by Brook Wilder
When my orgasm hit me, it washed over me like a tidal wave. I screamed into Noah’s shoulder, biting his shoulder through his t-shirt. Noah snarled and fucked me harder, his hands tightening on my buttocks. He gave one final shout and thrust into me, letting me feel him fill her. That sent me shuddering again, my face still buried in his chest.
As I came down from the euphoria, I was aware that Noah was looking down at me. I managed to look up and saw him smirking down at me.
“You wouldn’t have let me fuck you like this if you had turned on me.”
I felt like I had been used, even if the sex had been mind-blowing. I eased myself down, wincing as Noah’s still-hard cock left me, and staggered back. My legs felt like they were water. I managed to fix a glare on him.
“Don’t think this means you will get your way every time.” I panted. “I’m not easy.”
“I never thought you were.”
How could he stand there smirking, his cock still hard and still on display? I turned my eyes and found my clothes, getting dressed as best I could with trembling hands. Then I turned back to him and saw that Noah hadn’t moved. He was standing there as if he was a God. I growled.
“Put it away.”
“Put what away?” Noah’s eyes glinted. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Liz.”
“Noah!”
Noah chuckled but he pulled up his jeans, tucking his cock inside with a wince. I tried not to stare at his crotch as he zipped himself up and approached me, his smirk dying away.
“What are you going to do now?” He asked as he reached out for me, but stopped.
I adjusted my skirt before zipping it up. The smell of sex lingered on my skin. I needed to clean up.
“I was going to see Cassie.” I turned away and took off my blouse, attempting to pull my bra on as quickly as I could. “And I’m going now.”
I stilled when Noah’s hands brushed against my back. But then he was taking the ends of my bra and fastening them up, his fingers running down my spine.
“I’ll give you a ride home later,” he said quietly.
“I have my car.”
“Then I’ll go with you.” Noah held up a hand as I turned around to protest. “Just so I know you got home safely, that’s all. After what you’ve said about that accident…”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Fine.” I didn’t want to think about that accident anymore. “If you want to, fine.” I backed away from him, my hand fumbling for the door. “Just leave me alone until then.”
I hurried out. Noah didn’t follow me, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not that he was listening to me.
Chapter 10
Noah
I had done some rash things in the past, but I had never had sex in Mason’s office. But there was something about Liz, especially when she was angry, that got my blood running hot. I couldn’t keep my hands off her. Even though her expression said this was a bad idea, Liz had been more than willing in my arms. My cock was still hard just thinking about it.
It was hard watching her leave for time with Cassie. I could see them together, Liz attempting to be happy, but there was sadness behind her eyes. She had been well and truly hurt by something and she wasn’t willing to tell me. We had discussed everything before. We had been very open. And now Liz was hiding something from me. I didn’t like it.
But Liz needed to do it at her own pace. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t tell me anything at all.
I was kept very busy, though. Mason was punishing me for using his office as a love pad. I found out who the dead biker was: James Ball, a younger member who had joined just before I was arrested. From the reports I managed to get hold of through a few contacts, James had moved into another lane to overtake and hadn’t noticed the truck speeding up behind him. By the time the truck driver realized someone was in front of him and slammed on the brake, it was too late. There were notes that the driver had been on his phone.
At least there was slight comfort that James had been killed by a civilian who made a stupid mistake than a casualty of a turf war. But it didn’t make me feel any better. James was only twenty-two. He had idolized me, had my tattoos. He was far too young to die.
I hoped they got that careless driving bastard. If not, the Riders would have something to say about that.
Cassie texted me to let me know Liz was leaving. I managed to get back to the annex at the same time Liz was tearing away in her car. I growled and swerved my bike around, catching up to her as she turned into the main street, heading towards home. She knew I said I would escort her back. What did she think she was doing? With everything going on right now, Liz couldn’t afford to go around on her own when Ruiz’s men were prowling around. She might think she was safe but, if she didn’t take precautions, her opinion might change dramatically.
I wasn’t about to have her driven off the road and snatched off the street by the cartel. I wouldn’t lose her like that. Not if I could help it.
Finally, Liz turned into her neighborhood and pulled into her drive. I pulled my Harley up behind her and climbed out. Liz was busying herself with her purse, not meeting my eyes as I approached. The fire from earlier seemed to have gone. Was she regretting what we had done? I hoped not; I wasn’t regretting it.
I wanted to touch her, hold her, but Liz’s body language said she would punch me again. And my stomach was still sore from the sucker punches earlier.
“Are you okay now?”
Liz looked up and scowled, her eyes blazing fire.
“Let’s see. I got caught in traffic on the way to a job interview, I missed said interview and had a freak-out because I thought the father of my child was dead and I saw what I thought was his corpse. How do you think I feel right now?”
I inwardly winced. That was a stupid question. I wasn’t backing down, however. That wasn’t me.
“I didn’t realize you cared.” I leered at her, my eyes passing down her body. A delicious body I wanted to grab hold of.
Liz huffed and took a step back.
“We used to be a solid team, Noah.” Did she sound sad about that? “Now I don’t know what to think or what to feel. The Noah I see now… he’s not the same person I knew before. I don’t know what to do this Noah.”
“I’m still me, Liz.”
But Liz was shaking her head. “No, you’re not. There’s something about you that I’m not sure I like. And I’m scared that it will hurt Hunter.”
The thought she could even consider me harming Hunter had me seeing red. I reached for Liz before she could back further away and tugged her close. Cupping her jaw, I made her look up at me.
“You should know this, Liz,” I said, watching as she licked her lips, a reflexive action. “I would never do anything to hurt you or my son. Never you.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead and felt Liz tremble. “I’m still angry with you. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be awful to my own kid over your actions. That’s not his fault and I’m not holding that against him.”
“Just me,” Liz snorted. Was her voice trembling? “You’re still an absolute asshole, Noah.”
I chuckled. “I know.”
I wasn’t about to change that anytime soon. We were so close. I just needed to move my head and tilt Liz’s face up to me…
“What the hell is he doing here?”
I looked up at the screech and saw a woman in her fifties plowing towards us across the lawn. She looked ready for a fight. Son of a bitch.
Liz told me that she didn’t care much for her mother, but I knew prying a daughter from her mother would be easier said than done. But the look on Liz’s face told me she was in no mood to deal with this.
I slowly put myself between them. “Gloria. Nice to see you again. You don’t look a day younger.”
Gloria hissed at me. “Get away from here, you junkie!” she shrieked. “Before I call the police.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re trespassing!”
“Mom
, enough,” Liz snapped. “Noah escorted me home. There was an accident on the highway and he was worried.”
“Hours after you were supposed to be home?” Gloria demanded.
“I don’t answer to you, Mom. And you said you wanted a day with your grandson.”
“Did you even go to your interview?”
Liz was silent. I watched as Gloria’s eyes narrowed and her lip disappear into a thin line. Chances were she was going to blame me for that as well.
“So, you did miss your interview. I knew he was no good for you, Elizabeth Fisher! He can’t even be sensible enough to keep stay away when you’re trying to better yourself.”
Liz pushed past me and almost charged at her mother, jabbing a finger into the woman’s face.
“Stop that! Noah had nothing to do with it. It was nothing to do with me, either. It was just an accident.”
Gloria snorted. She folded her arms and glared at her daughter before turning towards me, the hate deepening in her eyes.
“You’re always protecting him. He always made you walk the wrong way.”
I chuckled. “I have made her walk funny in the past, yes.”
Liz cast a scowl over her shoulder at me.
Gloria’s face went bright red. “I want you out.” she hissed.
But Liz shook her head.“No, Mom. This is my house and he’s staying to see his son. You want your grandson to know that his father actually gives a shit, don’t you?”
I almost burst out laughing at Gloria’s expression. I could understand a grandmother being protective of their grandchildren, but she actually thought she had a right to my kid. Hunter was mine. He was Liz’s son. If I had anything to do with it, Gloria wouldn’t get anywhere near Hunter.
Like a lioness protecting her cubs, Gloria pointed at me. “You’d better not hurt a hair on my baby’s head.”
“Excuse me, your baby? I wasn’t aware I had a kid with you.” I advanced on Gloria and felt immense satisfaction as she backed away, her face paling. “Hunter is Liz’s baby. My baby. Not yours. Remember that. And I’ll have you if you harm a speck of dust around my son.”
Gloria gasped.
“You threatened me!” she cried. “I’ll tell the police you threatened me!”
“Tell them,” Liz said blandly. She looked almost bored with her mother’s theatrics. “I’ll let them know you threatened the father of my son first. Now, I’d like you to leave, Mom. Thank you for looking after Hunter but I’m home now.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Liz growled and stormed towards the house. She went inside, the door banging on the wall before vibrating off, and then she reappeared moments later with Gloria’s purse, stuffing her various items inside. I had a feeling the woman had been putting her things around the house in a way to make leaving a lot slower. Liz stormed up to her mother and shoved her purse into Gloria’s arms.
“Yes. You. Are.” Liz spat out each word, her face inches away from Gloria’s. “Out. Now.”
I had seen Liz tell her mother off, but it was often half-hearted, as if she was scared of the fallout. And there was always fallout with Gloria Fisher. But now I could see the mother lioness rearing up inside Liz and arousal stirred in my belly.
Goddamn sexy sight if I ever saw one.
Gloria looked just as stunned with her daughter’s outburst. She spluttered, clutching her purse to her chest. She looked back at me before turning to her daughter again.
“If he hurts Hunter…” she whispered. “If he hurts my baby…”
Liz held up a hand and gave a look that would have surely killed the other woman.
“My baby, Mom. My baby.”
She herded Gloria towards her car, which was parked haphazardly on the curb. Gloria went, giving me one last glare before she got into her car as if she was leaving of her own accord, her nose in the air. I waited on the drive until I saw her car disappear out of the street. She wasn’t above stopping at the corner and coming back again to spy on the house.
When I turned back, Liz had already gone inside. But the door was open. I let out a heavy sigh and went in. That argument had started off some fierce pressing on my temples. Gloria always made me want to lie down in a dark room afterwards.
Liz was in the lounge. Hunter was on her lap babbling away, chewing on a plastic set of keys. I stood in the doorway and watched the sight, my chest tightening as I saw mother and son together. Hunter was such a beautiful boy, clearly happy and he looked to be of a healthy weight. He didn’t look neglected or deprived of anything. The thought of having Gloria anywhere near him turned Noah’s stomach.
“She came outside and just left him here unattended?”
Liz shook her head.
“No, he was in his play pen.” She indicated the pen in the middle of the room. “My mom’s not that stupid.”
“You’ve got a lot of convincing to do there,” I grunted. I approached them, nerves suddenly twisting my insides. “Do you mind if I…?”
“Hold him? No.” Liz patted the couch beside her. “Sit down. Hunter, do you want to go to Daddy?”
Daddy. That was something I was going to need to get used to. I stepped over Liz’s legs and sat down, trying to get comfortable on Liz’s broken couch. Hunter gurgled happily as Liz passed him across and he crawled onto my lap, giving me a wet, toothy grin before hitting me in the face with the keys. Liz laughed.
“He does have a tendency to hit people. Don’t take it personally; he’s just testing.”
“As long as his swing ends up being as strong as yours, I have no objections.” I grabbed the keys, still in Hunter’s hand, and jiggled them. Hunter squealed with laughter and sat up, looking around him as he chewed on the keys. “How long has your mother been calling Hunter her baby?”
Liz’s smiled faded. She sighed.
“Since he was born. When she was holding him in her arms in the hospital. The midwife gave her a look that said she thought Mom was mad. A couple of orderlies thought from the way she was talking that I was the surrogate and she was the biological mother.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m afraid so. It was embarrassing.” Liz pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. She looked exhausted. “I think she wishes Hunter was her son. She always did want a son.”
“Not a chance.” I rubbed Hunter’s back as Hunter started chattering away. Even though it was slightly nonsensical, I could make out several words. Hunter’s vocabulary was pretty good for his age. “Liz, if something happens to either of us…”
Liz looked up and stared at me in shock.
“What?”
“We need to have something in place to say your mother will never get custody. I don’t trust her with Hunter at all.”
“But she’s good with him.” Liz protested.
“You two don’t get along, remember? Why do you let her around him?”
Liz scowled.
“Because she is still my mother and she does love Hunter.”
I snorted.
“She loves Hunter because she’s imagining him as hers, not yours. Given half a chance, she would take Hunter away.” I let Hunter to get off my lap. He slid to the floor and crawled to his toys by the television. “If she’s calling our son ‘my baby’ now, what’s going to happen if she has him all to herself?” I turned to Liz, who was still staring at me. “If anything happened to us, I want Harry and Julie to be Hunter’s guardians. Or the Riders. Not your family. And you know it’s the right thing to do.”
I could see it settle in Liz’s mind. She did know it was right. The bikers were their family and Harry and Julie adored Liz. Parents themselves, they were good with children. Hunter would be in good hands with them and the bikers looked after their own. I knew just by looking at Amy that Liz’s sister didn’t have a maternal bone in her body and Gloria… well, she would be doing it for selfish reasons. Hunter wasn’t going to be around Gloria unattended again, not if I could help it.
It felt like an age, but I saw when
Liz had made up her mind. She closed her mouth and locked eyes with me, nodding slowly.
“Okay. We’ll do that as soon as we can.”
And she meant it. I could tell. And I had no way to express how that made me feel, knowing she was trusting me on Hunter’s welfare. I swallowed, resisting the urge to touch her. If I did, I wouldn’t be leaving tonight.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 11
Noah