veggies, fruit, Hershey’s chocolate and gallons upon gallons of Coke. The only time she made an exception to this rule was when she went to Dixon’s Bakery and that wasn’t often since she usually found herself spending too much money there.
“It’s ready,” Lucifer announced, right around the time that she decided that pretending to be asleep was the best for everyone concerned.
Chapter 35
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Zoe said hollowly as she sat in the middle of their bed staring blindly at all the paperwork and pamphlets laid out in front of her.
“It’s going to be okay,” Trevor found himself saying even as he wondered what they were going to do, because there was no way in hell that they were ever going to be able to afford the sixty thousand dollars a year that Radcliffe Academy was asking for to send the boys there next year.
“We’ll apply for scholarships,” Zoe said as though that was going to somehow make a difference.
It wouldn’t, not with the boys’ school records. Jonny and Sebastian were smart, too smart, were gifted athletes and unbelievably kind, but they were also a handful. They caused havoc everywhere they went, had already been kicked out of two schools and had a file two inches thick at the police department. Getting them into this school was going to be hard enough, but paying for it was going to be impossible.
Even if they got partial scholarships for the boys they were still going to have to find a way to come up with forty thousand dollars every year for the next six years. With a mortgage and seven mouths to feed that wasn’t going to happen, but he didn’t say anything.
They’d been homeschooling the boys since September, but that wasn’t really working. Every night they worked together to find something challenging for the boys to do and every morning the boys tore through their lessons over a bowl of cereal, leaving them with absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day. They tried to fill the time with self-study, learning about the things that interested them, but it wasn’t enough anymore.
The boys needed to be around other children and finding something else to do instead of burying their noses in books and coming up with new and terrifying ways to get in trouble. They needed structure and with him working and Zoe returning to work, they weren’t able to give the boys what they needed. For several months now they’d been trying to get the boys back in school, appealing to nearby towns for admission, but they weren’t accepting students from outside their districts.
They were running out of options. Let the boys continue homeschooling, put themselves in debt that would probably destroy them, or move with the hopes that things would be different were the only options they had right now. He didn’t want to move and leave their family, especially knowing how much they meant to Zoe. His family was the only family that she’d ever had and he couldn’t stomach the idea of taking that away from her, but he might have to do it for the boys.
“We’ll think of something,” he said, telling himself that everything would be fine, but for the first time in a long time he wasn’t sure if he believed that.
He just wished…
Christ, there were too many things that he wished were different and that made him feel like an asshole.
“The boys can write their essays while I’m running errands in the morning,” she said with a reassuring smile as she picked the papers off the bed and returned them to the large envelope that Radcliffe Academy had sent them.
“It will be fine, sweetheart,” he said as he reached for Zoe and pulled her off the bed and into his arms.
“I know,” she said, sighing heavily as she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest. “I just wish that it didn’t feel so damn hopeless.”
“It’s not hopeless,” he said, because he knew that they would figure this out.
They always did.
“I should go do the dishes,” she mumbled, but didn’t make any move to leave his arms.
“Do you want me to draw you a bath instead?” he asked as he kissed the top of her head, savoring the scent of lavender.
“No,” she said, sighing heavily as she absently traced the Bradford Construction logo on his shirt with her fingertips.
“Then what can I do to get your mind off of things for a little while?” he asked, closing his eyes as he held her and savored the feel of her in his-
“I was actually in the mood to give you a blowjob tonight,” she admitted with a careless shrug as he stood there frozen as all the blood in his head suddenly changed direction and headed south.
“But, if you want to take a bath or-” she started to say only to end on a squeal and a laugh as she found herself thrown on the bed and him wrestling with the fly of his jeans.
He’d just managed to get his zipper down when the doorbell echoed throughout the house. He stared at his wife who was lying back on the bed, smiling that sexy little smile of hers and then back at the locked bedroom door, trying to decide whether he should kill the asshole ringing his doorbell at ten o’clock at night or pretend they weren’t there and proceed to shove his pants down the rest of the way and let his wife have her way with him.
Definitely allow her to have her dirty way with him, he decided when she started unbuttoning her blouse and revealed what looked like a new black bra with lace trimming. He licked his lips hungrily when she undid the front clasp and pushed the two cups aside, revealing the large, pale breasts that he loved to-
“Fuck!” he snarled, angrily fastening his jeans as he headed towards his bedroom door, deciding that killing the asshole ringing his doorbell was going to have to be dealt with first.
“Touch that fucking bell again and I’ll-” he started to yell as he headed down the stairs only to get cut off as the asshole hit the bell again.
He was seriously going to fucking kill someone if they woke up his kids. Quickening his pace, he made it downstairs in record time, crossed the small space to the front door, shut the alarm off and unlocked the door. As soon as he threw the door open he found himself holding a bag giving off heat and the most incredible scent that he’d ever encountered.
“Where’s your wife?” Lucifer asked as Trevor stood there, struggling to ignore the mouthwatering aroma that was permeating his senses and making it difficult to the do the right thing and kill his cousin.
“Ummm,” he managed to get out, but it was quickly becoming difficult to focus…was that steak? Yes, that was definitely steak that he smelled. He couldn’t wait to-
“Hey, is that steak?” he heard Johnny ask from upstairs, reminding him that he was in a houseful of vicious, backstabbing Bradford children that would be more than willing to hobble him to get their hands on his precious bag of delicious morsels.
“And macaroni and cheese,” Sebastian said as he heard the first bedroom door click open.
“Shit!”
“Might want to run,” Lucifer said absently as he stood next to him, sorting through a handful of files.
Beat the shit out of his cousin or save his precious food?
Shit!
No one should ever have to make this choice!
“Seriously, I would run if I were you,” Lucifer said as he finished sorting through the files and glanced up at him.
“Why are you here?” he snapped, already knowing that it was too late to make a run for it. They would be on him before he made it off the front porch.
“I missed you,” Lucifer said dryly, throwing the bullshit excuse that they normally used on him when they went to the Fire & Brimstone to fuck with his head, back in his face.
“You son of a-”
“Thanks,” Sebastian said with a wink and a smile as he swooped in and stole the bag out of his hands.
“You’re the best,” Jonny said, throwing him a wink to match his brother’s as they walked away, carrying the bag that he needed more than his next breath.
“Here,” Lucifer said, pressing something into his hands. “This is for Zoe. That’s all my account information, passwords,
employee rosters and everything that she’ll need to take over doing the books for the Fire & Brimstone. She can start in the morning.”
“Books?” was all he managed to get out as his eyes narrowed on the twins setting the food on the living room table.
“Uh huh,” Lucifer said, heading for the door, “I don’t have enough time to do it anymore.”
“Okay,” he found himself saying as he headed for the living room where his sons were standing over the large selection of food that would make any Bradford cry.
As he joined his sons in a moment of silence so that they could truly appreciate the bounty that the biggest asshole on earth had brought them, he couldn’t help but wonder if a certain waitress had anything to do with this.
Chapter 36
“I-I thought you knew,” Patrick said, stumbling over his words as he shot a nervous glance over his shoulder towards the busy dinning area where Rebecca, wearing a black Fire & Brimstone shirt, was smiling as she took a couple’s order.
“Didn’t I tell you not to let her back on the floor until Saturday?” he asked, keeping his gaze locked on the small woman that was supposed to be upstairs chained to her bed.
“Yes,” Patrick said, swallowing hard as he stood there, most likely waiting for Lucifer to take his anger out on him, but tonight his anger belonged to one person and one person only.
“You need to find someone to cover Rebecca’s tables,” he said, keeping his eyes locked on the woman that had finally spotted him.
“I think she was just trying to help,” Patrick said, quickly coming to Rebecca’s defense when it became obvious that Lucifer’s glare was locked on Rebecca, who just happened to be the staff favorite.
“I’m sure that it’s,” he drawled while he watched as Rebecca shot him a nervous smile and a wave while she glanced to the front door and then quickly towards the back, obviously debating which exit would save her ass.
Neither one would, but he decided to let her choose her fate.
If she went for the front door he’d head towards the back door, cut her off and explain in great detail what bed rest meant and if she went towards the back then he was just going to put her over his knee and spank her ass until she stopped pulling this shit.
When she shifted to the right, he shifted right along with her. Smile gone now, she narrowed her eyes on him as she slowly shifted to the left. He mimicked the move so she stopped and shifted back to the right. He met the move and cocked a brow in challenge.
Smiling, because she was the only woman in the world that would think that challenging him was a game, she shifted right back to the left and cocked a brow as she waited for him to mimic the move. He did, but then he upped the game by following through with that move. When she realized that he was no longer playing, she gasped, mumbled a quick apology to the customers that she was waiting on and made him realize that he’d missed the third option.
His office.
“Shit!” he snarled, pushing past Patrick, who looked absolutely terrified, and went after the little pain in the ass.
When she saw him, she mouthed an, “Oh, shit!” of her own, ducked beneath a tray being carried and rushed towards his office. He was gaining on her quickly and would have caught her if it hadn’t been for one of his waitresses jumping in his path with a wince as she waited for him to tear into her, but he didn’t have time for this bullshit.
Not when the love of his life was waiting for him and there was absolutely no doubt in his mind now that he loved her. He loved absolutely everything about this woman from that cocky little grin that she was shooting him to that sad little victory dance that she was doing.
He fucking adored her.
“Please don’t kill me, Mr. Bradford!” the waitress squealed as she closed her eyes and cringed, waiting for the yelling to start.
“You’re fine,” he absently said as he picked her up and moved her out of the way.
“Thank you for not killing me!” she called after him, sounding truly thankful to be alive.
“Oh, crap!” Rebecca said with a wince as she spotted him coming after her.
“Run,” he said, taking his time going after her, because there really was no rush. Sooner or later he was going to get his hands on her and they both knew it.
She must have realized it as well, because her cheeks flushed red while she ran her eyes over him, licking her lips and nodded, “Okay.”
With that, she turned around and rushed down the hall towards his office. The door had barely managed to shut behind her when he caught up with her. He threw the door open, stepped into his office and with a surprised grunt, he stumbled back against the door, slamming it shut in the process when he suddenly found himself pinned to the door.
“You’re supposed to be upstairs,” he said as he watched her work his belt loose.
“You were shorthanded,” she explained, nibbling on her bottom lip as she focused on the snap of his jeans.
“And how exactly would you know that?” he asked, leaning down so that he could kiss the side of her neck as she pulled his zipper down.
“Because Patrick called upstairs looking for you,” she answered as he felt her reach into his pants and-
Made him moan as her fingertips brushed along the underside of his shaft, making it harder than it had been a few seconds ago. Cupping the back of her neck, he angled his head and kissed her, groaning when he felt her warm, soft hand wrap around his cock.
“You have no idea what you do to me,” he said, groaning as she pulled him free and ran her hand lightly over his cock.
“Probably the same thing that you do to me,” she whispered, smiling as she wrapped her hand around his cock and gave it a slight tug that ripped another groan from him.
“And what do I do to you?” he asked, letting his lips linger against hers and knowing there was no fucking way that he affected her the same way.
She fucking devastated him.
“Everything,” she admitted with a smile, giving him one more kiss before she slowly got down on her knees and-
“Oh, fuck,” he growled as Rebecca destroyed the fantasy he’d been having about this very thing for the past month.
As she lowered herself to the ground she ran her tongue down the underside of his cock. By the time that her knees touched the floor she’d run her tongue back up his cock and was taking the head into her mouth. Licking his lips, he told himself that he should look away before he lost control, but he just couldn’t force himself to listen.
He watched as she slowly, really fucking slowly, took his cock into her mouth. Inch by excruciating inch, he watched as his cock disappeared past those pink lips that had starred in every single fantasy that he’d had about her. When she moaned around his cock all he wanted to do was turn her around, shove her pants down and fuck her hard and fast, but the hands running over his legs kept him right where she wanted him.
“Mercy,” he whispered hoarsely, dropping his head back against the door with a soft thud and licking his lips as he couldn’t help but wonder if she was about to finally drive him out of his mind. When he felt that warm hand slip beneath his shirt and run over his stomach, he decided that she’d definitely achieved her goal.
“So, lately I’ve been having this fantasy about you,” she said conversationally as she allowed his cock to slip free from her mouth so that she could tease the underside of his cock with the tip of her tongue.
“Oh, yeah?” he managed to ask, matching her tone as he glanced back down to watch as she continued to tease his cock.
“Mmmhmm,” she murmured, taking his cock back in her mouth.
“Are you going to tell me about it?” he asked, groaning at the end when she flicked her tongue over the very tip of his cock.
She shrugged it off casually before saying, “I’d thought I’d show you,” she said, making him groan as she used his words against him.
“You really are evil,” he said with a pained chuckle as she wrapped her hand around his cock and stood up.
“You really think so?” she asked, batting her eyes innocently as she stood up and started to walk backwards, keeping her hand firmly wrapped around his cock.
“Absolutely,” he said as he allowed her to lead him over to his desk.
Smiling, she kicked off her shoes while she ran her hand over his cock one last time. She placed her free hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss that he was more than happy to return. He was vaguely aware of the sounds of her pants hitting the floor and may have growled when she broke their kiss for five seconds so that she could take her shirt off.
By the time that her shirt hit the floor he had her back in his arms and was kissing her. When she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer, his knees nearly buckled when the move made his cock brush against her wet slit.
Fire & Brimstone Page 19
