For a second, her question catches me off-guard, because I don’t think there have ever been any kids on top of my refrigerator. But then I realize she’s referring to the photos taped to it.
Fuck.
Well, if being a member of the MC, being dirt poor, injuring an innocent dog, and keeping the fact that she has a brother from her didn’t push her away, this will for sure.
“Are they your niece and nephew?” Joanna asks when I don’t say anything.
“No. They’re my son and daughter, Asher and Sierra.” I can’t help but smile as I say their names. I’m not ashamed of them even if they’ll probably grow up ashamed of me. I love them more than anything in the world, but I know having kids with two different women is probably a major deal breaker for a smart, beautiful woman like Joanna. Most men would’ve learned from their mistake the first time they knocked up a woman by not wearing a condom. Two is just utter stupidity on my part. I don’t have an excuse, just got too caught up in the moment to think about protection.
“You have a son and a daughter?” Joanna repeats as if she can’t believe it.
“Yep. Asher just turned four and Sierra’s three.”
“Do they live with their mother?”
“Asher lives with his mother, and Sierra lives with hers, yeah.”
Joanna’s eyes widen. “Two different women?”
“Uh-huh. I only get to see them for an hour or so every Sunday.”
“Every Sunday?”
“Yep.”
“You mean, those two women that you saw that day that I drove you were their mothers?” she asks, and it takes me a few seconds to remember what she’s talking about. I was still healing and pretty fucking high on pain killers, so I barely remember her driving me to see them both and grovel for them to forgive me for missing our weekly date.
“They were pissed that I didn’t meet them at the playground or call them because I give them money every Sunday too. But once I showed them the bullet wounds and gave them the cash I was paid that Friday before it all went down, they were less pissed.”
“So, you’re not in a relationship with either of them?” she asks.
“God, no. They were one-night stands, and now they barely tolerate me an hour a week.”
“Why only an hour a week?”
“They don’t trust me to be alone with the kids. I can’t blame them. Hell, I thought you wanted me to put the dog on the toilet when you asked me to take him to the bathroom, Joanna!”
She purses her lips like she’s fighting a smile because she knows I’m right.
“I love Sierra and Asher, but I could never be a real father to them, so I just give their mamas as much money as I can to help them get by.”
“You’re a good man to do that, Phillip,” Joanna says. “An hour a week and you pay child support; that’s more than some fathers ever do for their children.”
“It’s not like court required child support though,” I explain. “I give them both five hundred every Sunday.”
“A thousand every week?” Joanna exclaims.
I nod. “There’s good money in construction, mostly because it’s back-breaking work that most people never want to do,” I tell her. “So, I give them as much as I can and still make rent, even if I have to live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until the next Friday when I get paid again.”
“Oh, Phillip,” Joanna says like she thinks I’m pathetic. But then she drops the towel in her hands to grab my face, pulling my lips down to hers.
The kiss catches me off guard. After all she knows about me, I can’t believe Joanna would want to touch me, much less want to kiss me.
I shouldn’t have come over here.
I should’ve stayed away like Dev told me to do.
But the reason I didn’t was because this is exactly what I wanted to happen. And before Joanna comes to her senses, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.
I wrap my arms around her waist to pull her closer as I part her lips with my tongue and plunge it into her mouth. God, she tastes like heaven. I could kiss her for hours, days even, and never get enough.
And while I want to rip her robe off and anything she’s wearing underneath, I’m also scared shitless of what happens next. That’s never happened to me before. Usually, it’s nothing more than get both of us naked, put the rubber on, and shove my cock inside as hard and fast as possible. The women I’ve been with seem to like when I fuck their brains out and beg for more, but I don’t think Joanna would. What if I’m too rough with her or she doesn’t enjoy herself? This could be the only chance I get to be with her, and I don’t want to screw it up.
Joanna pulls away laughing, and I think I’ve already fucked things up. Then she says, “You’re too tall to keep kissing like this.”
I smile because I don’t think she’s criticizing my height, just telling me it’s inconvenient for long, passionate kisses.
“Do you…would you want to go to the bedroom?” she looks up and asks me hesitantly.
“I shouldn’t want to,” I admit, and her eyes lower. “But I want you so fucking bad,” I tell her honestly.
“Good, because I want you too, Phillip,” she says with a smile as she takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom.
The tidy girly room, of course, reminds me of when I was in so much pain I thought I was going to die. I never thought I would be in this room again with Joanna, at least not unless I was shot again.
“Let’s get you out of these wet clothes,” Joanna says as she pushes my leather cut down my arms and off before helping me get my t-shirt over my head. After I toss the shirt on the floor, I notice Joanna’s eyes and
