Chapter 8
Cade
The baby was mine. I knew it. The fear in her eyes when I asked the question. The way she rushed away from me. She wasn’t ready to talk about it, and I understood that. But she was doing this alone, and that wasn’t okay with me. That didn’t sit right with me, and I wasn’t going to let her get away.
Not this time.
I picked up my pace as the police officer headed towards me. I rushed after Harper and ran around the corner she took. I was ready to corner her if I needed to. I needed to hear it from her. All she had to do was tell me, and my support would be hers. All she had to do was admit that the baby was mine, and I would do whatever I had to in order to keep her and that child safe from whatever threat was looming over their heads.
But when I rounded the corner, I saw her talking to her father.
The audience was beginning to disperse, and it was causing a ruckus. I turned around and locked eyes with the police officer before he put his hand to his ear. His eyes glanced over at me before he sighed, then he turned on his heels and made his way towards the crowd.
“Cade. Where the fuck are you? This thing’s shutting down,” Doc said.
“It’s taking a while to get the daughter to the car. I’m making sure she gets there safely,” I said.
“Good. I’ve got the mom in the car,” Ink said. “Blade, you see anything?”
“Nothing from up here. Cade. What’s going on with the daughter?”
“She’s talking to her father right now. Hold on,” I said.
She was murmuring lowly with her father before I saw both of their eyes turn towards me. Her father wrapped a protective arm around her and ushered her towards the car. His eyes stayed hooked on me before he broke his gaze just long enough to put her in the car.
Then he locked eyes with me and nodded.
There was a grateful little grin that crawled across his cheeks. One I didn’t expect to see. I figured Harper was telling her father who I was. Or that I was harassing her. But instead, as Ryan Thomas held his hand up to me in a thankful wave, I figured Harper hadn’t done anything like that.
She must’ve told him I was helping her or something.
“Cade. Figured you should know. The daughter’s in the car, and she was talking with her mom about a tall guy who helped her out of the bathroom. Good work,” Ink said.
That’s what she’d said. She’d told her father she had been sick in the restroom and that I had helped.
Well, at least she wasn’t throwing me under the bus.
“Glad she’s safe,” I said. “Let’s wrap this shit up and go home.”
“Here here,” Doc said. “I could use a drink to wash down the taste of bullshit that man spewed.”
“Good thing I’m not the only one that thought it was,” Blade said. “What’d you think, Cade?”
“He’s an asshole. I’m just not sure why yet,” I said.
“Spoken like Cade. All right, everyone. Let’s go home,” Vex said.
I headed back out to the rally and found my bike. I threw my leg over it to stabilize myself, but the memories were coming full-force. Seeing Harper had opened the floodgates, and getting onto my bike after seeing her pregnant with my child only made matters worse. I could see her in front of me, her beautiful blue eyes smiling back at me. I could remember the feeling of her nose as it crinkled underneath my fingertips. I kissed every single one of those beautiful freckles that night. They illuminated her skin and separated her from the pack. Her freckles made her look innocent, but the fury she was able to take from my punishments told me she was strong.
I could still feel her ass jiggling underneath the palm of my hand as I sat on my bike.
“You good, Cade?” Doc asked. “You’re just sitting there.”
“I’m fucking hungry, man. Give me a second,” I said.
“I got a protein bar in my cargo tin,” Blade said. “Want it?”
“No, I don’t want your week-old chalk bar,” I said.
“That’s what the taste like!” Vex said. “Chalk bars!”
“Let’s not be so damn loud next time,” Ink said. “I almost lost an eardrum.”
The blood was rushing through my ears. Harper was the only woman I’d ever stayed the night with. Usually, I flirted, fucked, and fled. But there was something about the way she curled into me that night. About the way, her body trembled against mine. How she clung to my skin and begged for me to stay. The way she came down from her high was breathlessly and intriguing. She wrapped her entire body around me that night as I stroked her hair, kissing her and telling her how beautiful she was to me.
I woke up that morning with her naked body pressed against my muscles, and I could still remember how the sun looked in her hair. I could still smell her pussy underneath my nose, and I could still feel how her body begged for more as I marked her with my hands.
With my teeth.
With my tongue and my cock.
I was so lost in her I didn’t even use a condom. And I was never that reckless. She was open to anything and everything I threw her way. Exploring her sensual side as I punished that ass of hers. I bit the insides of her thighs until bruises formed and pulled her hair until she cried out for mercy. I fucked her face until tears poured down her face, and still, she begged for more.
I used her body for my own pleasure, expelling my own demons in her orifices.
And still, she wanted to curl up next to me.
How the fuck was I supposed to concentrate when all I could think about was her? How the hell was I supposed to sit through some dumbass debriefing meeting at the clubhouse when all I could think about was the fact that she was pregnant with my child? There was a woman on this planet walking around with my child in her body, and I wasn’t there to take care of her. To look after her and get her the shit she needed. I wasn’t there for the doctor’s appointments or to hold her hair back when she did get sick.
What the fuck kind of man did that make me?
I closed my eyes as people from the rally began to dissipate. I remembered the first time she begged for my punishment. She was strung up by her hands with her legs spread on the bed. I was teasing her body with hot wax, then flicking the dried wax off her skin with the blade of my knife. Her eyes had been wide with terror, but her nipples were puckered to painful peaks. Her body shook with fear, but her pussy spilled with want. I’d flick the wax off and catch her stare, her eyes wide as she took in the experience.
Then I’d lean over and bite into her skin just to feel her writhe against me.
She’d call out my name, a mixture of moaning and grunting. She’d tug at her restraints and try to move her ankles, but her movements were fruitless. I had her right where I wanted her that night, and so long as she allowed me access to her body, I would do disgusting things with it. I had slid into her dripping pussy easily, fucking her as I poured wax upon her nipples. She arched into me and whimpered, her hips trying to buck into me as I pinned her to the bed.
I slammed into her body until she shook with her orgasm, her juices spraying out onto my pelvis. I leaned down and captured her lips at that very moment, swallowing her whimpers and tired cries of mercy as she came down from her high.
Then I took to my blade and watched her eyes grow wide as I flicked the hardened wax from her nipples.
That was my favorite memory of her that night. Not because she was spread for me and not because she sprayed me with her arousal. Not because my cock slid effortlessly into her tight pussy and not because she was tied down for my taking.
It was the fear she was fighting through in order to experience something new. It was the inherent trust she had for me that night that I wouldn’t hurt her. I came at her with a knife and hot wax, wanting her to experience something she’d never had before. She had a safe word. She had a way out.
And instead of taking it, she fought through her fear to experience something.
That was how I knew she was strong. That was how I knew she was capable of becoming so much more than she was now. So much more than the scared little girl being ushered around by her bullshit father. She was scared of something. She was being tied down by something. I knew what it looked like to tie her down. I knew what that fear in her eyes looked like.
Which meant that whatever was tying her down was more frightful than a stranger coming at her with a knife.
Whatever the hell was going on with my Harper, I was going to figure it out. I was going to figure out how the fuck to fix it, and then I was going to figure out how to help her.
Her and my unborn child.
“Cade?”
I panned my gaze up to Doc, who was giving me a funny look.
“You good?”
“Yep,” I said.
“Your intercom not working?” he asked.
“Just in my own head. What’s up?” I asked.
“Uh huh. Well, we’re all heading back. Everything’s cleared up, and no threat will be happening today. We’re gonna go celebrate a smooth gig. Come on.”
“Sounds good to me. I could use a drink,” I said.
“To get out of your head?”
I threw Doc a blank stare before he hopped onto his bike.
“Come on, Thinker. Follow me.”