Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
S tephanie Elizabeth McCoy was born by cesarean at 7:32 p.m. that April evening. Though weeks early, both mom and baby were reported to be doing fine. At this announcement, the entire waiting room rang out in loud cheers.
Sissy, who had arrived just after they’d learned about Harper needing the C-section, and Scotty were allowed back first. Then Tessa, whom Bear had insisted stay home until they knew what was happening, went back with Cindy and Ronald Hannigan. Though she worked at this hospital in the emergency department, Tessa was already on maternity leave due to the high stress of the job and her own doctor being concerned about her high blood pressure. She wasn’t ordered on bedrest, so long as she could lower her blood pressure and keep it down.
It was nearly two hours later by the time the rest of them were allowed back. The club did so much for the hospital that the visiting hours were extended so long as they did not cause a ruckus.
As the sea of club members made their way down the hallway to Harper’s room, Pirate slipped his way behind several of them until he was just behind Sophia. When they came to a hallway opening, he snagged her wrist and pulled her into it with him.
Sophia let out a squeak of surprise, which Pirate quickly covered with his hand as he pressed her back against the wall. Pirate peeked around the corner and saw the others continuing on, oblivious that he and Sophia were no longer following.
He leaned back towards Sophia. She was wearing a pair of jeans, knee-high boots, and a tight tank top with a big collar that showed off her belly while hiding his marks on her neck. Removing his hand from over her mouth, he took her lips with his own while sliding a thigh between her legs.
Sophia clung to him, nothing about her actions hinting at the cold shoulder she’d been giving him most of the afternoon and evening. Her mouth opened for him as it always did and she ground her hot core down on his muscular thigh.
Aware that they were standing in a hospital hallway where anyone could walk by them, Pirate lifted his head. Spotting a supply closet, Pirate took her hand and led her down the hallway. He was half expecting the closet to be locked, but the door opened for him. He coaxed Sophia inside before following in.
“What are you doing?” There was no anger in her voice. The little minx was enjoying herself. The single lightbulb above them provided enough light for Pirate to see her smile.
“What are you doing?” he asked her in return. “What was with the cold shoulder earlier?”
Her smile dimmed some. “It was nothing. I just saw you were busy with Scotty and didn’t want to bother you.”
“Bullshit.” He caged her in against the shelf filled with toilet paper, paper towels, soap dispenser refills, and other bathroom supplies. “We were fine last night when we talked. What changed?”
“Nothing,” she continued to insist.
Pirate ground his teeth in frustration. Why was the woman being so infuriatingly stubborn?
Sophia tilted her head. “Why do you always leave your pants on?”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Your pants. Other than the first time we slept together in San Francisco, you never take off your pants when we have sex. Why?”
Pirate had no idea why she was asking him that. It seemed so random. He also did not have a good answer. “I have no idea. We’re usually fucking quick and dirty. Doesn’t give a lot of time to take off clothes.”
“Yet I always seem to be naked,” she quipped.
“Well anatomy has a bit to do with that. You’d stay more clothed if you wore more skirts,” he suggested.
She glared up at him. “I am not changing my attire just so you have easier access to fuck me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why not? I’ve noticed you certainly wear a lot of turtlenecks that you didn’t before. What do you plan on doing during the summer?”
Her nostrils flared as she let out a huff of breath. “Who says your marks will still be on me come summertime?”
Pirate’s jaw ticked in frustration. He hadn’t meant to ask that question in the way it came out. They’d set no timetable for sleeping together. Neither one knew how long this was going to last between them. Mentioning the summer gave her the indication that he thought they would still be fucking in the summer, months after their divorce was finalized.
He recalled seeing her in her bikini at one of the last summer parties the club had had the year prior. He’d even made a comment to her in jest that it was teeny-weeny because it had been a yellow polka dotted bikini.
The image of snagging her hips and untying the strings of that bikini. Of fucking her after divesting her of her skimpy bathing suit… Fuck. He wanted to see his marks on her while she walked around the swimming hole. The pure possessiveness of the fantasy was overwhelming. The knowledge that, even when she wasn’t wearing his cut, others would know she belonged to him.
Pirate had to shake the thought from his head. Sophia did not belong to him. Sophia wasn’t his . Sure, maybe in a legal way, but not in reality. It wasn’t… He shouldn’t be thinking those types of thoughts.
But what did it mean that he was? What did it mean that he continuously had to remind himself that Sophia wasn’t his?
Her expression was pure mischief. Like she was enjoying making him feel as conflicted as he no doubt looked.
Pirate scowled at her. She did not make him squirm—he was the one who made her writhe. In pleasure. In pain. In want and desire. In ecstasy.
He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. Once he removed a condom packet, he placed it on the shelf next to her head. He returned his wallet to his back pocket and then reached for the belt of his khakis.
Her eyes dropped to his waistband. “What are you doing?”
“You wanted me out of my pants,” he answered. Dropping the belt, he untucked his shirt and pulled it over his head. He let it fall to the floor on top of his belt and flipped his dog tags around so they hung down his back instead of his chest. Then he unzipped and unbuttoned his pants. “Don’t worry,” he said as his pants and boxer briefs dropped to around his ankles, exposing the top of his prosthetic and the cap. “I’m getting you out of yours too.”
Heat coursed through her. Sophia’s eyes roamed all over him. Since their drunken night in the hotel in San Francisco, she hadn’t seen him naked. Not completely. Occasionally he removed his shirt, but mostly he unzipped, fucked her, and then zipped back up. Now, she was sober and he was standing gloriously naked in front of her.
She took in her fill, ignoring his pants still around his ankles.
Pirate was gorgeous. He had just the right amount of muscle to be fit without being bulky. And his tattoos? His six-pack even had that glory trail down the center and the sexy V that led to his groin. She was pretty sure that was called an Adonis belt. He wasn’t overly hairy along his chest. His hair, five o’clock shadow, and the dusting on his chest matched the thick patch of russet hair surrounding his erection.
Sophia was very familiar with that piece of his anatomy. She’d sucked it enough that one might mistake it to be her favorite lollipop. Most of her sexual encounters prior to Pirate had been very one-sided on the man’s part. Quick fucks that pleasured him and left her wanting. But Pirate was different. From the first time he’d bent her over that bathroom sink, he’d been different. They might be ‘just fucking’, but he’d always been after her pleasure more than his own. Sometimes, he brought her to orgasm with his fingers after spanking her over his knee and never sought his own release.
It was very unselfish and, in a way, so Pirate. The man was always sacrificing something for someone else. When was the last time he did something for himself? Without any consideration of what anyone else wanted or he thought they wanted?
Despite his promise of getting her out of her pants too, Sophia sank to her knees before him, still fully dressed. Looking up at him with heavy-lidded eyes from her place at his feet, she asked him, “Do you want me to suck your cock, Pirate?”
“Fuck, baby. You have no idea what the sight of you on your knees before me does to me, but I’d planned on eating you out after spanking your ass red.”
“My ass is still red from last night.” She took his hard length in her hand. “I want to do this for you .”
Leaning forward, she closed her lips around the tip of his cock. Pirate curled the fingers of one hand in her thick, dark locks while bracing himself with the other on one of the shelves above her head. Sophia swirled her tongue around, savoring the taste of him, before taking him into her mouth. Inch by slow, agonizing inch. She felt his thighs quivering as she sucked, hollowing out her cheeks around his dick. His grip on her hair tightened.
When he hit the back of her throat, she lifted her mouth just slightly. She took a deep breath through her nose before sinking back down on top of him. His pubes tickled her nose as her forehead touched his toned abs. She fought through her reflex to gag as she swallowed around the tip of his cock.
“Holy fuck!” he moaned, eyes transfixed down at her.
Sophia hummed as she pulled off of his cock. Trailing her tongue down and under his length, she lapped at his ball sack while rolling them gently around with the palm of her hand. She continued to fondle him as she raised her mouth back up to the tip of his cock.
“That feels so fucking good,” he complimented. Gripping her hair in a vice, he bobbed her mouth up and down on his cock several times before pulling her back and off of him.
Sophia stared up at him. Despite the tight hold he had on her, she trusted him completely. She knew down to the marrow of her bones that Pirate would not hurt her. More than that, if she asked him to, she knew he would stop regardless of when . That faith, that trust, was so hard to come by.
Was Jasmine right? Did Sophia have feelings for Pirate? Did he have feelings for her?
“As tempting as it is to come down your throat, I need to be inside your pussy. Right the fuck now.”
Feeling the same way, Sophia rose. She unzipped her boots before sliding out of them. Her pants and panties dropped next. By the time she’d done that, Pirate already had the condom rolled down his cock, so she didn’t bother taking off her shirt or bra.
“Come here.”
He lifted her up until her legs were locked around his waist and her arms around his neck. Sophia expected him to press her back against the shelves and was a bit surprised when he turned them so it was his back to the shelving unit. One hand under her ass, he used the other to guide his cock to her slick entrance.
She should be used to his size by now, but she still let out a gasp as his mushroom head breached her. She loosened her legs around his waist to sink lower on him. He stretched her in the most wonderful of ways. Pirate was thick and she loved how his entrance came with just a bite of pain. Her body welcomed him like he was a sailor coming home from sea after a long absence.
She wasn’t strong, having never been to the gym a day in her life, so she struggled to raise herself up and down on him. In this position, without something at her back, she needed more muscle than she had. Pirate, though, did not hold this against her or judge her. In fact, Sophia had the sneaking suspicion that he’d put his back to the shelving unit to protect her, since it wasn’t a smooth wall. Pirate gripped her hips and started to raise her up and down on his cock.
Sophia shuddered and moaned, loving the feel of him inside her. Sex with Pirate was so much more than she ever could have anticipated or expected. She loved how it was fast, yet playful, and rough, yet sensual.
Part of her took notice how items from the shelves were falling down around them, but certainly wasn’t a priority. Pirate bent his knees as he worked her hips down and his hips up. Sophia cried out, feeling the ripples of an orgasm start.
“That’s it, baby, come for me.” Pirate buried his face between her breasts. She could feel his hot breath through her sweater. Her hands held tightly to his hair as she clung to him with all her might. The shelf behind them banged against the wall in time with their thrusts.
Pirate’s own shout was muffled by her chest, but Sophia’s rang out through the supply closet. Both sweaty and gasping for breath, the last thing they expected to hear was a hard rapping on the door, followed by, “Now that you’ve finished up, get dressed and get your asses out here.”
Pirate was going to kill whoever was outside the closet door. No doubt it was one of his brothers. Between the echo of his heart in his ears and the pounding on the wood door, he hadn’t been able to make out the voice.
Then an even bigger reality came crashing down on them. They’d been caught. Someone outside that closet knew the two of them had been in here and, by the clear destruction of the room, their activity had not been quiet. Fuck.
From Sophia’s wide eyes, she’d just come to the same conclusion.
Carefully, Pirate eased her off of his softening cock and then guided her down to the floor. Grabbing some paper towels that hadn’t fallen from the shelf, Pirate used them to get the condom off and then wipe himself down. He’d have preferred a wet cloth but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Not caring that he was unwrapping a new toilet paper roll, he pulled some of the softer paper off for Sophia to wipe herself. As much as he wanted to do it, he needed to deal with whomever was outside the door before letting Sophia exit. He was not going to have her walk out into the hallway to a bunch of onlookers, even if they were his club brothers. He didn’t care how tough she was; she did not deserve that.
Dressing quickly, he looked over to make sure she was covered. She didn’t have her boots on yet, but she at least had her panties and pants back on. Both his wad of paper towels and her toilet paper were in the waste basket by the door.
Gripping her chin, he tilted her face up to claim her lips in a quick kiss. “Wait here. I’ll get rid of who’s out there and then clean up in here.”
The floor was littered with the supplies from the shelves. Thankfully nothing heavy had fallen on them. Those items were lower to the ground and just toppled over. The rolls of paper towels from the top shelf were the leading contenders on the floor.
She bent to pick up her boots and found his belt. Pirate just shook his head. He’d grab it in a minute.
Slipping out of the closet, he was surprised not to find one of his club brothers but Carlos standing outside. He was wearing his beige uniform with his wide brimmed hat. The unamused look on the sheriff’s face matched Pirate’s own irritation.
“What do you want?”
Carlos raised an eyebrow at Pirate’s sudden hostility. Granted, it was a bit more forceful than Pirate had expected. “Some of the nurses came to get me from Harper’s room when they heard ‘a disturbance’ coming from the supply closet.”
“And you stood outside listening like some creeper?” Pirate questioned. He didn’t care if Carlos did or did not hear, but he was sure that was something Sophia would not be happy about learning.
Carlos’s scowl deepened. “No,” he snapped. “But I did keep others from coming down here. Once the banging stopped, I figured it was safe to approach the door.”
Damn that shelving unit. Pirate wondered if it would have been quieter to have taken her up against the door since there’d been no empty wall space.
Carlos scratched behind his neck. “So, you and Sophia, huh. How long has that been going on?”
Pirate stiffened, standing straighter. “How the fuck did you know it was Sophia?”
“I recognized her?—”
Before Carlos could finish that sentence, Pirate’s fist struck out.
Something collided with the door, making Sophia jump and drop the rolls of toilet paper she’d been picking up to put back on the shelf. Hearing the grunts from outside, she rushed over to the door and threw it open in time to see Carlos and Pirate going at each other.
“What the fuck!” she shouted. She made to get between them, but Pirate suddenly turned as if to step between her and Carlos.
As she tried to move around Pirate, she heard heavy boots coming pounding down the hallway. Both Carlos and Pirate had gotten in some good swings, but Pirate was a former Marine. If they really were trying to hurt the other, there was no doubting who the victor would be.
Jumper, Steel, and Cage were suddenly there, breaking up the two fighters. Carlos’s hat had been knocked to the ground. His left eye looked red and puffy and he had a split lip. From the way Pirate was holding his side, Carlos had gotten in a lucky strike to the ribs. Now that the men weren’t going at each other anymore, Sophia squeezed her way through until she was standing between them.
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” she demanded. Rounding on Carlos, she snapped, “You’re the fucking sheriff. Act like it.” Turning on Pirate before Carlos could respond, she scolded, “Really? What are you five? He should arrest your ass.”
Blood was dripping from Pirate’s nose, indicating that Carlos had gotten in at least more than one good strike.
A large hand on her shoulder had her turning to see Steel behind her. “The ladies were looking for you. Why don’t you head on down to Harper’s room? I’ll deal with this.”
She wanted to argue—she was so fucking pissed at both men—but chose not to. She needed to cool off before she said something she would regret. Which, for her, was showing some serious restraint.
“Fine.” Looking over her shoulder at Pirate, she added, “If Carlos arrests you, I’m not bailing you out. Serves you right.”
At least Pirate had the decency to appear ashamed by his actions. Jumper was currently holding him back with a tight grip on his upper arms. Pirate hung his head and mumbled the most half-assed apology she’d ever heard.
Sophia just shook her head and stormed off. What the fuck had Pirate been thinking? What would cause him to go after Carlos like that? It couldn’t have been because Carlos had knocked on the door. Pirate wasn’t the hotheaded sort of guy.
Pausing at the end of the hallway, Sophia closed her eyes and let out a long groan. If this was about what she’d told Pirate the night before, she was going to kill him.
Carlos and Pirate were taken to the same exam room. Steel refused to separate them, telling the men that if they chose to act like children then they could sit in timeout while he went to fetch a nurse.
Carlos went into one of the cabinets. He continued down them until he found one of those quick-cold packs. Slapping it down on the counter a couple of times to break open the chemical packets inside, he raised it to his swollen eye that would no doubt be colorful the next day.
“Want to explain to me what the fuck just happened?” he demanded.
Pirate leaned back onto the exam table. His ribs hurt like hell. “Throw me one of those, would you?”
Carlos hesitated long enough that Pirate thought he was going to refuse. Then he threw the ice pack he’d had on his eye to Pirate. He caught it, wincing as his ribs protested the quick move. Supposed he deserved that. Pirate placed the ice pack on his side as Carlos went into the cabinet to pull out a second one.
The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife.
Finally, Pirate let out a long sigh. “Sorry, man. I really don’t know what came over me.”
Carlos looked at him with his good eye. “Never took you to be the fist-throwing type.”
“I’m not usually.”
“So what changed?” When Pirate remained silent, Carlos grunted. “Look, man, as someone who’s recently had a battle with his own green-eyed monster, can I give you a little advice?” Pirate shrugged but still didn’t say anything. “Figure out the cause and then nip it in the bud. Before whatever you’re battling tears you apart from the inside out.”
Pirate’s face tightened. “I’m not battling anything. That I know of, at least.”
Carlos gave him a very pointed look. “Really?” His voice was full of skepticism. “You can’t think of a single thing? So what, the punch to my face was just random?”
“I really am sorry, man. I have no idea what that was.”
“Clearly it has to do with Sophia. How long have the two of you been dating? It must be new because I didn’t know about it.”
Pirate shook his head automatically. “We’re not dating.”
“So you were just checking her tonsils with your tongue while doing the dance with no pants?”
Pirate couldn’t help the dry chuckle that escaped him. “To be honest, man, I have no idea what we are.”
“You’re sleeping together.” Carlos said it as a statement, not a question.
Pirate nodded. “Have been for months but we’re not, you know, together .”
“Are you sure?”
His mind on the damn marriage certificate he’d been handed on that pirate ship in the San Francisco Bay, Pirate nodded. “Yeah. We’re just fucking.”
Though he’d been thinking that phrase for months now, this was the first time he’d said it out loud. And damn if it didn’t leave a sour taste in his mouth.
Carlos studied him around the ice pack. “Are you sure? You don’t seem sure.”
Pirate snapped his head towards his friend. “I’m sure.”
“And the fist coming at me was for…?” He let the question hang open-ended.
Pirate looked away from Carlos. He thought back to a few moments before he’d let his fist fly…and started to get a sick feeling in his gut. “What did you mean?” At Carlos’s raised eyebrow, Pirate clarified, “When you said you recognized Sophia’s… something . What did you mean?”
“Her voice,” Carlos answered evenly. “I recognized both of your voices as soon as I was close enough to discern what was being said. That’s when I stepped back and gave you two privacy.”
“And kept others from going down the hallway,” Pirate muttered, remembering Carlos telling him that earlier.
Carlos nodded slowly. Then asked, “What did you think I meant?”
Shame washed over Pirate as he realized what he thought Carlos had meant. Fuck. Closing his eyes, he couldn’t believe how reckless and stupid he’d been. If Carlos chose to arrest him and press charges, he’d be fired in a heartbeat from his job at the high school. Not that he cared so much for that job, it was just a job to make ends meet, but he did care about his reputation. And any arrest on his record would make finding a new job all the harder.
Knowing he owed Carlos the truth, Pirate forced himself to look at his friend and admit, “I thought you were saying you recognized her…cries.” At Carlos’s confused expression, Pirate elaborated. “Her cries of pleasure.”
Carlos still looked confused—and then understanding dawned. His stiff posture relaxed and he stood up straighter. “Fuck. She told you.”
Pirate nodded. “Last night. She thought I would be angry at her.”
“Were you?” Carlos’s question was laced with warning. Pirate deserved no less. After all, he’d just had a fistfight with Carlos in the hallway over the same topic.
“No,” he told Carlos sternly. “I wasn’t. It was a long time ago and I didn’t even know either of you when it happened. I have no right to be angry about it.”
Carlos pulled down the ice pack and pointed to his face.
Pirate chuckled and then winced when his ribs protested. “Well, I thought I wasn’t angry about it.”
“You know it meant nothing, right? We were practically kids and I’m pretty sure it was the first time either of us had ever gotten drunk in our lives.”
Pirate nodded. “Yeah, she told me. And trust me, I don’t need any more details than that.” He shook his head. “I really don’t know what came over me, man. I’m really sorry.”
Carlos nodded his head slowly. “Want my opinion?”
Needing to get off of his leg, Pirate sat on the cot behind him. “Lay it on me.”
“Just so I know I have the whole of it, you and Sophia are sleeping together, and have been for months, but you’re not dating. Then last night she told you about a drunken one-night stand we had while in college and today I get a fist in my face. Do I have that right?”
Pirate grimaced as he nodded.
“Wow. Never took you to be a dumbass, but you really got yourself all twisted up with this one, huh.” Carlos let out a long laugh. “Pirate, brother, the answer is right in front of your nose and you’re too blind to see it. Maybe you’re too close to it, but it’s there. Clear as glass.”
“What?” Pirate demanded.
“Fuck, man, you’re in love with Sophia.”
Pirate stiffened. “No, I’m not.”
“My black eye begs to differ,” Carlos rebutted.
Pirate shook his head. “No, you’re wrong. I don’t think about her that way. She’s… I mean, she’s awesome. She’s great. I enjoy spending time with her and we do talk a lot more than I thought we would, but a lot of that has to do with the wedding. And ,” Pirate added, just realizing something, “I wasn’t jealous when I met Fletcher yesterday.”
“Montague?” Carlos questioned. “What the fuck is that asshat doing back in town?”
“Trying to join the club and take Sophia to the wedding,” Pirate grumbled.
“Let me guess, you stopped both from happening?”
Pirate opened his mouth to correct him, and then realized he couldn’t. “Fuck,” he wiped a hand down his face. When it came back with dried and wet blood, he cursed. Since his work polo was already bloody, he lifted the hem to clean his chin and nose. “Sophia told her mom we were dating, but we both clarified to each other that we’re not. And Steel sent Fletcher to the clubhouse for Papaw to deal with.”
Carlos laughed. “Shit, I’d pay good money to see that.”
“I’m sure Keys can pull the camera feeds for you.”
Carlos shook his head, still chuckling. “Look, man, I’m not trying to tell you your business, but I’m a cop. I go where the evidence points me. And you clearly have feelings for Sophia that for some reason you’re suppressing. I don’t know why. That’s for you to find out, but even you can’t deny that they’re there after today.”
Pirate was silent for a long time. He could begrudgingly admit that maybe Carlos had a point, but it didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t. Right? Then again, technically Sophia was his wife. Could he date his wife? Did he want to?
Pirate thought back to the fantasy he’d had earlier of Sophia in her yellow polka dotted bikini with his marks all over her. Then he took it a step further, allowing himself to add details he hadn’t permitted himself to imagine before.
This time Sophia was standing around the swimming hole. She turned to smile over her shoulder at him, that mischievous glint in her eye that he adored so much. On her left ring finger was a modest wedding band and engagement ring combination. As she shifted around to face him, he caught sight of the roundness of her belly. Not fully a baby bump, but certainly on its way to becoming one.
The fear he’d felt that afternoon while driving Harper to the hospital resurfaced.
Pirate had never envisioned himself as a father. Hell, he half assumed he’d be dying an old bachelor. Jumper and Jasmine were undecided about kids, though Pirate had a suspicion that they were just going to end up with a menagerie of animals rather than a house full of rugrats. But he knew that they would welcome a child if Jasmine did get pregnant, either by accident or on purpose. And Pirate would love being an uncle to his niece or nephew. He’d spoil them rotten and let them get away with anything their parents said ‘no’ to.
Fantasizing about having a baby was new for him. He wasn’t like some of his other club brothers who took to fatherhood like it was their sole purpose in life. But the idea of Sophia being pregnant? Of a little minx running around with her mother’s sass and stubbornness?
Fuck. He suddenly understood the appeal.
Realizing Carlos was just standing there letting him work through his thoughts, Pirate asked his friend, “What the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t just… I mean, even if I did have feelings for her, which I’m not saying I do, but maybe do, but even if I did, I can’t just tell her, right? What if she doesn’t feel the same for me?”
“My opinion? She does.”
“How do you know?” Just because she had sex with him didn’t mean she had feelings for him. Both of them had been very adamant about not having feelings for the other.
“Because she told you what happened between the two of us.” Carlos said it like it was the final clue to solving a great mystery.
Pirate shook his head. “I don’t get it. She said it didn’t mean anything. You did too. Why would that matter?”
“Because we swore we would never tell anyone what happened and, if we did, the one who blabbed would have itching powder poured down their underwear for three days.”
Pirate’s eyebrows went up. “What?” Had he just heard that correctly?
Carlos waved it off. “That’s not the point. The point is that she told you knowing what the consequences would be.”
Pirate hesitated before asking, “Did you tell Zoe?”
Carlos nodded. “It wasn’t something I could keep from her once she and Sophia became friends.”
“You and I have been friends since I moved here.”
“But you and Sophia only just started to mean something to each other. Case in point,” Carlos added, “she told you.”
Pirate still wasn’t convinced. “Should I tell her? I’ve never…” He felt a slight blush creep up his neck to his cheeks, feeling a bit like a virgin on prom night. “I’ve never actually asked a girl out for more than a night.”
Carlos’s expression did not fill Pirate with a lot of confidence. “I can’t tell you that. Hell, you could keep it to yourself and never tell her. That’s your choice, Pirate. All I’m saying is that you need to work out whatever is going on inside your head before you throw a punch at someone else who won’t be as understanding.”
“Does that mean you’re not pressing charges?” Pirate asked hopefully.
Carlos snorted. “I should, but I’m not going to. Just promise me something?” When Pirate nodded, Carlos said, “Don’t hurt her. Whatever it is that the two of you have or don’t have, that’s your business, but don’t hurt her. She deserves a man who will always put her first and never take what isn’t freely offered.”
Pirate knew Carlos didn’t mean sexually. Sophia had expressed her own concerns about men only using her for money or her family connections.
“Never,” he swore to Carlos.
Carlos nodded once.
The door to the exam room opened and Bear stepped inside. “Thank God! Now that you two ladies have kissed and made up, let’s get you patched up.”