Chapter 41

Delilah

“Does he always do that?” I ask around a bite of burger.

“I told you he was useless,” Lawson says with a chuckle, but he tosses Raider a French fry anyway.

“I love that you have a dog,” I tell him after a quick sip of my drink.

Raider catches another fry with a quick snap of his jaw. “I always liked dogs, but I began to love them when I helped you at the animal shelter.”

For the first time, I don’t stiffen when he references our time then.

I pat Raider’s head and give in when all he wants to do is lick my fingers. “I wanted a dog when I moved here, but I knew I didn’t have enough time for one. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“You can visit him anytime,” he tells me with a smile on his face. “If you moved in…”

“Too soon,” I mutter, but there’s no venom in my voice.

“Never,” he whispers, which is just barely audible over the sound of him crushing the take-out trash in his big hands and walking to throw it away.

“What now?” I ask when he returns from the kitchen.

“Stay the night with me?”

I grin.

“Please? I sleep better with you in my arms.”

I melt into a puddle on his damn couch.

“And you think you’ll get any sleep if I stay?”

His teeth scrape over his bottom lip, and I long for that on my nipples, my clit.

“Eventually,” he says as he prowls closer.

“I thought I was on a cock light diet.”

His hand cups my cheek as he leans down and brushes his lips across mine. “I thought I mentioned a cheat day.”

“So I go back on a diet tomorrow?”

He shakes his head. “Three nights is my limit.”

Smiling against his lips, I twine my arms over his shoulders and around his neck. “We had sex here before you went all caveman and showed up at my apartment. So it’s only been two nights.”

“I’m a weak man.”

My fingers flex on the corded muscle at his nape.

“You feel incredibly strong to me.”

“You flatter me, baby.” With this, he lifts me from the sofa. My legs, instinctively, wrap around his waist as he carries me down the hall.

“So strong.” I nip at his chin and slide my hand down until I’m gripping his length. I moan at the brush of my own hand against my panties. “Every long, thick inch of you.”

“I love it when you touch me,” he hisses into my neck when I squeeze him harder. “Love it when I wake in the morning, and your scent is all over my skin.”

“I love you,” I confess.

“Baby.” His voice cracks as he’s unable to hide his emotion over my words.

I move my body with him as we strip each other naked before falling onto his bed. When he nibbles at my breast and presses inside of me, I finally feel complete. I’m whole after having been shattered and broken for such a long time

“Every day,” he vows against my throat when he pushes to the hilt. “Every single day for the rest of my life, I need this with you.”

I clench around him, my body agreeing before I can find the words. His back arches when my short nails scrape down his spine, and it drives him even deeper.

“You’re close,” he predicts with the truth. “You get hotter, tighter.”

I moan my response.

“Fuck, baby. I’m going to come inside of you.”

“Please,” I beg.

The bite of his teeth on my neck beckons me to the edge, and I crash over not even a second later. The trembling of my body is matched by his as we both struggle for breath.

“Tell me again,” he urges after pulling from me and holding me against his chest.

I trace the ridges of his stomach with the tip of my finger. His muscles are rock solid and standing out, the exertion of our love-making acting as an incredible ab workout.

“I love you.”

He holds me even tighter, and as I fall asleep, sated and completely in love, I pray that he never lets me go.

***

“This is lovely,” I say looking around at the small café. “Seems like we’re the wrong clientele though.”

“What do you mean?” Lawson asks as he blows over the top of his steaming hot coffee.

“We’re the oldest ones here, and that’s saying a lot since I’m only nineteen.”

“Just a baby.”

I give him my best, salacious grin and lean in closer. “You didn’t treat me like a baby this morning.”

He clears his throat. “Was I too rough?”

I lick my lips, drawing his attention to them. “I don’t think that’s a possibility, but I still feel you deep inside.”

“Princess,” he warns. “I don’t care if I have to shove a dozen teenage boys out of the bathroom, I’ll fuck you in there if you don’t stop.”

I slip off my flip-flop and run my toe up his leg until my foot is nestled against his hardening cock.

“Make love,” I correct.

“No, baby.” He leans closer, and I mirror his action. “I will stuff your panties in your mouth, hike that too short fucking skirt up, and bend you over the sink. I’ll twist that blonde ponytail around my fist until your back bows to the perfect angle and pound into you until you beg me to stop.”

“There’s your problem,” I coo while stroking his length with my foot under the table. “I’d never beg you to stop.”

“Bathroom, now,” he hisses, but before he can stand fully, a shadow looms over the table.

I look up into the familiar eyes of a boy I never thought I’d see again.

I nearly knock everything over on the table in my rush to get out of the booth and my arms around his neck.

“Drew!”

He squeezes me, holding me against his hard chest. I push back a few inches, my hands placed over muscles he didn’t have a few years ago. His hands slide lower on my back to give me the room I need.

“Nice,” I tell him. I’m beaming, probably looking like an idiot in this café full of adolescents, but I don’t have a care in the world.

“I swear, little brother,” Lawson sneers. “If your hands go any lower you won’t be able to hold your lacrosse stick.”

“He seems as sunshiny as ever,” Drew mutters before giving me another quick hug. As his brother commands, his hands stay where they are.

“He’s very possessive,” I whisper as Drew reaches out and shakes his brother’s hand. Lawson scoots over on his side of the booth, but Drew, being the shit stirrer that he is, sits beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulders. Unconcerned with the mirth and feigned anger on Lawson’s face, I allow Drew to cradle me against his chest.

“Fuck you smell good.”

Lawson chuckles at Drew’s comment, and I kick him under the table. He winks at me, and I pull away from Drew immediately.

“What is that,” Drew asks not giving up.

When his nose sweeps up my neck, inhaling like a maniac, even the smack on his chest doesn’t stop Lawson from growling at his brother.

“Quit,” I tell Drew and scoot a few more inches closer to the wall.

He looks down at me. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.”

He shifts in his seat and swipes a lock of blonde hair behind my ear. A second later he’s being hauled out of the booth and repositioned on the opposite side of the table.

“Get your own,” Lawson says sitting down beside me and practically pulling me into his lap.

A wide grin spreads across Drew’s face, one so similar to the first one Lawson gave me in the dark back home on his first night with us, my breath catches in my throat. Oh, this boy is going to be a lady killer.

“Believe me, big brother, I get plenty.” He winks at me, and all I can do is shake my head and laugh at how even years later he’s riling his brother up. “None as pretty as Delilah though.”

“Stop,” I tell him on a laugh. “Lawson is the most protective man I know.”

“Not even blood will keep me from breaking your hand.” Drew smiles even wider, his eyes never pulling from mine. “Or poking your eyes out if you keep staring at my girl like you want to eat her.”

Lawson slaps the table, making the condiment basket jump an inch when Drew over-exaggerates licking his lips at the suggestion.

His eyes sober when they find his brother’s, and his throat works on a hard swallow. He’s not afraid of Lawson so I know that’s not the cause of his change in emotion. They share a look, Lawson nodding at his brother as he holds me tighter.

“I’m so fucking happy for you.”

Tears clog my throat at witnessing the relief in Drew’s face at finally seeing his brother happy.