by London Casey
“No, beautiful, no more of that. We had our time together and we had to split apart. It’s the right thing. We both know that, right?”
Liv shook her head. “No. I should have ran with you.”
I turned my head and shut my eyes. I didn’t near to hear that.
“Liv, what are you trying to do?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m scared, okay?”
I looked at her. “Of what? Your brother? Your boyfriend?”
“Slade, please don’t do that to me,” she said. “I begged Jack to help me get here. There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What? Is everything okay with your mother?”
Liv got closer to me. She touched my leather cut. “So this is the new Slade? You’re a motorcycle club guy?”
“It’s called patched in,” I said. “My decision. Gives me a sense of purpose. So I’m not riding around the country thinking about you.”
“Did it help?”
“No,” I said. “Now, I’m patched in to a club and I’m still thinking about you.”
“Slade...”
I broke my hands from hers and grabbed her waist. It was a horrible feeling to have right then. I was goddamn in love with Liv but I didn’t want to hurt her anymore. I didn’t want her family ripped apart because of me.
“Let’s figure something out tomorrow,” I said. “It’s the best I can do. I need to finish up here. I can get you to a hotel or something. Then we can talk.”
“Hotel?” she asked. Her eyes sank with disappointment. “I can’t stay here?”
I touched her face again. “Liv, you know how I feel about you. But I’m not going to be that guy. I’m not going to keep you here, fuck you, take care of you, bring you back to strength, and then have you take off to your boyfriend.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “That’s greedy of me, you’re right. But this is really important. I came here tonight to tell you...”
Liv’s lip quivered.
“What?” I asked.
From the corner of my eye I saw Raven approaching me.
Liv looked down, shook her head, and then looked up at me.
I had no idea what she was going to say or what impact it was going to have.
“Slade... it’s not a lie this time... I’m really pregnant.”
I saw Raven come to a halt. He turned and pointed at me. “What did I just hear?”
“Nothing,” I said. “VP, keep walking, please. This is personal.”
“Personal,” Raven said. “That’s why you took off.”
He got closer to us.
I slid my hand around Liv’s body and pulled her close.
“Raven,” I said. “Give me a minute here.”
Raven grinned. He was drunk and when he got drunk, he loved to fight or hug everyone. There was no in between with him. And since I had just made him money and the word pregnant was being thrown around, he wanted to hug everyone.
“Who is this?” Raven asked me.
“Liv,” I said. “She’s a...”
“Family,” Raven said. He looked right at Liv. “You’re having a baby with this guy?”
“Yeah,” Liv said.
“No,” I said. “There’s a situation, Raven. It’s hard to explain.”
“You’re not pregnant?” Raven asked.
“Who’s pregnant?”
Christ, it was Lael.
He walked slowly over to us. Now I was blocked in by the President and VP of the MC. They stared at me, at Liv, and they were going to want the truth. They didn’t fuck around with any lies, big or small. To them, lies were the gateway drug into ending up at law enforcement, infiltrating the MC, trying to take it all down.
“Prez, this is Liv,” I said. “She’s an old flame of mine.”
“She said she’s pregnant,” Raven said.
“Goddammit, Raven,” I said. “She took off from a touchy relationship, okay? She told the guy she was pregnant so he wouldn't want to touch her. That’s all this is. She came up here for help.”
Lael curled his lip. “We don’t handle baggage. Get her off the lot.”
Raven made a move for Liv and my hand clamped down on his wrist. Lael slammed a fist to my shoulder.
“Slade,” Lael said. “We don’t do this shit.”
“I’m really pregnant!” Liv yelled.
“What?” I asked.
Raven grabbed for her again. My hand shot out and grabbed his throat.
“Stand down,” Lael said. “Slade, I will slit your throat.”
“Tell your VP to back off,” I said. “Nobody touches my girl like that.”
“Raven, ease up,” Lael said. He then stepped in front of us. “Now I want the goddamn truth.”
I looked at Liv. She had a smirk on her face. I knew that smirk. She gave that smirk to me a few times in my life. The first time she wanted me to pleasure her, I saw that smirk. Right before she said she loved me for the first time, she had that smirk on her face.
“Liv...”
She reached into her bag and took out an ultrasound picture. As she lifted it, Lael plucked it out of her hand.
“Well. Goddamn,” he said. “Looks just like you, Slade.” Lael slammed the ultrasound picture off my chest. “She can stay here tonight.” Lael looked at Liv. “Congrats, sweetheart. Stay close. We’ll take care of you and the baby. “We’re family here now.”
Lael pushed at Raven and they continued walking.
I held the ultrasound picture in the palm of my hand and stared at it. I had no idea what the hell I was actually looking at.
“That’s the truth now,” Liv said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“You’re actually pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you come to tell me that? Is this a joke?”
Liv shook her head. “Slade. It’s your baby.”
My first instinct was to argue it. But I couldn’t argue it. Not when I replayed it all in my mind. What we did, how we did it, and what could have happened. Well, what could have happened did happen.
So I stared at the ultrasound picture again. “This is mine?”
“Yours,” Liv said. “No chance it can’t be, Slade. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I haven’t been with anyone since you came around. And even before then...”
“Okay,” I said.
I handed the ultrasound picture back to Liv. There were a million questions racing through my mind again. So much right. So much wrong. Behind me I heard a roar kick up and knew the next fight must have ended. I looked back to see Major standing with his arms up. Savage Vipers were two-for-two on the night.
When my eyes met with Liv’s again, it was over.
Not the feelings for her. Not the love for her. Not the love I would have for our child.
What was over?
Me giving a shit about Owen, Walker, and the rest of the small piece of shit I came from.
I grabbed Liv and had to taste her.
Our lips touched and she melted into me. Her body sank right into mine and my hands couldn’t move fast enough to demand to touch her everywhere. One hand rested against her back, the other sliding around and touching her belly.
The kiss ended but our foreheads were still touching.
Liv put her hand on top of mine. “Slade...”
“This is real,” I said. “Fuck, Liv, what did we do?”
“We made a baby together.”
I smiled. I kissed her again.
“Get a fucking room!” someone said from behind me.
I turned and saw Matteo standing with a beer in his hand, waving it at me.
Normally I’d yell something but Matteo had a point.
I took Liv by the hand again and walked her toward the clubhouse.
Entering the clubhouse was different with Liv next to me. Looking at the bar and seeing the members, the women, the loud music and words, people in the corner already starting up with each other, it was more intense. A bunch of the guys looked at Li
v, grinning, eye fucking the hell out of her, hoping that when I was done, I’d send her back out to get eaten up for some seconds.
That would never happen with Liv.
She was mine and mine only.
I walked her from the bar toward the rooms. Since I was the new patched in guy, my room was all the way down the end of the building. I opened the door and ushered Liv inside.
Then I stopped and watched as she approached the bed. She stopped and turned.
She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever met.
Now she was in my room, at the clubhouse.
I shook my head.
I looked at the ultrasound picture again.
Then it really hit me.
I was going to be a father.
(OLIVIA)
“What’s the plan?” Slade asked me.
“That’s why I’m here,” I said. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you tell me what hell has been going on since I left?”
“Can I ask the same of you?”
Slade took off his leather and tossed it to the bed.
How fair was this now? Staring at his strong, bare chest and steel cut stomach. It was completely unfair.
“I had been running with these guys for a while,” Slade said. “They offered to patch me in a few times and I always told them no thanks. I had to get the hell out of that town and away from you, Liv. I needed a distraction. So this is what I did. I patched in and became a member.”
“Slade. That night... that morning...”
“No. That’s the past again. It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” I said. “Because we were wrong. Not with what we did. But the words...”
“I offered everything again,” Slade said.
I took the ultrasound picture from Slade. “And now I’m offering everything to you.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning... I don’t know what to do. I want you, Slade. I want to find a way to make this happen.”
“You just need to tell the truth,” he said to me. “That’s what you should have done in the first place. But you didn’t. What do you want from me? To go back into town? Stand up for you? Go after Owen? Go after Walker? That’s what you want?”
When Slade said it like that, it sounded sad.
I stepped toward him and reached for his muscular chest. The second my fingertips touched his bare skin, my body warmed up. I let out a soft breath.
“We’re going to have a baby,” I whispered. “It has to work out. It has to make sense.”
I came forward even more and softly kissed his chest. He smelled of blood and sweat. I kissed him again and again, starting to inch down a little. I wanted to feel alive again with him. I wanted to be taken, appreciated, and loved.
“Liv,” he said. He grabbed me by my hips and stepped me back. “What are you trying to do?”
“The only time I feel alive is when I’m with you,” I blurted out. “I want to feel alive, Slade.”
He shut his eyes for a second and then turned his head.
I understood it. I was his wildest temptation, as he was mine. That’s what made it so hot and good.
I felt myself wanting to cry.
“I need to take a shower,” Slade said. “I’m covered in another man’s sweat and blood.”
“The fighting... is that all the time?”
“Depends on the night and the money I could earn. We had some guys passing through and they wanted to tangle up for some cash. That’s the life, Liv. Don’t ask questions if you don’t want the answers.”
“Fine then,” I said. “I’ll ask one that I want the answer to. Do you love me?”
Slade looked at me. He walked forward and right by me and the bed. I turned and watched him walk into the bathroom. He looked at the mirror, his eyes locking to mine in the reflection.
“Of course I fucking love you, Liv. I’ve always loved you. I will always love you.”
My heart gushed. My body tingled. Those words alone took away all the lonely feelings for the last ten weeks.
Slade then turned his head and grinned. “For the record, the bathroom door is going to be unlocked.”
I heard the water rushing and knew what I wanted and needed.
What I wanted? To get into that shower with Slade and lose myself to him.
What I needed? To get into that shower with Slade and figure out what the hell we were going to do.
Either way, I was going to get naked with Slade.
Right then I was the luckiest woman in the world.
A minute later I was wearing nothing but a bra. I faced the mirror in the room and stared at myself. To me my hips were too big, to round-y. My legs weren’t strong-thick but thick-thick. My belly wasn’t super tight with muscle showing. I was just... me. My belly was never going to be the same though, was it? Everything would change and keep changing. Long after the baby came.
Thinking about the baby made me smile. All I wanted to see was Slade with his big, strong hands lifting our daughter or son out of the crib, holding the baby, talking to her or him. It was so powerful to think about, but it was terrifying.
There was a chance that would never happen. Not that I believed Slade would take off and leave me with a baby to raise on my own. It was his life now. This life. Owen had responded to many calls about motorcycle clubs fighting each other. Guys not just fighting, but pulling out knives and guns. Or guys going to prison for a long time. Maybe I was being dramatic but I was in the heart of it all. Just like Jack had said to me - hell.
I reached back and unsnapped my bra. I let it fall to the floor, blushing at the sight of my own bare breasts because my mind thought about all the things Slade like to do to my breasts. He was the man who first discovered me. My wants and needs. He comforted me, tested me, broke me, put me back together, and he was the only one I had ever wanted.
In the bathroom I watched the hulk of a shadow through the frosted door.
“Slade...”
He ripped open the door, standing there, dripping wet. His dark hair spiky, muscles cascading just like the water off his body. Without a word, he offered his hand and pulled me into the hot water. It made my body jump for a second, but then my back was against the tile and Slade’s massive body an inch from me.
His eyes looked fiery pissed.
His right hand touched my waist and kept going. His rough fingers slid lower and lower, down between my legs. As he curled his fingers, he touched me. Circling his fingers, my folds opened to his touch and the tips of his fingers entered me. I reached down and grabbed at the root of his cock. I gritted my teeth, feeling almost frustrated that it always took something crazy for us to be together.
But at least we were together.
Slade then put his hand to mine and inched my grip up his shaft. He took my hand from him and put it against the wall. His hand then touched my inner thigh and he opened my legs. Sliding up to the back of my knee, he held there. With his other hand, he grabbed himself and positioned himself to the center of my body.
I was burning and aching, trembling with wetness, desperately ready for him.
“I’m going to ask you something now,” Slade said.
“Okay...”
“Fuck that. I’m going to say something first. You keep fucking up my life, Liv.”
I gasped and shuddered. “What?”
“You heard me. From the second I met you, you have fucked up my life. You’re always in the way. You keep ripping my fucking heart out. But I can’t get enough of it. And now you’re carrying my baby. My child. My blood. If I were to fucking take a bullet to the back of the head tomorrow, my name now carries on. Goddammit, Liv, don’t ever ask if I love you. You know I love you. You need me to say it? I will. But hiding... no more, beautiful. You’ve fucked up my life in such an amazing way.”
My bottom lip quivered. “I don’t want you to die, Slade.”
“I’m not done talking,” he said. “Now I’m going to ask you a question.�
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“Anything.”
“Do you love me?” he asked.
There wasn’t a second of hesitation. “Yes! You have to...”
Slade didn’t let me finish.
He kissed me and thrust forward, ripping me open again.
He was inside me, bucking those strong hips at me, lifting me to my toes as he explored the deepest parts of my body. He then held there, leaving me with a breath stealing full feeling. His tongue played with my tongue, taking full command.
I grabbed for his ass, digging my nails, wanting him to fuck me.
Goddammit! Fuck me!
Slade finally pulled back from the kiss.
“Say it,” he whispered, the water rushing against us. “Right now. Say it, Liv.”
“I love you,” I said.
“Not that, beautiful. Say what you’re thinking.”
I managed to grin.
“Slade... fuck me.”
That’s exactly what he did to me...
In the shower.
On the bathroom sink.
Then Slade carried me to the bed and tossed me down. I grabbed at the sheets as he opened my legs, coming forward with his thick cock. He was then buried back inside me, fucking me like I had been waiting to be fucked for ten weeks.
His hands climbing up my body, holding my breasts.
Each thrust forward, I watched his stomach muscles flex. I watched his cock slide in and out of me, matching the sight to the feel, letting myself lose control to the point where it felt like a constant orgasm.
Slade then thrust forward and held there, instantly stopping. It was a shock to my body and I let out a whimpering cry. Slade’s hands grabbed my ass and lifted, carrying me up the bed. Then he lowered his body to mine, slowly starting to fuck me again. With each slow and powerful thrust of his body, I realized he was making love to me. Caring for me. Giving me himself in a way he never gave to anyone else. His mouth kissing down my neck to my breasts. His tongue was eager, teasing, his mouth hungry. I arched my back as I started to really come again, Slade’s hands at my sides, starting to pull me to a seated position.
With one quick move, Slade shot his legs out and I was on top of him. My wet hair in his face. My breasts dangling for his enjoyment. And I kept rocking at the same pace. Slade placed a hand to the small of my back and held me right there.