Chapter Nine
Runa
“Mommy,” Denali called as I moved the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, a smile on my face at the simplicity of it. It was so easy to just throw a load in first thing in the morning, then switch it over between other tasks. No sitting around and wasting hours at a laundromat.
“What’s up?” I asked, turning the dryer on and turning to find Denali watching me from her doorway.
“When can we see Daddy again?”
Every time she called him that, I got this strange fluttering sensation in my stomach. A good feeling, a… rightness I hadn’t expected.
“That’s a good question. I guess you can call him and ask if you want.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Let me find my phone,” I said.
I was forever losing it now. I used to keep it close in case I needed to call the police. I didn’t need it like that anymore.
I hit the call button and handed her the phone.
“What’s the camera button do?” she asked. But before I could explain, she’d hit it. And now she was video calling York.
He answered on the third ring, his handsome face filling the screen.
“Hey, princess,” he said, making Denny beam at him.
“Hi, Daddy.” I saw the wonder fill his eyes at that title. I still felt it on occasion when Denali said it. “When can I see you again?” she asked. Then, before York could answer, she gasped. “Is that a pool?”
Uh-oh.
I knew where this was going.
“Yeah,” York, clueless, said, pulling the phone further away from his body so she could see it better.
“Mama, Daddy has a pool!”
“I see that.”
“Can I swim in it?”
“Can you swim?”
“She cannot,” I said.
“But I have swimmies! Right, Mama?”
“She does have swimmies.”
“Maybe you and your mom can come over and play in the pool sometime.”
“Today?” Denali asked.
I knew there was no way he was going to say no when she was already so excited. I was going to need to dig out her swimsuit and swimmies.
“I think we need to ask your mom if—”
“I’m already mentally trying to locate her swimmies,” I said.
“There are some around here,” he said, making my brows pinch. Why did he have swimmies at his house? Did he have other kids? Or just nieces and nephews?
“And tubes?” Denali asked.
“Those too. Have a giant flamingo one.”
I interrupted Denny before she could go off on questions about tubes. “What time would be good for you?”
“Anytime,” he said. “I’ll be here.”
“Okay. I’ll just get Denny suited up and sun-blocked and we’ll be over.”
It was the middle of the week.
He was home sitting around the pool and made it clear he could do so all day.
Why wasn’t he at work?
What did he do for work?
Clearly, he had a good job if he could afford to get us an apartment while living somewhere else. And dropping hundreds on toys and arcade games.
Did he work remotely? Or did he own a business?
I’d made a whole human being with this man, and I knew next to nothing about him other than he was patient, generous, rode a motorcycle, and could give me an unholy number of orgasms in a row.
I didn’t expect that last part to pop into my head. Nor did I anticipate how strongly my body would react to the sudden memory. It was breath-stealing realizing how hard desire pressed on me, begging to be noticed, to be satisfied.
Because, yeah, there were no men in my life once I knew Denali was on board.
How could there be? The first few months of her life were a sleep-deprived, achy blur.
Then it was all juggling work, motherhood, and trying to figure out our future.
After that, it was survival, living life on the road and in motels, trying to keep us fed and clothed while we kept losing everything when we had to up and leave on a dime.
The last thing I needed during all of that was a man complicating things more.
Though, clearly, my body had been keeping score of how long it had been. And remembering how efficiently York could make it all better.
I did my best to shake those thoughts away as I helped Denali into a one-piece suit with long sleeves, so I had less area to worry about burning, added her sunscreen, grabbed a change of clothes, then got myself changed as well.
I did trust York, but pools were a whole different beast with kids. You couldn’t look away for a second. Which meant I was getting in the pool too.
My suit was also a one-piece, all black, with white straps and border.
It was straight out of the ‘90s. Because it probably was. Like virtually everything I owned, it was thrifted. I added my own sunblock, tied up my hair, pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, then hauled Denali’s bag of toys she insisted on bringing with us.
When we got there, York was waiting in the driveway beside another man who was a little shorter, a little softer in his frame, with a round face, tanned skin, and a bright smile.
“Heya, princess,” he greeted Denali as she rushed out to say hello to him.
I lagged behind, grabbing the bags, only to have York lift them from my arms.
“This is Eddie. Eddie, Runa.” Clearly, Denali had already said hello.
“Hey, pretty mama. Heard a lot about you.”
“Give Eddie your keys.”
“What? No.”
York shot me a smile. “He’s going to take your car to the shop. Your brakes need work.” He mumbled something else under his breath that I couldn’t quite make out. “This is the perfect time to get them worked on.”
“You’re a mechanic?” I asked Eddie.
“Work at a repair and parts shop and everything,” Eddie said.
“I promise he will bring it back,” York said. “Better than he left with it, too.”
I was being overprotective about it. But it was my literal means to escape in case life went sideways again. That being said, things were stable. I could let it go for a few hours.
“Well, thank you, Eddie,” I said, passing him my keys. “And you,” I said to York, who shrugged that right off.
“You sure you got everything you need out of the car?” Eddie asked. “No stray stuffed animal under the seat?”
“Nope. We’re all set.”
With that, Eddie was off with our car, and we were following York around the back of the house where not only was there a built-in pool, but also a giant inflatable TV. It was too bright to see anything on it, but music played from a speaker somewhere.
“What’s that?” Denny asked, pointing toward a rock-enclosed area.
“That is where the tortoise lives. Tortoises are menaces. He broke out of every other enclosure until we used those big rocks.”
“Can I see him?”
“You can feed him. He loves eating those flowers out front.”
“I’ll get some!” Denny said, excited.
“Be quick,” I demanded, trying not to helicopter her, but hating when she was out of sight for more than a minute.
“I should have asked about the car instead of demanded,” York said when we were alone.
“It’s fine. I appreciate it. I noticed the brakes being a little less touchy. And I want Denny in a safe car.”
“Me too.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Are you married?”
“Married?” He barked out a laugh. “No.”
“Why do you have swimmies then?”
“They’re for the club kids.”
“The club kids,” I repeated.
“Did you somehow miss the motorcycles out front?”
I’d noticed them, but until right that second, it hadn’t clicked.
He was a biker. As in, he belonged to a biker club. And this house…
“This is your clubhouse?” I asked, turning to look at the two-story home. “Every biker club I’ve ever seen has been a bar or something like that.”
“The president wanted members to be able to live here before they move out when they settle down.”
That explained it.
“You live here.”
“Yep. It’s just me, Velle, and Dixon now.”
“Dixon. Was that the one weeding the flowerbed all… unnecessarily sexily?”
He chuckled at that, and the sound had desire curling through me once again.
“That’s Dixon. He puts on a show for the old lady book club across the street.”
“That makes more sense than weeding while standing upright. So, what kind of club is this? I’ve never seen you with your cut on.” So I had no idea what kind of patches might be on it.
“When we met, I had a gun and knives on me,” he reminded me.
“Yeah.” So he was a one-percenter. “I don’t want my daughter around drugs.”
“We don’t deal drugs. We deal in weapons. And all of them are safely hidden. There are a lot of club kids around here.”
I nodded at that. “How dangerous is your job?”
“I’m not going to lie and say it’s as safe as if I were an accountant. But to be honest, most of the danger that the club faces these days comes from the women who blow into our lives.”
“I got all the colors!” Denali declared, saving me from a very awkward moment.
So then she and her father fed the tortoise before making their way to the pool. I sat back and watched him blow up the swimmies, then wet them so he could push them up her little arms.
Then… then he pulled off his damn shirt.
I was glad to be sitting on the chaise where I could cross my legs to ease the immediate ache I felt as my gaze drifted over the muscles I knew better than I knew him as a person.
How they tensed when I ran my fingers over them, how he let out a little growl when I traced the lines that disappeared into the waistband of his pants.
How he’d pulled me up by my hair when I’d slid my tongue between those same muscles.
Unfortunately, it was in the middle of that memory that York’s gaze flicked over, staring at me, no doubt reading the desire on my face.
For a moment, he froze, and all we could do was look, remember, and, yes, want.
“Daddy, come on,” Denny demanded, holding out her hand.
The spell broken, he moved down the pool steps with Denali. I got a few moments on the chaise to reason with my body before Denny called me and asked me to come in too.
There was no denying her. And it was a million degrees out once the sun came out from behind a cloud.
I stood up, pushing my shorts down my legs then whipping off my tee.
And that was when I caught York watching me, the heavy lids and molten eyes telling me he was picturing me the way I’d just been remembering him.
Each inch of skin he looked at warmed. My heartbeat fluttered. My belly went liquid.
York took a deep, steadying breath that expanded his chest in a frustratingly hot way.
But getting in the cold water helped chill out the heat of my desire. And pretty soon we were taking turns teaching Denali how to swim—with and without her swimmies. It was a skill I wanted her to learn, but our access to pools had been minimal.
At some point, Eddie returned, tossing my keys into my purse as he passed and declaring he was getting dinner started.
“I know you’ve been here all day, but Eddie’s cooking is worth hanging around for.”
“Can we stay?” Denali asked, eyes too cute to deny.
“Sure. But we should get out and start drying up.”
Twenty minutes later, I had her changed out of her suit and sitting in the kitchen, passing pieces of fruit and veggies to a giant parrot who was surprisingly gentle with her while talking to a very friendly Eddie about her zoo and arcade adventures.
“You wanna go get changed?” York, who still hadn’t put a damn shirt on, asked.
“Yeah, please.”
He nodded toward the back staircase, and I followed him up to the second floor, already trusting Eddie more than most babysitters I’d needed to use in a pinch for Denny.
I did not watch York’s back and ass as we climbed the steps to the second floor, then down the hallway toward his bedroom.
Inside, I found… green.
I guess it was his favorite color too.
It was on the walls, on the bedding, even in the window curtains. It immediately felt cozy, familiar, like the hundreds of days I sat outside in the woods until the dark demanded I return to my tent.
“Bathroom is through there,” he said.
As I turned to see where he was pointing, I realized I’d misjudged just how close he was.
My breath caught.
My head whipped up to look at his face.
The air charged around us, creating little sparks all across my skin as my breath went fast and shallow.
York’s gaze darkened.
And I saw the decision just a second before his giant hand grabbed the back of my neck and his lips crashed down to mine.
Everything fell away.
The fear, uncertainty, worries, pain, the responsibilities of motherhood, the way my life had been tilted off its axis.
It was like we were back in that motel room all those years ago. Just a man and a woman and the chemistry that had been simmering for hours.
There was nothing gentle about the kiss. His lips nearly bruised into mine. And I kissed him back in kind, all the years of denial making me desperate for the touch, feel, and sensation of man.
His arm hooked around my waist, pulling me against him. My breasts crushed to his chest. My pelvis curved into his, feeling the thick outline of his cock as he hardened.
A moan escaped me, muffled by his lips, but he took the opportunity for his tongue to slip inside and toy with mine.
The sparks were a raging fire right then, searing across every inch of my skin, threatening to burn me up completely if I didn’t get some relief.
As if sensing the thoughts, York’s hand was between us, pressing to the barely-there fabric between my legs.
His mouth muffled my cry at the shock of desire that shot through me.
There was nothing else then but the heavy, helpless, breathless need as his fingers worked me through the material until I was clutching his arms, until I was crying out against his lips, until I was trembling as I came.
His hand released the back of my neck, allowing me to break the kiss, my forehead pressing into his chest as I struggled to catch my breath. His fingers went to the back of my head instead, a gentle pressure holding me against him as I came back down.
I knew I needed to move away, needed to not be so clingy and needy, but being held by him seemed to quiet something inside me I had given up on trying to soothe.
“Mama, can I have a ‘tizer?” Denny called up from the bottom of the stairs.
“A what?” York asked as we both stepped away, the moment passed.
“I’m assuming an appetizer,” I said. “She can have anything really. But she doesn’t do spicy well.”
“Got it,” he said, making his way to the door and moving out.
Alone, I leaned against the wall and sighed.
That… that was not in my plans.
Making things complicated with York was not ideal. I needed him to keep wanting to be in Denali’s life. And if things got weird with us, I was risking that.
I had to take a step back, rein in my damn hormones, and keep things platonic between us.
Because without York’s help, I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive long enough to watch my little girl grow up.
And I couldn’t let that happen if I had any control over it.
Decision made, I went into the bedroom and changed, then made my way downstairs for dinner. And tried like hell to keep a wall up between myself and York.
Judging by the way I kept catching him studying me with pinched brows, I figured it was working.
Good.
That was good.
Even if my stomach twisted each time I thought about it.