“If this is being one of those old married couples,” he kissed her forehead, “sign me up.”
“Oh yeah, me too.”
He rolled away but gathered her closer so she could lay her head on his chest. The steady beat of his heart lulled her, and if she never felt another moment of happiness, this one would see her through to the end of her life. “I love you.” His whispered words accompanied a kiss to the top of her head.
“I love you, too.” She gazed up at him. “You know, we have a day or so before Kye brings London home. I feel like we should make the most of it.” And all it took was one kiss to convince him.
Grier knocked on the bathroom door. They still had a truck to unload, beds to set up, and pizza to order. And since she’d left him in charge of moving their stuff into their new house, one with a white picket fence lined by rose bushes, and a big backyard, he was taking care of his chores in the order of their importance. “What do you want on the pizza?” She didn’t answer, so he knocked again. “Fiona.”
“Grier, go away. I’m busy in here peeing on a stick.”
What? “Why are you peeing on a stick?” He’d heard of a lot of things, peeing on trees, in the woods, on the side of the road, but that was guys mostly, and not something he could see Fiona doing.
She flung open the door and waved the stick in question. “Because my period is late.”
“Oh.” Then… “Oh! Are you?”
Technology these days made the answer so fast. She flipped the test around to look at the little window. It felt as if it took hours for her to answer. Finally, she nodded.
“We’re…?” Another baby? He hadn’t completely adapted to the first one yet. She nodded again and waited. “Wow.” Not that they’d practiced much in the way of safe sex. “Another baby.”
London had just started walking, babbling Mama, and feeding herself, which always led to an inevitable mess. And now there would be two messes. Two babies. Two car seats. Two everything. Holy shit.
She must have seen his panic. “Are you okay?”
“Can we handle two?” He did okay with London, but that was because Fiona was usually nearby. “I mean, two is a lot.”
She twisted her mouth to one side. “I think it’s a little late to worry now.” There was that. “Besides, we’ve managed so far.” She moved closer, her hand on his shoulder. “Think of it as an adventure.”
An adventure. Yeah. But infinitely scarier than rock climbing or riding his motorcycle without a helmet. He nodded quietly, still picturing the horrors of fatherhood to two. “An adventure.”
“Yeah, like waking up every morning and not knowing what joy the day’s going to bring.” Her smile stretched across her face and her eyes sparkled. And that was enough to make Grier happy. Scared still, but happy. She smiled. “It’s gonna be two times as great.”
He pulled her in close, inhaled the scent of her hair, kissed the top of her head. “It definitely is.”
“It’s good news, right?”
They’d been through so much over the last few months with Grier finding out the identity of his parents, with losing Jez and Hamilton, with Fiona killing Sedotal, that this good news seemed almost odd to hear and Grier wasn’t sure if he could let himself hope. But for Fiona, there was nothing he wouldn’t do, and if she was happy, he was happy. She was back where she belonged, running her father’s business, making a life with Grier and London and now a new baby. They’d bought a new house and left all the ugliness of the past behind. “You bet.”
They’d only been on the road for a few hours, but Sage pulled the bike into a motel somewhere on the Georgia coast. Mia lifted her head and untangled her arms from around him. Since Fiona had rescued her, she hadn’t quite been herself. Certainly, the bullet wound, a through and through just above her hip bone, couldn’t have been comfortable so he understood.
“I’ll get us a room.” His voice was gruff, deeper than he’d ever heard himself speak. But having her head against his back, her arms around his waist, her legs alongside his ass, for the last four hours had affected him in ways he didn’t like to think about.
It had been years since he’d… been with anyone, even though he’d let everyone at the Demon clubhouse think he was working his way through the Hell Kats and the Wall Kats, he’d not touched anyone. Couldn’t. Not that he didn’t want to, but… his mind and his body weren’t exactly on speaking terms.
He walked into the motel office and plunked down a couple of hundred-dollar bills. The kid at the counter eyed them and Grier unwrapped another but held it in his hand. “I need a room.”
The kid behind the counter couldn’t have been more than a high schooler. His acne hadn’t cleared up and his glasses were held together with a piece of tape at the corner where the left lens met the earwand. The kid put his comic down and eyed the money. “We don’t take cash. Only credit cards.”
Sage peeled another hundred and put both on the counter on top of the others. “Look, kid, I need an empty room for one night. You don’t even have to put it on the books. Just take the money and give me a key and the number of a pizza place that delivers.”
The kid looked left then right then at Sage. He slid a key across the counter. “Room six is open and clean.” He smiled. “Ice machine’s broken and there’s a condom machine bolted in each bathroom. Takes ones and fives.”
Condom machine? He looked at the sign over the kid’s shoulder. It showed nightly rates and below it, ones for hourly rental. The condom machine made more sense now. Sage took a copy of the takeout menu the kid handed him and walked out to the bike. He nodded to Mia. “Room six.”
Mia stretched her back then winced. “Feels like I have a white-hot poker in my side and a bike seat fused to my ass.” She chuckled and held the spot where she’d been shot. “I’m not sure which is worse.”
He tried not to look at the aforementioned ass as she walked in front of him, but this woman had a body that would make the most chaste of priests stand for a good gawk. And Sage Anderson might have been chaste of late, but he was certainly no priest. No sir. He was a Screaming Demon, a former Marine gunnery sergeant, a tech wizard. Priest didn’t make the list. As a matter of fact, churches probably groaned in relief when he passed on by and didn’t stop for a chat. Not that he didn’t try to be good. Sometimes, life just got in the way of his intentions.
It didn’t matter much now anyway. He’d gone to the dark side a while ago and there wasn’t much chance he would go back.
He focused, walking around Mia to unlock the door. He pushed it open and let her walk ahead of him. The room wasn’t bad. Two beds. A table. A TV and a bathroom. Not the worst place he’d ever put his head down and better than Afghanistan by at least about a hundred degrees. Not quite as good as the Demon clubhouse after Fiona renovated it, but it would do long enough for Mia to rest her injury.
Her breath came in short puffs as she lifted the hem of her shirt to check her bandage. He had more in his bag on the bike. “I’ll be right back.” He needed a minute anyway now that he’d seen all that smooth olive skin across her belly. Need stirred in his gut and he stopped walking. What the hell? He hadn’t been so… turned on in years. Not since…