Rachel
When he walked us through the house, up the stairs, and toward my bedroom, the orgasm continued winging a blazing path through me.
His dick was still hard and buried in my pussy. Something which made the walk somehow both more pleasurable and more painful.
Little bursts of ecstasy kept exploding into being, and I just rested my head on his shoulder, grateful because that hadn’t been the homecoming I’d imagined, but it was somehow all the better for it.
I was hungry for him, but he’d gifted me that reconnection I hadn’t even known I needed.
Hell, I hadn’t even known he’d be back this early! I should probably have chided him for riding so fast; it couldn’t have been safe, but I was so happy to have him back that I couldn’t argue with him yet.
On a soft exhalation, I rubbed my forehead against his throat. It was free from stubble. Like silk. His hair felt that way too. Cut again, even though he’d only been to the barber prior to the gala.
I sighed as I rubbed my fingers down the soft satin at his nape. It felt good against the tips.
“I should be annoyed at how easy it is to fool my brain, but I’m just relieved,” I mumbled.
A soft laugh escaped him. “You mean the mastermind that can befuddle every DA in the nation is convinced by a haircut and a shave?”
I hummed.
“We shouldn’t run before we walk.”
“I know,” I said softly. “You’re going to spend the night, aren’t you?”
“I intend to live here, Rachel,” he drawled, ignoring my sudden tension to tease, “We’ve had a two-decade-long courtship; I think we’re ready for this next step.”
My arms clung to him. “Good.”
“Good?” He barked out a laugh. “Why do you never say what I think you’ll say?”
I shrugged. “To keep you on your toes.”
“It works,” he quipped. “When you tensed up on me, I thought you were going to say you didn’t want me to move in.”
“I want to give this a chance.”
“Me too. So why the tension?”
“I thought you were going to go back to the clubhouse tonight. Now that Wynter’s staying in California…”
He shook his head. “You didn’t want that? Me to return to the clubhouse?”
“I didn’t,” I agreed. “But I thought there might be a possibility you’d want me to move there.”
“Hell, no! You, in the clubhouse? Jesus Christ, you’d lose your mind.”
I released a relieved breath. He wasn’t wrong about me losing my damn mind there.
“Why didn’t you just say that you didn’t want me to return to the clubhouse? Why didn’t you tell me that you didn’t want to live there either?”
“Well, it would have been out of context.”
“This isn’t a courtroom, Rach. If you want something, or if you don’t, you need to verbalize it. Just like I do. Agreed?”
I nodded.
He heaved a sigh. “Say it, Rach. A nod isn’t enough.”
I clucked my tongue. “Yes…” Then, lips twitching, I taunted, “Daddy.”
He laughed, a great booming chuckle of a sound that made me grin wider. Pulling back to peer at him, to soak in the sight of his amusement, his joy, I could feel my eyes sparkling as he looked into them.
“That’s not my kink, sugar.”
“No?” I arched a brow. “The way you’re going, I’m starting to think it is.”
Rex snorted. “The only people I wanna ‘daddy’ are Wynter and Junior.”
“Well, if that’s the case, leave the patronizing by the front door, huh?” I stuck my tongue in my cheek. “I know I’ve fucked up the last two decades, and I know I could have dealt with things a lot better—”
“Hey, that isn’t why I’m being overcautious,” he chided. “I think you’ve dealt with things remarkably. Babe, the only thing you’re not overachieving in is your personal life. Well, you fixed that. I’m here, ain’t I?”
My throat suddenly felt thick. “You are.”
“I am.” The corner of his mouth quirked up in a half grin. “Nowhere else I wanna be than here, home with you. I just want to set things off on the right foot. So if I am patronizing, I really don’t mean to be.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll call you out on it,” I told him sweetly. “And if you start mansplaining, expect to be womansplained to in turn.”
He snickered. “Can’t wait.”
Lips curving, I merely said, “Now, driver, are we staying in the hall or are you taking me to bed?”
“You got a draft up your ass?”
My nose crinkled at the bridge. “You’re as indelicate as ever.”
“And you love it,” he teased, but he finally walked us into my bedroom.
He took a second to peer around the space, all mint and duck egg blue. “I like my new digs.”
Trying not to smile, I murmured, “Relieved everything isn’t fuchsia?”
“Very.”
We headed over to the bed, and he took a seat at the edge and flopped back, meaning that I was straddling him now.
“You make a good taxi service.”
“If I get fired from the MC, I know what to do.”
“Nah, I’m not sharing you.”
“You’re rich. I’ll be your Emile. Although, I don’t do cages unless strictly necessary so I’d have to take you into the city on my bike.”
“You’re out of a job already. Do you know how much work I get done in the back of that car?”
“Really?” He arched a brow at me, seeming supremely, well, everything. Confident, comfortable, happy, settled, all of those things in one as he looked up at me. “I remember when you used to get car sick riding on the bus home from school.”
“God, I remember that. Thank goodness I don’t get that way anymore.” Placing my hands against his chest, I said, “It’s good to have you home.” My pussy clamped down around him at that which made him groan.
He lifted his arm so that he could rest the back of his head on it, murmuring, “It’s even better to be here. Fuck, I’m tired.” He yawned. “That journey was a killer.”
“You can’t have taken many breaks to rest.”
“Is that disapproval I hear?”
“It is. I need you to be safe.”
He grumbled, “I was safe. I wanted to be back here. Plus, my mind was racing and it kept me aware on the roads.”
“Didn’t help that the situation with Wynter is still up in the air,” was all I said.
Rex sighed. “No. She made her choice though.”
She had. But we both knew it was the wrong one.
“You worried?”
“Very.”
I bit my lip. “I’m due to talk to her in a couple hours—”
“She wanted me to text her when I got back.”
“Wait and we’ll do a video chat?”
He grinned. “I’d like that. I also like that my girls have been talking while I’ve been riding home.”
I pulled a face. “It wasn’t the best talk. I-I kind of froze up on her.”
“She might have mentioned it.”
“That bad?”
“You need to lighten up around her.”
“It’s easier said than done.” I wiggled my shoulders. “It’s so simple with Rain. Why can’t it be with her?”
“Because you’re overthinking everything.” He smoothed his hand down my arm, only stopping to tangle our fingers together. “Anything I need to know?”
When I saw Rex and Wynter talking, there was an ease, a familiarity, that we didn’t have yet. I figured that was because of me. Because I was cold by nature.
Things weren’t exactly strained between us, but they were definitely not as comfortable as Wynter was with him.
I wished I could tell him otherwise.
Still, she’d been open. I didn’t think she knew how to be any other way.
“There seems to be no lasting effects from the situation with the Triads,” I said carefully.
“They didn’t hurt her,” he said flatly.
“No, and she told me she knew you’d come.”
“Of course I was going to come,” he snapped, his brow puckering.
I shrugged. “From what I could infer, I don’t think she’d have had the same faith in Kinnock.”
His nostrils flared—his outrage clear. “Then why the fuck is she staying there for him?”
“Because she’s loyal,” I told him, though I’d admit it gnawed at me too.
I knew Rex had blinders on about her because he thought this situation had tainted her, but he’d been sheltered.
Considering his world was dark and gritty, that sounded crazy, but he was Bear’s son—the heir to the Sinners.
Money was no object, and he had more power in his pinkie than most could imagine.
He’d also had parents who adored him and who’d go to war for him.
I didn’t have that. I knew what it felt like to have a gnawing ache in my belly because Mom preferred to spend her wages on cigarettes and booze than on crackers and peanut butter.
I knew what it felt like to have to barricade my bedroom door with a dresser before I went to bed at night because one of her boyfriends might stagger into the wrong room when he went to take a piss.
No, Wynter was still a protected soul. She was still open. Still trusting.
I’d kill to keep her like that.
Wiggling off him, I twisted onto my back to stare up at the ceiling like he did. Only difference was, I knew he’d have carried on lying there, cock out, with no embarrassment. I grabbed a throw and covered us both with it before I pressed my face into his arm.
“They don’t deserve her loyalty,” he muttered, his tone grim as he picked up the conversation where it had left off, and he rolled his head to stare down at me.
“They raised her well, Rex,” I countered. “People have flaws and faults. She’s a polite girl. Has good morals. She’s studious and forward-thinking. That didn’t have anything to do with her genes. I didn’t imbue a love of books into her in the womb.
“The Kinnocks might have lost their way over the last couple of years, but that doesn’t negate her whole childhood.”
His tension told me he did not like my defending them, but hell, I wasn’t blind. Neither was he. He was just pouting.
I patted his chest. “She’ll come, Rex.”
“I want her here,” he rasped.
“I know.” I sucked in a breath and admitted something that shocked me, “I want her here too.”
“You do? You’re not just saying that for me?”
“I’m not just saying that for you.” I didn’t take offense because it also surprised me. “I want to get to know her. Do you…”
“Do I, what?” he peppered when my voice grew quiet.
“Do you think she’ll react badly to the baby?”
He shrugged. “I think she’ll be jealous. She was of Rain. I told her that you gave up everything to be here for him.”
“Hardly everything,” I chided.
“Mostly everything, then,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes. “I could see that she was questioning why you could do that for him and not for her.”
I blew out a breath. “She’s within her rights to think that.”
And therein lay the crux of the issue.
She wasn’t as guarded with Rex as she was with me because I was her mother.
Mothers were supposed to be maternal.
They were supposed to fight for their kids.
They were the momma bears.
I hadn’t fought for her.
I’d given her away.
Fathers didn’t have the same expectations as mothers.
Unfair but what about this situation was fair?
“Wynter’s entitled to feel whatever she feels, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let her take it out on you. There’ll be a period of adjustment for us all when we get her here. But we’re not going anywhere this time.”
Playing with my bottom lip, I mumbled, “No.”
He grunted his satisfaction. “We missed the first seventeen years, but we’ll make up for it with whatever we have left on this godforsaken planet.”
I snorted. “Cheerful.”
He pressed a kiss to the crown of my head. “I try.”
“You gonna get some sleep?”
“Yeah.” He breathed out a sigh. “Just a couple hours.”
I hummed. “I’ll nap with you.”
"You don't need to go back to work?"
I did, actually. But the only thing I really needed was to be here. With him.
"I need a nap more."
He tightened his arm around me. “I don’t want to sleep without you again, Rach. Had enough of that to last me a lifetime.”
I knew how he felt.
I just prayed my subconscious played ball.