“What’s wrong?” Kenzie asked from my other side.
“Oh, nothing really.” I gave her a tight smile. “My water just broke and I’m starting to have contractions. I’m fine, though. I’ll be okay.”
I was trying to keep calm, not because of myself but for Axton. My attempt to set an example failed though, because Axton started to freak the fuck out. One minute I was standing on my own two feet and the next I was in his arms, as he yelled at people to get out of his fucking way. Which only set off mayhem. Sighing, I just buried my face in his jacket and let him do what he had to do to deal with impending fatherhood.
The next few hours passed in a blur but I’ll admit that it was a happy blur. Everyone we loved in the world was in the waiting room as we brought our son into the world just a few rooms away. They all probably heard me cussing the place down as I pushed one last time and a moment later my son’s crying filled my ears.
Exhausted, I reached for the squalling bundle of mess while Axton cut the cord. Tears were pouring down his face as he struggled to cut the stubborn thing, but when it was finally done he kissed me. “I love you, Dallas.”
I smiled through my own happy tears. “Love you more.”
“Should I go tell everyone that you’re okay?” He didn’t look like that was what he really wanted to do so I shook my head and pulled him closer until he was practically lying down beside me while the doctor did what he had to do to my aching body.
“No. You’re exactly where you need to be.”
PLAYLIST
Breaking Inside (feat. Lzzy Hale of Halestorm) by Shinedown
She’s So Mean by Matchbox Twenty
Room To Breathe by You Me At Six
My Baby’s Guns n’ Roses by Brantley Gilbert
Clarity (feat. Foxes) [Tiesto Remix] by Zedd
Big Girls Cry by Sia
Red Eyed Romance by Stars In Stereo
Life Of The Party by Shawn Mendes
We Fall Apart by We As Human
Painkiller by Three Days Grace
Always by Killswitch Engage
I’m Yours by The Script
Get Lucky by Halestorm
Private Parts (ft. James Michael) by Halestorm
My Heart Is Broken by Evanescence
Facebook
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[email protected] The Rocker… Series
The Rocker That Holds Me
The Rocker That Savors Me
The Rocker That Needs Me
The Rocker That Loves Me
The Rocker That Holds Her
The Rockers’ Babies
Angel’s Halo MC Series
Angel’s Halo
Angel’s Halo: Entangled
COMING SOON FROM TERRI ANNE BROWNING
The Rocker… Series
The Rocker Who Cherishes Me
The Rocker Who Shatters Me
The Rocker Who Hates Me
Angel’s Halo MC Series
Angel’s Halo: Book 3 (Title To Be Announced)
NEED MORE HOTNESS? ENJOY THIS EXCERPT FROM DEEPER BY MELLIE GEORGE
PROLOGUE
Kris
“Pass me the ball, Kris! I’m open,” Ryder called to me, clapping his hands together. I dribbled the basketball a few more times before passing it to him.
“Shoot it!” I yelled to him as Jude tried to block him from making the shot.
Ryder smiled at me for a second before he jumped up and tossed the basketball in the air. It went right into the net with a swish and I ran to him and high-fived him.
We turned to our friends, Beau and Jude, and I announced, “That’s game, dude! Ten points!”
Beau looked irritated as he said, “I want a rematch!”
Jude was dribbling the ball as he said, “Nah, come on, let’s play something else. This is getting boring.”
“Well what do you want to do? Recess is almost over, there’s not much to do,” I said, swiping a few beads of sweat that had formed on my forehead.
It was hot out here today. As much as I loved recess and playing with my best friends, I couldn’t wait to get back inside to get a drink from the water fountain.
As me and the guys were standing around talking about what we wanted to do next, I heard Kyle Carter laughing out loud. My eyes narrowed as I followed the sound. I hated it. He sounded like a stupid chipmunk when he would laugh and the only time he did was when he was picking on some kid.
I glared at him and his stupid group of cronies. I felt my hands ball into fists and my teeth gritted together.
“Kris, you okay?” Ryder asked me, following my eyes to Kyle.
Beau sighed out loud. “God, what’s that idiot up to now?”
“Probably bullying some kid,” Ryder said.
“Let’s go, guys, I don’t want to get in trouble again. I’ve already been to the principal’s office four times this month,” Jude said, tugging on my arm.
“I’m not getting detention because of that stupid moron.”
I heard our teacher blow the whistle that meant recess was over. As my friends started to walk to where our class was forming a line, I moved toward Kyle and his group that was gathered in a circle. I heard groaning from behind me and I knew Ryder, Beau, and Jude were backing me up just like they always did. The four of us were a team and when one of us did something the others had our back.
I hated Kyle Carter. His dad was a rich jerk and was my dad’s boss at a tire plant. Kyle liked to make fun of everyone, especially me because my dad worked for his dad. He would say crap to me all the time about me being poor and tease me about not having a mom anymore and it made me so mad that I wanted to hit him. I usually let it go because I didn’t want to get in trouble. I knew if I did I’d get sent to the principal’s office and they would have to call my dad…I would give anything to keep from getting punished and hit with my dad’s belt. He always used the hard metal part on my back and it made me bleed.
Even though I knew what would happen when I got home and I was scared, today I was going to stop Kyle. I knew I would be in so much trouble for stepping in and helping but I didn’t care. He seemed to get the most fun out of bullying girls and after seeing how hard he made the last little girl cry I wasn’t going to look away this time.
As I walked up to Kyle and his stupid friends I could see through two of the kids and saw who they were picking on…it was a tiny little brown haired girl. She looked like she was probably in kindergarten.
Getting more and more pissed off, I reached the bullies and yelled, “Hey! Leave her alone!”
Kyle turned to me and his face had a mean smile on it. “What do you want, loser?”
“I said leave her alone, Kyle,” I said as I looked at the little girl for the first time up close.
She was wearing a dirty blue dress, dingy white socks, and scuffed up shoes. Her hair was messy and looked like she didn’t brush it that day. Her face was dirty and sad but her eyes were big…really big. They were blue and pretty. I felt angry as I saw tears pouring down her dirty face. The little girl looked at me and my chest felt warm. When I looked back at her I knew right then I wanted to protect her from anyone that was mean to her. She looked really sad and scared.
“Yeah? And what are you and your loser friends going to do about it, white trash?” he sneered.
His friends started laughing at us and my hands formed into fists. I didn’t even say another word before I charged at him and punched him in the face as hard as I could.
If I wasn’t so mad and trying to protect the sad little girl I would have laughed at how Kyle screamed like a girl. He cried and screamed as I punched him over and over as hard as I could. I had never felt so mad before. I didn’t know how long I’d been hitting him before I felt someone pull me off of him.
“Kristopher Engle, you stop right now!” yelled Mrs. Wagner, my second grade teacher.
“You and your friends are going to the principal’
s office!”
“It’s not fair!” Jude yelled.
“Kyle and his stupid friends were bullying that little girl and Kris was just trying to stop him!”
“Be that as it may that doesn’t give him the right to attack someone like that! You always come and tell before you hit, Jude!” she said.
I shook out of her grip as Kyle was being taken to the nurse’s office. “Yeah, like that helps,” I snapped.
“Excuse me?” asked Mrs. Wagner as she led me, Beau, Jude, Ryder, and the little girl to the principal’s office.
“You adults always tell us to tell when someone is hurting someone else but you never do anything to stop it! Kyle has been beating kids up since kindergarten and you’ve done nothing!. Just like Jude has told on his mom for drinking and hitting him, Beau has told on his mom for letting men hit him and his baby sister, and I have told on my dad for beating me until I bleed because he doesn’t want to take care of me! We always tell and you always do nothing!” I yelled, tears rolling down my cheeks.
Mrs. Wagner was shocked and I thought she was going to cry too.
She blinked a few times before she said, “That’s enough, Kristopher. Let’s go everyone. You too, sweetheart,” she said to the little girl.
I was happy that the girl was safe from being picked on and made fun of but suddenly I was scared. Mrs. Wagner was going to call my dad. He would be woken up from his nap after he’d drunk too much beer like he did every day. He would come pick me up and when we got home he would hurt me and make me bleed again. I wiped my face with the back of my arm and tried to stop crying. I thought I was going to throw up.
As we walked into the school and started down the hall toward the principal’s office, I felt someone grab my hand. I turned my head and saw the little girl holding onto my hand…she was shaking. My hand felt like it was burning for some reason. I looked at her face and she was crying really hard too.
“I’m sorry I got you in trouble,” she said quietly.
“I don’t want your daddy to hit you because of me.”
I didn’t know how long she was going to hold on but I didn’t want to let her go yet. For some reason I was feeling a little less scared after she grabbed my hand.
“It’s okay. It’s not fair for Kyle to pick on you like that. You didn’t get me into trouble. I got myself into it. I do that a lot,” I said, smiling at her.
She giggled and when she blinked a few tears fell down her dirty cheeks.
“I’m always in trouble with my mommy too. She gets real mad at me if I play too loud or if I get hungry and sneak something to eat from the fridge.”
I frowned and felt sad for her. Her mom seemed to be a lot like my dad.
“That’s not fair.”
“You live in my building,” she said. “I see you with your friends playing games outside all the time from my window.”
We all sat down in the chairs outside the principal’s office and the little girl sat next to me. She was still holding my hand.
“I didn’t know you lived there too. Why didn’t you come out to play?”
“I thought you wouldn’t want to play with me. Mommy says that I’m a bad girl and no one likes me. I thought you wouldn’t either and I was scared to ask,” she answered timidly.
“Well, you can come and play with us next time, okay? Can I tell you a secret?” I said, leaning into her ear.
“What?”
“My friend Jude likes to jump rope,” I said, and the little girl giggled.
“I knew that would make you smile.”
“Thanks for helping me,” she said, her face still sad.
“I’m Kris,” I said, squeezing her hand.
She blinked her big blue eyes at me and answered, “I’m Jessie.”
I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. Every time I would have dreams from my childhood it always took me a minute to remember that I was far away from that life now. I was no longer the abused little boy with a worthless drunk for a father. I was Kris Engle, drummer for the famous rock band Bad Blooded Rebel that I’d started in high school with my best friends since childhood. I was rich, famous, and didn’t have any of the worries and stress I had growing up in an abusive household.
I heard a soft, sensual moan coming from next to me and I smiled as I turned to face the most important thing I had that always came before anything else.
“Hey, baby,” I said to Jessie, sweeping a stray piece of chestnut brown hair away from her face. I felt tingles shoot all the way down to my very awake dick as she blinked those big blue eyes at me.
“Good morning. Did you sleep okay?” Jessie asked me.
She placed her delicate hand on my scruffy cheek and caressed it soothingly.
“I always do when I when I wake up next to you,” I said, kissing her forehead.
She smiled at me but the way she was biting her lip told me she wanted to say more.
“What is it? What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”
“You were mumbling in your sleep,” she said, her eyes full of concern.
“I was?” I asked.
She nodded sadly and said, “You kept saying my name, ‘pretty eyes’, and ‘leave her alone’.”
I sighed and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her beautiful naked body into mine.
“I dreamt of the day I met you,” I replied.
Jessie traced my bottom lip with her finger.
“I figured. You okay?”
I smiled at her.
“Of course I am. If I hadn’t defended you that day we wouldn’t be here now. I’d take the beating I got when I got home that day over and over because it meant I’d have you in my arms now,” I said.
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“It hurts that he hit you for doing the right thing. I hated him so much, Kris. Even now.”
“I hate him too, Jess,” I answered, my jaw locking and my hand unintentionally gripping the sheet in remembered anger.
“Hey,” she said, seeing the look on my face. “He can’t hurt you anymore, you know that right?”
I took her hand in mine and kissed her soft skin, making sure to add a few light kisses to the platinum band on her delicate left finger.
“I know, baby. I just don’t want any of our past demons to affect our future. Especially now,” I said to her.
I felt a tiny nudge at my stomach under the blankets and we both laughed.
“Well, it looks like this little one agrees with you too,” Jessie said.
I smiled and pulled the blankets back to see her gorgeous naked body. I placed my hand on her belly, which seemed to be getting bigger and rounder by the day, and gave it a rub.
“Good morning to you too, peanut,” I said. “I can’t wait to meet you next week.”
Jessie giggled and the movement made her breasts shake. She’d been filling out everywhere and I couldn’t control my dick as it quivered at the sight of her perfect chest. It was excruciatingly painful not to be able to sink myself into her and get lost, but since she was six days from her due date Dr. Mitchell told her no sex because it was painful for her.
It was torture; she was always so beautiful to me but now that her body was growing with our child it took all my strength to not ravage her every chance I had. I felt another kick against my hand and I looked at Jessie, who was practically glowing.
“This little one is growing so fast that I don’t know if we have another week,” she giggled.
I leaned down and kissed her belly.
“Well you can come out at any time, peanut. Your mommy and I can’t wait to hold you.”
I felt Jessie’s slender fingers combing through my messy bed hair.
“You’re going to be such a good dad, Kris.”
I rested my head on her belly and looked up into her pale blue eyes.
“I really hope so, baby.”
“If anyone can live through such a horrible childhood and come out whole, it’s you. You know what not to do w
ith our baby just based on how your dad raised you.”
I reached up and touched her cheek.
“Or how your mother raised you.”
She smiled a sad smile at me and sighed.
“Guess we both lived through hell, didn’t we?”
“We did. But as much as I hate what we went through, I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant I wouldn’t be with you. This baby is going to have the life we should have had growing up.”
A tear slid down her cheek and I wiped it away with a stroke of my finger.
“I would rather die than to have our baby go through what I went through with my mother.”
“Hey,” I said, moving up from her belly to meet her eyes.
“Don’t cry, Jess. This is a happy time. We are going to meet our child soon and we fought hard for our happily ever after.”
I pulled her into my arms and began to shower her with kisses.
“I know you think I’ll be a good dad, but let me tell you something. You, love, are going to be an amazing mom. I love you so much.”
She smiled at me and this time it was full of love and joy.
“I love you too, Kris. I always have,” she whispered before kissing my lips.
As I held her close to me with our baby kicking between us, I closed my eyes and remembered how I ended up here, naked in bed with the most beautiful woman in the world, with the anticipation of being parents for the first time filling me a with happiness I never thought I’d feel.
* * *
CHAPTER 1
Kris
Ten Years Earlier
As the song we were playing was nearing the end, I banged the drums perfectly in time and played like my life depended on it. Bad Blooded Rebel had been playing around town for the better part of a year and while we were popular locally, we still hadn’t hit the big time like we desperately wanted.
I had a feeling tonight would be the night that would change everything. Cory Brewer, lead singer of Sticks and Stones, a huge band in the rock world, happened to be in the club watching our show tonight. The band was playing in town playing a headlining concert in our hometown of Cincinnati the next night. Luckily he had come to The Metal Cage tonight and was watching us play with interest. This guy was no talent scout but it was definitely a foot in the door professionally for us if he liked what he heard.