Page 22 of Laying it Bare Biker Style: Ryder

And the tears I had been holding atbay began to flow down my cheeks. Relief rushed over me, but stilla healthy dose of anxiety swirled in my stomach. Was I going to beable to do this? Not only physically but mentally? I was carrying amonster’s baby, but at least he hadn’t given me anything else otherthan his sperm. I had to shove those thoughts aside or I’d end uptossing up the little bit of the protein bar Ryder had givenme.

“I’ll give you a fewminutes and then I’ll get a urine sample from you and then do yourexam and then you can get out of here.”

Ryder stood and pulled me off of thetable and into his arms. “Hey, one out of two ain’tbad.”

“It’s two out of threeain’t bad.” I sniffled into his shirt.

“Only if you’re Meat Loaf.See you’re going to be fine. Like I said, you’re not alone, butyou’re a fighter and you are going to be alright. We’ve gotthis.”

“Well if it had to be one,I think I can handle the pregnant part. Although I’m sure to havesome meltdowns. But the other would have beendevastating.”

“You have a job and a placeto stay. We’ll figure things out.” I don’t think he realized hekept sayingwe.Although I guess it was kinda a ‘we’ situation since I was stayingwith him. But my definition of we and his differedgreatly.

When Dr. Michaels returned she askedme some basic questions about my overall health and answered a slewof my questions. After the exam, she gave me some papers withinstructions and pertinent information and a sample of prenatalvitamins. Since I knew the date of my last period she was able togive me a due date of June fifteenth. Then she scheduled me for mynext appointment.

Figuring there wouldn’t be the samepeople in the waiting room as when we had arrived so they wouldn’trealize that we hadn’t come through the entrance, I wanted topretend to be somewhat normal so I had Ryder take me out the frontdoor.

After hopping onto his bike, he droveus to Twisted Eats so I could grab some food.

“I feel bad having you takeme to breakfast. You just ate.”

“Never feel bad for mehaving to eat, Sweetheart. I’ll use any reasoning. And actually Imay really like this pregnancy thing since you might be eating morefrequently and that means I’ll have an excuse to do so too.”Wrapping his arm around my shoulder to guide me into therestaurant, he gave me a little squeeze.

I gazed up at him briefly and caughthis teasing smile. “Thank you for that. It’s going to be difficultto push away what happened to me now. I have a constant reminder.”I gently rubbed my hand over my still flat stomach.

“We’ll get through this.”He gave me another squeeze as we stepped inside therestaurant.

An attractive brunette greeted us.“Welcome to Twisted Eats. It’s nice to see you again, Ryder. Andwho is this beautiful girl?” She waved for us to followher.

“This is Sage. She’s withme.”

“Lucky girl.” Seating us ina booth in the far corner, she handed us our menus. “I’ll be backshortly to take your orders.”

Part of me wanted to knowif he had slept with her, but even so it would have been before meand I wasn’t reallywithhim. But jealously was a fickle thing.

“You decide who you want totell and when and where. The news won’t remain a secret for long inthe club, but that’s okay. It will mean even more protection foryou.” Ryder’s question brought me out of my dishearteningthoughts.

But tossed me into equally dauntingones. I didn’t want to lie to my new friends. But if Ryder wasgoing to treat this baby like his and wanted us to address it thisway, who was I to argue? He was the one who had suggested it.Although he really hadn’t had time to actually digest this news andwhat exactly it would mean for us. Maybe his protective naturekicked in and his gut instinct was to claim the baby as his and hereally didn’t give his brain and heart the time to consider this. Iknow I barely had my head wrapped around things and I had beenfretting over this for longer than just a few hours. But it hadonly been a possibility before and now it had completely blown up.Although for now, I’d just continue to roll with things until Icame up with a better plan. And he hadn’t given any indication thathe was ready to dump my ass out into the street. Quite the oppositeactually since he always made sure I was with him when I wasn’tworking or with Angel and Misti if he had club business. Andspending time with me didn’t appear to be a hardship. So he waseither at work, with me, or at the club and I was there with him soit was highly unlikely he was fucking anyone. Unless he slipped outduring the night, but that was next to impossible. But for all ofhis caring for me, he kept me at arm’s length. “Give me a coupleweeks to wrap my head around this and then I’ll share with Mistiand Angel and you can tell Grayson or we can tell him together tomake it more believable. Unless you had wanted to confide in himthe truth. I would be okay with that. You trust him to do what’sbest.”

“As far as anyone willknow, the baby you’re carrying is mine. That includes my closestbrothers. That keeps everyone safer.”

“Okay. I trust you. Andwhen I think about it, that makes sense.”

After we ate – and I convinced Ryderthat a child’s portion would be perfect since I was still a littleworked up over the morning’s discoveries and I didn’t want to vomitduring our ride and could always stop and get something a littlelater and then he could eat again, which made him laugh – weclimbed on his bike and headed up the coast. We took short breaksand would lounge along the sandy beach area and soak in thesunshine and ocean air before taking off again. A couple hours in,we stopped at a beach side eatery and I grabbed a fruit parfait andhe ordered a cheeseburger. Then we hit the coast again only thistime we rode in the direction of home. Around supper time, wefinally pulled into his garage.

When we walked into the kitchen,Grayson stood at the bar holding a bag of chips. He tossed a fewinto his mouth and crunched.

“What do you two want to dofor supper? Then I’m heading out to the bar with Gage. You two wantto come too? I’m going in search of pussy, but Ryder you can go forthe engaging conversation.” Grayson shot Ryder a cockygrin.

“Actually, if I’m sittingthere with you guys, the other girls will be too intimidated tostop over because one look at me and they’ll know they can’tcompete.” I tried to joke and make light of being a burden toRyder. “But you guys could go and I could hang out at home andwatch some movies. Have one of the Prospects keep watch over thehouse. I have a phone now.”

“Now that I know we’re notprotecting you from a Pyro but a Brutal, I don’t feel comfortableleaving you with a Prospect. Even with our alarm system, I don’tlike that there wouldn’t be anyone else around. I don’t need to goout. I was on the bike a huge part of the day so I don’t reallyfeel like going out.”

A shudder tore up my spine at thereminder of my assault and the resulting consequences.

Grayson raised his brow at Ryder andgave him a funny look.

Not wanting to read anything more intothat, I answered his first question. “Do you guys have anythinghere I could make for dinner? I had told you I would help out bycooking. I’ve only done that a few times so far.” Stepping fartherinto the kitchen, I opened the freezer and pulled out a packet ofchicken breasts. “I’ve got dinner covered. I’m sure there’ssomething I can make for sides.” I shooed them out and then busiedmyself with preparing food.

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