OWNING THE GYM FOR THE most part has been smooth sailing since using Thorn’s buy-in money from the construction company for renovations, but that doesn’t mean I don’t constantly have things to fucking fix. Today it’s the showers, tomorrow it will be something different, I’m sure.
I’ve been working on this for two hours when I hear Evan yell from the doorway, “Hey boss, I’m about to leave. Want me to lock the front door?”
“Yeah, turn off the front lights too, please. See you tomorrow.”
“Got it. See you tomorrow.”
I chip away a few of the wall tile and dig behind it until I uncover the water pipe running to the mounted shower head, attempting to find the leak and fix it without having to spend a fortune calling a plumber. They earn their money, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep from paying out in services. That’s why I’ve learned to do just about everything to self-sustain this place.
Shining my flashlight down into the wall, I see water spraying from an elbow connector. I grab my wrench and try to wiggle the pipe and connector in case it’s just gotten loose, but when I do, water starts spraying everywhere.
I drop my tools and make my way back to the maintenance room, locating the main water valve and shutting it off.
When I walk back to the showers, I see Lydia standing in the doorway.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey. Was the front door unlocked?” My brow furrows. She takes in my appearance, white t-shirt and gym shorts clinging to me from all the water.
“Evan was locking up when I got here. Is that okay?”
“Of course.” I lean in and kiss her cheek. “I’ve got a busted water line. Should have it fixed in a minute.” I walk into the shower room and she follows.
“Need some help?”
I turn and look at her, eyes perusing her body, taking in the dress slacks and sweater she’s wearing.
“Just have a seat over there or you’ll end up soaked like I am.”
“It’s not a bad look on you.”
I shoot her a one-sided grin, my fingers itching to touch her already. “Oh yeah? In that case, stay close. I may have to get you wet after all.”
She smiles, sitting on one of the tile benches outside the shower. I gather the tools I need and begin working on removing the cracked elbow. “So how did today go?”
“Way better than I expected. The doctor says she is doing great, and she held Liam today.”
I can hear the emotion in her voice. I swallow thickly, human and all too aware of how emotional today must’ve been for her. Pulling the old elbow off, I reach down and grab the new one, applying some liquid sealant to the threads.
“So how do you feel? Are you okay?” I ask, knowing she didn’t sleep good last night and she probably hasn’t eaten or thought about herself for a second during all of it.
“I’m perfect. I just can’t believe it’s all finally coming together.” She pauses for a second. “I thought she was gone forever, that if she did come back she would be scarred. But she’s perfect. Well, I mean, she hasn’t regained her voice, and it will take some time to regain her strength, but she will. And that’s all that matters.”
I connect the new elbow to the pipe, securing it in place. I turn and look at her. She’s so damn gorgeous it nearly takes my breath. Standing, I walk to her and squat.
“She’s so damn lucky to have you, Lydia.” I rub my hands up and down her thighs, pulling her closer to me. “You’ve done more for her than most people do in a lifetime.”
“So have you, and you don’t even know her. I can’t wait for the day that I can tell her who you are and all you’ve done for me and Liam.” She cups my face, leaning down to kiss me. Her lips taste like the only place I want to be, like the only thing worth having in this life. I press my forehead to hers for a second, knowing the weight of the day is heavy on her shoulders, wanting to take some of it from her.
“Wait, where is Liam?” I pull back and look at her.
“Actually, he’s spending the night with Liz and Aston.”
My eyes widen. “Please tell me that means I get you all to myself.”
“I guess if you want me.”
I lean in and kiss her deeper, showing her that I want nothing more.
“Here.” I pull her up from the bench and position her in the shower with the flashlight. “I just need to know if I’ve got this fixed, then we can leave and I can take you on a proper date. Just shine this down and let me know if any water comes out when I turn the main valve back on.”
I jog to the maintenance room and squeeze in the back corner, turning the water valve to the on position. As soon as I do, I hear swearing and squealing coming from the showers, so I jog back. When I round the corner, Lydia is soaked head to toe, frantically turning the knobs on the wall, trying to turn the overhead stream off.
“Oh shit, Lydia. I’m so sorry.” I can’t help it. I burst into laughter and she glares at me as the water finally stops. “I swear, I didn’t realize it was left on.”
“Sure, like I would believe that in a million years.” She reaches down and scoops water from the floor, flinging it at me as if she could get me any wetter than I already am. I rush her, wrapping my arms around her and pinning her against the wall. She squirms and slaps at my arms, laughing but still pissed. Her fight dies, stilling her a little as she adjusts in my arms.
“Well, I guess it’s fixed, asshole. Now how am I supposed to leave like this?” She laughs pulling at her sweater, the thick, heavy fabric slapping as it falls back down. I run my hands up her sides beneath it, pushing it up and over her head. Amusement leaves her features, replaced with heat when her eyes look into mine.
“We need to get you out of these wet clothes first, then I don’t think either of us will care about leaving.” My hands drift up her ribs, thumbs brushing the taught peak of her nipple through the sheer material of her bra. A droplet of water drifts down her neck and I bend to lick it from her skin, a pleased gasp leaving her mouth. She reaches for the hem of my t-shirt, peeling the fabric from my skin as she pulls it over my head. I grab her ass through her wet slacks, pulling her into the hard ridge of my dick through my gym shorts. She tugs at my hair, pulling me away from her neck and up to look at her.
“This is all I want. I want you to take me everywhere, Stone.” She leans in and kisses me, tugging my bottom lip as she leans into my ear. “I want you to mark me everywhere.”
I wrap her legs around me, carrying her out of the shower room and into the training room and down on the mats.
As soon as she’s flat on her back, I press between her legs, grinding against her, too impatient to wait to feel her. She locks her feet behind me, shifting her weight enough to roll us, leaving her on top and looking like every fucking wet dream I’ve ever had combined. Her nails trail down my chest, across my stomach and to the waistband of my shorts where she dips them just underneath, back and forth, torturing me. I try to sit up.
“We don’t have time for this, I want to be inside you. Now.”
She pushes me down. “You will be inside me.” Her smile is so evil as she dips her head that my fucking balls ache. She grabs me through the soaking wet material of my shorts and I groan, so ready to feel her skin-on-skin. When she pulls my shorts down my hips and wraps her fingers around me, it’s so much better than I expected, like I hadn’t felt her touch for months instead of hours.
She runs the flat of her tongue over the head, tasting me like her favorite ice cream.
“I’ve craved the taste of you,” she says low and desperate, her breath falling on the wet surface of my cock. “Ever since the day in the hotel.” She sinks her mouth all the way down and I clench my fists to keep from thrusting deeper. God. Damn.
I can’t help it, I run my fingers through her hair, gripping the back of her head, my dick hitting the back of her throat.
“Lydia, I need to move. Your fucking mouth—”
Her cheeks hollow as she sucks me to the hilt, gagging as my hips thrust upward. And fuck me if I don’t love the sound of her taking all of me.
A line of saliva falls from her mouth, warm and slick down the length of me, her hand gripping me tightly as she strokes me rough. Up and down. Eyes hooded and drilling into mine from above me and I’ve never seen a sexier fucking sight.
I grab her hips and flip her on her back.
“I could live inside your fucking mouth. You know that?” I say from my knees above her, ripping her pants down her hips and throwing them to the side. I rip her panties off, fingers running down the line of her from her ass back up to her clit. “You want me to take you everywhere, Lydia?” I finger her pussy, pulling out of her and running a finger over her ass. She nods as my finger lingers. I lean down to her parted lips, brushing mine over them. “You sure about that? You want to do this now? Here?” Adding pressure, my finger slips past the tight barrier, inching further and further, a gasp escaping her lips. When she doesn’t answer, I slip it the rest of the way in.
“Ah. God, Stone.”
“Is that a yes?” I circle her clit with my thumb, bending to suck her nipple through the thin material of her bra.
“Yes. Yes, that’s a yes.”
I pull out of her ass, thrusting two fingers in her pussy, spreading her wetness and plunging the same two fingers back in her ass. Her nails dig into my shoulders.
“Does it hurt?”
“I want you to hurt me,” she answers. I grab her chin.
“I’ll hurt you, goddess, but I don’t want to hurt you. So, answer my question.”
Her eyes look deep into mine, hers morphing to the color of sapphires.
“No. It feels good.”
“Good. Cause I’m going to flip you over and fuck your ass like I know you want me to because I feel like a fucking animal right now. Then after that, I’m going to take you home to my bed and make love to your pussy like you deserve, goddess. You good with that?”
“So good.” Her words are quiet, breathy and so full of lust. I reach down and take off her bra, leaving her completely naked and bare to me, running the tip of my tongue over the tip of each nipple before flipping her over.
“Ass in the air.”
She gets on her knees, back arched, legs wrapped behind my thighs. I wrap her hair around my wrist, the moan she emits letting me know I’m doing it just the way she wants. It unnerves me, makes me feel vicious and untamed. I tug gently, turning her face up toward me.
“I want your eyes on mine while I sink into you.”
She licks her lips as I rub the head of my dick up and down her slick heat, spreading her warmth up and over her ass. When I press the tip inside, slow, giving her body time to adjust, her eyes nearly close.
“Lydia.”
Her eyes snap to mine. “If I hurt you and you don’t tell me, I’ll never fuck you like this again.” She nods her head briefly and I press forward fractionally, easing out a little and back in a little more.
“Stone, kiss me,” she pleads. I lean down and kiss her neck, her jaw, then her lips possessively, my tongue plunging into her mouth as my dick fills her.
“God, Lydia. Please tell me I’m not hurting you,” I say into her mouth. “It feels…fucking good.”
“I want more. All of you.”
If it weren’t Lydia, just some random woman, I’d think she were asking for more of cock. But when she says it, I know there is more behind those words.
My vision blurring, her head falling to the mat, arms flat above her head. I ease in and out of her, finding a rhythm and trying to gain my composure. But it’s so good. I pick up my pace, slapping the flesh of her ass as I do.
“Again.” Her voice cracks like a whip. “Fuck. Harder. Please.” Each word punctuated, clipped and deserving of its own complete thought. I give her what we both want, my hips slamming into her, the slap of my hand across the pink flesh of her ass like the crack of fireworks each time it makes contact.
Her legs start to shake, mirroring the way every part of me feels as I kiss down the line of her back. The burn of heat strikes to life deep in my core and I sit up straighter on my knees, wrapping an arm under her and pulling her up from the mat with me.
“I want you to come with me.”
I reach between us and stroke her clit with two fingers, easing out and slamming into her.
“Oh God, I’m—” She reaches behind her, fingernails digging into the flesh of my thigh. She moans, lips parted, watching me over her shoulder.
“Fuck, goddess,” I groan, filling her, feeling each roll of her coming around me. In the silence of the eternity it takes us both to catch our breath, I can feel how rough I was with her. I reach over and grab my shirt, easing out of her and placing it between her legs in my absence.
She rolls to her back, looking up at me with sated satisfaction in her eyes. Reaching up to cup my neck she pulls me down to her, taking my lips with hers.
“So much for taking you out on a proper date, huh?” I say with a laugh.
“Hell, I can take myself to the movies, but I can’t do that, so I’d say you are the king of dates.”
I stroke the high rise of her cheekbone, really looking her over.
“Are you okay?”
She cups her hand over mine.
“I’m better than okay.” She grins, biting the inside of her lip. “But the question is, how the hell are we going to get our naked asses out of here?”
I laugh, leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips.
I push myself off the floor, looking around my empty gym and smiling to myself as I head to grab some clothes from my locker.
I’ll sure as fuck never be able to look at this place the same again.
After giving an overly excited Bruno a little attention when we got to my house last night, I kept my word and took her up to my bed, making love to her slow, worshiping her and hoping that with every touch she could feel what she was doing to me. You really don’t know what love is until you know what it’s not, and now I know that what I feel for her is something I never have.
I fell asleep with her in my arms thinking I was in love with her, but woke to her still wrapped in me, knowing that I am.
As we pull up to drop Bruno off at Jerry’s, and I see the look on Celia’s face as Lydia gets out of the truck, and I’m met with the reality of it.
“Morning, Mom,” I say, taking the trash bag from her hand and kissing her cheek. She wipes her hands on her apron and smooths it back in place. She extends her hand to Lydia.
“Celia Sorrels. Nice to meet you.”
“Lydia Norberg. Pleased to meet you as well.”
Celia looks at me questioningly as I place the bag in the large trashcan, placing the lid back tight.
“We were going to go for a run then hit the pier since the weather is nice. I’d say sixty in February is a record.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely a record. Do you have time for a cup of coffee before you hit the road?” She looks at me as I open the back gate and send Bruno inside. Lydia smiles at me.
“Why don’t we make plans to have dinner or something soon, Mom? We really gotta get going right now.” I cringe on the inside, knowing Mom is dying to ask a million questions. She’s doing a crazy good job of keeping her cool, though, considering I’ve never brought a woman to her house before.
“So, if I switch shifts with someone and cook you dinner, you will actually show up and bring her with you?” She glares at me, knowing there is no way in hell I could deny her. I look over at Lydia who answers for me.
“I don’t know about him, but you can definitely count me in.”
Mom beams at her.
“Just call me and let me know when. I’ll be back to get Bruno later.”
“It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Sorrels,” Lydia says as we turn to head to the truck.
“Celia, dear. I’ll see you soon.”
We wave to Mom as we get in.
I brace myself for the list of questions I expect Lydia to ask, but she doesn’t. Instead she reaches for my arm, pulling it to her and tracing the lines of my tattoos with her finger.
“Your tattoo has healed up good. Think you’ll get anymore?” I ask her, feeling the need to fill the silence that I usually prefer. She nods.
“I want to get something that symbolizes this time in my life. I think this last year deserves to be marked on my skin forever. Although, I guess in a way it kind of has.”
“How’s that?”
“That’s why I didn’t disagree with you when you told Consolo to do florals on my shoulder. Madi’s a photographer and she does a lot of landscapes and florals. When he showed me what he drew, it just felt right.”
I know exactly what she means. Sometimes, the things that feel the most right are the things we didn’t plan, the things we didn’t see coming that blindside us completely.
“Change of plans,” I say, taking a left at the light.
“Okay. What are we doing?”
“I think we can skip the run. I’m taking you on a proper date. That okay with you?”
“Is this code for a repeat of last night?” She nudges my shoulder.
“No. I mean it. Let’s walk around the pier, drink some beer, eat some food. Take advantage of today.”
She looks out the windshield and nods. “Okay, but only on one condition.” She looks over at me. “You have to ride the Ferris wheel with me.”
I immediately start shaking my head. “No deal. I’m scared of heights.”
“You? Pfft, I didn’t think you feared anything.”
“I’m scared of two things. Heights—” Now I look over at her. She eyes me curiously. “And you.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I could fall hard from either one.”
The pier is covered with people enjoying the rare February weather. The smells of food, the music and the chatter all around us as we walk in our own silence could almost fool you into believing it’s close to summer.
“What are your plans?” Lydia asks from beside me. I look over at her. “I mean, business wise. I can only imagine at the rate Chicago seems to grow that there isn’t a lack of jobs to contract. But I was just curious what your long-term goals are. I’ve been thinking about my own a lot lately.”
“And what have you come up with?” I ask.
“Oh, no you don’t, master deflector. You first.”
“You’re a tough cookie.” I nudge her. “ Ah. I don’t know. I have aspirations I guess, but as far as a set plan, I’m just trying to make something of myself.”
“I’d like to hear about these aspirations.”
“You want to sit?” I point to a round table along the railing overlooking the water. I pull out her chair and she sits. She gives me an expectant look, letting me know she isn’t going to drop it. I chuckle. “Hopefully, one day I want to grow the contracting company to a point where Thorn can buy me out and I can focus on what I really want to do. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the city, leave my mark and build skyscrapers. But honestly, the gym is where my heart is. There’s lots of kids out there that need a place to go, a lot of kids that don’t have father figures in their life that get picked on at school that need to learn how to stand up for themselves, but also be trained enough to know that violence isn’t the answer.”
She stares at me for a long minute and unease grows in the pit of my stomach. She makes it easy to talk to her, but I feel like maybe I just said too much. Either that or I’m misreading the look on her face.
“You surprise me every day,” she states simply, looking down, running the tip of her finger around the lines of the rod iron table. “It’s so crazy that we come from such different places, but want the same things.”
“What things are those?”
“I’m sure it’s hard to believe, but I didn’t become an attorney to follow in my dad’s footsteps. He and Aston are two of the best criminal law attorneys around, but I’ve always wanted to focus on human rights and civil law. The thought of having the opportunity to help those who can’t help themselves is where my heart is. There needs to be more willing to stand up for what’s right and I want to be one of them. There aren’t a lot of kids that grew up as lucky as I am, but with the right person in their corner, a change can happen.”
The unease in my gut transforms into admiration. It seems so natural that all I want to do is lean over the table and kiss her, tell her I’m proud of her, that I’m here to support her and that I know she can do everything she just said and more. But I just look at her, taming my smile and trying to keep from getting lost in her. She looks out at the water, breaking our stare, both of us feeling the depth of it. After a while, she breaks the silence.
“What changed your mind last night? I’ve gone over all the opportunities we’ve had to be together, and I guess I just can’t cipher out what separated those times from last night.” Her eyes move from the water to me.
“Last night I knew you wanted me. Not who you thought I was, but who you knew me to be. Given the circumstances, I knew I had to let you get to know the real me or this would never work.” My answer is swift and honest.
“I never knew you wanted this to work. I always just assumed you were looking for a good time.”
“I was.” I lean forward, elbows on the table and coming closer to her. “Until I got to know you, then you made me want to prove myself, not just to you, but to me.” With every word a little bit of the weight in my chest falls away.
“Then why does it feel like there’s an elephant following us around?”
I look around, scratching my head.
“Ha. Ha. You know it as well as I do, I can see it when you look at me.”
“I think there is still a lot you don’t understand about how shit works where I come from.”
“Then why don’t you explain it to me?”
“Because I think you’d run, and I don’t want you to.” I look away, needing a second after basically bearing myself to her. “There’s a part of me that feels like I need to fight the way things are done, try your way for a change. But then I remember who I’m dealing with and I know they would win.”
“Our justice system serves a purpose, Stone. It’s in place for a reason, but you have to let it do its job.”
“The justice system doesn’t always work in the favor of people like me, Lydia. But don’t think I haven’t thought about it a hundred times. I have. I think about it a lot, especially over these last couple of days. That if I want to keep you, that’s what I have to do.” I keep my eyes on the crowd of people that seems to grow by the minute, unwilling to let her see the war in my eyes.
She reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “Look, no decisions have to be made tonight. Tonight, we need to act like crazy non-parents who have the night out. So, you better show me a good time.”
I smile, releasing a heavy breath of relief. “Is that right? Maybe I should say the same for you.”
“And if I fail to do so?”
“Then I’ll punish you.”
“Then prepare for a really, really bad time.”
I pull her up and kiss her, slapping her ass forward. “Get to it then. Beer first.”