Beast and baby, p.6
Beast and Baby,
p.6
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes a little. “You're going to have the nicest bike on the ride. Don’t worry, I know it.” I grinned over at Jessi, slinging my arm around her shoulder. “But at least I'm going to have the prettiest girl on the ride—and the latest hotshot designer, to boot!”
Jessi ducked her head a little. “Don't bring that up again or we're going to end up with more business than we know what to do with,” she warned.
“I'm still so proud of you,” Mick told her, leaning over to give her a one-armed hug before we climbed onto my bike. “The Severn's Young Talent Award for Design and the finishing touches on J.T.'s bike, all in the same week. What are you going to do next week?”
Jessi snorted. “Sleep, I hope,” she said. “It's been a lot of long nights and early mornings lately!”
“I second that,” I said, snorting too.
As Jessi swung onto the back of my bike, I grinned, feeling her arms settle around me. “You know, I never thought I would take someone else on this bike, but this is becoming a pretty regular occurrence,” I said.
“I know,” Jessi said. “I mean, I tried to tell you that we could take that experimental one that I've been working on, but ...”
“Anything that you admit to as being 'experimental' isn't something that I want to fly down the highway on,” I told her. It was a conversation that we had already had, but that made it easy and familiar rather than boring.
“I told you, the 'experimental' bit just has to do with-”
I revved the engine on my own bike, effectively cutting her off. “Come on, enough shop talk for the day,” I told her. “Let's get going.”
There were a lot of bikers out at the meetup point when we got there, and I looked around for familiar faces. Of course, Jessi had already met most, if not all, of the Hounds of Hades' club members, but there were a few guys from different clubs that I wanted her to meet—guys from different parts of the country that I rode with whenever they were in town. And Jessi seemed to be game to meet them all, fortunately.
We flew down the highway together, starting at 10am. J.T. was out in front of the Hounds of Hades group, and I could tell that he was loving his new bike—and if I could tell he was loving it, I was sure that Jessi could as well. She was good at reading people. That was part of why she was such a good designer.
Around noon, we stopped off to barbecue some lunch, and I made the rounds with Jessi. “This is Nick, but we all call him Chainsaw,” I told her. “And that's Rooster over there.”
“Chainsaw and Rooster,” Jessi said, shaking her head and laughing a little. “I bet there are some pretty good stories behind those nicknames?”
“Yeah, but not as good as the one behind Rip's nickname, which is just 'Asshole' because-”
“Hey!” I said, lunging playfully towards Mikey, who easily fended me off.
“We're going to have to give your wife a nickname as well, if she's going to be hanging around with us,” Chainsaw said seriously.
I blushed a little, and when I glanced over, Jessi was blushing as well. “She's not my wife,” I said to the guys. “We're just ...” I trailed off, because Jessi and I hadn't really had that conversation yet, despite the fact that we had cleared everything with her father.
“I'm his girlfriend,” Jessi said, looking over at me with a challenge in her eyes.
“She's my girlfriend,” I affirmed, smiling at her. Surprisingly, the words weren't as difficult to say as I'd expected them to be. I didn't feel any reason to go running for the hills now that we were getting closer to one another. We worked well together as a partnership, both professionally and personally, and now that Ellsmith was out of the picture, everything was good.
“Guys, hotdogs or hamburgers?” one of the guys asked, coming around from the grills. We put in our orders and he walked off.
“Can I get you a drink?” I asked Jessi, slipping an arm around her waist. “There should be beer somewhere. Or there's water, probably.”
“Water would be great,” Jessi said, smiling up at me.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “And I can't tempt you to even a single beer?”
I didn't miss the way her hand strayed towards her stomach, although it didn't quite come to a rest there. “No, no alcohol for me today,” she said pointedly.
I blinked at her and then pulled her into a hug. “Jesus, woman, you're going to drop something like that on me in front of all these people?” I asked in an undertone. “Why not tell me about that when we can celebrate it properly?”
Jessi laughed and pulled away. “Well, I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for days now,” she said. “This just seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
J.T. chose that moment to wander over, a huge smile on his face. “I'm loving the bike,” he said. “She handles so smoothly, and she just really lays into those turns. Man.” He tapped Jessi on the nose. “But there are a lot of other guys who are eyeing the bike and seem pretty interested, so I have a feeling you're going to get plenty more work out of this deal.”
“She might not be working around the shop for too much soon,” I said, looking down at Jessi's stomach, even though I knew she wasn't showing yet.
J.T. raised an eyebrow at me, watching where my gaze went, and then he whistled softly. “You're going to be a father, aren't you?” he asked.
“And I guess you're going to be some sort of a godfather, aren't you?” I asked, a smirk on my face.
“Oh, no,” Jessi said, shaking her head. “This kid is having nothing to do with bikes. I'll send him away to boarding school if I have to.”
I laughed a little at that, even though I honestly had some of the same trepidations that she felt.
“Well, I'm sure that you'll keep designing, even when you're not working directly in the shop, won't you?” J.T. asked. “And, pretty soon, maybe the newest young talent will have some new young talent to inspire her.”
Jessi snorted a little. “I don't want this kid anywhere near bikes,” she said. “Last thing I need is for him to grow up anything like me or Rip!”
“Speak for yourself,” I said haughtily, and she laughed.
“In all seriousness,” J.T. said, shaking his head with mirth in his eyes. “Congratulations, you two. That's great news.”
Of course, that meant that things were really happening and that I was going to need to either run through the club rules with Jessi or quit the club myself. There would be plenty that we would need to figure out. But for right now ...
I smiled a little and turned my face towards the sun, already thinking about what it would be like to have a son who I could ride motorcycles with and who I could work in the shop with. Someone who would eventually take over the family business, just like Jessi would when her dad retired.
I leaned over and kissed Jessi lightly on the lips, stroking her hair back behind her ear. “If there's anything that you need, just let me know,” I told her. “You know that I'm here for you.”
“I know that you're here for me,” Jessi affirmed, smiling at me. “And thanks for that, Rip. You're a wonderful guy.”
“I love you,” I said quietly to her, my voice probably as serious as she had ever heard it.
She looked up at me with the same seriousness in her expression, though. “I love you, too,” she told me. “I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Rip
I glanced over at Jessi, grinning at her. “So how old does he have to be before I can take him on his first bike ride?” I asked.
Jessi rolled her eyes, then grimaced in pain, and I could tell that she'd had another contraction. I glanced at my watch. Yeah, they were definitely coming more frequently now. But she was staying pretty quiet about them still, powering through them in a way that impressed me.
She gasped a little towards the end of this one and then gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry,” she said, as though she'd done something wrong.
I reached out to squeeze her shoulder. “Should I be saying sorry for knocking you up?” I joked.
Jessi snorted. “Only if you take the kid on his first bike ride before he's twenty-one,” she told me. “Because if so, I'm going to kill you.”
I shook my head, laughing a little. “Right, like Jessi Ford's kid isn't going to grow up practically living on motorcycles,” I said. “You're the hottest talent in the country at the moment. That kid is going to be a master of riding bikes by the time he's, like, ten.”
“He'd better not be,” Jessi said, shaking her head as well. “Not that I have anything against the lifestyle, of course—obviously it's worked out well for me. But do you realize how dangerous motorcycles are? So many people get killed in so many stupid ways every year ... and there's no way in hell that I'm ever letting him get involved with a motorcycle club, whether it's the Hounds of Hades or anyone else. The last thing I need is for our son to wind up in jail!”
“Guess he's not going to be working around the shop much then, huh?” I asked. Jessi still helped out a lot around the shops. At least, she had until her pregnancy had gotten too far along. They were both technically owned by the Hounds of Hades at the moment, just to make things simpler for her and her father to manage.
Jessi grimaced. “I sound just like Dad did when I told him that I wanted to go into automotive engineering, I know,” she said. “But seriously. This kid is not-” She broke off, her hands squeezing tightly into fists, and I began to drive a little faster. It would have been so much quicker on the bike, but there was no way I was driving a woman having contractions to the hospital on my souped-up motorbike.
“And we're giving him the least biker-dude name that we can come up with,” Jessi continued, when she was breathing normally again.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I mean, it's got to be something ...good. Like James.”
“You do realize that J.T.'s first name is actually James, right?” I asked. “James Thompson—J.T. And he's one of the most stereotypical bikers that I've ever met.”
“So not James then,” Jessi said. “But, seriously. It's going to be something where we don't have to worry about him-”
“His name isn't going to determine whether he becomes a biker,” I argued exasperatedly. “But probably the fact that he's growing up with two bikers who own a couple different chop shops around the city ... well, that's what's going to do it.”
Jessi shook her head stubbornly. “Nope,” she said. “That kid is going to become-”
“Whatever he wants to be,” I finished. “Just like his mama did.” I grinned over at her. “Jessi, you sound just like your dad. And you see exactly how well that turned out.”
Jessi grinned back over at me and reached out to hold my hand where it was resting on the gearshift.
“I love you,” I told her, even though I knew she already knew that.
She smiled over at me as well. “I love you, too,” she said. “Sorry I'm being a bit crazy about all of this. I just already can't stand the idea of him being hurt—either physically or because he's fallen for some asshole biker chick who never gives him the time of day.” Then, she placed a hand lightly over her stomach, grinning that same silly grin that she had got the day that she had told me that she was pregnant. “I love you two—both of you,” she said.
I gave her a soft smile, still hardly believing that things had worked out so well for us. “We both love you,” I told her just as we arrived at the hospital where our son would be born.
THE END
Have you heard? I have tons more bad boy romance novels filled with hot and steamy action! Go check out some of my other books... Your next book boyfriend is waiting for you!
Mailing List
Sign up to my mailing list!
New subscribers receive a FREE steamy short.
Click the banner or link below to join.
Link: http://dl.bookfunnel.com/6a9zef5fm3
Follow my Facebook page for hot guys, free content, and awesome giveaways!
https://www.facebook.com/naomiwestbooks/
Don't miss out!
Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever Naomi West publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.
https://books2read.com/r/B-A-ELTD-UNKW
Connecting independent readers to independent writers.
Did you love Beast and Baby? Then you should read Dare Me: A Mafia Romance by Naomi West!
Dare Me is book 1 of the Patrizzio Family Mafia trilogy. Books 2 and 3, Dare Her and Don't You Dare are available everywhere now!
Dare me, and I'll break you.
She thought she could defy me and get away with it.But I don't give a damn if she's a mafia princess or not – she's under my watch, and that means following my rules.I could care less how much she likes it.As long as she's my responsibility, I'll teach her what to like.I'll tell her what to do.I'll make her see how pleasure lies on the other side of pain.Welcome to my world, darling.It's dark.It's hot.And as long as you're here, you are utterly mine.
Read more at Naomi West’s site.
Also by Naomi West
A Dark Bad Boy Hitman Romance
Dark Desire (Book 1)
Dark Desire (Book 2)
Dark Desire (Book 3)
A Kingpin Mafia Romance
Cormac (Book 1)
Cormac (Book 2)
Cormac (Book 3)
A Mafia Hitman Romance
Property of the Hitman
Branded by the Hitman
Filthy for the Hitman
Blackened Souls MC
Control: An MC Romance
Restrain: An MC Romance
Tether: An MC Romance
Blood Warriors MC
Owned: An MC Romance
Owned by the Biker: An MC Romance
Owned by the Outlaw: An MC Romance
Butchers MC
Ruin (Book 1)
Ruin (Book 2)
Ruin (Book 3)
Cobra Kings MC
Stud
Stud's Ink
Stud's Bride
Dark Vultures MC
Brute
Curvy for Brute
Bent for Brute
Demon Riders MC
Ravage (Book 1)
Ravage (Book 2)
Ravage (Book 3)
Der Club der düsteren Gentlemen
Nikolai (Eine dunkle Mafia-Romanze)
Vito (Eine dunkle Mafia-Romanze)
Devil’s Kin MC
Glory (Book 1)
Glory (Book 2)
Glory (Book 3)
Devil's Route MC
He Doesn't Know
He Can't Know
He Always Knows
Devil's Wings MC
Stolen Chopper
Stolen Cruiser
Stolen Wheels
Esposito Family Mafia
Nico (Book 1)
Nico (Book 2)
Nico (Book 3)
Filthy Fools MC
Rampage (Book 1)
Rampage (Book 2)
Rampage (Book 3)
Hounds of Hades MC
Beast
Beast and Brawn
Beast and Baby
Midnight Hunters MC
Ryder
Ryder's Midnight
Ryder's Promise
Reaper’s Hearts MC
Xavier
Xavier's Wrath
Xavier's Hope
Ruined by the Hitman Romance
Dark Ruin (Book 1)
Dark Ruin (Book 2)
Dark Ruin (Book 3)
Satan's Legion MC
Stolen Patch
Bloody Patch
Burned Patch
Satan's Sons MC
Wheeler
Wheeler's Revenge
Wheeler's Oath
Satan's Wings MC
Broken: An MC Romance
Broken Twice: An MC Romance
Don't Break Me: An MC Romance
Savage Outlaws MC
Savage
Savage Heat
Savage Chopper
Sinners MC
Claimed (Book 1)
Claimed (Book 2)
Claimed (Book 3)
Sons of Wolves MC
Stolen Ride
Stolen Cruise
Stolen Wander
The Vanguard MC
Stolen: An MC Romance
Taken: An MC Romance
Snatched: An MC Romance
The Warriors MC
Property of the Biker
Beneath the Biker
Hot for the Biker
Thunder Riders MC
Granite (Book 1)
Granite (Book 2)
Granite (Book 3)
Watch for more at Naomi West’s site.
Naomi West, Beast and Baby
