“You should take your comedy act on the f’n road.”
“Just worried about you, man. Pops said he’s seen you pass by a couple of times this week. You only run when something is bothering. So...what’s up?”
“When did you start gossiping like an old woman, brother,” I said and pulled the hem of my t-shirt up and wiped my face.
“Evading won’t work. Neither will insults.”
“Got shit on my mind. That’s all. I’ll work it out,” I said. This was what happened when a friend knew you too well. They saw too much.
“Brax, brother, she’s fine. The babies are fine. Don’t let the past rear its ugly head, man. I’m not discounting what happened to Stormy and BJ, it was tragic. You can’t control what life dumps on you. But you got a second chance. Live it. And you can’t if all you do is worry about crap you can’t control.”
“Yeah, I tell myself that. Then I look at her, and I want to wrap her in bubble wrap. I was gutted over Stormy and BJ. Losing Luna would end me. There would be no coming back for me, Max. I just want to take care of her and keep her safe.”
“Got that. But guess what? It’s not today. Wasn’t last week either. Luna doesn’t strike me as the type to want to be coddled. And you have been a mother hen since you brought her home,” Flirt said.
“Has she said something?” I asked, and when there wasn’t an immediate response, I looked at my phone to check if the call dropped. “Flirt?”
“Dammit, I might have overheard the women talking about Luna complaining that she can’t take much more of your hovering.”
Well shit.
“It’s hard, man. I don’t want to hurt her,” I said, my voice low because I didn’t want to admit my fear.
“Stop borrowing trouble. Go home, pet the dog, and snuggle with your woman. She’s here, enjoy it. Besides, when the kids get here, the spontaneous sex is gone. At least that’s what I hear Speed and Dev bitch about. No more bending your woman over the kitchen table just ‘cause you can.”
“Jesus, you’re a dick. Just when I think you were concerned, you had to go and ruin it. You were doing good with the support up until then, too. You’re getting soft in your old age, brother.” I smiled and started walking back.
“You know, go home and spend your time boohooing over the shit you’ve lost. Then get a beer and fucking cry in it. You have a woman who loves you. Two kids on the way. But do you see it that way? No, you focus on what it would be like not to have them.”
“You’re such an asshole,” I said to Flirt.
“A second ago, I was a dick.”
I smiled and started picking up my pace.
“But ya love me, man. Admit it,” I said as I grinned.
“Fuck you, Brax.”
The line went dead when Flirt hung up. I chuckled, then went from a trot to a run. I needed to get to the house, I suddenly had a shit ton of energy and never felt lighter on my feet. It might take time for the vision in my head to fade, but I wouldn’t let it rule my life.
Flirt was right, Luna was here. Breathing and safe, and evidently, feeling neglected though I’d spent every minute taking care of her for the past week.
When I would’ve stopped in the yard and worked to cool down, I kept going. I caught the door before it hit the wall.
Luna swung around from the sink where she stood with the dog at her feet. We’d only had the animal for forty-eight hours, and she was already attached to Luna. It took some work to get the shelter to let us adopt her so soon after. But the argument that the dog could gain weight just as easily at our house where she would get one on one attention versus living in a shelter swayed them. They examined her, spayed and vaccinated her, then turned her over.
Luna decided the poor dog need a new name, so Karma was now a part of our family. Since keeping her had been what bit Gunther in the ass, it fit.
I skirted the island and stalked toward my woman. Karma raised her head and eyed me.
“Brax, did something happen?” Luna asked and frowned.
“No, everything is exactly as it should be. But I was informed I might be neglecting my woman,” I said as I reached her, then wanted to laugh at the change in her expression.
“You haven—"
“Gonna take my woman to bed. Got a problem with that?” I asked, bent and swept her off her feet. She sighed and laid her head on shoulder.
“I’m down with that.” She sniffed, then raised her head. “But, Brax, sweetie, you need a shower.”
“Damn, I pulled my head out of my ass, and now you want to complain? But I’ll cut you a break since I do need to clean up. You can help me.”
“Oh, well, carry on,” Luna said as I continued through the house with her in my arms and Karma following us.
I climbed the steps, and when I reached our room, I closed the door and plopped Luna on her feet. Karma laid on her new pillow, and I led Luna into the bathroom.
While the water heated, I stripped her down, then removed my own clothes. With us both naked, I wasted no time getting her into the shower.
Enough time with her had been squandered.
I lifted Luna, and she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I stepped into the spray. After the water soaked us, I turned and placed her back against the wall, leaving the water from the shower to run down my back.
Using one arm and the wall to support her, I ran my hand over her hair, then left it behind her head as I bent and took her mouth with mine. I nipped her bottom lip until she opened, and I plunged my tongue in, tasting every crevice with new desperation. I’d never get tired of being with her.
I released her mouth only to travel my lips until I reached the spot below her ear. She tilted her head, giving me better access, and I gently bit then sucked before moving to her shoulder to lick the pebbled water off her skin.
My lips moved across her collarbone to her other shoulder and up, working my way back to her lips. She rolled her hips until my cock was sliding between her center. She was warm, wet, and mine.
I rocked my hips back and forth, hitting her clit with every stroke. A shiver ran through her body, and she moaned around my tongue. My cock ached to be inside her.
Breaking the kiss, I leaned my forehead against hers. “Not sure I can go slow. Want and need you too bad.”
“Take me, Brax. I’m not going to break.”
“Make it up to you in bed, baby,” I said and pushed inside until she took all of me.
Holding her tight, my hips thrusting, I pounded into her until my balls started to draw up.
“Oh my God, I’m close,” Luna panted.
“Me too, baby. Take us there.”
And she did. Rocking her hips, grinding down until she started to climax and her pussy tightened around me. My body shook as I released everything I had into her.
“If running causes this. By God you will run every damn day,” Luna said as she leaned her head on my shoulder as we tried to calm our breaths.
“A week and no sex was the cause. But, baby, talk to me next time if you’ve got an issue with me,” I said.
“I’m sorry, I just wanted you to treat me as before. And even though you were with me, I didn’t know how to reach you.”
“Not sure you could have. I needed to work it through my head.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this. If a week without getting laid gets this result. Then I can’t wait to see what you’re gonna be like with the six weeks of refraining after the babies are born.”
“Got plenty of time to prepare for that. I’ll stock up on Chapstick for ya. Don’t want your lips to dry out or crack from all the use they’re going to get from blowing me.” I laughed, and Luna bit my shoulder. “Oww!”
“Put me down and let’s wash, then we can refuel before round two.” I slipped out of her and let her body slide down mine.
“Gonna marry me, baby. Make an honest man out of me?” I asked before I let go of her.
“Now? Or can it wait until we’re done in the shower? The water is gett
ing cold.”
“Is that a yes, Luna?” I asked and smacked her ass. “Because if it is, I’m not waiting. Doing that shit soon.”
“How you can be sweet one minute and so damn bossy the next, amazes me.”
“Still not a fuckin’ yes.”
“I’ve loved you my whole life, Brax. Yes.”
“Love you, too, Luna. And I wouldn’t have accepted a no anyway.”
Luna laughed. “Smug bastard.”
We finished our shower, threw on clothes, and made our way to the kitchen.
As I stood beside her while we threw together sandwiches, I realized how unpredictable life was. There were always going to be times when I felt the weight of it on my shoulders. But in the end, with the right person standing with me, it would never be more weight than I was able to carry.
Epilogue
Jag
Ghost and I pulled the bikes to the curb in front of the building the club recently purchased. Through the window, I saw the contractor had the division wall between the two places completed. It wouldn’t be long until they were done.
After I dismounted, I grabbed the papers I needed from my saddlebags and joined Ghost and Luna on the sidewalk.
“I’m going to go into Yoga Sensual first and get Mrs. Wayne’s signature on the lease, then I’ll meet you next door,” I said and turned toward the door to the other business.
“We’ll go in with you. Luna wants to check if they offer a prenatal yoga class,” Ghost said, and he and Luna moved behind me.
I reached for the handle on the door, but before I grabbed it, the door swung open and I stumbled back as a body plowed into me. Ghost’s quick reaction, when he grabbed my shoulders, was the only thing that kept me on my feet.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry,” was said as I gathered my balance. When I looked at the woman who spoke, she was bent over picking up her bag and the contents that had fallen out when she’d dropped it. From the look of her, I was surprised I hadn’t sent her flying back through the door.
“No problem. Let me help,” I said and bent only to have the woman rise and clock me on the chin with her head. The contact was hard enough my teeth rattled. I grabbed my chin with my hand and tested to see if my jaw was intact, then straightened back up. When I did, green eyes stared at me from a face surrounded by a mass of red hair. “For fuck’s sake, is it your life’s mission to kill me, River?”
“Excuse me, but I was exiting the establishment. Not my fault you don’t watch where you are going. Maybe you should pay better attention.” There was the snotty voice that had been haunting my dreams for more nights than I cared to count and the reason I felt my blood pressure go up.
“Yeah, ya think, huh?”
River glared at me with her chin out, and I leaned my face down to hers.
“Maybe if you pulled that stick out of your—”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Luna said loudly, and I stopped before finishing my sentence. “Here are a few more of your things.” Luna held her arm out and handed River a few more items that had come from her bag.
“Thank you,” River said in a soft tone and smiled tentatively at Luna. Then her smile grew as she looked behind Luna. “Oh, hi. Brax, right?”
“That’s right. Window still working okay? No problems raising and lowering it?” Ghost asked.
“No problem at all.”
I gritted my teeth and stared at River while she talked with my brother and his ol’ lady. She didn’t seem to have a problem with my brother, so wasn’t I the lucky bastard she’d focused her frost on.
“You’re taking classes here?” Luna asked.
“Yes, are you thinking about joining. Mrs. Wayne is great. I’m River by the way.”
“Luna, and yeah, I’m looking to take a prenatal class if she offers one. If not, I might take a regular class and just skip the exercises that aren’t recommended for pregnant women.”
“Oh, that’s great. Not that I know anything about being pregnant, but I have read it can help with labor and delivery.”
“Read that, too. And hope it helps because not into proving how much pain I can take.”
“Totally agree. Well, I guess I should be on my way,” River said, and I watched as she placed the things Luna handed her into her bag. When she looked up at me, the smile she had for Luna and Ghost was gone and replaced with a sneer.
“If you want to finish telling me about the stick up my ass, could you hurry? I’d like to get home and shower.”
“By all means don’t let me keep you from your shower,” I said and glared at her, then I moved to the side and let her pass. After she was a few steps away, I added. “Because God knows you could use the hot water to melt some of the ice off.”
If I hadn’t been watching her walk away, I wouldn’t have noticed her falter before she continued down the sidewalk. And if I noticed how the tight pants she wore made her ass look good, wasn’t anyone’s business but mine.
“Damn, if the sexual tension were any thicker between you two, I’d need a knife,” Luna said as she moved to step into the yoga place.
“What?” I turned around to face Luna.
“More like needing a hose to break up a fight,” Ghost said and followed Luna through the door.
“Men. How do any of you ever get laid?”
“Because women can’t go without a dick,” Ghost said, and I chuckled when Luna looked over her shoulder and glared at him.
I walked through the door and stopped beside Ghost. I looked at him and cocked my brow to see if he had a clue what the hell his woman was talking about. When he shrugged, at least I didn’t feel like the only clueless man around.
“When we do get laid, it is by finding a woman who is warm-blooded. Not looking to get frostbite on important parts that I would like to keep using,” I said as we waited for Mrs. Wayne to finish talking with another lady.
Ghost chuckled, and Luna shook her head at me.
“Good grief, you two are so under each other’s skin that there is only one end to it. And when both of you realize the attraction is mutual, anyone close will end up with second-degree burns from being in the vicinity,” Luna said, then turned and addressed Mrs. Wayne when she walked up.
I decided Luna was crazy if she thought the woman had an attraction to me.
As for me, I wasn’t interested in spending the time to see if the ice princess could be thawed out. And dreams, they would go away. Eventually.
Right?
Christ, a woman I barely knew punched buttons I didn’t even know I had. And it pissed me off.
To even the playing field, maybe I needed to find her buttons.
Books by Carson Mackenzie
Black Hawk MC
Speed
Crusher
Devil
Ghost
Jag – Coming Soon
Haven MC
Snatched
Hawk’s Bounty
Revelation – Coming
Standalones
Her Way or No Way
KO Ink
Co-authored with Harley McRide
Vengeance
Pierced and Inked
Brawn and Brazen
Cuffed and Briefed
Tatted and Tamed
Dazzled and Dazed
Pampered and Pinned – Coming
Justice - Coming
The Titans of South Side
Co-authored with Harley McRide
Smoked and Smitten
Breaking and Entering – Coming Soon
Keep up with the Author:
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
http://carsonmackenzieauthor.wordpress.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/authorcarsonmackenzie
About the Author
Carson lives in the South with her two sons, her three Great Danes, and the adopted shelter dog that keeps everyone in line. Books have always been a part of her life. Nothing is better to Carson tha
n curling up and relaxing with a good story by losing herself in someone else’s world while leaving hers behind.
Writing stories and growing as an author with each book published, is a goal Carson wishes to reach. She aspires to have a reader know when they see her name on a cover, they can trust there will be a good story as they flip the pages.
As an author, she hopes to bring you into her different worlds, giving you a chance to escape everyday responsibilities if only for a few hours.
Carson is the author of the Black Hawk MC and Haven MC series. She also co-authors KO Ink and The Titans of South Side series with Harley McRide.
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