by Naomi West
I winced a little. “I'm president of my motorcycle club,” I told her, judiciously leaving out which motorcycle club that was in case the Devil's Route had been mentioned on TV. I hadn't been following the news stories because the more I could distance myself from all of that, the better. “But as president, I decide what we're involved in. And yes, there is some ... illegal stuff that goes on. But a lot of the killings that you see and things like that are just a form of vigilante justice. I can guarantee you that those people who were killed on the highway had done things that they weren't proud of.”
“And you agree with vigilante justice?” George asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
I shook my head because that was definitely not a subject that I really wanted to talk about with them. “That's not what I'm saying,” I told him, trying to figure out how to word this. “Look, Halley isn't going to be involved in all of that. And Cole certainly isn't going to be involved in all of that.”
“But if you're involved in it, how can they not be?” Linda asked. “What happens if one day you're just out for a ride on the highway and she gets a call that you're not coming home except in a bodybag?”
“Mom!” Halley said, but I think we both knew that with the events that had been happening recently, that hit a little too close to home.
“Ma'am, I can't promise that something like that isn't going to happen,” I admitted. “There are risks to being in a motorcycle club, sure. One of the benefits of my being president is that I won't be out there on raids with them. And most of the things that we do are pretty tame, things that the authorities know about but turn a blind eye on. They're regulated by the cops, of course, all of the drug trades and weapons dealings and everything else. It's not like we're just selling things to whoever we want. They're ... well, quasi-legal, I suppose.”
“And you're okay with this?” Linda asked Halley, giving her a disapproving look.
Halley twisted her fingers in mine. “Mom, I don't want to say this is my first choice. But it's a hell of a lot better than what I had with Brian. Jake's a good guy, and he'd do anything to save me. You have to know that. You have to see that about him.”
Linda stared at her daughter for a long moment. “I just have to wonder if maybe you're selling yourself short. I don't know if you think you won't get anything better since you have a seven-year-old son or if you actually think that you don't deserve better, but—”
“Mom, I don't deserve better than Jake,” Halley said firmly. “He's one of the best guys I've ever met. He takes care of me, and he'll take care of Cole. I firmly believe that.”
“Anyway,” I said quietly, staring at Linda. “There are other ways that someone might die. Even if I weren't involved in a motorcycle club, it's entirely possible that one day Halley would get the call that I wasn't coming home. If I were a soldier, would you be giving her this same lecture? Would you be telling me to stay away from your son?”
“If you were a soldier, we wouldn't have to worry about you ending up in jail!” George snapped.
I sighed. “Look, I don't know what you want me to say here, but I want to marry your daughter, and I'm not going to give up everything I am in the process. She accepts me, and Cole is … well, Cole is a sweet little kid who probably loves everyone who gives him coloring books.” I at least got a couple smiles with that one. “I'm going to do everything in my power to keep coming home to Halley and Cole every single night for the rest of my life. Because they're my family, just as much as my biker brothers are.”
There was silence in the room.
“I still don't like it,” Linda said.
“Neither do I,” George said slowly. “But at the same time … Linda, Halley is twenty-six years old, and she's been doing a damn good job raising her son for the past seven years. I don't think she'd be doing this if she didn't think it was the right thing for Cole.”
Halley smiled a little. “Thanks, Dad,” she said.
“I'm not done yet,” George said. He fixed a serious look on her. “You may think that because you're a biker dude that my threats don't really mean anything, but I also will do anything for my family. If I hear you ever treated Halley like her ex-husband did, you can rest assured—”
“I will never do anything like that to her,” I swore.
George shrugged a little. “Then I guess we have no issue.” He stood up and held out his hand to his wife, and although it looked like Linda still had more that she wanted to say, the two of them retreated upstairs.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Halley
Once they were out of the room, I looked at Jake, my eyes wide. “That was incredible!” I said. “I didn't know you could charm them so easily!”
“I didn't either,” Jake said, blinking after them. He shook his head, thinking back over it all.
Personally, I kind of had the feeling that Dad had had his mind made up even before we'd all sat down to talk after dinner though. Maybe it was the coloring book, or Jake's helping Cole cut up his pasta at dinner. Or maybe it was the way Jake had been able to make me laugh a few times during the meal. Whatever it was … well...
Jake smiled over at me. “They weren't half as bad as you made them out to be,” he joked.
I laughed. “They're not bad, they're just protective. Especially since I had to come to them at eighteen and tell them that, oh by the way, I was pregnant with some biker dude's child.” I looked away, biting my lower lip a little. “So is that whole...” I broke off, looking uncertain and positively gnawing at my lip now, hard enough to break the skin.
Jake reached over and caught my lip, rubbing it gently with his thumb. “Don't do that,” he told me gently. “What is it?”
“Did you still want to get engaged for real?” I asked, the words leaving me in a rush. “I mean, I don't want to tell my parents just yet or tell Cole yet or anything like that; I don't think they're quite ready for that, even if they're starting to warm up to you. But I just...”
Jake smiled gently at me and patted his pocket. “I've still got the ring right here,” he told me. “And whenever you think you're ready for it, you just let me know.”
“Okay,” I said. I breathed a sigh of relief, smiling a little. “Okay.” Then, I grinned slyly at him. “We never did make it to my bed the other day,” I reminded him.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “No, we didn't,” he agreed.
“My parents sleep at the other end of the house from me,” I continued.
“Okay,” he said, making me work for it.
I laughed and punched him lightly on the arm. “Don't be obtuse!” I cried. When he still just sat there staring at me, I stood up, tugging him up with me. “If it helps speed you along, I'm not wearing any panties,” I said quietly.
And that got him going. He growled like an animal at that and scooped me up into his arms. I giggled a little and wrapped my legs around his waist, bending down to kiss him until I could feel his bulge was rock-hard there beneath me, straining at his slacks. “If you keep going like that, we're not going to make it upstairs,” he warned me.
I giggled again but shook my head. “Jake! My parents are in the house!” I reminded him.
Jake groaned and ducked his head against my collarbone. “Do you have to remind me of that?” he asked me. “Jesus, way to kill the mood.”
“I just mean, take me upstairs and you can have your way with me in the privacy of my room,” I said. “Whatever you want to do with me.” Of course, I had some ideas for things I'd like him to do to me, but…
He shook his head, but he obediently carried me up the stairs and along the hallway, following my hushed directions until we came to my room. He hardly spared a glance for the furnishings, just focused on locking the door behind us so that Cole — or worse, my parents — didn't come barging in on us.
When he turned back around, I was already stripped down to nothing, eyeing him with a crooked grin. “Well?” I asked cheekily. “You have some catching up to—” I broke off with a gasp as h
e practically tackled me back against the bed. “Jake!” I cried, giggling. I tugged at his shirt, trying unsuccessfully to get him naked as he pinned me there, kissing me with an all-consuming passion the surprised both of us, I think.
Our tongues battled against one another, and I wondered for a moment whether we were fighting or coming together in perfect union. I had never felt anything like this before, and as good physically as our love-making had been the other day in the shower, this was … well...
This was us coming together, totally and completely, perfectly complementing one another. I practically melted back against the sheets. How perfect would it be, to have amazing sex like this for the rest of my life, with a man who really supported me, who was damnably sexy, and who was the father of my kid on top of that? It felt like I was just a little too lucky, but sometimes things happened that way.
I finally managed to get Jake's shirt off him, but his pants were still there between us. Although I initially wanted to complain at the extra layers between us, hampering our contact, I swallowed back that protest as he rocked against me, dragging the silky fabric of his slacks along the velveteen folds between my legs. He caressed my body, his hands sending searing bolts of pleasure straight to my core. He cupped my breasts, rolling them in his hands and brushing his fingertips across the sensitive skin there. Then, he used his tongue to trace a line from my neck all the way down to my navel.
I could feel him glide his fingers down the same path, treading the line between tickling me and turning me on even more. His fingers didn't stop at my navel, though, but dipped even lower, coming up between my legs and gliding straight into my crevice. They explored the moisture there, slithering through my pools and playing with my arousal.
“Jake,” I groaned, trying to keep it down because even though I knew there was no way my parents or Cole could hear us, I still had some sense of propriety.
He grinned up at me, nuzzling against my hip, still working his fingers. They curled inside of me, skimming deeper and deeper, preparing me for his fullness.
When he pulled away from me, I couldn't help whining at the loss of contact, which only made him grin more widely. “Patience,” he told me, as though he weren't the model of impatience himself at the moment, with his erection still straining against his slacks, looking as though it might burst through at any point.
He slipped off the bed for a moment, causing the bed to dip. He made quick work of removing the remainder of his clothing, and I eyed his muscular form, shaking my head. “I swear, you get more fit each time I sleep with you,” I said stupidly.
He snorted. “Probably not true, but I'm glad you think so,” he said.
He crawled back across the bed and bore down on me, positioning himself so that his rod was pressed to my entrance. There, he paused, though, looking seriously at me, and I groaned, wriggling against the sheets in an attempt to get him inside of me. But he grabbed my hips, holding me still.
“Halley. Halley, wait,” he said, and there was something in his tone that made me stop and actually listen to him for a moment.
“What's wrong?” I asked him. Was he still thinking about my parents? Was he thinking that this wouldn't work? That he didn't actually want this?
“Nothing's wrong,” Jake said, though, shaking his head. “Just ... I love you, Halley. I just wanted to say that, before we got too caught up in all of this. I love you.”
I blinked up at him and then smiled, relaxing back against the sheets. “Oh Jake,” I said, shaking my head in amusement. “I love you too, you goof. Now take me, please.”
Jake plunged into me without further ado, sinking deep inside of my warmth. He penetrated to my very core, delving deep and filling me up in every sense of the word. We surged together, our movements sure and steady against one another's, as though we'd been doing this for years. There was none of the awkwardness that comes when you first start sleeping with someone new. There was none of the nervousness or the anxiety. It was just the two of us, coming together, working towards mutual satisfaction.
He brushed feather-light touches along my body, and I responded by circling his body with my arms, dragging my fingernails down his back, excited by the goosebumps that erupted across his skin as I did that. My core was practically aching with desire, tingling with my need.
When Jake gyrated his hips, I cried out a little louder than I would have liked to, and I blushed with embarrassment. “I thought you hinted that your parents wouldn't hear,” he said, his breath tickling my ear as he leaned in close, his voice low.
I mewled as he continued to repeat the action, and I struggled to find the words to respond to him with. It was difficult, though, when he was basically turning my brain into mush. God, it just felt so good.
“You like that, hmm?” he asked, grinning at me. Then, he changed the pace again, lingering a little as he pulled out before he speared back into me.
And it was that pace, that forceful movement over me, that had me coming hard enough that I could practically see stars. I gasped, clinging to him, twisting my face to the side against the pillow but not really feeling that it was there. It was all so much, so incredibly much. And to feel him coming at the same time as me, his hips stuttering as well, his seed spilling deep inside of me, as I continued to feel the little aftershocks and prickles of pleasure darting across my skin…
I fell utterly slack against the sheets and wasn't surprised when he collapsed down against me, a comforting weight. In a minute or two, it would get to be too much and we would peel apart, sticky and sweaty and already starting to feel gross. But for not, I held on to him, and he traced light touches along my curves, and I couldn't help smiling there in the darkness.
“I love you,” I told him softly, the words hanging there in the air.
“I love you too,” he murmured in response, sounding just as fucked-out as I did.
I relaxed even further at those words, feeling sleep already beginning to claim me.
Epilogue
Cole was the first one out of the car when we pulled up in front of the house, darting out onto the lawn already. Not far behind him was Maverick, the black lab-slash-German shepherd that Bryce had given him for his eighth birthday a couple months before. The dog ran yipping around the yard, and Cole ran right around with him.
I got out of the car, laughing at their antics, and smiled over at Jake. “Well, here we are,” I said quietly.
“Here we are,” he agreed.
It was strange to think that after less than a year of really knowing him, we were already moving into our own house together. But then again, we'd been “engaged” practically since I'd come back into his life. And we'd been officially engaged for about three months now, ever since my parents had finally thawed a little about our relationship. Of course, that thawing had been helped along by…
“Here, let me get that,” Jake said, pulling the suitcase away before I could get to it. “I don't want you carrying anything heavy in your state.”
I rolled my eyes a little, although secretly I was pleased by the way he had been treating me. “Jake, I'm pregnant, not decrepit. I'm not even showing yet. I think I can carry a suitcase!”
“Come on, you can help me with … well, you can tell me where all the boxes go, how about that?” he asked. He grinned at me. “The sooner we get all of these things put away in the right rooms, the sooner we can…” He trailed off, wagging his eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed, shaking my head.
“We've already got the one kid and another on the way,” I reminded him.
“All the more reason to do things now, before the other one gets here!” he said. “I know what it's like to live in a place where there are screaming babies around. Everyone is always exhausted, and they probably aren't going to do sexy things in bed...”
I snorted. “All right, all right, you've convinced me. Let's get these things inside.”
Cole ran over, Maverick hot on his heels. “Can I help?” he asked, ever the polite gentleman.
“Sure, buddy,” Jake said. “Here, can you get this box or is it too heavy.”
“It's really light!” Cole said, beaming up at his dad.
I had thought the kid would be a bit more fazed to learn that Jake was actually his real dad and that we were going to be moving, but apparently with all the weird things on TV these days, they covered all of that kind of stuff. I thought back to the conversation that we'd had…
Cole was sitting in the living room, doing his homework with the TV on in the background. I didn't usually let him have the TV on, but there was football game on that Jake was watching when he wasn't on the phone — which seemed to be happening a lot that day, but I no longer really let it bother me, and I didn't try to listen in.
When Jake got off the phone and halftime started, we muted the TV and sat down next to Cole, one of us on either side of him. Cole immediately looked suspicious. “I don't know what you think I did, but I didn't do it ... probably,” he announced.
