Wild Card (48 page)

His seed pumped inside her. His groan was a harsh, rasping sound of completion and need, and

he was holding her. His arms wrapped around her, holding her to him as he buried his face at

her shoulder and they both shook, trembled, in the wake of the pleasure.

She couldn't imagine being without him now. She wouldn't let herself imagine being without

him.

His kiss was long and slow now. His eyes open as she stared back at him.

"Hmm. That was a surprise." She smiled as he moved back from her, her breath catching at the

feel of his cock sliding from her body, tugging at the oversensitive tissue, before he lifted her

and set her back on her feet. "I'm supposed to walk now?'"

She smoothed her hand over his chest as he bent his head and stole another kiss.

He flashed her a grin as he finally pulled back and readjusted his jeans.

Sabella made a quick trip to the bathroom, and when she returned it was to find him sipping his

coffee and staring down at the garage from the wide kitchen window.

"You were up early this morning," she said as she turned the stove back on and went back to

her biscuits.

"Needed to shower and get some clean clothes." His voice was distant now. "I didn't expect you to be up yet." There was a question in his voice.

Sabella grimaced. "Doctor's appointment I forgot about this morning. And I can't miss it." She

turned back to him with a frown. "If I don't make that appointment then you don't get to have

any fun."

His lips tugged into a rueful smile. "I'll send Rory with you. I don't want you going alone."

"Sienna usually goes with me." She shrugged at his demand. "But you can send Rory. I'll just meet her there."

The flu that had kept her in bed for nearly two weeks the month before had had her doctor

worried. She hadn't bounced back as she should have. At least not before Noah returned. But

the follow-up coincided with the birth control shots she needed to keep her system regular.

"I'll send Rory too. He can drive you."

She nodded at that. "Everything going okay?" she finally asked, knowing Delbert Ransome's

release yesterday worried him.

"So far." He swiped his hand through his hair, feathering the long, thick raven-black strands

around his roguish face.

God, he made her heart beat faster. She'd just had him, and she wanted nothing more than to

take him again.

She nodded when he didn't say anything more. Conversation after that was quiet. They talked

about the garage, parts needed, and the business that was now flowing back to them.

They argued over new equipment she wanted to buy. Advanced computers for the new chips

coming out and the classes she had signed up for in Odessa. The pros and cons to each move

she wanted to make in the business.

As they talked, Noah realized in one heart-stopping moment just how perfect Sabella had been

for him all along. The fact that he hadn't realized that six years before still had the power to rip

into his guts.

The mistakes he had made since his rescue piled atop him, one after the other. He should never

have hid from her, what the hell had he been thinking? As long as he didn't face her, didn't face

the consequences of his decision, then he'd been able to remain strong.

It had been all about his stupid fucking pride though. Not being the man he had been, fearing

her rejection in the face of it. He'd been a fucking fool and now there was no way out.

He could just imagine her face if he said, oh yeah, by the way, baby, I'm your husband. You

know, the one that died? The one that wouldn't come back to you for six fucking years. Yeah,

she'd accept that easily enough.

Bullshit.

This Sabella would rip his eyes out of his sockets and shoot him with his own gun. Before she

divorced him. Because she couldn't forget the man he had been. The one whose ring she was

wearing, even now, on her marriage finger. The one whose pictures graced damned near every

surface of the living room.

Shit. The anger tore through him as she showered and dressed for that damned doctor's

appointment. He didn't want to let her out of his sight.

He strode furiously to the phone and called Rory, pulling him in to take her to the doctor when

Noah wanted to go with her himself.

He couldn't risk being off site when this mission went nuclear. And if they acted out of habit,

then suspicion would rise against Bella. Rory had taken her to the doctor before, Noah knew.

She rarely went alone. Sabella hated doctors and she hated waiting in the doctor's office alone.

She and Sienna had often gone with each other, then gone shopping for lunch afterward. After

Nathan's "death," he knew Rory had tagged along many times, often bullying her gently into

doing the things she used to do with Sienna.

"There's my babysitter." Sabella grinned as she stepped into the kitchen later to find Rory with Noah. "Who's watching my garage?"

"Toby and Nik," Rory granted. 'That kid is turning into a damned maniac. Thinks he owns part

of it or something."

"He's learning." She shrugged as she adjusted the low-rise band of her jeans and slid her feet

into a pair of sandals. "Toby has a good head on his shoulders, and if we manage to keep him

another year, we'll be lucky."

Rory grimaced. It was something Noah had acknowledged as well. Toby would move on. The

little shit would probably end up taking over the world before he was done.

"Okay, let's go. I called Sienna. She's meeting us at the doctor's office." She eyed Rory with a grin. "'Are you going into the office or waiting in the car?"

Rory grimaced. "Damned women in that waiting room, you'd think they never saw a man the

way they act when I walk in there."

Noah felt a curl of anger burning inside him. For six years Rory had watched over her, taken

care of her. He had gone to the doctor with her, held her when she cried, he had stepped in and

made certain Sabella wasn't alone. That she survived. He should be thanking his brother rather

than questioning his motives.

"Come on, stud," Sabella teased Rory then. "Give the girls a smile and a wink and they'll

swoon for you."

"I'd end up raped," Rory muttered, but it was good-natured.

They left the house, but before he let Sabella get in Rory's pickup, he pulled her to him, his lips

covering hers, staking his claim on her senses before he let her go.

"What was that for?" She gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his shirt like a little cat's, kneading his flesh with primitive hunger.

"To remind you," he growled.

"Of what?" Something flashed in her eyes then, a flare of anger, of determination.

"Of who you belong to," he bit out. "Don't forget it, Sabella."

She tilted her head as though staring at some strange, unknown creature and attempting to

make sense of it.

"You're leaving," she reminded him gently. "You've warned me of that all along, Noah. You

can't stake a claim on someone you have no intention of keeping."

The hell he couldn't. His head dipped again and he stole her defiance with another kiss. He

pushed his tongue in her mouth, claimed it, just as he had claimed her body each time he

fucked her into a screaming orgasm. His hands pulled her closer, pressing his erection against

her stomach through the material of his jeans and fought to get a handle on the pos tearing

through his gut.

He couldn't control the need. He couldn't stop the fury of dominance, the instinct to make

damned sure she never forgot. Never forgot who she belonged to. Whose soul she held in the

palm of her hand.

He pulled back and glared down at her. "Remember."

He stalked away from her then, refusing to acknowledge the tears that had shimmered in her

eyes, because to acknowledge them would break him. He was riding a line so fine now that

sometimes it didn't make sense, even to him. He knew, though, if this operation didn't end

soon, if he didn't manage to pull back just a little bit, then he was never going to be able to

walk away from her. And that just might kill both of them.

"You're gettin' pretty close to him, huh?"

Sabella turned her head and stared at Rory. God, he looked so much like Nathan used to look.

Rugged features, the perfection of male beauty paired with wicked blue eyes, thick heavy

lashes, and long black hair.

He was almost Nathan's twin. So close to him in looks that for nearly two years Sabella had

been unable to look him in the face.

"Shouldn't I be?" She knew Rory was aware of who Noah was. She could feel it to the marrow

of her bones and it hurt.

She was past mad. It just hurt now that Noah had trusted his brother rather than his wife. The

woman he had sworn his heart to. He'd dared to whisper those words in their bed, after he

thought she slept. Dared, dared to whisper that vow in Gaelic, in their bed, while he was lying

to her. Lying to her with every touch, every kiss, every rasping word from his lying lips.

Rory finally shrugged. "Do you think he's going to stay?"

She would have gotten angry at that point if she hadn't heard the regret, the somber realization

in his voice, and seen it in his face.

Sabella turned and stared out the window. She watched as the town passed by, as everything

familiar to her suddenly seemed alien and strange.

"No." She finally whispered the truth, to him, and to herself. "I don't think he'll be here much longer."

She looked down at her hands, touched the wedding band, and slid it slowly from her finger

before tucking it into her purse. Sienna would ask too many questions if she saw it. It could

raise too much suspicion.

"You know, Belle." He cleared his throat, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. "I love you like a sister. You know that."

"No advice, Rory." She could feel it coming. As he pulled in to the doctor's office parking lot and parked beside Sienna's car, she realized her control wasn't strong enough to endure even

Rory's well-meaning advice.

He nodded as Sienna jumped from her car, stylish in gray capris and a sleeveless T-shirt. Her

long nut-brown hair fell past her shoulders in carefully styled waves, her green eyes sparkled

with the same excitement and love of life she had always known.

"There you are." Sienna laughed, hugging Sabella as she stepped out of Rory's truck. "And

there's one of the handsomest men in town." She sighed, her expression creasing in sudden

somber realization. "He looks just like Nathan, Belle."

She mirrored Sabella's earlier thoughts.

Sabella looked to Rory and saw the flash of pain on his face.

"No, Rory looks just like himself," she said softly. Close. He was close. But not just like Noah.

Not anymore.

"I can't believe you nearly forgot about your follow-up appointment," Sienna grumped at her

then. "You were too sick, Belle. You need to take better care of yourself."

She had been sick. That last flu bug had been a vicious one.

"I'm working on it, Sienna," Sabella promised with a smile as they entered the doctor's lobby,

signed in, and took their seats.

She wondered if that bug was coming back. She hadn't felt her best the last few days. She felt

off. Out of sorts. But emotionally she was on a roller-coaster ride that threatened to drive her

insane.

"They're looking at me," Rory muttered as she took a seat beside him.

She smiled, shaking her head. " 'Cause you're cute."

He grimaced. Then grinned. "I am, ain't I?"

And she just shook her head at that Malone grin, the twinkle in his blue eyes. He was a

heartbreaker. Her friend. Her brother.

"I'll protect you," she whispered.

Then he stared back at her in surprise. "I want to be protected?"

And Sabella could only laugh.

She wasn't laughing over an hour later though, she was close to sobbing, to screaming in joy.

And in fear.

"I'd venture a week, perhaps a little longer," Dr. Amy Aiken said softly as she sat on the stool in front of the exam table. "The shot was low dose to begin with, because you stated you

weren't involved in any sexual activity. You're over a week late returning for the shot, and with

the antibiotics…" The doctor shrugged. "It happens, Sabella."

She was pregnant.

Sabella pressed her hand against her stomach. This time. This time, God had heard her prayers,

he had given her a part of Noah to hold on to, a part of everything she loved to see her through

the pain.

She swallowed tightly. "Could you not tell your nurses?" she finally said. "Could we keep this between us? For a while?"

The nurses were notorious gossips. Sabella had always suspected it was one of the reasons Dr.

Aiken often ran many of the less complicated tests herself. The blood test had been done in the

exam room while Sabella waited. Dr. Aiken was conscientious, she was personal. She was a

friend to the women who came to her. And she knew her nurses.

"Is there a problem, Belle?" the doctor asked her gently.

Sabella shook her head. "I want a chance to believe it myself," she said softly. "Before anyone else knows."

Dr. Aiken sighed at that. "It's a very small town." She rose and collected the data on the test before folding it and pushing it into her lab coat. "I can wait a few weeks before I add it to your

file." She winked. "I forget these things sometimes."

She sat back down on the stool. "Do you want this baby, Sabella?" she asked gently.