Chapter Thirty-Seven
TRAVIS
I grunt, rolling off her, dragging her body to lie on mine. My chest heaves, and her warm breath skates across my chest, her body rising and falling with each breath I take.
“You’ve gotten better with age.”
I smack her arse, making her yelp, followed by a giggle. My hand then starts leisurely strokes up and down her spine as her breathing settles. I smile into her hair, planting a kiss.
My life is finally in my hands. Everything I have ever needed is back where she belongs. “Last time we made up like that, it had been after two weeks.”
Mollie’s fingers link with mine, the tips of hers gently flexing and stroking my skin. “You thinking eleven years might be too much for you to keep up with?”
I squeeze her arse, making her press her body into mine again. My cock instantly reloads, and she notices. “Enough with the age references, baby. I just turned thirty-seven. Anyway, it’s the new twenty-five.”
She smiles against my chest. “You know who says that?” She pauses for effect, tilting her head back to look at me. She looks gorgeous, those eyes looking at me like I’m the love of her life. It’s glorious. “People who are nearly forty.”
My hand wraps around her throat, and I drag her mouth to mine. “Less of the mouth, baby, otherwise I fill it.”
I should have guessed that she’d see that as a challenge. Sticking out her tongue, she licks my bottom lip, not stopping as she makes her way down my neck, over my throat and to my chest. She slides her warm body down mine, her eyes never breaking contact .
I fling my arms behind my head, hissing as I watch her lips wrap around my cock. My cock that’s not long been inside her.
She’s ravenous, lapping me up. Up and down, twirling and swirling, her mouth and her tongue work me to another release.
I come with a shudder, my entire body vibrating as wave after wave of warm, unharnessed bliss, skates up my spine. I can’t peel my eyes off of her. Can’t rip my eyes off the girl of my dreams.
The day we met, I knew she’d be the reason my heart would break one day. She was the only one who could ever get it going, so it was obvious. All that I am begins and ends with her. We won’t do this again. We won’t get to reconnect after time apart because—and I note the fucking irony, but I’m just too fucking old to go through it all again.
This is it.
This is where we stay.
Together.
Home.
“Come here.” I need her close to me. Fuck, I’d stay buried inside her if it wasn’t so unrealistic. My need to have her in my arms is beyond desperate.
When I carried Dean into hospital two weeks ago, I saw how fragile life really is. We’ve spent years having nothing, then in less than one year we both find the women we are meant to be with.
We both got lucky. And yeah, Mollie and I have a lot of shit we need to sort through. We both know now that we’re not going anywhere, so all we can do is take each day as it comes. Live it how we’re meant to.
Dean just needs to pull the fuck through and get his arse back to his family. I can’t be handed mine back for him to go and lose his. Life can’t be that cruel. We both deserve our happiness. Both deserve the peace we’re owed.
“You okay?”
I realise Mollie’s staring at me, the smallest glint of sadness in her eyes. “Just thinking.”
She buries her face in my neck, and my arms hold onto her, not wanting to let go. This is where she’ll stay now. “About what?”
“The club. Dean. Family.” Her lips press to my skin as I stare at the ceiling. “What if he doesn’t wake up?”
I feel her still in my hold. “He will. ”
“You don’t know that.”
Mollie lifts her head from me. “I do, actually.”
One of my eyebrows raises, seeing her grit.
“There’s nothing on this earth that could come between a man and the woman he truly loves. No amount of money, distance or even time would stop him from getting to her.” She lifts a hand sweeping the tips of her fingers through my beard. “So I know he’ll be okay because everything he needs is waiting for him here.”
I smile. “Kiss me.” God I fucking love her.
She does, her lips gently sweeping across mine. I can taste myself on her.
When she breaks away, I ask, “What time will Riley be here?” I immediately regret it.
She shoots up, and the distance she creates is unwanted. “Fuck!”
I grabble to keep hold of her, managing to grab her wrist as she tries to pull away. I pull her right back, making her hair whip across her face. Beautiful. “Come here.”
“No. We don’t have time!” I smile as her face turns a little murderous, her arms and legs desperately scrambling to get away. There’s an urgency about her. She’s panicking.
“Hey,” I pull her into me, “how long do we have?”
She quickly rolls her eyes. She thinks I want sex?
I don’t.
Seeing her eyes jump to the clock and widening in horror, forces me to suppress a smile. “Twenty minutes. Fuck.” She pulls away frustrated, and I drag her back, quite enjoying myself. Her tits are bouncing, her body magnificently poised before me. Damn I’ve missed her.
One more kiss then I’ll let her go. I smack my mouth to hers and she sinks into me, forgetting her endeavour for the briefest of moments, her mouth catching my smile. “Fuck,” she hurries as her hands come up, smacking my chest and pushing me away.
I let her go, watching her arse strut to her bathroom. My heart’s never felt so full.
We get dressed and both wait in the kitchen. I watch her anxiously make us the cup of tea she started making three hours ago. That’s how long we stayed in bed. Talking. Love making. Fucking. All of it.
I get up and step close behind her, dragging her hair off her neck and pressing my lips to her bare skin.
She relaxes, her head rolling back into my shoulder.
My arms wrap around her. “It will be okay.” My words sound a lot more confident than I feel. My son is about to show up here any minute, and the only way I fear I’ll get through this is with the woman currently turning my head to kiss her, in my arms. I won’t be able to do that. I’ll have to play this really cool.
The exact opposite to how I fucking feel.
I pull back and let her go, allowing her to cool down before the door buzzer goes. It immediately sounds, and she jumps like she’s just touched a live wire, turning to face me.
Placing my hands on her shoulders, she takes a breath, closing her eyes. “Seems funny me calming you when I’m the one he doesn’t know.”
Mollie smiles. “I just want him to love you the way I do.”
I reach down and kiss her cheek. “A lot’s changing for him.” I don’t expect a fucking thing from the kid.
Mollie steps around me. “I’ll warn you,” she says, scratching the back of her head, “he has your attitude.” She makes it to the door, giving me a smile before she opens it.
I shrug. My attitude is completely normal.
The drilling behind my ribs sounds in my ears when Riley strides through the door, slinging his bag to the floor. Fuck, he looks just like me. He kicks off his shoes, and my eyes jump to Mollie’s father who stands at the threshold.
He still looks powerful. Still oozes confidence. Still looks like he wants to rip my throat out.
Riley hasn’t noticed me, hasn’t even bothered to look up from his phone. I spot the headphones in his ears, realising he can’t hear us either. Reminds me of the first time I met Mollie.
“You okay, darling?” Mollie’s father asks, his death stare on me.
She steps into him, kissing his cheek before we wait with bated breath for Riley to look up and see me. “Fine, Dad.”
I quickly straighten my spine. “Mr Harrington. It’s good to see you.” It’s not a lie, but Mollie and Riley are who I’m really here for. They’re my priority in all of this.
They both look stunned by my greeting. Maybe I deserve their silence, but do they have to look so fucking surprised? Yes, I can be lethal where my family’s concerned, but I can be civil, too.
My family strikes a chord, my emotion catching in my throat. I swallow nervously as all of our heads snap to Riley. He’s stood face up, eyes on me.
Silence descends, fear crippling all of us. He might hate me, for which he has every right to. I failed him and his mother, wasn’t man enough to take responsibility for what’s mine. But I am here now, and if he’ll let me, perhaps I can be the dad he needs me to be. The dad I should have always been.
“This him?”
I smile when Mollie and her father both frown. “Yeah, boy, it’s me. I’m your dad.”
He frowns, eyes narrowing. “My dad’s dead.”
I breathe in, hearing the ache in his voice. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” He looks at Mollie, and I can just tell she’s fighting the tears.
“Can I tell you why?”
Mollie looks at me, clearly stressed. This is either going nothing like how she imagined, or exactly how she thought it would.
“I know why! Now he’s gone, you get my mum all to yourself,” he snaps.
“Riley,” Mollie scolds, stepping closer to him.
I notice her dad move too, his worry for his grandson evident.
“Wrong,” I simply say, as calmly as I can.
I’m stunned when he strides towards me, stopping ten feet shy of where I’m standing, his little face scrunched and so fucking handsome. I’m not biased, but he’s definitely my son. “I’m not wrong,” he argues, balling his fists. “Admit it, you’re glad he’s dead. You’re glad he’s never coming back! You’re so selfish to be happy that another man has died!”
Oh, kid, you have no idea. Never will.
Of that, I am one hundred percent fucking certain.
I’m knocked for six when he takes another step closer, letting me see his milk chocolate eyes, so big and so round like buttons. Those, he got from his mother, and I’ve never been more grateful. They’re my favourite thing about her. So when I see them fill, I suddenly can’t breathe. Can’t find my words when he, like his mother , fights with his emotions, trying to show me that he’s not afraid.
I don’t want him to try and be anything he’s not. He can be afraid as much as he wants because he has me now. They both do. And with God as my motherfucking witness, I will not fail either one of them again. Period. I’ve known my son all of thirty seconds, and the way it kills me hearing his juddering sobs getting louder and louder is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I already know I’d kill for this kid. My son. My boy.
Mine.
“Hey.” Mollie’s by his side, her father by hers. I want to reach out and hold onto them, but I can’t, not yet.
Instead, all I can do is swallow the ball of fire and look at him, watching as his tears begin to flow. I won’t ever let another one fall without being there to catch them and wipe them away. “I’m not glad Hen… your dad died, Riley,” I say, correcting myself. I am his father, but I did not raise him. I haven’t earned my title yet. “I’m not glad because I never got the chance to thank him.”
All eyes swing to me. All of them soaked.
“He took care of you and your mum when I was too scared to. It takes a real man to love another man’s family, protect them and give them a life. It also takes a real man to admit his mistakes.”
I flick a look up to Mollie and her father, my own emotions now brimming. There’s been a weight sitting heavy on my shoulders for eleven years but with every confession, I feel myself growing lighter. I have to keep going. Not just for us, but for everyone else; Rocco, Dean and Mads.
Rocco was robbed of getting to know Mads. And Dean… my breath chokes me at the thought that he might never get to meet his child. So I can’t be that selfish bastard anymore. I have to take the fucking opportunity to get this right whilst I have the opportunity to do so.
“I should have been there. It should have been me taking care of my family. Not a day went by where I didn’t imagine this, kid,” I lift a hand gesturing between the three of us, “all of us together. I may not have known you were around, but I wished for it. Prayed every day that I could go back and have a second chance with the kid I thought I’d lost. I was given that when your dad made sure he brought you here. He loved your mum just like I do, so he knew if he couldn’t be around, there was only me who could take over from him.”
Mollie’s father coughs.
“And maybe your grandad. But the jury’s still out on that one. ”
He lifts his head, frowning at me, but I detect a small ray of happiness when his face brightens.
“Your dad gave me my chance to love you. He wanted you and me to get to know each other. I’m not saying we have to do everything you two did together because they were yours and his things, your memories. But if you’ll let me,” I step closer to them both, stopping in front of them, “I’d like to make sure I show him that I can take care of the people he loved the most.”
I feel overcome. Full to the brim with every single emotion you could imagine. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know where to start.
It’s Mollie who helps me, stepping closer, skating her arms around my waist. She tucks her head into my shoulder, and I feel my shirt instantly turn damp with her tears.
Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, she gathers her breath. She then rolls her head, and we both look at Riley, waiting for him to decide what to do.
He could take forever, and I still wouldn’t move until he was ready. Fortunately, he doesn’t make us wait long. He grabs for his mum, and her arm lifts for him to step under.
Mollie lowers her lips to his dark hair, kissing him, keeping her mouth to his head.
I slowly move my arm reserved for him around his shoulders, letting him know I’ve got him.
When he slides his arm around my back, his small hand grabbing the leather on my back… I break down and fall apart. It’s the first time it’s ever happened to me. With these two in my arms, I know it won’t be the last. They are my world. And I’ve missed them. Missed everything about them.
My tears stream like a rapid, and I hear Mollie’s father’s footsteps slowly backing away.
He’s leaving, but not before he places a hand on my shoulder.
I briefly look up, blinking away my tears, giving him a nod, letting him know I’ve got them, they’re safe with me.
He returns it, and the door clicks shut as I hold my family in my arms, gently rocking them as their protector.
I once promised Mollie I’d never be her knight in shining armour. It might be black leather instead of white robes, but I will be the man who loves her unconditionally, fights for her when she needs me to, and loves her like nothing else matters.
Our son will grow with three parents who love him. I’m not delusional, I know not every day will be like this, but I know that even though time may have passed, some bonds can never be broken.
After all, family is forever.