Zeke's Secret *Animals MC book 3*

Chapter Eighteen.

Author Note: I just wanted you all to know there is going to be a trailer for this book and I will share it as soon as it's done :)

Zeke woke up first, at first he didn't remember what happened. It was dark outside and shadows raced across his room, he blinked a few times. Had he fallen asleep after Beckys doctor appointment? Suddenly like a freight train it all came rushing back to him. He glanced to his right to see Becky sleeping peacefully beside him, completely naked.

"Shit," He said with a sigh.

He moved slightly, rolling onto his side to face her. He was prepared to wake her up but couldn't do it. She looked so peaceful, so soft asleep next to him. He didn't know what time it was but if memory served him correct they'd been in this bed somewhere around six hours.

He lifted a hand, intending to see if she was hungry but instead settling it on her narrow waist. She made a soft noise but didn't stir otherwise, he let his hand drift to the curve of her hip and paused.

Her skin was so soft, so smooth, so silky beneath his fingertips, just like he remembered it to be when they were younger. His min raced, Ty was out there somewhere trusting him to watch her, to take care of her and this is what happened. Yet, as guilty as he felt, he wasn't ready to leave the bed just yet.

Almost without his permission his hand slid over the tender curve of her hip to the valley between her legs.

"Zeke?" She rolled onto her back, her eyes fluttering open.

He leaned forward and sealed his lips over hers, cutting off her sentence and any protest she might be preparing to make.

Afterwords he lay in bed and held her, his hand stroking through her long black hair and her head resting on his bare chest.

"Zeke?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you....for everything, you didn't have to let me stay here."

"Yeah I did, I almost killed you."

"It was an accident, I don't blame you."

"I do," He admitted.

She fell silent, knowing it was pointless to try and reason with him. Zeke always was a martyr, determined to find fault in himself at every turn. It was one of the things she loved about him.

"We have a picnic, in the morning." He said.

"Where?"

"The clubhouse, it's for Ivan's cousin Ezra."

"I don't have to go...I could stay here."

"No, I want you to go."

"Really?" She turned her head to look up at him.

"Yeah......."

She smiled softly and he placed a kiss on her forehead, he hadn't said he loved her. She murmured it at least a dozen times when they made love but not once had he repeated it. He hadn't asked her to be with him, hadn't mentioned their future, hadn't said anything about them but she still couldn't shake that blossom of hope that maybe this was a new leaf for them.

"Are you hungry?" He asked suddenly.

"A little."

"It's way after midnight, but there's a pizza place that is open 24/7."

"Pizza would be good."

She sat up letting the sheet fall off her body and began digging for her shirt, he sat up behing her pressing a kiss to the side of her neck.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting dressed....to go get pizza."

"We'll have it delivered, you stay right here, right like this."

"But..."

He leaned forward and gave her a quick, passionate kiss effectively cutting off her sentence. He rolled from the bed and grabbed his boxers off the floor, pulling them on as he walked out the hall.

When he returned with two sodas and a pizza she had stolen his shirt and slipped it on her small frame. It fit her more like a dress than a shirt, hanging off one slender shoulder and nearly reaching her knees in length.

"Nice shirt," He commented.

"I can take it off," She said, misunderstanding the comment.

"Trust me...I intend to take it off, but let's eat first."

He set the pizza on the bed near her legs and set the cans of rootbeer on the table next to the bed.

"Root beer and cheese pizza, my favorite." She said.

"I know."

He climbed into the bed next to her, grabbing one of the cans and pressing it to the small of her back. She let out a small shriek and swatted his hand away. He laughed, reaching around her for a slice of pizza. She grabbed the remote from the bedside table, switching on the small television at the foot of the bed and settling back against the pillows.

As he watched her eat her pizza, in his shirt, in his bed, watching a movie he couldn't help but wishing things could be different and like this all the time, but he knew that they just couldn't.

They ate their extremely late and unhealthy supper while watching a horror movie that Zeke picked, hoping the senseless gore would take his mind off of everything. Becky, Ty all of it, when the end credits began rolling he looked over to find Becky fast asleep, still in the sitting up position her chin tipped down at an awkward angle.

He set aside his empty soda can and switched off the television, reaching over and pulling her against his chest. He moved the pillows before gently laying her down in the bed and covering her with the blankets.

She made a soft noise of contentment but didn't stir, he watched her a minute stroking her hair from her face before climbing from the bed. He walked out the hall way barefoot, wearing nothing but his boxers, he didn't turn on the light. He ran a hand along the wall, just under the picture frames.

He stopped near his favorite one, he knew exactly what it looked like. Could practically draw if from memory. Ty and Becky sat on the large porch swing at his parents house, they had their arms around each other and were beaming at the camera. They were sixteen, off to the side stood Zeke, arms crossed pretending he wasn't interested but if you looked close enough you'd see that his eyes were on Becky.

Zeke had decided years ago that he was being ridiculous, she was unattainable by every definition of the word. She was or Ty, she was so good for him. He'd spent so much time with loose women, losing himself in their bodies and pretending that he wasn't fantasizing Becky. At first he'd been freaked out, she was so much younger than him but as much as he ran her memory followed.

The night of his parents funeral he had finally touched the surface of what he really wanted and he could only blame the booze so much. A part of him wanted to know just once what it was like to have her, later he realized his mistake.

He was guilt trodden, there weren't enough women in the world to distract, not enough miles on the road to escape her memory and not enough hot water in the world to get the feeling of her off of his skin. He didn't know what else to do so he turned cold, he pushed her out and he tried his best to convince himself that she was too blame.

She had been a stupid seventeen year old kid, he was a damned adult. He had no body to blame but himself, not then and not now.