Yet he didn’t stop, or even slow.
He only pounded hard into me until I was once again screaming his name.
Luckily, he’d thought ahead and covered my mouth much the same way I’d done to him earlier.
Instead of the ear-piercing scream that wanted to escape, a muffled cry of exaltation sounded.
Cries that turned to whimpers when his hand finally fell free of my mouth.
He growled seconds later, then started to grunt as I felt his dick twitch inside of me.
Sharp jerks were quickly followed by the bathing of my womb with his semen.
In the minutes leading up to this, we hadn’t even stopped to think about being safe.
I wasn’t on birth control.
Never had a need to since when I was or wasn’t, my periods were the same.
And since I didn’t have sex, I honestly saw no reason to waste money and time on a product when I didn’t have to.
So needless to say, I wasn’t protected from a baby.
But I knew that Louis didn’t have any of those other things most people had to worry about. Louis would never put me in danger like that.
Not ever.
When his hips started to move in lazy twists instead of hard thrusts, I finally allowed my fingernails to unclench from his back, then dropped limply to the bed as I panted up at the ceiling.
“I don’t… what was that?”
He started to chuckle, his hands moving up and down the length of my sides before finally pushing up and staring at me with his big, beautiful eyes.
“That was what it was always supposed to be,” he said gruffly. “Something that only we could ever do together. So don’t get any ideas.”
I rolled my eyes and then ran my hand down his chest, settling it over his heart that was still beating wildly.
“The only ideas that I have right now are the ones that sound like doing that all over again just to see if it was a fluke,” I told him honestly.
He snorted and pulled me off of the bed with him.
“Let’s go shower,” he said.
I shivered at his show of strength. He’d just picked me up and moved me without even disengaging from me. He carried me around as if I was a doll and not a woman that weighed more than he was letting on.
Hours later, after the storm both outside and inside of us had waned, I lay with my head on Louis’ chest and his arm around my shoulders.
My body was practically on top of his as he slowly trailed his fingers up and down the length of my back—lightly, with just the right amount of pressure. God, I’d missed this, too. The way he scratched my back.
“I want to try again.”
Hearing his rumbled words, I yawned and said, “I can’t do it again. My legs are jelly. My vagina needs time to…”
“Not talking about sex,” he said. “Though, when your vagina is feeling better, I’ll be taking advantage of it just the same. I’m talking about us. I want to try again.”
I felt my heart speed up and lodge itself in my throat.
“I…” I didn’t finish my sentence because he interrupted me.
“I want to prove to you that we could work,” he said. “I know we could work. I’ve known it since we were kids.”
I didn’t say anything to that, causing him to continue.
“I won’t give up on you,” he said. “I’ll stick it out this time. I’m man enough now.”
I blew out a shaky breath in order to stop myself from crying.
I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with being ‘man enough.’
But I found myself wanting to say yes.
So… I did.
“Okay.”
He stiffened. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He rolled over until his face was directly in front of mine, then without another word, he dropped his mouth down onto mine with a kiss that stole my breath. “You won’t regret it.”
I had a feeling that I would.
But the thing was, I also had a feeling I would regret it if I didn’t.
One way Louis came back into my life. The other, he stayed away.
There really was only one option for me.
Saying yes to anything that Louis wanted, and hoping that when he came to his senses, he didn’t break my heart in the process.
And I had a feeling that Louis wouldn’t even know that he was doing it when he did.
Chapter 7
Uncircumcised? Hey, at least you have one hoodie that she can’t steal.
-Calloway’s secret thoughts
Calloway
“So wait… you two did it?” Ares asked in surprise. “In the car?”
“Well, not exactly,” I said. “There was a hotel. We did it there.”
She shook her head. “You did it at a hotel. Your car broke down, you couldn’t fix it because it was storming, nobody was answering to come get you, so you decided that having sex—that Louis taking your virginity—was the best course of action in that situation.”
The way she made it sound was bad, I admitted.
“I didn’t actually say, ‘hey Louis, we should fuck.’ It just happened. He grabbed hold of my jeans, and then all of the buttons came undone when I went to step away, and then he got all growlly, and his eyes were all excited and shit, and I just… broke. I’m weak!”
Ares started to laugh. “The SWAT boys have something about them, that’s for sure.”
She wasn’t lying.
There was something about the men of SWAT—their overprotective instincts, their extreme hotness, paired with their overall sense of danger—that just made them so appealing to everyone.
Hell, right now, Louis was sitting at the bar. That’s all he was doing—sitting.
He had his arms leaning on top of the bar, crossed over each other, his hands grabbing opposite elbows. He had his large feet propped up on the rim of the bar stool, and he was turned slightly in his chair, talking to Hayes about something that was making Hayes laugh.
His hair was shining slightly red thanks to the neon bar sign that said ‘open’ right above his head.
Needless to say, he wasn’t really doing anything overtly sexy, but he didn’t have to. He was sexy just sitting there doing nothing.
Which was the thing—I wasn’t that type of person. I wasn’t sexy in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I had to work at it, and even then, I wasn’t a classic beauty like Ares. Or a glowing beauty like Ashe, Ford’s wife, that was walking toward us.
I had to work at it.
“So he talked you into being his girlfriend?” Ares said. “This wasn’t a one-time thing?”
I shook my head.
That was when she started to laugh.
“I always knew that y’all were going to get back together.” Ares snickered. “Dammit, I lost the bet! You were supposed to hold out longer!”
I tilted my head in confusion. “What?”
“All the SWAT kids had a bet going on how long that it would take y’all to get back together. After I got with Hayes, we made the bet. And you were supposed to hold out for another year,” Ares explained.
I narrowed my eyes. “You bet on Louis and me?”
She shrugged. “Honey, anyone could see that it was only a matter of time. He does those googly eyes every time he sees you. And you talk about him like he doesn’t matter, but we all know he does. A lot. You’re his one and he’s yours.”
I felt something in the vicinity of my heart lurch.
“It’s really soon…” I hesitated.
I didn’t even want to contemplate it. What if I allowed myself to think good thoughts, and bad things happened?
No, it was better not to even think about it just yet. It was still very early in our relationship. Bad things definitely had a way of sneaking up on you, that was for sure.
“Oh, this is grand.” She snickered.
“What is?”
I looked
up to see Ashe making her way toward us. With her was Rowen, Dax’s wife. Avery, Derek’s fiancée, was just behind the two of them.
With our men—damn, it still felt weird to call Louis my anything—having a SWAT meeting here, we’d decided to tag along. Only, we’d gotten our own table across the room from them so we could talk.
Well, Ares had. I’d gone along with it because I knew it would be easier to have this conversation without all the prying eyes of the men there, too.
“This new challenge,” Ares said as she showed us her phone after they were all seated. “It says to ‘text your man this and post his response.’”
The challenge read: Text your man ‘I want a baby’ and post his response.
I grinned. “Do it with Dax.”
“I’m fairly sure that Dax would look at me like I was a dumbass.” Rowen patted her already pregnant belly.
“Do it anyway,” Ares ordered. “We all will. Then we’ll get a good laugh at their responses.”
Everyone picked up their phone but me, which caught their attention.
“No, girl,” Rowen said. “You’re doing this. Get to it.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. No.”
And I was still trying to not think about how many times we’d had unprotected sex four days ago.
There may already be a baby.
But before those thoughts could truly take root, Ares reached over and snatched my phone out of my hands.
When I went to grab it from her, she held me off by diving underneath the table.
I cursed and looked at her, staring at her as she typed away on my phone.
“I should’ve never added you into my phone as an authorized user,” I muttered darkly.
“I added you into mine,” she said. “It was only fair.”
That was true.
“So it just has to say ‘I want a baby?’” Avery asked as she scooted closer to the table.
I looked at her with a grin.
“Yes.” I paused. “Are you even allowed to be in a bar?”
Avery rolled her eyes. “I can be in a bar. I just can’t drink.”
Avery was definitely not twenty-one. Even though she acted like it.
“Sent,” Avery said as she placed her phone onto the middle of the table.
“Mine, too,” Ashe said as she did the same with her phone.
“Mine and Calloway’s done.” Ares plopped our phone onto the table, too.
“Dax’s gonna shit himself.” Rowen snorted.
Before I could say anything to her response, the little blue bubbles on my screen started to dance, indicating that Louis had read and was answering my text message.
I froze, my eyes flicking from Louis’ to the phone and back.
“You know, I would’ve expected an immediate no from him. But it’s like he’s writing a novel in reply,” Ares mused.
“He doesn’t even look all that tense,” Rowen surmised. “In fact, he looks relaxed.”
Still, the dots kept rolling.
I bit my lip and leaned forward, waiting for his response.
I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous to see what he said, but I was.
Plus, I really wasn’t quite sure what he’d say, and all of the ladies at the table were leaning forward, ready to read the message just like I was.
Then Avery started to giggle. “Derek said that I was a nutjob. And to lay off any more alcohol.”
We all snorted.
But Derek was technically correct. Avery was taking care of her baby sister. A baby that really was just a baby. I could see how Derek wouldn’t want any more right now.
“Dax says that maybe after this one is born, we can discuss it.” Rowen rolled her eyes. “Boring.”
“Oh, gosh.” Ares snickered as she leaned forward upon seeing her message light up the screen.
He says, “Is it bad that I want to take care of this right now?”
I snickered just as Ashe started to giggle. “Ford says if it’s possible to knock me up twice, he’s more than willing to try.”
We all looked at Ashe in surprise. “Um, what?”
Ashe grinned widely. “Surprise.”
And still, the little dots were circulating.
“I almost want to get up and read over his shoulder at this point,” Ares murmured as she pulled her phone toward herself and started to type away.
I reached forward to grab my phone, but Ares slapped my hand. “No. We all want to read it.”
Just as I was pulling my hand back to my lap, Louis finally sent the message he’d been typing.
Except, it was only one word.
Yes.
I blinked in confusion.
“That’s it?” Ares asked as she looked at it. “Just ‘yes?’”
Ares pulled the phone closer to her just as Ford’s shout of laughter had us all turning toward the group of men that we’d been watching since we’d sent our messages.
“Oh, boy,” Ashe snickered. “Ford’s showing everyone his phone. We’re busted.”
I watched Louis as his face fell a little bit.
But he covered it fast and well, which made me wonder if I’d seen what I saw at all.
Just as I was about to get up, Ares handed me back my phone.
It had a text sent from her pretending to be me: When and where?
He read it, then shoved his phone into his pocket, not bothering to even look back at me.
If I didn’t know better, I would think he was pissed.
Pissed that I didn’t actually want to have his kid.
What in the hell?
“That was fun,” Ashe yawned loudly. “Jesus, I’m tired.”
“Me, too,” I mumbled, following her yawn with one of my own.
Ashe sent me a sympathetic grin. “We could just get into that booth right there and take a nap.”
Her suggestion had merit. But I knew if I rested my eyes, I would be sleeping and not for just a nap but for the night.
Today had been a very long day.
Romeo had come back to my office not once, not twice, but three times over the course of the day, and I was honestly on edge from having to deal with him.
Going out tonight really was the very last thing that I wanted to do, but Louis had given me these big doe eyes, and I’d been unable to tell him no.
Which was how I ended up here, instead of lounging on the couch.
The doors to the bar opened and closed hard, and I looked up just in time to see a rowdy bunch of men walk through the door.
Every single one of our guys at the bar turned their attention to them.
“Oh, boy,” Ashe said as she saw the same thing I did. “That doesn’t look like it’s going to turn out well.”
No, no it did not.
It looked as if it was going to get really ugly, really fast.
Especially when the rowdy men went up to the bar and realized that there wasn’t a single seat to take.
Louis turned slightly on his chair, opening up his legs and dropping one foot onto the ground.
He didn’t outwardly show that he was tense and ready other than that one thing, but I knew with just looking at him that he was expecting trouble.
“How much do you want to bet that one of those drunks throws a punch?” Rowen asked as she took a sip of water that she’d brought with her.
“How much do you want to bet that our guys wipe the floor with them and have them in the back of cop cars in about half a minute?” Ashe countered.
Now that I could see happening, too.
If they had their cop cars. They’d all driven their personal vehicles over here since we were all going to a bar, and it probably wouldn’t look good for the police department to have cops that’d been drinking getting behind the wheel of a police cruiser.
“We should probably just stay back here,” I said as I saw the men move in. “Do you think they know that they’re cops?”
None of them were wearing uniforms. In fact, they were all in head to toe black and white. Not one of them was wearing a shirt that wasn’t either black or white. They were in jeans of all different shades. All were wearing boots. But really, there was no distinguishing them from any other guys at the bar.
“Malachi has his KPD SWAT hat on, but it’s backward. And he turned around and faced the room the moment that those guys walked in,” Ashe said as she sucked hard on her glass of water. Where did they keep getting drinks? I hadn’t seen the waitress come over once! “Oh, boy. Dax keeps looking over here as if he’s making sure you’re staying put.”
I snorted as I gave him a thumb’s up.
Dax’s eye came to me, as if he was trusting me to keep her there, and then he nodded.
“He doesn’t trust me.” Rowen laughed. “Like I would do anything to endanger this baby.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, I don’t really know you all that well. I mean, we know each other now, but even I can tell you that you’re exactly how you used to be when you were younger the few times that I can remember seeing you. If you thought Dax was in trouble, you’d have your ass in the middle of that.”
Rowen sighed. “You’re right. But at this point, it would just be dangerous for me. I’m so top heavy.”
Before I could reply to that, there was a loud crack as Booth was yanked off the stool he was occupying. The stool went flying and banged against the nearest table.
Booth, however, allowed it to happen.
Mostly because at the same time that the man was distracted by holding onto Booth, Bourne swung around with a right hook and took the man out in one swift punch. The man holding onto Booth fell down to the ground hard, and seconds later he was out cold lying in the middle of a dirty bar floor.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
The bar exploded in activity.
People came out of the shadows, all headed to the front to either enter the fight or see the fight more clearly.
That’s when I saw the problem.
After seeing enough of the fights go down at the school, I knew that the fight wasn’t going to just stay in the front of the bar. It was inevitably going to come farther back into the bar, eventually taking up the entire bar.
“We should go,” I said as I got off my stool. “I saw a spot in the back that we could leave through.”
May Contain Wine Page 10
