Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 29

Make coffee. Not war.

— Gable to Athena

GABLE

Seven and a half weeks later

“ Hey there, partner.” I caught Cam up in my arms, snuggling him into my chest and causing him to giggle.

His little knee hit me where I’d been shot, but the pain didn’t show.

Thank God .

I was tired of being in pain.

It was not something I ever wanted to experience again.

“ Quaid ,” I called out. “ You have a loose one.”

Quaid came out of the house with a frown on his face. “ I thought you were with your mother?”

Cam giggled, and Quaid caught him up in his arms.

I straightened my bowtie and jacket, then once again turned to stare at the door.

“ Patience is a virtue.”

I looked over at Garrett . “ Patience is hard to come by when you’ve been waiting for seven weeks to have se…”

“ Don’t you dare,” my mother hissed.

I smiled.

“ Born again virgin,” Garrett whispered.

Upon the marriage proposal, Athena had thoroughly enjoyed torturing me with her body.

For two weeks, I’d gotten sponge baths from her.

When I got home, still the sex didn’t come.

It was only after I begged like a desperate man that she said, “ I want to wait until we’re married.”

I reluctantly agreed to the asinine request, and today was the day.

The day I married the woman I loved.

And fucked the hell out of her.

The song started, and I couldn’t help the chuckle that burst from my lips.

When Maven had asked Athena what song she’d wanted to walk down the aisle to, ignoring the request to be done for the day, Athena had responded with the first song she could think of.

“ Great Balls of Fire .”

And of course, that was what Maven put on as Athena stepped from my parents’ back door.

Athena was laughing as she walked toward me.

A vision in white.

The dress she was wearing was tight and strapless with a train that trailed four feet behind her.

I could tell without looking that she was barefoot— Athena detested heels, and only wore them on rare occasions.

Her makeup was subtle and her hair was in a low updo at the base of her neck.

Her engagement ring flashed in the harsh overhead light.

Today , I’d add a wedding band to that engagement ring—something else she’d never take off.

She didn’t have anyone to walk her down the aisle.

Garrett and my father had offered, but she’d given them a sad smile and said, “ But I won’t be alone. They’re with me.”

On one wrist, she had a bracelet that Gavrel had worn. And on the other hand, she had her father’s dog tags dangling.

She was right.

She wasn’t alone.

When she finally got to me, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her.

“ You’re supposed to wait for the preacher to say you can kiss me,” she teased.

I scoffed.

“ Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?” Garrett teased under his breath.

Athena giggled. “ I do.”

“ Then I pronounce you husband and wife,” Garrett pronounced. “ You may kiss the bride.”

“ What about him?” Athena stepped farther into me. “ Are you not going to ask him?”

“ Nah ,” Garrett said. “ We already know his answer.”

Damn right they did.

“ No talking shop at my wedding,” Athena muttered as she came up to me and wrapped her arms around my middle.

“ I’m not,” I lied.

We totally were.

The last two months had been spent trying to find the man who had put the hit out on my brother—the same man who had gotten me shot.

“ Liar , liar, pants on fire,” she said as she moved so that her back was to my front.

I curled an arm around her chest, then smoothed a hand up her throat to cup her chin. Tilting her head up, I dropped a kiss down onto her upturned mouth.

When she didn’t pull away, but deepened the kiss, I felt the anticipation in my veins start to grow.

“ On that note,” Garrett chuckled.

I heard him move away.

Didn’t care.

I kissed her until we were both too breathless to continue.

“ How about a dark, shady corner, Mrs . Carter ?” I teased.

Her eyes lit up as she said, “ I have the perfect one.”

Since there were too many people here at the wedding to make my parents two guest bathrooms work, we’d had to rent porta-potties.

They were the nicest porta potties I’d ever seen.

In trailer form, they were huge, white, and pristine.

Hell , they were nicer than some of the bathrooms at the station, for Christ’s sake.

At first, I thought that was where she was leading me.

But instead, she took me to a tented area where the men had gotten dressed earlier.

Despite it being December , the weather was damn near perfect.

Hence us dressing outside, and the wedding itself happening in my parents’ backyard.

“ Help me out of this dress,” she said as she pulled me into the tented area.

I did, getting her out of it in seconds.

Instead of tossing it to the ground like I wanted to, though, I put it on the hanger that my tux once resided on.

Once the dress was up, I turned back to my wife—my God , my fucking wife—and pulled her up into my arms.

She was wearing a strapless bra and thong panties.

She looked incredibly sexy in them, and they looked so good against her skin.

“ I’ve been dying for this moment,” I breathed against her lips.

“ You have to be quiet,” she teased. “ Or they’ll all know what we’re doing.”

I chuckled and pressed her up against the tent pole in the middle of the room.

Latching onto it with the hand that was behind her back, I used the pole and my strength to hold her up.

“ How much do you want to save these panties?” I wondered.

She licked her lips, her eyes wild, before saying, “ I’m not particularly attached.”

I ripped them straight off her body.

Naked in my arms, I lowered my zipper with my semi-free hand. My cock bounced free, and the heat of her was like a beacon.

Her legs clung to my waist as I notched myself at her entrance.

“ Slide down my cock, wife,” I urged.

She loosened her legs and took me inch by inch.

I used my hand on her ass to control her descent, but it proved useless.

We were both too far gone.

She was too wet.

I was too hard.

And within seconds she was so filled with me that she was crying out in surprise.

“ Shh ,” I closed my eyes as I tried to control myself.

“ Fuck me, Carter ,” she ordered.

I pulled out and rammed back in, my cum boiling in my balls. “ I’m not…”

She came.

Thank . Fucking . God .

She had to leave in my old t-shirt.

We hadn’t thought ahead to grab her clothes, and since she wasn’t willing to put her dress back on, my t-shirt it was.

I walked with her to the house, going to the guest bedroom where she’d gotten dressed.

I sat down on the bed and watched her get dressed.

Jeans and a t-shirt.

Flats .

When her hair went up into a sleek ponytail, she said, “ Are you feeling okay?”

“ Perfectly fine,” I admitted. “ A few tweaks here and there, but ultimately I feel great.”

“ Good ,” she grimaced. “ I don’t like that you’re going back to work Monday .”

I grinned. “ Gotta work to pay for our honeymoon.”

She sighed. “ I know. I’m just scared.”

I caught her by the belt loop and pulled her toward me.

When she was in my arms, I said, “ I promise to always be as safe as I can.”

She twirled a stray lock of my hair around her finger before saying, “ I don’t want to be left alone on this Earth , Gable Carter .”

I smoothed my hand from the back of her knee to her ass and down again. “ Then how about we give you someone to always have with you, just in case?”

“ You mean like a baby?” she asked.

“ I mean like a baby,” I confirmed.

She frowned. “ But we’re both so busy.”

She was right.

We were.

Her with her work as a part-time 911 dispatcher, then the app she created, neighborhood watch meetings, paired with her other hobbies—i.e., her classes that she took for fun.

She had less time than me.

But I truly didn’t want her to be alone.

If I gave her a baby, she’d never be alone again.

She’d always have someone.

Even if, by some horrible stroke of bad luck, I left this world without her.

I wanted her to have someone who would love her unconditionally, just like me.

“ We’re busy, yes,” I pointed out. “ But just sayin’, baby, you could drop the dispatcher position easily. You’ve barely been there these last few months anyway.”

“ That’s true,” she scrunched up her nose. “ They already replaced me. They said I would have a job when I came back but…”

“ Then tell them you’re not coming back,” I stated. “ And , just sayin’, but you don’t live on Eleventh Street anymore. You could totally drop yourself from the neighbored watch leader and just take over as the liaison for all of the watches.”

“ True ,” she said. “ I could ask Nick . He’d love it.”

Nick was nosy as hell.

And a good guy, despite his poor female companionship decisions.

He’d be a great leader of that neighborhood watch.

“ And ,” I said, “you could switch to online classes instead of in person. If we had a baby.”

“ And you?” she asked. “ What are you going to do?”

I still didn’t know.

“ Well , as you know, I don’t plan on doing anything undercover anymore,” I paused. “ I was actually considering moving to Sunnyvale .”

Her eyes opened wide. “ Really ?”

“ Really ,” I said. “ I love DPD , but I’m ready for a quieter life. Plus , I’m not that excited about going back. I’ve already set an interview for tomorrow.”

“ But you go back to work on Monday at DPD .” She looked confused. “ What are you going to do there?”

“ Give my two weeks’ notice if the interview goes as well as I’m expecting it to,” I admitted. “ Dad has me on light duty, anyway. I need to stay there exactly two more weeks to get my ten-year bonus. Then I’m done.”

She shook her head. “ A bonus?”

“ Yep ,” I grinned. “ Enough to pay for a honeymoon.”

Her smile was breathtaking. “ That sounds perfect, Gable .”

That smile fell. “ I got a call today while I was getting ready.”

“ Yeah ?” I asked, not liking the way she’d started that sentence.

I hated when her smiles fell.

“ My sister got her kidney,” she said. “ Surgery went well. My mom called to tell me.”

“ Did you tell her you were getting married?” I asked.

“ No ,” she shrugged. “ I don’t really care anymore, Gable . I don’t want her to know about any of my life events. I’m glad my sister found her kidney and she’ll live, but other than that, I don’t want them anywhere in my life. I’m done with that chapter, and already onto a new one.”

I squeezed her thighs. “ One that’ll be a whole lot better than the last one.”

She stopped with the curling of my hair and said, “ I don’t know. The last chapter was pretty magical. It had some hiccups, but I got you out of it.”

I lifted her to rest on my lap. “ You did, baby. You did.”

“ What do we do now?” she asked, settling fully onto my lap.

“ We live.”