“What are you doing here?” I look up to see Rachel standing in the kitchen. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve seen her last. We talked on the phone shortly after the brownie fiasco, because I had to tell her. It was a sight to see when Katch told my mom what the main ingredient was and then proceeded to try to take her half-eaten brownie away. She slapped his hand as if she were punishing a child.

Told him that the news said marijuana was used for pain, so leave it alone. I laughed and then cried so hard I nearly peed my pants.

“Heard Doctor Hot Pants is making his daily visit.” Rachel winks at me then snatches up a slice of cucumber from the chopping block I’m using.

“He was here hours ago, Rachel. I’m going to tell Curtis if you don’t quit calling him that.” I stick my tongue out at her. “And then you’re going to get spanked.”

The front door slams shut so hard all the contents in the kitchen rattle.

“Rachel!” Curtis roars, his loud footsteps echoing through the house.

“Guess I’m busted.” She shrugs. Right. She’s doing this on purpose.

He rounds the corner with a red face full of anger. “You just had to keep smacking those lips about Doc, and now I’m going to blister your ass. Let me fucking show you what the word ‘hot’ means.” Yup, I knew it.

He throws her over his shoulder in one quick movement. Rachel flails her arms and legs, laughing her ass off. Curtis’s palm comes down hard on her ass, making her screech loudly with excitement. I can’t help but laugh.

“You will be calling me doctor after my cock teaches you a lesson.” He rips open the garage door and then slams it shut.

“What the fuck was that?” Katch saunters into the kitchen, running his hand through his hair.

“If I had to guess”—I step over to him—“Rachel finally admitted to Curtis she has a crush on Doctor Hot Pants.”

“Hot pants?”

“Brick’s brother.”

He raises an eyebrow, asking me silently my opinion on the matter. I shrug, turn back to chopping, and let him worry for a bit.

“Not my type, honey. It seems I love the more-asshole type.”

“Good to know.” He pulls my back into his chest. Takes the knife from my hand, sets in on the counter, and then guides us out onto the back porch, where he draws me down to sit on his lap. I relax back into him as naturally as breathing fresh air. He lights up a cigarette, and like always, I’m in awe of his sexy lips as he inhales. I let him have the first few drags before I pull it from his fingers and indulge myself.

“I missed you.” I hand back his lit cigarette.

“God, I never thought I’d miss your sassy and demanding mouth, but it’s been torture, Hollywood.”

Katch has been so busy the last several days that I barely got a glimpse of his fine ass. He was here, but buried deep in trying to find out all he can about how involved my father and Vince are with drugs, while other times he was out in his garage.

I know he was giving me the time I needed with my mom as well. It was fucking hell not seeing him, though. Every single second of it. Brick never left the house. It was a castle guarded deep with protection.

I struggle with thinking that way, because I never want my mom to feel like she’s locked in a prison again. It’s for our safety, I keep telling myself.

I’ve even shocked myself a bit. I’ve been so occupied with my mother and making new memories that I haven’t thought about researching Vince myself. Nope, instead, I’ve watched television with my mother, colored and cut her hair, and spent hours lying by her side, filling her in about everything I’ve done since I thought I’d lost her. She’s requested lots more brownies made by Katch as well. The calming effect helps her rest.

Curtis even called a dentist out here for her. Her teeth have been cleaned, her busted tooth has been capped, and they brought her some of those whitening strips to use. She’s starting to resemble the mother I remember.

“You’re sleeping in my bed from now on.” He moves me around until he’s palming my ass and I’m facing him.

“I’m good with that.” I moan when he slides his hands around to my breasts.

“Fuck. I can smell your sweetness from here. I fucking need inside you.”

“I need you, too.”

I bite down on my bottom lip, then lift up enough to somehow wiggle out of my cotton shorts.

“Shit, you were made for me,” he says when he notices I’m not wearing panties.

I continue to talk while working on his jeans.

“My mom’s asleep.”

I get his fly down.

“Curtis and Rachel are angry-fucking in your garage.”

“Ours,” he corrects.

I don’t pause to analyze what that means.

I pull his rock-hard cock from his pants, stroking him slowly.

“And Brick is in an Xbox trance.” I grip his dick in my palm and raise my hips just enough to sink his head into me. “Don’t see why we need to wait until we go to bed.”

“Tits,” he growls. “I need your fucking tits in my face now.”

I finish sinking onto him until there’s no more to take. The burning pleasure of him inside of me stretches me wide. I pull my shirt over my head then flick my bra off, giving my man all that he wants. His teeth sink down on my sensitive nipple, shocking my hips into action. My palms root to the top of his shoulders while I slam up and down on his thick cock.

My pussy is greedy needing all of him. It only takes a few thrusts up and down before I’m screaming his name with my nails digging into his back. When I finally open my eyes, Katch is staring at me.

“You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you trust me, Hollywood?”

“With everything I have,” I answer without hesitation.

“I want all of you,” he says as he buries his head in my hair. His response confuses me until he stands up and I lose his cock. He lays me out on the patio table. Spreads my legs and starts working his fingers in and out of me while sliding a finger down the crack of my ass. Oh, shit.

“I want this, baby. You gonna give it to me?” he asks, his voice so gruff it’s burning with desire. His words shock me, and I perch up on my elbows to watch him as he alternates between rubbing my tight little hole and then coating his dick with me. It’s fucking erotic and such a turn-on I feel another orgasm threatening to release.

“I need words, Caitlin.” He looks me in the eye while carrying on with his tortuous maneuvers to my body.

“Yes,” I breathe out. The thought of him taking my ass out here in the early night is carnal. It has me dripping with want.

He enters my ass with two of his fingers, while his other hand continues to coat himself, not once taking those eyes off mine. It’s an odd feeling, a sensation so bold and wicked that my pussy convulses. It feels fucking amazing.

“Hang on to the edge,” he says, taking his orbs from my face to look at my ass. I’m soaked, he’s soaked, and then he raises my legs up in the air while pressing his chest into mine.

Katch drags his dick through my wet folds, taunting me and driving me wild.

“Please,” I beg.

He winks at me then nudges his cock up against my ass.

“Oh,” I whimper as he begins to push into me.

“Relax, baby. You have to relax. I’ll make it feel good. I have to be balls deep in this tight little ass.”

I shake my head slightly. “I’ve never…”

“I know. I can tell.” He inches in a little further at a time. God, it hurts, yet it feels good at the same damn time. I writhe underneath his masculine touch. My body is fighting him every step of the way.

When it hurts to the point I’m ready to cry out, he begins strumming my clit in circles. Whispering how good I feel and how he’s never letting me go. My heart swells.

“You love it. Don’t you? You wait until you come, baby. I swear to God I’ll make you come so hard you’ll be begging me to fuck this pretty little ass often.”

“Oh, God.” It feels so fucking good that I flop my head back on the table. He sinks two fingers into my core while being balls deep in my ass. I’m filled. Everything inside me combusts. Sparks fly and my release builds up as he works in and out of my ass in a way that has my body humming.

“Katch,” I scream. “Fuck, I’m close. So fucking close. Fuck me,” I sing out.

He grunts, beginning to move faster, keeping up the rhythm with his fingers. I’m a fucking goner.

“God, I love you, Katch,” I say when the sensations of my orgasm rule my entire body. It’s all making me dizzy.

I melt into the tabletop while feeling all those inches of Katch throbbing inside of me. He takes and takes from my body, but only because he’s rejuvenated it. I part my lips on a silent moan.

“Caitlin.” His voice hitches deep in his throat. “You know.”

I look up at him in confusion in order to see him as another build-up forms deep inside of me. “Know what?”

“You know who I love.”

Tears instantly prick at the corners of my eyes. Katch Sterling loves me. I can’t move, can’t think as the most pleasant feeling soars through me. I have never felt more connected to him than I do at this moment.

It takes one more growl to escape his sweet, sexy lips before he spills into me. Our lives, our love being mixed into each other in a magical way.

He collapses down on top of me in a sweaty mess.

“Jesus, Hollywood, I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

I lift up enough to run my hand through his beard. “Me either, baby.”

We fight to catch our breath. It takes several minutes before we both even out, get dressed, and step inside, where I make my way to the shower, while Katch goes back outside.

* * *

I’m back to cutting up the vegetables for the stir fry I started making earlier. There’s a sweet reminder in the center of my chest from the way Katch said ‘I love you.’ Frankly, I don’t give a shit if those three words truly come from between his lips. If that’s the way he wants to tell me, then I’ll take it.

Rachel is drying her hair after showering. Their angry fuck lasted much longer than I could ever anticipate. I’m pretty sure she will never be mentioning or even thinking about Doctor Hot Pants again.

Katch is down the hall helping my mother get out of bed. He adores her. Treats her with delicate hands, and my mother, God bless her heart, relishes in it. She’s not so discreetly told me Katch is in love with me and he’s the type of guy you never let go of. If anyone had told me that when we first met, I would have laughed in their face. Now, I see a future with him.

Soon, the kitchen fills with family for dinner. Katch pulls his famous brownies from the oven, while Rachel finishes preparing the rice and tortillas. So much for him showing me how good of a cook he is. I’ve been doing it all. I’m not complaining.

I can’t help but smirk when Brick walks in with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and my favorite wine in the other.

Katch helps my mom to the table, and I stand there dumbfounded when I watch Curtis hand him an envelope. He simply shoves it in his back pocket and takes his seat. His face blank while the faded, white paper burns a hole in my head. All the possibilities of what that simple envelope contains send my thoughts into overdrive. What the hell?

As I stir the medley of vegetables and meat, I can’t help but listen in on their conversation.

“Aunt Louisa, you look good.”

“No need to blow smoke up my ass. I look like shit, but I’m getting there.”

When I glance over to them, taking my attention from the sizzling in front of me, I see Curtis give her his dazzling smile.

“You look like your dad, boy.”

“I’ve heard that a time or two.” He grins at my mother.

“Your father would be so proud,” she says as she reaches out to grip his hand.

The tears are bittersweet. Everything’s coming full circle. I’m finding my family in a way I’d never imagined. Family ties are a way for the soul to heal. It’s capable of taking me down at the knees right now.

“Aunt Louisa, you and I need to talk.” He pauses, and I look over at him strangely at his out-of-the-blue comment.

“We need to talk?” she replies questioningly.

Her brows draw together, obviously thinking the same thing as I am. What in the ever-loving fuck is going on? There are secrets being passed around here, and if I knew my asking wouldn’t upset my mother, I would demand to know what in the hell is going on.

“Not right now. Tomorrow. Rachel and I need to eat and run. We’ve left the girls home all day.”

She simply nods, her face clamming up, now knowingly, I might add. I wonder if this has to do with my father’s killer? I suppose I could resort back to my old ways and stomp my feet, throw this fucking food all over the place, and tell people I’m standing right the hell here and I have every right to know what’s in that envelope as well as why he wants to talk to my mother. But I don’t. I keep my mouth shut, bite my tongue, and I will square off with Curtis and Katch later.

They both fall into a conversation about Curtis’s young infatuation with Spiderman underwear as if nothing was spoken out of context. How he’d dash around the house in them. I don’t recall it; then, of course, there are a lot of good and bad memories I’ve seemed to block out. This entire time, Katch has his eyes glued to the back of Curtis’s head. He’s wondering the same thing. Why is Curtis so private about this talk? It’s not as if we’ve kept anything from each other pertaining to what’s going on.

My gut feeling tells me that whatever he wants to talk to her about, the answer is in that envelope.