Page 61 of Serendipity

I clenched my jaw. No. It wasn’t. But I couldn’t fucking give her that power over me, could I? “I want to fuck you.”

She raised both her perfectly shaped eyebrows. “Oh? Like, right now?”

I reared back. “What? No.”

“So like, in the future when I’m not fat?”

Fuck. Shit. Had I offended her? Was she going to cry? I was fucking this shit up. “No. What?” I repeated like a goddamn idiot. “You are fucking beautiful. You know that. I’m sure those other pricks are telling you how damn beautiful you are a million times a day.”

She made a disgruntled noise and her eyes welled with tears. What the hell was with the crying women today? This is why I joined a goddamn MC because men didn’t fucking cry at the drop of a hat. “I’m pretty sure they are lying. I’m basically Free Willy right now. I haven’t seen my toes in like a month and the baby just keeps growing and I’m so scared and-”

I kissed her. Not like I normally kiss her, with hatred and anger. I just kissed her because I wanted to kiss her. No guilt. No punishment. But when she pressed her body against me, something in me cracked.

I wrenched away. “Don’t get an apartment,” I threatened, scowling. Then I strode away as fast as I could without running.

I didn’t look back.

26

SERENDIPITY

Lying on the couch in Marco’s room, I watched the former bodyguard like he was a documentary. He did everything with a clear efficiency of movement, whether it was cleaning up Cara’s toys or cleaning his gun. Right now, he was assembling a huge ass gun that I assumed was a sniper rifle given the scope that sat beside it. If the guys could see this thing, they’d freak the hell out. You’d have to be an idiot not to recognize the danger that Marco represented.

Sure, he was pretty fucking beautiful too, in a kind of broken way. Scarred body and soul, his dark chocolate eyes drew your gaze away from the pale stripes of skin that littered his golden skin. His body was tight and lithe, muscular in a way that said he was quick but strong. He wasn’t as big as the Horsemen, but he still made my mouth water.

That being said, Tom Selleck as Magnum PI made me hot under the collar the other day while I was watching reruns, so my lady bits weren’t all that picky right now.

But ever since Marco nursed my battered body back to health after Purgatory, after Hope had basically dropped me off at his door like an unwanted kitten, he’d had a little bit of my heart. Even when he disliked me, or at least pretended to. I had my theories about Marco, but you didn’t move into the middle of an Outlaw MC for someone you merely liked, right? No matter how much the kids loved me.

But he’d been here over a week and hadn’t made a move. Just what I needed, another guy who had the emotional range of a fucking rock. “Why are you assembling a rifle?” I asked. I shifted, trying to get comfortable. I’d been uncomfortable all day. Hell, I’d been uncomfortable all week, but it was worse today.

Got a job for the Mob taking care of a problem. No rush, but I’d like to get it out of the way.

Get some cash.

While I’d be recuperating, I’d devoured ASL course after ASL course so I could communicate with Marco. There were just some things that didn’t need to be translated by Sammie. Sign language had the best insults. Honestly. Even with all my study though, I wasn’t very good. I know Marco signed slow for both me and Sammie. I couldn’t imagine how frustrating it would be. So much of sign language was facial, and Marco only had two expressions most of the time. Neutral and pissed.

“Do you need money?” I could try harder to liquidate some of my shit now that Uriel was no longer a threat, and every angel and his dog seemed to know where I was. I wasn’t hiding any longer.

I was pointing my finger to the sky and saying, ‘Fuck you!”

No, not really. We have money, but Sammie and Cara’s is in a trust fund until they are older,and my employer kind of got murdered by a pissed off Angel in jail and I got two dependents in the

process, so it would just be better to have a little nest egg.

I nodded, but I could tell from his face he didn’t want me to offer what I wanted to offer. He wouldn’t take my money even if I had it. It would hurt his male pride. At least while they were here, they wouldn’t need anything. Damnation MC provided for those in its care, and at the beginning I’d been a lot like Marco. I didn’t want to take their charity, because then I’d owe them something. But I came to realize that many of the members felt like helping others somehow balanced out all the bad shit they did on the karmic scales. I think they were misguided to think that making me pancakes and blowing a dude's brains out were of similar karmic weight, but I wasn’t about to burst their collective bubble.

“Marco, why are you here?”

He stopped assembling his gun and put it on the table. I could see his jaw flex. He came closer until he was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch.

I wanted to see you. See you were okay with my own eyes. Then when I was sure you were okay,I couldn’t leave again. I couldn’t make myself walk away. Sammie says it's because I want to marryyou.He grinned fondly, and it transformed his face from scary to something that took my breath away.

“Is he right?”

Marco shrugged.I know I want to kiss you.

My breath caught in my throat as he knelt on the carpet beside the couch, leaning over me so he could kiss his way along my jaw. He reached the corner of my mouth and I turned my face so I could meet his full, soft lips. God, he had a mouth made for kissing. It was beautiful and perfect and I could have done it all day. But the front door slammed open and Sammie and Cara burst back in.

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