I was about to get gone like he clearly wanted when the bathroom door flew open, a familiar voice calling out, “Are you coming, sexy?”
In the next second, vibrant red hair filled my vision, as none other than Abi sauntered into the main room wearing what was no doubt Liam’s shirt.
She let out a squeak as she saw me. She pulled at the hem of the t-shirt, unsuccessfully trying to hide some skin.
Liam cringed and muttered, “Fuck.”
“Uh… hi, Cole,” Abi eked out. “I was just here to… uh…” Her face went bright red and she turned tail and ran back into the bathroom, kicking the door shut behind her.
I cocked an eyebrow at Liam.
“She’s just helping me out. You know, gunshot recovery and all that?”
“Yeah, it looked like she’d definitely been helping you out.”
He rolled his eyes. “Nobody knows, all right? We wanna keep it that way 'til we know if it’s gonna stick.”
“No one’s gonna hear anything from me.”
“Good. Thanks, brother.”
I nodded. “I’ll let you get back to it.” I couldn’t help adding, “Enjoy yourself.”
“Get outta here,” he said, laughing.
I stepped back as he shut the door then headed down to my room.
As I approached, I frowned when I saw the door was open. Had Tasha left? She’d been asleep when I’d slipped out to meet with Slade earlier. Or, maybe, pretending to be asleep, to avoid what she had to know was coming.
The lecture of a goddamn lifetime.
I hadn’t been cognizant enough to get into it with her when I’d woken up for a bit last night before crashing hard again. But she was going to hear it now that I was wide fucking awake. What she’d done had been so reckless and unbelievably stupid. I still couldn’t actually believe she’d done it, showing up in the middle of a brutal battle between two notorious clubs. Putting herself in danger was bad enough, but to risk our baby too? What the fuck had she been thinking?
I took a beat to remind myself to check my anger at the door. Me losing it would just have her shutting down when I really needed to drive it home to her, to make her understand just how dangerous and unacceptable her actions were. Just thinking about her being there right smack damn in the middle of that much danger… fuck… I hadn’t been able to get it out of my head. It’d actually managed to do what no one had been able to do for a hell of a long time. Terrify me. What I could’ve lost if things hadn’t gone our way… shit… I couldn’t even go there. I couldn’t stand thinking about it. It was… too much.
I strode on into my room.
What I saw pulled me up short.
What the hell?
Just like several years back when I’d burst on in here, there Tasha and Mason were.
But it was a far cry from what I’d walked in on that day.
So fucking different.
He was sitting on the windowsill, all calm and chilling.
She was slumped in a chair in the corner rubbing her baby bump.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled to myself. Everything was different now. And, after our victory last night, it always would be.
Mason shot to his feet when he spotted me. “Hey,” he said, uneasily. “Everything go okay with Prez? You feeling okay?”
I looked from his nervous expression to Tasha, seeing the same thing all over her face.
And that was when I knew.
I couldn’t lay into her, or him.
We needed to move forward, not keep dwelling on the past.
It’d already cost us all too much.
I wasn’t about to let it keep doing that.
So, instead, I merely commented, “And I’m meant to be the crazy, reckless one?”
Soberly, Mason told me, “Desperate times, brother.”
“Cole, I—” Tasha started, trying to get to her feet and struggling in her pregnant state.
I held up my hand. “Stay there. Relax. Never do anything like that again, yeah? Make me that deal right now and I’ll let it go.”
She frowned. “You will?”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “You did what you thought you had to do, just like all of us did. But we’re about to become parents and I won’t ever risk my kid ending up the way me, Mason and Luce did, all right? No more reckless shit. Swear it to me.”
I saw my words hit home, emotion playing on her face. She swallowed hard and eked out, “I swear.”
Smiling as I made my way over and dropped to a crouch in front of her, I told her, “Good girl.” I took her hands and kissed them. “We’re free, baby.”
Her whole face lit up in a way I hadn’t seen in a hell of a long time. “We’re free.”
26
~Natasha~
“YES, COLE! FUCK! DON’T STOP!”
I writhed beneath him, unable to keep still. He had me so worked up, right on the edge.
He tightened his grip on my thighs as the rapid-fire flicks of his tongue to my bare pussy had me bucking up off the bed in ecstasy.
“No moving,” he growled, lifting his head from my pussy, his lips glistening with my juices.
He held my gaze and made an erotic show of slowly licking my taste from his lips.
A jolt of pleasure shot through me at the dirtiness of it and the carnal look in his eye. It amplified my need to a state I hadn’t known existed and I grasped his shoulders, pulling him to me as I told him, “No more teasing now.”
He grinned slyly, then lowered his head back to my waiting pussy.
He switched to slow, slathering circles, his tongue ever so slightly avoiding my clit.
God. He was making me crazy.
I knew what he was doing. He was trying to draw it out, to push me, so it’d be all the more explosive when he finally took me over the edge. We were finally together without any bullshit hanging over our heads, which meant we had time, time to
