He glanced at the clock. “4:00.”
Somehow, I’d lost four hours. I slipped off the side of the chair, turned toward the mirror, and looked at my reflection.
The snake started at my belt, and ran all the way to the top of my chest. According to the artist, the design was a Chinese theme, and was considered a symbol of healing, rebirth, renewal, and protection.
It may have all been in my head, but I felt different already. I was sure of it. I nodded at my reflection. “Fucker’s perfect.”
“Appreciate it.”
He cleaned the tattoo, covered my torso in plastic wrap, and then I put on my shirt.
“Can I leave this shit on for, say, an hour or so?”
“No problem. When you remove it, be sure and wash the plasma off. You’ve got plenty of ink, you know the drill.”
“Just got one more stop to make,” I said.
“Where you headed?”
“Exit 3B off the 8. Friars.”
He nodded, but I doubt he knew where I was going. “Gotcha.”
I walked through the door, and looked up at the cloudless sky. It was a beautiful day to be a new man – a man who faced his fears – and that was exactly what I was.
A new man.
Who was fearless.
Chapter Forty-One
Sandy
Smokey, Eddie and I were going to dinner at a nice restaurant in San Diego with Cholo and Lex. I was so excited to be enjoying an evening with another couple, and spending time with a friend who was only a few weeks more pregnant than me was a lot of fun.
Lex and I compared our belly size, our moods, doctor’s recommendations, and even our likes and dislikes with food.
I stared down at my belly as the water sprayed against me. Now at 13 weeks, I was starting to show. Seeing the growth was the best part of the pregnancy so far.
Eddie bought some board books, and gave them to us as a gift. When we were in bed, Smokey read them to the baby, often creating additional bits and pieces as he saw fit, and making the story his own. He said the reading sessions would cause the baby to get used to his raspy voice.
That way there would be no surprises after the birth.
Living with Smokey and Eddie was, by far the highlight of my life. Part of me had an expectation that one day it would all end, because it was simply too good to be true. The thought of not having it was extremely unhealthy for me, and I knew it.
So, when those thoughts came, I’d always talk to Eddie, and she would tell me how much I meant to her, and to her father. She explained that it was difficult for Smokey to express how he felt, because he, too, feared losing me.
In the end, it seemed Grayson and I were far more alike than I originally thought.
Two people who met, got pregnant, and then, at least one of them fell in love. It was a fairy tale if there ever was one, but it was put together with our timeline, not one from most fables.
It was my happy ever after.
And, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I got out of the shower, dried off, and put on my robe. When I came out of the bathroom, I about had a heart attack.
A real one.
“Oh my God!” I shouted. “What…”
I stood and stared.
Against the far wall, Smokey stood, shirtless, wearing only jeans. From his chest, all the way down to his crotch, a huge colorful snake was tattooed.
It was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen. In fact, it sucked the breath from my lungs, leaving it difficult for me to breathe.
“What. Oh my God. What. I thought you hated snakes?” I stammered.
“Do you like it?”
I sucked in a breath. “Uhhm. It’s. yeah. I like it. It’s uhhm. It’s super hot. I uhhm, Dear God. I thought nothing could make you hotter. But. Uhhm. Yeah.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Do you think it’s sexy?”
“Uhhm. Yeah. Like. I wanna fuck you right now.”
“Ahem,” a voice said from my left.
I glanced to my side. Eddie was sitting on the side of the bed.
What the fuck?
I was embarrassed, but more than anything, I was shocked that she was sitting on our bed. The entire ordeal seemed weird, but I dismissed it to her probably admiring Smokey’s new tattoo.
“What are you…I uhhm.” I shrugged innocently. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She grinned. “I like it too. Just not quite as much as you, obviously.”
I looked at Smokey, swallowed, and then let out a sigh. “I uhhm. I need to get dressed. And if you want that to happen, you’re both going to have to go somewhere else.”
He shook his head. “Two things. First of all, since when do I leave when you get dressed?”
“Since you got that tattoo,” I said. “If you stay, we bone. If we bone, we’ll be late. So, you gotta go, mister.”
I looked at Eddie and cocked my head to the side. “Sorry Eddie.”
She raised her eyebrows. “No big deal.”
I looked at Smokey. “What’s the second thing?”
“Neither of us are going anywhere,” he said.
I wrinkled my brow. “Huh? I’ve got to get ready.”
He pushed himself from the wall, walked up to me, and looked me over. “We need to talk to you.”
The tone of his voice was different. It wasn’t angry, but it wasn’t happy, either. I scanned my memory for anything I might have done, and short of eating the rest of the hot dogs, came up with nothing.
“Both of you?”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
“We have a question,” Eddie said.
I looked at her. “Uhhm. Okay.”
She looked at Smokey. “You first, or me?”
He shrugged.
I looked at her.
She met my gaze, let out a sigh, and scratched her nose with her cast. “I need to know something,” she said dryly.
I cinched my robe. “Okay.”
“So do I,” Smokey said.
Eddie cleared her throat. “Me first.”
“No, me first,” Smokey insisted.
Eddie looked at Smokey. “At the same time?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Sounds good.”
“On three?” she asked.
“I like four better,” he said.
I was lost. And scared. They were acting weird, and neither of them seemed overly happy.
Smokey lifted my chin until my eyes met his. “Pay attention,” he demanded.
“I’m trying to,” I said.
Eddie hopped off the edge of the bed and stepped beside Smokey.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded and slipped her arm around him.
Simultaneously, they spoke. “One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Four.”
Smokey’s eyes widened. “I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”
Eddie grinned. “Will you be my mom?”
My face went flush. I stumbled, and almost fell, but Smokey caught me.
I looked at Eddie.
A tear rolled down her cheek. “Please?”
I nodded eagerly. “I uhhm.” I looked at Smokey and wiped my cheek. My dream was now a reality. “Yes, I’d love to be your wife.”
I looked at Eddie and opened my arms. “And, yes. I’d be honored to be your mother.”
The three of us embraced in a hug.
After a long embrace, Eddie leaned away, reached inside her cast, and pulled something out. “You almost forgot this, dork.”
Smokey coughed out a laugh and reached for her hand. “Sorry, it’s my first time.”
He lowered himself to one knee. “Sandy, know this first. I love you dearly. If you’ll honor me in being my wife, I’d like to give you this ring, as a token of my promise to you to be your husband.”
I truly loved them both with all my heart. Although my initial belief was that things needed to happen in a pa
rticular order, I now realized there wasn’t a recipe when it came to love. Love simply either happened or it didn’t.
For us, it did.
“I will,” I said.
After those two spoken words, he slipped the ring on my finger.
And, my fairy tale was complete.
Well, almost.
Epilogue
Eddie
We’re provided opportunities through our experiences. What we choose to pay attention to and what we choose to dismiss determine how our lives unfold.
That’s what I think, anyway.
What do I know? I’m just a seventeen-year-old girl.
Wish I had a piece of apple pie for every time I heard that one.
Seventeen, going on forty is more like it.
My experiences in life molded me into who I am, therefore I have no regrets. Not one. My pinky finger will never bend again, and every time I look at it, it stands as a reminder of the night I was attacked.
I wouldn’t erase that night if I could roll back the clock, though.
It was on that night that I decided that my mom was pretty special. It wasn’t because she saved me, or that she shot the guy who was sure to kill me if she’d been absent from my life. It was what she said in a time of desperation.
When she thought the least, and acted out of a mother’s God-given nature.
She called me her daughter.
My heart melted that night. But not as much as it did the day in the hospital.
Sit down for a minute, and I’ll tell you how it all unfolded.
We had an appointment to get the first ultrasound. I say we because the three of us went. Mom was excited, but not as much as dad and me. They wouldn’t let P-Nut come into the room, because he ended up trying to mack on a nurse, and then things went downhill fast.
Well, that, and he was acting like P-Nut. He’s a hard man to understand. Not so much for me, but for everyone else.
Anyway.
The doctor put the gel on mom’s tummy, and started the scan. Dad and I had our eyes glued to the screen, and mom’s mouth went a mile a minute. That’s sixty miles an hour, if you do the math.
“So, you can tell for sure?” mom asked.
The doctor pressed the device to her stomach. “Can you hold still?”
She reached for dad’s hand. “I’m sorry.”
Dad’s eyes stayed fixed on the monitor.
“Okay,” the doctor said. “You wanted to know sex, is that correct?”
The three of us said yes at the same time.
The doctor clicked a button and froze the screen. It looked like a jumbled up mess until she pointed to everything with her mouse.
She moved the pointer. “These are the hips.”
She moved it again, “This is the left foot.”
She slid it over a little more. “And this is the penis.”
“It’s a boy?” mom gasped.
The doctor nodded. “Yes, this is a boy.”
Her and dad oohed and aahed, but I said very little, other than smiling.
The doctor pushed another button, and went back to a live feed. After a moment, she stopped the screen again.
“These are the hips.”
“This is the nose.”
“And, this is the vagina.”
I jumped from my seat, knocking the stool across the room. “Fuck Yes!”
The doctor damned near fell from her stool. I turned toward dad and raised my hand in the air.
He slapped his hand against mine. “I’ll pay you later.”
“Oh,” the doctor said. “Did you have a bet about twins?”
I shook my head. “No. We knew it would be twins. I bet one of them would be a girl.”
I’d never been so excited in my entire life.
Not once.
My life was complete. I always had an awesome dad, and I was aware of that.
But, ever since I was a little girl, all I ever wanted was a sister, and a mom.
And, now I had both.
I was so excited, I didn’t realize mom was crying. Heck, I was, too. I wiped my tears on my sleeve, leaned over her, and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m so happy right now,” I said excitedly. “I need a milkshake.”
She bit into her lip and nodded. Then, she raised her hand high in the air.
“Girl power,” she murmured.
She was the best mom ever.
I slapped my hand against hers, and mouthed my mantra.
Girl power.
Dedication
To the men and women of UMC Las Vegas.
Thank you for all the fabulous care.
Author’s Note
Every sexual partner in the book is over the age of 18. Please, if you intend to read further than this comment, be over the age of 18 to enjoy this novel.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, are coincidental.
NUTS 2d Edition Copyright © 2017 by Scott Hildreth
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author or publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use the material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the author at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Cover design by Jessica: www.JessicaHildrethDesigns.com
Follow me on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/sd.hildreth
Like me on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ScottDHildreth
Follow me on Twitter at: @ScottDHildreth
Created with Vellum
Prologue
Shirtless, he stood in front of me. The chiseled structure of his perfectly sculpted body would have commanded anyone’s attention, but my focus was on his eyes. The green specks around the iris gave perfect contrast to the golden-brown centers. Peering into them provided me a keen sense of comfort, and at that moment, I needed it.
My knees wagged back and forth in anticipation of what might come next. He responded by lifting my shirt over my head. My heart thrashed in response. As the garment fell at my feet, my breathing all but stopped.
He reached around me and unclasped my bra. The tips of his fingers gently traced the outline of my shoulders as he brushed the straps over my arms. My eyes fell closed momentarily. I heard myself inhale a quivering breath.
With one hand cupping my breast, he lightly pressed the tip of his index finger against my lips. My mind fumbled with where to place my hands. I had so many options, all of which I’d held in reserve, yet they dangled at my sides like heavy weights.
It was the most sensual moment that I had ever experienced, and I was on the cusp of making a fool of myself. Certain that revealing my lack of experience would lead to the demise of our sexual relationship, I did the first thing that came to mind.
I flattened my palms and pressed them against his chest.
I had no idea what to expect, but what I received caused me to grin a giddy smile. His taught muscles invited me to explore every inch of him with the tips of my fingers. Ever so slowly, I draped my hands down the length of his torso, savoring the rippled structure of his abdomen.
His jeans put a temporary stop to my pleasures, preventing me from further exploration. Desperately wanting to proceed, but uncertain of how to do so, I opened my eyes.
He was looking right at me. One hand cupped my breast while the other rested along my waist. His mouth held a content smile.
My desires throbbed between my legs with every beat of my heart.
At the foot of his bed, naked from the waist up, we stood with our eyes locked on each other. Somehow, despite our combined desires, we’d reached an impasse.
I waite
d.
His thumb brushed against my nipple. A tingling ran through me, causing me to shiver. As if he sensed my satisfaction, he did it again. While I relished in the pleasure of his touch, his other hand slid from my waist, along my lower back, and came to a stop in the back pocket of my jeans.
My eyes fell closed.
Using my butt cheek as leverage, he pulled me into him and kissed me deeply.
Dear God.
I ached for him. My mind was reeling. He wedged his thigh between my legs. The tingling started again.
I couldn’t take it any longer.
I reached for his belt. With our tongues intertwined and our naked chests pressed to one another, I pulled against the leather strap and reached for the buckle. After what seemed to be an eternity of my bumble-fingered fumbling, it finally came free.
Frantically, I shoved my hand deep into his pants.
Holy cow.
He was different than the boys I’d been with in the past. It made perfect sense. He wasn’t a boy. I held a man’s girth in my hand. A real man.
I squeezed his cock. After receiving no objection, I began to eagerly stroke the thick shaft.
Our lips parted, and he leaned away from me.
With his eyes fixed on mine, he pushed his jeans along his thighs and then to the floor. After adding his boxer shorts to the pile of clothes at our side, he stood before me completely naked.
I looked him up and down. The muscles of his biceps were tense and bulging. His wide chest paid perfect complement to his narrow torso. The scars on his hands gave hint to his protective nature, and the stubble that had grown since he last shaved gave him enough edge to create pause.
But. It was what he had on the inside that had drawn me so closely to him.
In short, he was my perfect man.
There was one thing I was versed on, and although it wasn’t all I had to offer, it was what I was comfortable giving him at that moment.
I desperately wanted to please him. I lowered myself to my knees and looked up. “I want you in my mouth.”
“You don’t have to--”
F*CKERS (Biker MC Romance Book 7) Page 77