Nickel
Two weeks.
It had been two fucking weeks, and Morski had ghosted again. Once he had left that bar, we couldn’t even figure out which way he went down the damn street.
The whole club was on guard not knowing when or where he would appear again. Handel was still in solitary, but Wrecker had been able to get word to him that Karmen was being taken care of by the club. I’m sure Handel was scratching his head trying to figure out how his sweet, straight-laced daughter had gotten tangled up with the Fallen Lords.
Karmen had stopped complaining about not being able to leave the club alone, but I knew she just wanted this to be over.
“Hey, what are you doing up?”
I looked over at the bed and saw Karmen up on one elbow, rubbing her eye with the back of her hand. “Can’t sleep.”
She fell back into the pillows and laughed. “You can’t sleep, and I can’t seem to keep my eyes open anymore.”
“Just go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
She lifted her arm in the air and pointed down at the bed. “But I’d rather you be right here. I can’t sleep when you aren’t in bed with me.”
I glanced at the clock next to her. “I’ve been out of bed for two hours, baby girl.”
She grumbled and sat up. Her arm covered her bare chest, and her hair was all over the place. “Well, it took me a bit to realize you weren’t in bed, but when I did, I woke up.”
“Can’t argue with that logic,” I laughed.
“Are you coming back to bed or not? Because if you aren’t, then I’m going to have to stay awake, and then I’m just going to be grumpy all day because I don’t deal well without sleep and then Nikki is going to call you to yell at you for not letting me get enough sleep because you weren’t sleeping with me.”
“That was a mouthful.”
She blew her hair out of her face. “You have no idea. I’m surprised that even made sense coming out of my mouth.”
This was the only good thing that had come out of the whole Morski situation. Karmen finally felt comfortable to be herself, and that included telling me whatever she was thinking, whether it was crazy or even didn’t make sense. “Tell me you love me.” This is what she had done to me. While she was more free and open, I craved to hear her say three little words that calmed me and righted my world.
“Only if you get back into bed with me.”
“I can’t sleep.”
She pouted out her bottom lip. “I’ll tell you a bedtime story. I promise it’ll be a good one.” She patted the bed next to her, and my body instantly moved toward her. I couldn’t say no to this woman.
**********
Karmen
Nickel climbed into bed next to me and pulled me into his arms. “This better be a good story with either sex or fighting in it,” he rumbled.
Ha, there wasn’t any fighting in it, but it had to do with sex, kind of. “I’ll try my best to make it entertaining for you.” I smothered a yawn and rested my head on his shoulder.
”Why don’t you sleep, and we’ll continue story time in the morning.”
I shook my head and looked up at him. This was one story he was going to want to hear. I was nervous as hell, but I had been trying to find the right time to tell him what I suspected, and I wasn’t going to let this chance pass me by. “I’m good. At least for a few minutes.”
He grabbed my abandoned pillow and shoved it under his head. “Hit me with it, woman.”
I cleared my throat and plowed forward. “Once upon a time, there lived a prince who drove a magical steed with a powerful engine and super loud pipes.”
Nickel’s smirk and rumble came out. “Sounds like my kind of dude.”
I smiled and rested my hand on his chest. “He was the best kind of dude. He knew what he wanted and wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way. One day, he met the woman who was taking care of his grandmother while she was sick. The prince was instantly taken with the woman, but he was too afraid to talk to her because he felt the nurse was much too gorgeous for him.” Hey, this was my story to tell.
Nickel chuckled. “I can’t believe you’re actually doing this,” he mumbled.
I patted him on the chest. “Shh, you are going to love the ending,” I promised. His shoulder shook beneath me as he smiled down at me. “So, anyway, this badass prince finally got the nerve up to talk to the nurse after months of watching her. The prince finds out there is a bad man after the nurse and decides he’s going to do everything he can to keep her safe. So, he whisks her off to his fortress to hide her away ‘til he can capture the bad guy.”
“Probably be better if he kills the guy,” Nickel interrupted.
“Hey, this is my story. If you think you can do better, you can try after I’m done. So, all the while the prince has the nurse locked in his room, he falls in love with her and has wild monkey sex with her all the time.” I wiggled my eyebrows, and Nickel busted out laughing. “So, while the prince was waiting for the bad man to show his face and having wild monkey sex, something magical was happening that he didn’t even know.”
Nickel looked down at me a quirked his eyebrow. “Is this where the twist comes in that all stories need?”
I nodded my head yes. “So, while the nurse worked during the day and kept the prince company at night, she grew more and more tired and started to feel sick.” Nickel’s body tensed underneath me. “The nurse snuck into the bathroom one night and found out after peeing on a magical stick and her hand—totally gross by the way—she found out she was growing her own little prince or princess.”
Nickel lurched up, taking me with him. He spun me around until I was straddling his lap and placed his hands on my stomach. “What the hell?” he muttered.
Not exactly the response I had expected, but he at least didn’t tell me to get out. “Wait until I tell our kid when they grow up that the first words out of your mouth when you found out I was pregnant were, ‘what the hell.’”
He looked up at me and shook his head. “Fuck.”
“Even better,” I laugh.
“What? No. Woman, I have no idea what to say. You’re having my baby?” His voice cracked, and my eyes watered.
I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat. “I haven’t gone to the doctor yet, but yes.”
“I’m coming with you to the doctors. We need to make sure he’s okay. We should go right now. We can’t be too careful.” Nickel lifted me into his arms and rolled us off the bed.
I glanced over his shoulder and saw that it was only half past four. “Outlaw, it’s only four thirty, and I’m not that far along. I should be okay until I make a doctor’s appointment in the morning.”
He stopped walking and looked down at my stomach between us. “How far along are you? How long have you known? You had wine the other night.”
I giggled and hooked my fingers under his chin to tilt his head back. “I’m not sure exactly how far along I am, but it’s probably around a month.”
“Shit, Karmen. You’ve been drinking. Hell, you had that night out with the girls where you were drinking.” Nickel looked around panicked. “We need to get you to the doctor right now.”
“What? Are you crazy? Put me down and get a grip, Nickel.”
He stalked toward the door and shook his head. “No, not happening. Not until I know that you and the baby are okay.”
“Ah!” I cried.
Nickel instantly set me down on the ground and got down on his knees in front of me. “Are you okay?” he asked my stomach.
Jesus. If this was any indication on how Nickel was going to be the next nine months, he was going to drive me insane. I put my hands on his shoulders. “I’m fine, the baby is fine, we’re all fine. I think you need to take a breath for a second.” I needed to take one, too.
“You shouldn’t be on your feet right now. Get back into bed and get some sleep. You look tired,” he kept rambling.
I pressed a finger to his lips and shook my head. “Stop right there. Don’t ever tell me I look tired even if I look like I’ve been run over by a Mack truck. Get a grip. I’m pregnant with your baby. There are millions of other people in the world who are pregnant also, and I can guarantee, they are not running off to the doctor at five o’clock in the morning. I’m going to go lay down, and I’m going to give you a second to get a grip.” I leaned down, pressed a kiss to his lips, and shuffled back to bed. The man was crazy, but his concern for the baby and me was endearing.
After I burrowed under the covers and grabbed two of the pillows Nickel had on his side of the bed, I curled up on my side and watched Nickel.
His head was bowed, and his back was to me. He hadn’t moved from the spot I had left him in, and I let him be. I had all day to let it sink in that I was pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, I still hadn’t completely wrapped my head around it, but I had a better grasp on it than Nickel did at the moment.
I was afraid, but I wasn’t terrified. I knew that as long as I had Nickel next to me, we would figure out being parents. I kept reminding myself people became parents every day.
“Can you come to bed with me?” I asked quietly. Being alone in bed when Nickel was feet away was not how I wanted to fall asleep. “I don’t know what you’re thinking right now.”
He slowly rose off of the floor and pulled his shirt off over his head. “My mom died when I was seventeen, and I never knew who my dad was.” He turned off the lamp on the table next to the chair and moved to the side of the bed. He looked down at me and brushed his fingertips across my cheek. “My mother loved me with everything she had. She always talked about getting me out of the house and then having grandchildren taking over the house. I just realized how happy she would have been to know you were having my baby.”
I grabbed his hand, lifted the covers with the other, and pulled him into bed. “You’ve never talked about your mom before,” I mumbled.
He scooted me over, stealing my two pillows back, and wrapped his arms around me. “I never talk about her.”
“Why not?” I rested my head on his shoulder and draped my arm around his waist.
“It used to hurt too much to talk about her. Still does.”
“What happened to her?”
Nickel cleared his throat and pulled me closer. His hand rested on my belly, slowly rubbing circles. “She just died. Her heart stopped working. The doctor said she was dead before she even hit the floor. I was in my room, sneaking a smoke, when I heard a loud crash in the kitchen. I called her name, thinking she had just dropped a pan while making dinner, but she didn’t answer me. She was on the floor, dead, by the time I made it to her.”
My heart broke for Nickel knowing that he had loved his mother so much and he had to lose her like that. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“Thank you, baby girl.”
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and buried my face in his neck. “I wish she could have been here. I would have loved to have met the woman who raised you and made you who you are.”
“She would have loved you. She would have loved having a little baby around, too.”
I held on tight to him, silently giving him the strength that he needed. “I love you, Nickel.”
He sighed and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “I love you, too, baby girl. Now get some sleep.”
“Are you going to leave me?” I whispered. I meant to leave the bed, but my heart clenched waiting for his reply.
“I’ll never leave you, Karmen. As long as there is air in my lungs and blood pumping through my veins, I’ll never leave you. And that also includes right now in bed.”
I smiled and snuggled in. “Best answer ever.”
He rumbled beneath me, and I was sure he had a smirk on his lips.
“I love you, Karmen, now sleep.”
I closed my eyes and slept.
**********