Chapter Seventeen

"Stop staring at me, it's creepy." My grin is instant at Mackenzie's mumbled, sleepy, words.

All night, every night, I sleep on my back with her draped over me in various positions. Leg hiked up on my waist and an arm either around my chest or tucked under her chin with her elbow digging into my ribs is the norm. She's a constant weight of comfort and even unconscious I can feel her presence, which is the only reason I sleep so well. This morning, however, she ended up facing away from me.

So, here I am. Propped up by my elbow with my front flush against her back as I watch every breath she takes in and every exhale she releases. The regularity of those sounds tend to calm my usually overactive heartbeat.

"It's not creepy when it's done out of love." Tracing the back of my index finger down the column of her neck and over her shoulder, I pause at the underside of her breast. Heavy and warm, the smooth skin makes my dick hard in a second.

"Yeah, that's what stalkers say."

I pinch her nipple hard enough to wake her completely. Her answering scowl only makes me harder. "Don't fucking talk about other men in our bed, Cherry. Do I need to fuck some respect into you? Need another orgasm to remember that you're mine?"

She rolls her eyes and turns back around, giving me her back again like the little brat she likes to be in the morning. "I have a message for you."

My mood shifts without preamble, the words ominous and too dangerous for my liking.

"From who?"

"My vagina wants you to keep your dick away so she can rest."

It takes my brain a couple of seconds to understand her words. When I do, I have to work really fucking hard at not laughing loudly enough to wake the whole fucking compound.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, she'd appreciate a little down time, maybe a hot bath to relax her. Maybe then she'll be ready for round…" I can practically hear her counting in her head, so I do what I always do when it comes to her. I help.

"Round six."

"Damn, Aleko. Are you actively trying to drown me in my own orgasms?" The back of my finger returns to her silky skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake as I trace the story of my love for every inch of her.

"When you…" I have to take a breath and remind my heart and mind that it was all a ruse before I can even say the word. "When you died." I swallow down the lump of fear that never completely disappeared, even with her return. "It was like riding in a tunnel that never ends. The sound of the exhaust is so loud, it's enough to drown out every other noise around you. And your vision is singular, fixed ahead to the exit as you ride through, full speed ahead. Except, no matter how fast I was riding, the exit—the light—never came closer."

Changing the mood wasn't my intention but, for some reason, the words just come spilling out like I have zero control over them.

"Aleko…" My name on her parted lips is the sweetest sound, the most soul-soothing balm in the world.

"So, yeah. I watch you. I always know where you are, like I'm the planet that revolves around your sunlight. I growl and I snarl and I swear to fuck, Mackenzie, I will kill without a thought if it means keeping you safe. Mark my words."

Turning in my arms, Mackenzie wraps all four limbs around me and without either one of us deciding anything, my cock slides into her warm, wet pussy, pumping in and out, slow and steady. With her on top of me, blonde hair spilling all around like a cocoon just for us, we make love. Our mouths are fused together, our breaths feeding each other's lungs, and our moans healing each other's bruised souls.

"I take it back." Her words are soft against my lips.

"What do you take back, sweet Cherry Pie?"

"My vagina can rest when she's dead." I chuckle at her seriously fucked up words and decide being all sweet and cuddly is enough for now.

Flipping us over, I look down at her and grin like the psycho they've branded me.

"Good. I think she needs to be punished for thinking I could ever stay away." I don't waste time pressing my body to hers and attacking her mouth with my need for her. Gone are our soft kisses and sweet words. We are only frenzied craving and bottomless need for each other.

Rubbing my naked skin over her, it takes a Herculean effort not to rear back and slam my cock inside her. I will, but not this second. In fact, right now, the only thing I want is to feast on her cunt and feel her juices run down my chin. I want her so wet she's slipping and sliding all over my dick. I want her at my mercy the exact way I'm at hers.

Kneeling between her legs, I flip her over once more and grin at the immediate squeal that escapes her.

"Ass up." In a fraction of a second, she does exactly what I tell her and presents me her perfectly round ass, her pussy and asshole on display just begging for my mouth and fingers and cock. "You are a fucking sight, Cherry, and the best part is that you're all mine."

Running a gentle hand over her ass, I pause before pulling back and connecting again, this time with a reverberating slap that takes her completely by surprise.

"What the fuc—" The second slap cuts off any of her protests, her surprise turning to pleasure as my fingers dig into her skin and knead her recently pink flesh. "Oh, God. Do that again."

Fucking Christ, my dick cannot get any harder. This woman will be the death of me in the best of ways.

With the reactions she's giving me, it's difficult to stop, impossible to take my eyes off her reddening ass. So, I don't. Instead, I bring my mouth to her pink cheek and soothe the sting of my hand with a kiss from my lips. Then, I bite hard enough to make her squirm but not enough to break the skin.

It's only when she's absolute putty in my hands that my mouth travels to the crack of her ass and licks a path right down the middle, taking my time circling her puckered hole before lifting her high enough to bury my tongue inside her succulent little cunt.

I don't eat her out, I fucking devour her. My entire mouth consumes her with licks and bites and sucking sounds that are pure music to my ears, and combined with her moans, I lose myself at this woman's mercy.

Reaching around her, I tap out a soft beat on her clit to prepare her, warn her, that she's about to come all over my face. At the same time, I press one thumb to her puckered hole with my other hand and don't let up on her pussy until she's screaming for me to stop or continue or something, something, something.

If I weren't so fucking desperate to come inside her, I'd chuckle at her confused orders. Just when I think she can't take anymore, I give her the trifecta of pleasure.

In one move, I press two fingers to her clit and rub just as my thumb breaches her hole and my tongue disappears into her hot little pussy, my entire face buried between her lips. Is it possible to suffocate from eating pussy? I may very well find out and be okay with the consequences.

Her orgasm is swift and powerful, her cum instantly coating my mouth and nose and chin. It's fucking Heaven and I never want to let her go. This, right here, is everything I want, all the fucking time.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" she chants over and over, her ass and pussy grinding against me, seeking out more… always more.

Without a second's hesitation, I force myself to separate my mouth from her cunt and immediately replace it with my cock. It's deep and it's hard as stone, making her cry out again and again, alternating between God's name and mine. Not gonna lie, the familiar pang of jealousy throbs in my chest because God has nothing to do with the way she's writhing beneath me or the way her body is melting at my touch.

Her orgasms are mine.

Her pleasure is mine.

Her compliance is all fucking mine. I am her god, in and out of the fucking bedroom.

The thought has me rearing back and slamming inside her without any finesse. I don't fuck her pussy, I pound it with unleashed need and want and refuse to apologize for the way she makes me feel.

Unhinged. That's what she brings out in me, and it feels too right to question.

The next time she comes, I join her. My body draped over hers, my front to her back, and my dick emptying out inside her cum-thirsty cunt.

Our suite smells like sex and our breaths are the only sound I can hear as my heartbeat pumps inside my ears.

Goddamn, she's everything. Every fucking thing that matters in my life is right under me. With a soft kiss to her shoulder blade, I roll us over on our sides, keeping my dick inside her, and pepper her skin with my lips.

"I love you, Cherry. Don't ever doubt that."

"I don't doubt it for a second." Her response comes between two heavy breaths and I wait a beat before pinching her nipple.

"Ow! What was that for?" She tries to turn her head, I'm guessing so she can read my face.

"Say it back, Cherry." With a roll of her eyes, she faces away from me again and presses herself even closer against me before giving me what I want.

"I love you, too, you big buffoon." Honestly, I don't even care that her sweet words are dripping in sass. In fact, I kind of love it just like that.

"Your shot is soon, isn't it?" My question may seem out of the blue, but it's not. It's been bouncing around my head for days.

"Huh?"

"Contraception, Cherry. Next week, you're due for a shot. Correct?" I may have snooped around before all the shit went down. I figured she'd had the shot while hiding out and next week would be the logical time for her next shot.

"How the fuck would you even know that?" As soon as her words are out of her mouth, she stiffens in my arms.

"What's wrong?" I can feel her trying to pull away but instead of letting her go, I clamp her arm around her waist and hold her to me. "What's wrong, Mackenzie?"

"I need to look at the calendar." A warm feeling grows in my chest at the panic in her voice. An obsessive man like me can only hope…

"I am your calendar, Cherry. Next week is when you're due for your shot."

"Well, Mr. Knowitall, with everything going on, I haven't had my shot." With every one of her words, her pitch grows with panic.

"Is that a bad thing?" My first concern, in this situation, isn't what I want. As much as I want her pregnant with my baby, I definitely don't want her unhappy about it.

"It's not like we've been using condoms, Aleko. Once we knew we were both clean, we just kinda went at it like feral little bunnies. So, yeah, this is potentially a problem." Wiggling away from me, she tries to get away but, again, I keep her flush against me, my mouth at her ear and my words barely a whisper.

"Nothing bad can come from me loving you, Cherry. If you're pregnant, I'll follow your lead on this, but you need to know that you carrying my baby is nothing less than perfect for me." This time, when she springs off the mattress, I let her go.

"I'm only twenty-one, you fucking caveman!" Her outrage is dimmed by her wide eyes and nervous grin on her face.

"Hate to break it to ya, babe, but my sperm is probably in there swimming like a champ and poking at your eggs like a lunatic." I shrug with zero shame in my tone. "To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if you're already pregnant with a little Psycho making room in there for the next however many months."

"I'm not pregnant. I would know. Jesus, I'm an EMT, I would fucking know if I'm—" Her gaze is fixed over my shoulder and she looks like she's calculating some equation on quantum mechanics. "Fuck."

I grin.

"When was your last period?"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Mackenzie bolts from the bed and picks up her phone.

"When was your last period, Cherry?" I'm right behind her in a nanosecond, looking over her shoulder as she opens up her cycle app.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I'm starting to love that chant.

"Well, damn. Guess we're taking a trip to the drug store." I don't even bother to hide the smile in my voice.

"No, no, no!" When she turns around, the fear in her eyes is real but I don't miss the way one of her hands flies to her stomach like she's already protecting it. "I thought it was all the food Sabrina was making me eat."

"She is a supreme cook." I wink, half expecting her to snap at me. She doesn't though, and I can see the shadow of worry in her eyes as she looks up to me for guidance.

"But what if the club kicks my mom out? What if we have to move out? I'm not leaving her alone, she needs me. But I don't have a job anymore and I can't live under a bridge, I mean… I know the Red Hot Chili Peppers think they're great but we don't have good bridges here in Rockford." I'm trying really fucking hard not to laugh because what the actual fuck is she talking about? As If I'd let her go, let alone live under a fucking bridge.

"It'll be fine, baby. It's you and me, we'll be great." My hand rests right over hers as my lips whisper-touch her lips. We don't kiss, not in the conventional way and we definitely don't talk but for a calming moment, we just take in the possibility of what's to come. Of what we will be… together.

Hell, maybe I'm wrong. Except, I know I'm not. It's in the way her belly rounds ever so slightly at the bottom, all hard and tense. The way her breasts feel so fucking full when I cup them and bite on them. The way her cunt milks my cock like it can't get enough of me.

And I'm not even going to start on her mood swings because I like my balls right where they are.

All that aside, before we can begin living a life together, we're definitely going to need to address, in church, the fact her mother just stabbed our VP. And that's a whole lot of worms we can't put back into the can.

"There's so many of them."

Bear and I are at the drug store, standing in the aisle for all the feminine products, as we both stare down at the three fucking shelves filled with pregnancy tests.

It takes me a second or ten to respond to him because he's right… who the fuck needs so many tests?

"Which one should I take?" There's a red box, a dark pink box, a green box, a blue box. So many fucking blue boxes. I pick a random one up and read the instructions.

"One line, you're not pregnant, two lines, you are. Results in one minute. Sounds simple enough." Bear's only response is a grunt and I'm pretty sure that means, yes.

Snatching up a second box, I read those instructions. Wait three minutes and the word "pregnant" tells you everything you need to know.

The third box is a combination of both of the others, boasting its success rate of ninety-nine percent accuracy.

"Get one of each, I guess."

Head cocked to the side, I look at Bear because what he just said makes perfect sense. When I stepped out of our suite earlier, I made a beeline for Bear's room and banged on the door before swinging it open and barking out orders to my best friend. He was face down on the bed, naked, with some Khunt using his back as her pillow. Without even questioning my sanity, he got up—careful not to jostle his partner too much—and took a four minute shower before he was dressing and walking out the door with me.

That's the thing about Bear and me… we've got each other's backs no matter what.

"Yeah. I'll let her choose, right?"

"Right." We both nod like the decision was easy to make. It wasn't, not by a long fucking shot as evidenced by the fact that we've been here for over twenty minutes just staring at boxes.

"Come on, I wanna know if I'm gonna be an uncle." I grin because I love the sound of that.

Grabbing no less than six boxes, we make our way to the register when something catches my eye and forces my feet to stop dead in their tracks.

On tiny hangers, are those onesie things for babies, each with a different slogan. Two make me grin so I swipe them up before grabbing a handful of cherry suckers and putting everything down on the counter for the cashier.

"Will this be all?" The tiny woman with a ponytail so tight it looks like her eyes are pulled into slits and she's trying to self-face-lift doesn't even look at me. She's so busy ogling Bear that if this were a cartoon, she'd have hearts in the place of her pupils.

"Yup."

"That'll be seventy-four ninety-five." I blink at the cashier who, again, isn't even looking at me, before swinging my gaze to the numbers and back at her.

Beside me, Bear chuckles. "And so it begins, brother. Better start a little nest egg ‘cause it's gonna get real expensive real quick."

My answering grunt is all I can give as I fish four twenty dollar bills out of my wallet before my phone starts screaming, "Answer the fucking phone!" over and over again in Prez's distinct, smooth, and no nonsense voice. Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I grin at Ponytail Lady, who is finally giving me some attention—narrowed eyes and open mouth counts—and shrug.

"Guess I better answer the fucking phone." I make no apologies for who I am. "‘Sup, Prez?" Swiping the five dollar bill, I drop the dime in the plastic box collecting change for St. Jude's Hospital and head for the door.

"Get yer asses back here, we've got a situation. Church is in fifteen." Without even giving me time to respond or ask questions, the line goes dead and anticipation grows deep in my belly, getting bigger and bigger as the seconds go by. When Prez calls like this, it means shit just hit the fan. Honestly, the possibilities are endless.

"What did Prez want?" We hop on our bikes before I stash the loot in my backpack.

"Something's up, we need to head straight to church."

"Let's go, Daddy."

My head snaps to the right so fast I almost dislodge my spine as I narrow my gaze into heated slits. "No, dude. Never again."

In sync, we both pull our helmets down, Bear laughing the whole time.

But when we get to the compound and take our seats at the central oak table, the laughter has long since died as I replay Prez's words over and over again in my head.

"First order of business before we get to today's disappointing news, is the shitshow of Hoops getting stabbed by…" Prez narrows his eyes on me, distaste curling his lip, "Your old lady's mother." Rubbing my hands over the top of my head, I groan at the mention of Darlene's unfortunate decision-making.

"She's really sorry about that, Prez." As if he can feel my tight fit between the rock and the hard place, Boner passes me the last of the joint going around the table. "It won't happen again." Lifting my chin to our VP, I ask. "You okay, Hoops?"

"All stitched up and ready to go, Psycho. I'm fine, man. But Prez is right. Our priority is the safety of our members. I get that she probably has PTSD but the issue is that she's a liability." I stare at Hoops, processing his words and hoping I'm not about to get some really fucking bad news.

"What's the PTSD about? You know anything?" This is church. What is said here, stays here but still, it's Darlene's story to tell.

"It's really fucking personal, Prez, but I can tell you this… we'll make sure it never happens again." I nod to Hoops, hopeful he'll get that I intend to keep my promise. "And right now, she's shaken up about it, too, and refuses to leave her room." Fuck, I hope this'll buy us some much needed time.

"Prez, if there's one place she can heal, it's here with us." I nod at Bear's words, he's right about this. We're all misfits who fucked up at one point or the other and Darlene is another victim of injustice, just like the rest of us.

"What about the Khunts? If we let this go, some of them might get ideas." Boner lights up a cigarette and shrugs, knowing he makes a good point.

"We do need to think about the girls, although none of them have an ax to grind. Right?" It sounds like a question but it's more of a warning.

"I wouldn"t put violence past Rea, especially since your boy found himself a sweet old lady." Crow jumps into the conversation and I can't disagree with him. Rea has always been a bit of a wild card. I don't regret much in my life but fucking that girl on the regular is my biggest to date.

"All right. It's a club vote so let's do it." As Prez slams the gavel down, I look around the table and make eye contact with each of my brothers. I need them to know they can trust me to take care of this. To always have their best interests at heart.

"All for keeping Darlene at the compound, say aye."

One by one, my brothers lift their hands. All of them look me straight in the eye as they do and I know I've got my answer. They trust me.

"Unanimous. She stays. But, Psycho?" I already know what he's about to say but I listen carefully anyway. "No more."

"No more, Prez."

"Now, this is going to be more problematic and I need you to keep your shit together." Again with the index finger but this time he points it only at me. "Some high roller bailed out the Toxic Rebels last night. They're all back at their trailer park." Prez's finger hasn't moved an inch. "You… you don't fucking leave the compound. We'll handle this without you."

"The fuck you will!" I stand so fast the heavy chair flies out behind me. "They're mine, Prez. Their last breaths are mine."

"No." I whip around to look at Bear and snarl, actually fucking snarl. Et tu, Brute. "Their last breaths belong to Mac."

Motherfucker. Fucking true words, right there.