Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
My eyes begin to sting, and my bottom lip trembles.
He cups my face, and I sniff. “It would have changed nothing, sweetheart,” he whispers. “I loved you then. I love you now. You’ve always been it for me, Ashtyn.”
My eyes close, and the first tear falls. I feel his lips on mine tenderly kissing me. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned off and go to bed.”
His hands fall to the hem of the scrubs I wear, and I lift my one good arm. My silent request for him to undress me. I spent four days with a man who whipped and raped me. Right now, I need a man who loves me. And I know Saint is that.
He lifts it up over my head, being extra careful with my shoulder before tossing it to the side and lowering my bottoms. He helps me step out of them. I stand naked in front of him, and he runs his tatted knuckles down my heaving chest. His thumb slowly and softly follows the welts and cuts from Benny’s belt.
Looking down, I see whore written on my skin, and my breath comes quicker. Saint places his fingers under my chin, forcing my head up. “Eyes on me, sweetheart.” He tries to distract me. “How’s your shoulder?”
“Fine.” It hurts since the pain pills have long worn off, but it’s bearable. I’m tired of feeling foggy.
He turns and opens the glass door to the shower and turns it on. Then he offers me his hand to help me in. I wait under the warm sprayer as he gets undressed to join me.
SIXTY-FIVE
SAINT
I enter the shower, and her eyes sweep over my body. I haven’t been naked around her since she’s been back. She’s been naked, but I’ve always just unzipped my jeans to fuck her.
Her watery eyes meet mine and then drop to my chest again. I vow. You vow. We vow. is written across my chest. Our vows that we took at the ritual and then again when we got married.
She runs the tips of her fingers over it and then across my scar where she shot me. Her eyes meet mine, and I cup her face. Her fingers trail over my Lords crest and then to the opposite pec to the 666 branding.
“When did you get this?” she asks.
“After you left.” It was part of our training. We were branded as we brand our prisoners. My eyes drop to look over her body, and I hate to see the words that Benny wrote on her. I know they’ll fade over time and eventually disappear, but the memories of what happened while he had her won’t.
“Saint?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?” I ask while I run my fingers over her 666 brand.
“Am I pregnant?”
My finger pauses at her question, and I lift my eyes to meet her watery ones. “No,” I say honestly. That was one of the tests that Devin ran after I pulled her out of the car.
“Was Benny telling the truth?” she whispers. “Did you remove my birth control?”
“I did,” I answer honestly. After she was out, Devin removed her IUD. It was another reason as to why I kept her on pain meds for the first few days. If she was numb, she wouldn’t think clearly. The Ashtyn I dragged back here is not the Ashtyn I wanted to love me. I didn’t care if she loved me. Now that’s all I want from this woman.
She licks her lips and sniffs.
“I’m sorry, Ash,” I whisper. “I…I didn’t know.” I thought she left because Laura had gotten to her. I didn’t know she found out what Benny did to her in her kitchen. And I sure as fuck didn’t think that she could have been pregnant from him. The thought never crossed my mind.
She looks up at me through her watery lashes as the water hits us. “So we can have a baby?” She asks softly as if she thought I might have taken that chance away from her.
All I ever wanted with this woman was a family. “Whenever you’re ready…”
She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me down to her. My lips meet hers, and she opens up for me. I push my hands into her long dark hair, gently tugging her head back, and she moans into my mouth.
My hands fall to her thighs, and I grab them, lifting her, and she wraps her legs around my hips. She pulls her lips away from mine, and I rest my forehead on hers. “If it gets too much, let me know, okay?” Her body has been through so much the last four days, but I’m not going to turn my wife down. If she needs me, I’m going to be there for her. However I can be. I won’t ever let her think that I can’t be the man she needs.
She nods, licking her wet lips. “Okay.”
Reaching between our bodies, I grab my hard dick and slowly slide into my wife. Her breath catches and eyes grow heavy when I start to move.
“Eyes on me, sweetheart,” I order. I want her here with me in this moment. Not fading away, falling somewhere else. I grip her hips, pushing her back into the cool marble wall and lower my lips to hers as I remind my wife that she belongs to me, and I to her.
EPILOGUE ONE
SAINT
I’m standing outside of the two operating rooms. Both currently occupied with women. My wife is in one of them. I would offer to help, but I figured between her and Sin, they have it covered.
A shrill baby cry hits my ears, and I smile. One down. One to go.
A few minutes later, the door to my left swings open, and a good friend and fellow Lord exits with a proud smile on his face. “It’s a boy.”
“Congratulations, man.” I pull him in for a hug, slapping his back and then he rushes into the room on the right.
I remain where I’m at until I hear the other baby crying.
My wife exits the room from the right seconds later, and she’s smiling ear to ear. “It’s a girl.” Then she rushes back into the room that Sin had left.
They wanted the babies to have the same birthday. They figured it’d be easier on the kids. They are already going to have a crazy life living under the Lords, why make it harder on them?
I push off the wall and remove my cell from my pocket and dial up a number I’ve got saved but never called.
He picks up on the first ring, not knowing it’s me. “Hello?” He sounds apprehensive answering a number he doesn’t have saved in his phone. I don’t blame him. He keeps his circle very small because, to the world, who he once was no longer exists.
“You know you’re welcome here, right?” I say in greeting.
He laughs, knowing exactly who I am by the sound of my voice. “Yeah, I was supposed to be there, but I’ve been on vacation, and my flight got delayed in Chicago.”
I snort. “Should have told me. I would have sent the jet,” I say although I know he has his own. Or he did. Technically now, it’s his daughter and son-in-law’s on paper.
“Flying commercial keeps me humble,” he jokes. “Reminds me where I came from.” He laughs at his own words because we both know he never flew commercial in his life before now.
I step into an empty hospital room and walk over to the window that overlooks the courtyard. It’s so pretty. Green grass, blooming flowers of various colors. During the holidays, the bridge gets decorated with lights and garland. The wives got a hold of it and said it needed some life. Funny, considering this is where people come to die. That’ll never change.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” I ask, unable to stop myself. Not sure when I’ll get this opportunity again.
He goes silent for a second. “Would you have believed me?”
“No,” I say honestly. You wouldn’t believe some of the shit the people come up with that are brought in. They will say anything when they know they’re going to die. “But you could have tried.”
He sighs. “When your fathers were killed, so was my chance at freedom. But I never expected that to happen anyway.”
“But we took over,” I say through gritted teeth. He’s just as stubborn as his son-in-law. Our fathers were crooked as fuck. They did things that even the Lords would not have approved of.
“You guys spent months in Carnage as one of us.” He pauses. “Then after they decided you were ready, you were only focused on one thing…” He trails off, and I know exactly what he’s talking about. My wife. “So I kept a low profile and just survived.”
I run a hand down my face.
“But I can’t thank you enough. You gave me my life back. Now I’ve got a daughter, a son, and grandkids.” I can hear the smile in his voice.