Ride Steady(70)

“You’ll need Travis’s baby seat.”

“Leave it for Big Petey.”

I nodded.

His fingers pressed in and I automatically went up on my toes.

It was the right move since his head was bending toward me.

He touched his lips to mine, his whiskers brushing the skin they’d sensitized earlier, making my knees go weak so I had to reach out my hands and catch his T-shirt at his belly.

He ended the touch too soon but when he lifted his head, his rough thumb glided over my cheek as his steel eyes moved over my face.

“So f*ckin’ pretty,” he murmured and it was a wonder my body didn’t jerk out of his hold so I could twirl with glee.

“Thank you for dinner,” I whispered and he looked into my eyes.

“No problem, Carrie.”

I smiled.

His thumb rubbed over my lower lip before the pads of his fingers dug in lightly and he let me go.

I was proud I held it together and stayed steady rather than losing his touch and teetering.

“Later, Butterfly,” he said.

“Later, Joker,” I replied.

He moved out the door but looked back, doing it over his leather clad shoulder, a sinister biker who had a light touch, a molten look, a way with babies, and a talented mouth.

I put one hand to the edge of the door and lifted the other one to do a quick wave.

His mouth quirked, he shook his head, then he looked away and disappeared around the door.

I wanted to watch him walking away.

I didn’t.

I closed the door, locked its three locks, turned my back to it, and smiled at my massive furniture.

Then I brought both hands up and clapped them together in front of me, softly but repeatedly.

After that, on a skip-hop launching me that way, I went to go check on my baby.


Joker

No, no, no.

With Carissa’s sweet plea playing in his head, Joker parked at the end of the line of three bikes, swung off his, and moved into the dark alley.

Halfway down, close to a Dumpster, he saw Speck, Boz, and Hop circling two whores.

All eyes were on him.

His eyes were on the whores. “Early night?”

“Heidi needs to talk to you,” Hop said, sounding impatient.

Then again, he would be. His old lady was f*cking beautiful. And their new baby was a quarter of Hop’s world, the rest of that made up with his other two kids and his woman.

He did patrol like they all did.

Then he got his ass home.

Tonight wasn’t his night for patrol, though. He was there because he had a way with whores.

But these whores, or one of them, was Joker’s.

Joker looked to the blonde, jerked his head, stopped moving their way, turned, and retraced his steps.

He heard her heels following and gave her his side when he stopped and waited for her to get to him.

When she did, she got close.

“I’m f*cked, Joke.”

“Babe, you’re a whore workin’ for Valenzuela. You pulled me from somethin’ I was seriously into doin’ to give that shit to me?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Joker clenched his teeth and looked to his boots.

“Benito is gonna freak,” she hissed.

He looked to her. “You know whose it is, or you get knocked up by a john?”

“No way a client. Protection only. It’s my boyfriend, Brent’s.”

“And Brent says…?” he prompted.

Her face went hard. “Brent says it isn’t his.”

“You sure it is?”

Her face went harder and her eyes turned to stone. “Yes,” she snapped.

“You keepin’ it?” he asked.

“Hardly,” she bit out.

“You’re tellin’ me this because…?”

“Gonna find a buyer.”

He stared.

“Which means I’ll be outta commission,” she stated. “Which means you’re gonna have to find some other stupid bitch to narc on Benito.”

Fuck.

“And don’t even bother askin’ me to stay close anyway,” she went on. “Benito found out I’m knocked up, he’d scrape me off and I’d be lucky he does that before he beats the shit outta me. So I’m takin’ off to avoid the beatin’ the shit outta me part. This’ll be a sweet gig. If I find buyers, heard they pay doctor’s bills. Pay for an apartment. Feed you. Get you clothes. And give you wads of cash.”