Zeke

I walked into the warehouse and was hit by some really good smells.

“Hey,” Sunny said from the kitchen.

When I left this morning, I’d wondered how she’d occupy her time. Sunny had her first full day here alone yesterday, after she’d agreed it wasn’t safe for her to leave. I’d told Julia to stay at her apartment as well, not prepared to risk it. Sunny had spent her day cleaning the warehouse from top to bottom.

It looked like she’d found another way to fill the hours today.

My gaze slid to the breakfast bar and my lips twitched. There was barely a spare inch that wasn’t covered in come kind of baking. Cakes, cupcakes, muffins, pies. She’d given me a list of food to get the day before. Who knew you could make this much from a few bags of flour?

I dumped my keys and phone on the coffee table and looked over at her. She was standing by the oven, wearing a baggy T-shirt that did nothing to hide her curves and a pair of cut off shorts. She was also wearing another pair of my socks. Why the hell did I love that so damn much?

I walked over to her, swiped a cupcake with green frosting and sprinkles off the counter, and took a bite.

“You can really bake. This is seriously good,” I said when I swallowed my mouthful. Shit, I could get used to this. Walking in to find Sunny in my warehouse, in my socks, making the place feel like a home. Helping me forget . . .

She’d turned to face me fully, watching me eat, kind of like she had the other night on the couch, in a way that made my gut tight and my balls ache. She also had flour across her forehead and on the end of her nose. “You’ve got a little flour on your . . .” I motioned to her face.

“Oh.” She giggled her sexy fucking giggle and tried to brush it away, missing completely.

I reached out without thinking. She immediately tipped her face toward my touch, and my goddamn heart actually skipped faster as I brushed it away. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

She planted her hands on her hips and took in her handiwork with a sigh. “You’ll need to take all that to work with you tomorrow. I know all you guys treat your bodies like temples, but take pity on me. I need you to eat it all before I do. My butt’s already getting bigger, this definitely won’t help.”

A chuckle escaped before I knew it was coming. It obviously surprised Sunny as well, because her head twisted sharply back to me. I ignored her shock, didn’t want to think how messed up it was that she was stunned into silence because I wasn’t acting like a surly bastard for once. “We may work out a lot but, Sunshine, we also eat, a lot. Especially Jude and Van. Those two will demolish this lot in no time. They’ll also worship the ground you walk on.” I grabbed another cupcake. “As for your butt, it looks pretty good from where I’m standing.” Her mouth dropped open. Shit, she was cute. And now I wanted to kiss her. “I’m gonna grab a shower,” I said and quickly headed to the bedroom. I didn’t look back at her expression, I’m sure it was still shocked. Honestly, I didn’t know what had gotten into me. Maybe it was my little talk with Hunter, I don’t know. I just knew I didn’t want to overthink everything, didn’t want all that heavy emotion on my shoulders, just for one damn night.

I showered quickly, dressed, and headed back out. She was still in the kitchen when I came down. “You wanna go out for dinner?” I asked, since I was still trying not to overthink everything. She’d also been cooped up in the warehouse all day, driven to baking more than two people could eat in a month. I realized in that moment that I didn’t want her to hate it here with me, and keeping her locked up like a prisoner would not help on that front. I refused to think about that, either, or what it meant, because tonight I wasn’t doing that, right?

She smiled, gorgeous lips tilting up on one side. The scar on her cheek was still dark, would be for a long time, and every time I looked at it I wanted to gut the bastard who hurt her. I wanted to hear him scream like I knew Sunny must have when he took a knife to her.

“I’d like that. Let me just get changed.”

I watched her take off upstairs, trying not to acknowledge even to myself how much seeing her happy, knowing that I’d made her that way, affected me. She appeared twenty minutes later in a dress. It kind of crossed over and tied at her waist, showing how small it was and also emphasized how her tits had changed. The fabric clung to her, and even though it had sleeves to her elbows and was long and drapey, it hid nothing. Every sexy, soft fucking curve was on display. I scooped up my keys and phone before I changed my mind, took her hand, and dragged her back upstairs. I motioned to the door. “Let’s go.” Shit, my vocal cords sounded like they were in a goddamn vice.

Another smile. I felt that one behind my ribs and also my stiffening dick.

“Lead the way,” she said, walking toward me.

Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. My willpower was already being seriously tested as it was. Spending an entire evening with her looking like that? Christ. But it was too late to back out now.

In the end, I drove her to a steak house close by. I was pretty sure pregnant women needed plenty if iron, and after she’d been so sick, I wanted to make sure she got what she needed. The place was busy when we walked in and we were asked to wait at the bar for a table to become available. Sunny walked ahead to order a drink, me right behind her, and I noticed more than one guy look her way, blatantly checking her out, and when she stopped at the bar, some asshole standing there gave her a full head to toe. The prick then proceeded to look down the front of her dress.

Possessiveness reared up in me, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I moved in behind her, my arm sliding around her waist, mouth going to her ear. “You ready to order a drink, darlin’?” I said. Jesus, what the hell am I doing? I couldn’t let go of her, though, not if my life depended on it.

She stilled then kind of just melted against me. Christ, that felt good. Every sexy inch of her pressed against me, her soft, round ass pressed against my dick.

“Yeah,” she said, and her voice had a sweet little husky rasp to it that made me crazy.

I ordered our drinks, then turned to the guy still not so subtly casting glances in Sunny’s direction. He flinched. I guess I didn’t look too happy over the fact he’d been trying to move in on my girl.

My girl.

My gut clenched. She wasn’t, though, was she? Yeah, I wanted to do the right thing by her and the baby, but that didn’t mean . . .

“We have a table for you, sir,” a waiter said beside us.

I let go of Sunny, and it physically hurt. Letting her go felt so damn wrong. God, maybe it would be best if I backed off, let her find someone that could be the kind of man she deserved, the kind of man that could be a father to our child.

I ignored the way that just that thought was like a knife to the gut, or how it sent the possessive monster in me into a murderous rage, and motioned for her to follow our waiter first.

I’d been a selfish idiot to think I could forget the pain I caused, even for one night. I didn’t get to take a day, a fucking hour off from it.

We took our seats and ordered our meals.

“This place is amazing,” Sunny finally said. “I’ve been craving a nice juicy steak.”

Hunter’s words from earlier moved through my mind. “You getting many of those? Cravings, I mean.” I wanted to do everything I could, give her whatever she needed to make this time good for her.

A grin teased her lips. “Besides red meat, I’ve been dreaming about potato chips . . . oh, and pickles. I always thought that was just in movies or whatever, but I looked it up and it means you’re lacking salt in your diet or something.” She grabbed a bread stick and bit into it. “And chocolate,” she added after she swallowed her mouthful. “I’m going to be the size of a house by the time this baby is ready to come out.”

She’d just be even more gorgeous. I knew that without doubt. “Anything else?” I’d do a run to get food in the morning, anything she wanted.

Her eyes darted away. “Nope,” she said, then she blushed.

What was that? I had no fucking clue about any of this, but whatever it was, if she needed it, I wanted to give it to her. “Sunny?”

She bit her lip and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

I took her in, face flushed, eyes darting around the room, anywhere but at me. “I can see it’s not nothing, there’s definitely something.” My elbows were on the table and I leaned in. “Not much of you I haven’t seen, Sunshine. We’re having a kid, you need something, you tell me and I’ll make sure you get it.”

She shook her head again, face flushing darker.

I thought about what Hunter said, the things he wished he’d been there to give Lulu when she was having Josh.

“That I’d been there to get her whatever weird shit she craved in the middle of the night, that I was there to get her off when her hormones went fucking haywire.”

We’d covered food . . .

Fuck. Fuck.

That was it.

“Sunny,” I said, voice as low as hell. “Sunshine, you need something from me, all you gotta do is ask, and I’ll give it to you. Anything.” Maybe I couldn’t give her the future she deserved, but it was this . . . this intense heat between us that brought us together in the first place. If she needed me to get her off, I’d get her off as often as she fucking liked.

She was so red now even the tops of her breasts were flushed. She shook her head, washing me in vanilla, and I had to grit my teeth against the physical reaction that caused in me.

“No, I’m . . . I’m fine.” She wasn’t meeting my eyes again.

I was this close to calling her out, to pulling her out of her seat and into my lap . . .

I stood abruptly, surprising both of us. “I need another beer, you want anything?”

She licked her lower lip and I nearly groaned.

“No, I’m fine,” she said.

Considering mine was still half full, so was I. But I needed a minute to get my shit together.

I ordered my beer, taking longer than I needed to, then headed back and took my seat . . .

My phone rang. I checked the screen. Mom.

I hadn’t talked to her for a while and I knew if I ignored the call she’d only worry. I glanced up at Sunny. “I need to get this.”

I put it to my ear. “Ma . . .”

“Nice of you to finally answer when your mother calls.”

“Sorry, things have been . . . I’ve been busy.”

Her voice softened when she spoke next. “Are you taking care of yourself?”

“Yeah, Ma.”

She made a hmm sound. “So where are you? I can hear voices in the background.”

“A restaurant.”

Silence.

“Are you there alone?” she asked far too casually.

I needed to tell her about Sunny. But I knew my mother well enough to know it would be better if she thought Sunny and I were together. For a while anyway. It’d be easier when it came time to tell her about the baby. My parents deserved to be in their grandchild’s life. I wouldn’t deny them this just because I fucked up.

“No, I’m seeing . . .”

“You have a girlfriend!” she screamed. “Thank you, lord Jesus!”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Watch your mouth.” A long sigh. “You don’t know how happy this makes your mother.”

“I’ve got a fair idea.”

“When can we meet her?” she said.

Shit. “Mom . . .”

“Don’t you ‘Mom’ me. I’ve waited a long time for you to find someone since that bitch Diane did what she did, don’t deny me this. Don’t you dare.”

“Mom . . .”

“How long have you been dating?”

I had no choice but to roll with this. I looked at Sunny as I said, “A few months.”

“Is it serious?”

Since she was having my kid, there was only one answer I could give her. “Yeah.”

She shrieked and I held the phone away from my ear.

“What’s her name?”

“Sunny.”

“Oh I like that. Such a pretty name! I needed some good news. This is so wonderful, Zeke, so wonderful. I can’t wait to tell your father.”

I frowned. “What’s going on? Why did you need good news?”

Silence. “Well . . .”

The phone beeped, another call coming through. I ignored it. “Mom?”

It beeped again, this time a text, which meant it was more than likely the agency, and if they were trying to get hold of me, it was important. “Shit, I have a call from work coming through. I have to take it.”

“Okay, honey. I’m so happy. Say hello to Sunny for me.”

“Will do.”

I disconnected and took the call.

“We know where he is,” Van said.

My eyes sliced back to Sunny as Van filled me in on Miller’s location. She was watching me back with those big violet eyes, only now filled with worry.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Miller was about to pay for what he did to her, and I wasn’t about to show that fucker an ounce of mercy.