RIDING DIRTY (Steel Titans MC Book 4) by Franca Storm (ebook voice reader .txt) 📕

No matter what. Nothing’s gonna change that, not even if you decide you don’t want to go through with this pregnancy. You and me are gonna stay intact, so I don’t want that influencing nothing for you.”

“That’s why you haven’t come to me,” I realized aloud. “You already know what you want to do about this baby, but you didn’t want to put it on me. You wanted me free to make the choice.”

“Yeah, darlin’.”

Well, shit. Sweet didn’t even cover it. He’d gone way beyond that. I inched closer to him and took his hands in mine, telling him softly, “Slade, you get a say here.”

“Nah, I don’t. Not with this.”

“What does that mean? This… development… is not mine, or yours. It’s ours.”

A chuckle escaped him. “So it’s a development, huh? Not a baby yet?”

My cheeks heated. It did sound ridiculous. “It’s just what I’ve been calling it in my head. Baby. It’s our baby.”

His smile grew. “Well, they say the first step is admitting it.”

I slapped his shoulder playfully. “Shut it. I’ve gotten much farther along than that.”

“Yeah?” he asked, the humor evaporating and that intensity back, as he waited on tenterhooks for my response.

“At first, as I’m sure was ridiculously clear to you and anybody else who saw me the day I got the news, finding out I was pregnant was a hell of a shock. My life, everything I do, every single thing about me, has been planned and meticulously executed.” I smiled. “Except when it comes to you. The mission itself, our developing relationship, and now, this baby. All of that has flown in the face of how I operate. But how I operate has taken its toll over the years. You know that I’m feeling the weight of it now. Talking to Ricky made me realize that it’s even worse than that. I’ve never experienced anything outside of the dark and the dirty, of our fucked-up world. It’s been all about the fight for me. All about Shadow and serving my clients, righting injustices, and taking down the worst of the worst. But I’ve done my part now. I’ve done more than I ever thought possible in that vein actually. For others. Now I want to live for me. I want a real, full life.” I gave his hands a squeeze, locking eyes with him. “You said that what we have together is a gift. I agree one-hundred-percent. But now, after thinking all of this over, that extends to this pregnancy.” I let go of one of his hands and ran it over my belly. “This baby is a gift, Slade.”

He didn’t say anything. He just stared at me. He was so incredibly stunned.

It was clear that he really had thought I was going to take things the other way.

Maybe I’d been wrong about what I’d assumed he’d wanted too. “That’s not… the baby… you’re not for it then? We’re not on the same page?”

“Fuck,” he muttered, scrubbing his hand over his face and pulling away.

He got up from the bed and turned his back to me.

I watched him run his fingers through his thick, jet-black hair.

When he didn’t say anything, or make another move to turn back around, I got off the bed and went to him. Laying my hand on his back, I said carefully, “I’m sorry it took me so long, but we’re here discussing this now, so don’t hold back, okay? We need to have this out either way. If you don’t want this baby, I need to know, Slade. We can figure it out together.”

Startling me, he spun around. “‘Course I want it.”

I wasn’t just taken aback by his unexpected movement. No. It was the sight of tears in his eyes that was the really shocking thing.

“Slade—” I started, reaching out.

He stepped back and roughly swiped the evidence from his eyes.

“This is the second chance I never thought somebody like me could have,” he told me, his voice unsteady.

“I know, baby. I understand.”

He cleared his throat and forced down his choked-up state by sheer force of will. He couldn’t stand showing vulnerable emotion like that. It wasn’t macho posturing or anything like that. No, for Slade, he really believed that he couldn’t afford to put it out there. Even experiencing it was too much. We were the same. With the lives we led, we had to be above all of that.

Sure, things would be different soon. But it would still take a long time to get used to that.

“Didn’t want no pressure put on you. It’s why I didn’t tell you what I wanted. But, yeah, I want this baby. I knew it the second I heard you were pregnant. I want to raise a kid, be a father. With you. I wanna do it all with you, darlin’.”

“I want that too.”

He took my words in and I watched his features light up.

He was happy, hopeful.

And I was right there with him.

“Then we do this thing. All the way. Get out, live a regular kinda life, and raise our kid.”

“Absolutely.”

He threw his arms around me. “I love you.”

I clutched him to me. “I love you too.”

We stayed that way for a long while, holding one another, savoring the moment, one without pain, stress, or sorrow. For once it was all hope, love, and joy.

I wanted more of that for us and for our child. For the little family we were going to build.

Slade loosened his hold and pulled back a little to look me in the eye. “Now that we’re doing this, I need you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“I’m gonna do all I can on my end to keep you and the baby safe, but you gotta be a big part of that. Can’t have you running into danger, getting into the thick of nothing. That starts right now and includes all this bullshit we got going on with Freeman and Nolan.”

I pulled away. “You’re benching me?”

“You wanna put it like that then, yeah, I’m benching you.” He gestured to