8. Trick

I’m so fucking tired. Shit is busy at the club as the hunt for Desmond Richardson picks up. That cunt is in the wind, but I’m hopeful he’ll slip up at some point and we’ll pick up his trail. In the meantime, all the prospects, which includes me, are picking up the slack, including protection for the old ladies and keeping shit running while the patched members are gathering intel.

Kicking down the stand, I climb off my bike, and despite my shitty day, I can’t stop the grin from crossing my face as I walk up the path to my front door.

When I first came back, I used to dread coming home. There were so many ghosts, so many memories of the time I wanted to forget, but that has changed. Heidi and Sophia give me something worth coming home for.

When I unlock the door and step inside, I hear my daughter’s shrill shriek. Fuck, that girl has some lungs on her. Heidi’s laughter follows, the sound drifting toward me, and the hold the demons have on me loosens just a little more.

I head up the stairs, following their laughter towards the bathroom, and shove the door open.

As soon as I do, I know I’ve fucked up.

Sophia is in the tub, her hair full of soap and styled into a mohawk, but it’s not my daughter my gaze is locked on.

It’s Heidi. She’s sitting in front of my daughter, the bubbles barely covering her creamy thighs and showing a tantalising hint of her cunt. Her dark nipples are wet and shiny, and I can’t tear my eyes away from them.

“Shit,” she hisses, water sloshing around her as she covers her tits with her hands.

I’m not a saint, and when confronted with boobs, I look, so it takes my brain a second to kick in and remember my fucking manners.

“Fuck me,” I mutter, averting my gaze, even though the image is seared into my mind for all eternity.

“What are you doing home?” Her voice is an octave higher than usual, and the water moving around is distracting, calling me to look again.

She’s naked.

Fucking naked. And I’m just standing here.

My cock is stirring to attention behind my zip, and I resist the urge to readjust myself as it bites against the material. Don’t get fucking hard. The last thing I want is for her to think I’m some kind of pervert, but I’m not blind. Heidi is fucking attractive, and her body is a wet dream. I saw enough to imagine what she’d feel like beneath me, my fingers gripping her curvy hips as I?—

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I say, cutting my thoughts dead. Although sorry is not what I’m feeling right now. “I didn’t expect you to be in the bath with her.”

She surges out the tub quickly, giving me another glimpse of her pussy. I should turn around, but I don’t. Instead, I hand her a towel off the rail as she climbs out.

As she wraps it around her body, pink spreads over her chest and up her neck, and it’s wrong how much I like that.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I should’ve locked the door.” She steps back to the tub, dropping down in front of it and grabbing the jug to wash the soap from Soph’s hair.

This angle isn’t any better. Now, I have a view of her bare shoulders glistening with water droplets.

“When you’re naked in the bath, yeah,” I say through my teeth, “lock the door.”

This is testing all my fucking resolve.

“How come you’re home so early?”

She tips Sophia’s head back and carefully rinses the soap out of the mohawk, flattening her dark strands. The gentleness of how she treats my daughter makes me soften toward her. Heidi truly loves my child, and I’m grateful Sophia had this while I was failing as her father.

“Howler let me go for good behaviour. Do you always bathe with her?” It’s not what I mean to ask, but bath time suddenly holds a lot more interest to me.

“Uh, yeah. It’s just easier. When it was just her and me, I couldn’t really leave her alone so… I just started getting in with her.” She glances over her shoulder at me, wrinkling her nose. “Is it weird? I won’t do it again if you think it is.”

The pink in her cheeks is still there, and I really like the way it softens all her sharp edges. Heidi isn’t the hardened bitch everyone thinks she is. I don’t know why she hides the truth, but I like that I get glimpses of the real her that she gives to no one else.

I shake my head. “Why would it be weird?”

“Because I’m not her mother. I’m not even related to her.”

Fuck, the way Heidi clutches that towel to her chest, and the vulnerability in her eyes, hits me in a way I don’t expect. The need to defend her and make her feel better surges inside me. “She’s a baby, and you’ve taken care of her from the day she was born. No, it’s not weird. It sounded like you were having fun.”

That makes me smile, something that is becoming more frequent since I came home.

Because of the two people in front of you…

Guilt and betrayal wash through me, vying for attention. I feel shitty for finding any hint of joy again when I know I shouldn’t. Mara would have hated who I became after her death.

Heidi gives me a tentative smile. “Yeah, uh, we were. Or rather this little madam was.” Sophia cackles as she smashes her hands into the water, spraying it everywhere.

I step back to avoid being in the splash zone.

“See?” Heidi grins, fresh droplets dripping off her face. “Your kid is a menace.”

“How can you say that when she’s sitting there looking like butter wouldn’t fuckin’ melt?”

“Language,” she berates. “Trust me, she’s going to be a handful when she reaches the terrible twos.”

I frown at that statement. Nothing about that sounds like fun. “The terrible what?”

Heidi laughs, the colour in her cheeks fading out as she relaxes. “The toddler years are brutal, Trick. You have that to look forward to.”

As she says this, a little sadness creeps into her voice. “We have that to look forward to. I’m not facing this ‘terrible twos’ nightmare without backup.”

Her smile is back and, fuck, I want to keep it in place. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“Is that why Max is a little hellion?” I ask, thinking about Blackjack and Elyse’s boy.

Heidi gets splashed again, and I sink down next to her at the side of the tub, grabbing my daughter’s hands before she can soak us both. Sophia cackles again, and it’s the dirtiest laugh I’ve ever heard a baby make.

“I think your daughter already gives him a run for his money,” Heidi says.

I shake my head, laughing and, fuck, does it feel good to let go, even if it is just for a moment. “She’s her father’s daughter.”

“Yeah, her dad’s also a menace.” Heidi’s gaze finds mine, and I’m drawn into it, unable to look away.

Her smile fades as she stares back, her full lips parted slightly. It would be so easy to lean forward and close the space between us. I want to taste her. I want to suck that plump bottom lip into my mouth and?—

Sophia kicks her legs out, and I get a mouthful of soapy bathwater. It hits the back of my throat, instantly making me cough. I keep hold of my daughter while I choke. Fuck.

“Shit, are you okay?” Heidi hands a towel to me, and I wipe my dripping face, all while still coughing up a lung.

I gasp for breath between coughs and realise when my lungs stop spasming that Heidi’s hand is on my back, steadying me.

She isn’t making this easy. I want to push her onto the tiles and shove that tiny towel up to her hips so I can dive between her legs.

And that thought leaves me feeling guilty as fuck.

“Bath time’s over,” I mutter.

I pluck my daughter out the water and try to hold her as she flails, spraying water everywhere. She’s like a fucking octopus as I snag a towel, entombing her in it before my shirt gets any wetter.

“Trick?” Heidi scrambles off the floor to follow me, but I’m already down the landing and into the nursery before she’s close.

Confusion battles inside me as I lay Sophia on the changing table. She tries to escape, and it’s a struggle to keep her in place.

“Use the mat on the floor,” Heidi’s voice sounds from behind me. “I don’t use the changing table anymore. She’s too wriggly, and I got scared she’d fall.”

I peer over my shoulder at her, hating the fact she’s no longer smiling and that sadness has crept back in. Fuck, I don’t want to make her feel like shit. It’s not her fault I’m a fucking screw-up.

“You want to help me out?”

She steps into the room, the towel still in place, and I try not to gawk at her as she sinks down next to me. She smells of soap and the strawberry-scented baby shampoo she uses to wash Sophia’s hair.

Together, we dry my daughter, though it’s a challenge. Sophia’s favourite game is to crawl away anytime someone attempts to do something she’s not keen on.

I don’t know how we manage to get her dried and dressed, but once she’s done, I release her and watch as she scampers on all fours over to her toys.

Heidi shakes her head. “Like I said, she’s a handful.”

My heart gives a weird thump, one I haven’t experienced for a long time as I take in Heidi’s wet hair and the slopes of her shoulders. Why the fuck is every inch of my body suddenly alert?

“Thanks for the assist,” I say.

“I know how hard it is. I thought things would be easier once she was mobile, but now, she’s just into everything. We’ll be in trouble when she starts walking.”

She stands, her legs right in my line of sight. That test on my resolve is weakening, and I can’t stop my gaze from drifting up to where the towel stops on her mid-thighs. I want to press my fingers into the soft flesh and part them so I can see her glistening cunt?—

“I better get dressed,” she says, snapping my attention to her face. “Can you watch Soph while I do?”

“Yeah,” I rasp, my balls so tight, I want to explode. “Sure.”

“Thanks.” She rushes off, and every instinct in me wants to go after her, but instead, I force my body to remain on the floor.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I mutter to myself, which earns me another dirty cackle from Sophia.

When I head to the shower myself, I lean against the tile, my hand wrapped around my cock, and as I pump my shaft, it’s Heidi that fills my mind.