Defiant Dodge by Naomi Porter

11

Emilee

I took in my haggard appearance in the mirror as I washed my hands. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it after everything. A shower would be good though… after I ate something.

I exited the bathroom and stiffly limped down the hallway. Danny was right where I had left him. His eyes met mine, and he stood, blocking my path to the sofa.

“Turn around.”

I studied him. “Why? I’m hungry, remember?”

“I do. I want to show you where everything is, put Dante in his new bed, then I’ll feed you, wash you, and put you to bed.”

Warmth pooled in my belly. Wash me?

“Um, I’m not used to being without him.” I laid my hand on Dante’s little head. My little guy had been my whole world. It was weird not having him in my arms or attached to me in the baby sling.

“You’re both safe here, Em.” Danny’s thumb caressed my cheek. “Just come take a look.” He led me to a room at the end of the hallway.

I smiled at him. “The crib is in our bedroom?”

“Yes, baby. Maddy told me to set it up in here. Birdie sleeps in Storm and Maddy’s room too.”

I went to the crib and sniggered. “Pink sheets.”

Danny kissed my head. “He won’t know the difference. We’ll buy him his own stuff so he doesn’t have to use Birdie’s.”

“Her nickname is adorable.” I couldn’t wait to meet her and introduce Dante to her.

“It’s short for a songbird. Storm is sure she’ll have a voice like Maddy’s.”

“I bet she will too.” I exhaled, looking around the rest of the room. It had a queen-size bed, a dresser, two nightstands, and a closet. “This is nice.”

Danny kissed Dante’s head and placed him in the crib, tucking the blanket around him and wedging another under his back.

“Did Maddy show you how to do that?” I swallowed down the sadness creeping into my throat. I should’ve been the one to teach him about baby stuff.

“Yes, but there’s a lot I don’t know about our son. You’ll have to teach me.”

It was like he could hear my thoughts.

He wrapped his arm around me and hugged me. This was what I had needed at the airport.

“I missed you so much.” He squeezed me tighter. “It killed me to be away from you. Not a day, hour, minute, or second went by that I didn’t think of you.”

I melted in this body, inhaling his natural scent. He smelled like I remembered, but his body was different, with a lot more muscles.

“Same. Especially when our Little D arrived.” That was a precious moment my dad stole from Danny and me. I would never forgive him for it.

“I like that, Little D. It’d make a good road name.”

I stiffened and pulled back. “I don’t know about him being a biker.”

“Let’s not worry about it now. He can’t even wipe his own ass.” Danny winked, tugging me away from the crib.

“I guess you’re right.”

“I am.” He went to the dresser, opened the second drawer, and removed a T-shirt. He put it in my hand. “Tomorrow, Tina and a prospect can pick up some clothes for you and whatever else you want.”

“Okay.” I sniffed his shirt. He still used the same laundry soap.

“Come on. Do you want to eat first or shower?”

I looked back at Dante sleeping soundly. He’d wake in a couple of hours to eat again, then he’d sleep until six in the morning. “Eat first. I might pass out in the shower if I don’t get something in my stomach.”

“If you did, I’d catch you.” The promise in his words put a smile on my face.

“I know you would.”

Danny turned on the baby monitor attached to the crib. It looked like a lollipop.

I searched for the cordless device to take with us. “Where’s the—”

“I got it covered.” He raised his cell phone to show me Dante on the screen.

“Ooh, fancy.”

“You know Storm, only the best for his baby. We’ll buy our own.” He took my hand and led me out of the bedroom. “We’re limited on what we can cook, but I got some things you like from the kitchen in the clubhouse. In the morning, make a list, and I’ll send out a prospect to get it.”

All this talk about buying whatever I wanted or needed like it was no big deal was strange. So was the way he talked about prospects as if he wasn’t—wait.

I stopped, jerking his hand.

“What’s the matter?”

I looked at the member patch on the front of his cut and touched it.

“Oh yeah, full fledge, baby. Since last fall.”

Why was I so shocked? I’d known before my dad took me away that Danny was next in line to be patched. Still, the realization jarred me.

“Wow, fully fledged. You get all the privileges now.” Including the kittens.

Danny didn’t say anything as he seated me on the sofa, putting a pillow under my knee. I loved this attentive side of him. He squatted and took my face in his hands.

“I love you, Emilee. You know this, don’t you?” His brown eyes darkened as they traveled over my face. “Answer me,” he said in a demanding tone.

I gulped as my body reacted to this different side to him. This… alpha side.

“Yes,” I whispered.

His lips ghosted over mine, making me inhale a sharp breath. “And you love me.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Then why did doubt and insecurity flash in your pretty blue eyes?” He touched his nose to mine, stroking my cheeks with his thumbs. “I haven’t laid one finger on a kitten or any other woman. You’re my woman, Emilee. Mine and no one else’s. Understand?”

“Yes.”

His lips sealed against mine and stole my breath away in a passionate kiss. I wanted him so badly. Forget food. Forget a shower. I wanted Danny to take me right here on the sofa.

He broke away, a cocky grin playing on his lips. “I’ll give it to you after you eat and shower.”

My cheeks flamed red hot. Could he actually hear my thoughts?

He lifted off the ground and swaggered away. “I don’t want no one other than you, Em.”

This man, he knew how to wipe all my worries away. I loved him with every cell in my body. It was foolish of me to doubt him.

After I ate a banana-and-peanut-butter sandwich, washing it down with a glass of milk, Danny got the shower going for me. He seemed determined to care for my every need. It reinforced his love for me. Piper had told me I had nothing to worry about. She’d been right, again.

Danny appeared in only a pair of boxers. “I checked on Little D. Still sound asleep.” He removed the pillow from under my knee and lowered my leg to the ground. “Let’s get you washed, pretty girl.”

I missed him calling me pretty girl.

“Are you joining me in the shower?” As if it weren’t obvious.

“You’re funny.”

God, he had me turned on. A little bit of guilt flickered inside me. My dad was missing, for goodness’ sake. I shouldn’t be thinking about sex. Shouldn’t be smiling and flirting with Danny. I was tugged in two different directions, but there was no resisting Danny’s lure after spending nearly a year without him. It had always been this way with us.

He unzipped my hoodie.

“It’s been a long time.” I bit my bottom lip. “My body has changed.”

“From what I can see, you’re perfect, Em.”

“I have some stretch marks.”

“Perfect, Em.” He lowered my leggings and underwear at the same time, careful to not bother my knee.

I stepped out of them. “I’m nervous.”

“Me too.”

My gosh, he hadn’t changed. He was still the decimator of my doubts. My friend and lover… the father of my baby, and my life.

He lifted my T-shirt off and unhooked my bra. My heavy breasts spilled out, my rosy nipples hardening from the flash of cool air.

“Perfect, Em.” His hand brushed over my wider hips, up to my massive boobs. They were two sizes larger than the last time he saw them. I doubted they’d stay this huge after I stopped nursing. “I want to suck on these luscious tits, but they belong to Dante.”

A shuddered breath rolled out of me as I gripped his biceps. They seemed twice the size. We’d both changed a lot in the past year.

“Maybe just a lick.” His tongue swiped across my nipple, his large hands cupping my butt. “Goddamn, I want you so fucking much.” He licked the other one.

My legs nearly gave out, overwhelmed by my sexy man. “I want you too.”

“I don’t want to rush you.” He eased back and helped me into the shower.

“You’re not.”

“Or hurt you.” He removed his boxers, and his cock bounced.

“Oh wow.” I bit my bottom lip as arousal spread through me.

He stepped into the shower and wrapped me in his embrace. “I can’t resist you.” His lips descended on mine.

We were all tongues and hands ravaging each other, rediscovering the other’s body after the many changes we’d been through.

If I was dreaming, I never wanted to wake up. It was everything to be like this with him.

Naked and wet.

Panting and lustful.

The heat coming off his body set my heart racing. He poked me in the belly, rubbing himself against me, and I throbbed so painfully wonderful, I nearly came.

I couldn’t help but moan into his mouth as I slipped my hand between us and fisted his cock.

“Fuck,” he hissed against my lips. “Your hand feels so much better than mine.”

“My poor man. I will always give you what you need, when you need it, and how you want it.”

“Perfect, Em.” He put my back against the tile wall. “What I need is to be inside you. Think we can do it without slipping on our asses or hurting your knee?”

“It already feels better. I’m not sure about the slipping part.”

He stared into my eyes. His struggle reached deep in my heart. Danny wasn’t sure what to do. Whatever he decided, I’d agree to.

“Tell me if you feel any pain.” He lifted me as if I weighed nothing. Those football-sized biceps were spectacular.

I wrapped my good leg around him. “I think we can do this without my other leg fully around you. Just don’t drop me.”

“Never. If you go down, then we’re both going down.”

“Please stop talking about going down.”

He smirked. “I’ll be going down when I damn well please.”

Oh my word. Who was this guy? Not only had Danny bulked up, but he also took control of situations and spoke his mind freely. It was scorching hot.

I bowed my back, pressing my breasts into his chest. “Please take me now.”

His hands gripped my ass as he lowered me onto his erection. Danny had been the first guy I’d had sex with. To me, he was enormous.

“Oh, wow. I thought after I’d given birth, I’d be looser, and you’d slip right in.”

“Fuck, I’m thrilled you’re still tight.”

I breathed, trying to relax as he stretched and filled me.

“I love you, Em.”

“I love you too, Danny.”

“We good to get fucking?”

“Yes.”

Without a second thought, he lifted me slightly and drove in. I moaned in pleasure, and it set him off. It was like we were both racing to the finish line, chasing our orgasms, desperate for a tremendous release.

His strength holding me against the wall as he slid in and out of me had me fangirling. Danny was my man. I was the luckiest girl in the world.

Pressure built inside me, my pussy pulsing and clenching around him. “I’m close.”

“Me too.”

Our mouths collided, and we frantically kissed as we both shot off into orgasmic bliss. As Danny came, I remembered I wasn’t on birth control, and he wasn’t wearing a condom.

“Crap. I could get pregnant. I’m not on the pill yet.” I watched for his reaction. It wasn’t what I’d expected.

His brown eyes twinkled. “I hope you do, Em. Marry me.”

“Are you serious? I’ve only been back a couple of hours.”

“I’d asked you to marry me when we found out you were pregnant with Dante. I haven’t changed my mind. Life is too short. I don’t want to go another day without you.”

“You’re not. I’m here.”

“I want you as my wife. My old lady. You’re already the mother of my son. I want it all with you.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I want it all with you too. It’s just hard to think of the future with my dad missing.”

“I know. It was a jerk move to propose like that. I’m sorry.” The disappointment in his voice hurt me.

“I’m not saying no to you.”

His eyes met mine. “If you’re not saying no, then what are you saying?”

I gave him a chaste kiss. “Daniel Montez, if you’re asking for real, yes is my answer.” My only concern was my dad’s well-being. When we found him alive, he better not dream of taking me away from Danny. I would fight him to the death if he tried to separate us again.

Where could he be?