“Got it, asshole. I’ll see you then. Can’t wait to see you, brother.”
“You too, Latch. You too.”
I hang up the phone, smiling and staring at my cell for a few minutes.
“Latch is home?”
“Yeah, he wanted to come by and talk with us and spend some time.”
“Sabre—”
“I told him we’d be at the pig roast, so he’s going to come by there instead. It’ll be good to see him.”
“Oh God,” Annie whimpers, her words muffled as she caps her hand over her mouth and sprints from the bed to the bathroom. I stare after her, frowning because she’s staying so sick. I need to talk to her doctor soon.
Annie can’t keep going on like this.
I get up and follow her to the bathroom, getting a cool cloth for her to wipe her face with. I’ve been looking forward to our beautiful little girl… I just hope she starts taking it easy on her momma.
Torch
“You okay, Sweetness?”
“Leg hurt last night and kept me awake.”
“Shit, I didn’t know,” I growl, angry with myself. I don’t like when she has to handle the pain on her own.
“That’s because you were snoring and dead to the world,” she laughs. “I’m just tired, but I promise it’s fine now. Damn thing just has to give me trouble sometimes,” she mutters.
My girl hates to show weakness of any kind. She doesn’t get that she’s fucking stronger than any man I know—myself included.
“Why don’t you sleep in? I’ll wake up B.B. and Ezzie and take them with me to the club. I can get Mattah to watch them at the club while I help the others get the pig going,” I tell her, mentioning the cook at the club that Katie and Beth both adore.
“How did I get so lucky?” she asks, her face going soft. I lean down, putting a knee to the bed and gathering her thick hair in my hand, tilting her face so I can get in close and still drink in her eyes.
“I think I’m the lucky one, Katydid.”
“Still don’t like being compared to a bug, Hunter,” she murmurs, her voice laced with a warning.
It makes me grin. Then again, I’ve always been kind of an asshole who likes to push Katie to the edge—in all things. Luckily for me, she likes that shit and gives as good as she gets.
“You can punish me for it later,” I tell her with a wink.
“You do realize you have this punishment thing backwards, right?”
“I do?” I ask her, feigning innocence.
“Me punishing you isn’t supposed to be about you spanking my ass and then coming over it to soothe the burn,” she mutters, replaying exactly what happened last night with her words.
“But, it was so much fun,” I murmur against her lips. “Didn’t you have fun, Sweetness?” I ask, letting my tongue slide along her bottom one, teasing her, but not taking her mouth… not yet.
“It was fun, you lunatic,” she mutters, her hands coming up to rest on my shoulders, her fingers, sifting through my hair.
“You know I love you, Katie?” I ask her suddenly. Katie’s over her past. It doesn’t seem to bother her anymore and her nightmares have stopped. Still, sometimes, I think I see shadows in her eyes. I fucking hate those shadows. I want them gone. I want my woman breathing free and easy and doing all of that while happy.
“I know, Hunter,” she says quietly. She tilts up higher to press her lips to mine and I take her kiss, letting my tongue slide into her mouth and claim her, losing myself in my woman—just like I always do.
“Fucking-A woman, you give the best kisses.”
Her soft, satisfied smile moves to a grin that makes her eyes light up.
“It’s all about the practice,” she responds.
“Is that a fact?”
I can’t pull away from her. I’m lost in the way her eyes are glittering with happiness, in the tender smile she’s giving me and just the feel of having her in my arms. I loved Katie from the beginning, now what I feel can’t be summed up by the word love. Katie is everything to me.
Abso-fucking-lutely everything.
“How about you tell Skull you can’t come over to help set up, crawl back in bed with me and let me practice on you some more?” she asks, her voice hungry. Fuck, if I don’t love it when my Katie gets needy.
“I have to go in,” I mutter with a sigh.
“I understand,” she says, trying to hide her disappointment.
“Although, I could go in an hour or so late,” I compromise, figuring it will be worth Skull’s ass-chewing.
“Just an hour?” she murmurs.
“I said, or so,” I grin as she reaches down, hooks her fingers in my t-shirt and pulls it over my head.
“Then you better get busy, Bartholomew,” she growls, daring me.
“I showed you last night what happens when you call me that,” I fake snarl, taking her hands and holding them above her head, leaning over her body.