Page 17 of Riding Rough

I’m shocked he’s asking. “I do. I have for—”

“Okay. Just answer the questions.”

I nod.

“What are your intentions?”

I don’t think Amber and I have talked about intentions. I glance toward her. “If she’ll let me, I planned to marry her, have children, and be a family.”

Amber’s eyes light and she rushes toward me, burying her face in my chest before lifting up onto her toes for a kiss. She tastes like us. We smell like sex. Panic and excitement roll through me like a riptide. It’s one thing for Diesel to think his daughter is in this dirty shop fucking me, but to know it, to smell it on her, would be a different experience.

It’s a line I don’t want to cross again. I take a step back, holding Amber at my side.

Diesel huffs. “The guys are up at the house. Let’s have this meeting. We need to decide what we’re doing with the lodge. We need it done by November and we’ve got a fucking mess with materials.”

“Daddy… what about Kane and I?”

Diesel looks away, scrubbing his hand over his beard before looking back again. “I don’t own either of you, Amber. I love you and if I’m honest, I know this asshole won’t hurt you like Jed did. I’m so fucking sorry you had to go through that, princess.”

My chest tightens and my shoulders relax. I’m not a hundred percent sure who the man standing in front of me is, but I’ll take it.

Amber jumps into the air twice, clapping her hands before she reaches out to hug her father. I want to hold her back, but she moves fast, and soon she’s in his arms and I’m holding my breath that he can’t smell us on her.

He glares up at me, disgusted. “Don’t make me fucking sorry for trusting you. You hurt her even once, and I’ll kill you… slowly.”

I nod and Amber takes her place at my side. “I’d kill myself if I ever hurt her.”

I hear him grumble something under his breath as he walks up the worn path toward the cabin.

Amber turns toward me with a wide grin on her face. “What just happened?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I’m a little terrified to go up there, though.”

She pushes my shoulder playfully. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see. I was thinking maybe we should set him up with someone. He needs the distraction.”

“You know I love your dad, but I can’t imagine the woman who could manage him.”

Amber laughs. “I know. He’s pretty rough, isn’t he? Maybe we need to find some really tough woman. Someone who can be his old lady and keep him in line.”

“Or… we let him do his thing and we be happy that he’s not on us for a minute.”

She smiles and leans into my chest as though she’s never letting go, and that’s all I need.

Epilogue

Amber

Six Months Later

Kane pulls over on the side of the road and picks a handful of wildflowers, carrying them back to me with a smile. This is probably the last ride I’ll get on his bike for a while. For one, my belly is expanding quickly. Second, it makes him nervous about me being pregnant while I ride. He’s been trying to talk me out of it for months, but I love everything about our rides together.

The way my arms wrap around his waist. The way his hand lands on my leg as he drives. The way I fit behind his enormous frame and the wind tunnels around me. I’ll miss it, but I suppose the reward is worth the wait.

In four months, I’ll be holding our baby boy in my arms. Colton Kane Dawson. We’ve gone back and forth on names for a while now, but Colton is a family name from Kane’s side, and I think it’s fitting for the mountain biker he’ll inevitably be. I laugh to myself. Knowing this MC, he’ll end up with a name like Viper or Machete, anyway.

“Have you heard from Bella since last night?”

I shake my head. “No. Daddy said he was going to check on her, though. She has a shift at Rugged Mountain Ink tonight. He was hoping to get her alone and find out what happened between her and her father. I got really nervous when she quit the ice cream shop for the tattoo job at Rugged Mountain Ink. Henry and the guys are letting her apprentice, but it seems like an extreme shift for her.”

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