make it official,” I offered. “We can make it official when you take me on a date where I can wear my fabulous new top I haven’t been able to wear since Elvira bought it for me. But we can start by you leaving your laundry where it’s convenient for me.”
Joker kept staring at me.
“So should we get a trash bag or do you have a duffel or something?” I prompted.
He didn’t move.
“Joker,” I called.
That’s when he did it.
It.
It being putting his hand up to cover the side of Travis’s head and pressing the other side into his chest, before saying, “Shits me how bad I wanna fuck you right now, seein’ as I can’t do it.”
It was my turn to say nothing.
Because part of it was the fact that I just then noticed, since the meeting with Angie, he’d cursed, but only in front of me.
Never in front of Travis.
Except right then, when Travis would have no idea what he said, but because I didn’t want it, Joker made it so he couldn’t hear it anyway.
Then more of it happened right there in front of me.
Travis shrieked, pushed away, grabbed Joker’s thumb, shoved it in his mouth, and bit down. He was a baby so everything went into his mouth. But he’d been teething for a while and had one coming in, so that bite and his current stubbornness was about that. And I knew from experience it didn’t feel all that great.
Joker didn’t even wince.
And taking that in, I knew more of it was knowing Joker was going to be an excellent father, and I knew this because he already was one. He might not share blood with my boy and Travis already had a dad.
But now he had two.
Another part of it was what he said giving me a shiver, making me want what he wanted in a way I wanted it too, right there, right then. And I loved that he wanted it. I loved that my handsome, manly man biker wanted me, just as I was, making me feel wantable.
And the last part of that it was that leaving his laundry for me, which meant leaving his clothes at my house, meant a great deal to him. He wanted that. And he showed me he did.
Finally I pulled it together.
“Is there anyone out there to watch Travis for half an hour?” I asked and it came out breathy.
“Sunday plans. All a’ them. They scattered,” Joker answered and it came out rough.
“Darn,” I whispered.
“Later,” he said and it was a promise. I could tell by the look on his face that made me shiver again.
“Okay.” I was still whispering.
“Naughty,” he said softly.
Another shiver. A bigger one. And my legs started shaking.
“Okay,” I repeated breathily.
“Now, lunch.”
I nodded.
“After I feed you, we’ll come back and get my laundry.”
Another nod, but this time I did it with the curious feeling of being utterly delighted at the thought of having more laundry.
He lifted his hand my way. “Come here, Butterfly.”
I went there.
I took his hand.
He gripped mine tight.
Then he walked us out of his room to his truck, where he put my son in his car seat in the back.
He took us to lunch.
And later, after we went back and collected his laundry in a duffel (as well as a plastic bag), while Travis had his afternoon nap, Joker made good on his promise.
We had a quiet, necessarily muffled but spectacular laundry celebration on my couch.
And it was naughty.
Chapter Eighteen
Waver
Joker
The next evening, Joker sat in his truck, idling at the curb in front of a huge-ass house that screamed I’m fucking loaded.
He did this watching Carissa walk up the path to the home she once shared with her ex-jackhole, carrying her kid and his diaper bag.
He’d parked visible and he’d done it so he could watch and be seen.
Not surprisingly, the jackhole opened the door.
Also not surprisingly, even after Carissa gave her boy kisses and cuddles and handed him and the bag over, her jackhole kept her engaged in conversation.
Further not surprisingly, he saw the jackhole clock him the minute the man had opened the door.
As this went on, Joker didn’t honk. He didn’t get out of the truck, round it, and make his presence known more aggressively by leaning against it and watching. Or more aggressive than that, walking up to the house.
He waited.
It cost him.
But Carissa was who she was, where she was, with that jackhole, and where she was with Joker.