Ruin and Rise by Sam Crescent, Jenika Snow Page A

moaned in her sleep, and couldn’t contain his own groan. He didn’t want to wake her, but he needed her, needed her softness, her sweetness, to wash away the shit he’d seen while with Zeke. The asshole’s strip clubs were BDSM clubs that catered to wealthy, high profile men. There were also beatings of men that had fucked with Zeke, ones that Shakes had to stand guard, watch, and witness. He wasn’t a stranger to violence, and he sure as fuck had dealt with plenty of it himself, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be Zeke’s bitch lap dog and watch him beat a man while wearing a pair of brass knuckles.
    Pushing everything else away, he focused on the sound of Daniella’s breathing change, felt her body tense before relaxing, and knew she was awake.
    “I missed you, baby,” he said against her ear, whispering in the darkness.
    “I missed you, too,” she said and rolled over so that she faced him. The shirt she wore was his, oversized, sagging in the front, and giving him a prime shot of her big, glorious tits.
    Shakes started kissing her, stroking her mouth, lips, with his tongue, loving that she moaned, gasped, begged for more. He moved his mouth down her chin, over her neck, and started working on the top of her breast. He loved the taste of her skin, all sweet and addicting.
    “I want to fuck you, baby. I want my dick in your pussy, getting you off, making you cum all over me, soaking the bed, baby.” He started kissing her again, and when he was about to push her onto her back, she moved an inch away from him. “What’s wrong?”
    She didn’t answer right away, and then she sat up. “I’m going to be sick.” And she was off the bed, in the bathroom, and heaving over the toilet.

    She wiped her mouth after brushing her teeth, and turned around to see Shakes standing in the doorway, a worried expression on his face. He’d come in and held her hair for her while Daniella had thrown up. She was tired, her head hurt, and she was still nauseous.
    “What’s wrong? You coming down with something?” He asked and came back into the bathroom, pulled her into his arms, and just held her. Yeah, she was coming down with something, just not the flu.
    After letting him hold her for a few minutes, because honestly she needed it, she pulled back and stared into his face. He lifted a piece of hair away from her forehead, smiled down at her, and she knew this would be something that would either have them moving forward with their lives, or have things spiraling downward.
    “What wrong?
    She swallowed, looked down at her bare feet, and knew she needed to just say it. But she couldn’t form the words, instead she turned and opened the bathroom drawer under the sink, grabbed the little white and blue stick, and showed it to him.
    “I’m pregnant.”

D aniella glanced over at her man, her husband, as he took a seat on the toilet. She was so damn nervous. It had been several months since they’d gotten back from being on the run, and things were starting to settle down, but life still wasn’t perfect for them, not by a long shot. The tension between Shakes and her father, and that of the Soldiers had been near the breaking point. It still was with her father.
    There were times she watched her father, and she was sure, he was planning to kill Shakes. It’s why she visited him regularly, to remind him that he’d lose her if he hurt the man she loved—the father of her baby. Pressing a hand to her stomach, she took a seat on the edge of the bathtub. Biting her lip, she tucked some hair behind her ear as Shakes pressed his hands together, looking at the floor. Even from where she sat, she saw the black ink where he’d had his Soldiers tattoos taken off. Every time she saw it, she was consumed with guilt.
    “Have you told your father?”
    “No.” It was one thing allowing a man to live with his daughter. Zeke knew she was having sex, but he didn’t have to confront that truth. Once he found out she was pregnant,