After Us (Next Generation Book 6) Page 4

  “When Brynn goes to bed, we can…we can continue,” Piper suggested softly.

  I responded by placing a peck on her nose but we both knew that we needed to wait. Didn’t we? Wouldn’t it be too soon to jump right back into bed when that started our problem in the first place?

  Piper pushed out of my hold, but she didn’t get very far. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back against me.

  “We can’t do this here.” But she didn’t push away from me again.

  “If you’re worried about me fucking you in front of our daughter, I won’t. I don’t mind the kinky shit but that’s too far. Even for me.”

  A breathless laugh escaped her. “What kind of kinky shit are you into, Jaron?” she asked, turning in my arms and placing her hands against my chest.

  I covered them and brought them up to my mouth, kissing her knuckles. “Shit we’ll eventually explore but right now…” I brushed my thumb along her bottom lip. “Whatever you’re thinking, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Her deep blue eyes met mine. “Promise?”

  “Baby, I’ve been yours since Paris. Probably even before that.” It had been a few months since before we met up in Europe, that I’d last had sex. Women hinted but I shot them down. Fast. The guys always gave me a hard time about it, but I finally decided to get my head out of my ass and search Piper out. “Didn’t you know that I went to Paris, looking for you?”

  “What?” Her eyes widened. “No, I didn’t know that. I thought you were there on vacation and it was just a coincidence that we were there at the same time.”

  “I was only there because you were. I had been going through a rut,” I explained. “Nothing was doing it for me. I saw you that summer before you went to Europe. Do you remember that?”

  “I do. My parents held a going-away party for me. You hardly talked to me that night.” She frowned. “Why was that?”

  “Because the things I wanted to say to you…” My body stirred. “I wanted to fuck you, Piper. I wanted you to go to Europe remembering how my cock felt deep inside you. I wanted to own every inch of your body. I had every intention of pulling you to the corner of the house and swallowing you fucking whole in the shadows. But I never got a chance because when I went to approach you, you were with the twins. I could never get you alone.”

  “Oh.” Her cheeks reddened.

  How the hell she got me to say exactly what was on my mind, was beyond me. I always listened first before speaking. I watched and waited but Piper forced the thoughts out of me like she had control of my words.

  I reached out, running my thumb along her cheek. “So instead, I brought Sammy and Cyrus with me and we went to Europe ourselves. But I gave you a little bit. And eventually found you at that café.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “I followed your trip on Instagram.” I shrugged like I didn’t just confess to stalking her.

  “You were stalking me?”

  My body stirred. She had been the only woman to ever call me out on my shit. It was what made me fall for her in the first place.

  “And then I went back to your hotel with you,” Piper added.

  “You did.”

  She licked her lips. “That was the best night of my life but now that you’re home, this is the best night.”

  “I agree, baby,” I murmured, kissing the side of her head.

  She sighed. “Want to help me get Brynn ready for bed? She won’t be going down for at least an hour, but I like to get her changed and ready anyway just in case she falls asleep. Then I don’t have to disturb her.”

  I headed to the playpen, reached inside and pulled our daughter out of it. She had woken up on the car ride home but now, with her snuggled against me, I found I just wanted to hold her and never let her go. “Can she stay up a little later tonight? I just…” I swallowed hard, running my hand over her head of dark curls. “I need this.”

  “Of course.” Piper gave me a small smile. “We can get her ready for bed and then we can come out here and watch a movie.”

  That sounded damn near perfect.

  Piper

  Watching Jaron with Brynn was something I thought I’d never actually see. He had promised to come home to me whenever he was released, but a part of me felt that they were just words and he didn’t actually mean them. I knew I shouldn’t have doubted him, but it wasn’t like we ever made our relationship official. We had a fling and then I got pregnant with his baby. I didn’t want him to feel pressured into staying with me just because of Brynn. We didn’t have to be together for him to be a good father. I just wanted him, us, happy.

  Even before he went to jail, a part of me feared that he wouldn’t want anything to do with me after a while. In the beginning when I told him I was pregnant, the silence that had fallen between us was deafening. He spoke without telling me. He liked the fact that I was pregnant with his baby.

  “Have you ever changed a diaper before?” I asked Jaron, grabbing a onesie out of Brynn’s dresser. We ended up watching a movie first. Brynn had been wide awake through the whole thing, so we made sure to watch something she liked. Now we were getting her ready for bed since she started yawning during the credits.

  Jaron was standing by the far wall that had pictures of him hanging on it. I wanted Brynn to see his face as often as she could. Even if he wasn’t around.

  “Jaron?”

  He looked at me over his shoulder. “Sorry, what?”

  “Have you ever changed a diaper?”

  “I have.” He went up to Brynn who was lying on the change table and tickled her belly.

  She giggled, slapping her hands against his cheeks. “Dada.”

  “That’s right, baby girl. I’m your daddy.” He grinned, grabbing her hands and kissing her fingers.

  My heart swelled at the exchange taking place before me. “That’s her second word.”

  “Yeah?” He tickled her belly. “What was her first?”

  “Mama. She’s said some other stuff, but it was mostly babble. Tell me about the time you changed a diaper.”

  “A club brother’s son brought his baby to the clubhouse,” Jaron told me. “They bet me a hundred bucks that I couldn’t change the diaper.”

  “And did you?”

  “Fucking right I did.” He chuckled. “It was the easiest hundred I’ve ever made.”

  I laughed. “When I first changed hers, it fell off.” I shrugged. “But we got it figured out.”

  “You did.”

  I handed him the onesie.

  He took it and changed Brynn with no fuss from her. It had amazed me how she didn’t cry with him like she did with everyone else. I was the only one who could hold her without her freaking out. It was like she knew. It had only been her and I for months and now that Jaron was home, things changed. It was different but she accepted it with open arms.

  “There.” Jaron picked her up off the change table. “How does she look, Mama?” he asked, bringing her over to me.

  “Perfect.” I kissed her cheek. “You sleep well, baby girl.”

  Jaron placed her in her crib and put her stuffed pig in her arms. “Dream of puppies and kittens, little princess.”

  I turned off the light before we left the bedroom and closed the door nearly all the way, but left it open partially.

  I almost asked, now what?

  But Jaron led the way into the living room. Just when I thought he was going to sit on the couch, he headed into the kitchen instead.

  I moved to the couch, sat down, and breathed. Everything that happened in the past few hours, hit me. Jaron being back. The father of my daughter being here. With me. With us. Finally.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  “Fuck me. You are?” Jaron’s voice lowered.

  The tiny hairs on my skin tingled. “I am.”

  He had been happy about it. And when I had Sammy bring him the picture of the ultrasound, he had called me as soon as he could.

  “You’re pregnant. With my baby. My bab
y is growing inside of you. That tiny, tight as fuck, little body.”

  I smiled to myself, remembering that it had turned him on.

  Jaron took that point to join me on the couch. He handed me a beer before taking a swig of his own. “Fuck. I missed this.”

  “I guess you don’t really have beer in jail, do you?” I asked, taking a sip of my own.

  “No. Although I’m sure if you’re a good boy, you could probably swindle your way into getting some but who the fuck knows what you have to do for that.”

  I lifted my knee onto the couch and turned toward him. “Are you happy to be home?”

  His eyes flicked to mine. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “I mean…” I shrugged. “I don’t know what I mean. I just want you happy.”

  Jaron turned his full body in my direction and grabbed my hand. “A lot of shit happened while I was…” He cleared his throat, placing his beer on the table in front of us. “I can’t go back to the way things were. I don’t think I’ll ever get back there.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, taking in the light scars on his knuckles. What did he have to do to survive? He was big, but I knew that if he had been jumped by several guys all at once, even he couldn’t take them on.

  “Piper.” Jaron pinched my chin, tilting my head back to meet his dark gaze. “I’m not the man I was before.”

  I swallowed hard, taking in the slate orbs staring back at me. The air crackled around us. An electric energy zapped its way between us. I licked my lips, needing just a taste.

  His eyes dropped to my mouth, his nostrils flaring. “I’m not him, Piper.” His thumb brushed along my jaw line. “I’m not a good guy. I want to be. For both of you. But I had to do shit to survive. Can you handle that?” he asked, his voice lowering. His hand slipped into my hair, to the back of my head. “Can you handle knowing the father of your baby would do anything to make it through each day? To make it back to his family. To his girls.”

  I reached out, cupping his face.

  He covered my hand, pushing his cheek into my palm. “You are the only reason I’m here. That I made it through that hell. The only reason.”

  “What about your parents?” I murmured, my heart jumping to my throat at his confession.

  “I love my parents and the club. I love them with every inch of me but what I feel for you goes beyond that.”

  “Tell me,” I demanded, my voice turning husky.

  He gave me a small smirk. “Not yet, baby.”

  “Jaron, please. I need to know how you feel.” We had been going back and forth for months. I needed to hear the words. I needed to hear him say that he was in love with me.

  “I can’t.”

  I pulled out of his grip and shot up from the couch. “Fine.” Stomping to the kitchen, I downed the rest of my beer before throwing the empty bottle into the recycling bin.

  “Babe.” Jaron came up behind me.

  “No.” I spun around. “Don’t babe me. I haven’t seen you in over a year. I haven’t touched you. Kissed you. Made love to you. I need something. At least your words. Tell me. Please. Tell me how you feel.”

  Jaron’s brows narrowed. “Then you tell me.”

  “What?” I frowned, taken aback by what he was suggesting.

  “Tell me how you feel.” He closed the distance between us. “You’re demanding it from me, but I don’t hear you saying it.”

  “That’s because you told me you didn’t want us to say it until I was wrapped around you.”

  Jaron chuckled. “Come on, baby. Since when do you ever listen to other people? Especially me? Your parents raised you better than that. Or did having my baby turn you into a pushover?”

  My jaw clenched. I crossed my arms under my chest, jutting my chin defiantly. “Fuck you.”

  “Hmm…” His gaze raked over me. “I will. But not tonight.”

  “Whatever.” I spun on my heel and headed down the hall. “Your surprise is in the basement,” I called out. Once I reached my bedroom, I rushed inside and shut the door behind me. Blowing out a slow breath, I leaned against it and dropped to the floor.

  ***

  (Jaron)

  I wasn’t sure where any of that came from. I shouldn’t have been an asshole. It wasn’t Piper’s fault that I did what I had to, to survive. I went to hell for her. Literally.

  It took everything in me not to go to her. To apologize. To tell her how sorry I was for being a dick. To tell her I loved her. But those words wouldn’t leave my mouth, no matter how much I wanted them to. I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t scared of commitment. I had been committed to her long before Paris ever happened. It was one reason I had stopped sleeping around. But I was definitely scared of something. Maybe I feared how she would respond once she found out all that I had done. The men I had taken out. The fights I started. The name I had made for myself so I wouldn’t have to walk around in fear.

  My phone took that moment to ring, interrupting my thoughts. “Mercer.”

  A soft laugh slid into my ear. “I don’t think you’ve ever actually said hello whenever I’ve called you.”

  “Candace.” I rubbed the back of my neck and moved to the couch. “Why are you calling?” Not that I didn’t mind hearing from people now that I was out of jail, but she wasn’t one of them. The bar she owned with her husband, Ronny, was a place for us to get away and unwind.

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” she mumbled.

  “Yeah, listen, you can’t be calling me anymore.”

  “I heard you got out and wanted to see how you were doing, that’s all.”

  “I’m fine,” I muttered, not liking how fast the news traveled that I was no longer in jail.

  “Life’s biggest lie.” She sighed. “Did you meet your daughter yet?”

  The hackles on the back of my neck rose, not liking that anyone outside of my family and friends, knew about Piper and Brynn.

  “Lose my number, Candace.”

  A cough sounded.

  My head snapped up, finding Piper standing at the entrance to the hallway.

  “Jaron, you can’t mean that.”

  “I do.” I disconnected the call and made sure to block her number. Piper and I had enough shit to work through. I didn’t need an ex causing any issues.

  “Who the hell is Candace?” Piper demanded, her cheeks reddening.

  “No one important.” I rose from the couch and took a step toward her. “I just blocked her number. I didn’t know she still had mine.”

  “Who is she to you?”

  “No one, baby. I promise.”

  Piper spun on her heel and ran back down the hall. The sound of a door slamming shut jarred through me.

  Fuck me.

  What the hell just happened?

  Piper

  Maybe I was overreacting. I knew Jaron had other women before me, but I never expected one of them to be calling him. What did she want?

  Did they date?

  Was he ever in love with her?

  Was she in love with him?

  Did he think he wasn’t good enough for her?

  Why? Why the hell after all of this time, had he never told me about her?

  I left my room to try and make peace. I also didn’t want to be alone and was going to offer to show him his surprise, but when I heard him on the phone and the name Candace was mentioned, I couldn’t help but listen in.

  A soft knock sounded on the door. “Piper, let me in.” The doorknob jiggled. “Please, baby. We need to talk. It’s not what you think.”

  “You don’t know what I’m thinking,” I muttered, sliding down the wall until I landed on the floor.

  “I promise it’s nothing.”

  “Nothing? It’s nothing?” I jumped to my feet and unlocked the door before opening it. “How could you say it’s nothing?” I demanded, giving him a shove and glaring up at him. “If I only just got home and another man called me, you would search him out and light his house on fire.”

  “Fuck.” J
aron raked a hand through his hair. “That’s not…” He came into the room, shutting the door behind him. “I didn’t know she was going to call me. Her and I…”

  “Her and you…what?”

  Jaron looked away.

  “You had a thing?” My stomach clenched when he didn’t respond. Of course he had other women before me. I knew he did. It wasn’t like I had been a virgin either when we first slept together but knowing that a woman he had a thing with, called him, didn’t make me feel any better.

  “I just blocked her number. You and I need to work through us. I don’t want any more issues. You have to believe me.”

  I looked at Jaron then. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Maybe a sign that he was lying. Or some indication that he was going to throw his hands up in the air, say screw it, and leave us.

  I slumped onto the edge of the bed. “Did she go see you in jail?”

  “No.” He shook his head for added effect. “Not at all. Only my dad came, Cyrus, Sammy, and a couple of the other guys. If she tried to visit, I don’t know about it, but I made it very clear to the guys that no one was to show up unless it was them. I didn’t even see my mom that whole time.”

  “That must have been hard,” I said softly.

  “It was.” He showed me the screen to his phone. “See? I blocked Candace’s number.”

  “You didn’t have to show me. I believed you but thank you.”

  “I missed you.” Jaron dropped to his knees in front of me. He covered my hands, placed soft pecks on my knuckles, and rested his head on my lap. “I missed you so damn much. I don’t want anything else to come between us.”

  “I missed you too.” My stomach flipped at his confession.

  He lifted his head, giving me a small smile. “I know.”

  “Thank you.” I cupped his face. “Thank you for saving me.” My mind went back to that night. It felt like just yesterday that I was attacked by someone who was supposed to be a friend. Jaron walked in and stopped it from going further than what it did. But it still fucked both of us up.

  “No.” Jaron kissed the tips of my fingers. “That was nothing. I would do that over and over again, go back to jail, stay there for the rest of my life, if it meant keeping you safe.”