9
lstared out of the screen that surrounded the back porch, lost in my own thoughts. Ever since Quinn had brought up my pregnancy, I had been distant. I had buried the pain of my miscarriage for so long now that I didn’t know how to bury it back down again.
Since Damien had found out that I had once carried his kid, he had been distant, too, barely speaking to me except to tell me that he and Miles were leaving for a few hours to go take care of some things.
I heard the screen door to the house open, and a moment later, Quinn took a seat beside me on the porch swing. He put an arm around my shoulder as he released a soft sigh. I leaned into him. Quinn had been a comfort, too, while Damien had been locked up.
“I’m sorry for blurting that out earlier,” he quietly apologized. “I honestly thought that Damien would have known by now.”
I blew out a long, harsh breath, shrugging my shoulders. “It’s whatever,” I grumbled.
Quinn sighed again and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, I heard the front door open, and Damien’s voice filtered through the screen door. “Thanks, man. We’ll head your way as soon as possible. We’ll be there in a few hours.”
I looked up at Damien as he stepped onto the back porch. “Leave us,” he instructed Quinn.
With a nod and a small encouraging smile directed in my direction, Quinn got up and went inside, leaving me alone with Damien.
“Have you been out here since I left?” Damien softly inquired as he took a seat beside me.
I nodded, looking down at my lap. It was silent between us as we sat there. Finally, Damien spoke up again, breaking the tension-filled air between us.
“I’m sorry for ignoring you most of the day,” Damien quietly apologized. I swung my wide, shocked eyes to him. ‘Sorry’ wasn’t a word that was considered part of Damien’s vocabulary. “The news of you being pregnant, and then losing that baby because of me, was like a few damn good punches to the stomach.” He swallowed hard. “I felt sick, and I couldn’t look at you while knowing what I had caused,” he confessed.
I swallowed hard, casting my eyes back to my lap where I linked my fingers together to stop them from trembling. “It’s in the past,” I softly reminded Damien.
I saw Damien shake his head out of the corner of my eye. “It may be in the past, Hayley, but that doesn’t change what the hell I did to you. I ruined you, darlin’. I hadn’t realized how much I had done to you until Miles explained it all to me.”
I blew out a soft breath, finally lifting my eyes to look at him. “There’s nothing we can do to change what happened,” I admitted.
Damien shook his head, agreeing with me. “No, there’s not,” he agreed. “But I can make sure I do everything right this time around,” he told me, making my heart swell with love for him—love that I had never stopped giving him, even while he had been away.
He slowly reached his hand up to gently run his thumb over my cheekbone before he slowly leaned in, pressing his lips to mine. I gasped softly, and Damien took that opportunity to slide his tongue against mine so sensually and erotically that a loud moan broke from the back of my throat as I pressed myself further against him.
Damien released a soft groan and wrapped his arm around my waist, tugging me up against him so that my chest pressed against his in the most enticing way.
When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing heavily, and I had no doubt in my mind that had my thigh not been injured, Damien and I would have definitely taken this to the bedroom.
Four years later and this man was still capable of making me lose all my senses around him.
Damien tappedhis fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of a rap song playing low in his car. I sighed as I stared at the trees as they passed by. “Where exactly are we headed?” I asked him after riding in silence for a while.
Damien blew out a breath. “To Hell’s Mayhem,” he told me. I arched an eyebrow at him. “More protection for you while I try to deal with this Mark problem.”
I leaned my head back against the seat. I hadn’t seen any member of Hell’s Mayhem since Damien had been arrested four years ago. I knew that back then, they had been one of Damien’s main alliances, and I wasn’t all that shocked to see that nothing had changed.
Damien always had a way of getting and keeping loyalty.
A few hours later, we pulled up to the familiar clubhouse. The usual bikes were lined up outside of the building, and I could hear laughter ringing from inside as Damien shut off the car. He shook his head, a wry smirk twisting his lips. “They never change, do they?” he muttered more to himself than anyone else.
He pushed his door open and got out, striding around to my side of the car to carry me inside. I took in everything around me as Damien carried me into the building, Miles hot on his heels. When Damien sat me in a chair, my eyes took in the people around me, finally settling on the president—Walker.
Walker looked up from his beer, a grin stretching across his face as he crossed the room with his VP, Lucas. Damien and Walker did that weird guy hand thing, pulling each other into a one-armed hug, slapping each other on the back.
“Good to see you out of prison, man,” Walker commented with a slight laugh.
“It’s good to be out,” Damien admitted. “Thanks for allowing me to bring her here while I try to figure this shit out.”
Walker looked over at me, arching an eyebrow. “Surprised to see you back around, girly,” Walker said. “Ain’t even gonna lie, I figured you would have run for the hills the moment you had the chance.”