He was right, I couldn’t go traipsing off to the desert now with danger at our door, I had to stay here and protect them, it was all that mattered now.
“I’ll think about waiting but whenever we go, he’s mine to take out understood?” They all agreed before asking me what I knew about her capture. I repeated everything I’d read in the sealed report and what she’d told me herself. It hurt like a son of a bitch that she’d been in my enemy’s hands and I hadn’t known, hadn’t been there to protect her. And then I’d fucking tied her to my bed to do the same thing he’d planned to do.
I’ll spend the rest of my life making that shit up to her, as for him. A cold rage crept into my soul, one day soon I was going to face this fucker, I don’t know how, but I was going to make that shit happen. And when I do, I’m going to cut his fucking head off for putting his hands on what’s mine. I went back home to them and found them in the tub together splashing and laughing. I stood in the doorway watching them with a lump in my throat until she looked up and saw me. It was hard to believe that the smile that broke out across her face was for me. “Look sweetie, daddy’s home.”
“Da-da.” Fuck me.
Chapter 14
TYLER
“Where is she?” Everyone was gathered at the kitchen table at Zak’s place, everyone but Victoria Lynn. I knew without being told that she wasn’t in the house, I always know. “She had to head back into town, something about work.” I hid my disappointment by taking my niece from her mother’s arms and burying my face in her tummy to blow raspberries. That giggle was fast becoming my favorite sound in the world. I sat down as the food was being passed around and hated the fact that my appetite was almost gone.
I knew it was because she wasn’t here. I’d grown accustomed to having her near these last few days, even though I made a point of ignoring her. Lately though, I’ve been wondering if maybe I could take a chance. Being around the baby had kind of softened me up a little, given me ideas of what could be if I only let go enough. There were other things to take into consideration though, like the fact that she made me feel deeply, which was a dangerous thing for her. What if I caved and somewhere down the line she decided she wasn’t ready for forever? No I couldn’t take the chance. It was best if I stuck to one -night stands and short- lived flings.
Victoria Lynn wasn’t made for that she was the happily ever after type. But what if she gets tired of waiting for you and marry someone else? Zakira seemed attuned to my inner turmoil and her little arms came around my neck and she kissed my cheek before resting her head on my chest.
I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the innocent love. When I opened them again my whole family was watching. The damn women had tears in their eyes. “What the fuck?” My brothers were all shaking their heads at me with stupid looks on their faces. “You are toast brother.”
“Shut the fuck up Zak.” That just made them all laugh even louder as I left the house with baby Zak on my hip.
***
ZAK
I stroked the last of my seed into her before pulling out and flipping us over. Our hearts beat like drums in our chests as we tried to calm down. I used my fingers to plug her up and keep my seed from flowing back out of her. We tongued each other’s mouths swapping spit. It felt good to lie with her like this, with no animosity between us. “I’m sorry I hurt you baby.” I’ve been saying the same thing to her for the past couple of days and will say it for as long as it takes to get this feeling off my heart.
In the past two days I’ve done everything I could to make it up to her. I’d braved the outside to go get her a ring so she could show off with her sisters, only now Lo and Con were mad at me because their women had reinforcements with their wedding shit. I was willing to do anything I had to to make her happy, and if that meant getting them to and from their dress fittings, I’d Shanghai Ty and Cord into going with me as security.
It fucked with me that I’d put her through that shit, and probably will for the rest of my life, but she was right, denying my daughter a father, or her a husband wasn’t the answer. Instead I spent the moments that I wasn’t ensuring their safety making sure she knew how much she was loved.
“How soon before we can find out if he’s in there?” I ran my hand over her tummy and my dick thumped against her thigh. It didn’t matter if I’d planted one in her already or not; trying was half the fun. “There’re tests that can tell right now, do you wanna get one of those?” I rolled her over onto her back and slipped back into her. Always, talk of breeding her always got me going. “We’ll go later.”