It was late afternoon the next day and Zack was lying on his belly with no shirt on, barefoot, on Liam’s blanket when there was a knock at the door. Nicole came out of the kitchen and smiled at them. “You two carry on, I’ll get it.” Zack winked at her and added a block to the tower he was building. As he had already three times, Liam knocked it over.

“Little shit.” Nicole stopped at the door and gave him a stern look.

“Sorry. Little turd.”

She shook her head and laughed before looking through the peephole. “It’s a woman.”

“Are you expecting anyone?”

“No. Who is it?” Zack turned over and put his head on his elbow. Liam crawled up on his chest, slobbering across it as he did.

“I’m looking for Zack.” Shit. It’s Tammy. How the hell did she find me in Memphis?

Nicole looked at Zack and raised an eyebrow. He had to pick up Liam to sit up so that he didn’t knock the little guy over. “Tiny little thing with blondish brown hair, gold eyes, and looks meaner than a snake?” Nicole smiled at that and nodded. “Better let her in. She’ll knock down the door if you don’t.”

Nicole unlocked the door and pulled it open. Tammy looked her over from head to toe and then glanced into the living room. When she saw Zack in the floor with the baby, there were no words to describe the look on her face. “I’m Tamara,” she said to Nicole.

“Hi; Nicole.”

“Can I come in?”

“Um…” Nicole looked at Zack. He hadn’t gotten around to telling her that Tammy wanted him to go to Texas. Mainly because he didn’t plan on going.

He sat Liam down on his blanket and got to his feet. “Come on in, Tams. You can tell us how you found me here.” Nicole moved back and let her in. She was wearing a pair of jeans with holes worn in them, a long-sleeved Harley t-shirt, and black riding boots. Her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck and Zack could see her riding gloves shoved into her front pocket. He couldn’t believe Gunner had let her take off on her bike this far, alone. Then again, there was no stopping Tammy when she got something into her head. Just her being there was proof of that. Before Nicole closed the door, she looked out and said:

“Hashtag is out there.”

“Shit.” Zack said. “Traitor. What did you torture him with to get him to bring you here?”

“You’re hiding from me?”

Zack smiled at her. “Never. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable.”

Tammy narrowed her eyes at him and said, “I sent you a text, telling you I’d be at the club in an hour. Imagine how surprised I was when I got there and you weren’t there. A text back would have been nice.”

“Sorry. Phone’s dead.”

Nicole cleared her throat. “Tammy, can I get you something to drink?”

“Sure. Water would be good.” She watched Nicole curiously as she went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. When she brought it back, Nicole handed it to her and scooped the baby off the floor. “I’m going to put Liam down for his nap.”

Zack reached for her hand. “You don’t have to leave, babe. Tammy is an old friend. She is my mother’s new old man’s daughter. Jesus, that sounds like a fucking soap opera, doesn’t it? Anyways, she thinks I’m taking a trip to Texas with her, but I’m not.”

“Zachary…” Tammy started.

“You two can talk about it while I put him down for his nap,” Nicole said. Zack couldn’t figure out what she was thinking as she left the room but he knew if the shoe were on the other foot, he would have stayed. Once she was gone, he sat down and Tammy said:

“I feel like I just walked into the Twilight Zone.”

Zack laughed. He could completely understand that. “Nicole and I are…seeing each other.”

Tammy’s lips twitched. She was the only “girlfriend” that Zack had ever had and that was years ago. “She’s your girlfriend?”

“We don’t use labels,” he said.

Her body shook with a silent laugh. “And the kid?”

“Cute, huh?”

“Yeah, but I have to say that finding you on the floor, playing blocks with an infant, was…surprising, and that word doesn’t even cover it.”

“He’s good company,” Zack told her with a wink.

“Wow.” She cleared her throat and took a drink of her water. He could tell that he’d thrown her for a loop. At least maybe that would have her off balance enough to give him the advantage in the argument he knew they were about to have. “Anyways,” she said, “putting your domestic bliss aside…we need to get going.”

“Tams, I am not going to Texas. I told you that before you rode all the way out here. And speaking of that, what the hell is that kid thinking, letting his old lady travel thousands of miles on her own?”

“I told you that you are going. This is your mother, Zachary, and you are the only person on earth that can handle Mona. And stop calling Gunner ‘that kid’; you know he hates it. For your information, he trusts me and he doesn’t try to control me. I do what I want.”

Zack chuckled. “He thinks you’re somewhere else, doesn’t he?”

She sighed. “He thinks I’m at a nursing conference in Boston.” Zack laughed and she said, “Stop it. He’s worried about me being close to him right now, so he thought the conference was a great idea. I feel terrible lying to him, but he wouldn’t be okay with knowing I was trying to protect him. He hates that.”

“Seems to happen a lot.” She picked up a pillow off the couch and threw it at him. He caught it and laughed.

“You know that none of it has been his fault. He got hooked up with me and all this shit came down on him. He deserves better, Zack, and for a while things were going so well. Please go with me. I can handle my father, but you know Mona hates me. My involvement will only make her more determined to send her dogs after Gunner.”

Zack sighed and reached for his t-shirt. He pulled it on and said, “Dax knows about their plans. Why not just let him handle it?”

“Because Gunner is already having a hard time with some of the guys. They think Dax has made special concessions for him because he’s his brother. Gunner feels like he needs to prove himself all the time. If they have to fight a war, and God forbid, anyone ends up dead, who do you think they’ll blame?” She had a point. Zack could feel for Gunner. A lot of his life he’d felt that way thanks to who his father was. But he really, really didn’t want to go to Texas. Partly because the idea of seeing Mona again made him sick to his stomach, and mostly because the idea of leaving Nicole and Liam for any length of time did the same. He was still in a quandary about going back out on the road.

“I can’t just leave. I have my own club to answer to.”

She sighed. “Zack, please give me something here. Will you at least ask?” She looked around the room and at the baby’s toys on the blanket. “It doesn’t look like you’re knocking yourself out with work here.”

Nicole came back into the room then. Zack looked at her and again, his impulse was to say no. “Liam asleep?” She nodded. “Come here for a minute.” Nicole went over to where he was sitting and he pulled her down into the chair. There was barely enough room for her, but she seemed embarrassed to sit on his lap in front of Tammy, so he let her wiggle into the empty space. “Tammy is asking me to go to Texas with her to talk to my mother and her father. Tammy’s old man is the one that killed my father.”

“Oh…” Nicole looked at a loss for words.

“He had it coming,” Zack said. “But my mother thinks there should be retaliation and she’s talked Tammy’s father into it. Tams thinks that she and I can use our family card to talk them out of it. I’m doubtful, and not sure if I should go or not. I’m not sure now is a good time for me to leave.”

“Okay.” Nicole seemed surprised that Zack was sharing so much with her, and at a loss for words. Finally, she said, “Are you asking my opinion?”

Zack smiled at her. Surprisingly, he was. If she told him not to go, he wouldn’t. That was another first for Zack Leoni. No woman, not even Mona, had ever been able to tell him what to do. It was one of the reasons he and Tammy had fought like feral cats when they were together. He loved her, but she was way too controlling for a woman, he had always thought. Now, here he was, ready to do whatever Nicole decided he should. Hash was right. He was whipped. “Yes,” he said at last, to the sound of Tammy’s sharp intake of breath. “If you don’t think I should leave right now, I won’t.”

Nicole smiled at him and then glanced nervously at Tammy. “How long will you be gone?”

“A few days at the most,” he said.

“Okay, well, the hearing is not for a week. In the meantime, there’s not a lot to be done. I have the meeting with my attorney on Friday, but that’s all me.”

“Are you sure, babe? I don’t want to leave you and the little man unless you are sure you’ll be okay without me.”

She looked at Tammy again. Zack almost laughed at the look on Tammy’s face. “I’m sure,” Nicole said. “You go handle your business; Liam and I will be fine.”

“Hash will be around if you need anything while I’m gone.”

She nodded. “It should be fine. Spider will be on his best behavior until after the hearing at least.”

Zack sighed. He still didn’t want to go, but he’d had one hell of a time saying no to Tammy since he was a kid. He didn’t think it was going to do any good. Mona might have listened to him a few weeks ago, but the last time he saw her, he had a feeling he’d burnt the last bridge between them. He looked at Tammy and said, “I’ll go, but we don’t leave until morning. I’ll have Hash set you up with a room at the clubhouse. I think your old one is available.” He winked at Tammy as she rolled her eyes and looked at Nicole as she stood up.

“I’m not sure what you did to him,” she said, sending an alert to Zack’s brain as Nicole stiffened next to him. “But keep it up. He’s almost likeable now.”

He felt Nicole’s body shake next to him. “I’ll do my best,” she said. Zack walked Tammy out and talked to Hashtag about what the plan was before going back inside. He would deal with Stone in the morning; right then, all he wanted to do was spend some quality time with his beautiful woman. He found her in the kitchen, washing out Liam’s bottles. Sliding his arms around her from behind he whispered in her ear:

“Did anyone ever tell you that you look sexy using a bottle brush?”

She laughed. “As sexy as you looked on the floor earlier with slobber all over the tattoo on your chest?”

“You’re pushing it, babe, no one is that sexy.” She laughed again and tried to turn around. He pressed her into the counter and put his lips on her neck. After sucking on it for a few seconds he whispered, “Don’t move.” Nicole stood still as he unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts and pulled them down to her ankles. She was wearing a black thong, and the sight of her perfect, naked ass sent a quick surge of blood to his already hardening cock. He raised his hand and smacked her ass gently.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”

He chuckled. “For not getting me out of going to Texas.” He smacked her again a little harder. She pressed her elbows into the counter and stuck her ass out further as he rubbed the red spot he’d left there. “Look at you, dirty girl, you like that, don’t you?” Her breathing was already labored as she nodded. “Well then, let’s do this right.” Zack reached for one of the kitchen chairs and pulled it up behind him. He sat down in it and Nicole squealed as he pulled her down across his lap. He let his fingers dip down between her legs and they came back soaked with her juices. “Damn, baby, you really like that.” He licked his fingers and then smacked her ass again, and again as she moaned and squirmed around on his lap. Once her cheeks were both bright red, he stopped and massaged her ass again. She softly whimpered and lifted her hips when he did that, causing his hand to slide down between her legs. He smiled and dipped his fingers in her wet pussy again, this time letting two of them slide up inside of her. She let out a gasp as he started working them in and out and moving them around inside of her. “You’re a bad girl, aren’t you?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Whose bad girl are you?” He heard himself say that out loud, and it didn’t sound as strange as he thought it might. He usually didn’t want a woman to think that she was his anything. But with Nicole, he wanted to be her everything.

“Yours,” she said breathlessly as he continued to finger her. He could tell by the way she was breathing that she was already close.

“Say it again,” he said, fucking her harder. “Say you’re my bad girl.”

“I’m yours. I’m Zack’s bad girl. I’m your dirty girl,” she gasped out. The sound of her sexy voice calling herself a dirty girl almost sent him plummeting over the edge. Instead, he held back and continued to relentlessly pound her pussy with his fingers. She was getting more excited and having a harder time breathing when he said:

“Are you going to come on my hand, baby?”

“Mm-hmm,” she gasped out.

“Then what will you do? My cock is so hard it hurts. You ever sucked a guy off in the kitchen before?” She shook her head as her body tensed. “Good, I want to be your first. After you come, I want you on your knees sucking my cock until it explodes in your throat.” Nicole moaned loudly. “You like that?” She nodded again. “You are a dirty little girl. My dirty girl. Mine…” Nicole’s body tensed and she bucked wildly in his lap as she came. When her muscles relaxed and she started quivering, Zack pulled his fingers out of her and sat her up in his lap, facing him. He kissed her, hard and passionate, and then he pulled back and looked into her eyes. They looked brown some days and green others, but Zack had come to realize that they were blazing green when she was turned on. At that moment, the center of each was dark green and the ring around the outside of it, brown. They were gorgeous, and he could lose himself in them for days. “You’re really mine?” he whispered, pressing his forehead into hers.

“I really am,” she whispered back. “I’m all yours, Zack Leoni. I’m hopelessly in love with you.” Those words were what Zack had been thinking and feeling while he was prompting her to tell him she was his, but hearing them out loud was like having the wind knocked out of him. He opened his mouth to say it back and then closed it again. Nicole brought up her hand and put it on the side of his face. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say it back.” He smiled and kissed her lips softly again. Then, he pulled her into his chest and said:

“I’ve wanted to say it for a while now, it’s just not as easy as you might think. It’s not something that I’m used to rolling off my tongue.”

She nodded into him. “I know. Mine either.”

“But you had the balls to say it first.” He held her back and looked into her eyes again. “I love you, Nicole, and I love Liam too. I want you both…for a very long time.” He watched her eyes fill with tears. He wasn’t sure if they were happy tears, or tears of regret for falling in love with another biker. He knew that hadn’t been what she wanted for her life, but he also knew that what she’d been through with Spider would never happen with him. He was going to do whatever it took to make sure that she and Liam were safe and happy…and he hadn’t yet counted out the idea of getting rid of Spider to make sure that happened.