by A. E. Fisher
Without a word, I scooped Adair up into my arms and marched toward their door.
When I was about to step inside, I felt a sharp tug on my hair as Adair tangled his fingers into it and pulled until I looked at him.
“What?” I asked, my voice gruff and perhaps a little harsh, but Adair didn’t seem to care.
“Don’t wake Mommy.” He gave my hair an extra tug, as if to add emphasis. “Mommy’s sleeping with Papa.”
“Papa?” I repeated, certain I had misheard him.
Adair nodded, not helping me understand until he added, “Papa’s giving Mommy cuddles.”
The kid didn’t have a “papa,” which meant there was someone playing that role right now … under my roof. How dare she bring another man into my home!
I thought what I felt before had been anger, but what I felt now, that was anger. It was hot and aggressive, and made me tear down the door before I even recognized I was moving.
Adair began crying when the door bounced off the wall, and Mallory shot up from bed. Her bleary eyes jumped around the room in a panic until they landed on Adair, and then met mine. The panic fell as she took in the situation, developing into anger.
“What the hell are you doing?” she snapped, pulling the sheet up to her chin. “Why is Adair naked?”
I didn’t say a thing. Anger clogged my throat as I made a sweep of the room, placing Adair on his made bed before dropping to look underneath it. When the underside of both beds turned up empty, I moved to the closet, then to the bathroom.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
“Where the hell is he?” I demanded, turning around to face her.
“Who?” Mallory asked, eyes now jumping around, looking for the suspect. She had moved to Adair’s bed, cuddling him close to her chest.
“The man.”
“What man?”
“The man Adair was talking about.”
Mallory looked down at Adair, who hugged his stuffed toy tighter against his chest. The old thing with beaded green eyes had yellowish fur spewing out cotton from a dozen tears.
“There is no man,” Mallory insisted.
“Adair told me you were having ‘cuddles’ with ‘Papa’.” I watched the realization dawn on her face. Oh, yeah, I knew. “Considering Adair doesn’t have a papa, where the hell is the guy you decided to bring into my house?”
Mallory was quiet for long seconds, looking at me, her bottom lip trembling. Then she burst out laughing.
My rage stuttered to a halt as I saw her cripple over, hugging her waist as she gasped for breath between fits.
“Oh, my gosh,” she heaved out. “I can’t believe you thought …” She continued to laugh some more, and I felt my irritation rising.
“What?” I snapped.
“This,” she said, taking deep breaths as she pulled the stuffed toy from Adair’s arms and propped it up on her lap, “is Papa.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, looking down at the fraying doll, then at Adair, then at Mallory, who seemed to be having a hard time keeping her mouth closed.
“That thing is Papa?” I asked. I would have been lying if I said I didn’t feel the heat of embarrassment flush across my face. “But why is Adair naked? And why were you sleeping instead of watching him?” I countered, looking at the still naked child crooning at his mother’s affection.
“I don’t know why Adair’s naked. And because you don’t have any locks, I propped my suitcase …” She stopped when she saw the open door, and then the suitcase laying on the floor. Then she turned to Adair. “Baby, did you open that door?”
Adair cradled the teddy bear against his bare chest again. “No,” he mumbled, refusing to look her in the eyes.
“Adair Michael Ward, what have I told you about lying?”
“That liars get eaten by wolves.”
I saw Mallory’s tiny wince at an obvious misinterpretation of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, but she kept the stern mom stare until Adair caved.
“I was bored, Mommy, and I wanted to play.”
“I’ve told you enough times that you don’t go play on your own when Mommy’s sleeping. You wait or wake me up, okay?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
“Good boy.” She brushed a finger across his cheek. “Now, what do we do in the morning?”
Adair grinned, standing to press a kiss against her cheek. “Good morning, Mommy.”
“Good morning, Adair.” She kissed him back.
When I thought that was going to be the end of it, Adair leapt off the bed and came running in my direction. He was tall enough to grab one of my belt loops and tug. I looked up at Mallory who was watching Adair with surprise as I dropped down on my haunches until I was about his height.
Adair reached up on his tiptoes and pressed a wet kiss to my cheek. “Good morning, Hummer.”
I must have looked shocked because Mallory chuckled.
Then Adair ran back to his mother who scooped him up into her arms.
“Well done,” she said, ruffling his hair. “Now, go get your clothes. I know you’ve hidden them somewhere.”
Adair slid off the bed and onto his belly as he wiggled underneath the dresser.
Mallory got up and began to walk toward me, crossing her arms, which pushed her breasts out of the tiny tank she was wearing. She had long cotton pants that brushed against the floor, and the elastic on the waist was loose enough that they hung low on her hips, giving a nice peek at that softly curved belly dipping into the pair of white panties with a little pink bow.
“Sorry about that,” she said, eyes lowered.
I snapped my head up as if I hadn’t been wondering what was inside that innocent pair of panties as I met her gaze.
Her sleep-ruffled hair and crease marks down her arms were almost cute with her small, casual shrug. Her lips were round and soft in a small pout that begged to be kissed. Her teeth raked across them, and I would be damned if I didn’t recognize the warmth clawing its way down below my waist.
I locked my gaze with hers as she simply stared at me, eyes searching mine.
When I realized she was waiting for a response, my voice came out in a hoarse rumble. “No problem, darlin’.”
Her eyes widened at the pet name, and then narrowed as she propped her hands on her hips, ready to get all wildcat again.
Before she could, I stepped back toward the door, saying, “I’ll get some locks.” Then I closed the door in her face.
I heard her frustrated huff from the other side of the door as I made my way downstairs and out the front door, slamming it behind me. I wasted no time locking it, getting on my bike, and getting the hell away from that house before the ache between my legs started thinking.
“So, I heard you got knocked up,” Anna announced as she walked toward me, swaying her round ass in that tight pencil skirt. She dropped onto the couch, one long leg swung over the other one, a beer at her lips. She didn’t look at me, pretending to watch the game that I had been pretending to watch.
“You hear too much,” I commented, taking the beer out of her hand and downing the rest of it in one gulp.
“Obviously not enough if I’m finding out yesterday’s news this morning from Lamb.” She raised her hand for a prospect to place another beer into it. Putting it to her lips, she took a long gulp, sending me a wink.
“You’ve got them wrapped around your finger already,” I grumbled.
“I need to if I’m going to keep my reins on them if they patch in. How else am I supposed to keep you boys out of the slammer?”
“The legal way?” I suggested.
“Sure, I’ll do it the legal way when you guys get into trouble for doing something legal.” Anna smirked, knowing far too well that Black Angels didn’t have a legal streak in them.
“Bitch.”
“You love it.” She winked again, her short, ice-blonde hair moving as she tilted her head to the side, listening for something.
“Only ’cause you’re good at what you do,” I conceded.
&
nbsp; “What can I say? It’s like my whole life was mapped out for me, and here I am, served to you on a silver platter.” She shrugged, unfolding her legs and propping them up next to mine on the coffee table.
“A fuckin’ expensive silver platter,” I mumbled, placing my feet on the floor at the sound of familiar footsteps.
“You want the best, you got to be willing to pay for it.” Anna ignored the sound of the footsteps, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“What the fuck!” a familiar, heavily Russian-accented voice bellowed from deep within the club.
“Time to go.” She chuckled, tilting her head back and knocking back the rest of her beer before putting it down on the table. Then she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek with her bright red lipstick before swinging up her long black purse over her shoulder.
“What’d you do?” I asked.
She pressed a bloodred fingernail to her matching lips. “I don’t kiss and tell.” With that, she pulled her black jacket tighter around a blouse that gave a generous view of her cleavage and sashayed her ass right out the door with the sound of those red fuck-me boots disappearing into the parking lot.
As the door shut behind her, the huge body of our president came storming into the club room. “Where the fuck is she?” His voice was like a sonic boom in the small confines of the room. “I heard those damn boots.”
“Just missed her, Prez.”
“Fuck’s sake.” He dropped into Anna’s now vacant space.
“What’d she do this time?” I asked despite the smarter part of my brain telling me it was a bad idea. Anna loved to rile him up.
The raw fury that crossed his hard face and dark brown eyes confirmed my guess.
“She fuckin’ painted my bedroom walls.”
Confusion filtered through me. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
Wolf scowled. “It’s pink with My Little Pony stickers all over it.”
It was one of the most trying times in my life as I fought not to let even a sliver of a smile out. From the way my jaw was tightening, I wondered if I would have any teeth left by the end of the day.
“That little fox.” He continued to mumble some other, probably not so pleasant, words in Russian under his voice. The angrier he got, the more Russian came out. He dragged his hands through his dark brown hair peppered with streaks of grey that had been there all his life. “I’m too old for this shit.”
At forty-five, he was a young president. At the same time, I could understand where he was coming from.
“Tell me about it,” I said, thinking back to the MILF I had waiting back at home.
I had come to the club to escape the innocent allure she radiated, but it did nothing to untangle her from my thoughts.
I’d had a plan, but my dick wasn’t on board. It was get the kid, bring him home, and find out what she was hiding. That’s all. And I was more than sure her secrets weren’t hiding between her legs, as much as my dick would love to protest that fact. I had to ignore the mommy’s hot little ass until I got what I needed. Then she could move out, and I could deal with my side of the relationship with my nephew with limited input from her. Not to mention how much I would love to put a zip on that feisty mouth of hers.
Now Wolf was smirking at me. “Lamb told me you’ve got a baby’s momma. How’d that shit happen?”
“Lamb needs to stop gossiping like a pussy,” I said, lifting the beer to my lips.
Wolf raised an eyebrow with a look that already knew too much. “That bad, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Kids can change a life,” Wolf commented, his face growing cold and distant. There was a lot of past to the man that nobody knew; a long history before he joined us Black Angels. But that wasn’t for me to pry into. A man’s story was his own.
“By the way,” I started as I looked over at him, “how did Anna paint your room without you noticing? Haven’t you been asleep in there all night?”
A low growl rumbled from Wolf’s chest as he flung himself from the couch. “I need a damn beer.”
With that, he stormed off, leaving me to sink into the leather couch and watch the end of the match that I couldn’t tell you the score to if you had asked.
Chapter Four
Mallory
Locked. Every single door and window was locked. Hunter sure as hell had better be psychic in the end and had predicted there wouldn’t be a fire or something, because if there was, there would be a roasted mommy and child.
How long did it take to buy locks, anyway? If that was what he was even doing.
That would be true if locks had big plastic boobies that were so perky they poked you in the eye. I hoped he got poked in the eye. Both eyes.
I walked around the downstairs, a pair of tiny feet pattering behind me as I looked for something to do.
I pressed my face against the glass back door, eyes bugging out as I spotted the backyard. I knew the window from my room faced it, but I hadn’t dared look for fear of the marvelous image I knew would be out there. Since I had nothing to do, however, I thought I might as well subject myself to looking.
The worst part about it was that I was right. It had a long open yard with flowers up and down the edges, a white picket fence, and a small shed at the end. Not to mention, it went on for miles, or seemed like it, before it hit the hedge lining the edge.
I pouted, my lips smudging the door. The longing in my chest to go out there was almost painful.
I turned my face downward to look at Adair, who sat between my legs, also staring out the door.
He turned his face up to mine, his blond hair flopping back from his face as he gave me a wide grin. “Can we go out, Mommy?”
“Sorry, baby,” I said, dropping to scoop him up into my arms and grunting as I lifted him. Yup, he was definitely getting too big for this. “We’ve been locked in, so we can’t go out.”
“Locked in?” Adair seemed to mull it over before his eyes went big and his face whipped toward mine. “Were we bad? Did we get locked up?”
I gasped at the sadness beginning to pool in those cute, little green eyes. “No, baby, no. We didn’t get locked up, and we’re certainly not bad guys.” Well, considering my past transgressions, perhaps, but not adorable, too-innocent-for-his-own-good Adair. “You’re a little angel.” I smiled, easing him back to calm. “And angels aren’t bad guys.” So long as they aren’t the black-winged kind that rode around on motorcycles.
“Oh,” Adair mumbled as I set him on the ground.
“How about a bath?” I asked, taking his hand and leading him back to the glass greenhouse.
“We already had a bath,” Adair countered, his green eyes growing puzzled.
“Yeah, I know. But we can have another one. I know how much you like baths.” Not to mention, they made him sleepy.
“Okay.” Adair nodded, satisfied.
Before we even made it from the top of the stairs to the bathroom door, he had his clothes stripped and slung across the floor. The kid really liked getting naked.
A small ping went off in my heart as I was reminded of the day I first met Noble. He had happened to be naked from head to toe in his doorway, looking mighty fine.
I had somehow ended up charging him less for his pizza. Who cared? I would have paid more than the twenty dollars to cover it, just to see him in all his glory again. In fact, I had tried, but he must have taken it as a hint to wear more clothes when answering the door after that.
Adair sneezed as I turned on the bath to fill at ninety-five degrees on the fancy control panel on the wall. Then I took a dry towel and wrapped it around his small shoulders to keep him warm while we waited.
“Bubbles, Mommy!” Adair said as I turned away to fiddle with a few of the control to turn the jets off. The setting was left from last night when all those little naughty sprays had made me feel so good. Was it possible to swap a man for the holy tub of all baths? I thought it should be allowed.
“Mommy! Bubbles!” Adai
r persisted.
“One minute, baby.” I pressed all sorts of buttons to try to turn the damn light off that meant the jets were still on.
I felt Adair begin to pull on the edges of my shirt, a faded AC/DC shirt I had picked up at a thrift shop in Ohio, and gave up on the jets, figuring I would make sure Adair didn’t freak out at the sensations of them. Then I turned around to pick him up and …
Holy mother of bubbles!
It was like a great avalanche of bubbles had come spewing over the top of the huge bath and down the sides, moving like a swarm covering almost all the visible floor.
“Adair!” I called. His blond hair was out of sight.
I plunged my way into the bubbles, moving cautiously so I didn’t kick Adair if he was somehow hidden under the massive pile. I tried to suppress the frantic instincts kicking in to protect my son.
“Adair!”
“Mommy!” I turned toward the voice and saw Adair’s little green eyes pop up from the sea of bubbles.
A rush of relief hit me like a truck. Mother instincts were a freaking roller coaster.
I made my way toward him, scooped up his bubble-encased form, and made my way back toward the control panel where the bubbles had already made their way to.
Turns out the green light didn’t mean the jets were on. Oops.
Adair proceeded to giggle, trying to wiggle out of my arms to play in the bubbles some more until I gave up and sat him down in the shallow end. Then, my hands on my hips, I turned to face the mess. Good thing Hunter wasn’t here, or he would have had my head. Hurray for big-tittied hoes!
The door slammed open as my brain finished its cheer, and there stood the hulking figure of the very same grumpy biker I had just mentioned.
I take that back. Big-tittied hoes need to learn to last a little longer.
“What the hell is going on here?” he asked, not moving from the doorway as he proceeded to look over the bubble-covered floor, then at Adair, who was rolling around now and trying to bite the bubbles, and then at me. When his eyes hit me, they seemed to go down then back up again and stop around chest level.