Road to Redemption (16 page)

“I plan to give you a few more before this day is over, baby.”

“Can’t wait.” We lay in silence for several minutes, the sound of the water lapping against the boat calming. “You know the stuff you did with other women?”

His body locked. “Babe, that’s over.”

I leaned up so I could look him in the eye. “Would you ever do that with me?”

Alex stared at me and frowned. “No.”

“What if… what if I’d like to?”

“Fuck, baby. Are you serious right now?”

“I don’t know if I want to be chained or whipped or whatever, but handcuffs might be fun, and I’ve kind of always wanted to find out what it felt like to be spanked.”

Alex shook his head.

“I don’t know if I’m into everything that might involve a red room of pain, but some of it sounds kind of sexy.”

“Fuck me,” he whispered, and then groaned.

“Just a thought.”

He rolled me onto my back and kissed me before dropping his forehead to mine. “We can do whatever you want, Payton. Anytime you want. You just let me know. And for the record, I have never chained or whipped anyone.”

“Okay.” I smiled, biting back a yawn. “Right now, I just want to sleep in your arms and listen to the sound of the water.”

“You can listen to the sound of the water while you sleep? That’s quite a trick.”

“Bite me.”

He chuckled, rolling over me slightly and smiling. “Later.” He kissed me gently and then adjusted the covers around us, pulling me back onto his chest.

I smiled as sleep took me, safe and warm in his arms.

* * *

I came awake with a moan as a strong hand slid between my legs and cupped me gently before fingers slipped inside.

“Time to wake up,” Alex whispered, and raised himself above me, settling his hips between my legs. “Spread, baby.”

I spread for him and he slipped inside of me as I wrapped my legs around him. He anchored his arms to the bed and drew in a nipple as his hips jerked back and thrust in. He did this slowly until I cried out in frustration, and then he slammed in again and again until I came. With one more pull of my nipple, he came as well, and then slipped out of me and pulled me onto his chest.

I kissed his neck. “Well, that’s a nice way to wake up.”

“Anytime you want me to wake you like that, baby, just say the word.”

I giggled and snuggled closer. “The word.”

Alex laughed.

“What time is it?”

“Five.”

“Shit.” I shot up and scrambled over him. “Honey, we have to go. If we’re going to pick up Lily beforehand, we’re going to be late. There’ll be traffic.”

He sat up slightly. “I didn’t realize we were picking Lily up.”

“We can’t have a family dinner without her, Alex.” I tapped my temple. “Think, honey.” I stared incredulously at him as I pulled on my panties and he looked confused. “What?”

“I hadn’t planned on staying. I was going to drop you off and pick you up when you were done.”

I frowned. “Oh, okay. If that’s what you want to do.”

He climbed off the bed and I bit my lip to keep myself from sighing. Clothed he was gorgeous, naked he was illegal. “If you want me there, baby, you just have to say so.”

I clasped my bra and rolled my eyes. “I already did.”

“When?”

“
Hello
, when I told you we were having a family dinner!”

“Yes,
you’re
having a family dinner, baby. With
your
family.”

I hunted around for my socks, finding one inside my boot. The other was on the floor next to it. “
My
family
is
your family, Hawk, or do you not want them?”

“Payton.” He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not trying to start a fight, honey. I just didn’t want to invite myself to something if you didn’t want me there.”

I stomped my foot. “Sometimes, Hawk, I want to hit you.”

He dropped his head back and started laughing, so I
did
hit him. Gently… but it was in the stomach, so he wasn’t expecting it.

“Fuck,” he said, but still managed to continue laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” I demanded.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “Because you’re standing in the middle of the bedroom on my boat, yelling at me while wearing nothing but your bra and panties… and one sock.”

I huffed and raised the hand with the other sock in it. “Well, you interrupted me.”

He leaned down and rubbed his nose against mine. “Fuckin’ adorable, baby.”

“Get dressed.” I smiled and stepped away from him, dragging my sock on before finding the rest of my clothes. “And for the record, whenever there’s a family
anything
, you, Lily, and Kayla are included in it, because you’re stuck with us whether you want to be or not.”

I yanked on my jeans and Alex pulled me to him again. “I want to be.”

“Good answer.”

He kissed me quickly and we finished dressing.

K
AYLA OPTED OUT of dinner, seemingly relieved she had a night to herself. “I’m going to soak in a hot tub, drink a beer, and watch a movie my brother can’t interrupt with some bullshit comment.”

I giggled. “You go girl.”

She hugged me and grinned. “Thanks for the invite, though.”

“It’s an open one, Kayla. Seriously. Anytime.”

“Will there be ice cweam?” Lily asked.

“I bet if there isn’t any at the hospital, we can find ice cream somewhere else later,” I said.

She let out a squeak and jumped up and down. “Wet’s go!”

I giggled. “How about you go potty first?”

Lily frowned but did as she was told. I helped her wash her hands and then we met Alex at the front door. He had our coats and helped us into them before heading out to the truck.

Alex and Kayla lived in Beaverton in a surprisingly suburban ranch on a quiet street. The house was small, just three bedrooms and one bathroom, but well kept, and although it was masculine inside, it didn’t scream “biker” when you walked in. Alex bought it three years ago and mostly chose it for its proximity to decent schools for Lily’s sake.

The bummer of it was, it was super far from me, so we were going to have to have a serious conversation about living arrangements for the future.

I smiled.

We had a future.

“What’s got you grinnin’, baby?” Alex asked, and linked his fingers with mine.

I turned my head still leaning against the headrest, and smiled again. “I’m just happy.”

“Fuck,” he whispered.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’, just gotta figure out how to make you smile like that forever.”

“Alex,” I said on a sigh. “Love you.”

He lifted my hand to his lips.

“Daddy?” Lily said.

“Yeah, baby girl.”

“Can we wisten to Fwozen song? Pweeese.”

“Ohmigod, you don’t have the CD do you?” I whispered.

He grinned. “I don’t have the song, baby girl. How about Guns ’n Roses?”

I looked back at her. She wrinkled her nose, but then just as quickly, smiled. “Nobemba Wain.”

Alex chuckled. “Okay, baby girl.”

He released my hand and chose
November Rain
from the
Use Your Illusion
CD and I giggled. “Well played, honey… well played.”

The song lasted until we crossed into Vancouver. Alex turned the stereo off and we arrived at the hospital just before six. “Record time, honey,” I said.

He grinned. “And you were worried.”

“You were just lucky we didn’t hit much rush hour.”

Alex chuckled and we unloaded Lily from the car and headed up to Kristen’s room. I peeked into the room to make sure Kristen still felt up to visitors, and found my entire family, plus Macey inside. “Alex and Lily are here,” I said.

“The more the merrier,” Kristen said brightly.

We joined the group and Lily rushed to Elizabeth and the other kids in the corner where someone had set a couple of pizzas. With her occupied, Alex and I hugged Kristen and then grabbed pizza and fell into comfortable conversation with the family as we ate.

This was our perfectly adequate little world for the next three weeks. And when I say perfectly adequate, I mean that we were in sync, we were in love, we were building a bond that no one could break… but it was also wrought with the stark reality that we led very different lives, and when it took an hour to get to one another’s homes, we had very limited time together most days. Add in the fact that there was a little girl in the picture; sex was often a stolen few minutes whenever we could find it, and was usually over far too quickly.

The bottom line… I needed to get my own place.

The Friday before winter break, we had a rare night to spend together because Kayla offered to watch Lily for us. I was sprawled over a deliciously naked Alex in the middle of the stateroom bed on the boat, having just come four times, and I was trying to figure out a way to bring up the subject of the future without saying, ‘hey, let’s talk about our future.’

“Babe, spit it out,” he said, and chuckled.

“Spit what out?”

He gave my bottom a gentle smack. “I can hear you thinking.”

I sighed and settled my chin on top of my hands on his chest. “I need to find a house.”

“Yeah.”

I shrugged with a smile. “That’s it.”

Alex laughed. “Baby, you’re fuckin’ adorable when you’re lyin’.”

I groaned and rolled onto my back.

He leaned over me and slid his hand to my neck. “Tell me.”

“Okay, but stay with me here, because I’m going to verbally process for a bit.”

“Break it down for me, Payton.”

“You live in Oregon and I live in Washington.”

“Good start, baby.”

“Bite me,” I retorted, and grinned when he nipped my neck. “Mmm, more of that later.”

He sat up and chuckled. “Promise.”

“So, I have a dilemma because I don’t want to live in Oregon. Partly because their schools kind of suck… sorry, but they do… and I don’t want to take a ten percent hit to my paycheck with taxes. Plus, I know this might be weird, but we all live close to each other and I don’t know if I could live all the way in Beaverton… not that I’m saying I’m asking to move in with—”

“Baby, take a breath.”

I wrinkled my nose, but did what he suggested.

“I’m not married to Beaverton, Payton,” he said. “I bought that house because at the time it was close to the club and work, and I needed a tax write off.”

My heart raced. “Oh.”

“So, I agree, you need to find a place, but you want to stay in Washington, I can move to Washington.”

“Seriously?” I asked. “You’d move for me?”

He frowned. “I’m thinkin’ I’m fuckin’ everything up now.”

“What? Why?”

“’Cause you haven’t figured out I’d do anything for you.”

I pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. “You, Alex James, are about the most perfect man alive.”

He grinned as he ran his hands up my thighs. “So when I ask you to marry me, you’ll say yes?”

“I guess you’ll have to ask me and find out,” I retorted. “But I’m not into the whole living together before marriage thing, so our immediate issue is still the same.”

“What’s your problem with living together?”

“Outside of the fact that my parents would have a coronary, there’s evidence that couples who live together before marriage divorce more than couples who don’t. I learned it in one of my psych classes years ago.” I leaned down and kissed his stomach, his muscles constricting at my touch. “And I plan to only marry once.” I kissed him just above his lily tattoo. “Divorce isn’t an option… but, hear me on this, honey… murder is.”

He laughed and I grinned down at him. “So you’ll go to jail for murder, but you won’t divorce. Got it,” he said.

“You’re a smart cookie, honey.” I shifted so I was between his knees. I kissed my way up and down the length of his hardening cock, sliding the tip into my mouth with a gentle suck.

“So the conversation’s over?” he rasped.

“For now,” I said, and took his length deeper into my mouth.

“Fuck,” he whispered, and gripped my hair.

I wrapped my hand around him and moved up and down in sync with my mouth. Without warning, I lost purchase on his cock and found myself dragged under him. “Hey! I wasn’t done.”

He slid into me, covering my mouth with his as he reached between us and fingered my clit.

“Ohmigod,” I breathed.

“So fuckin’ wet,” he whispered against my neck.

“Sucking you off tends to do that to me.”

He buried himself deeper. “Someone’s in a sassy mood.”

I arched against him. “When I’m interrupted while sucking you off, it tends to put me in a sassy mood, handsome, so how about you take care of me so I can get back to what I was doing.”

His eyes met mine. “Do you want to play, Payton?”

“That depends,” I said.

“On?”

“On whether or not I get to finish.”

He smiled. “I’ll let you finish. But how far do you want me to go?”

“I don’t know, Alex, I’ve never done anything like this before. Should we have like a safe word or something?”

“Stop works.”

“Sounds a little boring,” I grumbled.

Alex’s smile deepened. “You pick.”

I licked my lips, my body primed, and the fact that he was still buried inside of me didn’t help me focus. “Porthole.”

He dropped his head and his body shook as his laughing grew louder.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to get creative,” I cried. “It’s the first thing I could think of.”

“What’s your least favorite color?” he asked, and raised his head.

“Um, I don’t know… chartreuse?”

“Give me something shorter.”

“Green.”

“Okay.” He slid out of me and off the bed. “Green’s our safe word. If you use it, I’ll stop. I’ll also stop if you ask me to stop. But I’ll still ask you before I do anything and if you don’t want to do it, we won’t do it.”

“I trust you.”

He smiled again. “I don’t have much to play with, baby, but we’ll improvise.”

He left the room and I took a minute to pee.

When he returned, he had a belt and a length of rope. “Give me your hands,” he instructed.

I held them in front of me and he tied them together, kissing each palm as he tightened the rope. “Too much?”

I shook my head.