by Naomi West
“I think you’ve always wanted family … I mean, you were always really passionate when you were talking about your aunt and uncle? And it’s been so long since you’ve had something like that, you know.”
I lean against him, pressing my lips to his shoulder lightly. “Booster … would it be so bad … raising this baby outside of the MC?”
It’s been something that I’ve toyed around with, honestly, before this. This incident definitely compounded that into my brain, though. Was it something that I wanted to bring a child into the world in? Was it something that I wanted my child around, actively?
No.
Knowing that Booster has had his doubts reassures me that at least I’m not alone in this.
“I don’t think I want to—no. No, I know I don’t want to,” he says finally. “I don’t know if I ever did. Maybe I was using wanting a kid as an heir for an excuse to start on something that would take me out of the MC … I don’t know.” Booster looks down at me. “Does it make you think any less of me?”
I shake my head.
“Booster … If there’s anything that’s going to make me think less of you, it’s definitely not going to involve you doing something for a family.” I smile up at him. “So … now that we’ve got that established … What’s next?”
He thinks for a moment, and grins down at me.
“I have one last loose end to tie.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Booster
I drop Lena off at her house, telling her that I’ll come back as soon as I can make it. I’ve got my choices and my mind made up—now all I have to do is execute this plan flawlessly.
And, I know that I will. I’m Booster Wylde, after all, and I’m nothing if not in control of my life.
I think about my conversation with Lena and what it’s going to bring. A lot of damn change, that’s for sure. Moving away from the MC … I’m going to have to pick up some kind of clean job. It’s going to be strange, but I have enough money from the businesses that are tied up with the MC that it won’t have us hurting while I do so. I could probably get away with not working at all for a while.
I laugh. I do that, though, I’ll end up getting bored.
Despite what I’m about to do, I arrive at the club in a pretty decent mood. I pull up to the front. There are a few of the Wylde Ones out front, and they look at me, a little surprised. I had told them that I would be out all day; I don’t think that they suspected that I would be back so soon. In all honesty, I hadn’t thought that I would be, either. I thought that I would need to fight with Lena, make her believe me.
I should have known that I would be able to trust her and her faith in me.
I walk up to the front, nodding to the boys that are there.
“Get everyone together. I have something important that I need to say to everyone.”
Apprehension crackles through the clubhouse. People are roused from pool games and booze, a small handful tugged away from getting their dicks wet in some club girl pussy. Pixie and Happy are the last ones to join us; I can tell that they were getting up to much the same, and Happy’s not too happy about being disturbed.
Oh well. He’ll have to get over it, because what I have to say is more important than him getting a good fuck in.
“Well, now that everyone is here,” I say, loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “There’s a few things we need to talk about. Over the last few months, some of you might have noticed some big changes around here. I’ve been doing more stuff behind the scenes, doing less out with the club. That’s something that happens. Sometimes you get wrapped up in work and you start to pull away from people that you called family.
“But it’s more than that,” I go on. “It’s more than that … and I think it always has been. The less I was around, the more shit started to happen. The more faith I put in certain people to help run this shindig, the more things kept getting fucked up from negligence. It’s partly my fault, I know. If I’m being honest with you guys, I haven’t been interested in this club in a long, long time.”
There’s a murmur that goes through the crowd, and I let that little nugget sink in before I go on.
“It’s not any one person’s fault. This is just how things are. And it’s for this reason that I’m stepping down as president—”
There, I get the real uproar.
It ripples through the club like a thunderstorm. I see that they weren’t expecting that. Maybe me telling them things needed to change, that something needed to happen to turn the club around, but this is a bomb that they never expected to be dropped. I let them have their moments, yelling this and that about Booster no, and Booster why, before I hold my hands up.
“I have a baby on the way, and someone special to me that I’ve found is more important and worth more time and investment than salvaging an MC. Which brings me to my next order of business. Happy. Come here.”
I look over to Happy, and so does everyone else. Despite the fact that I know this is what Happy’s wanted, he doesn’t look like he trusts anything that I’m about to do—and he shouldn’t. I wait until Happy is standing near me before I start speaking again.
“Happy here has been beside me … faithfully … for a long time. As my VP, it’s always been him who’s helped run this place. So much so that he’s taken it upon himself to actively try and oust me from my position behind mine and your backs. If you want to know why I had no knowledge of the raid you guys did on the high school, why I was so heavily drugged after, just ask him. He can be your new president … or he can not. But I figured you all should know who the ‘leader’ you would be leaning on would be like.”
That information is the real kicker. That was something else that I pieced together over my days of recovering after the raid—everyone thought that it was my idea, not Happy’s. They thought that they were acting on my orders, not Happy’s. I decided to keep that information to myself, until now.
All eyes turn on Happy. He pales.
“B-booster, come on now, don’t go joking like that—”
“Did I sound like I was joking?” I shrug. “Anyway, it’s not my problem anymore. You all can do with what you want with that information. I’ll clean out my shit this week; I hope most of you make the best of this.”
A few of them try to get me to stay. They ask me not to do this, tell me that the MC needs a man like me—but it really, truly, doesn’t. An MC needs a man that has his heart invested in it, and my heart is somewhere else.
It doesn’t take me long to ride to Lena’s place. I’ve spent as much time today in the company of Happy and the Wylde Ones (upon thinking about it, I hope they decide to rebrand themselves. Maybe Happy’s Boys?) I laugh at the thought.
I pull up to Lena’s house, parking the bike. I make it halfway up the porch when Lena’s door opens up to her, standing in her doorway. She’s changed into some more comfortable clothing; something baggy. I realize that they’re maternity clothes. She’s already started buying.
For some reason, that makes me grin. I scoop her up into my arms and kiss her deeply, moaning against her lips as I do.
“I take it everything went well,” she murmurs against my mouth. I chuckle.
“Better than well.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
Lena
Life is pleasantly, wonderfully, busy.
After Booster left the Wylde Ones, we decided that a move was in order. We’d both spent so much of our lives stagnant, stuck in the same place, that it was obvious to the both of us that what we really wanted was a hefty bit of change. We moved from Milwaukee to New Jersey—the first of several big changes.
I decided that I want to go back to school. I liked teaching high school, and I love children, but with one of my own on the way, I was growing out of the idea of watching other people’s children day in and out. I wanted to start teaching at a higher level—the college level.
Booster supported this idea wholeheartedly, and between my s
tellar credit and Booster’s savings helping me along, I was able to pay for college with so few loans that I might as well be going for free.
Now I have classes in the morning, and I’ve started writing in the evening. A love story like mine is something for the romance shelves, after all, and I’m already looking into publishers willing to sell my story.
Booster didn’t go back to MC life—now he’s immersed himself in the world of bikes, opening up his own body shop in the city. He has enough starting capital that it doesn’t put us into the hole, and business booms surprisingly well. Especially when he extends the business to working on full automobiles, too.
And then … then there’s our darling little daughter.
She stays with Booster while I’m at classes. I think it’s hilarious—he talked too much through my pregnancy about how he was going to have a boy to show the ropes, just like his uncle did. We didn’t find out Hannah’s gender until she was born. The look on Booster’s face was hilarious.
His surprise only lasted all of five minutes. He’s bought her so many car toys and little toy motorcycles and reads to her at night out of motorcycle magazines, that he may not have a boy, but he’s definitely living out his fantasy of having a child that takes after him. Not that I mind, too much.
It’s picture perfect …
There’s just one more thing I want.
***
It’s a late night of studying for me. Booster’s down in the garage, working on one of the bikes that had been brought in earlier that day. We have one of those buildings with the shop and office on the bottom, and all the living space in the top two floors. It makes things easy; we don’t have to commute back and forth a lot, but it does make Booster’s late night a small bane for little Hannah.
She’s fussy, and I’m working on a paper. Or at least I would, if Booster’s tools weren’t making way too much noise than they should. It makes me a little cranky, too. Booster’s been putting so much work into the shop lately, it’s been hard getting a break myself for my own things. I don’t want to begrudge him his time, but it’s hard.
I guess this is what couple life is like. I almost think married, but we aren’t that yet.
Admittedly, the stray thought sours my mood even more, and with Hannah in my arms, I make my way down the stairs, and into the shop. Booster’s hunched over, doing some kind of maintenance. I don’t know a lot about how all of this works, and I’m all right with that. Booster knows what he’s doing, but I wish he didn’t do it close to twelve at night.
“Booster,” I say. He doesn’t answer me, because he can’t hear me, nor the little whimpers that Hannah gives. “Booster!” I shout a little louder, and this time he hears me. He looks over his shoulder, grinning.
“Yes?”
“Don’t you think it’s a little late?”
“Oh, I was just finishing up.”
“You said that two hours ago.”
“Oh yeah. Well I mean it this time.”
My mouth sets in a hard line. So it’s going to be that kind of night then, is it? I roll my eyes.
“Hannah’s trying to sleep and you’re making all that noise. I’m trying to work on schoolwork, Booster. Please.”
He nods, serious, but turns back to the bike.
Seriously.
“Hey, Lena, can you hand me that box over there?”
“What?”
He gestures vaguely.
“That box, over there, it’s little and black.”
I huff. I didn’t come down here to play lackey for him. But whatever.
I hoist Hannah up on my side. Booster’s going to need to do a lot to make this up to me, that’s for damn sure. I go over to where he’s pointed, looking around …
I find a small black box, but it’s nothing like what I expect. It’s small, smaller than anything that I would have expected in the shop. My brows furrow. It looks like …
I gasp, and, not able to help myself, I open the box.
Inside, nestled in a little velvet bed, is a brilliant, beautiful, diamond ring. It’s dainty and feminine, and sparkles even in the yellow light of the workshop. My hand comes to my mouth, covering it, and I can’t believe what I’m looking at.
“See, you were all huffy and mad at me, and all I wanted to do was propose to you.”
I turn around, shocked. Booster’s standing, his hands sheepishly pushing into his pockets. He’s grinning at me, ear to ear, and I honestly have to fight back tears.
“You’ve been getting on my nerves on purpose just so you could propose?” I ask.
“Well, to be honest, I figured you’d get annoyed before now. But I suppose all the same that it’s good you at least held out. Built up all the tension.”
“You—you—” I shake my head, laughing. “Come here and kiss me, before I change my mind.”
Booster’s grin deepens, and he walks on over. He leans forward, pressing his lips to mine.
“I take it that means yes,” he says, his words coming out between our lips.
“Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
THE END
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Books by Naomi West
Click any of the covers below to go straight to the book page!
BABY WITH THE SAVAGE: The Motor Saints MC
IF SHE WANTED SOMETHING SAFE AND NORMAL, SHE SHOULDN’T HAVE HAD A BABY WITH THE SAVAGE.
The deal was simple:
Take her to bed until she’s pregnant.
Hot sex with an eager woman, no strings attached?
I’d have to be insane to say no.
But it’s never that simple.
When my enemies catch wind of what’s happening, everything goes to hell.
I can’t make an innocent woman pay for my sins.
I barely know her, but I’ll go to war to protect what’s mine.
She may have entered my life as a plaything.
But the longer her skin is up against mine…
The louder I can feel her hot breath in my ear…
The more her nails scrape down my tattooed back…
The more certain I am of this:
Anyone who lays a hand on my woman or my baby will feel every ounce of my wrath.
I’ll tear them to pieces if they hurt her.
That’s what happens when you have a baby with a savage.
BABY WITH THE BEAST: Seven Sinners MC
The beast wants my body…
So he can put his baby inside me.
My twin sister is the one with a taste for bad boys.
Not me.
But by the time Rocco Greene has had his way with me…
I’m never going to want to taste anything else.
He’s a caveman on a motorcycle.
A bona fide bad boy.
He wants my body – and he doesn’t give a damn about my heart.
I don’t plan on going any closer to him than I have to.
Unfortunately, that’s plenty close enough for him to do his worst.
Because he’s the best man at my sister’s wedding.
I’m the maid of honor.
We’re far, far too close.
And after a drunken bachelorette party brings me swooning into his arms in a filthy club bathroom, I don’t have much honor left.
I don’t know why I let him do what he did.
Why I let him tease. Taste. Dominate.
All I know is this dirty little secret:
I f**king loved it.
But that only lasts as long as our little bathroom romp.
When we emerge, sweaty and flushed, everything starts to fall apart.
My sister’s fiancé takes a bullet from his enemies.
A
biker war erupts.
And Rocco’s baby starts growing in my belly.
WILD CHILD: The Wylde Ones MC
WHAT DO I WANT? A BABY.
WHEN DO I WANT IT? RIGHT F***ING NOW.
She’s the teacher, but I’m the one about to teach her a lesson:
Never deny me what I want.
So when I say I want her to bear my baby, there’s only one answer I want to hear:
“Yes, Mr. Wylde.”
I’m the president of the Wylde Ones MC, but it isn’t enough to have my name on the club.
