TIMBER: The Bad Boy's Baby (13 page)

I
wait in silence
, knowing that, as soon as the door opens and my parents walk in, everything will either fall into place or fall apart. This is the moment I’ve been dreading, ever since I confirmed this pregnancy. The moment I know will define my future and the future of my children. My sons.

“Harper.” My father enters the room, my mother trailing behind him.

His eyes cast a shadow over the room. They’re heavy with pain, with sorrow. I know this look. I’ve seen him lift up the needs of his congregation, carry their burdens, help them walk toward salvation and toward light. But while those congregants end their journeys with a new sense of peace and righteousness, they always start on their knees, broken.

I need my parents to see that while I detoured from their plan for me—from God’s will—I ended up on their doorstep for a reason.

“I’m sorry for leaving,” I say, my eyes on my stomach, not able to bear looking at them. I’ve felt their condemnation before. Right now, I just need their love—but I’m scared it won’t be offered.

“What else are you sorry for?” my father asks, standing at the end of the hospital bed. My mother is beside him; she covers her mouth with her hand, clearly in shock to see me like this.

“You want me to apologize right now?” I ask, caught off guard. My eyebrows furrow.

“Yes. You are a sinner,” Father says, “and if you want to return to the fold, we need to know you intend on walking the straight and narrow path the Lord requires.”

I open my mouth to speak, but then snap it shut. What am I supposed to say?

“Have you nothing more to say for your depravity?”

“Did the doctor tell you about the babies, then?”

“Babies?” my mom asks. “There are more than one?”

“The doctor only told us that you were well, and that the pregnancy was intact,” my father says.

“I’m having triplets,” I tell them. “Three sons.”

My parents gasp at this information—and, considering they walked in here demanding my repentance, it’s nice to see them grappling for words.

“Can I be a single mother in your congregation?” I ask my father. “Because I wonder how I can be both? A follower of the God you preach and also a mother rising a family on her own.”

“I’m so disappointed in you,” he answers, without offering anything concrete. “Your brothers and sisters are here praying for your repentance, your healing—and here you are, questioning our faith.”

“I’m not questioning you,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m trying to understand. Can I believe in your God, and also be grateful that I have these babies? Because I am. I was coming to your home earlier to tell you how much I need your support, your love. Because I can’t do this on my own.”

“You want our help now? After you’ve spent a month living in sin with that despicable man? I don’t even know who you are, Harper. No daughter of mine would act this way.”

“I am your daughter. These babies don’t change that.”

“These children change everything,” my mother says. “You are no longer pure or chaste.”

“Do you hear yourselves?” I ask, incredulous. “I stayed at Jaxon’s because I was terrified of your response. And I was right in running. You aren’t being a safe haven; you’re not allowing God to be a beacon, a refuge. You’re only offering condemnation and hate.”

“That is what sinners say, when they don’t want to look in the mirror.”

“No,” I say. My eyes close as I determine the precise words I need to use here. “I can look in the mirror and accept the woman I am, the woman I became when I got pregnant, and the woman I want to be as a mother. It doesn’t seem like you’re interested in a relationship with me unless it’s exactly on your terms.”

“Not my terms, Harper,” my father yells. “The terms the Lord has laid out. Repent, and return to the fold. To your family. Your sons will be bastards in this world, but they can still be children of God.”

“Go.” My teeth grind on the fuel their words have given me. “Leave and don’t come back. not for me. I am done with your hate message. I am
done
with your hypocrisy. I wanted to give you a chance to love me and my children, but you aren’t capable of that sort of love. The kind of love I have for Jaxon. Love that sees beyond differences and accepts the other person for who they are. You can’t do that. But I can. I’m glad I’m not like you, because if I were, I wouldn’t see so clearly how much I love the man who is the father of my sons.”

“The man who just stormed out of the hospital?” my father asks, sneering at me in disgust.

“He left?”

“Yes. And we are, too.”

“Mother, is this how you want things to end with me?” I ask. “Don’t you want to know your grandsons? Know me?”

My mother, with her long braid and plain clothes and flat expression, looks at me. “I don’t want to know you if you can’t repent, Harper. I’d rather pretend you never existed than to acknowledge I’m a mother to someone like you.”

They leave and don’t look back. No hugs or well wishes, no how-can-we-help. Nothing. It’s as if I’m not their daughter.

And, after they go, I wonder if I ever was. Because how could anyone turn their back on their child like they just did to me?

I will never turn my back on my sons.

My chin quivers as I’m left alone in the sterile hospital room. Jaxon left without saying good-bye, and my heart is shattered, but I am also not surprised. I told him to go. I’m the one who left first. I deserve to be alone now.

But I don’t want to be alone. I wish I never asked him to return to my parent’s home. Going there forced us apart.

And all I want now is for us to be together.

I meet up with Dean downtown at The King’s Diamond jewelry store. I park my truck outside, and I’m leaning against it with my hands in my pockets when he pulls up next to me.

“Now, this is a sight I never thought I’d fucking see,” Dean says, jumping out of his truck. “You really feel like you need to do this?”

“I don’t need to. I want to.”

“Shit.” Dean claps me on my back. “Then you need go get your woman a ring.”

“I’ve got an hour. And I need you to tell me about the business—and I have a proposition for you, too.”

We walk into the shop, and immediately I lower my head. “Fuck, see that woman over there?” I ask Dean. “We need to stay clear of her.”

“Someone you never called back?”

“Exactly.” Coming back to town, seeing the familiar nurse and now this jeweler, I’m reminded more than ever why I live in the woods. And why I need to stay there.

I wonder what Harper will think of that?

Fuck. I sure don’t know everything I should about the woman I’m proposing to. I just hope she says yes, that she believes me when I tell her I want this ... not because of duty, but because of belief. Belief in what we can be, together.

“What about this one?” Dean asks, pointing to a gaudy ring that is nothing like Harper. It’s an enormous solitaire on a silver band.

Harper needs something modest, delicate, and timeless. She wouldn’t want anything else.

A woman that I haven’t slept with helps me choose one that is perfect for Harper. It’s a simple gold band, but the diamonds are rich with meaning.

“Man, you’ve become a fucking romantic sap, out in the woods,” Dean jokes as we leave the shop. “I thought you were supposed to get all burly and tough.”

“I know, right?” I shake my head. “Harper is everything I never knew I needed.”

“Well, I’m happy for you. Now you wanna talk business?”

We stand at our trucks, and I know I need to get a better sense of where things are with D&J Hauling.

“Yeah. You moving forward with the custom houses?”

“Yeah, no orders yet, but I need to figure out marketing for it. My buddy keeps saying to use Facebook ads or some shit and I want to punch him for that suggestion. Got any better ideas?”

“I have one idea for a potential client.”

“I’m all ears.”

W
hen I walk back
into the cold, antiseptic hospital corridor, I’m already itching to return to the cabin, to the smell of the wood stove and my dog. Buck kept him for the night, and he’ll be well taken care of, but I want to be home with my dog and my woman.

I see Doctor Vance at the nurse’s station, and I check in there before walking into Harper’s room.

“Is it all clear for me to see her?”

“Oh, good, you’re back. Her family left about half an hour ago, so I’m sure she’ll be pleased to see you.” Doctor Vance smiles kindly, which is nice considering the nurse beside her has furrowed brows and crossed arm. Ouch. Okay, just gotta keep walking forward.

I knock gently on the door to Harper’s room before walking in. A curtain hangs between the entrance and her bed.

“Harper, is it okay for me to come in?”

“Jaxon?” she asks. “Of course, come in.”

I pull back the curtain and see a tear-stained face. Harper’s innocence is gone. She doesn’t look naïve anymore. She looks like a wounded deer, and I want to kill whoever did this to her.

“What happened?” I ask, rushing over to her, sitting on her bed. My hands instinctively move to her beautiful, swollen belly.

“My parents....” She sobs into her hands. “They acted just like I thought they would. They left and said I wasn’t their daughter. That my babies and I were a disgrace.”

“Oh, honey.” I shush her, wanting her tears to stop flowing. I want to protect her and take her far away, somewhere safe, I need to make sure no one can ever hurt her again.

My chest tightens, then expands in a way it never has before. This is love, right here: wanting to fight, defend, protect another person. And I’ll fucking make it my life’s mission to make sure no one ever fucks with Harper again.

“I know they’re wrong. I know I have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m growing people inside of me, and that’s a miracle. That they would shame me, when I’m being brave, hurts in a way I didn’t think was possible. And then ... the worst part was ... I thought....” She dissolves in a puddle of tears again, and I reach for her hand.

She squeezes it tight.

“I thought you were gone, Jaxon. They said you left the hospital, and I thought it meant you’d left me, just like my parents left.”

“I’ll never fucking leave you, Harper.”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean, Jaxon. My heart can’t bear any more pain.”

“I do mean it. I mean more. I mean
forever
.”

Harper shakes her head, not understanding.

Knowing what I came here prepared to do, I drop to one knee and look up at Harper in her hospital gown, with her swollen eyes and broken heart. Look at the woman heavy with my children. Look at the woman who rocked my world, who changed the course of my life for the better. All I want is to look at her forever.

“Oh, Jaxon,” she says, gasping, as I pull a ring from my pocket, holding it before her.

“There’s a lot I don’t know about you,” I tell her. “But the details don’t matter. Not when the truth is simple. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. The triplets are the fucking cake—the part we don’t deserve, the thing that bought us back together. And I would get you pregnant all over again if it meant I didn’t lose you. Tell me I didn’t lose you. Tell me you still love me. Tell me you will marry me—because, Harper, I want you to be my wife, so fucking hard.”

“Jaxon, yes. A million times, yes,” she says, her voice a whisper like a fluttering of joy escaping her lips.

She fucking said yes, just like I prayed she would.

Yeah, I prayed. Because even though I don’t need religion to tell me it’s a fucking miracle to have this woman, I still thought this was too good to be true.

But it isn’t.

I slip the engagement ring on her finger.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, looking at the simple gold band flanked by three clear diamonds.

“The three diamonds represent our children,” I tell her.

“Sons, Jaxon,” she says, a grin spreading across her perfect pink lips. “We’re having three sons.”

I run my hand over my beard, fucking overcome.

“Hell, yeah, we are,” I tell her. “We don’t mess around.”

And then I kiss her, hard. And I would have fucked here right then too, if a nurse hadn’t come in and interrupted us.

“When can she leave?” I ask, knowing it can’t come soon enough. I need to get my woman home and make love to her in our bed.

W
hen they discharge
me from the hospital the next morning, I’m grinning. No, scratch that—I’m beaming. I’m absolutely walking on air, because how I ended up here from there still confuses me.

How could I lose my parents but gain a family? Somehow over the space of a few months, Jaxon and I became something that I never believed we could be, not really.

I thought it would be a relationship built from a pressure cooker, but we aren’t. He chose me when he didn’t have to.

“So, are you ready to get home?” I ask Jaxon as we drive back to the forest, nearing Buck’s store to get Jameson.

He turns his head, cocking an eyebrow at me. “Mostly so I can tear those clothes off you and fuck my fiancée.”

“I love it when you talk dirty to me, Jaxon.”

“Good, because I’m gonna talk that way for the rest of our goddamned life.”

We both grin now.

Our life.

When we get to Buck’s, Jaxon warns me, “He’s gonna want details. But you don’t have to say anything you don’t wanna.”

“That nosy, huh?” I ask, as Jaxon helps me out of the truck.

“This poor fool needs a woman. Bad. Since he doesn’t have one, he’s become the town gossip.”

“You should help the poor boy out,” I say, pulling open the door.

“I try,” Jaxon says, under his breath. “But he’s his own worst enemy when it comes to pussy.”

Jameson is curled up at Buck’s feet when we walk in, but he must smell Jax, because he jumps up and bounds for his owner.

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” I coo.

“And who might you be?” Buck asks, stepping around the counter to say hello. He’s actually very handsome—blue eyes and light hair. Maybe he just lacks confidence.

“I’m Harper. Jax’s fiancée.”

“And the mother of my children,” Jax says, chest out, beaming.

“Hey, you said this is my story to tell,” I tease, jabbing him with my elbow.

“My bad.” Jax shrugs.

“Buck,” I say. “I’m Jaxon’s bride-to-be, and I’m also carrying his three sons.” I press my hands to my small belly and relish in Bucks bugged-out eyes.

“Shit, man!” Buck slaps Jaxon on the shoulder. “Had no fucking clue.” Then looking at me, he covers his mouth with his fist. “Sorry, ma’am. For the cursing.”

“Sweetie,” I say to Buck. “I’m marrying Jaxon. I think I can handle a man who swears.”

“Thanks for watching Jameson,” Jaxon says. “Any deliveries?”

“Nope, but if I get any I’ll swing ’em by.”

Jaxon and I leave with Jameson, and once we’re in the car and headed back up the mountain I ask, “Why does Buck deliver packages to your door?”

“Eh, he’s a good guy, likes a chance to talk shit and drink a beer. It can get lonely out here, in the woods.”

“Yeah, it is quiet,” I say, remembering the empty general store/post office. No one was there—and that was the main store in town. Besides that, there was just a bar and a sad excuse for a diner.

“You gonna be able to handle this pace of life?” Jaxon asks me. When his hands are on the steering wheel, with his shirtsleeves rolled up, his biceps flex and his tattoos hint at a strength not every man has.

“Jaxon, I grew up with a very quiet life. My world was the home, the church, and the food bank where I volunteered. I don’t need much. And, as far as quiet goes….” I smile, and my hands fly to my stomach. “Soon enough, there won’t be any quiet in our life. There will be loud and rambunctious, and I have a feeling by the end of the day, once the boys are in bed, all we’ll want is to sit in peace and quiet.”

“Well, honey, that’s where you’re wrong,” Jaxon says, as he pulls the truck up to the cabin.

“What do you mean?” I ask, my nose crinkled in confusion.

“At the end of the day I’m not gonna want any quiet. I’m gonna want you screaming my name.”

I pull open Harper’s car door, pull her into my arms, ready to make love to her like she fucking deserves.

Swinging open my front door, I set her down and grab the bearskin fuck-rug. Then I grab her hand and pull her back outside into the warm April day.

“I’m gonna make you scream my name so loud,” I tell her, smacking her ass as I lead her behind the house, to the place she first told me she was pregnant.

There are no deer today, but the creek is rushing peacefully, and I spread out the rug beneath the pine trees.

“I love it here, Jaxon,” Harper says contentedly. The buttons on her shirt are pulled tight across her chest. We stopped and got her a bunch of maternity clothes before we left town, but those are all still in the truck.

I sure as hell don’t mind. I like the way her tits pull at the seams; it makes me hungry for her.

“I love taking you here, and I love that you’re here to stay,” I tell her, growling in her ear.

Her eyes are heavy with desire; she loves it when I get territorial, and it’s a good thing. I’m determined never to give her a reason to leave.

“Are you going to take me here, now?” she asks, standing before me.

“Do you really have to ask?” I pull my shirt off, and Harper’s hands immediately press against my pecs. She nuzzles close to me, her breath hot on my skin, and my cock grows hard pressed against her.

“Oh, baby,” she moans, planting kisses up and down my neck lusciously. Her lips are soft and wet, and her tongue slides down my throat as she nears my mouth.

My lips find hers, and I cup her face with my hands, claiming her as mine. She lets out a sigh as I pull her closer, devouring her mouth with my tongue. She tastes so good, sweet and fresh; her scent mixed with the earthy air makes everything about this moment goddamned pure. Goddamned perfect.

“I love you Harper,” I breathe into her, and she sighs again, agreeing with my sentiment. I pull her shirt off, the buttons popping as I toss it aside. Her tits are perky and round, those hard gorgeous nipples poking through her lacy bra.

I reach around, unclasp it, and fling it off her. Pressing my mouth against her soft, warm skin, I feel my erection mount, straining against my jeans.

“You feel how hard I am?” I ask her, pushing her hand to feel my cock. “You like how hard you make me?”

“Mmmhhhmmm,” she groans, fumbling to get my jeans undone. I help her slide them off, and kick off my shoes and pants, my boxer briefs still on, my massive cock begging to be released.

“What are you gonna do to my cock?’ I ask her. “You’re the one that got it nice and hard, now you need to take care of it.”

“I’m gonna suck it. I’m gonna suck it until you’re ready to come.”

I smile, so fucking in love with her.

After taking off her pants and panties, she lowers herself to the ground, kneeling before me, and playfully tugs at the waistband of my briefs.

“Jaxon, you’re taking such good care of me, and now I’m going to take care of you.”

She pulls the waistband down, revealing her favorite fucking thing in the world. My cock is hungry, and it only wants her. She licks her lips seductively.

“That’s called a dick tease, Harp.”

That gets a throaty laugh from her. “I’m not a tease.”

And I have to agree, she’s not. Her mouth covers my cock and one hand is on my shaft. The other hand moves south as she touches herself. After rubbing her pussy nice and hard, she brings her hand to my cock, and it’s slick with her wetness.

She massages my cock with her own juice, all the while sucking me off. She bobs up and down, her eyes looking up at me, and I run my hand through her soft hair, not able to look anywhere besides her. Not wanting to.

“Oh, Harper, that feels fucking good,” I say, thrusting my cock into her mouth, knowing she likes it when she takes me all the way to the back of her throat.

When I know I’m near release, I pull her off me, wanting to come inside her tight little pussy.

“I want you to sit on me, backwards,” I tell her. “It’s gonna feel good on your clit, I promise.”

I lay on my back, and watch as Harper bites her lip nervously, the way she does when she tries new things. But I also see a mischievous glint of excitement rolling across her face as she lowers herself to her knees.

She leans over, planting a kiss on my lips, and I can’t help but reach around her, grab her ass and squeeze. She makes me so fucking hard, and I just want all of her.

Watching her straddle me backwards, I run my hands over her back as she gently lowers her entrance onto my massive rod.

“Ohhh, you’re so big,” she moans, leaning back, her hair falling across my face as she eases herself around my cock. Her back is arched toward me as she swivels her hips gently.

When I’m inside her, she lifts herself up, grabbing hold of my thighs as she rides me from behind.

I hold her ass cheeks with one hand, my other hand reaching up to her perfect round globes, massaging one as she moves up and down on me.

“Oh, yeah, honey, that’s good,” I tell her. I’m so turned on by her nice ass and narrow waist, her soft skin and the way she gyrates on top of me.

My cock stretches as it’s ready to come, but I want her to come first. I thrust in her, as she swivels faster around my base, and she moans in delight as my groin is covered with her wet pussy. I love it when she pours out her juice for me, when the walls of her pussy explode, releasing all her hotness.

“Oh, Jaxon, fuck me,” she says, falling back on my chest again as I thrust harder and deeper into her core. “Fuck me hard.”

I love the dirty words coming out of her mouth, her pouty lips moaning in ecstasy.

I can’t take it anymore, and I don’t want to. I shoot my come in her perfect pussy and she moans, falling forward as the orgasm ripples through both of us.

Her hands grip my thighs tight as she holds on for dear life. When my seed enters her already swollen core, she is undone.

She climbs off me, and kneels close to me, kissing me tenderly.

“Oh, Jaxon ... do we really get this, forever?”

“We do, honey. We do.”