It felt good. So good, in fact, that I wasn’t sure a vibrator would cut it any longer.
Not when I’d had the real thing—and the real thing coming from Linc.
There was no way that I’d ever be able to recreate what it felt like to have him inside of me, filling me up in more ways than one.
I shivered, which caused Linc to look over at me with a raised eyebrow.
“I didn’t think I could want you again so fast,” I explained.
What would be the point in beating around the bush? I felt what I felt, and he knew that already.
Hell, we’d both wanted each other for so long that it was a wonder we’d been able to hold off this long.
Well, really it was a wonder that Linc would be able to hold off this long. If I’d had my way, we’d have been not holding off eight years ago.
But Linc might’ve been correct to decide that we needed time.
That time had given me the time I needed to finish school, grow up a little bit, and find out who I was supposed to be in life without Linc’s success changing any of that.
But he didn’t need to know that.
As much as I say that it was a good thing he’d given me that time, I was also heartbroken that he had. We’d missed out on years of being together, and that was still just as unacceptable now as it was then.
Those years might’ve been rough, but they would’ve been ours.
And I think he was thinking the same thing as he stepped into the shower, putting his back against the spray that was still slightly too cold to get into.
“Deep thoughts?” I asked, unable to look away from those beautiful eyes of his.
God, sometimes they were so green that they looked fake.
Like right now, contrasted with the white tile of the shower, they looked almost like they were glowing.
“I should’ve never listened,” he murmured. “If I hadn’t listened, you’d have been with me, doing that exact same thing, for a long time now. Maybe not at first when you were still young and underage, but the moment you got old enough? You’d have been mine.”
The sincerity in those words made my heart start to pound for a different reason.
“You should’ve never listened to what?”
Before he could answer, though, there was a pounding past the bathroom door.
“Who’s that?” I asked, worried.
Linc shrugged. “No idea.”
“You’re not gonna answer it?” I asked, curious as well as relieved.
I didn’t want him to leave.
I liked exactly where he was.
A lot.
“No,” he replied simply. “I’m currently in the one place that I’ve always wanted to be.”
Inside of me.
He wasn’t moving.
I wasn’t moving.
But that didn’t matter.
I loved the way he felt no matter what he did.
Hell, we could probably stay like this for the rest of our lives, and I might very well be content.
Until it was time to eat.
“What was that look that just crossed your face?” he asked, head tilted slightly as he stared at me in concern.
More banging on a door caused him to look toward the closed bathroom door with a frown.
“I was thinking that I could happily stay like this for the rest of my life, but then I decided that food means a lot to me and that I might not be as happy as I once thought.” I paused. “And now that I think about it, my thighs are kind of burning from holding myself up on you.”
He laughed and pulled out, causing me to gasp.
“That wasn’t what I wanted!” I cried out.
In answer, he pushed me away from him until I was on my own two feet and winked.
“I’d love to finish this up,” he said. “I’d love to stay here all day. But, if my guess is correct, that knock at the door was my father’s. He’s not going to wait long.”
I looked down at his still very large erection and said, “Will he wait long enough to allow us to finish?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, then shrugged.
Moments later he was turning me around and sliding back inside of me.
***
The shower was quick and fast, and before I’d even gotten my wits about me, Linc had gotten washed off and gotten out.
It took him less than thirty seconds at most.
“Did you just wash your hair with the bar of soap?” I questioned.
He looked up at me from where he was drying off his legs with a towel the size of my bed and nodded. “I usually use the shampoo and conditioner, but I think I heard my dad walk in and yell out my name and I don’t want him walking in here.”
“Are you trying to hide me?” I asked, reaching for the shampoo.
“No,” he said flatly. “But I am trying to prevent them from seeing you naked so…”
I giggled and turned my back on him. “Make sure you close the bedroom door when you leave.”
Linc gave a grunt of reply and was about to walk out when he stopped and turned to regard me steadily.
“Whatever you hear, make sure you talk to me first.”
My brows rose. “What makes you think I’m going to listen?”
He rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”
With that he walked out, leaving the door only partially closed behind him.
I hurried through the rest of my shower just so I could hear what was going on and got out with a little conditioner still in my hair.
My curiosity was so piqued, though, that I didn’t want to take any more time out of my day to do it.
I wanted to hear what Linc, and his dad, and whoever was with him had to say.
When I pushed through the bathroom door into the bedroom, I was met by the sound of my stepfather’s voice.
“Told you to stay the fuck away from her, Linc,” I heard my stepfather growl. “She’s been through too much with her shit fathers. She’s finally gotten her life on track, and you knock her up? Your fame is going to ruin her—them. She can’t handle all of that.”
Sadly, some of his words rung true.
The fame, and what had happened that first couple of weeks when Linc had been drafted had really scared the crap out of me. It’d also been depressing to know that everyone—man, woman and child—thought that I wasn’t good enough for Linc James. Me, a small-town girl who was dating the football star who was everyone’s golden boy.
But then again, I’d been a young girl, not quite an adult, trying to find my way in life and still a little pissed off at the world.
But I wasn’t a child anymore.
I was an adult, and I was allowed to make my own decisions.
Sometimes, I even ate cake for dinner and nobody yelled at me.
And if I wanted to have a baby with Linc James, star quarterback of a professional football team, and one of the most eligible bachelors in the United States, then I’d damn well do it!
It also pissed me off knowing that my stepfather had made that decision for me without first consulting me.
It was my life.
I might’ve chosen to wait anyway, but he hadn’t given me a choice.
Getting dressed in the first thing that I saw, which happened to be the t-shirt that I’d worn the night before, I slipped it on over my head and reached for the same pair of boxer shorts, too.
Once I was sufficiently covered—though the boxer shorts likely weren’t even needed since Linc’s t-shirt came down to my knees—I marched down the hall and into the living room, pissed off rage likely burning in my eyes.
I’d just gotten to the opening of the living room that led into the kitchen when I saw my step-father poking Linc in the chest.
Linc was dressed in underwear and jeans—and the only reason I knew he had on underwear was because I could read the ‘Under Armour’ that was wrapped around his waist. His jeans clung low to hi
s hips, exposing at least an inch of the waistband of his underwear.
He also had tattoos on his back.
A lot of them.
I had seen him shirtless, but the last time I’d really been able to study his back and the myriad of ink on him, he hadn’t had nearly as many.
They covered him from the back of his neck all the way to his underwear.
I couldn’t make out any one tattoo in particular. It was just a bunch of swirls, lines, faces, clocks, animals and who knew what else all morphed into one.
Honestly, it looked rather cool and the red that colored in a few places of the mostly shades of gray and black tattoo made the entire thing pop.
Linc’s father’s, Jessie James, eyes met mine over the top of my stepfather’s head, and his mouth dropped open.
Neither Linc nor Steel had seen me come into the room yet.
“I told you years ago that I’d give it time,” Linc replied calmly, despite having Steel in his face and touching him. “But she’s mine now. Leave it alone.”
Steel’s jaw tightened. “I knew you were trouble.”
“You also knew that I was trouble,” I pointed out, barely restraining my anger as I inserted myself into the conversation. “But you didn’t give up on me.”
I’d been an awful child and an even worse teenager. At one point in our lives, my mother’s ex-husband, who’d been there for four years, had decided that leaving my mom while she was down was the best option for him.
My mom, having suffered a spinal stroke, had been struggling to make ends meet. Me, wanting my brother to have a pair of shoes that didn’t make him cry when they were shoved onto his feet, had attempted to steal a pair for him when Steel had caught me.
I’d tried it one other time as well before Steel let me know in no uncertain terms that no matter how good the reason was, stealing wasn’t ever okay.
And he’d saved me from having a record—which would’ve also put a damper on getting any kind of degree in the medical field.
But just because he saved me from doing stupid things, didn’t mean that I was stupid any longer.
I’d never been stupid—just desperate and angry.
But I wasn’t that same angry little girl anymore.
Steel turned slowly and stared at me.
He took in my wet hair, Linc’s shirt, and the very bottom inch of Linc’s underwear that I was wearing, before stopping to focus on something on my neck.
I lifted my hand and wondered if the beard burn that I’d received while in the shower was visible—and judging by the look on Steel’s face, it was.
Linc looked almost jovial, though, taking me in.
He winked at me over the top of my father’s head, and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting to see what would happen next.
“Why did your mother and I have to find out from somebody I work with, who found out from a gossip rag, that you are dating Linc—and having his baby?”
I bit my lip and drew a breath in through my nose in an effort to calm myself down. “First, because what Linc and I have is pretty new. Second, I’m not pregnant with Linc’s baby.”
Yet.
We hadn’t used protection either of the two times that we’d had sex this morning, although I had started on birth control this month.
I knew better than anyone that all it took was one time.
Although irresponsible of me, I couldn’t find it inside of me to care that we hadn’t done the safest thing in the world.
Though, I wasn’t worried about anything other than having the whole kid thing. Linc was clean. I knew it just as well as he knew that I was.
There were no doubts in either of our minds.
“Then why does it say you are?” he challenged.
I leveled him with an ‘are you kidding me?’ look. “You do realize that gossip rags publish stuff that’s not true all the time?”
Steel’s jaw flexed. “It was the local newspaper where he saw it first.”
I shrugged. “I had a bad date with a doctor I work with, and Linc saved me. Dinner turned into more. And the doctor made presumptions without looking for, or hearing, the facts. It’s not like I purposefully set out to rattle the cage, so to speak.”
There was a long pause.
“It was that friend of yours that let this particular cat out of the bag, wasn’t it?” he accused.
That’s when the smile broke out over my face. “It wasn’t Pru this time, it was Phoebe.” I paused. “Her little sister who’s also in nursing school.”
Steel groaned.
“Who are these Phoebe and Pru characters?” Jessie finally spoke.
My smile stayed in place, despite the question. “I work with Pru. I lived with her for a few weeks while I found a house here.”
“Silas’ granddaughters,” Steel rumbled. “Their parents own Free.”
“Ahhhh,” Jessie nodded. “I understand.”
My brow rose. “Why do you know who they are?”
Jessie’s eyes, so much like his son’s eyes, turned to regard me slowly. “Free is a custom motorcycle shop. Sam is Silas’ son. Silas is the president of the Benton Chapter.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew who Silas was. Everyone knew who Silas was.
Not to mention, the three of them had yelled at Linc the night that he’d joined his current MC.
“I know who Silas is,” suddenly angry all over again. “He was one of the ones yelling at Linc that night that he joined the Bear Bottom Guardians. I remember quite clearly.”
There was an awkward silence as the two men held their tongues, trying to figure out something to say.
Then I felt Linc’s arm going around my waist and pulling me to him, my back to his front.
He had an erection, and I chose to let him press it against me rather than pointing out that he had one at all after what we’d just done. Then again, not saying anything in front of his father and my stepfather was probably for the best—especially when it was regarding putting our genitals together in front of them.
My stepfather’s eyes narrowed.
And that’s when I had it.
“What do you have against Linc, Steel?” I pushed. “Is there something wrong with him?”
Steel’s eyes narrowed. “Not necessarily, no.”
“Has he hurt your sensitive feelings in some way?” I pushed.
Steel crossed his arms over his chest as Linc tightened his arm around my waist, cautioning me.
I didn’t listen.
Maybe I should have.
“No,” Steel disagreed.
“So, what is it?” I asked. “Are you saying that there’s something that he’s doing that bothers you that much that you don’t want him with me?” I tilted my head. “Or is it because I’m not good enough for him?”
I saw something flicker in Steel’s eyes and knew that I’d just struck closer to home than I’d ever thought.
“It’s me you’re worried about,” I finally said. “You think that I’m going to do something wrong here.”
When Steel didn’t say anything, I knew that I had the right of it.
“I don’t think you’re going to do something wrong,” Steel said in exasperation. “I think that you’ve already had it rough and that you don’t need Linc’s bullshit catching up with you. I think that back then you had a choice, and that choice would’ve affected both of you negatively. You were both on different paths in life and being together might’ve made those paths tougher than they should’ve been. And let’s face it, honey, you were not the easiest teenager. You were awful, quite honestly. I wanted both of your heads to be in the right place, and they weren’t. Not to mention this bozo went and gave the finger to the Dixie Wardens’ name. They are still affiliated with us, but what was wrong with our club? And now, all these years later, the Guardians are still trying to prove themselves.”
I felt my lips twitch.
“So you’re saying that now that we
’re together, you won’t complain anymore,” I finally got out. “But it still smarts that the chapter you intended to start up in Texas didn’t go the way you’d planned, and now that they branched off, finding their own niche in this world, you’re upset because y’all don’t get the recognition for it. It’s gotta burn that two professional football players are bringing new eyes to the world of motorcycle clubs, and y’all aren’t really a part of it.”
I wasn’t trying to be a shit, but hell, Steel’s reasons were sub-par at best.
Yes, I’d been a troubled teen. Yes, if we’d gotten together back then, things might’ve changed on our paths in life. Sure, Linc had taken a leap of faith that not many would’ve taken when it came to a motorcycle club.
But I didn’t blame him one bit.
It was hard to be in your parents’ shadows, and what the boys of the Bear Bottom Guardians did was try to form their own path in life, not take the easy road and ride on their father’s coattails.
Steel growled in frustration. “This club is our life. The Dixie Wardens have gone through a lot, and yes, it burns that they don’t want to be our chapter here in Texas. But no, that’s not why we’re upset. We’re not really upset about anything—at least not anymore. In the beginning, it was a big deal. Now, I’m just pissed off that I was lied to.”
“You were lied to?” I laughed incredulously. “How about how you told the man that I wanted more than my next breath to stay away from me, and he did for almost six years?”
Steel shrugged. “I signed up to watch over you, and I don’t give a good goddamn who I hurt in the process to make sure that in the end, you’re all right.”
That was actually kind of nice.
Except he’d hurt me and Linc, and not anybody else.
“And I’m not going to apologize for watching out for you two. Sorry if it hurts that you didn’t get to be together when you were both too young to realize that your lives were meant to go places that had nothing to do with each other. Can you honestly say that you would’ve gone to nursing school and then started taking courses toward your nurse practitioner’s license had you been married to Linc? Because I can’t say that you would have. You would’ve been knocked up with three kids by now, wondering if you could’ve changed things had you given it time,” Steel said, sounding not the least bit sorry.
Talkin' Trash (The Bear Bottom Guardians MC Book 2) Page 11
