Craving Redemption (33 page)

“I’m hungry as hell; I don’t care where we eat,” Farrah piped in, completely oblivious to the undertones in our conversation as she walked toward the front door. “Take your time, kids. I’ll take Gram to the bar after dinner!”

I was strung tight as a wire by the time the door closed behind them, and I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to keep my mouth shut until I had dinner at the counter. I really wished we had an actual kitchen table, but I was willing to improvise.

“Why don’t you take a shower, and by the time you’re done, I’ll have dinner in the oven,” I told him brightly as I poured noodles into water boiling on the stove.

“Don’t need a shower, took one before we left, and I’ve been sitting on my ass all day while Farrah fucked around at the tattoo parlor,” he grumbled, sitting down at the counter. “That girl is gonna lose it soon.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing huge, she just seems like she’s strung tight as hell, and she’s trying to find a way to let off some steam.” He shook his head. “You better watch out for that brother of yours.”

“Gross!” I snapped, pulling hamburger out of the fridge. “Cody wouldn’t do that. He knows Farrah’s having a hard time.”

“Your brother’s got a dick,” he answered seriously, looking down at his phone. “He’d do it.”

“Can we not talk about my brother and my best friend having sex right now?” I asked, frustrated tears forming in my eyes. He was texting someone on his phone, talking about people that I’d just kicked out of the house so we could be alone, and I was having a hard time not just blurting my news out before dinner was ready. The night was
not
going how I’d envisioned it. “I just want to make fucking dinner for you and me without any other shit getting in the middle of it.”

I sniffed once, turning back to the stove, and in seconds he was wrapping his arms around me from behind.

“What’s going on, sweetheart?” he asked gently, kissing the back of my neck.

“I just want to finish dinner so we can sit down and eat your favorite meal. Alone. I want to eat dinner alone without worrying about anyone else’s problems.”

“Look at me, Callie,” he ordered, pulling at my waist.

“I need to finish this,” I told him desperately, dumping spices into the pan frantically. “The hamburger will burn if I don’t stir it.”

He reached past me and turned off both burners before spinning me to face him.

“You’re going to ruin it!” I practically screeched, pushing at his hands.

“What the fuck is wrong?” he snapped, making the tears that had been stinging my nose well up in my eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked again quietly, searching my face as it crumpled.

“I just wanted to make your favorite dinner,” I whispered, wiping off my face, “and now it’s ruined and I don’t have any more noodles.”

I burst into gut-wrenching sobs and pushed my face into his neck as he picked me up and strode toward the front door, locking it before taking me to the bedroom. He set me down by the doorway and walked to the bed, pulling at all four corners of the sheets until he’d wrapped all of the bedding into a ball that he threw on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I asked hoarsely as he put a clean sheet on the bed.

“I’m stripping the bed, so I can fuck you without smelling Farrah’s and your grandmother’s perfume, and I’m leaving that shit in a pile so we can put them back on later and they don’t have to smell us,” he told me simply, making me cry again.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I’m pregnant.”
Well, shit.
I guess I
was
going to just blurt it out.

“What?” he whispered, dropping onto the bed.

“I took the test this morning. I didn’t realize…” I swallowed hard as I walked toward him. “Gram took me to the store this morning and pretty much ambushed me into buying a test. With all the stuff going on, I just didn’t even—”

“Oh, fuck,” he whispered, his eyes widening in horror.

“Not the reaction I was going for, Asa,” I mumbled dryly, trying to disguise the panic rising in my throat.
Why did he look so horrified?
It’s not like he didn’t know it could happen!

“Are you okay?” he asked, dropping to his knees and lifting up my shirt. “Is everything okay in there?”

I sighed in relief as I ran my fingers through his hair. “I haven’t been to the doctor yet. But I think so.”

“You fell on the fuckin’ stairs,” he mumbled, unbuttoning my pants and peeling them down my legs. “They had you cuffed on the ground.”

“I’m pretty sure something would’ve happened by now if I’d been hurt,” I reassured him, “but I’ll set up an appointment to make sure everything’s good.”

He pulled off my t-shirt as he got to his feet, staring at my breasts in amazement. “Whoa! Your tits are
huge
!” he gaped, reaching up to cup them in his hands. “How did I not notice this? They’re popping out all over!”

“Probably because you haven’t seen me naked in for-freaking-ever,” I griped, pushing his cut off his shoulders.

He reached behind me to unclasp my bra and I took a huge breath of relief as it fell away. I hadn’t noticed that my boobs were bigger, but I
had
noticed that the band had been digging into my sides for what felt like weeks. It left itchy little indents that I loathed.

“Shit, you’re really pregnant,” he mumbled. “Put some pajamas on. We need to find you a doctor.”

I stomped my foot as he started to walk away. I actually stomped my foot.

“You haven’t even kissed me!” I yelled, my emotions all over the place. “We don’t need to call the doctor right now! I need you to kiss me and tell me you love me and then fuck me on our four hundred dollar bed that you insisted we have!”

My chest was heaving as he turned back around, the most beautiful smile pulling at his cheeks and crinkling his eyes.

“You’re having our baby,” he roared loudly, lifting me so high by the backs of my thighs that I had to lean forward or bump my head on the ceiling. I laughed hysterically as he spun in a circle. “I love you and you’re having my baby.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, my smile trembling.

He carefully slid me down his body until my legs were wrapped around his waist and grabbed the back of my head.

“I love you,” he murmured into my mouth. “Best thing I ever did—taking you outta that house. I’d change a lotta shit that came after if I could, but even if I did, we still woulda ended up right here where we are now.”

He kissed me hard as he laid me down on the bed.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he softly rubbed his thumb back and forth below my belly button. “What’d I do to deserve you?”

“You saved me,” I whispered back.

Chapter 57

Grease

If I’d thought leaving Callie was hard before, it was
nothing
compared to leaving her then. Shit was heating up big time with the Jimenez gang, and I had to get back to Oregon to deal with it. Stuff like that made me glad Slider was head of the club. He was able to see the big picture, where I would’ve flown off the handle a year before.

The Jimenez brothers had fucked up badly when they sent me into Jose’s. Not only had they practically shoved me into a fucking trap, but they’d still owed us thousands of dollars when all was said and done. They’d played like they’d had no idea what was happening with Jose—that he’d acted on his own—but it didn’t matter what they’d claimed. They’d successfully put themselves on Slider’s radar which was
never
a good thing.

Over the past two years they’d continued to fuck up, talking shit to the wrong people and claiming an alliance with the Aces as they did it, leaving us to smooth shit over with clubs we’d never had a problem with before. It was bullshit.

The latest in a long line of shit was with a club out of Montana and we hadn’t smoothed that one over. We’d thrown the Jimenez boys under the bus, breaking all affiliation instead. Slider hadn’t been willing to overlook shit anymore and was somewhat friends with the club president up in Montana. He drew the line on fucking with the guy.

It burned me that my brother Deke was a part of those assholes, but there was nothing I could do about it. I’d given him more than enough chances to break with them with no blowback, but he hadn’t taken them. I don’t know which was his biggest issue: his loyalty to them or the meth they were supplying to him. I had to let him hang himself, which was
exactly
what was going to happen if Slider found proof that they’d put the hit out on Echo.

Slider would find out what happened, and God help the person who’d sanctioned the hit. They not only took one of ours, but could’ve killed his daughter. He wasn’t going to let that shit pass, and the more we dug, the more we found that all signs pointed to southern California.

I’d taken Callie to the doctor and made sure everything was fine with her and our kid. They’d even done an ultrasound to see how far along she was. In the movies, they’d put some shit on her belly and then rub it with a little wand, but apparently she was too early for that shit. When they pulled out this fucking probe that they were going to stick inside her, I think we both went a little pale. Watching anyone, even a woman doctor, lube that shit up so they could put it inside a place that was meant for me made me sick. I’d had a hard time even focusing on the little screen they were showing us, my skin feeling too tight for my body all of a sudden, and I’d been happy as hell when it was all over. I’d made her take a bath when we’d gotten home, anxious to wash that shit off.

We’d also talked to the owner of her apartment and convinced him to let her move into the unit next door that had two bedrooms. I wasn’t sure how long she’d be staying there—I was anxious to have her with me—but she couldn’t keep sleeping on the fucking couch with Farrah and Gram in our bed. Cody’d gone to San Diego to make sure all was okay with Gram’s house, but eventually he’d be back, and there were too many people for a fucking one-bedroom apartment. It was easy to move her, we only had to carry shit a few feet down the walkway, and I could see how relieved she was when we were all done. We’d have our own bedroom again.
Thank fuck.

I was getting ready to leave, packing up my saddle bags, when Callie came stumbling down the stairs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She was wearing a little black tank top with no bra, and I thanked the pregnancy gods for the way her tits had grown. I’d thought she was perfect before, but holy shit, they seemed to be growing more by the day—I couldn’t keep my hands off them.

When she was at the bottom of the stairs, she froze, her eyes opening wide. My body tensed and I searched the area for anything out of place, but couldn’t see anything that would freak her out.

“Hey, Sugar,” I called, smiling. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” she answered cautiously, watching the neighborhood carefully as she came to me.

“We’ve got boys keeping an eye on shit. Men will be around,” I told her as I buckled my bag. “No need for you to worry.”

“I know. I’m just a little jumpy,” she mumbled, stepping into me and wrapping her arms around my waist. “You done here? Can we go inside?”

“Yeah, but I have to hit the road soon,” I warned her, setting my hand on her lower back to lead her up the stairs. “You need to put some clothes on before you leave the house.”

“It’s like seventy degrees already!” she scoffed, walking inside.

“I know how warm it is, Callie, but your tits are huge and your tank top is really fuckin’ small!” I practically shouted as I followed behind her.

“Can I please not hear about my sister’s tits at nine in the morning?” Cody grumbled from the couch.

“Fuck!” I hissed as Callie gave me a snotty look and stomped toward the bedroom. “Shut the fuck up, Cody.”

I followed her into the bedroom as she was whipping off her tank top and trying to stuff herself into a bra. I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t bought any new ones yet, but the old ones looked uncomfortable as hell.

“The doctor said at thirteen weeks they’d probably still grow a bunch, and I didn’t want to buy new ones yet,” she commented, snapping the bra straps over her shoulders angrily. “But they’re really uncomfortable, Asa! And those tank tops are tight enough that I can wear them without a bra.”

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Callie,” I told her, rubbing my hand down my face. “I just don’t want other men seeing your tits everywhere you go.”

She nodded her head, stripping out of her pajama shorts and underwear, and I couldn’t help myself. I scooped her up against me and kissed the hell out of her. By the time I’d maneuvered her to the bed, I’d already undone my belt and jeans, and it took only a matter of seconds for me to shove them down and push inside her. I fucking loved grumpy morning Callie.

“I’m still annoyed with you,” she gasped, pulling my hair loose with one hand. Every time she did that it was like a straight jolt to my dick. “You’re gonna be back soon, right?”

“Yeah, sweetheart. Soon as I can. I’ll be back down,” I assured her, reaching behind her to unsnap her bra as her back arched. “I’m gonna leave some cash for you. You buy new bras.”

She shook her head, her eyes growing dazed, but still following the conversation, “I’ll just grow out of them.”

I stopped moving, making her whine quietly. “Then I’ll buy you more, yeah? Don’t want you walking around uncomfortable for no reason when I can fix it.”

She didn’t argue so I started moving again, my belt clinking loudly as it hit the edge of the bed where I was standing.

“They’ll be ugly,” she told me softly, her eyes meeting mine. “The bigger they are the uglier they get.”

I barked out a laugh that had her tensing, and I had a hard time not groaning when she clamped down on my dick. “Calliope,” I gasped, moving harder against her. “I don’t care what the fuck they look like as long as they’re comfortable. I want what’s
inside
them…. and why the fuck are we still talking about this?” I asked, running my hand down her belly so I could pinch at her clit.

“No idea,” she whimpered back, arching her neck as I hit the right spot.