by Melinda Minx
“It’s complicated,” I say.
“Right.” Jane crosses her arms. “It always is.”
There’s a knock at the door.
“He’s here!” Jane says. “If this guy isn’t fucking gorgeous, I’m going to be disappointed.”
I give her an evil grin. “You’re going to be jealous.”
We’re at Jane’s house. The price for her watching Logan was that she got to meet Stone. I figured my best friend and the father of my child should probably meet each other anyway, so it was an easy deal to make.
I open the door, and Stone’s wide shoulders fill the doorway. His masculine scent hits me like a wall, and my knees feel weak the moment my eyes take him in. His bulging, tattooed biceps flex as he holds a bouquet of flowers out to me, and his mischievous grin exposes his perfect, white teeth.
“Flowers?” I ask. Jesus, when was the last time I got flowers?
“Yeah,” he says. “Take ‘em.”
The only imperfection about him is the black eye. It’s healing, and it looks better than it did when I last saw him. The bruising has died down, and now it just looks like some bloody ring rather than a big purple mess.
I take the flowers and smell them. They’re full of pink and purple lilies, but there are also a few roses of different colors interspersed within the bouquet.
“They’re beautiful,” I say. “Did you pick this out yourself?”
He scratches the back of his head, and his huge arm bulges, drawing my eyes down across his body. “Yeah, I mean, I dunno, the colors looked like something you’d like. So I grabbed it.
I look back and see Jane holding Logan’s hand. She’s staring wide-eyed at Stone, her mouth hanging open. Definitely jealous.
I introduce the two of them, and they shake hands. Then Stone’s focus turns toward Logan. He crouches down again and holds out a wrapped gift. “Remember?”
“Present!” Logan says. “Mom, is it a doo poe?”
“I don’t know, sweetie,” I say, smiling. “Why don’t you open it and see?”
“I got some giftwrap,” Stone says, a proud smile filling his handsome face. “Figured he’d get a kick out of tearing the paper open.”
Stone hands the box to Logan, and Logan starts pulling hopelessly at the paper.
“Here,” Stone says, still crouched down beside him. He rotates the box and points to the seam for Logan. “Get your fingers in here and tear away.”
Logan hooks his fingers in and the paper starts to tear. Logan laughs as he tears the paper away, and soon the colorful box of Duplo is visible. It’s a train.
Logan shakes the box in excitement. “Doo poe! Mom, is doo poe!”
“Yes, honey, it’s Duplo. It’s a train. Do you like trains?”
“Train!” he shouts. “Train!”
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’” Stone says, standing back up to his full towering height.
“Not a bike?” Jane asks.
I shoot her an evil look. “Jane!”
“It’s alright,” I say. “I don’t want Logan following in my footsteps. At least not yet.”
There’s an awkward silence.
“Well,” Jane says. “You guys can get going. I’ll help Logan build the train. We can show your mommy and daddy how cool the train is when they get back, Logan.”
She looks up at me, and an evil grin fills her face. “I mean, you guys can actually pick him up in the morning, if--”
My face flushes red. “Jesus, Jane, we’re going to go now, okay?”
“Nice meeting you, Jane,” Stone says. “I can’t wait to see how the train looks.”
We step outside, and Stone’s bike is parked at the side of the street. My heart pounds as soon as I see it. All the memories flood back to me. Holding him tight on the back of the bike, our bodies pressed together, and then--
“You want to take your car?” Stone asks. Then his face lights up, “Or my bike?”
What am I doing? If it weren’t for Logan, I’d keep his promise. I’d stay away from him. Undercover or not, until he had cleanly cut ties with the MC, I would stay far away from him. And now here I am, considering getting back on that bike again, as if I don’t know where that brought me last time.
Stone laughs. “Ah, come on, Jo. Don’t get too scared. It’s just a bike.”
“I thought you were trying to get out of the whole MC thing.”
“MC, sure,” he says. “Don’t mean I still won’t ride a bike. That’s in my DNA.”
I bite my lip. “And all the other stuff isn’t in your DNA? You can just cut that clean out?”
He steps closer to me. So close that his presence overpowers me. His thick muscles are right there, and with one movement he could just take me. He could do all those deliciously bad things to me all over again, and I don’t think I’d be able to resist.
“For you and Logan,” Stone says, his face becoming dead serious, “I’d give up anything.”
“Even the bike then?” I ask, smiling. “It’s in your DNA.”
“If trading the bike in for a unicycle kept you and Logan safe, I’d do it. Sure, I’d always miss riding, but…”
I smile. “It’s fine, Stone, I’m not going to ask you to ride a unicycle.”
“I don’t know, maybe I could rig a motor onto one. It’d be the most badass unicycle ever made.”
He grins wide at me.
“I don’t think a unicycle can ever be badass, Stone.”
“Alright,” he says. “So we’ll take my bike then, come on.”
Damn it. He outmaneuvered me. I was going to insist on taking my car, but he’s already halfway to the bike now.
I follow him to the bike. “At least I’m not wearing a sundress this time.”
He turns around and looks me over. “Doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. I can see right through those jeans and that blouse. My imagination does it automatically, I don’t even have to try.”
I stop, blushing furiously. “So you have...some kind of pervert x-ray vision?”
He laughs, his voice booming through the night. Then an evil smirk covers his face, and his eyes lock onto mine. “It only works on you, Jo, come on.”
He steps onto the bike with that smooth, confident motion from years ago. He reaches out a hand for me, and I get up onto the bike with his help.
I keep one hand loosely on his shoulder. I’m not going to squeeze tight until I have to; Stone is already cocky enough without having that to use against me.
He doesn’t start the bike.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
He turns to face me, and his whole forehead is scrunched up, like he’s thinking hard. “You sure Logan’s okay? We can bring him and take your car.”
“Logan’s fine,” I say, smiling. I love how protective Stone is of his son. He’s only just met him, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.
“I trust Jane,” Stone says, “but won’t he miss you?”
“He’ll miss you, too,” I say. “He was asking about you before.”
His face lights up. “Yeah? He was? What did he say?”
“He asked me ‘where’s cool guy,’ earlier today.”
Stone smiles ear to ear. “Cool guy. Yeah, that’s gotta be me.”
I roll my eyes. “I watch Happy Days reruns when I’m bored, and Logan watches sometimes. He saw The Fonz and his leather jacket and slicked back hair, and I told him that’s a ‘cool guy;’ you can’t take what a toddler says at face value. He also thinks Duplo trains are cool.”
“So he thinks I’m like Fonzi? Shit, I’ll take that. Everyone wanted a piece of that guy. Yeah, that guy was so cool that he went from a minor character to the main character. He took over the entire show through pure charisma, sounds just like me.”
“Just start the bike,” I say, laughing. “Let’s go.”
Stone starts the bike, and the vibrations take me back again. Right to Stone’s bed. To that one night we had together. I grab tight to his waist, just like before, and my
legs press against him as he speeds down the road.
We reach the restaurant I picked out, and Stone helps me off the bike.
“Antonio’s?” Stone says. “Weird, there used to be a hardware store here, Tony’s Hardware.”
“It’s the same guy,” I say. “He followed his dream. Changed his life.”
Stone looks up at the sign with an awestruck look. “Tony? Tony can cook? Guy knew everything about tools and engines, when did he find time to learn to cook? Damn. You picked this place out to teach me a lesson about changing my life, or something like that?”
“No,” I say, smiling. “I picked this place because their lasagna is amazing.”
The hostess tells us it will be a 45-minute wait, but after a few minutes, Tony walks past, sees Stone, and does a double take.
“Stone? Stone Harding?” he says, holding his hands up in disbelief. “And shit, with Joanna? What the hell’s going on here? Joanna, where’s Logan at?”
“I got a babysitter,” I say.
“Kid’s gonna be mad that you ate here without him. He loves those noodles,” Tony says.
I smile. “I think he loves the mess they make more than anything.”
Tony looks at me, and then at Stone, and then back to me. “Stone, you, uh...I heard you were, uh--”
“I’m out,” Stone says.
“Heh, yeah, gotcha,” Tony says. “So you get out and grab the hottest single mom in Phoenix?”
“She’s not a single mom,” Stone says. “I’m Logan’s father.”
Tony’s eyes widen, and then he laughs. “Oh, that’s great! One of my old-time hardware customers and one of my most loyal restaurant customers got a kid together? Perfect!” He kisses his hands, then rushes to the hostess.
He grabs two menus and walks us toward the dining room. “Gotta get you two a table, you shouldn’t have to wait, ya know?”
Stone gives me a smug grin and whispers, “I bet he never did that for you before.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s doing it for us, not for you.”
“He always gave me good deals on tools and car batteries,” Stone says. “This is just him continuing that service to me.”
Tony gets us a seat, then says, “I’ll get you guys a bottle of wine. Stone, you’re a big guy, you can eat a lot, yeah?”
Stone straightens up and pulls his shoulders back. “Yeah, I’ve gotta keep these guns fed, don’t I?” He flexes his arms.
Tony leaves, and we start to talk. I talk mostly about Logan, which I’ve quickly found is hard to avoid. When you spend every waking moment of free time--and many interrupted moments of sleep--with a kid, it’s hard to stop talking about him when you finally get a few hours away.
I’m used to watching whomever I talk to like this quickly become bored and struggle to change the subject on me, but Stone listens to me enraptured. He asks me question after question, wanting to know everything about his son. Everything he missed.
Still, I force myself to change the subject. Stone will have plenty of time to get to know Logan, but time with just the two of us together like this will not come often.
“So,” I say, “how, um, have you been?” As soon as I ask it, I realize it was dumb and insensitive of me. I cover my mouth. “Sorry, I--”
Stone laughs. “Come on, Jo, it’s fine. We both know where I was, it’s not like talking about it is going to hurt my feelings or something.”
“I know,” I say, looking down, “but I feel bad. I mean, you were innocent.”
Stone leans back and takes in a deep breath. Then he plants his elbows on the table, leans into me, and grabs my hand. “You remember the promise I made you make? To stay away from me?”
“After the one time,” I say. “Yeah, of course I remember.”
“It was the right thing for me to do. At that time at least. The thing they arrested me for? No, I didn’t do it, but I did plenty of other stuff that could have landed me in prison. That’s why I made you promise to stay away.”
He squeezes my hand. “But look, Jo. Being in there for three years had me thinking. Even before I knew I was a father, I already knew I wanted out of this life. And now that I’ve met my own son? There’s no question. This time I’m going to promise you something. I promise I’m going to be there for Logan and for you. And I wish I could commit right now. Shit, I’d put a ring on your finger right here and now if I could...but I’m not done. I haven’t finished what I gotta do.”
Put a ring on my finger? Jesus. He just casually mentions that as if it’s nothing? My mouth opens, but I don’t even know what to say.
“Do…” I stammer. “Do I really want to even know what you’ve got to do?”
“Probably not,” he says. “But if you ask me, I’ll tell you.”
I don’t want to know, but I need to know. “Tell me.”
He runs his thumb across the back of my hand and lets out a weary sigh. He leans in closer to me and speaks in a whisper that I have to struggle to hear. “I report to this cop, the one that got me out. You remember that asshole you met in the supply room during your one night at the Chrome Hog?”
I nod, shuddering.
“Yeah,” Stone says. “Well that piece of shit is the one who framed me. He ‘took care of me’ when I was on the inside, and now he thinks he’s stomped the fight out of me, made me into his loyal lackey. The thing is, I gotta earn his trust before he’ll give me anything good. As soon as I get something on him, though, I just gotta feed it to this cop, and then the cops will do the work for me. They lock Lenk up, hopefully for a long time, and then I’m free to go.”
“So,” I say, taking it all in. “You don’t have to do anything bad anymore?”
His eyes fall away from mine, and a shadow seems to swallow him up.
“Stone…” I say.
He lets go of my hand. “I have to prove to him that he can trust me, Jo. And if that’s what it takes to be a father to my son, and to make you fucking mine? I’ll do a few more shitty things, yeah.”
I scoff. “So you’ll hurt people again? And you’ll blame it on me and Logan?”
“I’m not blaming you!” he hisses. “And I sure as shit am not blaming Logan! I’m blaming Lenk! I’m blaming the asshole who put me away in the first place. The one who tore me away from my own son.”
“What about witness protection?” I ask. “Can’t you just get out before you get hurt, or before you have to hurt someone?”
He shakes his head. “It doesn’t work like that. I have to give them something. The only reason I’m out early is because I agreed to do this. And I’m going to do it. The only way we’ll ever really be safe is if Lenk is locked up.”
14
Stone
The food comes just in time to save me.
I don’t want to tell her all the details of the deal I signed. I didn’t want her to know that Lenk threatened her over three years ago and that the main reason I agreed to take the fall was to keep her safe. As a man, my job is to keep her safe--to make her feel safe. All the pressure and things out of her control need to stay in my hands.
Lenk knows about Logan. He’s never confirmed it to me, but I know he was keeping tabs on Jo while I was locked away, and he’d have put two and two together when he saw her pregnant.
There are only two ways to keep Lenk away from my woman and my kid: be his lackey forever, or lock him away.
“This lasagna really is something else,” I say, “though they say hunger is the best spice. I don’t buy that anymore.”
“Why’s that?” Jo asks.
“Prison is the best spice. Everything I’ve eaten since getting out has tasted amazing. Microwaved gas station hot dogs taste like authentic German sausage--Sam’s Club pizza rolls taste like pizza straight from Italy.”
“This is legit good, though,” Jo says, pointing to the food. “So how does it taste?”
“Off the charts,” I say, grinning.
After we eat, we both stand in the parking lot, lingering near my bike. Jo
anna looked incredible in the candlelight, and she looks even better in the moonlight. My cock has been semi-hard the whole time, just looking at her. Drinking her in. And now I’m supposed to bring her back to Jane’s place.
“Jo,” I say, breaking the silence.
She looks up at me, the whites of her eyes look glassy in the moonlight. I can see the gleam of her wet lips move into a smile. “Yeah?”
“I want to show you something,” I say. “Just promise you won’t get mad.”
“It’s stupid to promise that,” she says. “Especially because when people say that, they’re intending to do something that will make the other person mad, so…”
She keeps rambling, and my impatience becomes too much. I can’t get her to promise, so I guess she’s going to get mad.
I grab hold of her, and I crush my lips against hers even as she keeps talking. My kiss silences her, and I feel her try to push me away. But just for a moment. The resistance melts away from her, and soon her tongue is pressing against me.
I drink her in, like a man wandering the desert and dying of thirst. I’ve needed her so bad for so long, and now I’m finally going to make her mine again. No promises to stay away, no bullshit. This kiss is me staking my claim, and I’m never letting her go again.
We kiss for a long time under the moonlight, neither of us wanting to let go and end the moment. My hard cock presses up against her stomach as she leans into me, and suddenly I’m hungry for much more. I pull away from her, grinning.
She hits me. “You asshole!”
“You can’t kiss me so long and then get mad,” I say, smirking. “Your window to get mad was just in those first few moments, and you threw it away. Now you’re mine.”
She swallows and looks up at me with a serious expression. “What about Logan?”
“Jane said she’d keep him overnight.” I laugh. “Even Jane knew what you were going to end up wanting to do. You’re the only one who denied it.”
“Oh,” she snaps. “So you knew too, huh, Stone?”
“Sure as shit I knew,” I say. “And when you agreed to ride on the bike with me again? Hell, I knew right then that you’d made up your mind.”
