Page 64 of Steel

As exhausted as I am, and as bad as I want inside my Hummingbird, there’s no way in hell I’m going to cut her ride short. She’s been wanting this for as long as I can remember. This wasn’t something we did in the past because when a woman gets on the bike of your bike, it means something. Hell, in all the years I was with Heather, her ass never touched the seat on this thing. It was something she fucking hated too, but I wasn’t going to have someone at my back that I didn’t plan on being there for the long haul.

I may not be clear about having Bailee in the same place as my daughter yet, but I know she’s the only one I want on the back of my bike for the foreseeable future.

My stomach rumbles with hunger, so I swing us into the drive-thru of the restaurant closest to my house, passing the food off to her to hold until I make it to the house.

Bailee jumps off the bike before I can give her a warning about jelly legs, and as much as I shouldn’t chuckle when she wobbles and almost goes down, I’m unable to hold it in.

She smacks me in the shoulder with a chuckle and then hangs her helmet off the handlebar. “Asshole. You could’ve been a gentleman and at least tried to catch me.”

Climbing off, I stand in front of her and grasp her chin in my hand. “We both know I ain’t no gentleman, baby.” Her plump bottom lip calls my name, and I glide my finger over it. “Once I finish eatin’ my breakfast, goin’ to eat you for dessert and show you just how much ofnota gentleman I am.”

Her eyes heat, and she smiles wickedly before grabbing my hand. “Well, hell. Come on then, bossman. Let’s get this food in your belly so I can get your face between my legs.”

“Hold on to that food tight, Hummingbird. You drop it, the only thing I’ll be eatin’ is something out of my fridge,” I order, stuffing my shoulder into her stomach and tossing her over it.

I smack her ass when she tries to wiggle free and then shove my hand between her thighs to cup around the heat in her jeans. She stills, letting out a moan, and I chuckle as I carry us to my door.

It takes a juggling act, but I eventually get the door unlocked and us inside and into the kitchen before I drop her onto one of the barstools. She starts unloading the bags while I grab drinks from the fridge.

“Beer, soda, or water? All I got.”

“Beer.”

I swipe two bottles from the top shelf and smack the door shut with my hip, striding back over to her. Twisting the cap off hers, I set it in front of her then do the same for my own, taking a seat next to her.

Bailee angles her body toward me, but for the first few minutes, we eat in peaceful quiet.

“What happened, Jericho?” she asks quietly, her hand settling on my thigh.

My muscles bunch under her palm, and she starts to remove it, believing it was her touch that’s unwanted when the truth is I ain’t used to having someone give a shit outside of my parents and it continues to fuck me up. Got my club brothers, but that’s a different kind of loyalty, love, and care than you get from someone caring because theycare.

And damned if that isn’t fucking scary as hell.

“Lost a brother tonight,” I tell her, my voice as empty as the bottle of beer I just finished.

I get up to grab another, but she shoves me back in my seat.

“Let me get it.” She sits in front of me after grabbing it and settles her hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry, bossman. I know those words don’t help, and I know they’ll never make up for that loss, but I’m still sorry you’re having to feel it, nonetheless. I’mnot going to make you talk about it, but I’m here if you ever want to, yeah?”

Her hands squeeze my shoulders, and her lips brush against the top of my head before she scoots back around to take her place on the stool beside me.

We continue to eat in silence for a few minutes longer, but the softness and warmth she just gave to me fucks with my insides so bad that I can’t help but want to open up to her. I can’t help but want to flay myself open, bleed this pain from my veins, and trust that she’ll be there to wipe up behind me when I’ve eradicated it from my system.

“He always wanted to be a dad.” I can feel her eyes on me, but I keep mine averted and on the label I’m peeling from my bottle. “Was this goddamn clown, always makin’ people laugh, always needin’ to make people smile. He’d cut you into a million pieces you fucked with people he cared about, but that silly motherfucker dreamed of nothing more than being a father. Countin’ the days ‘til he found someone to love his brand of fucked-up so he could love ‘em back and make babies.” The quiet chuckle I release is full of sadness. “‘Til then, he was content dotin’ on all the club ones.” I glance over at her and find tears rolling down her cheeks. Reaching over, I wipe them from her face. “Always told me to do what I had to do to make my little girl happy. That nothing else mattered more than her happiness. It’s not hard makin’ my daughter happy.”

“Unless it makes you unhappy,” she whispers.

I shrug, looking away so she can’t see anything in my eyes I ain’t ready for her to see. “Sometimes that’s the price we pay as a parent.”

Bailee reaches over to grab hold of my beard and tugs my face around then releases me. “You’re a great dad, Jericho. I don’t know if you hear that often enough, but I wanted to tell youanyway. I may not have ever seen you two together, but I know you and I’ve witnessed the lengths you go to for your daughter.”

Fucking woman.

Wrapping my hand around the warm skin at the back of her neck, I pull her until our faces are smooshed together and we’re fucking each other with our tongues. Keeping our mouths connected, I clamber to my feet as she twists her body toward me and spreads her thighs so I can step between them. Bailee slides her hands under my clothes until they’re splayed against the skin of my back, then she hooks one leg around mine, scooting to the end of the stool and bringing her pussy snug against the bulge in my jeans.

She moans, digging her nails in and undulating her hips to create friction between us.

Dark desire beats at the base of my spine as the smell of her arousal fills the air around us.

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