I kissed him over and over, unable to let go of him as his hands found mine.
He plucked my grip from his back and laced our fingers together. He pinned them above my head as his eyes connected with mine. His lips dipped down to my nipple, wrapping around it and sucking until I was moaning his name. My legs pulled taut and my pussy fluttered around him. Stars were bursting in my eyes as his sweat began to drip onto my skin. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. My clit was throbbing and my pussy was dripping and his cock was growing and his lips were intoxicating.
“Maddox. Maddox. Oh, fuck. Yes. Right there. So close. I… I love you. I do. I love you so… so…”
My hips arched into his, swallowing his cock whole as my body exploded. My jaw unhinged in silent pleasure as my toes curled so hard my legs cramped. My heels dug into the rug and my back arched clear off the surface. My body jumped against his as my hands curled tightly around his.
Maddox covered his lips with mine as he sank into my body. He stilled, his cock spilling into me. I could feel his threads of cum coating my walls as he laid there, our hands intertwined and our foreheads connected.
I gasped for air as I collapsed to the rug, taking Maddox along for the ride.
He kissed me, over and over until the shaking of my body stilled. His cock was still buried inside of me. Throbbing between my weakened thighs as his lips traveled down my cheek. He nibbled at my neck and slid his tongue along my collarbone, shivering me to my core and pulling goosebumps upon my skin.
Then, our eyes connected as a smile crossed his face.
“I love you too, Reagan.”
Tears crested my eyes and he leaned in to kiss them away. He caught them with his lips, kissing my skin and releasing my hands. I wrapped myself around him as he slid from between my legs, our intermingled juices leaking from my body. He rolled off to the side, his back to the fire as he held me close to him.
Stroking my back with his large hands while I pressed into his sculpted form.
I didn’t want to talk about Italy. I didn’t want to talk about running. All I wanted to do was cherish the moment with the man I’d come to love. A man who wanted to protect the family he had created and do whatever it took to carve out a decent life for himself. A man who felt trapped but refused to remain trapped.
He was someone to be admired, and I was lucky I had him on my side.
“Maddox?” I asked with a whisper.
“Yes, my love?”
“What time do we have to leave?”
I looked up into his beautiful eyes as his hand rose to cup my cheek.
“As soon as I can comfortably get you out of here,” he said.
Chapter Twenty Four
Maddox
I packed our stuff in the car while Reagan wrote her parents a letter. No return addresses. No forwarding addresses. Simply a letter in an envelope we would drop off before we went to the airport. I could see her trying to stifle her crying. Blinking her eyes and clearing her throat. It killed me that it had to be done this way, but every time I looked at her changing body it reminded me of why I was doing this.
I had a child to protect.
I watched her fold the letter and place it into the envelope. She turned to me with bright red eyes and splotchy skin from holding back her sobs. She was trying to be so strong for me. Trying not to break down when she knew this was the right decision, too.
But I understood her pain.
I understood how much she would miss her family.
I hoped this move would knock some sense into my father. At the very least, I hoped it would make my mother angry enough to talk some sense into him. I took Reagan’s hand and armed my home one last time, then headed out towards the car.
I couldn’t stand to look back as we drove away.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?” Reagan asked.
“About what you wrote in your letter,” I said.
“It’s not much. Just how much I love my parents and how I’m having to go into Witness Protection for a little while.”
“Did you tell them about the baby?” I asked.
“I figured it wouldn’t do anyone any good,” she said.
I could see the ache in her eyes as we pulled up to her parents’ home. The sun was cresting over the horizon, beckoning in the morning as we drove through Oregon. Her parents would be waking up soon to the sun streaming through their windows and we would have to book it out of there. I had two one-way tickets out of the nearest airport that would put us right in the middle of Dublin.
Reagan wiped at her tears as she stuck her letter in their mailbox.
I took her hand within mine as she got back into the car. We drove to the airport and gathered our belongings, then I paid one of the airport guards a decent sum of money to drive the car somewhere and have it burned. He looked at me as if I was insane, but the wad of cash in my hand told me he would do as I asked.
Probably after he took it for a joyride.
Reagan was shaking as we walked through the airport. We had our new identifications and our new passports. Our tickets were under our new names, which meant we had to practice answering to them. Security was a breeze once we got our tickets but going through customs was a bit of a different story.
Reagan couldn’t keep her composure. She kept crying every time I turned around. And people were beginning to give me rough looks. While they kept passing us through with our identification, I knew people were beginning to worry that I was dragging Reagan along against her will.
And finally, someone approached us.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” the guard asked.
He gave me a rough look and I dropped my hand from her back.
“I’m sorry,” Reagan said with a sniffle. “I’m so tired of this nausea.”
She put her hand on her stomach and the guard automatically changed his tune.
“I think I’ve got some crackers and some juice I can get you. What gate are you guys headed to?” he asked.
“Four D,” I said. “How’s the weather in the air? Should I be concerned about turbulence today?”
“I’ll check on it and grab you something from the shop if there is,” the guard said. “Give me a second.”
He strode off and I drew in a deep breath.”
“I’m sorry,” Reagan said breathlessly. “I know I look like an idiot. I had that excuse rolling around in my head for most of the morning.”
“You were brilliant, my love,” I said as I kissed her head. “Absolutely brilliant.”
“This hurts so much. Sticking that letter in my parents’ mailbox… it was too much.”
“I know. But you know this is for the best.”
“I know it is. It’ll keep us safe.”
“And I promise you, Christmas next year will be spent at home. With your family. No matter what I have to do,” I said.
“Don’t push anything. Don’t rush it. If this is our new life now, I don’t want any hope for the one I had,” she said.
“I’ll have things figured out by then. I want my family to know our child. I want your family to know our child. I want to know your family, and I want our families to all know one another. Hopefully, this move will shock some sense into my father. At least show him I can’t be controlled.”
“I’m going to miss them.”
“Me too,” I said. “I’m going to miss them, too.”
“Ma’am?”
Reagan put on her best sick face as the guard came around to us.
“Here. I’ve got some crackers and some apple juice. I couldn’t find anything safe for a pregnant woman for nausea, but one of the women working the kiosks told me ginger candies helped her when she was pregnant.”
“Thank you so much. You’ve gone above and beyond,” she said.
“There is going to be some turbulence on the flight, but it’ll only be during the first hour of the trip. International trips are better equipped to handle nausea of all sorts tha
n intercontinental trips, so they should take care of you just fine.”
“Really. I can’t thank you enough,” she said.
I tucked a strand of hair behind Reagan’s ear as the guard said goodbye. I felt terrible that she fell into this kind of life. A life of lies and secrecy and danger and death. It was never my intention to drag such a beautiful woman, full of light and life and love, into something like this. But we would rebuild. If there was anything I was good at, it was rebuilding. I’d had to do it three times in my childhood and once in my adult years.
I knew we would be able to start again.
I looked down at our feet, my eyes falling to our luggage. Three carry-on bags between the two of us was what our life had been reduced to. Three bags that held the absolute necessities we would need until we got our feet planted in Dublin. In a country rich in history as well as food.
I was hoping to be able to get Reagan to see the good in Ireland instead of dwelling on the reason why we were there.
“Maddox?”
“Yes, Reagan?”
“Do you think the sunsets in Ireland are as beautiful as the ones in Washington?”
I threaded my arm around her and pulled her close as her head fell to my shoulder.
“I think they’ll be even more beautiful,” I said.
“Why do you think that?” she asked.
“Because I’ll be watching it with my two favorite girls.”
“Oh, so you think it’s a girl,” she said.
“I know it is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because only a woman knows how to make another woman strong. And you, my love, have been the strongest throughout this entire thing.”
Reagan turned her lips into my neck to kiss me and a shiver shot down my spine. There was a plane that landed in the distance and I watched as it began to taxi into the gate. I rubbed Reagan’s arm, feeling her breathing evening out against my skin as the plane nestled itself against the ramp.
The plane that would usher us into a new life.
And, hopefully, would eventually usher us back into our old one.
“Sweetheart?”
“Hmm?”
“They’re about to start boarding,” I said.
“The plane’s here?” Reagan asked.
“It is. And we’ll be the first ones called.”
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“Because we have first-class tickets.”
I watched Reagan shoot up off my shoulder as she dug around for her ticket. I grinned at her, watching her eyes whip around on the thick piece of paper between her fingers. She snickered and shook her head as a giggle fell from her lips. Then she turned to me and smiled with that smile I had fallen in love with the very first time I had seen her.
“You are a mess,” she said.
“I figured that would make our trip a little more comfortable,” I said.
“A little more? This is a first-class ticket on one of the best airlines to Europe”
“So… a lot more comfortable?”
The announcer came over the intercom and began to speak. She was discussing how our flight would board and the order in which we would board. I stood to my feet and picked up our bags, holding all of them with one hand.
Then, I offered my free hand to the mother of my child.
“Ready?” I asked.
“I guess I better be,” she said as she took my hand. “I have no other choice.”
I helped her up from her seat as her hand fell to her stomach. I pulled her into me and pressed our lips together, my hand falling to the small of her back. I massaged her. Felt her fall into me as our tongues tied together. The woman on the intercom was calling for first-class seating to start boarding, but I was too entranced by the woman against me.
I could lose myself in her anywhere.
“I promise you, we’ll build a wonderful life,” I said. “Full of all the choices you could ever want.”
“I know,” Reagan said. “I trust you.”
“Last call for first-class on flight 6914 to Dublin.”
I cupped her cheek and watched as a faint blush crept up to her skin.
“They’re calling for us,” I said.
“Then we better get on the plane.”
Epilogue Reagan
One Year Later
As I sat out on the balcony of our house, I overlooked the farm Maddox and I had invested in. It took all the money Parker had apparently stowed away in the walls of the place, but it was reaping us fantastic rewards. Our little farm became bigger and I had quickly learned the ins and outs of the business world in order to help Maddox shoulder some of the responsibility.
I would have never guessed that I could love owning a farm more than I did editing, but surprisingly I did.
It was a wonderful way to provide for our daughter.
“Hello there, beautiful.”
I felt Maddox place a kiss on my cheek before he sat down next to me.
“How’s the latest cheese?” he asked.
“It’s good. Needs to sit another few months probably, but the one I tried this morning is ready for production,” I said.
“That tongue of yours. It’s going to keep us in business.”
“My tongue can do a great deal of things,” I said with a wink. “How did Sienna go down?”
“Out like a light,” he said.
“Did she give you much trouble?”
“Nope. She’s my little princess. She never gives me any kind of trouble. Just like my queen.”
I blushed at his most recent nickname for me as his arm slipped around my waist.
Our arrival to Dublin had been less than ideal. We stepped off the plane with three bags that held our entire life. We took the cash and the identification Maddox had gotten for us and placed ourselves in a hotel for six weeks. We had gotten me set up with a doctor in the area who could coach us through my pregnancy, but the time had passed quickly.
For a while there, Maddox and I didn’t know if we were going to be able to survive in Ireland.
It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy it, but the culture was different. Luckily, we spoke the same language, but with our lack of accents we were easily spotted as foreigners. I got paranoid when people stared at us. It was hard to sleep at night in such an unfamiliar place. I kept dreaming about my parents. How terrified they must’ve been and how they still didn’t know about my pregnancy.
They didn’t even know they were grandparents.
“Did you ever think we’d be sitting here?” Maddox asked.
“When I recall all those nights I spent at the foot of that hotel bed crying? Never,” I said.
“I heard you one of those nights.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“There was a night I could remember waking up and not feeling you next to me, and it jerked me awake. I looked around the room and you weren’t there, and I automatically began to fear the worst. It wasn’t until I found you on the balcony that I stopped and listened to what you were saying.”
“I remember that night. It was the only night I was brave enough to step out of the hotel without you.”
“You kept talking to Sienna. Rubbing your stomach and telling her how sometimes it was okay to be scared. You said, ‘your father is a wonderful man, and he will make sure we’re okay.’.”
“You heard that?” I asked.
“I did. And I took it to heart. It was the night I decided to invest in the farm.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’d been looking into ways to make an honest living and this farm had been up for sale. The rough summer had almost bankrupted them because they hadn’t prepared for it, and they were willing to sell this place off for cheap. So, I bought it while they were vulnerable.”
I leaned into Maddox’s strong body as I gazed out over the crops down below.
We spent six weeks in that hotel before a small house had been prepared for us. And everywhere I turned around, Maddo
x was pulling wads of cash out of the strangest of places. The ducts and the vents. Hidden compartments in drawers and from holes in the walls behind pictures. It was the first time I knew things were going to be okay for us.
That we were going to make it just fine.
“When you told me, you had bought this place, I almost killed you myself,” I said.
“I know. I could see it in your eyes. It took selling off all my precious commodities I brought with me as well as half of the money stowed away in the house.”
“I thought you’d lost it. Neither of us knew what to do with a farm or how to grow anything. It wasn’t until you showed me the crops and animals the owners had abandoned that I realized your plan.”
“And you were a quick learner. Picking up on things I didn’t even catch onto,” Maddox said.
“I was so excited to bring Sienna back here. To make this place her home.”
“And our wedding. This place was the perfect place to have it. To commemorate our fresh start with our new business and our new baby and our new beginning,” he said.
Sienna’s birth went off without a hitch. I was showering when my water broke and Maddox had rushed me to the hospital. I was in labor for eleven hours and pushed for only two.
But the greatest surprise was when my father and mother walked into the hospital room.
I was holding Sienna to my breast, feeding her as the nurses helped me clean up. I was looking down into her beautiful eyes and gazing at the thick head of hair she had inherited from Maddox. I heard the door to my left open and I lifted my tired eyes, and there was my father. Rushing to my side and kissing my forehead as my mother took my hand.
Tears of happiness rolled down my cheeks that day. As Sienna ate her first meal from my breast, I rejoiced with my parents. Maddox was standing off in the corner, ready to take our daughter the moment she was done eating with me.
I had pulled my parents close while Maddox spent some time with his newborn daughter.
Baby and the Biker: The Ghost Riders MC Page 15
