A horn blares from behind us, and Winter looks back at the road. The clinic is only a five-minute drive from here. After we arrive and he parks the car, I reach for him. “Thank you.”
His eyes search mine. “What for?”
“For being so damn patient with me and putting up with all my insanity. There isn’t anyone else I’d want to do this with.”
He kisses me. “That’s good because I’m the only one you’ll ever do it with.”
12
Winter
* * *
“Yes!” Birdie says excitedly to her mother after we arrive home late on the day we received the good news from the IVF clinic. “We have to do the trigger shot tonight and then go in for the egg retrieval in thirty-six hours.” She couldn’t get hold of her mother all day, and I know she’s been desperate to share the news with her, so I leave them to catch up.
Heading into the bedroom, I sit on the bed and take my boots off. It was another long day after I dropped Birdie at work. Ransom, Hunt, and I did some recon yesterday on the location Axe thinks Zenith is working from, and we spent today doing more surveillance and research into the information Axe provided. None of the men coming and going from the warehouse were known to us, so we’ve put feelers out around town to see if anyone we know can give us names. I’m hopeful tomorrow will bring us names and further information. If this is Zenith, I want to act swiftly; the sooner we come to a territory agreement with them, the better. This bullshit of them continuously undercutting us and stealing business needs to fucking stop.
Pulling my T-shirt over my head, I stand to go into the bathroom for a shower. I’ve just finished stripping when Birdie appears in the mirror behind me.
“Mum said to say hi.” Her eyes are all over me, which isn’t doing me any favours. Our doctor advised me not to ejaculate for two to three days prior to egg retrieval; Birdie’s eyes on me always gets me hard.
“Angel, you need to leave.”
She frowns. “Why?”
I turn to face her. “Because I can’t do anything with the hard-on you’re causing right now.”
“Oh.” She bites her lip. Fuck me. “Okay, but quick question: Do you want chicken and salad for dinner or steak and salad?”
I rake my fingers through my hair, wishing like fuck she’d just do as I say sometimes. “Either.”
“No, I need you to choose. I—”
“Fucking hell, Birdie, stop talking, turn that ass of yours around, and leave or else I’m going to have to get in the shower and jerk off.”
That gets her attention. “Okay, okay, I’m going, but don’t you complain when I serve you chicken instead of steak.” With that, she finally exits the bathroom, leaving me turned on and frustrated.
I stand under the shower for longer than normal, trying to get my thoughts in order. Between IVF, the stuff with Zenith, and the first shipment of coke due to arrive from Torres, I’ve got a lot going on. On top of that, King’s busting my balls over the fact Torres hasn’t given me a confirmed delivery date yet, causing tension between us that we’ve never experienced. I’ve had a headache for days, my body is tight as fuck, and I need my woman in ways I can’t fucking have her.
Placing both palms to the shower tiles, I drop my head, close my eyes, and exhale a long breath. I spend another few minutes here before flicking the shower off. When I join Birdie in the kitchen five minutes later, I find her deeply engrossed in reading something on her phone.
Snaking my arm around her waist from behind, I drop a kiss to her shoulder. “What are you reading?”
Reaching a hand up, she grips my neck and holds me in place while she turns her head to kiss me. Then facing me, she holds her phone up so I can see. “I just found this new study on IVF success rates.”
Fuck.
Birdie spends far too long googling shit as far as I’m concerned. She’s researched the hell out of how to maximise IVF, and we’re doing all the things she’s found as suggestions. We’re also following all our doctor’s recommendations. Beyond that, I don’t see the point in continuing to research this stuff. It only causes her unnecessary anxiety, and she already has enough of that.