to me good, Caleb Calley. Your niece or nephew is about to spill out onto this goddamn pavement.” She gritted her teeth. “Now get me inside that goddamn florist before I give birth out here in the street!”
HONEY
“You know, he didn’t sleep with that girl,” Indy said. She was resting in her hospital bed with her newborn son cradled in her arms.
For someone who’d only given birth three hours earlier, she looked incredible.
“He didn’t?” I asked, trying not to sound hopeful.
Indy shook her head. “No. Grunt did.”
“Then why did he let me think he did?”
“He overheard you talking to Autumn. Heard what you said about him not being suitable. It hurt him. More than he thought, I guess, and he didn’t know what to do with it so he went and did what he has always done . . . get drunk and hang out with his club brothers.”
“Can I ask how you know all of this?”
She looked sheepish. “I might have assaulted him with bread.”
I laughed. “I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds awesome.”
She smiled. “I saw him, not long after you did. By then Cade had already told me what had happened at the clubhouse between you and him. So when I came across him at the market, I attacked him with my baguette.”
“That’s got to be the best thing I’ve ever heard.”
“He told me what really happened.” She smiled. “And then my water broke on his boots.”
We both laughed, and when River squirmed in her arms and made some of those cute baby noises, Indy looked down at him and began to gently rock him.
“You know, Caleb’s a good guy.” She looked up again. “And I’ve never seen him as into a girl as he is with you.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
“You should give him a chance,” she said lightly. “You make a good couple.”
“It’s not that easy,” I said.
“It never is.” She laughed softly. “He feels bad about missing the sonogram. But that’s all he did. Go easy on him. He’s a Calley. They’re smart sonsofbitches, but when it comes to affairs of the heart they do really stupid shit. You’ll learn. Caleb has a big heart. I don’t think he’d hurt you for the world.”
I appreciated her words. “Thank you. But I’m not here to talk about my pitiful love life. I’m here to ooh and ahh over this handsome little man. Are you ready to hand him over, or do I have to bribe you?”
“Here, take him.” She handed me her newborn son. “But just so you know, bribery works, too. I’m feeling generous today, but next time bring cake.”
For the next ten minutes we ogled over little River Isaac Calley until Cade turned up. He’d been down at the cafeteria getting his wife coffee and a chocolate fudge brownie. He took his son from me and cradled him in his big arms. He wasn’t wearing his cut, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever seen him without it. He looked like any other new father, his eyes misty, his face soft with a never experienced before love that only came with holding your newborn baby in your arms.
“I’m going to go,” I said to them, feeling it was time to leave them to it. You could feel the love in the room and they needed alone time with their son.
“Caleb’s out in the hall,” Cade said, glancing up from gazing at his son. “He’s waiting for you.”
My stomach knotted.
“Remember what I said, go easy on him,” Indy added. She was already breaking into the brownie. “He made a mistake and I’m sure he’s paying for it.”
She was right. He really hadn’t done anything wrong. Like getting ten-inches deep into that club skank. And the relief I had was insane. I felt let down that he’d missed our sonogram, but it didn’t even come close to how I felt about him fucking Tiffani. I wasn’t going to keep this going.
Which was all well and good until I actually saw him.
He was waiting for me in the corridor looking so damn rough, but at the same time, so damn delicious, and my heart spun on its heels with all the pain and worry from the night before.
He looked up when he heard me and the tension stretched out between us.
“I didn’t touch her,” he said.
“I know.”
He came toward me, cautiously. He looked like a wreck. Messy hair. Pale skin. Scruffy jaw. “I’m sorry I missed the sonogram.”
“Why did you?”
“Because I made a mistake.” His jaw tightened. “Listen, Honey. I get it. You don’t want me. All those reasons why you don’t want to be with me—”
“I’m so sorry I said those things.”
“You’re only sorry I overheard you.”
“No, I’m sorry because I said them. I can only imagine how it felt. Especially after . . . ”
“After—”
“What happened in the cabin, I didn’t mean to make it sound like it meant nothing.”
“Did it?” he asked. “Mean nothing?”
“It meant something.” I struggled to find the words that could somehow make this better. That could somehow take away the hurt. “It meant more than it ever has meant.”
I watched his throat as he tried to swallow.
“I can’t keep doing this,” he breathed.
“What do you mean?”
“This. Us. Waiting for you to want me. To want us.”
“We both decided that—”
“I don’t care what we decided then. It’s changed. For me, anyway. I think we were wrong.”
“Obviously we weren’t . . . look at last night, you didn’t even bother to come home. This is exactly why we made the decision to keep it platonic.”
He looked tired. “I made a mistake.”
“Is this how it would be? You running off to your clubhouse every time something goes wrong?”
“No. I fucked up. But I didn’t do anything with Tiffani.”
“Not this time. But what about the next?”
“There won’t be a next time.” He looked at me and his jaw ticked. “Because I’m giving you what you want.”
Alarm sizzled at the base of my spine. “What do you mean?”
“I’m done. You’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t want me.”
“Caleb—”
“I’ll be gone by tonight.”
He walked away and my heart broke.
I had pushed him away and it was exactly what I didn’t want to do.
It was time to stop running.
Stop pushing him away.
Stop letting my stupid past get in the way of what was good for me.
As I watched him moving farther away from me, I finally decided to face my fears and take back my power from them.
Fears be damned. This man deserved better from me.
“It’s a girl,” I said suddenly, my voice echoing down the hospital corridor.
Caleb stopped walking and slowly turned around. He frowned as he absorbed what I’d just said.
“A girl?”
I nodded, feeling the tears stab at my eyes. “I hope you’re ready for it. If she’s anything like me, we’re in for one hell of a ride.”
His eyes glittered across at me, and as the realization sank in, the shadow slowly lifted from his face. With hasty strides he crossed the distance between us and gently took me by the arms. He looked at me in wonder. Stunned wonder. “We’re having a daughter?”
I nodded and tried to hold back my tears. But the emotion in his voice made it impossible, and quite suddenly I started to cry. Without a word, he pulled me into his arms and held me to his broad chest, and my body softened in surrender against him. I could feel the wild beating of his heart and closed my eyes, allowing myself to be lost in the warmth of his embrace. Being in his arms, it was where I belonged.
“Darlin’, don’t cry,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my hair. “I won’t let you down again. I swear on my life.” He pulled back to look at me and I could see the sinc
erity on his handsome face. “I’m going to take care of you both. You have my word.”
I smiled through my tears. “Don’t pay any attention to these.” I pointed to the tears rolling down my cheeks. “Apparently this is a thing now. I cry at everything.”
He took my face in his big hands and his eyes reached right into mine. And in the bright blueness there was a tender warmth. “Be with me,” he rasped in his deep, rich voice.
“What?”
“Fuck everything else, Honey. Be with me. I want this. I want you. I want us. Give me a chance.” His thumbs caressed my jaw. “Baby, say you’ll be my girl.”
He kissed me, and it was a slow, desperate kiss full of promises and hope.
When he pulled away, his fingers raked through my hair as he searched my face for my answer, and his eyes were so full of emotion, I started to cry harder.
“Yes.” I nodded, as more tears streamed down my cheeks. “I think I’d like that.”
He smiled and it was huge. Happiness lit up his tired eyes. “Yes?”
I nodded and started to laugh through my tears. “Yes.”
He exhaled harshly and kissed me again, his big hands cupping my jaw and holding me to him as his lips and tongue took command of mine.
“Let me take you home,” he whispered against my lips. “Let me show you how good this will be.”
When I nodded, he slung a big arm around my shoulders and led me down the corridor and out of the hospital.
HONEY
My heart felt light, my head full of happiness as we drove home. It felt right. Doing this. Taking the chance and being together. Sometimes the greatest rewards were born from the highest risks and I knew this one was going to end in our favor.
Once home, I led him to the bedroom and we took our time undressing one another. We kissed, tenderly at first, before our desire detonated and we fell to the bed, our bodies crying out for more. I lay down with my head in the pillows, my body open to him as he crawled along the length of me, his eyes wild with desire, his cock hard and big as it slid across my belly.
He bent his head, and his tongue led a trail along the smooth curve of my throat, his lips devouring the flesh at the base of my jaw. I gasped at the pleasure. At the tenderness. At the way his body blanketed mine. At the touch of his erection as it rubbed against my clit, teasing me, torturing me, making me so wet I could barely stand it. I was so aroused I was trembling beneath his touch, writhing, the muscles between my thighs aching to be stretched and filled. He leaned into me, his muscular body blanketing me in a delicious heat and smooth skin as he positioned himself between my open thighs. Taking himself in his hand, he slid the wide crest of his cock through the most sensitive part of me, his face shimmering with pleasure, his lips parting, his eyes hooded with rampant desire as he rubbed himself through my flesh, torturing and teasing me before pushing hard into me.
My breath left me as it left him.
Our eyes met.
Emotion crashed around us.
He thrust in again, a desperate moan escaping his parted lips as he found his rhythm and began to make love to me. Beneath him I fell in tune to the way he loved my body, my legs wrapping tightly around his muscular waist as our bodies began to move in perfect synchronicity.
It was beauty. It was euphoria. It was the summoning of magic. Every delicious stroke and touch, every erotic tangle of our limbs, every soft slide of warm skin against skin, they pulled me deeper and deeper into an abyss of sensation until I was completely, and utterly, lost. My climax was a slow burn. It came from the very core of me, sweet and warm, a sugary bliss spreading through my body, moving slowly until it rose like a wave and crashed over me with such force I cried out with unrestrained ecstasy.
Caleb rose up on his big arms to look down at me, emotion raw and naked on his face, his eyes vibrant with everything he was feeling. Lust. Desire. Need. He thrust into me again and his eyes closed briefly with the pleasure. My name fell from his wet lips in a desperate breath. In response, I moved beneath him and it was his undoing. A tremor ran through him and he gripped the bedding around my head as he cried out, his eyebrows drawn together, his body driving into mine—one, two, three times more, before he stilled and I felt his powerful cock ejaculating violently into me. Slowly, he brought his body down to rest against mine, his skin hot and slick, his wild heartbeat a soft pulse against me. His breathing slowly evened and cooled on my heated flesh.
When he was ready, he raised his head and looked into my eyes. “This is right. And if I have to spend the rest of my life proving it to you, then I will.”
CALEB
Life got busy.
Only a few months ago I was filling my days with tattoo work and filling my nights with drinking, hanging out with my brothers, and losing myself in the body of a woman I would never see again. I didn’t realize it then but I realized it now, I had been lonely. Now I knew what I had been missing out on and the thought of going back to that lifestyle was unappealing, uninviting, and made me wish I’d met Honey sooner.
Now, months later, I barely had time to breathe. Between dividing my time at the studio, working for the club, and spending time with Honey, there didn’t seem a moment to spare. And there wasn’t a second that I didn’t love it.
The weed fields were well underway. Sybil was thrilled that her pot production was back in play and she was a regular visitor to the fields, although I’m not sure our production manager, Luther Barbosa, didn’t want to see her as frequently as he did. Not that he wasn’t more than equipped to deal with her sharp-tongue and cyclonic personality. He was a lawyer. He was used to arguing and bamboozling, and in a weird way, I think he enjoyed debating with my feisty grandmother.
Things were going really well at the tattoo studio. I had more clients than ever, a lot of them regulars or people who’d heard about me through word of mouth. I’d even won a couple of awards for my work, which thrilled Ari because now he could use the words award-winning on all our marketing and social media advertising.
And Honey. Christ, I was falling hard for her. Everyday I woke up next to her, our bodies entwined, and I had to check that this was really my life. It was good. Almost too good to be true. The due date of our baby girl was only eight weeks away, and I was growing more and more excited with each passing moment.
The only shadows on the horizon were two things I had absolutely no control over. My brother, who was still in a bad way in a Maryland military hospital. And my crazy-ass stalker who seemed to be getting crazier by the day.
I stared at a pair of Bob Seger tickets sitting on my desk in front of me, courtesy of my bipolar secret admirer. It was a concert I’d really wanted to go to, but the creepiness left me at odds with going. I picked them up and stared at them. They were expensive seats.
My stalker. I didn’t get it. One minute she seemed smitten, head over heels for me. The next, the pendulum swung in a different direction and she hated me. Like when she sent me the black roses with all the heads cut up and chopped off.
But this week, according to the Bob Seger tickets in my hand, she loved me again.
It was beginning to do my head in.
If she wanted my attention, she fucking had it. This shit had to stop.
I put the tickets in my appointment book on my desk and began closing up for the night when my phone rang. It was Mom. She was in Maryland visiting with Chance.
“Hey, everything okay?”
Since Chance’s accident, there was always that concern in the back of my mind that she would ring me and tell me the worst news.
“Everything is fine. Chance is awake. They’ve brought him out of his coma. He’s still in and out of consciousness, but I was able to ask him if he’d like to see you and he said he did.”
“That’s fucking great news, Mom. I’ll get the next flight.” I opened my schedule again and looked at the following day’s bookings. I had two big jobs, but they were regulars and I had a feeling they wouldn’t mind rescheduling. “Tell him I’ll be th
ere tomorrow or the next day.”
“Okay, son.” Her voice was husky. She sounded off. And I could only imagine how hard this was on her. “Caleb, you need to be prepared for how he looks. Remember it’s the early days. He looks bad but it’s still him. It’s still your brother.”
Mom’s words played on my mind as I rode home. No one really knew the extent of Chance’s injuries and how badly scarred he would be. From what Mom said, he was covered in bandages to help with the healing process and to protect from infection, but his main injuries were on his back and the back of his legs. Apparently, Chance had been lying on his belly when the bomb went off and ripped apart the building he was in.
When I got home, Honey was in the kitchen attempting to make beef stroganoff without a recipe, which was always going to end badly. Somehow she’d made the sauce turn a weird grey-green color. So after throwing the dinner disaster into the garbage and ordering pizza, we talked about my visit to Maryland to see my brother.
“Will you come with me?” I asked her.
“Do you think it’s a good idea? Wouldn’t he prefer it if you went by yourself?”
“No. The best thing we can do for him is to keep it as normal as possible. He’ll want to know what is happening at home. Plus, I really want you there.”
Her eyes softened and she reached for my hand. “Of course.”
We flew out the next day and the following evening we arrived at the military hospital where my brother was recuperating from his injuries.
We were escorted by a military nurse called Marc.
“He’s heavily sedated but he is out of his coma,” he said. “He can hear you, but he probably won’t respond. He hasn’t said anything yet. His airway was affected in the bomb blast.”
Before we went any further, I stopped Marc. “Is he going to be okay?”
“That depends on what you consider okay. If you mean, will he be like he was before the bomb blast, then no. Your brother has second and third-degree burns to a large proportion of his body, as well as internal injuries. He also watched his squad burn before his eyes. The person you knew is not the person he is now. You should be aware of that.”