After our work out, I left Striker in bed to sleep it off. He looked worn out. Thank God Dad and Lauren had left for Vermont for some work thing. I was only half listening when Dad told me this morning, before I emerged from my room. Emily’s at Jake’s tonight while he’s in town. I feel bad for her. She’s having to split time between me, Striker, and Jake. The quicker we get moved into the new house, the better. Maybe then she’ll get some sort of normality in her life.
Hands circle around my waist, resting on my still flat stomach as I cook him breakfast.
“You're supposed to be in bed.”
He kisses my neck. “So are you.” I spin in his arms, look up into his blue orbs. He is the most beautiful man I know, and he's all mine.
“What's that smile about?” He rubs his nose down mine.
“Nothing. I'm just...” I lick my lips, shrugging one shoulder. “I'm just happy.”
“Me too. You make me happy.” He kisses my nose, kneeling to kiss and whisper against my stomach. “I'll see you at the clubhouse later?” he asks as he stands to place his hands on my hips, pulling me to him.
“Sure will.” I smile up at him and kiss him lightly, and he’s gone.
***
I had a few errands to run before I met Striker at the clubhouse.
“Afternoon, sweetheart,” Chucky greets me. Ever the gentleman, he opens my car door for me. I give him an appreciative smile and kiss his cheek.
“How are you doing?”
“Oh you know, freezing my ass off.” He chuckles, shrugging his shoulder.
“Do you want me to get you a mug of hot cocoa?” I ask. I don’t want him to freeze to death.
“I’m fine just now, sweetheart.” He pats my shoulder. With a nod, he walks back to the little cabin beside the big gates to watch the security cameras. I look over and spot Striker sitting on one of the chairs outside. They’re all mad it’s so cold and they decide to have a barbeque, sitting outside in just t-shirts. I shiver at the thought of not having my big cozy jacket on right now.
I walk up behind him and put my arms around his neck, kissing his cheek.
“Hey, baby.” Striker pulls me onto his lap and kisses my neck. He brings the beer up to his mouth. I catch the smell of it and my stomach rolls. Standing up, I sprint to the bathroom, Striker calling after me.
“You okay?” Striker followed me to the bathroom.
“Yeah. I'm good.” I dry heave.
“Come on. Remember, no more lies works both ways.”
“I know. Honestly, I’m okay. It’s just morning sickness.”
“Okay, if you're sure.” He looks down at me, concerned.
“Striker, I’ve been here before, and I was a thousand times worse with Emily. This is mild.”
He gives me a slight nod. “When can we tell everyone?”
“Can we get past the danger zone first? I don’t want to jinx it,” I say as we walk out into the November chill. Who decided to have barbecue in November anyway? “Plus, I want to tell Emily soon too. She should know before everyone else.”
“Yeah, I’m just excited.”
We walk out and see Ezra sitting on Jess’ knee. He sees Striker and me and starts to laugh and babble.
Striker takes him in his arms, throwing him up in the air with a smile on his face.
“You okay?” Nico walks up to me, putting his arm around me.
“You know what? I am. I really am.” I grin up at him.
***
We barely make it to the door before Striker is on me. He kisses down my neck, my knees weaken, and my eyes roll to the back of my head. I can't help the moan that comes out of my mouth.
“Oh, God.” His hands snake round and into the waistband of my jeans.
“You better hurry and open the door, baby, or your dad’s security team will be getting a free porn show.”
I finally get the door open. We're acting like a couple of randy teenagers and have been since Striker got home. “Oh, God. I don't think I'll make it up to the bedroom.” I gasp.
“We have the whole house to ourselves. Let's christen every room.” Striker pulls his cut and shirt off. I growl and jump on him. These hormones are worse than they were with Emily. I can't seem to get enough of him.
“I want you to fuck me hard.” I grind down on his growing penis.
“Fuck. I would if you didn't have these damn jeans in the way.” He bites down on my neck.
He places me on the sideboard in the hallway and unbuttons my jeans and pulls them down. “No panties again? You’re getting bold.” He grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls it up and over my head. He kisses the tops of my overly sensitive breasts, and I groan, shifting my hips. He peppers kisses down between my breasts to my navel, where he stops.
“Tell me again,” he says, looking up at me from my stomach.
“I’m pregnant.”
Standing, he places his fingers under my chin, making me look him in the eye. “No, baby.” My brows crease, confused where he’s going with this. “We’re pregnant. This baby is half of me and half of you.” He places his hand on my stomach. “I swear to you, I won’t let you go through this alone. Not again. I will be at every hospital appointment, every class. I’ll get you anything you need. You crave something at two a.m.? I’ll drag my lazy ass out of bed and go to the store to get it. I might not be the one carrying this little miracle, but I will carry you, the baby, and Emily in my heart forever and a day.”
“Oh, my Jesus, look what you did,” I sob, tears fall like raindrops on a window. “You can’t say things that sweet to a hormonal woman, babe. I bet I look super attractive now with snot dripping from my nose.”
“I’d still fuck you, you look beautiful,”
“Oh God, seriously stop,” I sniffle and wipe my nose. Here I am sitting in my Dad’s hallway, on his sideboard in nothing but my bra, a sobbing mess. All because of this beautiful man before me declared he would do anything for me. “I love you.” I sob again.
“I love you so damn much.” He crushes his lips to mine. The kiss slows down to a more romantic kiss. Lifting me, he carries me up to our room, laying me gently on the bed. “I'm going to love you the way you are supposed to be loved.” He stands and pulls down his boxers. Crawling back on top of me, he kisses me gently and pushes into me, moving slowly. He never breaks the kiss, nor does he quicken his pace. The whole thing is new; it’s making love. Not fucking like we normally do.
And damn, it feels so good.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Striker
Waking up, I look down at Daria. She's fast asleep on my chest. A smile spreads across my face. I lift her arm from around my waist, and she starts to stir a little but falls back to sleep.
I busy myself making her some breakfast to take up to her, hoping Nicholas doesn’t come in so I don’t have to have an awkward conversation with the man who hates the ground I walk on. I make my way back up to bed, carrying her breakfast. When I kneel on the bed, she opens her eyes. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
“Morning.” Her voice is still full of sleep and sexy as hell. “What's all this?” She sits up, looking at all the food I cooked.
“Don't look so shocked. I can cook.” I chuckle, lying next to her.
She places her hand on my face then leans in and kisses me lightly. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome, baby. Anything your heart desires, it's yours.”
“Anything?” Her eyes shine with excitement.
“Within reason. But yes, anything.”
“Can you trace someone for me?”
“Who?” I frown.
“I'll tell you later, but you can't tell anyone. Not even Nico.”
“Baby, what's going on?”
“I want to trace Ramon.” My mouth pops open, too shocked to speak.
I'm not usually scared of anyone, but Ramon Sanchez scares the living shit out of me.
“Striker?” Daria rubs her hand on my back.
“No. I'm not tracing
him. I don’t want you around him,” I shake my head. “Why do you want to find him?”
“I want to know why he did what he did to Lauren. I want to face the coward who thinks hitting a woman and beating a child is okay.” A teardrop falls.
“Daria, Ramon Sanchez is the worst kind of person you can ever meet.” I try to get the idea out of her head. “You thought I was a monster when you came back into my life? Ramon won't hesitate to kill you as soon as he sees you. He won't listen to anything you have to say.”
She looks down at her feet, avoiding my gaze, and sniffs.
“Lauren has given you all you need to know and now you need to leave it.”
She steps out of my embrace.
“Daria, please promise me you'll leave it.” She doesn't look at me. I place my fingers under her chin, making her look at me. “Please. I'm begging you. Don't pursue this. I couldn’t bear anything happening to you or this little one.” I place my hand on her stomach.
She sighs, placing her hand on top of mine. “Fine. I'll leave it.”
“Thank you. Now, how about we continue the celebration in the shower.” I kiss down her neck, making her moan.
This woman is mine, and I will spend every day of my life showing her how much I love her.
Pussywhipped.
***
“Emily, sweetheart,” Daria calls on Emily to come down so we can tell her she’s about to be a big sister. Jake Snr. dropped her off thirty minutes ago and she’s been in her room ever since on her cell to her friends.
“Emily!” Daria shouts louder.
“I’m coming.” Emily snaps, walking down the stairs.
Where the hell has this attitude appeared from?
“Excuse me, young lady. Who do you think you’re talking to?” Daria says.
I step in to try to defuse the situation.
“Emily, apologize to your mom. You don’t talk to her like that.” I look down at my ten-year-old daughter, who thinks she’s eighteen these days.
“Sorry, Mom.” She throws herself down on the sofa, still scrolling through her cell.
“Emily, put the cell down, please.” Daria asks her nicely, but she continues to stare at her screen. “Emily Jefferson.” I cringe when I hear Jake's surname still attached to her.
“Xanders,” Emily snaps. “Emily Xanders.” She throws Daria a disapproving look, then looks at me.
“You want to change your name?” I ask her. She gives me a little smile and nods.
“Well, you’re my real dad. I should have your last name, right? Can I move in with you and Grandpa?”
“What? What’s wrong with here?” Daria gasps.
“I hate it here.” Emily looks down. I sit by her and take her hand in mine. “I don’t really know Grandma and Grandpa. I feel more comfortable with you and Grandpa.”
“What about Mom?”
“She can stay here, or move too.” She shrugs. I look at a visibly upset Daria, and it breaks my heart. “We’ll be moving into the new house in a couple of weeks anyway.”
“Mom and I will have to talk about that later. Right now, we have something to tell you.”
“You’re having another baby, I know.” She sighs, sounding bored.
“How do you know?” Daria sits on the other side of her, going to take her other hand, but Emily moves her hand out of the way.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“We wanted to wait until we knew everything was okay, sweetie.”
Emily lets out a little laugh. “Uncle Nico, Auntie Jess, Alex, Grandma, Grandpa, and Grandpa Barron knew.” Emily sniffles and looks up at Daria with tears in her eyes. “Even Jake and his boyfriend knew before me.”
“Emily, we wanted to tell you, but I’ve had some problems in the past so I wanted to be one hundred percent sure that everything will be okay before we told you and got your hopes up.”
Emily stands up and glowers down at us. More specifically, Daria. “I don’t want a brother or sister.”
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not up for discussion.” Daria stands in front of Emily. Emily’s nostrils flare and she stomps her foot, her fists clenched at her side as she raises her voice at Daria. “I hate you. You ruined my life!”
She turns her back and runs up to her room, slamming the door with added dramatic flair.
“Emily!” I shout.
I look down at a shocked Daria. “I’ll go talk to her.” She blinks a few times, nodding her head. I guide her to the sofa and sit her down. “I’ll be back down soon.”
Leaving Daria, I make my way up to see what the hell has gotten into Emily. I knock on her door and open it; she’s sitting on the window reading seat, staring out into the garden.
“Ems?” I walk slowly toward her. Her hand lifts to her face, wiping her eyes. Her breath shudders and she sniffs. “Emily?”
“What?”
I sit opposite her on the seat, placing my hand on her knee. “Want to tell me why you just raised your voice at your mom?” Emily still gazes outside, ignoring me. “Emily, what’s going on?”
“Everything’s changing. I hate it. I hate Mom for making it all change. She uprooted me from my childhood home and she’s adding another person to the family.”
“This isn’t all on your mom, Ems. Everything your mom does, she does for you. That house wasn’t safe for you anymore. You’re too young to understand, but when you’re older, you’ll see that what we do, we do it all for your safety and the safety of your new brother or sister.”
I show her the sonogram picture that I’ve kept in my pocket since Daria handed it to me. She looks down at it.
“What if she doesn’t love me anymore because she has the baby? Or she’s too busy to come to my basketball games if the baby is ill, or you both don’t have time to help me with my homework?” She sobs.
I pull her to me, taking her in my arms. “Ems, that won’t happen. Your mom loves you. I love you. You’re our baby girl. We will be at every game you’re playing. We will be there with your brother or sister, and we will always be here for you no matter what.” I kiss her raven hair; she cries in my arms for another ten minutes. “You need to apologize to your mom for the way you spoke to her.” She nods, sniffling, wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her hoody.
We walk down to see Daria staring ahead; I urge Emily to go ahead. I leave them to talk and busy myself cleaning up our dinner plates in the kitchen.
***
We pull up to the clubhouse after dropping Emily off at school. Daria wanted to come by to talk to Blair about whether something had happened to Emily because he picks her up from school sometimes when we’re both busy.
“You okay? You've been quiet all morning,” I ask her as we enter the clubhouse.
“I'm fine.” She kisses my cheek and walks over to Blair.
“You two good?” Nico smiles, handing me a cup of coffee and taking a sip of it. “Hello, Earth to Striker.” He waves his hand in front of me.
“Yeah. Yeah, we're good.” I smile. “Everyone!” The place silences, and I wave Daria over to me. “We're having a baby,” I announce and kiss Daria. Everyone whoops and whistles.
“Congratulations, sweetie.” Fran grins, pulling me into a crushing hug and then hugging Daria. She keeps her hands on Daria’s shoulders and frowns. “You okay?”
Daria’s eyes gloss over and she runs off.
“She doing okay?”
“Morning sickness.” I stare in the direction Daria just ran in.
“You sure it's nothing more?” We walk toward the bar, and a few of the brothers congratulate me on the way.
I take a deep breath and sigh. “We were going to tell Emily about the baby, but someone beat us to it and told her that she’s going to be a big sister. Let’s just say she didn’t take it too well.”
“But she loves Ezra.” Nico frowns.
“It’s not the same, though, is it? She feels like the new baby will take all our attention. Jake told his boyfriend too.”
“Maybe she overh
eard the conversation. She’s like her mom; a snoop.” He chuckles.
“Maybe, but something doesn’t add up.”
“Well, have you asked her?”
“Yeah, but she won’t tell us.”
“I’ll do some digging.”
I nod.
Someone has it in for Daria or me. Or both of us. First it was the photos that Daria was sent of me and a whore from years ago, and now they’re involving Emily, trying to drive a wedge between us all.
“Congratulations again, son.” Dad slaps me on the back and pulls me into a hug. “I'm so proud of you,” he whispers in my ear so only I can hear.
“Thanks, Pop.” I can't help the smile on my face.
“Now, where’s the lady in question? I want to congratulate my future daughter-in-law.”
“Bathroom, bringing up what little she’s eaten.”
Dad nods.
“He hasn't asked her to marry him,” Nico pipes up.
“No. But he will. Won't you, son?” Dad looks at me.
“I will. I need to get in Nicholas’s good graces first.”
“Good luck with that.” Nico snorts. And he’s right. Getting on Nicholas’s good side after all I’ve done in the past is going to be difficult, but I will fight to the death for her, and if I have to fight her father? I will.
“Your woman sure is throwing up a storm in there.” Mars alerts me to just how sick Daria is. I start to stand, but Nico places his hand on my shoulder and stops me.
“I'll go. You stay and talk to your dad.” Nico walks away to tend to Daria.
“Son, you look distracted,” Dad says. I look into my dad’s expectant, worried blue eyes, debating whether or not to tell him about Daria wanting to go see Ramon. Dad has seen first-hand what he is capable of. I know for sure he’d have a heart attack at the mere thought of Daria going anywhere near that psychotic bastard. Pair that with someone telling Emily about the baby and her reaction, my head’s a confused mess.
“Daria wants me to do something I don't want to do. But I'm scared that if I don't help her, she'll try to do it by herself. Plus, Emily hasn’t taken the news about the baby too well.”
“Is this thing dangerous?” Dad looks me dead in the eye.
“Yes.” Ramon Sanchez dangerous.
Nothing Else Matters (Demons Disciples MC Book 2) Page 13
