Chapter Six
~Kat~
When Tommy lunges for me the same as he did Edison, at least I have enough sense to turn and run from him up the steps. Out of breath, he catches me easily at the top of the staircase, hoisting me up in his arms, carrying me to where I was headed, my bedroom. We have so much to talk about, some things already taken care of, just waiting for him to say what I never in my wildest dreams imagined he would: he wants me back.
I have trouble believing it. Maybe it’ll be easier once I have him naked. In the past, it was his bed we made love in often, in his modest one-bedroom apartment in town. There’s so much to learn about him. For now, I’m going to get reacquainted with what I already know, his body. Thoroughly.
I pull his head down to mine, crushing my mouth to his, forming an airtight seal even Jesus himself probably couldn’t break, and I wouldn’t want him to try. I’m where I belong finally, doing what I was meant to do—be with Tommy in every way.
He enters my room with his tongue tangling with mine. I cup his head, holding on to the first something I find linked to the earth. My senses are sky diving and dive bombing. I don’t feel the mattress beneath me until Tommy’s hands slide up my bare abdomen, making me suck air in my starving lungs. I don’t know the exact moment I stopped breathing, but it was probably downstairs when he laid the magic words on me. I make the decision then to not got back to London unless I’m vacationing with Tommy there. So many missed moments with him to make up for.
His hands glide under the hem of my shirt. “Sit up and lift your arms for me, sweetheart.”
I obey and snag his powerful gaze while I’m at it. “Tommy?”
He heaves my shirt over my head. “What, baby?”
“I love you. I never stopped.”
He pecks on me on the mouth, then undoes my bra, easing the straps down my arms. “I know.”
“Well damn, you could’ve said you love me back or you were working up to it,” I complain good-naturedly, thirsting for his honest feelings like a dying man in a desert.
He squats to ogle my breasts with his eyes. “Why? You already know I never stopped loving you. God, I have missed these two.”
I need to know I’m not making a mistake in upheaving my life to be a part of his. It’s hard to take anything serious of his mouth when he’s so flip about most things.
“I don’t know it, Tommy. We’ve been in the same city for five minutes.”
His eyes meet mine, and there’s no humor in them. “You should feel it, Kat. Why else would I have kicked Edison’s ass after all this time?”
“Because you held a grudge against him.”
“I had one with you too, and I didn’t lay into your ass. Well, not yet anyway, but it’ll be because that’s how you like to make love. Not because I was angry with you.” He has every right to continuously be angry with me. I’d betrayed him just as much as I thought he had me.
I cup his face, tugging him nose to nose with me. “I will completely trust you and my heart from now on, Tommy. I should have known better about you and Benita. Shouldn’t have given up on you when I did. No more believing what I see and what I hear if I don’t have all the facts.”
“That’s all I ask, baby.”
Time stops as Tommy freezes in place, probing my face, then he dives for me. I guess he found what he was looking for. Seconds later, all our clothes are on the floor. His tongue is lapping at every inch of flesh on my front. What he doesn’t lick, he sucks or plants kisses on before flipping me over, pushing at the backs of my knees for me to raise up on them.
I’m not sure what the point of that is until his tongue slips between my southbound lips, driving me out of my right mind. Once familiar with my womanhood again and I’m quivering from an ongoing orgasm, his palate slides up to the forbidden rosebud of my body. My hips rocket back, the pleasure too intense to take. I pant, breath long gone for places unknown without leaving a flight plan behind. Rather rude, I think, and what the hell is he doing at my back door?
“Shit, Tommy, you’re freakier than before.”
“That I am. Wait until I take you there, Kat. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“Take me where?”
“There, if you let me. It didn’t feel good when I touched you there?”
“Tommy, that wasn’t a simple touch, and yeah, it…” Okay, answering that question is going to take me places I’ve never been before. With Tommy, I’ll go, at least until it hurts. “Yeah, it did feel good actually.”
“If you think that felt good, there’s a spot inside there that feels just as good as your g-spot does.”
Oh lord! What did I just do?
Set myself up of course.
“Yeah, well, if it doesn’t feel good, Tommy, I’m beaning your ass with a plant again,” I warn, with every intention of doing it.
“Not today, you won’t. Right now, I just want to get to know your body again. Popping your other cherry is for a much more special night when you’re not jetlagged… or rather before you’re feeling the jetlag.”
What little breath I have catches in my throat as I look over my shoulder. “What night would that be?”
He cocks his head, as if I should know the answer already. “Our wedding night, Kat.”
I rotate around to sit up, heart beating like a drum in my chest. Could I really be about to get everything I wanted so soon?
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
“Not right now, no. That has to be done in a special way too with my family. For now, I just want to have you all to myself, as we recommit to each other.”
Tommy doesn’t let me sit up for long, crawling between my legs and forcing me onto my back. He stretches out above me, elbows supporting his weight on each side of my shoulders. The tip of his erection prods the opening of my body. Soaking wet, I squirm, almost forgetting the topic of the conversation. Desire is coursing through me like a freshly-fired bullet, demanding gratification, but my mind is on another level, fixated on when exactly is my heart going to get what it wants: the privilege of being Tommy’s girl in the eyes of God, which I believed would happen in time. When I’d proven he had my undying trust for always.
I’m willing to prove it, but it doesn’t look like it’s necessary. “Are you opening another restaurant?”
Recreating wasted moments from the past would be wonderful. It’s a tragedy I missed out on his first proposal and the grand opening of his dreams coming true. Even worse, what did he do with the ring he bought me?
God, he’d bought me a ring!
Damn, if that doesn’t make me feel giddy, on a natural high. Learning he’d disposed of the jewelry in a fit of rage would ruin the mood, so I don’t ask for trouble.
He jabs the tip of my nose gently with his. “Nope, no new restaurant, Kat. Catching hell with the first one. Nothing I can’t handle, but it’s a demanding business, more so today with you showing up and my staff begging to not have to show up. After you left, I couldn’t even cook a simple hamburger without damn near burning down the building. Where I’ll ask you to marry me will be a surprise. Marriage proposals are becoming epic in this family, so I have some big shoes to fill in that department, but I will tell you where we’re going to honeymoon at.”
I hope he isn’t waiting for me to plead with him to let me in on his plans. Speaking is a nonstarter. Shock has me by the tonsils. I was obsessed with the miracle of him letting me back in his life after the atrocity I’d helped Edison perpetrate years ago, and yet, Tommy’s already planning our engagement. A beautiful, forgiving man that I don’t deserve, but I’m keeping him come hell, high water or jail. The next Benita and Edison Craft may just get their faces hacked off with Tommy’s best knife if another stunt like the one they pulled ever happens to us again.
He props up one elbow beside me and sucks air through his teeth. “Okay, you’re not going to ask, so I’ll tell you. Our honeymoon will be in London. I’ve got to see this damn flat of yours.”
I skim my hands up his arms, acquainting myself with the indentations and bulges of his muscles. “You are welcomed to visit my apartment anytime you like. My lease doesn’t run out for another three months, so you have that long before I let it go, and I’ll give any help you need with the restaurant free of charge. I’m coming home, Tommy… to you. Today.”
That statement seems to set fire to the frisky side of him. He slams his mouth down on mine and spears through me with his cock at the same time. The double invasion is mind-blowing. On reflex, my hips lift, giving him more access to my body. He needs more room inside me than I remember, or it’s been much longer than the six months since I last made love.
Stuffed full of Tommy, I start to hyperventilate. He hisses, then stills and pushes up on his hands.
“Too tight, Kat. Shit!”
“Too big, Tommy, now move!”
I would love to savor the moment, but there’ll be other occasions for that, like on our honeymoon. Slowly, he withdraws then thrusts into me, leaving soft pecks on my neck and ears, twisting my body this way and that before setting a fast pace I can barely keep up with on my knees. He hits a hot zone that sparks a monster-size orgasm, this one stronger than the first one oddly.
Hell unleashes on me and I fight back in the only way I know how, by slamming my ass cheeks into Tommy’s stomach. Doesn’t do much to alleviate the pressure bearing down on me from within, conquering me one ripple of pleasure at a time, but I’m not just taking it on my knees that’s for sure.
Tommy clamps my hips tighter in his two-handed grip, pushes forward, going balls deep and hammering another oversensitive place high in my canal. “Jesus Christ, Kat! Stop moving dammit! I’m going to come if you don’t.”
He wants too much from me right now.
“I can’t, Tommy,” I wail, “I’m already coming.”
That admission seems to make him detonate right behind me. He impales me on his shaft and groans through his climax, then flops down on top of me, submerging my face in the pillow. Suffocating me, and I do not care. We’re both sweaty, worn out, the room dark from the night slipping inside while we were unaware.
Tommy finally rolls off me, then plucks me over on my side, my back to his chest. Then my stomach growls.
“Not now, belly. I’ve been fucked six ways from Sunday and too tired to feed you.”
Tommy chuckles quietly behind me. “Is that a hint, Kat?”
“To feed me? No, I still have the food you gave me earlier.”
“I hope you’re sharing.”
“Is that a hint, Tommy?”
“No, that’s downright begging. I’m too tired to say my name. Damn sure can’t make us something to eat. Am I going to get stuck with the cooking when we move in our own place?”
“Yes. You’re so good at it. Why would I take that from you? Besides, I hope I’m making bottles and changing diapers while you cook, and for the record, I’d live in a cardboard box as long as you’re next to me.”
“That’s good to know, and should we ever go broke, I’m going to remind you of what you said to me when you’re whining about the snow wetting your side of the box. At least, I hope it’s the snow that’s making your side wet, or you’re going to be living in that pissy bitch by yourself.”
Giggles shoot out of my mouth, infecting Tommy, who has to work to calm his mirth. I don’t even try to.
“Seriously though, Kat, the closest I’m getting to living in a cardboard box is being too lazy to unpack my shit out of it after we decide where we’re moving. I’ll freeload off every rich member in my family before I let us or our children go cold, hungry, or homeless… or wet.”
“That’s good to know, Tommy, and I suppose you think I’m going to do the unpacking for you since you’ve been crowned the cook of the household.”
“Yeah, I was kind of hoping you would,” he says pathetically.
I snuggle closer to the typical man running from any housework he doesn’t want to do. “I got you, babe, until one of us is in the ground. That’s a promise I hope to never break again.”
He starts to thumb small figure eights on my stomach. “I’m surprised you’re not married or at least divorced by now. Can the men in London even see?”
I reach back and smack him on the thigh. “Yes, they can see, and I never said I was a nun over there, but none of the three men I dealt with were you. You had me even when you didn’t have me. I just couldn’t do with them what I’ve always wanted to do with you. Marriage and kids for me meant you… just you.”
“The same here, sweetheart… and I’m so sexy even the blind women want a piece of me, but the ring in my nightstand drawer was bought for one specific finger, and that’s where it’s going.”
I turn in his arms, close to breaking down and blubbering like a damn baby but keep it together long enough to ask, “You still have it?” while cradling the back of his head and palming his chest.
“Woman, what’s wrong with you? Of course, I have it. That rock costs me a whole five dollars. Shit, you don’t throw away good cubic zirconium just because your girl leaves.”
The first tear falls. “As long as it doesn’t turn my finger green, I’ll wear it.”
He wipes away the tear drop balancing on my cheek, then pulls me closer. “It’s definitely going to turn your finger green, baby. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The next day, Tommy accompanies me to the wedding after informing Mahogany at the last minute that he wouldn’t be coming in to work. Only Tommy would be real proud to have turned the tables on his employees for a change. I can’t testify to seeing or remembering much more than the bride walking down the aisle. Tommy keeps my eyes and right mind glued to him in his tailored, pin-stripe suit. Therefore, I can’t report back to Orion that I had even one significant conversation with Devlin concerning his future business with Orion’s company. Besides, Devlin is more interested in Tommy’s skills at barbequing.
Men! If they don’t find one business to discuss, it’s another.
I also recall the beautiful scenery where the reception was held at Devlin’s first ski resort scheduled to open this winter in Arrow, and that’s because no matter where Tommy stands or sits, the backdrop of the manicured lawns, lavender and white décor, and snowcapped mountains are behind him. Serves Orion right for sending me here I would say, and I’ll never be able to thank him enough. I won’t ever hear the end of him crowing about how he got Tommy and I back together neither. Oh well, nothing’s perfect, but life damn sure is trying to make up for it.
“Tommy, are you ready to go yet?” I whisper in his ear from my assigned seat, him in my plus one chair that I thought would remain empty.
He leans over, grazing my ear with his lips. “Depends on where you’re taking me next, woman.”
I smile. “There’s only one other place I want you to go with me.”
He snags my hand resting in my lap with his, then stands up. “To your bedroom it is, Kat.”