Page 42

“I like your cock,” she murmurs, her voice lower and heat in her eyes as she grabs my face and wiggles her juicy little ass in my lap. “Don’t get it twisted.”

“If we didn’t have to get going, I would take you inside and make you chant that until you came,” I answer, leaning up and nipping at her bottom lip. She sucks in a breath and wiggles her ass again, a breathy moan slipping past her lips. Our breaths mingle in the limited space between us and I swear it makes everything more charged as she leans into me.

“What a shame.”

I nod, gripping her hip and flicking her top lip with my tongue. “I know.”

She moans again and presses her lips to mine, molding herself to me as I wrap my arm around her body and slip my other hand into her hair.

“Before we go…” she whispers, desire lacing her tone as she pulls back and releases my cheeks, breathing heavily. “Can you show me those photos from Streak you mentioned the other day? I want to take care of it and get it out of the way.”

I blink, my brain slowly trying to switch gears.

“Sure, Mama.” I nod, moving her to one side of my lap to dig my phone out of my pocket and she tries to climb off me but I stop her with a look and firm hand on her hip. She rolls her eyes as she settles back into me. She may seem annoyed but she’s fighting back a smile that tells me all I need to know. Once my phone is free, I open the email Streak sent me and pull up the pictures he got off of the security cameras, showing them to her. When she first showed up after the attack, she gave a general description of Luca but looking for a guy with brown hair who is five eleven doesn’t really narrow things down very much. She studies them for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. I don’t recognize any of these people.”

I nod and set my phone down on the arm of the chair. “Okay. We’ll keep looking.”

“What if we can’t find them before they find me, Diego?” she whispers, real fear in her eyes as she hugs herself and flicks her gaze from my eyes to her lap. For just a moment, I allow myself to imagine the possibility before shutting it down. I’ve been down that road in the past and I won’t survive losing someone else I care about. I cup her cheek, directing her to look back up at me and when she does, I offer her a smile despite the overwhelming pain I’m feeling.

“Nobody is going to let anything happen to you,” I say and press my free hand to her belly. “Either of you. Whether you like it or not, Izzy, we’re a family now and I will go to the ends of the earth to protect both of you.”

She searches my face for a moment before letting out a sigh that is heavy with the fear and anxiety she’s been carrying around for the past ten days. “Right. You ready to go then?”

“Yeah.”

She climbs out of my lap and as I stand, I take a risk, grabbing her hand and lacing our fingers together as we walk down the stairs to the truck. Peeking over at her, she looks relaxed and I count my lucky stars because I thought she would rip her hand from mine in an instant. Once we get to the truck, I release her and open the passenger side door, allowing her to climb inside before I shut it and walk around the front to my side. As I slide behind the wheel, I wish she would scoot across the bench seat and let me wrap my arm around her but I’m not going to push it. This thing between us is delicate and I have to choose the right moments to push her and the right moments to give her space or it will all blow up in my face. But, as a rule, I always want her in my arms or close enough to pull into my arms.

We’re both quiet but there is no awkwardness hanging in the air as we make the short drive to the clubhouse. A warm breeze drifts in through the open windows and the birds chirp, making the whole place feel more peaceful. That’s one of my favorite things about the compound is that it feels so cut off from the rest of the world and safe. Here, I don’t have to worry about getting nasty looks from people in town who think the club is a bunch of wild hooligans or worse, the outright hate we sometimes get after someone targeted the club a few years ago and turned the entire city of Baton Rouge against us. On the property, we can just be ourselves and in a lot of ways, it was a fresh start for me and all of my brothers.

When we pull into the parking lot, I see her square her shoulders out of the corner of my eye and I scowl. What the hell has gotten her so tense?

“You okay?”

She glances over at me. “Am I going to have to fight Jumper again?”

“No.” I laugh as I park the truck in front of the doors and turn to her. “Storm and I had a little chat with him yesterday and set him straight.”

“Did you ever find out what the hell his problem was?” she asks, arching a brow, and a smile stretches across my face as I remember the way she humiliated him in front of everyone after he talked shit about her.

“He thought he was being funny when really, he was just being an asshole. He struggles to find that line sometimes but we made him see the error of his ways.”

She laughs. “Did you? What exactly does that entail?”

“Storm made him scrub all of the toilets in the clubhouse on his hands and knees and he and I went a couple of rounds in the boxing ring.”

Her grin is laced with a look of surprise that someone actually stood up for her and the thought reaches deep into my chest, constricting my heart. I’m desperate to know more of Izzy’s story, know what makes that sadness and wariness creep into her eyes sometimes out of nowhere but that is something that will take time. I know that. Doesn’t mean I like it though.

“Why do I find that incredibly sexy?” she says, dropping her gaze down my body before meeting my eyes again. “Did you make sure he’d still be feeling it today?”

A surprised laugh booms out of me and I nod. “Oh, yeah.”

“Good.” She leans back in her seat with a satisfied grin on her face but there is a vulnerability there, too – one she is damn good at hiding from the entire world but the more time I spend with her, the more I’m able to spot it. Each time, I mentally record that shit and make sure the moment is branded into my memory so that maybe one day, I’ll be able to actually figure her out. Turning off the truck, I shake my head and open the door, my mind spinning. All these little clues from her, all the minute details of her reactions are like tiny puzzle pieces and I’m constantly moving them around, trying to make them fit together so I can figure her out. It feels like I’m getting closer. Sure, I don’t know specifics but I know that she feels alone most of the time and it’s why she goes so hard when someone disrespects her. Because she had to, because she never had someone that protected her or had her back completely and the thought kills me. It doesn’t matter what happens between Izzy and me from here on out, if I convince her to give things a shot between us or we simply raise our son together, I promise her that she’ll always have me watching her back.

I reach her door and pull it open, offering her my hand but she ignores it as she climbs out of the truck and moves around me toward the clubhouse. That defiant look is in her eyes again and my cock jerks. It’s annoying as hell but I just know that she’s going to go in there and pretend nothing is happening between us, pretend that we haven’t been screwing like rabbits all over every square inch of my house. Despite that, seeing her attitude always gets me going and there is no way I’m going to let her avoid this in public. I won’t come right out and tell them that I’ve been inside her twice already today but I want this whole damn club and the rest of the state of Louisiana to know that this woman is mine - now and always. I just have to do it carefully - like walking through a live minefield on a broken leg.

No sweat, right?