Chapter 22

May your coffee kick in before reality does.

-Coffee Cup

Ellen

The door clicked softly behind me as I followed Jessie out.

“You look tired,” I murmured to Jessie’s back as I wrapped my arms around him from behind.

He grunted in agreement.

“I feel fuckin’ worn the hell out,” he agreed immediately, wrapping his large, callused hand around my hands that were locked around his gut. “Didn’t help that today was humid as fuck, though. Wearing that mask and all those clothes makes it hard to breathe as it is. Add in ninety percent humidity like it was today, and I was ready to get the hell gone before I even got started.”

I ran my nose along the muscles of Jessie’s shoulder blades. They rippled underneath me as I did it.

He smelled of Jessie—a light scent of salty sweat, the deodorant that he put on in the mornings after his run, and a spearmint scent that was probably from the gum that he chewed while he was welding.

He hadn’t had a chance to go home and shower, and he was still in his work clothes.

He wasn’t too dirty, though, meaning he actually got to do his job today—which was boss people around instead of covering for someone that didn’t show. That in and of itself was a miracle, because it wasn’t often that everybody showed up.

“My boy have anything else to say to you today?” he questioned me.

I shook my head and let him go, ducking underneath his arm to stop at his side and study Achilles as he made circles around Aaron and Imogen’s small but well maintained yard.

“No, not really,” I shrugged. “I got home from work and he was shut up in his room. He didn’t come out until it was time for us to leave. Though, we did have a fairly good talk on the way here.”

“About what?” He looked down at me, giving me his full attention.

His large brown eyes were almost black in the dim light of the setting sun, and I couldn’t resist leaning up onto my tippy toes to place my mouth against his softly.

“Not about what happened earlier in the day, but about other things. About how he’s not the only one being played like a violin when it comes to his mother and her situation,” I finally said, dropping back down to my heels and willing my belly to stop turning somersaults at Jessie’s nearness. “I explained to him that when he gives in to her by doing what she wants, he is also putting you in the position to do what she wants because you’d do whatever you had to do to make sure he wasn’t hurt. I also told him that she knows all of this, and she’s counting on being able to use him to get to you.”

He snorted in agreement. “You got that right.”

Achilles finally went to the bathroom, then walked over to the steps that led up to the patio area where Jessie and I were standing and collapsed in an exhausted heap at our feet.

“He also told me that he wants to go to school close to home,” I said. “LSU, as a matter of fact.”

He tensed.

“That was where I wanted to go, too,” he said quietly. “That was the one place that I always had my sights set on.”

I smiled gently, giving him a light squeeze where my arm was wrapped around his back. “I know. You used to talk about that place like you wanted to live there. Though, from what I understand, you hadn’t been there but once when you were fourteen.”

He nodded. “I was fourteen. One and only time I’ve ever visited there.”

My smile was sad, because I knew that Jessie was every bit as good of a player as his son. Jessie could have been a star player at Louisiana State University.

“I wish you could have had the same chances that Linc has,” I said. “But, for that to have happened, he wouldn’t be here so I won’t complain. You’ve raised a really great kid, Jessie.”

I found my lips turning up into a grin.

“Kid’s given me more gray hairs in his short life than I ever imagined I’d have,” he commented. “But I wouldn’t trade him for a freakin’ thing.”

“I’m proud of how well you’ve raised him, and you should be, too,” I continued. “He’s polite, respectful and honest. He’s everything that you used to be at his age.”

His lips twitched. “I was a bad kid. Linc, on the other hand, is everything I never got the chance to be.”

***

Jessie

She snorted delicately and turned so her front was pressed against mine. “You were a good kid dealing with a shit situation. You did the best you could with what you were given, and you managed to come out of it on the other side whole. You have a wonderful son who you’ve molded into the fine man he is becoming, and you did it all on your own.”

The last part was said into my chest, and I had to work to keep from growling in appreciation at her words.

“It means a lot to hear you say that, baby,” I rumbled quietly. “Sometimes I think I’ve fucked more things up when raising him than I’ve done right, but I agree, he’s a good kid. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

She tightened her arms around me, and I lifted both of mine to wrap around her back, holding her to me tightly.

“My parents said I would fail,” I told her. “Said I’d kill him in the first two years. I actually saw them a few months ago.”

She stiffened slightly in my arms and looked up at me worriedly. “You’re shitting me.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Saw them at the airport, of all places, right after I moved back down here. They were heading home from a funeral, and I was picking Linc up after he came home from a football camp in Tennessee.”

She tilted her head back and looked up at me. Those hazel eyes of hers were a deep dark green today. “Well?”

I snorted.

“Didn’t even stop to talk to them. Walked right past them while my mother stared at me in shock.”

She touched the silvering hair right at my temple.

“Other than a few lighter hairs,” she teased. “And a few more muscles,” she let her hands trail down my shoulders to my forearms. “You haven’t changed at all in fourteen years.”

I snorted and yanked her even closer.

“You’ve changed,” I told her. “Your thighs are a little thicker,” she gasped in outrage, “and that ass of yours is even juicier than it used to be. When you wear those yoga pants, it makes me want to rip them off and shove my way inside of you.”

She shivered.

“That wouldn’t bother me, to be honest,” she teased, trailing her finger down the center of my chest. “In fact, I’m ready and willing whenever you want me.”

“So like right now?” I asked. “If I asked you if you’d bend over and put your hands against the brick wall, you’d do it?”

She licked her lips.

“In a heartbeat.”

“And if I unbuttoned those jeans and pushed them down to your ankles, and slipped a finger inside of you, you’d let me?”

She buried her face into my neck.

“I’d let you do whatever you wanted to do. If you asked me to jump, I’d ask how high.”

The grin on my face was more of a leer rather than a smile.

When I fisted her hair with one hand, and let my other trail down the length of her backside, coming to a stop with my fingers just barely brushing the seam of her pants just over the heat of her, she started to shake.

“You are mine to do with as I please?” I rasped.

A loud burst of laughter came from the house, and we both froze.

“As long as you keep it to the shadows,” she whispered. “I like your club, but my brother’s one of them, and I’d hate for him to get an eyeful of you shoving that cock into me.”

I growled and moved, pulling her with me further and deeper into the shadows.

“One of these days, we’re going to have spontaneous sex in our bed,” I told her. “But that day’s not today.”

She laughed quietly, gasping lightly when her back met the brick of the house.

I pulled away only long enough to twist her around, and she pressed her face lightly against the brick of Aaron’s house.

“Do it,” she ordered.

I did it, letting my hands trail down over her breasts and waist on my way down to her jeans.

Jeans that weren’t actually jeans.

“They’re leggings,” I growled.

“Yeah.” I could hear the laughter in her voice. “They’re jeggings. Leggings that are made to look like jeans.”

I peeled the leggings down her thighs, stopping only once to run my hand lightly over her rounded ass before I shoved them down to her ankles.

“Beautiful,” I trailed one finger down the crack of her ass, feeling the silky fabric of her thong.

“Hurry,” she ordered.

I smacked her ass.

“Don’t rush me,” I ordered, following up with another smack to the other cheek—just so they’d match.

She breathed out shakily.

I took that as consent and hooked my large fingers into the tiny waistband of her panties, and slowly pulled them down her thighs.

As I moved, I bent down and trailed my tongue down one cheek of her ass, causing her to hiss in a breath.

“Gonna fuck you,” I told her. “And you’re going to be quiet or I’ll stop.”

I sank my teeth into the flesh of her ass, causing her to moan.

“Gonna sink my cock so far inside of you that you’ll feel it in your throat,” I informed her. “You’ll be feeling me for the rest of the night. You’ll have to sit there and speak with your friends—your brother—with the feeling of me still inside of you. And when we get home, I’ll use that wetness to fuck you again.”

A low keen started in her throat.

I stood up and unbuttoned my jeans, the roughened skin of my knuckles brushing painfully against my hardened cock.

The clink of my belt buckle seemed loud in the night, and I could feel tiny goosebumps breaking out over Ellen’s hip where one of my hands rested.

“So do you want it hard and fast?” I pushed my underwear down so that my cock popped free of its confines. “Or do you want it slow and deep?”

I pushed my erection into the soft padding of her ass, biting my lip to hold back the groan of need tearing through me.

“You want to know why I like your ass like this?” I asked.

She shook her head, but didn’t say a word.

“When you were seventeen, you were smoking hot.” I trailed my lips down the side of her face, my beard causing her to breathe out shakily when it met her skin. “But I was always afraid to take you too hard. I was scared to give you all of me because I didn’t want you to break.”

Her shaky words were nothing less than what I expected.

“I won’t break. Then or now.”

I fisted my cock and started to draw a line up and down her ass, painting her flesh with the pre-come that was leaking out of the tip.

Then I lined my cock up with her entrance, and slowly started to push inside.

The position she was in had me entering her differently than I usually did, and my already widespread legs were pushed even further out to accommodate our height differences.

But the moment her wet heat touched the tip of my cock, swallowing it little by little, I no longer cared.

All I wanted was to be enveloped in her heat. To get lost in her and never find my way back out.

“I know you’re on birth control,” I told her. “But when I’m inside of you, bare like this, I want my seed to take root.”

She pushed back against me, causing me to slip further inside of her.

“You like that idea too?” I guessed.

She made an ‘uh-huh’ sound in her throat.

“When you marry me next year,” I said, and she froze. “Yeah, we’re getting married.” I pushed until I was fully inside of her, the curly matte of my pubic hairs pressing against the soft skin of her ass. My balls nestled between the globes of her ass. “I don’t have a ring. Yet. But I will. And when all of this bullshit is finished in my life, we’re going to make this right. You’ll be mine the way you were always supposed to be.”

I pulled out, and then shoved roughly back inside.

“You also never answered me about wanting it rough, or slow,” I pointed out.

“Rough.”

One word, filled with so much emotion, was enough to send my good intentions straight out the window.

Some switch seemed to flip in me, and I began to buck feverishly into her, taking her so roughly that her arms collapsed under the strain.

I saved her from face planting into the brick, but only long enough that she could plant her elbows and brace herself.

I hooked an arm around her waist to help, and then fisted my hand in her messy bun again, pulling her hair back so I could suck lightly on her neck.

“I want to fuck you like this every day for the rest of my life,” I growled, nibbling lightly. “Want to be buried inside of you when you wake up in the morning. See your eyes alight with pleasure as I take you so hard that you can’t draw in a steady breath.”

I bucked my hips, pulling my cock in and out of her tight heat so fast and hard that she could only hold on.

The tight walls of her pussy clung to me like a second skin, protesting when I withdrew, and welcoming me when I pushed back inside.

“And when you’re pregnant with my baby, I’ll bend you over the bed and fuck you just.” Thrust. “Like.” Thrust. “This.”

She came.

She came so hard that it was nearly painful on my end.

Nearly.

The only thing keeping me from coming within seconds of her was wanting to feel her orgasm rush over her. I loved the way her muscles clamped down tight. The way her skin broke out in goosebumps, and the way her breathing would hitch and momentarily stall in her chest.

Then there was her heart, which always started to race.

The way her head would fall backwards, exposing the cords of her neck.

And when that long, low moan left her lips, I finally let go.

Poured myself deep inside of her, where one day my seed would take.

“Oh, God,” I groaned as my ab muscles clenched. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

The growl that left my lips moments later was enough to cause the wolf—which had been lying quietly in the middle of the yard—to perk up.

Then he started to howl.

“Son of a bitch.”

I pulled out of her, causing her to curse and bend for her pants.

The moment we got everything back into place, the back door opened and Tank rushed out, followed by Aaron, Tommy and Big Papa.

I emerged unrepentantly from the shadows and stopped beside Achilles.

Tank was staring at the still howling pup like he was a nuisance that he wanted out of his yard, causing me to grin and bend to pick the beast up. Achilles nestled his head into the crook of my throat and went limp—much like a cat—and the boys that had followed Tank out started to chuckle.

“Looks like you’ll have a lovely wolf for a lapdog once he’s grown,” Big Papa said. “Good luck keeping him off of you.”

I snorted and turned to find Ellen—cheeks pink—standing on the edge of the shadows, a clearly uncomfortable expression on her face.

I grinned, and the grin spread so wide that the men turned around and looked at her, causing her further embarrassment.

“You suck,” she growled under her breath, then turned on her heel and stomped inside.

The men turned and looked at me, Tommy’s eyes narrowed quite a bit more than the rest of them.

“Could we make a promise now that neither one of us does that when the sibling is around, please?” Tommy asked. “I’d hate to walk in on that.”

I grinned. “I don’t know,” I told him bluntly. “I’m not sure if I’d be able to keep that promise.”

Tommy made a gagging sound. “I gotta go back inside. I can’t sit here and look at you right now, knowing what you just did to my baby sister. It makes me want to beat you.”

I started laughing, and Tommy flipped me off.

“You’ll push him too hard one day, son,” Big Papa pointed out. “Then I’ll have to save your pretty face.”

I snorted. “I don’t have a pretty face.”

Big Papa snorted.

“My kid’s birthday is tomorrow. Are we still allowed to have a party for him at the clubhouse?”

The change of subject didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the men, and Big Papa rolled with it.

“Anything you want, man,” he said. “Were you able to get him that computer?”

I shook my head. “No. I was about two grand short.”

“What computer?”

I looked up to find Ellen standing in the opened door leading inside, a phone in her hand.

“Linc wants a computer that I can’t afford to get him for his birthday,” I told her. “Who’s on the phone?”

She held it out to me. “A lawyer I assume you contacted. He says he’s willing to take your case pro-bono. He said he’ll see you tomorrow afternoon around five o’clock if that’s convenient for you.”

My heart warmed and excitement poured through my veins.

I may not be hurting as bad as I used to, but I still wasn’t a millionaire. I was paying off my debts, slowly but surely. I’d contacted the lawyer once Margot was admitted to the drug rehab/psychiatric facility to find out what my options were. I’d bluntly told him that I couldn’t afford much on my end and that I couldn’t afford to fight Margot in a court battle.

Apparently, he’d taken pity on me.

“Thanks, baby.” I held out my hand for the phone. “Why’d he call you?”

I’d put her down as an alternate phone number when I’d called, and I was glad that I did.

“He says your phone’s going straight to voicemail,” she handed the phone to me. “Tell him you’ll meet.”

The eagerness for me to meet the lawyer wasn’t lost on me. She’d been pressuring me to do it for over a week now, and I was more than willing to give her that boon.

“Thanks, baby.” I took the phone and held it to my ear as I walked further into the yard, Achilles still planted in my arm like an infant.

“Hello?”

“Mr. James?” a woman’s voice questioned.

“That’s me,” I said.

“I’m calling to let you know that we’ve got you a meeting set up with Mr. Cantos tomorrow afternoon at five. Please don’t be late, though, because by that point he’s already had a long day at the office. He asks that you bring copies of your last six bank statements along with any other official documents you have pertaining to your son’s custody. He also wants any information you have on Ms. Tulane’s whereabouts over the last few years as well as her financial status and any other information that you think would be helpful to Mr. Cantos.”

I barely contained the snort. ‘Ms. Tulane’ aka Margot the bitch who didn’t care about anyone but herself, didn’t have financial status. She had no money whatsoever, and hit up anyone she could – in addition to me and her kid – for the money she needed. If she couldn’t get it the easy way, she’d get a job, but she only held it long enough to get her what she needed. In fact, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure where the hell she even got the money to support herself from.

And if I was being honest, I didn’t much care as long as it wasn’t from my pocket.

“10-4,” I replied. “And I won’t be late. My boss knows I need this.”

And he did. I’d been level with my boss. I’d told him all about my troubles with Margot. Told him all about Margot’s past antics and that with the way that things were escalating, I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to bring her shit to my door—work or home.

If she had a purpose in mind, she would go out of her way to make sure she was benefitted, even if she had to fuck me—or Linc—over to do it. It didn’t matter that it was my job that paid the bills, and provided her with that money. Hell no, she didn’t give a shit. I was just a means to an end for her, and unfortunately, so was our son.

“All right. See you tomorrow, Mr. James.”

Then she hung up, and I was left shaking my head at her abruptness.

Grinning, I turned around and zeroed in on the group that was on the back patio, this time Ghost, Big Papa, Aaron, Tommy, Ellen and Imogen were standing on the porch. They were discussing something, and it was only when I got up to them that I heard what it was.

“No, you will not buy my son that computer,” I disagreed the minute I understood. “Because that’s not how this shit works.”

Big Papa snorted.

“Son…” Big Papa started.

I shook my head. “Negative. No arguments here. This is mine to buy him. I appreciate your willingness to do it, but I will get it done. It may take me half a year, but I’ll do it.”

And that was final.