“No more clubhouse?” I asked.
“Can’t promise you that, sweetness. I’m the club’s enforcer, there will be plenty of times I have to be there. It’s my fucking job to be around. My nights, unless I’m working, will be wherever you are, if you’ll have me.”
“So, you’ll be in my bed every night, unless the club needs you?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“What do you want?” I asked him, needing to be sure that he truly wanted to be here with me in this house he bought, so that I could feel like I had a home no one could take from me again. I dipped my head down, to hide behind the curtain of my hair as my eyes began to water.
Technically, I could have purchased my own home with the money my father had given me, but for some reason, it felt tainted. The money felt like Jeremy had tried to buy me off after what his family did, and even though I knew in my heart that wasn’t true, I couldn’t get my brain to believe me. Having Breakneck give me a house was an entirely different story, but it would only mean something special if he bought it with the intent of being here by my side.
“I want to be where you are – always. No fucking around. No lies. You, me, and whatever we build together. There are things I won’t be able to tell you that are club business, but that will never involve me being with another woman. That shit will never happen again unless you are the one to drag one into our bedroom because it’s somethingyouwant.”
“If that’s what you’re hoping for-” I started to say, but he cut me off.
“It’s not. If it’s somethingyou wanted, you have to understand that I have boundaries now, too. Yours is the only pussy I’ll ever be inside of again. I’m just saying, besides my boundaries, you are the one in control here. It might be me tossing your beautiful ass around in the bedroom, but you are in charge of the big things, sweetness.”
“You’re giving up a lot by doing that.”
He shook his head. “Nah. Finally got my head on straight where that’s concerned.” He glanced toward the house across the street. “Always envied what they had. It’s nothing like the shitshow I grew up in with my parents. Damn shame those two could never have children because they’re the ones who would make perfect parents. Prime example of what being in love with someone is, right there, across the street.”
“Is that why you chose this house? So, there’s a reminder of what a good relationship looks like?” I asked him. His eyes stayed trained on the house a minute longer before shifting to meet mine.
“They are a good reminder, but I bought the house because they’re good people, and if I’m working, you’ll have someone else close by. You and Viv can help one another. Viv has my permission to tell you anything she sees or hears about what goes down at the clubhouse when you’re not around.”
“You’re telling me our next-door neighbor is my own personal spy?” I laughed at the insanity of it as Breakneck nodded his head.
“If that’s what you need, until you can fully trust me again, then yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“What about Kip and Knoxville?”
“Kip is going to bring Knox to you when he goes to work and pick him up on his way home. There’s a room here perfect for Knox for now, and maybe one day it can be a nursery for our kids, too.”
I gasped in shock at him mentioning having kids with me. He had mentioned it before, but I’d always thought he enjoyed the fantasy of getting me pregnant more than the actual desire to build a family. “You want kids?”
“Never did before, but I’ve been fantasizing about knocking you up, watching your belly grow full with my baby, since I first saw you holding Knoxville like he was the most precious thing in the world. Took me a while to realize that my priorities were changing, and it wasn’t just a weird kink I was developing.”
I laughed and smacked the idiot on the chest playfully. “I can’t believe you thought getting me pregnant was a new kink.”
He shrugged those broad shoulders of his and grinned at me. “It’s a fetish for some people.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I think if it’s a fetish, then you can picture anyone in that position, and it gets you off. Is that how it is for you?”
“No,” he shook his head to emphasize the point. “You are the only one I want to see knocked up with my kid.”
“Well, we can’t have kids and start a family if you’re not living here with me. That wouldn’t be the right way to bring them up.” I grinned as my head tipped back and our eyes met again. “Not that I want them right away, but we have to do all that practicing, and it’ll be easier if you’re around for that.”
“Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“Then I guess the only thing left to do, besides move in, is get you inked with my name, so everyone knows who you belong to,” I teased. It was me who was supposed to be inked with his name, but so far I had refused while I waited for him to prove himself to me.
Breakneck pulled his cut off and handed it over. That in itself was a sign of trust and faith in me on his part. He took his club seriously and wouldn’t just put his cut in anyone’s hands. Then he reached back and snatched his shirt off in one swift movement that I was envious of.
When it was off, he turned to face me so that our bodies were parallel to one another, and he held his arms out to his side. When he turned his body, so the uninked side was facing me, I gasped once more. There was fresh ink covering the whole of his upper arm from shoulder to elbow. It was an image of the night sky and the stars twinkling in it.
Breakneck skimmed his fingers across some of the brighter stars. “Scorpio,” he muttered, then traced where it connected to another constellation, “Pisces.” I moved closer to look at it. Above the stars forming the two constellations that represented us, there were random stars that formed the word ‘Sweetness’. That was what he had called me from the beginning when no one was around to hear him, and lately he didn’t seem to care who heard it. Now, he had it tattooed on his arm, on the side of his body that had previously been a blank canvas.
“You… This is… You inked the blank side,” I finally got out.