by Khloe Wren
Ah, fuck. I hadn’t gloved up. I knew I should pull out, but there was no way in hell I could stop this train now it had started. Thrusting up deep inside her, I filled her womb with my seed. Part of me hoped like fuck it did its job and tied her to me forever, and the other part wanting more time with her before we added a kid to the mix.
As soon as I could, I pulled free of her and grabbed the soap, washing her from head to toe, before quickly washing myself down. Flipping off the water, I followed her out of the stall. She handed me a towel, still silent. I wrapped it around my waist before grabbing the other one to begin drying her off.
“Cindy, I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t even think of grabbing a condom. I shouldn’t have taken you bare like that, without discussing it with you first. I’m so sorry.”
I froze when her palms came up and cupped my face. “Johnny, don’t ever regret being with me. Neither of us are exactly teenagers, if I get pregnant we’ll deal with it.”
“Are you serious right now?”
I wasn’t sure how to take what she’d just said.
“Johnny, I’m thirty-five years old, and you’re two years older than me. Time is slipping past us to have kids. One of the things that has always cut me the deepest is that this stalker has prevented me from having the family I’d always dreamed of having. And there’s no one I’d rather have a baby with than you.”
Fuck it all, but my eyes started stinging. So she wouldn’t notice, I took her mouth with mine and kissed her until I felt more in control of my emotions. This woman was one in a million, no doubt about it.
“Woman, you slay me. You truly do, and I hate that I have to leave, but Scout’s gonna have my hide for being late to church as it is.”
Cindy
He tried to distract me with his kiss, but I saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. He claimed I was the one who slayed him, but I think it was the other way around. He absolutely slayed me. But I didn’t want to get any deeper in our conversation right now, not when he had to run out the door.
“Church? You get today’s Thursday, not Sunday, right?”
I followed him as, laughing, he moved back into my bedroom where we both made quick work of getting dressed.
“Not that kinda church, babe. Church is what we call our meetings. No idea why, it’s just how it is. What are your plans today?”
“I’ve got some laundry to do this morning, then I’m at Retro Funk this afternoon. After that is derby practice, then on to Titanium.”
He shook his head. “You’re so damn busy all the time. Can you text the boys what times you’re gonna be where? So they know when to watch for you being on the move.”
I shrugged and pulled out my phone, Nitro had put in Keg’s and Jazz’s numbers for me last week. “Sure, I’ve been doing that most days anyhow. And as far as being busy, I didn’t have anything else to do, and honestly? I didn’t want the spare time where I’d be forced to what? Sit around thinking about everything I didn’t have but wanted. It was easier to stay busy. I’ll work on cutting back now that I have you in my life, promise.”
He gave me a heart-stopping smile before he kissed me again, turning me into a pile of goo before he pulled back and declared he really had to leave this time. Thankfully, before he made it out the door, enough of my brain cells were firing that I remembered what I needed to give him.
“Let me grab the spare gate opener for you before you go, or you won’t make it out of the garage.”
Once he had the opener, he was jogging out the door and I was left to try to process all that had happened in the last couple of days. After locking the door, I made my way back to my bedroom, which still smelled of Johnny and sex. I’d certainly broken my dry spell with a bang and a half.
I made quick work of stripping the sheets from the bed and grabbing the towels from the bathroom before tossing them all in the basket with my clothes. Since I was spending my morning at home, I’d dressed for comfort in a pair of leggings and a loose fitting hoodie. After I slipped my phone and keys into the hoodie’s pocket, I grabbed my basket and headed out the door. One of the downsides to this apartment building was that the laundry was a separate room down on the ground floor. The upside was, since nearly everyone who lived in the building worked during the day, I had the room to myself most weeks. That meant I could use all the washers at the same time, making the process so much faster than if I had to wait around for just one machine to do everything.
As I started to put the sheets into a machine, I began to attempt to come to terms with the fact that I’d had unprotected sex with Nitro while I wasn’t on any birth control. I’d played it cool in front of him, of course, but inside I was panicking. My life wasn’t ready for a baby. What would my stalker do if he discovered I was pregnant? Would he attempt to hurt my unborn baby somehow? Would that be what finally pushed him to the point of hurting me?
As I was lost in thought, I automatically went through my Thursday routine, and before I knew it, I had a basket full of clean laundry and was on my way back to the apartment, still with no real clue what to think about the fact I was potentially pregnant. I’d just opened the door when my phone rang. Dropping the basket onto the floor, I pulled out my mobile and seeing it was Aunt Skye, I wondered what could be wrong, so quickly answered to find out.
“Hey Aunt Skye, what’s up?”
I hoped she wasn’t calling to say she didn’t need me in the shop today. She didn’t do that often, thankfully, but when she did, she always refused to pay me for the time and I had to rework my budget for the next couple of weeks around the loss. Not that my aunt gave a shit about that.
“Oh, Cindy, it’s horrible! Someone set fire to the shop last night!”
Shock had me silent for a couple minutes. I couldn’t have heard her right.
“Cindy? Are you still there?”
“Ah, yeah, I’m here. Sorry, what did you say happened?”
I also wanted to ask why she’d waited until now to call me with the news of something that had happened last night. If she hadn’t found out last night, she would have known first thing this morning. Since it was currently late morning, I knew she’d known for hours at least, and not bothered to tell me.
“The police said the firefighters think it was a Molotov cocktail that was thrown through the front window. I can’t imagine who would do such a thing. Maybe they’ll be wrong and it turns out to be faulty wiring or something.”
My gut clenched and roiled. I knew exactly who would do it. I also knew it had nothing to do with freaking faulty wiring. My stalker was backed into a corner, unable to get near me, so he’d lashed out at the shop. But I couldn’t tell Aunt Skye that.
“I have no idea, are you at the shop now? I’ll come straight over.”
“What? Oh, no you don’t need to head over. There’s not much to be done. You just say home for the day. Maybe go out with that young man who’s been following you around.”
I grit my teeth and counted to ten quickly before I responded. Everyone in the family knew how I felt about that shop, knew I’d want to see the damage first hand to see if it was going to be salvageable. I also knew she didn’t give a shit about my dating life.
“I want to be there. I’ll see you soon.”
“But—”
Before she could argue any more, I hung up and, after picking up my basket, rushed for my room. I didn’t bother changing, just tossed the laundry on my bed and grabbed my handbag before heading back out the door.
I was starting my car before I remembered my bodyguards, I’d given them my schedule earlier and it obviously didn’t include my current outing. I pulled my phone out again and shot a text off to Keg, Jazz and Nitro, letting them know where I was heading and why, then I shifted my focus solely onto getting to the shop as fast as I could.
When I pulled into the parking lot, it was nearly empty, which was strange for this time of day. But I guessed the fire trucks had been taking up the space earlier. The rear of the shop didn’t look too bad. Th
e back door was missing and there were some black soot marks up the wall above the empty doorway. But I knew the inside would look a lot worse. This row of shops was old and had been built from solid stone. A fire would have to be extremely hot to damage the exterior walls. There was also water everywhere, puddles on the ground, and the air had a bite to it, smelling of smoke and a horrible mix of everything that had been burned inside the shop. The police had put tape up across the doorway but I couldn’t see anyone around.
“Aunt Skye?”
After locking my car, I rushed up to the doorway, scanning the area for my aunt or anyone else, as I took in the destruction in front of me. After several minutes, I still hadn’t seen anyone, but the level of damage was clear. I doubted anything much was going to be salvageable. Emotion clogged my throat and I battled against the urge to drop to the ground and cry. I barely noticed the roar of the Harleys until they were pulling up behind me, their engines now so loud my body vibrated with it. I turned to see who it was, because it sounded like more than just the one bike I’d normally had following me around. It was only when I started to turn that I noticed that Keg was at the end of the block of shops and looked like he’d been there for a while. I returned his head tilt with a grim smile before moving to look at the new arrivals. Naturally, Nitro’s big, golden yellow bike was at the front, and there were three others behind it. All four of the men were wearing leather cuts that declared they were members of the Charon MC.
The moment they all killed their engines, the air around us seemed to still. I didn’t know what to say or do, I felt shattered inside. So much of Grandma was in this place. And now it was gone. And what did I say to a man who’d obviously received my message and came straight back to me. I doubted he even got a full hour in Bridgewater before he turned and came back. I knew he wasn’t making shit up this morning, he really must have work to do back in Bridgewater. He’d spent so much time with me over the past week, he had to be falling behind with whatever he normally did with his days.
I stayed frozen to the spot as he lifted his leg and swung off his ride. His every movement was smooth and sexy as hell. Even in my shocked, devastated state, I couldn’t fail to notice and appreciate his masculinity. In seconds he was standing in front of me and pulling me in against him. The moment his strong arms surrounded me, the tears started. All my emotions bubbled up and I clung to him as I let myself fall apart. This place held so many memories, working with my Grandma, seeing her help customers, even it if was just chatting to them. She wasn’t so focused on sales like my aunt was. Grandma was more interested in helping people. More than once, she’d given clothing to someone in need, or taken them down the street to buy them lunch.
But she’d been gone for twelve years, and now her shop, her legacy, was gone too. And it was all my fault. If I’d just resisted Nitro, my stalker wouldn’t have upped the stakes like this!
“C’mon, Cin. You’re gonna make yourself sick.”
I tried to push him away but he only loosened his hold, he didn’t let go completely.
“We can’t be together. Not if this is what is going to happen. I can’t lose anything else to him.”
His expression hardened and his grip shifted to hold my shoulders.
“If you really mean that, then you’re letting him take this away from us, too. You say you can’t lose anything else, but in the same sentence throw me away because of him. Do I mean so little to you?”
More tears rolled down my cheeks as I trembled in his grip. He was right, I knew he was. But I didn’t know what else I could do, how to stop this nut-job.
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Chapter 9
Nitro
I knew she was lashing out with the first idea that came to her because she was overwhelmed and hurting, but there was no way in hell I was going to let her push me aside to appease this fucker. Not ever again.
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
I shifted my grip so I was holding her neck in one palm and her cheek in the other.
“Babe, you kicking me out of your life will hurt me. And I hope this fucker does try to come after me, because, babe, it’ll be last thing he ever does. And then you’ll be free of him.”
That had her freezing for a moment before she relaxed a little and her gaze softened. I pressed a short kiss to her lips before moving my arms to hold her tightly against me again.
“Did you get another note yet? You know this might be a random act. Your aunt’s not exactly the nicest person in the world, babe.”
“When she called, she tried to sound like she’d only just found out, but look at it. This was all over hours ago and she’s not even here.”
I took that as a no on the note front. The hurt in her tone tore at me. She loved this place, and for her aunt to not call her the moment she’d known would be tearing her up almost as much as the damage from the actual fire.
“Why don’t we drop your car back at your place, and you come for a ride with me back to Bridgewater? I’ll show you around the clubhouse and Styxx. You can meet some of the men and their old ladies, might even be able to find a baby or two for you to cuddle.”
I knew if I really wanted her to seriously consider moving to Bridgewater to live with me, I had to make her fall in love with the place. Hopefully, if she met a few of the other old ladies, and their babies, along with more of my brothers, she’d feel more comfortable with the idea. And c’mon, what woman didn’t get cheered up by babies? Her body lifted a little as she took a deep breath and I dropped my arms away as she pressed against me so she could stand on her own.
“Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do until tonight now. It might be nice to get out of Houston for the day. Um, who’s with you?”
I winced as I realized I’d completely ignored my brothers from the moment we’d pulled up.
“Ah, fuck. Sorry, completely forgot to do introductions.” I paused as she wiped at her face and took a few deep breaths, then with my palms on her shoulders, turned until we both faced my brothers who were all still sitting on their bikes waiting for me to indicate what the fuck we were going to do next.
“Men, this is my girl Cindy. Cindy, this is Mac, Arrow and Keys. Three of my Charon MC brothers.”
“Hi. Ah, sorry I interrupted whatever it was ya’ll were doing earlier.”
All three got off their bikes and came over to shake her hand. It was Keys who spoke up.
“No worries, sugar. It was just some paperwork. We were all happy to leave that behind and head out for a ride.”
That got a small smile out of Cin, but not for long.
“Well, I guess we’ll all head back to my apartment, then.”
I grabbed her for another kiss before she could climb back into her vehicle. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive? I can drive you home then get a ride back with one of the boys to get my bike.”
Riding bitch behind any of my brothers would be a moment I’d never live down, but I’d do it for Cin.
She reached up and cupped my cheek in her palm. “You are too sweet. I’m fine to drive. A little heartbreak isn’t going to keep me from living my life, Nitro.”
I much preferred how she sounded saying Johnny, but I couldn’t complain. Not when I had insisted she call me Nitro when we were around other people.
“Okay, we’ll be following you. See you in a bit, babe.”
With a peck to her cheek, I held her car door open as she climbed in. Once I’d closed her in, I headed back to my bike.
“Follow her down into the garage. After we park, I’ll run up with her, then we can all head back to Bridgewater.”
“Sounds good, brother.”
Slipping back on my bike, I started it up and once Cin drove past, followed her out with my boys at my back. She didn’t live far away and within ten minutes we were all pulling up in her apartment building’s garage.
“Right, we’ll be back down soon.”
Leaving my brothers to chill in the garag
e, I ushered Cin toward the elevator. Now that she’d agreed to spend the day with me, I was anxious to get moving with it. I hadn’t managed to get her on the back of my bike yet and the hour or so it was going to take to get from Houston to Bridgewater was going to feel like heaven with her pressed up against my back the whole way.
Once the elevator doors closed and she jabbed the button for the lobby, I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her to me.
“What do I need to wear to ride on your bike?”
That had me grinning. She wasn’t thinking about the fire anymore, but about being wrapped around me, on my bike. Before I could answer, the doors opened again and I followed her as she walked over to the mailboxes.
“Jeans, vest or jacket. Have you got some sturdy boots?”
As she slid the key in the box, she smirked over her shoulder at me. “I think I have something that’ll work.”
I mulled over her words as she gathered the few envelopes that were in the box and then locked things back up again. She didn’t look at them as we went back to the elevator.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ll see.”
She began flipping through the envelopes but stopped suddenly. Her face went pale and her breath hitched as she seemed to be suddenly intently focused on whatever it was she held.
“Cin? What is it?”
After a ding, the doors slid open and when Cin still didn’t move, I scooped her up and strode down toward her apartment. When we reached her door, she cleared her throat.
“Put me down, please.”
Her voice was barely above a whisper. I set her back on her feet and she carefully opened her door. By the time I followed her in, I was worried enough I shot off a text to the boys downstairs to come up. This wasn’t going to be a quick stop and go.
Trailing after Cindy, I waited until we were inside her room before I said anything.
“Cindy? What is it?”