She laughs. “Rapunzel, your handsome princes are here. Why would you want to escape?”
“I don’t think the princes want me here anymore.”
“Ah,” she says and runs a soft, comforting hand down my hair. “They’re afraid of losing you and they’re real angry. Judge isn’t allowing them near your dad these days and they’re itching to get revenge.”
“Is he still out on parole?”
“Yes. How do you feel about that?”
“Really mixed up,” I admit. It’s hard to bury twenty-three years of love for one’s father even after he beat me senseless. Some screwed up part of me thinks it’s my fault, that I caused him to lose his temper again. But I don’t ever want to see him again and I think he should be punished in some way. I just don’t know what’s right anymore. My world’s been shaken like a snow globe. Pieces of my life are falling around me and I don’t know which ones I should be gathering and putting back together.
“Be patient,” she advises. “Both with yourself and with the boys.”
It’s easy advice to parcel out but a lot harder to implement. I decide to lie down on the floor and stretch my back. It itches and aches and is generally uncomfortable. Pippa showed me a couple of easy yoga moves to help ease my aches—both in my mind and my body.
“Whatever you’re doing, I like it,” Easy says from the doorway.
I look between my legs. “It’s a downward dog yoga position.”
“Perfect name,” he smirks. I drop down to my knees and roll onto my butt.
“Didn’t know you were still interested,” I grumble. In his hands he’s holding a helmet. It’s just like my old one which is currently in the evidence room at the county jail. I’m not even going to make a guess at what it means because I don’t want to get disappointed.
“Baby, if I was any more interested my dick would fall off. Now get off that sweet ass and come for a ride.”
I press my lips together but I can’t stay mad in the face of Easy’s smile. “Yes. God yes.”
He folds me in his embrace and every hurt I have disappears. I raise my face to his and he plants a deep, wet kiss on my lips. When he breaks away, I’m tipsy from his love and he has to grab my shoulders to steady me.
“Come on. Don’t keep your other man waiting,” he says with a grin.
I slide my hand into his and walk down the two flights of stairs, my heart full but light with joy.
Michigan’s waiting by the bikes in the courtyard in front of the granary. He holds out a leather jacket with one hand and I gasp at the rockers sewn on the top and bottom of the back. Property of the top rocker reads. Death Lords MC curves up from the bottom to frame the flaming skull design.
Then he pulls out two leather cuffs from his back pocket. No one says anything. No one has to. These are my claiming bracelets. It was only a few weeks ago that Easy laid his on the counter at the Brew Ha Ha offering me what I would later learn was a new life. I’ve felt naked without them. Wordlessly I hold out my arms and Easy comes forward to slide the bracelets over my wrists.
“We’re claiming you, Annie Bloom.”
After the bracelets are fastened, Michigan helps me slip into the leather jacket. It fits perfectly, snug around my breasts, nipped in at the waist and ending right at the top of my hips. With exquisite tenderness, Michigan leans down and gives me a long, toe-curling kiss. He breaks away and I glimpse his wonder and happiness before Easy plants his lips on mine. We kiss equally long and they have me so discombobulated that I don’t even realize that the front barn doors of the granary are open and the other members of the Death Lords are standing inside clapping and hooting for us.
Michigan raises my hand in the air and repeats Easy’s earlier vow. “We’re claiming Annie Bloom.”
Happily I climb onto Michigan’s bike and we roar out, the throaty growl of the bikes drowning out the celebratory cheers of the men behind us.
“I could walk faster that this bike is moving,” I yell into his ear as Michigan motors slowly down the road.
“You’re pretty mouthy,” he calls back.
“Being quiet never got me anywhere.”
He grunts. When we get to the house, there’s a big green dumpster in the driveway. Some kind of construction is going on.
Michigan cuts the engine and I slide off. Easy takes up one hand and Michigan the other and together they lead me to the rear of the house. The entire left side of the house is completely open and there’s a cement slab running perpendicular to the end. Two-by-four walls are bolted to the slab.
“What’re you doing?”
“Adding on.” Easy’s grinning like a kid at Christmas. “Figured we would need a bigger bedroom for all three of us. We knocked down the wall to Michigan’s bedroom and we’re building this addition. It’ll be our suite with an attached bathroom. We’re putting in a nice big shower and bathtub so we can take care of our girl right.”
They walk me through it. The addition makes the house an L shape. In the middle will be a patio and there are sliders that will open onto the patio from both the kitchen and the bedroom. Inside the bedroom there will be high transom windows so light can come in but prying eyes will be kept out.
“There’ll be a place here for you to read and then the bed,” Easy points out. “Along the wall opposite the bed we’ll have a long bookcase.”
“For books?” I tease.
“And a television,” Michigan admits sheepishly.
“We’re getting a custom-made bed so we’ve got plenty of room for all of us. Over here is your walk-in closet and Michigan and I will share the opposite one. We don’t got a lot of shit.”
“I don’t have a lot of…shit, either.”
They exchange grins at my unpracticed cursing.
“You will when we’re done with you,” Easy boasts.
Inside they show me the shower space. “It’s seven feet long and four feet wide. The bathtub is just as big.”
“Fits four,” Michigan says. “Or three really active people.” Then he winks at me. My heart is near bursting with happiness.
When the roof goes up and the walls are together I make us move back in. I’d rather be in our own house than at the club. Easy puts two mattresses on the living room floor. It fills up the entire space but it’s better than nothing.
I finally convince them to make love to me.
Easy lies on his back and Michigan is behind me. They are as tender and gentle with me as if I was a newborn kitten. They do all the work and I just lie there between them, a happy Annie. The lucky inside part of a hot man meat sandwich.
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” I chant as they thrust into me, filling me up with lust and love and ecstasy.
“Love you too, baby,” Easy groans against my chest.
“Always and forever, sweetheart.” Michigan’s voice is hot on my neck.
After almost three weeks of no sex, it doesn’t take long for me to come all over them. Always and forever. Best words I’ve ever heard.
Their Lasting Claim
AND BABY MAKES...FOUR?
Pregnancy should be a joyous event, especially for former pastor's daughter Annie Bloom. She's found the love of her life with not one man, but two. Michigan and Easy, the two Death Lords Enforcers, have claimed Annie as their own. But not everything is simple in a relationship and happy ever after must be fought for.
When Annie’s father is released on bail and Annie’s estranged mother appears out of the blue, the threesome’s fragile bonds are tested. Annie, Easy, and Michigan will have to fight old dangers and new to keep their family from falling apart.
Chapter Twenty-One
Michigan
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Easy half shouts, half whispers. His hair is sticking up in a dozen different directions and he looks bleary eyed, like he spent half the night downing shots. But that tired, sated look comes from a long bout of fucking and not from a bottle.