Claimed By The Devil (Devil's Riders 8)

“She’s going to have help with the stables too,” Nick said, throwing me a dark look. I knew he was angry that I hadn’t asked him for help initially. He had told me we were together now. I hadn’t really understood until I heard what he said to my mother. He meant together-together. For real. For life.

My mind was still reeling from that.

But I also felt my heart swell. Nick wanted to marry me. That was real. He wasn’t going to get bored and ditch me for someone more experienced. I hoped not, anyway.

Maybe I would be so bad at sex that he would run for the hills. Not that I could think about that. Not now. But my lack of sexual knowledge was making me feel massively insecure around him . . . along with everything else.

“Would you like something to eat? Nick brought a lot of good stuff from home. Or I could get you a tea?”

“No, thank you, sweetheart. I think I'll just get some sleep. I wish you would go home and sleep in your own bed.”

“You know I'm not going to leave you. Tomorrow will be soon enough. We'll all be home together tomorrow.”

I glanced at Nick, and he was giving me the most tender look I’d ever seen on his face. On anyone’s face, really. He hadn’t used the ‘L’ word, but that was what I felt when I saw that look. I loved him, without a doubt. I was pretty sure I always had. My ‘crush’ had been a lot more than I’d even realized all those years.

“Yes,” he said meaningfully. “We will.”

It hit me then. He really wasn't going to leave me alone during this. I wasn't going to have to go through this alone. I almost sagged from the relief of it.

“Why don’t you lie down?” he suggested. I nodded and sat on the cot the nurses had brought in for me. I’d been napping on it all week, but I never got more than an hour at a time. I didn’t expect to actually fall asleep, but the next thing I knew, I was blinking in the quiet darkness of early morning.

I saw Nick stretched out, his cowboy boots hanging off the edge of a chair. He wasn’t asleep, though. He was talking with my mom in a low voice. She was smiling happily, like she didn’t have a care in the world.

I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

Chapter Twenty

Suzanna

"Hurry. They'll be here soon!" I said, wiping down the stove with a mixture of vinegar and water. Not that the cute little farmhouse hadn’t been clean to start. It had been. You could tell that Melissa and her mom kept a good house. But we were going next-level. Deep cleaning everything, down to the bins in the refrigerator and behind the appliances. Everything in here was going to shine so brightly you could see your reflection in it. There were fresh flowers by the bed in Meg’s room in case she wanted to stay upstairs. Fresh flowers in the kitchen. The house was spotless and the kitchen was fully stocked.

Even the windows were sparkling.

“Everything is perfect. Stop worrying,” a rough voice said in my ear as two arms surrounded me from behind. I shivered at the sensation of his breath fanning the sensitive skin of my neck. His big, broad chest covered my back, instantly warming me. My husband knew how to turn me on. The effect was immediate. I had chills, goosebumps and hard nipples, just like that.

I turned in his arms and smiled up at Mac. He was so handsome it still made my heart skip a beat. Hs sensuous lips curled into a smile. It was still hard to believe some days that he wanted me.

But my goodness, he really did.

“You didn’t let me finish this morning. You’re going to pay for that,” he promised. I nearly gulped. My husband liked to have me for breakfast. But I hadn’t let him make me come more than once that morning. He was still pissed about it.

“Mac . . .” I said with a girlish giggle. He did that to me. Made me feel like a schoolgirl playing hooky with a bad boy. But even though he looked like trouble, he was as good as they came.

My husband was the best man I’d ever known. His brothers were like that, too. Good men with hearts of gold, no matter how rough around the edges they might look. Even if a couple of them were definitely wild before settling down.

“Hmm,” he moaned as he leaned forward to suck my bottom lip into his mouth. I whimpered as he stroked my lips with his tongue before practically inhaling my mouth in a definitely not PG13 kind of kiss.

“Want to get started on number two tonight?” he said in that growly voice that always made my whole body light up. I bit my lip and nodded. We had been talking about this since the birth of our first child. Should we wait or have two close together? Not that there was any guarantee we would get pregnant right away. But Lord knows, we would have a lot of fun trying.