BULL (The Buck Boys Heroes Book 1)

by Deborah Bladon

  Trina smiles. “I’m glad I was there. How is she?”

  “She’s great.” He beams with a broad smile. “She’s getting dressed. I told her I’d order an Uber to get us home. We’re both tired as hell, but happy. She told me you know, Trina. You know about the baby.”

  Trina nods her head. “I know.”

  Eldon huffs out a laugh. “A baby, Trina. How fucking awesome is that?”

  She wraps her arms around him for a hug. “I’m so happy for you both.”

  He pats the center of Trina’s back. “I asked her to marry me tonight. I never expected to do it in a hospital, but life is full of surprises, right?”

  “Graham asked me to marry him tonight too.” Trina waves her left hand in the air. “We’re actually already married.”

  “You got married tonight?” He huffs out a laugh. “When? Where?”

  “No.” Trina chuckles. “We’ve been married for a while. It’s a long story, but it’s time everyone I care about knows that I married the most amazing man in the world.”

  Eldon’s gaze wanders past my shoulder. “There she is. Look how beautiful she is.”

  I turn to glance at his fiancée.

  The sight of her smiling face floods me with memories.

  For the first time in my life, I don’t run when I see someone I used to know from foster care.

  I’ve crossed streets to avoid people I recognize from when I was a kid. I once handed off a meeting to someone else because the person I was supposed to sit down with was a woman I’d spent two months in a foster home with when she was ten and I was twelve.

  I’ve avoided my past, but that’s done.

  That stops now.

  The woman approaching us slows. “Oh my god. Graham? Is that you?”

  “Ro Sherman,” I whisper her name before I take off in a sprint toward her.

  She leaps into my arms the same way she did when she was a seven-year-old kid. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  I set her down on her feet and look her over.

  The shy girl I used to make ham and cheese sandwiches for is now a young woman. The gap between her two front teeth is gone, but the mole just below the corner of her right eye is still there. “I’m here. I’m here with Trina.”

  She glances behind me to where I know her fiancé and my wife are standing. “You know Trina?”

  “I’m her husband.”

  “What?” Her hands reach for mine. “I’m so lost right now.”

  Those words resonate because the last time I saw her, she was standing on the stoop of a house in Queens with a doll in her hand and a pink ribbon in her hair. She was crying as we waved goodbye to each other.

  We’d known each other for almost a year, but we were being split apart that day. She was heading to a new foster home. I was being taken to another.

  Trina moves to stand next to me. “This is my boss, Aurora. He’s my husband now too.”

  “You’re Trina’s boss?” Her gaze searches my face. “She told me his name was Mr. Locke. I never asked his first name. I never knew your surname. You were always just Graham to me.”

  “You were Ro to me.”

  “I can’t believe it’s you.” She takes a deep breath. “After all this time. I can’t believe you remember me.”

  I huff out a laugh. “You can’t believe I remember you? I was fourteen the last time I saw you. You were seven. It’s unreal that you remember me.”

  “How could I forget you?” She pats the center of my chest. “You made my school lunches. You always gave me both pieces of ham and cheese on my sandwich. You’d take mustard sandwiches to school so that I would have more to eat.”

  I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

  “Are you happy?” I question her. “I always wondered what happened to you.”

  She smiles. “I was adopted when I was nine. I have two older brothers and the most incredible parents. They’ve all been so good to me.”

  “Good.” I press a kiss to the center of her forehead.

  “I finally felt as though I belonged somewhere when the Saliks adopted me.” Her voice is quiet. “I hope you found that too.”

  “I did,” I say as my gaze drifts to Trina’s face. “It took a long time, but I found the place I belong, and I’ve never been happier.”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Graham

  “The procedure went off without a hitch,” Dr. Morgan tells me. “I want to keep Lloyd here for the day for observation.”

  “Can we see him?” I glance to where Trina is standing in the doorway of Lloyd’s room.

  She’s been quiet since we said goodbye to Aurora and Eldon. We agreed to meet up with them in a few days for dinner.

  The plan is to celebrate – everything.

  That includes their engagement, our marriage, and their baby.

  It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the last time I saw Ro, she was a seven-year-old kid, and soon, she’ll be a mom.

  “Why don’t you go in and say hello, then give him a few hours to rest?” Dr. Morgan suggests. “By then, he’ll be feeling a lot better. We’ll have him up and on his feet before the end of the day.”

  “That fast?” Trina turns back to ask.

  “Movement is essential.” He nods. “He’s got some work to do in terms of managing stress and his diet. We’ll need to get him on an exercise regime, but that can be worked out over the coming weeks. I’m going to set you up with some information regarding all of that.”

  “Thank you.” I extend a hand to him. “You saved his life.”

  “I did my job.” He smiles as he shakes my hand. “Lloyd is a good man. I’m glad I could help.”

  “I’m going to give you two some time alone.” Trina takes a step back from where she’s been standing next to Lloyd’s bed. “Graham and I will be back in a few hours, Mr. Abdon.”

  “Lloyd,” he stresses. “I’m Lloyd, and you’re Mrs. Locke.”

  “I am.” She smiles. “I’m putting the wheels in motion to become Mrs. Locke legally.”

  That brings a grin to Lloyd’s face. “Will you bring me back something for our library to read?”

  “How about A Fool’s Grace?” Trina wiggles her brows. “It’s our favorite.”

  “It is.” He reaches out for her hand.

  She takes it in hers. “I’m sorry again for everything.”

  “That all brought us here, and this is a good place.” His gaze drifts to my face. “Isn’t that right, Graham?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I’ll be in the corridor.” Trina kisses my cheek. “Take as much time as you need but remember the doctor wants Lloyd to rest so…”

  “So make it quick?” I chuckle.

  “We have years to talk.” Trina’s gaze volleys from my face to Lloyd’s. “Years to make memories together.”

  I nod as I watch her leave the room, clicking the door shut behind her.

  “Sit, Graham.” Lloyd points at a chair next to the bed. “I need to say something.”

  “It can wait,” I insist. “I’ll be back in a few hours after you’ve had time to rest.”

  “Sit.” His voice is more determined. “I need to say this now. It’s long overdue.”

  I tug the chair forward until it’s directly in Lloyd’s line of sight. Then, I unbutton my suit jacket and lower myself down.

  He takes a heavy breath. “I haven’t been honest with you, Graham.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I shake my head. “You’re the most honest man I’ve ever met, Lloyd.”

  “I didn’t just come to New York to wrap up my business,” he admits. “I came to see my family.”

  I nod. “I understand.”

  “Do you?” he questions in a soft tone. “Because I don’t.”

  I lean forward. “What do you mean?”

  He swallows hard. “I promised Sela that I’d live in Paris after she died. I told her I didn’t belong there without her, but she insisted that I live in the flat we h
ad bought five years ago. She wanted me to explore all the places she longed to see. She felt my being there would help me feel closer to her, but I felt so damn empty. I felt so alone.”

  I don’t respond. He doesn’t need that from me. I know him well enough to know when there are things he has to get off his chest.

  “We had a boy, Graham.” His voice breaks. “Lloyd Junior.”

  LJ.

  “He passed when he was fourteen.” He rubs his eyes. “It was cancer. It was aggressive, and there was nothing anyone could do for him.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say sincerely. “I’m so fucking sorry, Lloyd.”

  “It happened years before we met you.” He glances down at his hands. “It shattered Sela. I felt as though a part of me died with him and we just existed. It was day by day, hour by hour for a long time, and then you were there.”

  I nod. “I broke into the store.”

  “You broke through our fog.” He chuckles. “You were a little older than LJ was when he died but so different than him. Sela and I were lost. You were lost, so we decided to help you.”

  “I’m forever grateful to you both.”

  “I knew when I found you in the store that I had to do something for you,” he says. “At first, I think it was just about that. We saw a troubled boy in need, and we wanted to lend a hand.”

  I don’t have words, so I stay silent and let him continue.

  He glances toward the window. “It became more to me when you were just shy of your seventeenth birthday.”

  “What do you mean, Lloyd?”

  He pats the bed. “Give me your hand, Bull.”

  I take his shaking hand in mine.

  “I wanted you to be my son.” His eyes well with unshed tears. “I wanted you to be Graham Abdon. I felt that in my heart. It wasn’t about LJ anymore at that point. It was about you. You cleaned up your act. You were making your grades. You were someone I was proud of.”

  I tear up too. “That was all because of you.”

  “Sela couldn’t do it,” he whispers. “She felt it might be a betrayal to LJ if we adopted you. She loved you, Bull, but in her heart, there was just enough room for him.”

  I squeeze his hand, touched that he shared something so incredibly personal with me. “I’m honored that you even considered the idea, Lloyd.”

  “You may not be my son on paper, but you are my boy.” His tears fall. “I want to be there for you and your wife. I want to meet your children one day, and I want to sign the company over to you.”

  “You’re going to be around for years to tell me how to run it.” I laugh through my tears. “The first step is getting you rested so we can get you out of here. Then, I’d like to go to New Jersey with you. I want to sit with you in the place where Sela and LJ are resting.”

  “I’d like that,” he says through a sob. “I’d like that a lot.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Trina

  “I can make something for us to eat,” I say as we step off the elevator and into our penthouse. We left the hospital and headed straight home to rest and recharge.

  We’ll go back in a few hours after Lloyd has had a chance to rest.

  Graham shakes his head. “I’m craving my wife.”

  I laugh. “You want to have sex? You have energy for that after the night we just had?”

  “We are alone in this big penthouse.” He slowly unknots his tie and slips it off. “I can fuck my wife anywhere I choose.”

  I kick off one shoe sending it flying to the left before the other one follows it. “Where will we start?”

  “I’ll fuck you here on the floor.” He perks a brow as he drops his suit jacket.

  “You’re that desperate for me?” My fingers grip the zipper on my skirt, sending it down.

  “I’m always desperate for you.” He smirks as he makes quick work of the buttons on his shirt.

  It slides from his shoulders.

  I step closer to look at the tattoo on his arm. “I can’t believe that beneath all those lines and bands of ink there’s a bull.”

  “That’s right.” He drops his hands to his belt. “I believe we had an agreement. I’d show you a picture of my old tattoo, and you’d wrap those gorgeous lips of yours around my dick.”

  I slide a fingertip over my bottom lip. “I’m ready if you are.”

  He looks me over. “You’re not ready. Strip, Trina.”

  I quickly lose my skirt and blouse until I’m standing barefoot wearing nothing but a black bra and a pair of black lace panties.

  “Let’s renegotiate,” Graham says as he yanks his belt free.

  “I liked the deal we struck earlier.” My hands dart to my hips. “One blow job for a picture of your tattoo.”

  “One long and slow pussy eating session for a peek at that picture.”

  The corners of my lips lift into a smile. “I get to see your tattoo, and you’ll eat me out?”

  “I love eating you out, dear.”

  I step closer to him. “Let’s compromise.”

  He drops his pants. His boxer briefs follow, leaving him naked and very aroused.

  I glance down. “Please, darling. Compromise for me.”

  His fist circles his cock, giving it a long stroke. “Name it, Trina. I would do anything for you.”

  I stare into his eyes. “You mean that, don’t you?”

  His hand darts to my face. He cups my cheek. “I mean it with everything that I am. I would do anything for you. Anything.”

  I reach back to unclasp my bra. “Will you love, honor and cherish me all the days of your life?”

  “I do.” He skims a finger over the waistband of my panties. “Will you love me in sickness and in health? For richer or poorer?”

  “I do.” I tilt my chin. “You’re not going to ruin my panties again, are you?”

  He lets out a low chuckle. “We’re in the middle of negotiating. I can’t promise that.”

  I reach down to take his cock in my palm. “If you show me the picture of your bull tattoo, I’ll sit on your face while I suck this.”

  “Good god, woman.”

  I laugh. “Is that a yes? Do you agree to those terms?”

  “I agree.” He moves in to kiss me. “I’ll get the picture. You get rid of the panties before I rip them to shreds.”

  I move quickly to slide them from my body.

  He rakes me from head to toe. “Jesus. I’ll meet you in our bedroom in one minute.”

  “One minute?” I look at my watch. “Your time starts now, Mr. Locke.”

  He sets off in a sprint down the corridor to the east wing.

  I can’t keep my eyes off of his spectacular naked ass. “I love you!”

  Glancing back over his shoulder, he calls out to me, “I love you. I fucking love you, and I always will!”

  Epilogue

  Graham

  Three Months Later

  “Thank fuck Lloyd didn’t get Bette to cater this.” Graham laughs. “Look at this, Trina. Look at all these people we love.”

  She reaches for my hand. “It’s incredible, isn’t it?”

  We’re at Howerton House. It’s one of the premier event venues in Manhattan.

  Trina and I wanted a ceremony in the penthouse with a catered dinner for our friends and family, but Lloyd wanted more.

  It was his idea to rent out the garden terrace for the day.

  Peggy was on hand to marry us again.

  Lloyd stood up next to me. Trina chose her sister Falon to be her matron-of-honor.

  I’d met her and her husband Asher at a small gathering for Ro’s birthday.

  Asher sang two songs.

  Ro was in heaven as she danced with her fiancé.

  It was a good night and the start of our journey to telling everyone in Trina’s life that she’s a married woman.

  Her dad was ecstatic. Her siblings were excited for her. Her brother, George, had a few questions for me, but he’s come around.

  I glance over to see him si
tting at a table with his wife, alongside Sean and Harrison, who both came without plus ones. George lifts a beer bottle in greeting in the air. I toss him a wave.

  “It’s too bad that Kavan couldn’t make it,” Trina says quietly.

  We spent time with Kavan last night in the private dining room at Sérénité. He toasted to our future and never once mentioned the past.

  His story belongs to him, so I haven’t shared that with my wife.

  On the way home, I explained that he’d been through hell and fought his way back. She assured me that his secrets are his to tell and if he ever wants to, she’ll be there to listen.

  “Aurora looks beautiful tonight.” Trina points to where Ro and Eldon are sitting. “She’s got that pregnancy glow.”

  I drop my gaze to the lace gown Trina is wearing. “She’s no match for you. You took my breath away when you came down the aisle with your parents.”

  “You stole mine the first time you ordered me to marry you.”

  I laugh. “I persuaded you, Trina.”

  That day feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed.

  We’ve fallen in love and married for a second time now.

  Lloyd has been talking about transferring ownership of Abdons to me, but I’m in no rush. I work the job he hired me to work, and he comes into the office a few times a month to weigh in.

  He’s been spending much of his time moving into an apartment in Brooklyn. It’s a fresh start for him in the neighborhood he grew up in.

  “It’s almost time for dinner.” Trina kisses my jaw. “Then speeches, dancing, and we get to cut our wedding cake.”

  “Then I can take my wife home and carry her over the threshold?”

  She glides her lips to my neck to pepper a line of soft kisses there. “I can’t wait for that.”

  “I’m going to accept the junior position in marketing that Hank offered me,” Trina says as she walks back into our bedroom carrying a small plate and a fork. “You’ll need to start looking for a new assistant.”

  I take in how utterly beautiful she is. She looks satisfied because she is.