Preacher (Dixie Reapers MC 4.5)

by Harley Wylde

  “All right, Rachel,” I said. “I can take a hint.”

  My wife would have never wanted me to turn my back on Kayla or the baby. That much I knew for certain, and as much as I’d thought about the woman in my arms over the past two months, I knew that she wasn’t the same as the others I’d fucked and walked away from over the years. Mostly because she’d never been far from my thoughts.

  When I reached my home, I carried Kayla inside and went straight to the master bedroom, which was on the first floor. All the other bedrooms were upstairs and shared a bathroom. My bed was still mussed from earlier in the day, and I gently laid her down. I removed her shoes to make her more comfortable, then got a damp cloth from the bathroom and lightly pressed it to her cheeks and forehead.

  Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. Must not have worked because she bolted upright and gave me a panicked look. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and I worried that she’d hyperventilate and pass out again.

  “Easy, baby. Do you want some water?”

  “Where am I?” she asked.

  “Home.”

  Her eyes went wide, and she stared at me.

  “Were you going to tell me?” I asked. “That you’re pregnant.”

  “No. Maybe. I don’t know.” She relaxed a little, and her breathing slowed. “I honestly didn’t think you’d want to know. You’re still married to your dead wife and don’t have room for me and a kid. I can raise the baby on my own.”

  I made sure I had her attention as I slid the wedding band off my finger, then placed it in the bedside table drawer. It was the first time I’d taken that ring off since the day Rachel had placed it on my finger. It didn’t feel as horrible as I’d thought it would, not at all like I was getting rid of her. I knew she’d always be a part of me, but it was obvious that I had responsibilities now and couldn’t pine after Rachel forever.

  “What are you doing, Preacher?” she asked.

  “Call me Nick.” I smiled. “The mother of my child should know my real name.”

  “You don’t seem all that upset,” she said.

  “The condom broke. I tried to go after you once I realized what had happened, but you’d vanished. I asked several of my brothers who you were or where you’d come from, but no one knew. The prospect, Carter, seemed to know something, but he wasn’t talking.”

  She went deathly pale again at the mention of Carter’s name.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” she muttered before she scrambled out of bed and went running to find the bathroom.

  I followed and held her hair as she threw up, rubbing her back, and wondering if this was a pregnancy thing, or a fear thing. It was obvious Carter’s name had scared the shit out of her, and I wanted to know why. If the little asshole had threatened her in some way, he would answer to me.

  “Let’s get you rinsed off in the shower and tucked into bed,” I said. “We can talk more tomorrow. You look like you’re about to drop.”

  She weakly nodded and let me undress her. I stripped out of my own clothes, then got into a hot shower with her. My body reacted to the sight of all those soft curves of hers, but I wasn’t about to take advantage. After I cleaned her up, I dried the both of us, then helped her brush her teeth. When she was finished, I carried her to bed, sliding in next to her.

  Kayla curled against my side with her head on my chest, and she let out a breathy sigh.

  “This is nice,” she murmured. “No one’s ever held me like this before.”

  “You mean you’ve never cuddled in bed?”

  She hummed. “You were my first. My only.”

  Her words trailed off, more of a slur, but they ricocheted around my brain. First? Only? Jesus Christ. She really had been a virgin that night, and I’d taken her on the damn table like a common whore. And knocked her up too.

  There was definitely a lot for us to talk about. But morning would be soon enough.

  * * *

  Kayla

  I felt the warmth of sunlight on my face before the brightness registered. I’d slept harder than I ever had before, but that might have had something to do with the hard, and very naked, body that I was plastered against. I looked up and realized that I hadn’t dreamt about being in Preacher’s arms. No, Nick’s arms. But if I hadn’t been dreaming about that, then I likely hadn’t been dreaming about Carter either. Or rather having a nightmare about him.

  I lifted the covers and checked my body, but thankfully I didn’t seem to have any marks from my struggle with him. Although, if I had, Nick likely would have said something last night. And probably come completely unglued when he found out I was almost raped. At least, the way he’d come after Johnny just for having an arm around my waist, I was going to assume that he would be angry over what happened to me. I didn’t understand why he’d reacted the way he had. We’d had a one-night stand, and while I was pregnant with his baby, he hadn’t known that at the time.

  His left arm was thrown over the top of his head, but I noticed the wedding band he’d been wearing was gone. I’d thought that part wasn’t real either. Had he really removed it? For me? None of this made sense, and I was starting to feel incredibly confused. I didn’t know the man lying next to me, not really. Yeah, we’d talked for a while that night before he’d led me off to a secluded room and changed my life forever. And not just because the sex was incredible, but because he’d left a little something behind.

  I’d been scared to death of being a single mom, but I’d known that I would make it work. It might have been hard to figure out the logistics of working nights and having a baby in my life, but plenty of other women did it and so could I. Oh, hell. Did I even still have a job? Was I going back? Jeremy had made me pack everything, but that didn’t mean I was actually staying here, right?

  “You’re thinking too much,” Nick said, his voice a deep rumble.

  I looked up at him again and found him watching me. “Sorry.”

  “How do you feel?” he asked, giving my hip a squeeze.

  “Better.” I really did feel better. Well, as long as I didn’t think too hard about why I was back in this damn town. Then I’d probably freak the hell out.

  “Have you seen a doctor yet? About the baby?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t have insurance, and before I could see if there was a free clinic nearby, Jeremy insisted I come back here.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Jeremy?”

  “My brother’s friend. I was staying in an apartment over the garage he owns.”

  He sat up, leaning back against the headboard, but pulled me along with him so that I was still pressed to his side. It should have felt awkward, being naked in bed with him like this, but oddly I found it comforting.

  “Why did you leave town? Or were you just here visiting your brother?” he asked.

  “I lived here, with my mom and her boyfriend.” I pressed my lips together, not wanting to admit where I’d been living or why I’d left. I’d never been embarrassed before over where I come from, but Nick was different from anyone I’d met before. He might be a biker now, he hadn’t always been one. He’d shared a home with his wife, had been a minister in a local church. He’d led a respectable life.

  “Why did you leave?” he asked again.

  “There’s a pimp in my neighborhood who was pressuring me. The last woman who told him no nearly died and ended up working for him anyway. When I told Johnny what had happened, he got me out of town.”

  The intensity of Nick’s gaze left me a little dizzy.

  “What’s his name?” he asked, his voice deceptively soft.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going back there. I don’t think.”

  “Fuck no, you’re not going back!” His arm tightened around me. “You’re staying right here with me.”

  “Here?” I asked, looking around the room. It was probably the nicest bedroom I’d ever seen, and I’d be willing to bet the rest of the house was the same.

  “Did y
ou think you would show up here, tell me you’re pregnant, and I’d let you walk away?” he asked.

  “I didn’t tell you I was pregnant,” I muttered.

  “No, that would have been your brother. You should have come to me, Kayla. Was I such an asshole that night that you felt you couldn’t tell me we were having a kid?”

  “It was a one-night stand, Nick. You didn’t make me any promises, and I knew you still loved your wife. Love, I mean.”

  “Kayla, there will always be a place in my heart for Rachel, but she’s not the one I’ve been thinking about the last two months. I wasn’t lying last night. I looked for you. I asked half a dozen brothers if anyone knew you, even asked Carter, but no one would say anything.”

  “Carter?” I could feel the blood drain from my face, and if I’d been standing, I’d have landed on my ass on the floor.

  “Hey,” he said softly. “What’s wrong? Did that asshole do something to you?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Like fuck it doesn’t!”

  “Nick, I… I didn’t come here because I’m pregnant.” If I didn’t tell him, I had no doubt Johnny would run his mouth. “Jeremy drove me here last night because Carter showed up at my apartment.”

  Nick moved so fast he was a blur, but he was suddenly looming over me, his hands braced on either side of me. His jaw was so tense I worried he’d crack his teeth.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him. “Jeremy heard me struggling and got to me in time.”

  “In time to stop what, exactly?”

  I swallowed hard and tried to look away, but Nick turned my face back toward him. His gaze softened, and he gently pressed his lips to mine. His kiss was sweet, and just what I’d needed right then.

  “Talk to me, baby. What did Carter do?” he asked, his voice calmer than before.

  “He knocked me to the floor and tried to… “ Tears pricked my eyes, and my heart ached as I remembered what had happened in vivid detail. “He unzipped his pants and was about to rape me when Jeremy came upstairs to check on me.”

  Nick flung himself off the bed and roared his rage as he began pacing the length of the room. His hands dug into his hair, and he looked about two seconds away from committing murder. My brother had always protected me, but I’d never had anyone get so angry on my behalf before. Part of me liked that Nick seemed to feel so strongly about my well-being, and the other half was afraid of just what he might be capable of. Yes, he’d been a minister, but those days were long behind him. Now he was very much a Dixie Reaper, and I didn’t think for one minute they walked the straight and narrow.

  “I’m going to fucking kill him,” Nick said, growling as he slammed his fist into the wall. The drywall caved in, and I winced.

  “Johnny was going to talk to your President last night and let him know what happened. Jeremy made sure Carter was detained, in case the Dixie Reapers wanted to take care of the matter, seeing as how Carter was one of yours.”

  He snorted. “Not mine. I never liked the little shit.”

  “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?” I asked, earning me a glare. “All right, maybe stupid was a bad word choice.”

  “I’m going to rip him apart one piece at a time, that’s what I’m going to do,” Nick said.

  “You know this is completely crazy, right? I’m not anything to you. Just some random woman you hooked up with a few months ago.”

  He tipped his head back and sighed before coming back over to the bed. He crawled in next to me and wrapped his arms around me.

  “I’m just going to go ahead and say this, okay? So let me get it all out before you interrupt.”

  I nodded.

  “I’ve been in a really dark place for a long time now. I’m thirty-four, and I’ve only ever been in love once. Rachel was so damn sweet and perfect. She meant the world to me, and when I lost her, I lost everything. For twelve years, I’ve lived with the agony of her loss, feeling like a piece of me was missing, dreaming of her every night, and waking every morning wishing she was here. Then I met you.”

  Me? What did our one night together have to do with anything?

  “I’ve slept with women since Rachel died, but it’s just been a quick fuck to let off some steam, a fast release that never meant anything. I guess I’d thought that it would be the same when we hooked up, but it wasn’t. It took me a few minutes, as I stood there alone, and realized that you were different from the others. So I went after you, but it was too late.

  “No matter how much I searched for you, not even knowing who you were, it didn’t stop me from having vivid dreams about you every fucking night and waking up so damn hard that even my hand wasn’t good enough. I have no idea what’s between us, Kayla. I’m not going to say I love you because you’re right, we barely know each other. But I do know that you’re different.”

  “You dreamed about me?” I asked. No one had ever said something like that to me before. The guys who had wanted in my pants were always off after the next sure thing when I wouldn’t put out. But Nick had dreamed of me every night? He’d said more than once that he had looked for me. No one had ever gone to so much trouble for me before.

  “Yeah.” He smiled a little. “What do you know about life in the club?”

  “Nothing. I know Johnny is a Prospect and that means he works his ass off for you in hopes of being patched in, whatever the hell that means. And he’s told me about the wild parties that happen in the clubhouse, without any details of course. I know the women who are just with one guy are called old ladies, and I guess that’s the biker equivalent of a marriage?”

  “Something like that,” Nick said. “Some of the guys marry their old ladies, some don’t.”

  “I’m going to assume that not all the club dealings are what one would consider legal.”

  “Um, no, they aren’t. But we don’t put drugs in the hands of kids, and we don’t deal in women. And we never will.” His arms gave me a little squeeze. “I want you to be my old lady, Kayla. We’re having a baby together, and I know that’s not necessarily a reason to stay together, but I want a family with you. I think we can make this work.”

  “It doesn’t bother you that you’re thirty-four and I’m nineteen?” I asked. I honestly didn’t care how old he was, but I knew some people would give him grief over our age difference.

  “Have you met my President and his old lady? There’s like thirty years between them, and they’re completely crazy about each other. Age is just a number. As long as you’re legal, I don’t see a problem with it.”

  “What exactly does it mean to be an old lady?” I asked, not completely opposed to the idea. Nick had seemed like a great guy that night, even if he’d been in a lot of pain. And I had to admit the idea of waking up next to him every morning wasn’t a horrible one.

  “You’d be inked as Property of Preacher, and you’d get a cut like mine but with a property patch on it. Some of the old ladies are about your age and have kids, so you’d have people to hang out with, and our kid would have an extended family close to his or her age. Sometimes the old ladies put together events for the club or help in other areas, but never anything illegal. And I’d never put you in danger.”

  “I don’t know.” I glanced up at him through my lashes. “Maybe the sex wasn’t as good as I remember. I’d hate to tie myself to someone permanently who was a dud in the bedroom.”

  His smile was predatory as he leaned in closer. “Then I guess I’d better give you a reminder.”

  Chapter Four

  Preacher

  She hadn’t agreed to be mine, but before we left this bedroom she damn sure would. I’d fuck her every way imaginable until she agreed, give her so many orgasms she’d be willing to do anything for me. Our last time had been quick, but now I had all the time in the world. If that had been her first time, I was going to make sure I made it up to her. She should have been worshipped, should have been screaming my name over and over, but I’d fucked all that up. Not this time,
though.

  I tossed the covers to the foot of the bed and just took in the beauty of her. She reached for me, but I pinned her hands over her head, wrapping my fingers around her wrists. Her lips parted, and I watched as her eyes dilated. It seemed my sweet girl liked it when I got a little forceful. It made me wonder what else she’d like.

  I kissed her slow and deep, savoring her the way I should have done before. She moaned a little as I rubbed my beard against her jaw, then placed a kiss there. Her skin was so fair, she’d end up with beard burn if I wasn’t careful. Although part of me liked the idea of marking her. She was so fucking responsive, her nipples already hard and poking against me. I released her hands, but when she tried to move them, I growled at her.

  Kayla placed her hands back over her head, and I smiled at her. “Good girl. Keep them there.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said softly, and fuck if I didn’t get even harder. Where the hell she’d learned that I didn’t know, but I’d find out. Later.

  I latched onto one of her perfect, pink nipples, sucking and grazing it with my teeth until she was squirming beneath me. Kayla kept lifting her hips, as if silently begging for my cock. And she’d get it, just not right this minute. I took my time, lavishing attention on first one nipple, then the other. Her breasts were pink from my whiskers by the time I started moving lower. When my shoulders pressed her legs farther apart, she let out a little gasp.

  “Nick, I… “

  I gently blew across her pussy, and her thighs clenched against me. She’d been bare last time we were together, but now there was a fine dusting of hair. I actually found that even sexier. The scent of her arousal teased my nose as I spread her open. Fuck, but she was gorgeous, all pink and soft, and so fucking wet.

  I lapped at her folds, gathering her nectar on my tongue. If I’d known she tasted so damn sweet, I’d have done this the first time. It had been a while since I’d bothered to really pleasure a woman, but the soft sounds Kayla was making told me I was on the right track. Maybe making a woman scream wasn’t a skill you ever lost. I licked, sucked, and lightly nipped her with my teeth until she was panting and begging me for more.