Chapter 6

6

Mase

Iwatch through the front window of the drugstore as Ripley glides down the aisles, her nose wrinkled in thought. She’s as beautiful as ever, her red hair in waves down the middle of her back, an ice-blue sundress hugging her delicious body…but something is wrong. There’s a hitch in her stride that isn’t normally present. She keeps shaking out her hands and second-guessing everything she picks up.

I wonder how she would react if she knew I was watching.

She’d probably give me the finger—and I’d deserve it.

Fuck. Every time I blink, I see her mouth open, moaning. I feel her nails raking down my back, her inexcusably tight pussy rippling around my johnson. I thought I was fucked up over my niece before, but ignorance was bliss compared to this. I’m ruined for anything and everything else this world has to offer. There’s only her.

And I sure as hell ruined her back, didn’t I? Not in a good way, either.

I hurt her. Made my sweetheart cry.

She gave me the best night of my thirty-eight years and I left angry handprints on her ass in return. If another man had laid hands on her in frustration, they would be at the bottom of a lake right now with their feet encased in cement. My self-loathing is so goddamn heavy where it sits on my shoulders and chest, it’s a wonder I could get out of bed this morning. But I needed to see her. When I woke this morning, there was an intuition churning in my gut. A sense that I need to see her right the hell now.

I busted inside her without a condom.

I came deep and my intentions were so primal in that moment, I’ll be shocked if she isn’t in a delivery room in nine months.

My dick is hard thinking about it, my tongue thick in my mouth.

Didn’t I know this would happen if I took her? That my obsession would inflate into something almost predatory and insatiable?

Yeah I knew. And here I am, salivating over the sight of her while keeping my eye on every other man in the drugstore, daring them to come within ten yards of what’s mine so I can put my size thirteen boot up their ass.

I’m the last person Ripley wants to see and that causes a cavern to open in my stomach, but when she walks out of the store a few minutes later clutching a brown paper bag to her chest, I have no choice but to step out from the shadows. Into her path.

She skids to a halt and I watch a few different emotions pass over her face. Surprise. Happiness. And finally the killer: indifference. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“That right?” I take her elbow and drag my hissing niece around the side of the building. “I have a lot of things to say to you, sweetheart, but right now I’m concerned with one thing.” I urge her chin up with my fingers, aching to kiss her. “What’s in the bag, Ripley?”

“Nothing,” she says too quickly, her eyes darting to the side.

“Now that’s bull and we both know it.” I’m painfully aware that anyone walking by can glance down the side street and see us. A six-foot-three felon with neck tattoos trapping a sweet, young girl against a building. They’ll probably think I’m robbing or assaulting her. Our many differences are why I tried so hard to stay away, but hell if logic matters anymore now that I’ve had her legs wrapped around me. “You pregnant, baby?”

She must feel my erection swell against her stomach because she sucks in a sexy, little breath. “How would I know? It’s only been five days.”

“Ripley…” I warn.

“Fine.” Her free hand shoves at my shoulder, but I don’t budge. “My period was supposed to start the day after we…after you…”

“After I fucked you good and hard?”

My niece tries to trap a moan but doesn’t quite succeed and it drives me crazy. Makes me want to fall to my knees, lift the hem of her dress and lick between her legs, right here on the street. “Anyway,” she whispers tremulously. “I-I’m late.”

The confirmation, or at least what I deem as proof that Ripley is carrying my child, packs my chest so tight with emotion, I can barely breathe. Mine. I’m going to care for her and this baby. I’m going to be a dedicated father and husband. Explaining our predicament to her parents is going to be difficult, but everything that comes afterward will be worth one tough conversation. I’ll never be good enough for her, but God forgive me, I’m relieved the choice has been taken out of my hands. Now she’s one hundred percent mine. The claim is set in stone.

I trail my knuckles down her cheeks. “Do you feel okay?”

My affection catches her off-guard. “I’m fine. Just scared.”

“No.” I lean down and kiss her forehead. “Don’t be scared. I’m going to take care of everything. We’ll get a place together and babyproof the hell out of it—”

“No.”

It takes me a second to register that whispered denial. “What do you mean no?”

She takes advantage of my momentary shock to slide out from between me and the building. “I mean…I already decided that if I’m pregnant, I’m going to do it on my own. Raise the baby.” Her chin notches up. “I have a place. My parents have money to help me with childcare. I don’t need you to help me out of some…sense of obligation. I would hate it.”

“Ripley.” Her name bursts out of me on an incredulous laugh. This can’t really be happening. “That is my child you’re carrying. If you think you’re raising them without me, you’re wrong. I’m going to be a part of their life and yours, so get used to the idea real fast.”

My niece has never been one to back down from an argument and this time is no exception. “All this time, you’ve stayed away from me so I wouldn’t get pregnant. You told me so that day in my bedroom. That’s how I know you don’t really want this—and that’s fine. I’m strong and resourceful. I can do it on my own.”

If I’d even remotely seen this argument coming, I could have been prepared for it. But not in a million years could I have expected Ripley to try and deny me the privilege of being involved with her pregnancy, her life, our child’s life. Jesus, I must have hurt her so badly. Yes, I can see that I have. Her chin is wobbling, though she’s trying to hide it. She holds the bag that surely contains a pregnancy test to her chest like a shield. I’m so angry at myself for causing her an ounce of pain and putting her out of my reach that I lash out. I become an aggressor, because fighting is all that I know. It’s how I survived most of my life.

“You’re not keeping me from you,” I rasp, catching her jaw in my hand. “Or this baby.”

“Why do you want to be involved?” she cries, her tears splashing down onto my inked knuckles. “I conned you, didn’t I? I tricked you.” Her eyelids fall, hiding the eyes I love most in the world. “Making you step up now wouldn’t be fair to you, Mase.”

My heart flips over.

Ah, now I see what’s really going on here. It’s her guilt pushing me away.

I made her feel like shit over what happened in the brothel and now it has come back around to bite me in the ass. She opens her eyes again and stares right through me, making me feel like I’m sucking wind. I know Ripley better than anyone and I’m not going to reach her right now. This girl is stubborn as they come and she’s made a decision to shut me out.

I’m going to have to work a lot harder to win her back.

To erase her memory of how I acted, the words I said…I’ll have to do more than just make verbal demands. To convince her I not only want to spend my life kissing the ground she walks on, but that building a family with her would be a dream come true. A dream I don’t deserve, but one I can’t help but reach out and take like a desperate beggar.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” she whispers. “Just let me go.”

Ready to implode with denial, I nonetheless rein in my mania, taking a moment to breathe. To plan. Then I drop my mouth to hers, hoping she feels the promise in my kiss. “Never. I’ll never let you go,” I growl against her mouth, before tearing myself away from her and walking away. It nearly kills me to leave her standing there, but we’re at an impasse. If I push too hard, I know she’ll only close herself off and I’ll get nowhere.

Perks of being in love with a redhead.

No, I need to show her I’m willing and eager to put in work.

I need to get her trust back and make her realize that while she did trick me, us coming together was inevitable. We are inevitable. I was an idiot to try and fight that for so long.

As soon as I’m out of earshot, I rip my cell phone from the pocket of my leather jacket and call my brother. “Hey,” he answers, sounding bored. Where the hell have you been the last few days? I’ve called a couple of times.”

Drinking Jack Daniels, missing Ripley, replaying the moment I sank balls deep into perfection and fucking my hand until my cock had burn marks.

Probably should keep that to myself.

“Working on a bike,” I mutter, losing my battle with the need to turn around and look back at Ripley. But when I do, she’s gone and urgency boils in my stomach. I need to make things right. I need her. “Listen, I was thinking. Are you driving Ripley up the coast to get her settled before the semester starts?”

“Yeah,” he sighs. “Couldn’t get out of it. She rented a U-Haul with Alana.” A television flips on in the background, the sounds of golf coming down the phone line. “My wife is making me follow them in my car so I can help them carry the heavy shit. Yada yada yada.”

I’ve never wanted to sock my brother in the jaw more than I do right now, even if this time, his asshole attitude is going to work to my advantage. What is more important than dropping your daughter off at college for the first time? Even if my brother and Ripley aren’t related by marriage, doesn’t he realize how fucking special she is? Who would willingly miss a second of the joy she brings?

I clear my throat to eradicate what’s left of my guilt over pulling the wool over my brother’s eyes. If things work out the way I hope, I won’t be doing that much longer. “How about I take the responsibility off your hands?” I ask. “I wouldn’t mind the ride.”

* * *

Roaringup the highway on my Harley, I can just about make out Ripley’s face in the rearview mirror on the driver’s side of the U-Haul. When I pulled up she was hugging her parents goodbye, getting ready to climb into the vehicle and leave.

She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she wanted nothing to do with me, tossing her fiery hair and strutting past me without so much as a word while my brother watched in confusion. Normally she would throw herself into my arms and ask where I’d been, if I’m working on any new bikes, if I like her dress. I’d be harnessing every ounce of my willpower not to kiss her or slide my fingers between her thighs.

Instead, she didn’t say a word in my direction. But it wasn’t the rejection that injured me. It was the pain in her eyes, the tremble of her lips. Seeing how hurt she still was is a dagger ramming between my ribs, pain radiating from the wound and infecting every part of me, especially the goddamn muscle in the center of my chest.

Make it right.

And as we near the gated community where Ripley is going to be living with her friend, the need to repair the damage between us is burning hotter and hotter. A world without Ripley is one-dimensional and bleak. A world where she raises our child without my protection every moment of the day makes me want to bellow like an injured demon. I’ve never been able to envision myself as a father. I’ve always assumed I wasn’t that blessed. That lucky.

I still can’t believe it.

But hell if I don’t already love the kid she’s carrying. I ache to see her belly grow, to watch her smile when the baby kicks in her stomach, my hand pressed to the swelling curve.

I can see us on the beach, Ripley leaning back against my chest while we watch our son or daughter build a sand castle. A life so perfect was never in the cards for a man like me, but now that it’s a possibility, now that I can be with this girl I love, I need it with every fiber of my being.

God, I need her so bad.

There’s a hole in my heart and it yawns wider every second she’s not in my arms.

When we pull up outside her simple, two-story, Spanish-style home, my course of action is set. First, get forgiveness from Ripley, preferably before the lack of her addictive sunshine kills me. Second, spend as long as it takes earning her back. Convincing her to let me back in.

Rife with determination, I climb off my bike and stride to the driver’s side, my cock already heavy with pressure against the fly of my jeans. Ripley jolts a little when she sees me standing outside the window, but she recovers and primly pushes the door open, sniffing. “Thank you for making sure we arrived safely, Uncle Mase. We can take it from here.”

Her words might be dismissing me, but she’s ogling the fly of my jeans and turning flush, twisting her lush bottom lip between her teeth, thighs cinching together on the seat.

Oh, she loved fucking me. That much is plain.

Want to spread your legs for this dick again, don’t you, sweetheart?

It never occurred to me that I could use our attraction to my advantage, but I’m willing to employ every weapon in my arsenal to make her forgive me. To get another taste. She’s already admitted she wants to be with me. She was willing to hide her identity and seduce me to make her point. So that means she’s willing to live with everything that comes along with the man she’s obsessed beyond recognition. There’s nothing holding me back.

Stepping back a little, I shrug off my jacket. “Hold this for me a sec?” I hand her the worn-in leather and she takes it, as if on autopilot, her eyes glued to my biceps now. Hiding my dark smile, I strip off my white T-shirt, shoving it into my back pocket as far as it’ll go, leaving the rest draped down my thigh. “Hot day for a move, right?” I wink at her. “Better get started.”

Leaving her staring after me with a dropped jaw, I can’t help but chuckle a little on my way to the back of the U-Haul. I unhook the rolling door and shove it up, climbing into the truck bed to get started moving the heavier items onto the sidewalk. Eventually, Ripley gets out and unlocks the door of their new home, letting Alana inside, before crossing the lawn to me cautiously.

“I hope you’re happy.” She crosses her arms over her beautiful tits. “There are, like, a bunch of women snapping pictures of you from their kitchen windows.”

Not really caring one way or another about the picture takers, I set down the wrought-iron headboard I’m carrying, leaning it up against the side of the truck. “What about you, Ripley?” I drag my tongue along the seam of my lips, unable to stop myself from looking at her stomach, to judge if it has grown at all. “You want to snap a pic, too? You’re looking hard enough.”

Temper flares in her eyes, doing nothing to help the escalating situation in my pants. “Are you really going to act like nothing happened?”

“That would be impossible, now wouldn’t it?” I step into her space, not bothering to hide the fact that I’m inhaling her scent like a dying man. “There’s only one female I want on the face of this earth. I finally got her beneath me and she was hotter and sweeter and tighter than I could have imagined. Then I behaved like a son of a bitch and ruined everything. Spanked her when I should have been kissing every sacred inch of her body.” I look into her rapidly widening eyes. “Yeah. It’s damn well impossible to pretend that didn’t happen.”

Ripley’s chest expands on a shaky breath, hands dropping to her sides. “I think I made it pretty clear…” Her voice falls to a hushed whisper. “That I’ve m-moved on.”

My hands start to reach for her, but I catch myself just in time, curling my fingers into my palms. If we have an audience like she says, I’m not going to lay a finger on her out here on the lawn or I risk taking it too far. “Can we talk inside?”

She seems short of breath. “What? Deprive all these women of your muscles?”

Already breaking my rule about not touching her, I tilt up her chin. “If you’ll recall what I told you in that room, sweetheart, I don’t give a fuck about other women. There’s only one that gets my cock hard and she’s a beautiful, redheaded troublemaker with freckles and suckable, little tits I can’t stop thinking about.”

“I seem to recall something about that,” she says shakily, tucking hair behind her ear with trembling fingers. “I-I suppose we can talk inside, but nothing has changed.”

Releasing her chin, I trail the tip of my index finger down the slope of her throat, feeling her gulp. “Lead the way.”

She turns on the heel of her white Converse shoe and I prowl behind her, devouring the sight of her luscious ass in cut-off jean shorts. We’re walking into a house together and for the first time, her parents won’t be here to play buffer. To keep my desire in check. I’m extremely aware of that. Not to mention the fact that she’s a big girl now, pregnant with my kid, and we have privacy as she leads me to a back bedroom.

I follow her inside and kick the door shut, enjoying the awareness on her face as she backs away, her tits heaving at my purposeful approach.

I’d like to rip out the crotch of her jean shorts and panties, pin her to the wall and fuck her until tears of satisfaction—not hurt—roll down her face. But I have to stick to my plan and that means I apologize first, the way I should have done outside the drugstore.

Stopping in front of her, I cup her soft cheek, regret crowding painfully in my sternum. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. For coming down on you like that after we made love.” My apology emerges sounding raw. “For making you cry. I hate myself for hurting you, baby.”

She widens her gaze at my apology and ducks her head quickly. When she lifts it again, there is a light sheen of moisture in her eyes, the stubbornness ebbing from her posture. “I shouldn’t have tricked you. It was wrong. So wrong—”

“Ripley—”

“No, let me finish.”

I grind my back teeth together to stop from reassuring her.

Ripley squares her shoulders. “I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for what I did.” She starts to say more, but shoots forward instead, wrapping her arms around my waist. She buries her cheek in the center of my bare chest where she must hear my heart going a million miles a minute. “I miss you.”

I’m already groaning, walking her toward the wall. Her back hits it a split second later and my mouth is moving on her neck, kissing the sensitive patch beneath her ear. “Ah, sweetheart. I miss you like hell.” My hands rake down her hips, twisting the denim of her shorts in a desperate grip. “I’ve been fucking miserable not being able to hear your voice.”

“It felt so good…what we did together.” She gasps when I bite her earlobe, her fingers dropping to the fly of my jeans, wresting it open. “Will you do it again, Uncle Mase? Please?”

“Wait,” I pant, seizing her wrist and securing it to the wall above her head. My cock is harder than a goddamn crowbar in my jeans, pulsing with the need to surround itself in my niece’s tight little cunt, but I’m doing this right. We can have forever together if I don’t rush her into this—and God knows we rushed enough in the brothel. “I want nothing more than to give you a ride on this dick, Ripley, but not until I hear you say the words. You’ll let me be your man. Forever. You’re going to let me be involved in this baby’s life. Forever.”

With a frustrated sob, she breaks out of my grip, pacing across to the other side of the room. Not following her is hell, but I need to hear what she says. I need to know what she’s thinking. “I can’t make those promises. You stayed away from me for so long. You never offered to be with me…until now. When you know I’m pregnant. How will I know you’re not just accepting this responsibility because you have no choice? Because I gave you no choice?”

I tear at my hair, a humorless laugh leaving my mouth. “Did you miss the part when I brought a fucking picture of you to the brothel, because you’re the only way I get hard? Did you forget me admitting I haven’t been with another woman since I met you?” I cross to her in two long strides, grasping her by the shoulders. “Jesus, Ripley. Open your eyes.”

She’s so close to giving in, giving me a shot, but her shoulders sag, her teeth worrying her lower lip in indecision. “I don’t know…”

My instinct is to keep arguing, but I came here to play the long game, the forever game, and that’s exactly what I plan to do. As long as it takes. “All right, sweetheart.” I pull her into my arms, pressing my lips to her temple. “That’s fine. But I’m not budging until you do know that there is no one else for me. No other life I want but the one I can have with you. You’re the breath in my fucking lungs, Ripley.”

Her tearful eyes blink up at me, but I don’t give in to the hope that I’m finally getting through to her. Instead, I kiss her forehead softly, leave the room and move the heavy shit in off the lawn.

Patience.