Ink

I nk was having trouble keeping his hands to himself night after night when they went to their separate rooms to sleep. It had been almost six weeks since she moved into her spare room and took over his nightly fantasies.

Her ex-husband had been running around town, asking if anyone had seen his wife. He was showing Charlie’s picture to everyone he could stop to get to take a look at it. He knew that if Zeb kept looking, eventually he’d find her, and couldn’t let that happen. He had feelings for her, like it or not, and there was no way that he’d let her asshole ex touch her ever again. The problem really was that he was the one who wanted to touch her, but he was too afraid to take charge and ask Charlie for what he wanted from her. Honestly, he never saw himself as a guy who dated a pregnant woman or even had a kid himself. So much had happened with his grandfather and the move to a new town, and he didn’t have time to think about such things. Sure, he wanted to settle down, but finding a woman that he wanted who was already pregnant with another man’s baby, felt like a bit of a rush.

He was becoming so domesticated that the guys down at the Road Reapers liked to give him a hard time. He had gone to all her prenatal appointments and seeing the baby moving around on the sonogram, and even hearing her heartbeat, had him thinking about fatherhood and all the stuff that went along with it.

Charlie had seemed a little bit stressed out about putting in a restraining order against Zeb. She struggled with the idea of going to the cops about him and worried that she was still in love with her ex, but time had proven him wrong. Charlie not only filed the restraining order against Zeb, but she also filed a complaint against him for spousal abuse. The cops took pictures of her bruises and black eye along with her statement.

She had been through so much in such a short time, he wanted to do something nice for her. She told him that she wanted to be able to go out and not worry about her ex finding her, and he knew just the place that they could go—his club. He knew that the guys and their women would help make Charlie feel welcome, and she had already met Owen and Mace. It would be nice for her to meet their wives since Charlie didn’t seem to have many friends. Her sister had all but cut her off since Charlie had called to tell her that she was staying with . Her sister asked her a million questions, but Charlie only told her that he was a guy she met who was letting her stay in his spare room and that she’d be in touch as soon as it was safe. Of course, her sister didn’t like not knowing what exactly was going on, and she told Charlie not to bother calling her at all. He hated seeing Charlie upset and when she cried, all wanted to do was hold her—which usually led to him coming up with other ideas that he wanted to do with her, but that might be pushing things too far, too fast.

He knocked on her bedroom door and she called for him to come in. He found her sitting on the end of her bed, looking more worried than a woman about to go out for the evening should. “Hey, why do you look so upset?” he asked.

“I’m just nervous about tonight and meeting all your friends. I don’t have anything to wear, and I wish I could have gone out to buy something. All I have is this,” she said, standing and twirling around for him. “And I look like an Oompa Loompa.” He knew that he shouldn’t laugh, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“You do not look like an Oompa Loompa,” he insisted.

“I’m wearing leggings, and this oversized sweatshirt that I borrowed from you,” she said. He had lent it to her a few weeks back when some of her things couldn’t fit her anymore. He had to admit that seeing her in his sweatshirt turned him on. All he could imagine as he lay in bed every night was her in just his sweatshirt and nothing else.

“I look fat, and should I really be going to a bar?” she asked, holding her belly. She had a point, but no one at the bar would think it strange that she was pregnant at a bar. Mace’s wife, Brooke, had gone to the Road Reapers up until her due date. And after she gave birth, the baby started coming to the club with them. The guys even joked that the baby was the club’s mascot, not that Brooke was amused by that.

“You’re not fat, you’re pregnant,” he insisted. Mace had taught him to say that to her every time she insisted that she was fat. He said that Brooke liked to tell him that she was fat at least once a day toward the end of her pregnancy.

“You’re just being nice,” she insisted. “I have a mirror, and I know what I look like. Are you sure that you won’t be embarrassed taking me to meet your friends like this?” she asked.

He pulled her into his arms, loving that she was allowing him to do that more and more lately. “I think you look perfect,” he said. “And I’d love to take you to my club to introduce you to all my friends.

“Okay,” she said, gifting him with her shy smile. “Let me just run to the bathroom. The baby feels as though she’s sitting on my bladder all the time now,” she said.

“She probably doesn’t have very much room in there,” he teased. ran his hand over her belly, and she giggled.

“I guess she doesn’t,” Charlie agreed. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes,” she promised. He started for the door when she called his name. turned around and found her smiling back at him. “Thanks for the pep talk. I know that this must be weird for you. I mean, you have a woman staying with you at your place and a baby will be here any day now. You know, if you ever decide that we’re too much, just let me know.” He was never going to be ready to leave her or kick her and the baby out, but he kept that bit of information to himself.

They got to the bar a little bit early and most of the guys and their women weren’t there yet. Charlie looked about ready to crawl out of her skin when he asked her to sit with him in the back of the bar. He usually had a few beers when he went into the Road Reapers, but tonight, since Charlie couldn’t drink, he didn’t want to. It was only right since she seemed to already feel out of place.

“You good?” he leaned over to ask. She nodded and he knew that she was lying. took her hands into his own and she scooted closer to him.

“Thank you for that,” she whispered. “For some reason, when you do things like that, it helps to make me feel better.”

“Do things like what?” asked. He had a pretty good idea what she was referring to, but he liked to hear her say it.

“When you touch me,” she breathed, “I like it. You help to calm me.” felt the same way about her, and night after night he was left wondering if that was all that they’d ever have—occasional hugs and handholding. Tonight, he wanted to test his theory.

“Do you ever wonder if we could be good together?” he asked. He looked around the bar to make sure that they didn’t have an audience and was happy to find that no one was watching them.

“Good how?” she asked. “I thought that you didn’t want to get into anything. You said that you wanted to slow down.” That part was true on day one of them getting to know each other, but after six weeks, he was ready for things to speed up a bit.

“You’ve lived with me for six weeks now,” he said.

“I’m aware,” she whispered.

“Well, do you ever wonder what would happen if I did this?” he asked, leaning forward to gently run his lips over hers.

“Um,” she squeaked, “I think that we should try that again. I need more intel,” she teased.

She pulled him down for another kiss and when she let him up for air, her smile told him everything that he needed to know—she liked kissing him as much as he liked kissing her.

“Well, you two look cozy,” Mace said. He was standing over their table, holding his wife’s hand.

“Shut up,” said.

“He’s just giving you crap because I haven’t kissed him like that in a while,” Brooke teased. Her husband pulled her up against his body and kissed her like a starving man. wasn’t sure if he should look away or pretend that they weren’t playing tonsil hockey in front of him and Charlie.

“Okay, they get the idea,” Brooke said, pushing Mace away.

“I say that we continue this back in my office, honey,” Mace said.

“No, you have to talk to the guys first. Then, I’ll go back to your office with you,” she promised.

“I think that I need to run to the ladies’ room again.” Charlie stood up and rubbed her belly. “This kid is playing soccer in there.”

“Been there, done that,” Brooke said. “I don’t miss running to the bathroom every five minutes. I’m Brooke, by the way.”

“My name is Charlotte, but everyone calls me Charlie,” she said. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, maybe you can tell me about it while we’re in the ladies’ room because I need to go too,” Brooke said. “Plus, the other girls won’t get here for another hour, so you and I will have some time to get to know each other better.”

worried that Charlie would play shy, but when she nodded and smiled at Brooke, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that Charlie got out of the house for a night and possibly made a friend to boot. He was going to count tonight as a win—especially after that kiss. He wanted to push her for more, and eventually, he would, but for now, he was going to savor that kiss she had just given to him—until he could get another one from her.