“Yep,” Anderson said. “So to put it simply, Zander isn’t going to get away with this. His days of facing no repercussions are over. He’s about to learn the hard way that if he ever comes anywhere near you again… god help him.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead again. “Because no one messes with my family.”
Family. My throat closed up when I heard him say it, and my vision blurred with tears. After everything that happened with Zander and the revelation I was pregnant, I felt more emotional than ever. I leaned against him and let my head fall over his shoulder, closing my eyes.
“Thank you, Anderson. I…” My heart swelled with a potent emotion, and it dawned on me.
I was in love with him. I loved Anderson. And now, I couldn’t imagine my life without him, the father of my child.
“I love you,” I told him, my pulse skyrocketing. He was all I ever needed.
I held my breath as I waited for him to say something. He snaked his arms around my waist, holding me like he never wanted to let me go.
“I love you too, Joanna. I love you so much.” I broke into a huge smile, feeling like everything had come to its place.
He loved me. Anderson Lawrence, my brother’s best friend and my old crush, loved me. I was euphoric.
I turned my head and kissed him, showing him just how much I loved him. “You’re a true gem,” I whispered into his mouth and nibbled it.
“And you’re my everything.” He kissed my earlobe, which brought fire to my insides.
“I want to make you happy. I want you safe.” His lips grazed my neck before he took my earlobe into his mouth and licked it. “But right now I want to make you feel good.”
He lowered his hand from my stomach to my mound, and I moaned in response. His fingers found my clit instantly, while his other hand covered my breast.
“That does feel good,” I muttered, my whole body warming when he started pleasuring me. “Please, keep touching me. I love when you touching me…”
“I love it too. You just feel so good. Your lips, your body, your pussy… I can’t stop thinking about you and all those things I want to do to you. The mother of my baby.”
His fingers moved in circles, and I curled my toes when a bolt of pleasure coursed through me. My pussy started throbbing faster as he quickened his pace.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Just like that…” I writhed uncontrollably. I thought he was going to make me come like this, but he did something even better. He lowered his fingers and penetrated me with three digits, which felt more than amazing now that my mound was pulsating like crazy.
“Ah! Yes… Don’t stop…”
I thrashed my head against his shoulder as he pumped me with his fingers, pushing me toward my much-needed release. I was so close, my moans getting louder, and I couldn’t stop rocking my hips.
“I’m so close… Ah… Anderson!”
I screamed when the first wave hit me, overcome with the sweet sensations.
“That’s it, my love.” His lips grazed my neck. “You’re so beautiful like this.”
As soon as the last tremor passed, I turned around and straddled him, taking his shaft into my hand. “I need you,” I said, unable to look away from his piercing eyes. They were devouring me, making breathing an almost impossible task.
“Take all of me,” he responded in a raspy voice.
I sat down on him, letting him slide inside me inch by inch. When he hit my cervix, I felt so full, getting exactly what I wanted desperately. I began moving on him, our lips joining together. This time we went slowly, each thrust filling me with immense pleasure as I rocked myself on him, and the world stopped to exist. His tongue caressed mine languidly, his hands on my hips guiding me up and down as our bodies moved in perfect harmony.
Soon, this wasn’t enough, and I started moving faster, chasing the orgasm that was so close.
“I love you,” he said and threaded his hand through my hair before he pulled me in for another kiss.
I let my hands roam all over his firm chest, basking in the feel of his skin against mine. His hand cupped my breast as our kiss deepened, everything in me tightening on the edge of another mind-blowing climax…
“I love you too. You’re so good to me… I’m going to come again…”
“Yeah. Come for me.”
As soon as his voice trailed off, my orgasm started, stronger than the previous one. Anderson didn’t stop, ripping through my spasming walls forcefully, and it was almost more than I could bear.
“Ah!”
I threw my head back, confounded when another orgasm started—before the first one even finished! Never breaking our eye contact, he impaled me onto him repeatedly until he reached his release too.
“Joanna! Fuck!”
He pressed me against his chest just when his climax started, his arms around me holding me tight.
“This was amazing,” I muttered, a bubble of laughter rising in my throat.
“You’re amazing.”
We remained silent for a while as he held me against him. Then, he said, “I want you to stay with me.”
“I will,” I muttered sleepily, letting my eyes close.
“I mean, I want you to move out of Tobias’s place and come to my place. I’ll feel better knowing you’re here, so I can keep you safe.”
I let my lips curl into a wide smile, overjoyed that he was actually asking me to move in with him.
“Yes. I will. I’d want nothing more than that.”
CHAPTER 28
Anderson
After bringing Joanna home from the emergency room after the Zander scare, the passing weeks had calmed down considerably. She returned to work, and each evening, the two of us went home together. She had moved out of Tobias’s mansion to stay with me at my apartment, and I didn’t want to jinx myself, but it practically felt like living the happily ever after that I never even realized I wanted.
Nevertheless, Zander never strayed too far from my thoughts. I always knew that if he had managed to find Joanna at Libby’s house, there was always a chance he could find her at my place too.
Tobias and I had managed to find some top-notch private investigators to figure out how Zander had managed to find Joanna in the first place. She remained adamant that when she left him, she had snuck out and hadn’t told him anything whatsoever about where she was going or who she would be staying with.
As it turned out though, Zander was a man who had some deep connections of his own.
The investigators we’d hired came to the conclusion that Zander had dug into Joanna’s past, figuring out where she grew up, what schools she had attended, and subsequently, places she was likely to have history with.
Places she might run away to…
“He may have gotten in contact with some old school friends of hers that had been keeping track of her from afar. Former friends who knew about the successful businessman her brother had become,” one of the investigators, Mike, told me one night over the phone as I checked to see how things were going.
“Hmm. That makes sense,” I said. “Any updates on where he is now?”
“Why? Are you planning to personally intervene?”
“No,” I said, even though it felt like an uncomfortable lie coming out of my mouth. My hands still itched to ring themselves around Zander’s throat. Every time I thought of that man, I wanted to hit something. It sometimes made me queasy to think that he could have seriously hurt Joanna and my unborn child…
“Anderson,” the investigator said, uttering my name like a warning.
“I’m not going to intervene,” I insisted. “I’m paying you top dollar, so I just want to make sure you’re doing your job, if you don’t mind.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get snarky with you.”
“Apology accepted. Now tell me, any recent sightings of that bastard or not?”
“We have reason to think he’s still somewhere in Chicago, or at least in a nearby suburb. He’s likely biding his time. I don
’t know much about his intelligence level yet, but often criminals of his caliber don’t give up on their victims so easily. He’s clearly obsessed with Ms. Gentry and he will stop at nothing to get her back under his control. So I’m pretty sure he’s waiting for the opportunity to strike again.”
“So what do we do until then?”
“Be careful. Be watchful. I know it’s hard since she’s not a child, but if she can help it, make sure she’s not alone too often, because that’s obviously when he’s more likely to strike. If we don’t find him quickly though, we may have to use her as bait to draw him out. Under controlled circumstances, of course.”
“Of course,” I said, although I thoroughly hated the sound of using Joanna as bait. She was carrying precious cargo. “I’ve actually got another question though.”
“Go for it.”
“When we find Zander, what next? What charges can we put against him? I mean, we can get him put away for life, right? Breaking and entering? Battery. Causing mortal danger to a pregnant woman—”
“Anderson, come on. You know the law, and you know you’re not being reasonable.”
I sighed in frustration. “So what are you trying to tell me? All we’re going to be able to do is give him a slap on the wrist? A restraining order that he’ll undoubtedly break? That’s not going to work for me.”
“Well, let’s just look at what you want to accuse him of. First of all, breaking and entering isn’t exactly accurate, is it? Based on the statement Joanna already gave the cops, she opened the door for him.”
“She thought he was a Chinese food delivery guy!”
“Okay fine, let’s say we go with that. Then what?”
“Domestic abuse for one. He’s been beating her for how long? And we all know that just because there’s no paper trail doesn’t mean she doesn’t have witness testimonies, or maybe took days off from old jobs because of incidents. Listen I get it. She acted stupidly because she was afraid. And okay—so we can’t call it breaking and entering. But it was forcible entry. She didn’t want to let him in. He pushed passed her.”
“Valid point. So we get him on the abuse charge, and she’s pregnant right? If she said that at anytime to him, a jury would lose their minds.”
“Well this is going a bit better.”
“Yeah if we can find the bastard and get a conviction. Those are big IFs Anderson.”
“Yeah well, I’ll talk to you later, Mike,” I said, having grown tired of the conversation, especially since he wasn’t telling me what I wanted to hear anymore. We’d have to do this the long way.
But I was prepared to play that game.
Anything for Joanna, and our child
CHAPTER 29
Anderson
“So, what do you want to watch tonight?” I asked, placing the bowl of popcorn on the table.
Joanna sat on the couch with her arms wrapped around her legs. She smiled at me, positively glowing. Although she wasn’t showing yet, pregnancy had already made her even more beautiful than normal.
“I’m in the mood for a comedy,” she said.
“All right. Just don’t laugh so hard that you pee on my couch or anything like that.”
“Ha ha,” Joanna said. “I don’t think I’m quite at that stage of pregnancy yet, if you must know.”
I chuckled and flopped down on the couch beside her, giving her a quick peck on the lips as I reached for the remote to start the movie.
And as I expected, she fell asleep only a half hour in.
I simply sat there for a moment, smiling as I watched her sleep, trying to envision what life would be like in less than a year when there were three of us…
Ever since finding out Joanna was pregnant, I’d been elated—surprised by how exciting the thought of having a family had become for me. It hadn’t ever been something I’d given much thought to before, but now, it felt like everything I’d always wanted.
I was just about to pick Joanna up and put her in bed when my cell phone suddenly buzzed.
I grabbed it instantly, seeing that it was Mike.
“What’s up?” I said, keeping my voice low until I was far enough away to not disturb Joanna.
“Where’s Joanna?” he asked.
“Here with me. Why? What is it? Has Zander been spotted?”
“Yes,” Mike said.
The single word sent my heart pounding into overdrive. My ears prickled, waiting to hear more.
“He’s been spotted at some dive bar near you. More than likely, he plans on paying a visit. But he might be scared off if he knows you’re there.”
I grit my teeth. “The bar two miles down from my place?”
“Yep, that’s the one,” Mike said. “I’m sending some police officers out that way. They won’t come to your door, but they’ll trail the area, watching and waiting to see if he’ll come by. This might be our chance to get him. Do you think you can leave your place for a second? Just to move your car off the premises so that he can think Joanna is there alone? That way, we can get a hold of him to serve him a restraining order.”
I walked back toward the living room, looking at Joanna sleeping peacefully. “Yeah, I can do that,” I said, although different plans were stirring in my head.
“Good. I’ll call you back,” Mike said, and then hung up.
Kissing Joanna softly, “I’ll be right back.” I grabbed my car keys, locked up the apartment, and headed out the door, my mind on Zander. As I got into my car and pulled off, I actually spotted a few of the police cars heading toward my apartment. I quickly turned out of their view, praying that they wouldn’t deduce what I was up to. Losing track of them, I practically began to drive on auto-pilot, my body knowing precisely where to go to find Zander, as if he was a magnet that I was being pulled to.
I got there in what felt like record speed.
I practically spotted him the instant I walked through the bar’s door, despite not having previous knowledge of what he looked like.
He was big, sloppy, and looked like trouble even from a distance as he sat at the bar, chugging down what looked like several shots too many.
My blood coursing angrily through my veins, I approached the bar, and came to a stop right beside him.
“Can I help you, sir?” the bartender said.
I forced a polite smile. “Sure. Scotch, please.”
“Coming right up,” she said.
It took everything within me to not turn around and knock Zander’s lights out. But instead, I glanced sideways and smiled. “What’s up, buddy?” I said, careful to keep my voice light and friendly.
“Nothing much, my man,” he said, his words slurred.
I tilted my head sideways. “You from around here? You don’t look familiar.”
He laughed. “Nope. I’m an out-of-towner. That obvious, huh?”
I nodded. “Yeah. You’ve got an accent that I can’t quite place. Where’re you from?”
He laughed again. “Oh, if I tell you that, I’d have to kill ya!” he said, thumping me a little too heavy-handedly on the back.
“Oh really?” I said. “So what brings you into town?”
He sighed. “I’m here for my girl.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. She thought she could get away from me, but what can I say? I can’t let her go. Gotta make sure she knows it.” He grinned, under the impression that his words sounded romantic. But I could see the sinister stirrings behind his eyes. I could see the cockiness in the way he held his mouth. I could hear the hidden threat beneath his words…
“Women,” I said, just as the bartender returned with my Scotch. I took a sip and then thumped Zander on the back myself. “Hey, step outside with me for a smoke, will ya?”
“Sure thing, partner,” Zander said. “Then I can just head on my way afterwards. Check to see what she’s up to.”
“Cool,” I said, and stood from the bar. I walked a pace ahead of Zander as we made our way through the door. “Let’s go around to the side. You know,
these damned buildings got all these regulations on smoking and stuff now.”
“Yeah! The world’s turned into such a wuss! People get all up in arms about a little smoke. It’s bullshit, man!”
The second we had rounded the building, my hand balled into a fist that caught Zander right in the gut.
“Umph!” he groaned, doubling over. He looked up at me, his face full of surprise. “Hey? What the f—”
But before he could say anything more, I punched him again, landing another one in his stomach, and one to the side of his jaw, knocking him clean off his drunken feet.
“Hey, man!” he cried.
I leaned over, grabbing him by the collar. “That woman you speak of, wouldn’t happen to be Joanna Gentry, would it?”
“Hey, how do you—” But his words were cut off by my fist again.
“Listen to me, I’m only going to say this once you sick mother fucker, you come anywhere near her again, you’re dead. I will sue your pathetic ass for everything you’re worth, and then when you think you’re done with me, I will hire the best hitman in the city and kill you. So don’t you dare try me, Zander, so help me God…” I leaned in close to his ear. “And be warned if you somehow land yourself in prison before I can finish you, I know some guys on the inside. They don’t take too kindly to women-bashers. I’ll make sure they know just what a pathetic piece of woman-beating shit you are, and in return, they’ll show you precisely what they think of you. Catch my drift?”
And just to drive home my point, I gave him a square kick in the ribs.
He looked up at me, fearfully. “Who are you?” he asked, blood spilling from his mouth.
“Your worst nightmare, and the wrong guy to be messing with. If you’re smart, you’ll get out of town. You’ll get out of town and never show your face around here again. Because like I said, you come anywhere near Joanna…” I balled my fists once more.
“All right! All right!” Zander cried. “I’m leaving,” he said as he crawled away.
“For good? Never coming back?”
He shook his head. “No. Never.”
CHAPTER 30
Baby Makes Three: A Brother's Best Friend's Secret Baby Romance Page 15
