This was getting weirder by the minute. “No…that’s okay…”
“You should really get it done. At least so you know how far along you are. About eight to ten weeks you should go in, though. Prenatal care is imperative to a healthy baby, and a healthy mother. You should know that.”
I did know that.
But I wasn’t pregnant so…
“Yeah, that would be great,” Linc said. “Then she wouldn’t have to go in. Win-win. Do you want to do it now or later?”
If I could’ve smacked Linc and Pru without it looking bad to Tyson, who was blissfully unaware that the two of them were assholes, I would have.
“It won’t take a minute.” Tyson turned back to his computer and then started to input stuff into the chart he’d been working on. “Pru even seems to have some free time. And she has all the stuff she needs right there next to her.”
And that was how Pru wound up taking my blood to send down to the lab.
“No rush on it, though,” I said. “They won’t get it back today, and I’m off tomorrow. I’ll check on it next time I’m in work.”
“Oh, they’ll call you.” Pru laughed. “What’s your phone number?”
“You should put my number down,” Linc suggested. “Conleigh never answers the phone.”
That was true. I didn’t.
But this was going too far.
“Lincoln…” I growled.
He winked at me. “It’s…”
Then he started to ramble off his number, and I had to slap my hand over his mouth when I saw people pulling out their phones.
“Linc,” I said through clenched teeth. “Unless you want everyone and their brother having your phone number, I suggest you write it down.”
“Shit.” He looked around. There were at least eight people listening, and four of them were patients. “Okay, I’ll write it down.”
I rolled my eyes, grabbed the bag of food that Linc had left on the counter, and then high-tailed it to the breakroom.
Linc wasn’t far behind, and I offered him a glare over my shoulder as I placed our food out in front of the two chairs that were directly across from each other.
“What the hell was that?” I growled.
“That,” he said, sounding amused. “Was me not pissing off the man you ditched. We may need him later. If he knew you lied, we may not get any information out of him about his brother—where clearly there is no love lost between them.”
Well, when he put it that way, it all made sense.
Which Pru confirmed as she walked in and started laughing the moment she did.
“He’s right,” she said as she walked over and stole one of my chicken fingers. “My dad and Jack have been putzing around this for the last week and haven’t found a thing. His brother might be the breakthrough they’re looking for.”
I sighed.
“I would have thought that they’d have found Tyson’s brother through Tyson. If they’re digging into his background that deep, wouldn’t they have seen that he had a twin brother?” I questioned Linc before shoving a bite of guacamole into my mouth.
“Yes and no,” Linc muttered, leaning away from his salad to reach his water bottle that sat at the end of the breakroom table. “Yes, because it’s something that should’ve been picked up in the background checks. No, because there has to be a valid excuse as to why it wasn’t picked up. And honestly, we were the ones to give Steel and my dad the name. Why would they think to look for a different person when we identified him?”
He pulled out his phone and started to type something out as quickly as his big thumbs would allow, then set the phone on the table with it still pulled up to his messages.
“Your dad?” I asked, tilting my head in the direction of the phone.
He grunted. “Yes.”
“So, I’m free?” I asked. “You’re going to stop coming up here every day for lunch when I’m working?”
He moved only his eyes to me and said a bit sadly, “You don’t like it?”
I opened my mouth to automatically say ‘Yes!’ but stopped. I didn’t want Linc thinking that I didn’t like when he came up here for lunches, because I did. A lot.
I looked down at the Band-Aid on my arm and pursed my lips.
“I do like it when you come up here,” I told him honestly. “But it’s also getting to the point where it’ll be hard to keep using my pregnancy as an excuse since I’m obviously not showing at all, nor am I showing any other signs of being pregnant. The lie won’t work for much longer.”
Linc shrugged. “Hence the reason we did what we did today.”
That was true.
“I wouldn’t mind if you still brought me Manillo’s on Tuesdays when I’m working, though. It’s delicious.” I paused. “And I love seeing you any time, Linc, so it’s really a no-brainer.”
Linc’s lips twitched, then his phone did a weird vibrating thing that had me looking at him in confusion.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Email,” he murmured, picking it up and looking at it. “I have a special ring when my publicist emails. She’s got her very own, super important folder in my email that she set up herself. When I get an email from her, they automatically go into that folder, and I’m to check there immediately since I need to be able to find her emails quickly in the eight thousand other emails that I get a day.” He looked over. “Those were her words, not mine. If it was up to me, I’d just as soon not answer any of them, but email seems to be everyone’s preferred way of contacting me—which I’m not complaining about. I’d rather get an email instead of a phone call that I don’t want to answer anyway.”
“God, this is so good.” Pru sighed and then reached for my drink as well, taking a hefty swallow. “I gotta go back out there. Being short nurses is a pain in the ass. I haven’t taken a real lunch break in a year since I took this stupid charge nurse job.”
With that, she walked away and left me alone to stare at Linc in expectation.
“Isn’t it like three in the morning in the UK?” I asked.
Linc nodded and pulled up his email, a smile growing wider by the second the longer he read.
“What?” I wondered.
“She sent me an email saying ‘Keep up the good work. FYI you’ve got a meeting with the board of your charity next week in North Carolina where the headquarters for the program are located. Love the pic,” he read.
“What pic?”
“This one.” He turned the phone around and showed me the shot from not even five minutes ago, as well as the three million likes and two hundred thousand comments.
Son of a bitch.
“You did say anything…” he pointed out.
He was right.
I did.
And Linc really did mean anything.
Chapter 14
Don’t lie. You would touch all sorts of weird shit with a ten-foot pole.
-Text from Linc to Conleigh
Linc
Anything.
You can do anything.
Those words haunted me for the rest of the day, and all the while I sat at her house and waited for her to get off, I thought about what I was about to do to her.
The plans I’d made with the club to go out to dinner—cancelled.
The scheduled visit to see Hoax in the hospital before that—rescheduled.
Hell, there wasn’t a single thing that I hadn’t prepared for. Everyone knew, even my goddamn agent, that I was taking the night off from all responsibilities.
My social media account would go quiet for a full twelve hours—something that was unheard of seeing as I was forced to update it with something stupid at least once in all of that time.
Sure, I could’ve pawned that off on someone, but I also didn’t like not being in control of what I ‘said’ on social media.
Now, all I needed was Conleigh to walk through the door.
Which she was supposed to
be doing any second now.
My phone vibrated, and I glanced at it, wondering if I should bother reaching for it or not.
Then I heard the distinct vibration of Conleigh’s car pulling into the driveway and shutting off, making me realize that my phone could go missing and I wouldn’t give a single shit.
I closed my eyes and heard the thump of her car door closing, then felt my abdominals tighten in anticipation.
With each step she took, my anticipation grew—along with my cock.
By the time she had her hand on the knob and was pushing the door in, I felt like every nerve ending in my entire body was a live wire.
Her eyes were downcast, and she was typing something into her phone while juggling her phone, keys, and large RTIC cup in her hand.
The door swung shut behind her, and still, she didn’t look up.
I would’ve laughed at how exceptionally unobservant she was if I didn’t find it endearing.
“Hey, Linc!” Conleigh yelled, unaware that I was less than five feet from her. “Where are you? Why is Pru saying we’re not going to dinner with them anymo— oh, hey! What are you doing there?”
Finally, she looked at me, a frown pulling down the corners of those luscious lips.
“I’m waiting for you,” I replied honestly.
“I’d invited Pru to go with us tonight, and she just texted me saying that she heard from Hoax—though no idea why she is even talking to him. That’s something I’m going to have to drag out of her tomorrow—that we weren’t going anymore. Speaking of which, Hoax was looking fairly good.” She paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Because I want to fuck the absolute hell out of you until you forget how to pronounce words.
“Come here,” I ordered, patting the couch.
Her eyes went to the donuts that were on the coffee table in front of me. “You better not have eaten all of my powdered donuts. I just bought those yesterday.”
She had.
In fact, I’d been the one to tell her not to get them because they were just full of fat and useless, pointless carbs.
But, they did have their benefits…which I was about to show her.
That was if she ever came to me and stopped staring at me as if she was trying to figure out a confusing puzzle.
“Did you go run or something?” she asked, eyeing my shorts.
No, I know how much you love me in workout shorts, so I decided to wear them so I could further torture you.
“No, today’s rest day, remember?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re acting weird.”
Nevertheless, she slipped her shoes off—I’d never once seen her walk through the house with the shoes that she wore to work on—and dropped her things in the chair that was across the coffee table from me.
The next thing to go was her jewelry, which she placed on the coffee table. Her phone quickly followed suit.
Then she began emptying her pockets.
Band-Aids, alcohol swabs, still-packaged needles, tape.
All the while she kept her eyes on mine.
She did glance down at the bag of donuts and looked relieved that I hadn’t helped myself to them all…yet.
Eventually, though, she made her way around the coffee table and stopped just a few inches short of actually touching me.
The moment she did, I grinned. “Take off your clothes.”
“What? Why?” she asked, stepping back.
I caught her wrist in one hand and tugged her until she stood between my splayed thighs. “You said anything.”
Her pupils dilated.
“Linc…”
“You said anything,” I repeated.
A tiny smirk kicked up the corner of her mouth. “I did.”
Without any further conversation, she stripped her shirt off over her head, and then slowly stepped out of her scrub bottoms.
Moments later, she was left standing in only a pair of gray bikini underwear and a gray sports bra.
It was simple, yet the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
Conleigh didn’t need anything frilly or lacey to be beautiful.
All she needed was to be herself.
She had some crazy tan lines going on indicating that when she was outside, she wore short shorts and a tank top. Her belly was shockingly white, yet her arms and shoulders were golden brown.
And God, those goddamn legs of hers were going to be the death of me.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she whispered, her eyes intense and glued to mine.
She was watching my reaction, and she liked that I adored her body.
“Get rid of the panties,” I ordered instead of answering her question.
She did, kicking them off without a second thought.
“Bra.”
That went flying just like the panties, landing on the floor behind the couch with a soft thump.
Conleigh naked was indescribable.
She was everything that I ever dreamed of, and her perky breasts with those pink little nipples were the one thing that always surprised me.
“Those shorts kill me,” she whispered, her eyes no longer on my face, but my dick that was tenting up the front of my shorts.
I hadn’t bothered to put underwear on, so there was nothing restraining my cock but a thin piece of fabric that was meant to keep me cool, not contain my dick.
I grinned and gestured for her to come closer, which she did.
She was now standing with her knees against the couch, and the outside of her thighs touching the inside of mine.
Her left hand was barely an inch away from my cock, and I could practically see her fingers twitching as she fought the urge to reach for it.
Her nipples were hard, and as I smoothed my hand over the outside of her thigh up to palm her ass cheek, they hardened even further.
Perfect.
“They got a picture of you working out with Joe as y’all were exiting the weight room,” she murmured, her eyes transfixed on my pulsing cock. “Every woman in America agrees that these shorts are indecent.”
I laughed. “I don’t think indecent was the word.”
In fact, I was fairly sure of it.
I saw the article today when I was doing the mandatory tweet my publicist ordered me to do every day. I replied to more goddamn comments about the size of my cock in my shorts than I had about what I was looking forward to the most about the upcoming football season.
“No,” she agreed. “At least not when you’re with me, and I’m the one seeing it. When it’s the other women seeing this?” She dragged one single finger over the tip of my cock, sending an electric jolt through my body. “Well, that just makes me angry.”
“You said anything,” I murmured. “You remember that, right?”
Her eyes went wary. “Yeah.”
I felt anticipation start to run through my veins. “Lay down on the couch.”
She looked at the couch, eyeing the sheet that I’d thrown over it, then me where I was sitting in the middle, and waited for me to move.
I did, slowly, making sure to show off every single muscle that I could as I moved.
Her lips tightened, and she waited a beat too long as she tried to gain control over the roiling emotions that were charging through her.
Placing one knee into the couch, she went down to her hands and knees and then dropped down even lower until she was lying lengthwise along it.
“I wasn’t sure that these donuts were good for you,” I murmured, scooting the coffee table close. “But I think I’ve changed my mind.”
I snatched the bag up from where it was resting on the coffee table, turned, and then planted my ass on the hardwood.
Trailing my hand up the length of her back, I paused at the birthmark that was right above her tailbone, then leaned down and kissed it.
She shivered, a rush of breath leaving her lips.
“I have a feeling
you’re about to kill me, and I’m about to adore every second of it,” she whispered.
I had a feeling that she was right.
Ripping open the bag, I reached for one of the donuts, then smashed it in my hand.
The gasp that left her mouth trailed off when I opened my hand and allowed the crumbs to fall down over her lower back, backside, and thighs.
“Oh, this is going to be so much fun,” I murmured.
Then I leaned down and got the first crumb, which happened to be on the small of her back.
We both moaned.
“I can’t believe I’m letting you do this,” she whispered shakily.
I laughed. “It’s funny that you think you have a choice.”
Then I went about cleaning her up.
A slow lick down her side here, a quick flick of my tongue on her hip there.
Over and over I repeated the process until every single piece was cleaned up, even the stray flakes of powdered sugar that somehow managed to work its way into the gap between her thighs.
Though, that might’ve just been my willingness to be thorough. There was really no telling.
Her body was shivering with desire, and she was moving on the couch restlessly, back and forth, clenching and unclenching her thighs.
As for my poor dick? Well, it would only take a single lick, and I’d detonate.
“Turn over,” I ordered.
She did so quickly, not denying the fact that this was likely where she would rather have been since the beginning.
Especially now that she could see my face—and my cock.
Her hand reached for me on its own accord, and I stopped it before it could get little more than a cursory touch.
“Uh-uh.” I shook my head. “I want to hold onto what little remains of my control right now.”
Her eyes were so heated—almost drunk looking—that I could tell that she was on the verge of her own orgasm, too.
Her breath left her in a rush. “You’re killing me.”
I reached for another donut and crushed this one in my palm, too.
Sprinkling the remains of the dessert onto her body, I smiled. “You did say anything.”
“Fuck me.”
“I will,” I teased, even though that definitely wasn’t what she meant. “Later.”
Talkin' Trash (The Bear Bottom Guardians MC Book 2) Page 15
