I bounded up the Shady Oaks stairs. After Keagan’s visit, I’d asked Dom to cover for me and took off early. Jade usually got home before midnight, and when I texted to say I’d be early, she’d replied that she had a surprise.

I’d definitely love whatever delectable surprise she’d cooked, but it was Jade I was excited to see.

Keagan’s pressure had me waffling, but seeing Jade would set my priorities straight. I’d promised her. And getting out was what I wanted. No more illegal shit. I was done.

I opened my door. When I saw her, my dick went instantly hard. So hard it was painful to walk. As I crossed toward her, I opened my fly, fumbling to release my pounding cock.

“Happy to see me?” She was naked, her ass tipped up, her lower legs spread wide along the arms of my leather chair, her hands wrapped around the back. And she had a hot-pink sex toy partially inserted into her ass.

Two spheres and a disk protruded from her butt, and I had no idea how much of the thing was inside her.

“Shit, Jade.” I kicked off my jeans.

She wiggled her ass. “I’ve been playing around. Trying to get ready to take your cock.”

“Baby, I was teasing about that. I’m way too big for your asshole.” Putting my hands on her hips, I slid them up her back and around to her tits. Then I bent over to kiss her, our tongues hard and aggressive as we ravaged each other’s mouths, stole each other’s breaths.

If this was Jade’s way to surprise me when I came home from work, then I hoped she’d be surprising me for the rest of our lives.

She pulled away from the kiss, resting the top of her head on the back of the chair, her lips swollen, her chest heaving as she panted. “Fuck me, Nick. Now. I need to feel you inside me.”

“And this?” I lightly touched the end of the plug, and her body jerked in response.

“Push it in.” Her voice was breathy. “It’s all lubed up, but I only managed the first bulb myself.”

The joined bulbs sticking out were about three quarters of an inch in diameter. Less than half my girth, but still they seemed big for her tight little asshole.

“Are you sure?”

“Push it in me, then let’s fuck. I want you to fuck me with the plug inside.”

I noted a bottle of lube on the floor beside the chair, but the dildo looked plenty slick.

One hand on her belly for leverage, I pushed down on the disk, and the bead closest to her body pressed against the tight opening. Her body arched, and she moaned.

“Too much?” I asked.

She shook her head, so I pushed harder and the orb popped inside.

“Ahhh.” Her back undulated.

“Maybe that’s enough.”

Again she shook her head, so I pressed until the last one slipped inside, the disk snug against her.

She arched back, her folds glistening, and she reached for her clit. “Get inside me—now.”

Holding her shoulder with one hand, I guided my dick slowly into her wet pussy, sensitive that I’d be sharing space in her body with that silicon plug.

Her entrance was slick, but tighter than usual, and she yelped slightly when I pushed in my thick tip.

I pulled out.

“Nick. It’s okay.” She circled her clit with her fingers.

I eased in again, moving slowly, not wanting to take her fully until we both got used to the smaller space. She rocked back, forcing me in deeper.

I groaned at the pleasure. “Fuck, Jade. You feel so good, baby.”

She murmured in response and wiggled her ass, tightening around me.

Taking hold of her tits, I scissored her nipples between the index and middle finger of each hand, playing with the hard nubs, loving how her body reacted.

Her nipples wedged between my fingers, I pushed inside her. I kept it shallow at first, but soon we found a rhythm together, me tugging her tits as she rocked back, balanced on the chair’s arms, to meet my thrusts.

With each pass, she got wetter and I got deeper and the pleasure rushing through me was almost too much to bear.

It was so much my body’s needs took control, and my hands slid from her tits to her hips to help me pump. Fuck. I spread my legs to get a better position and thrust mercilessly, losing myself, losing my mind, losing all sense of what I was doing, focused only on how good it felt.

Her knee slid off the arm of the chair. I slipped out.

I caught her. Then, moving in tandem, we shifted so she was bent across the side of the chair, her hips and belly on the arm. She was positioned low for my height, so I had to lean over her body to grab the arm on the other side to balance.

“Okay?” I asked, huskily.

She nodded beneath me, and I thrust, determined to take her more slowly this time.

But soon my hips were moving faster and harder than I thought possible, like my muscles were controlled by a machine. The top of my dick scraped the butt plug base on some passes, reminding me of how my body weight was pressing on that extra phallus as mine drove relentlessly inside her.

She cried out as she came, and I slowed to feel her orgasm spasm around me. Her body jerked and convulsed, and then using her arms, she pushed herself back, driving me in even deeper.

I lost my shit, too. My back tensed and joined with my hips and thighs to thrust beyond my control as I shot what felt like a gallon of come deep inside her. Then I collapsed, panting, sweating, so thirsty I could barely open my mouth once I closed it.

Aware my body weight could literally crush her, I slid slowly back and lifted her into my arms, and then I dropped onto the chair, pulling her down to sit on my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck, breathing so fast, her body slicked with our sweat.

I kissed her, but with both of us breathing so heavily it was hard to use our tongues with much fervor. Nevertheless, we nipped and licked and chewed on each other’s lips as our bodies and minds came down from the mind-blowing high.

She adjusted herself on my lap and I felt the end of the plug on my thigh.

“It’s still inside,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“It sure is.” She wiggled.

I carried her to the sofa where we had more room to maneuver, and then I put my hand on the plug. “Ready to take it out?”

Shaking her head, she twisted around so she was lying on her belly across my legs.

“Do you want me to spank you or something?”

She giggled. “I hadn’t thought of that…” She looked back over her shoulder and winked. “Maybe later. Can you fuck my ass a little? It feels good stuck in there. But I wonder…”

I tugged on the base and twisted.

Even with that small movement, her back arched, forcing her ass up, and her tight nipples rubbed against my thigh. She sighed with pleasure.

Goddamn, she was hot. I pulled the plug until the first bulb popped out, then I pushed it back in. She gasped and squirmed, so I did it—over and over—relishing her body’s reactions as she rubbed her tits on the sofa and moaned at each movement.

When she seemed used to the shallow plunging, I tried pulling out two orbs at once, pushing them back in slowly, one at a time, marveling at how the tight muscles of her little bud yielded to each ball’s intrusion and then clamped hard around the thinner rod joining them.

“Fuck yeah,” she said. “I can’t wait to feel your cock back there.”

“Baby, I’m quite a bit thicker than this.” I pulled out two balls.

“Oh!” She sighed, long and hard, as I pushed them back in. “I know. That’s why the practice.”

I pulled out the entire butt plug, then pushed it in all at once. Crying out, she pressed her ass up against my hand, moaning.

She reached for her clit, but I put my hand over hers.

“Let me.” She pressed her face into the sofa cushions, moaning as I worked the plug and rubbed her clit. The phallus moved now with less resistance, or maybe I was using more force, it was hard to tell, but I drove the thing in and out of her at a faster pace, loving how her ass cheeks pinked, how her lower back slicked with sweat.

“I’m going to come!” she groaned into the sofa cushions.

Her hips pumped, so fast I had trouble keeping my hands connected to her body, but I continued to rub her sensitive bud while working the plug. She cried out my name, over and over, then collapsed across my legs.

We’d ended with the plug halfway out, so I removed it, and she turned on her side, chest toward me, curled up on my lap, her body still heaving.

My dick was semi-hard from watching her pleasure, and she pulsed her body, slowly stroking the building erection between us. Lifting her, I took her mouth with mine as she repositioned herself astride me. We held each other like that, my dick wedged between us as we stroked each other’s bodies, breathing in tandem. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect moment.

But it got even more perfect when I thought about a lifetime of perfect moments like this before us.

“We need water.” I shifted her to the side.

I filled two big glasses in the kitchen, and she slid astride me when I returned and we drank.

I kissed her, then pulled her higher on her knees so I could taste her tits. I sucked one nipple into my mouth, then the other, while cupping her ass. She leaned back, and I leaned with her, not wanting to let my mouth lose connection with those sweet buds.

I was fully erect, but so focused on sucking her nipples that I barely registered when she slipped the head of my cock inside her and used gravity to ease her way down.

I held her close as she slowly rocked, pulsing her pelvis forward and back and around. My dick seated deep, we were barely moving, but the slight friction accompanied by her tight inner squeezes were as much pleasure as when I’d been fucking her hard. Maybe more pleasure.

Not more, just different. Equally fucking fantastic.

“I quit my job,” she said, looking into my eyes.

“What?” I stilled her hips, loving the sensation of her wet tunnel tight around me, even without movement. “It’s only been a week. How come?”

She adjusted herself slightly. “It didn’t feel right.”

“I thought you loved that job.”

“I did, I do. But I don’t love the way I got the job. And I found out I made three times what the other prep cooks made. Most of them worked their way up to prep, doing dishes or other minor tasks before they got to touch food—even the ones who’ve gone to culinary school—and… I just don’t want to owe anyone, you know?”

I nodded. I knew exactly what she meant. I started to doubt whether Nicola could or would carry out all her threats if I quit. Why would she go to all that trouble over a bouncer? More likely she got off by holding power over others. Making me do what she wanted.

I wanted to get out from under Nicola’s threats, away from the club, away from Shady Oaks, but how would we live, especially now Jade wasn’t working?

“Were you serious about my moving in with you?” Jade asked, her hips circling. “Because, cheap as it is here, it seems foolish to pay two rents when we’re always together.”

I cupped her head in my hands. “You mean it?” Happiness thrust through me, making my hips rise and my dick pulse inside her.

“Surprise!” she said.

“That’s my surprise?” I laughed and then kissed her, long and deep. “Fuck, baby. Coming home to a butt plug sticking out of your ass wasn’t enough?”

“Oh, that?” She bit her lower lip and ground against me, her pelvis circling. “That was for me. All day at work, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Your cock. And it got worse when I got home. I was so horny, but knew if I sprang my news first, you’d want to put talking ahead of fucking. I wasn’t about to risk that.” She slid her pelvis tight against me and sighed.

“You’re amazing,” I said.

“Your cock is amazing.”

“Just my cock?”

“All of you. Fuck, Nick. All my life”—she moved against me, increasing the friction between us—“I never thought I’d find someone, let myself trust someone…”

“I know, baby, I know.”

I held her hips as she circled them slowly, and looking into her eyes, I saw our future. Happy, but struggling.

“What if we had a hundred grand?” I asked her.

“Like from the lottery or something?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“That’s a fun game.” She kissed my neck and pumped, fucking me faster.

Taking her hips, I stilled them. “Seriously. What would we do if we had that kind of money?”

“See what I mean?” She grinned. “You’re all about the talking.”

I laughed. “Answer me. Then, more fucking.”

“You’re resorting to blackmail? Holding your cock hostage in exchange for serious conversation?” She gave me the finger as her insides tightened around me.

I grinned. “The way I see it, you’re the one holding me hostage.”

She smiled and tried to move, but I held her down tightly, our pelvic bones hard together.

“Okay, if we’re playing this game,” she said, “I know exactly what we’d do.”

“Tell me. Then you can move.”

“We’d open our own place.” She kissed my neck. “We’d serve breakfast, close for the middle of the day, then do dinner, and after that maybe dancing. I’d run the kitchen—”

“And I’d be the bouncer.”

She shook her head. “You’d be the manager. Run the place. Everything but the kitchen.”

“Now you’re really in fantasy land.”

“Don’t think I could do it?” she asked.

“I’m sure you could.” I slid one of my hands up to fondle her tit.

I flicked her nipple and she arched back.

“The fantasy part was about me. A manager? Come on.”

She put her hands on my face. “Nick. You have no idea how smart you are. You know how to treat staff, how to manage the bar. Everyone at Solid Gold relies on you more than you realize. You think they go to Stan with their problems?”

She was serious. I could see it in her eyes, and I loved how she saw me for more than I was. More than life, I wanted to live up to her expectations, to make her happy.

“What if I could get my hands on a hundred grand? For real.”

“You promised.” Her hips stopped circling and she frowned. “No more shit with your brothers.”

“I know.” I stroked down her back to my favorite spot at the bottom. “But it would be the last time, and the payoff is huge. Plus I owe them.”

Shaking her head, she tried to back off my cock, but I held her tight. “What, Nick? What do you owe them? From everything you’ve told me, all your brothers have ever done is use you. Make you do things for them against your will.”

“They don’t use me.”

“Come on. They use you for your size, your strength. They treat you like you’re an animal, not a person.”

“That’s not fair. Plus, my strength is, well, my strength.” I tugged her against me to make my point. “It might be what I’m good at, but we all have our things. Do we use Keagan for his planning, Mac for his knack at making deals to fence things? Use Dill for his ability to disable security systems and hack into shipping manifestos? Fuck, even Shane has his role.”

“Doing drugs?”

I frowned. “No. Shane sees opportunities and he’s fucking brave and loyal.”

She’d gone completely still on top of me, and I realized I’d raised my voice. Her expression was hard to read, but I wasn’t finished. “You don’t get it, Jade. You can’t. You don’t have brothers.”

“No, but I have a sister and—”

“Yes!” I nodded. “Tell me that Crystal doesn’t use you! That your dad doesn’t. Fuck, Jade, you do way more for them than I do for my brothers. You must get how hard this is for me. They’re my family.”

“I get that you love them.” Her expression softened a little. “And I love how you’re loyal. Really.” She shook her head and looked up to the ceiling for a few moments. “I won’t stop you if this is what you want, but just know—You know where I stand.”

“You want me to choose between you and my brothers.”

“No, Nick.” Her eyes pleaded with me. “I’m not asking you to choose between your brothers and me, I’m asking you to choose between your brothers and you. Put yourself at the top for a change. Do what you want, not what they want, or even what I want. I want you to choose you.”

I kissed her, taking her head in my hands so I could fully consume her. I loved this woman so much. Loved how she believed in me, believed I could be more than just muscle, and I wanted to do everything for her, to be everything for her. I wanted to fulfill all her dreams.

As we kissed, her hands slid to my shoulders and she started to pump on my cock.

I flipped her onto her back and, moving one of my legs to the floor, I drove into her with long, hard drives. But still I wanted to take her more deeply. I wanted my entire body inside of Jade. I tucked her legs up by her ears, trapping them there with my arms as I looked into her eyes and thrust.

How the fuck did I get so lucky, finding a woman so flexible and strong, so funny and sensitive, so independent and fierce, plus—bonus points—she could cook. I’d never felt so cared for, so needed, so loved—so seen.

We were both close to the edge, her cheeks red, her lips open and panting. My brain told me to slow down, to make the fucking go on forever, but my body took control of my hips, and I came, shouting her name as she exploded around me, milking my cock, the insides of her cunt the only part of her body able to move as I had her trapped beneath me.