by Naomi West
It was touching, and it nearly made Venus want to tear up. “Okay. I won’t.”
Blankenship left the room, and the two of them were finally alone again. Venus turned to Blade, seeing her own fatigue reflected in his eyes. “Are you doing all right?”
“Me? Sure. I’ve had plenty of guns pointed at me. I’m only sorry that I couldn’t do anything to keep him from coming after you. If that had happened at the clubhouse or at my home, then things would have turned out differently.”
“I know. Part of me can’t believe he had the audacity to come in here and try that, but I guess I should’ve expected it. He’s a monster, and I don’t think he’ll ever get past that.”
Blade pulled his arm tighter around her, and she laid her head on his shoulder. “At least we’ve got each other, right?”
She had to smile at that. Whatever their relationship was, it had been a rocky one in its short existence. It was good to know he was still willing to be by her side. “Absolutely.”
A soft knock sounded on the door, and a friendly face peeked in the door. Venus immediately recognized Angela, the nurse from the ER. “Hi, honey. I have the results of your blood test. Is it all right to talk here, or do you want to go somewhere private?”
With as much as they’d been through together, something like a blood test seemed like a very minor thing to share with Blade. “Here is fine.”
“Your blood sugar was a little low, which is to be expected when you haven’t eaten for a while,” Angela beamed. “But you’re also pregnant. Congratulations, dear.”
26
Blade looked from the nurse to Venus and back again. Venus was clearly stunned, sitting there on the edge of the bed with her mouth hanging open. He had to admit he felt much the same way. He’d been so focused on dealing with Jet and protecting Venus that he’d never even thought about that possibility.
“Um. Okay. Thank you,” Venus finally managed to say to the nurse. “Thank you very much.”
The woman patted Venus on the arm. “You’re very welcome, dear. If you need help finding an obstetrician or anything, you just let me know. I’ll leave you two be for the moment.” She winked at them before turning to leave the room.
Venus didn’t move, sitting up stiffly and not even turning around to look at him.
“Venus? Are you all right?”
She finally turned, her face a shade paler than it had already been. “I … I didn’t expect this. I don’t know what to do.”
He hadn’t expected it either, but he already knew in his heart what would happen from here. “I do. Let’s get married. I can’t exactly get down on one knee at the moment, and I don’t have a ring, but I can make that up to you later.” He smiled at her, hoping she would forgive him for not being able to be too romantic at the moment. But he didn’t want to wait until the time was right to propose. She needed to know he was there for her, no matter what.
She shook her head slowly. “No.”
“No?” Blade’s heart shattered. He’d sworn he’d seen love in her eyes.
“No,” she repeated. “We can’t do that. I don’t want you to resent me later on the down the road for trapping you in a loveless marriage just for the sake of a child.”
“Oh, Venus. What makes you think it would be loveless?” He pulled her close again, pressing her close to his body. “I’ve never known anybody like you, and for a little while I didn’t quite understand how I felt about you. But I most definitely love you, and I want you to be my wife more than anything. You can I can live side by side, as a team, as a couple, as lovers, and have this child together.” He could see it in his mind’s eye as he said it, and his chest filled with warmth.
Her mouth tugged up in a smile, but it faded quickly. “That’s a wonderful thought, but I still don’t think it’s going to work. I’ve lived so long under the Skulls, and I don’t want to just turn around and be part of the biker world. I don’t want it for me, and I definitely don’t want it for this poor child. I’ll raise the baby on my own, or I can give it up for adoption.” Venus pulled away from him to stand up next to the bed. “I’ve caused enough trouble for you, Blade, and there’s no reason we have to continue this.”
“Now hang on a second—” Blade struggled to sit up further in bed, wishing he could jump off the mattress, pull her close, and make her understand just how he felt about her.
“No, there’s no point in arguing about it. You have men to lead, and I can’t even stay in the area. If there are any Skulls still left, then they’ll probably come after me. I don’t want to have to be constantly on the lookout. I’m tired, Blade. I’m going to just move off to some other part of the country, or maybe even some other part of the world, and pretend to be someone else.”
She looked so sad as she stood there, forcing herself to create a distance between them that didn’t belong. Blade could feel it like a length of cord being stretched to its limits, and he knew it wasn’t right. Neither was the idea of a child—his child—being raised without him. He didn’t want to lose her or the baby, and he knew in that moment he would do absolutely anything to keep that from happening. “Then I’ll come with you.”
“What?” She glanced at him with those big blue eyes, orbs he could fall straight into.
“Then I’ll come with you. We’ll do whatever you want, whatever you think is necessary. Champ can take over the Fangs. He’s more than capable. We can run off into the sunset together and become whoever we want to be. I just want to be with you, Venus, and I want us to be a family. I love you.” Never in his life had he spoken like that to anyone or submitted himself so fully. It felt so good and yet hurt so bad because he didn’t know what she might say.
“I love you too,” she sobbed, falling back into his arms and snuggling against his chest. Her tears were hot against his skin. “I love you so much.”
Blade kissed her forehead and rubbed her back, just holding her while she cried.
Epilogue
“Are you still leaving early today, Veronica?”
It still caught her off-guard when someone called her by her real name. Venus had decided as soon as she and Blade had moved to Colorado that she wanted things to be as normal as possible, and ditching the ridiculous nickname her father had given her seemed like a good first step. She smiled over the top of her desk at Shannon, one of the other social workers at the hospital. “I definitely am. We’ve got a wedding anniversary to celebrate.”
Shannon rested her chin on her hand and smiled. “That’s so romantic, and the two of you are so adorable together. I hope I can find a love like that someday.”
“You will.” And secretly, Veronica hoped it wouldn’t be as messy and difficult as things had been for her and Blade in the beginning. They’d managed to move on, leaving behind lives of crime and completely starting over, and now they could easily pretend none of that had ever happened. It’d been worth it, but it hadn’t been easy.
“Well go on and get out of here, then! I’ll turn your reports in for you so the boss doesn’t keep you in there talking all afternoon. I think she only went into this field because she can’t stop talking!” Shannon laughed, flipping her dark curly hair over her shoulder.
“All right, thanks.” Veronica handed over her files and grabbed her purse. She raced out the door to the day care just down the street from the hospital.
“How’s my little man?” The daycare was a place of loud noises and bright colors, and it seemed to suit Lucas quite nicely. He was always clean, dry, and fed when Veronica came to pick him up, and the workers seemed to genuinely care about their charges. She always felt a little bad about dropping him off so she could go to work, but she knew she was making a difference in people’s lives with her work. It’d been thanks to those who’d helped her get on her feet again after Jet had gone to jail that she had found the right path.
“He was such a little angel today, but that’s not unusual,” gushed Nadia, who worked in the toddler room. “Don’t tell anyone else, but I think he�
��s my favorite.”
Veronica signed her son out on the clipboard on the wall and smiled. “That’s okay. He’s my favorite, too.”
On the way home, she chatted with Lucas about everything. It was their ritual to just talk, to build a connection no matter what they were doing. Sometimes she spoke about her day or what she had for lunch, or she described the other cars on the roads or the birds that flew by. Lucas was starting to say a few words, but he filled in all the gaps with adorable gibberish that she just couldn’t get enough of.
Their house was a beautiful Cape Cod on the edge of town, the kind of place that spoke of domestic bliss and seemed like a dream come true. The living room was often full of toys, and she couldn’t always keep the dirty dishes out of the sink, but none of that mattered. It was full of love, and that was all they needed.
Veronica needed to get ready for her date, but she first took a few minutes to play on the floor with Lucas. There was nothing better than coming home to his sweet face and contagious laugh.
An hour later, once Blade had come home and changed and the sitter had arrived, she and Blade were out at their favorite local restaurant for their first anniversary. “Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?” he asked, his eyes soft in the candlelight.
“Only every day, but I’m not complaining,” she replied. “How are things going at work?” Blade had opened a gym where he taught self-defense classes. His clients included men, women, and children of all ages, and he seemed to truly enjoy his work.
Blade smiled. “It was great. I had a troop of Girl Scouts come in for a class today. All those little girls punching and kicking and learning to take someone down … it was just adorable.”
“I’m glad you think so,” she said as the waiter brought them their steaks. “I was thinking it would be a wonderful thing to see if we could give Lucas a little sister sometime.” Baby fever had hit her hard lately. Veronica hadn’t gotten a chance to experience that before she’d become pregnant with Lucas, and she hadn’t even understood just how real of a thing it was until lately. It was as though her body longed for—even demanded—another child.
Her husband set his fork down and eyed her steamily across the table. “We could just have them box this up, you know. Head home and give it a try?”
She blushed to have him say that in the middle of the restaurant, but she had to admit she’d been thinking the same thing. The passage of time had only increased her attraction to him. “Let’s at least have our dinner. I don’t want to shock the poor sitter by coming right back home. Besides, we get so little time alone.”
He sucked his breath in through his teeth. “And oh, what I’m going to do to you when we do get that time alone.”
The rest of their dinner was a tense affair, but only because they were each eager to be out of the public eye. Blade raced home with his hand on her thigh, and he overpaid the babysitter in his haste to get rid of her. Lucas was already in bed, and Blade scooped Veronica up and carried her up the stairs to their bedroom. “What was it you said you wanted to do again?”
She kissed the side of his face, trailing her lips up his cheek and nibbling his ear. “I’d much rather show you.”
In the bedroom, he set her down, grabbed her hips, and pulled her against him. He kissed her soundly, his tongue tangling with hers as he gently stripped off her cardigan sweater and then pushed down the straps of her dress. When he had her breasts free, he bent his head to pay thorough attention to each one of them.
Veronica tipped her head back and sighed, loving the way he worshipped her body. There were plenty of times when they got down and dirty, but he always treated her with such respect. It was more than she ever could’ve asked for in a man, and she loved it. She could feel his hardness through his pants, and she reached for his belt buckle.
Blade had already been fit when they’d gotten together, but running a gym had only made him even hotter. When she had him free of his clothes, she joyfully ran her hands over his wide shoulders and strong arms, down his broad chest and his rippling abs to the treasure that awaited her below. He was hard and ready for her, but she wanted this to last as long as possible. She knelt down in front of him and took him in her mouth.
He grunted with pleasure as she massaged him with her tongue, exploring the length of his shaft, sucking harder and faster as she felt his girth increase. Veronica had never imagined she would enjoy doing something like this so much, but she truly did. It turned her on to know how much he was enjoying it, and she felt the sparks of electricity shooting through her body.
When she finally pulled away, Blade took her hand and pulled her to her feet. He sat her on the bed, but he didn’t climb on top of her as she expected. He got down on his knees in front of her and buried his face between her legs.
“Oh!” she gasped, feeling her body’s reaction right away.
“You didn’t think I’d let you do it without reciprocating, did you?” He’d barely pulled his mouth far enough away so that he could talk, the vibrations of his words against her flesh rippling through her. “I want all of you, Veronica, all the time.”
She laid her head back, holding her breasts and wrapping her legs around his shoulders as he worked at her, wondering for a brief moment if other women were as lucky as she was. She knew the stereotype for married women with children, and she didn’t think she fit it at all. She and Blade still made love like they were on the run, like they’d never have a chance to do it again.
“You’ve got to come here,” she whispered as she felt her body on the verge of convulsing all over. “I want you inside me.”
Blade gave her one final long lick with the flat of his tongue. “But I’m enjoying you so much. We didn’t get dessert at the restaurant, so I figured I’d get it here.” He flicked her clit with his tongue, making her dizzy.
“Oh God, please!”
“Whatever you want.” Blade bit her gently before coming up onto the bed and burying himself inside her.
She sighed with the pleasure of having his weight on top of her. Veronica loved all the different positions they’d experimented with, whether he had her bent over the bed taking her from behind, or whether she rode him like a cowgirl. But this was always her favorite, when he covered her with his body and plunged himself so deeply inside her. It was how she knew they truly fit together perfectly, both with their bodies and their hearts.
She clutched at his back as she felt waves of pleasure coming over her, sighing into his ear and tightening her legs around his waist. Blade buried himself even deeper inside her, thrusting in long strokes that satisfied them both as the hardness of his cock rubbed against just the right spot. His body reacted to her own climax, and feeling him fill her up only sent her on another roller coaster of rapture.
They parted, but Blade kept his arms around her and Veronica laid her head on his bare chest. She closed her eyes, taking pleasure even in just being next to him. That was one of the many good things about being with Blade. They didn’t have to be talking or doing anything special to feel that connection with each other. They were building a family and a life unlike anything either of them could’ve imagined a year ago, and it was the most incredible thing.
She sighed and snuggled in closer. “I love you, Blade.”
His hand pressed a little harder on the small of her back as he kissed her forehead. “I love you too.”
THE END
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An innocent girl like her should’ve never come near a devil like me. Falling into my bed puts Jasmin square in the crossfire. I’ll put my baby in her belly. My ink on her skin. And by the end of this, I might just add my ring on her finger.
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