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ChapterTwenty-Two
It wasn’t as muchof an adjustment having a man in our household as I thought it might be. Actually, it was safe to say that everyone liked Elden living in the house. He was handy with spiders, tight jars, getting things off high shelves, and he was a fucking great cook.
He cooked for us all.
Almost every night. Except the nights he was out on ‘club business’ and came home late.
Elden cooked for us because he was very concerned about me getting all the nutrients required to grow a healthy baby. And because dinner was the only meal I could keep down.
My morning sickness was one of themanythings he asked our doctor about at our first checkup. She’d reassured him that it was normal. I was normal. We’d heard the baby’s heartbeat. Elden had gone still and misty eyed.
I’d sobbed because of the misty eyes and the pregnancy hormones. They were a bitch.
I was tired all the time. School was killing me. I fell asleep at my desk many nights, but I always woke up in my bed. With Elden. Because he carried me there the second my head hit the book, maybe even before. I didn’t have solid evidence of this, but he was always sitting in the armchair in our room, staring at me over whatever book he was reading, as if waiting to catch me.
We didn’t exactly have a routine, but we had a … life. Our separate lives had intermingled to become one. We were a …couple. Although we weren’t using labels. I didn’t want labels. Just thinking about them made my stomach spin in a way that had nothing to do with morning sickness and everything to do with my dearly departed father.
My mother called constantly, asking how I was feeling, what I was craving. I made the mistake of telling her I was craving jalapeno potato chips, then a whole box of them was at our front door the next day.
Swiss spoke during those calls too. He asked about how I was feeling, how I was sleeping and told me he would threaten my professors with bodily injury if they tried to work me too hard.
He did not mention Elden.
So the fistfight was not some magical cure for man feuds, it seemed.
“Okay, is it bad that I just used my vibrator for like … thirty minutes after my hot boyfriend came and fucked me?” Sariah asked, slumping down on the sofa beside us.
I had been at class all day and had planned on going straight to work after, but Elden had ordered me onto the sofa for at least one hour of rest. I’d argued solely because he ordered me to do so, but then I’d relented because I was actually very tired.
And then Sariah slumped down and asked about the vibrator.
I was used to those kinds of questions. I probably wouldn’t have even registered it as unusual if we didn’t have a large, older, muscled biker living in a household of four girls. One, to his credit, who didn’t even raise his brow at Sariah or her question.
“It’s not bad at all, not on your end, at least,” I told her sincerely, happy that she was talking about sex openly and having sex again. She still got shadows behind her eyes sometimes, and I knew she was thinking of what happened to her, but those shadows passed quicker these days.
Despite what Elden had said about Colby, she had not mentioned the man or hinted that she had any kind of feelings for him. But her suddenly having a boyfriend when she’d previously been very against monogamy was suspect.
“I have a boyfriend. One who is hot, edgy, talented, plays a musical instrument and believes wholeheartedly in women’s rights, LGBT rights, civil rights … pretty much any rights that don’t pertain to rich, old, straight white men.” She winced, her eyes rushed to Elden as if she only just realized he was there. “Sorry, dude.”
At that, Elden’s brow raised a tad. “No apology necessary,” he replied. “I’m on your team, in your club, part of your collective … whatever won’t get me kicked out of here.”
I swallowed my smile at Elden exposing his neck to my tiny spitfire of a roommate, something I didn’t think even the baddest of the outlaws had been able to get him to do.
Sariah nodded as if that was good enough for her. “Actually, a man’s perspective might be quite valuable here.” She turned so her full attention was on Elden. “Okay, so as I said, I couldn’t have written myself a more amazing boyfriend. Andtechnically, he does all of the right things in the bedroom, you know? He’s obviously spent a lot of time learning the female anatomy, and most of the time, he lasts a decent amount of time.” She screwed up her nose. “Okay, the majority of the time he lasts about five minutes. Which is honestly fine because I last about five minutes too, at least sometimes.” She reached forward to the glass I had just set down on the coffee table.
After she took a sip, she made duck lips. “There’s no booze in this,” she complained.
I stared at her then at my stomach. It was still pretty flat. “I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, and it’s frowned upon to drink while pregnant,” she teased.
“In some circles, I gather,” I replied dryly, grinning at Elden.
Sariah got up and went to the fridge, taking out a bottle of wine, a glass clanging as she took it out of the cupboard.
It turned out she’d taken out two glasses when she set them on the coffee table, pulling the cork out with her teeth.
“Uh, babe, I’m serious about the no drinking thing,” I informed her.
