by Vivian Gray
“For whatever reason, you didn’t want me to know that you’ve been dating Noah. Jude swears he’s not a complete asshole, and what happened at the hospital isn’t really who he is. So, if you like him, you don’t have to hide it from me anymore.”
I smiled. “It’s worse than that… I’m having his baby. Not some guy’s from the cruise ship. And all the stuff we just bought the baby is going to his house.”
Tracy squealed, grinned, and wrapped me in a bear hug. “I told you he was hot,” she whispered in my ear.
I laughed. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“A guy who takes you baby shopping is even hotter,” she replied with a don’t you know look on her face.
I just rolled my eyes and laughed again. Tracy would always go after the “hot guy”. She wasn't wrong though; Noah was definitely hot, but I needed more than superficial looks. If she knew how tender and dominating he was, she would probably melt her panties. Then again, maybe Jude was the same way. He did keep looking over at us while he was helping Noah.
“So, how about Jude? What’s going on with him?” I asked, elbowing her in the ribs.
“I don’t know. Everything was going really good, fun, ya know? But he’s been really intense lately. Not like jealous or anything like that. Just real protective. And he’s been stressed about something at the club.” She kept watching the guys work as she filled me in.
Yeah. It sounded like Jude was very much like Noah.
After everything was loaded into the truck, Jude told Tracy to get back inside.
“We’ll meet you at Noah’s house,” I told her and headed back over to Noah’s bike. He’d already started it up and was holding his arm out to help me get on.
We saw the truck out of the parking lot and down the road towards Noah’s house, but a mile down the road, we got split up. Jude got stuck at a red light while Noah blew through. The road was pretty empty for the middle of the day, but I could hear another bike coming up behind us. I looked behind me; there was a lone rider headed right for us.
He rode low with his head down, revving his engine as he got closer. I tightened my grip around Noah’s waist. He looked over his shoulder and accelerated. I thought I heard him curse but I couldn’t hear well with the wind ripping by and the helmet over my ears. The other biker got close to us, almost nipping his wheel with ours. I closed my eyes, holding on tight and praying that nothing happened.
Who is this guy? Is he one of Noah’s enemies?
“Keep your head down.” Noah swerved to the right and kept going faster. But the biker kept up with us.
I could make out a large shark painted on his helmet, and it came closer to us, then backed off, only to attack again. As he came up on my left, he was even with me. He shifted gears with the handlebars, and I noticed his right hand looked odd. He was missing his pinky and ring finger. I didn’t have time to look for any other identifying marks because Noah sped up faster still and took a sharp right turn down another road.
The biker didn’t follow. My heart jackhammered in my chest. I could barely catch my breath as we made our way back to his house.
We pulled into his driveway. Jude and Tracy were already there, unpacking the bags from the back of the truck. I jumped off the bike and threw my helmet at Noah.
“Who was that? Why was he trying to run us off the road?”
“What happened?” Jude demanded, hopping down from the truck bed. “Where’d you go? You went through that light, and then I didn’t see you.”
“The fucking shark showed up out of nowhere. He wasn’t trying to ram us off the road.” Noah had aimed the last sentence at me. “He was flexing his muscles is all.”
But I could see the anger in Noah’s eyes. That biker may not have been trying to hurt us this time, but there was definitely bad blood here.
And I’d been put smack-bang in the middle of it.
“If he’d hurt one hair on your head, I would’ve ripped out his throat,” he promised me. “You were safe. You are safe.”
I remembered the gun in his drawer, knowing it was now tucked in his waistband, but it would do jack shit if some rival biker wanted to run him off the road.
“I don’t fall off my bike.”
“You did the night I met you,” I shot back at him.
His eyes narrowed. “I think you and Tracy should get inside – figure out which room you want for the baby. We can discuss the night we met later.”
I knew that tone. He didn’t like how I was talking to him. Well, I didn’t like nearly being thrown off a motorcycle.
“Whatever,” I said and turned away.
“We can talk about that later, too,” he called after me.
Tracy looked at me with some confusion as she linked her arm through mine. I responded simply enough so that he wouldn’t be confused by my meaning: I held up my hand and gave him the finger as we entered his house.
Chapter Fourteen
Noah
I wouldn’t blame Shannon for being spooked by the shark. I was pissed by him, and Jude was ready to get back on the road and track the fucker down. But first I had to be certain she was safe. I didn’t know why this asshole had it out for me, my club. What the fuck was going on?
Jude helped get the heavy shit into the garage until I had time to put it together and get it into the house. Once everything was unloaded, he took Tracy home. She didn’t want to go though; she could tell something was brewing between Shannon and me.
As much as my girl deserved a good spanking, I wasn’t going to give it to her. I had other ways of making her see the error of her ways.
When we were alone, I found her in the spare room right next to mine. She had one hand laying on her small rounded belly while she looked at the wall.
“I think yellow. That way it’s gender neutral, and we can be surprised when the baby comes.” She shot a smile at me.
And just like that, my irritation at her behavior melted away. “What about green? Light green?”
“Oh, I like that too,” she replied and walked to the large windows overlooking the backyard. “And we can hang cute curtains that have little animals on them?”
“Anything you want,” I promised her. So long as she wanted them here, with me, she could have anything.
She squared off with me, dropping her hands to her sides. “Are you going to punish me for flipping you the finger?” No fear in her voice, just resolve.
I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not going to spank you.” I grinned. “Just going to put that finger to better use.”
Her brow wrinkled.
“Come on,” I said, crooking my finger at her and leading her to the bedroom. “Get undressed and lay on the bed.” I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “You have ten minutes of punishment, then a nap before you get ready for work.”
“Ten minutes of what?” She started to peel off the shirt and shorts. Her belly wasn’t large, small really. If I hadn’t known there was a baby in there, I probably wouldn’t even notice the bump.
“It’s called edging,” I replied and went to my nightstand, pulling out the new vibrator I picked up for her.
She gave me a curious look and laid down on the bed.
I showed her the strap-on device. “It’s a butterfly,” I said, like she would know what that meant.
I slipped her legs through the straps and nestled the vibrating toy right over her clit. If we’d had more time, I would’ve used my tongue to get her all hot and bothered first.
She wiggled her hips. I showed her the remote in my hand and flipped the switch. The butterfly came to life, vibrating over her clit.
Her pupils dilated, and she started moaning from the first vibration. “Oh.”
“Use your finger. Just that naughty middle one and fuck yourself,” I ordered, standing over her.
I wouldn’t touch her. Not until she learned her lesson. She looked like she thought she was getting the best of me, like I didn’t know what I was doing. Such a sweet, silly girl.<
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She thrust her middle finger, the same one she’d held up to me on the driveway, into her sex and bucked her hips. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and her free hand clenched.
“Oh, yes, please. I’m going to come.”
I flipped the vibe off and pulled her hand away. “Nope.”
“What?” she demanded, looking angrier than a naughty girl had any right to.
I didn’t say a word, just waited for her uneven breathing to calm down.
“Okay, finger again.” I flipped the switch.
It only took one more time of doing this before she started to try and sneak her orgasm past me. I was a damn good study, though, and flipped off the vibe each time she was about to run over that crest.
“Are you going to let me come?” she whined after the fourth time her orgasm was chased away. “I’m sorry I flipped you off.”
“One more time,” I said and motioned to her hand.
She sighed and went back to fingering herself. Each time, she got to the edge faster.
“You want to come?” I asked in a harsh voice, my mouth hovering over hers.
She reached her lips up, trying to kiss me. “Yes, sir.”
I pulled up out of reach. “You want me to give you an orgasm? Let you come all over your finger? In my bed?”
She nodded. ‘Yes! Please, sir!”
I turned the vibrations up higher.
She squealed and bucked more. “Please. Please,” she begged me.
I kissed her, hard, and turned off the vibrator. She groaned, but I reached down and slid my hand beneath the butterfly toy, and shoved three fingers into her hot, wet passage. I fucked her hard with my fingers.
“This is what a good girl would get,” I said. “But you weren’t a good girl.”
I pulled my hand away and opened the drawer to my nightstand, dropping the remote inside. Tears spilled down her cheeks while I rolled the leg straps of the butterfly down her legs.
“Please.”.
“No.” I shook my head and licked my fingers. Fuck she tasted good.
“I’m so horny,” she whimpered. “You can’t leave me like this.”
“I can. And I’m going to.”
I left the room and came back with one of the baby monitors I’d put together before I found her in the bedroom. I turned it on and left it on the nightstand. “Time for your nap. If you’re good and go right to sleep, when I wake you up, I’ll let you have that orgasm.”
She nibbled her bottom lip. “You aren’t as badass as I thought you were,” she said.
If she was trying to insult me, she had missed the mark.
“Oh, sweetheart, how I treat you is nothing like I treat some asshole on the street. Now sleep so I can make you come so hard you see stars when you wake up.”
I kissed her once more and left her to fall asleep.
This pregnancy thing was going to be hard on us both. Her attitude wouldn’t get better as the hormones ran through her, and I wasn’t going to give her an inch. Not that she’d want me to anyway.
But first, I had to deal with the fucking shark.
Chapter Fifteen
Shannon
Living with Noah became routine. At first, it was awkward, especially in the mornings. I wanted to get up and get moving, go for a long walk, stretch my legs, my usual. But Noah worried I was overdoing it and would insist on going with me. I rarely got a mile walk in without him saying we needed to head back.
When I told him he was being too overprotective, he showed me what that really looked like: a day and half of having him hovering over every step I took, texting me during my shift, and showing up on my lunch hour to be sure I ate a healthy meal. I’d let him hover at his comfort level; otherwise, he would’ve driven me completely crazy.
I still worried that one day he would get bored with me. After all, he’d gone from dragging me out of a hospital at knifepoint and joyriding in a stolen ambulance, to sitting on the couch watching Friends reruns. How much more of this could he really take?
I’d managed to avoid going to the club for over a month, but he wouldn’t put it off any more than that.
“You have five minutes, Shannon, and then I’m coming in there and doing your hair myself,” he barked out through the closed bathroom door.
I rolled my eyes at myself in the mirror. I was already fully dressed and ready to go, but I just needed a damn minute to compose myself. The pregnancy had made me bloated, my shoes didn’t even fit right anymore, and it had dried up all the moisture in my skin. Wearing contacts wasn’t even an option anymore – they were so uncomfortable – so thick-rimmed glasses it was.
Noah said he loved them. Called me his sexy librarian. But he also called me his sexy sasquatch when I’d forgotten to shave my legs.
It shouldn’t be so easy, living with a man I’d only known for such a short time, and I really hated what he did to earn his money. We didn’t talk about it though.
“Two minutes!” he called with a knock on the door.
I was tempted to sit on the counter and wait for him to break down the door. But playing that game usually ended up with my ass over his lap. I would have thought being pregnant would have made him loosen up on the rules and being so strict. Apparently, it had the opposite effect on him. Still, it was fun to see the wildman for a few moments here and there.
“I’m coming,” I called back and opened the door. “There. I’m ready.” I waved my hand over my body. My little bump had bloomed into a full round belly. No matter what dress I tried on, every one of them showed off the bump.
He smiled at me – a wish we had an extra ten minutes so I can fuck you crazy smile.
“We could wait a few minutes…” I trailed off when his eyes started to darken. I’d managed to talk him out of two other attempts to go the club, but he wasn’t having it. Unless I was puking all over his leathers, he was taking me.
The idea did have some merit.
“Let’s go.” He linked our hands and escorted me down the hall and out to the garage. His bike wasn’t so comfortable for either of us now that the baby had started invading some of the space between us, so we drove in his truck most of the time. My car sat in the driveway – only to be used in an emergency.
The club still had trouble with the shark and Noah didn’t like me driving home alone after a night shift, so he picked me up most nights. Whoever this rogue biker was, he was causing a lot of tension between the club members.
“Are you sure other girls will be there?” I asked him, pushing the seatbelt under my belly.
He gave me an odd look. “There’s always girls at the clubhouse.”
“Oh. Yeah.” I looked out the window. “Girls you’ve been with?”
“Probably.” He nodded and turned a corner.
The street lights played on the dash as he drove. Fall was coming, making the air chilled outside. I loved the smell of fall, the crispness of the air.
“And they aren’t going to get mad seeing me?” I asked, pointing at the baby bump.
He laughed. “I don’t even remember most of their names, but the few, and I mean the very few, I actually saw more than once, have moved on to another member now.”
He was trying to reassure me, but it wasn’t working.
“You mean you’ve never had, like, a girlfriend?”
“Dating wasn’t really on my agenda when I got home from Afghanistan, and after I was patched, there wasn’t a need. I could have any girl I wanted, whenever I wanted.” He turned the radio on but kept the music low.
“Is any of this supposed to make me feel less nervous?”
He glanced over at me while he was driving and gave me a nice smile. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. Girls at the club aren’t going to be jealous, they aren't going to be looking at you, and they aren’t going to attack you.”
“I didn’t say they were going to attack me.” I folded the bottom of my dress with my hands twice, then unfolded and refolded it again.
“Tracy wi
ll be there,” he added, and I nodded.
I already knew that; she and Jude were getting serious. She spent a lot of time at the club and had been on Noah’s side when he argued with me about going.
“This just isn’t my thing,” I murmured.
“I know.” He pulled through the fenced gate into the lot of the clubhouse.
My stomach flipped, and I felt pretty close to losing the dinner he’d forced me to eat. The morning sickness had faded away once the second trimester had started, but that didn’t change nervous puking.