Law & Beard

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I needed Winnie in my arms. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to bury my face in her hair and inhale. I just plain wanted her…which downright scared me.

  I never needed a woman.

  Women were pains in the asses—my ass especially.

  I didn’t have the time, nor the inclination to deal with them, yet I was finding myself making an exception for Winnie.

  I wanted her in my life. Hell, I even wanted her children in my life.

  Which was why I’d taken Cody to school that day despite her assuring me I didn’t have to.

  It was also why I’d thrown Conleigh’s name at the head of circulation and asked her to find room in her department for Conleigh to work part-time.

  I pushed through the door to the break room and immediately my gaze honed in on Winnie.

  She was leaning her backside against the counter, her face lost in thought.

  The moment the sound of the door registered to her, she looked up, and her face broke out into a smile before she was running toward me.

  “I thought you weren’t going to make it?” she questioned, rubbing her face on my uniform shirt.

  I rumbled something deep in my throat and wrapped my arms around Winnie’s upper body and head, pulling her in a little tighter as I said, “Didn’t think I was going to, either. However, your favorite ex-husband took over my area for me so I could grab a quick bite to eat.”

  Winnie leaned her head back and stared at me with a small smile on her face. “Favorite ex-husband. He could also be labeled as ‘biggest asshole ex-husband,’” she pointed out.

  I laughed as I dropped my lips to hers, and she gladly took the kiss.

  I felt her hand tighten on the loop of my belt at the small of my back, and I drew in a breath.

  “You think you can run with me to Tommy’s office? I have something I want to show you,” I murmured against her lips.

  She pulled back and away as she nodded once.

  My eyes trailed down her scrub top, and I barely contained the grin that threatened to turn my lips up.

  “Cold?”

  She punched me in the chest, and I grunted.

  “Ow!” I said, rubbing at the hurt with two knuckles.

  “You wouldn’t have even felt that if you were wearing your Kevlar vest,” she pointed out.

  That I knew.

  Although, there was nothing I could do about it. Not without having the money for me to do it.

  One day I’d get one, but for now, I’d continue to live like I was living.

  I tugged on Winnie’s hand and said, “I spoke with the treasurer about it like you asked. They’re going to try to locate the funds.”

  Winnie stayed at my side while I unlocked the door to Tommy’s office and then looked around curiously as I pushed it open and flipped the light on.

  “What are you…”

  The door to the office was kicked shut, relocked, and then up against Winnie’s back in a matter of moments.

  “Steel,” she gasped. “What are you…”

  I took her mouth then, tangling my tongue with hers, forcing her jaw up to take more of me.

  “Steel,” she gasped. “What are you…”

  She tried to repeat the same words when I let her up for air, but I just shook my head.

  “But…”

  I shoved my hand up the outside of her shirt and fisted her bra strap with my hand.

  “Tommy Tom won’t come in,” I told her, moving my lips down the length of her neck. “And if you don’t focus, we’re going to have to stop what we’re doing.”

  “What are we doing?”

  “We’re about two pants and a set of panties away from fucking.”

  “You’re not wearing underwear?”

  I grinned. “I had to change my pants at work because a suspect thought it’d be funny to take a piss on himself—which then ended up on me when I had to tackle him to the ground.”

  Her face went pinched. “Gross.”

  “Gross,” I agreed, then started to work her shirt up over her head.

  She willingly allowed me to remove it, then went ahead and did the hard work by shucking her shoes, and then her pants as well as panties.

  The only thing she had left on was her bra and her socks.

  She looked fucking adorable.

  “Pick me up,” she ordered.

  That adorableness turned to sexiness in a blink of an eye.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I teased, leaning down.

  She threaded her arms around my neck and I lifted her up so that her face was level with mine.

  “Don’t put that pussy on my pants,” I ordered. “I can’t walk around with a stained crotch. I have nothing else to change into.”

  She bit her lip as her eyes sparkled. “Then I suggest that you lose the pants.”

  I winked and reached between us, slowly unhooking my utility belt and lowering it to the floor before starting in on my pants.

  Moments later they were down around my ankles and she was grinding herself down against me.

  “Not that I don’t like this,” she said, pressing her lips against my throat, right above where my pulse sped. “But what caused this to come on? You’re usually a stickler for the rules.”

  She was right. I was usually fairly adamant about keeping things professional and putting on a good face for my city.

  However, today had been bad.

  Not only had I had to deal with Mr. Pissy Pants and big black truck girl, but I’d also had to listen to the judge tell me that he thought Lizzibeth and I should go to mediation.

  When I’d flat out refused that, he said arbitration might be the only viable alternative.

  Which led to me calling Lizzibeth and giving her twenty-four hours to sign the divorce papers, or I would stop playing nice.

  My guess was that she’d call my bluff, but I wasn’t bluffing.

  I was pissed off, fed up, and I wanted to fuck my woman without a goddamn guilty conscience.

  I knew that Winnie didn’t care. She understood. However, I felt wrong fucking her when my almost ex-wife was still in the picture—even if it was from a distance.

  “Lizzibeth,” I answered, feeling her stiffen.

  “Bitch.”

  Then she reached between us, wrapped her small hand around my cock, and then guided it to her entrance.

  I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking when I thought I could deny the sexual attraction between the two of us. I must’ve been out of my goddamned mind, that was for sure.

  Because the moment she sank onto me, her entire pussy engulfing my cock, I realized how futile my resistance was.

  She was what my body craved, and who the hell was I to deny her anything?

  “Steel…”

  “Had a bad day.” I pronounced that statement by thrusting my cock into her.

  Feeling her tighten around me, there was a wave of instant rightness of the act. I knew that this was where I was supposed to be and it made my shitty morning disappear.

  Here, inside Winnie, nothing else mattered. Not my very soon-to-be ex-wife. Not work. Not anything. Only her. Only us.

  I came here straight from pulling over that bitch in her big truck. The only thing on my mind was erasing my morning.

  Winnie was the perfect fucking eraser. My eraser.

  She was the only person in my life who brought me peace. My son, my grandchildren, the members of my club—they’re my family, my everything. But they all made demands of me and my time.

  Winnie, though?

  She didn’t demand anything of me. She listened to me, and she paid attention. She soothed and calmed me. She comforted and cherished me. No one else in my life, past or present, gave me all of that.

  Winnie was it—she was the woman I’d been searching for.

  “Steel, please.”

  I looked into her eyes as I used the strength in my shoulders and arms to slowly slide her up.

>   I held her there momentarily while she whimpered for my cock, and then I lowered her onto me.

  Her mouth curved into an O as I thrust up on the downward glide, filling her with me again.

  My cock became more and more sensitive with each drive into her until it throbbed. Slide up. Throb. Glide down. Throb. Slide up, throb, glide down.

  Our eyes stayed connected., never once losing sight of each other. At least until I felt her muscles start to tighten around me.

  Her pupils dilated, and she lost focus of what was in front of her—me.

  This glazed look overtook her, and I watched as she fell apart.

  The need I had for her was all consuming, and the fact that she got there with just a few words, a kiss and my cock, ramped up everything I was feeling.

  Also knowing that she was there, I loosened the strings on my control.

  The come in my balls felt like it boiling. The tight, wet fist of her pussy erased everything but the thought of me coming from my mind.

  And then I was. I detonated and emptied myself inside her in three long bursts.

  Moments later, we were both breathing hard. I was sweating up a storm, and Winnie was looking at me with amusement in her eyes.

  “Not that I mind erasing your bad morning…but what happened to make it bad?” she whispered, smoothing her hand down my bearded cheek.

  I grunted something under my breath and patted her legs that were still wrapped around me.

  She took the hint and dropped them to the floor.

  Pulling out of her, I immediately grinned and winked.

  “I’ll get something to clean you up,” I said as I bent down and reached for my pants.

  She waited patiently as I tucked myself back inside of my pants and zipped them up.

  I snatched a couple tissues off the corner of Tommy Tom’s desk and handed them to her.

  She took them and cleaned herself up while I glanced around the office.

  I’d never been in here before, which then cracked me up seeing as the first time I was, it was to use it for sex. It didn’t have anything at all to do with the man who the office belonged to.

  “What are you laughing at?” Winnie asked, bending over to grab her scrub pants off the floor.

  I explained moments later, causing her to grin.

  “Yeah,” she snickered. “I’ve never been in here before, either. I actually wondered where he disappeared to sometimes when his wife was around and not working.”

  I just shook my head and chuckled as I walked toward her.

  She finished slipping her feet into her shoes without tying them and then lifted her face up toward me with a smile.

  I dropped one final kiss on her cheek before I said, “Grab those tissues and trash them in the bathroom when you go…I have to go back to work.”

  She sighed and then pulled away as far as the door at her back would let her.

  “Try to have a better day?”

  I shrugged. “Seems like this full moon is fucking with everyone and everything. Not to mention Aaron had the nerve to mention something about it being fucking ‘quiet’ today.”

  Winnie started to laugh and reached for the door, twisting the knob and opening it.

  I stepped back and allowed her to do so before following her out of it moments later.

  She’d just made it to the bathroom, with five minutes to spare, when I stopped her.

  “Winnie?”

  “Yeah?” She turned, her eyes sparkling.

  I opened my mouth to tell her what I was feeling but was interrupted by the mic at my shoulder going off. “Shooting at South and High.”

  I sighed and pinched my nose.

  “If I make it back in time, I’ll come over for dinner.”

  “Is that your way of telling me that you’d like me to cook?” she teased.

  But the smile that she’d forced onto her face didn’t meet her eyes. She was worried.

  Which then caused a small amount of exhilaration to surge through my veins.

  “Yeah, baby,” I said, crowding her into the door and laying one more kiss on her lips. “It is.”

  Then I left and didn’t look back.

  Chapter 16

  I’d take a Nerf bullet for you.

  -Winnie to Steel

  Steel

  “There are rules,” I said to the kid beside me. He may not be old enough to understand all of what I was saying to him just yet, but he was old enough to listen. Especially with the way he sucked in knowledge like a sponge. For instance, the useless facts that he picked up and then regurgitated whenever he felt like it.

  Most of the time, the useless facts he’d spout weren’t relevant to the situation, but for Cody, we didn’t mind. He was the cutest kid on the planet, even my own son hadn’t been that cute.

  So, I spoke, telling him the way of a man in this world, just like I’d done, a long time ago, with my own son. “One, you never shake a man’s hand while sitting down.”

  “Shake?”

  I reached out and took his hand in mine, my big hand engulfing his much smaller one. “Shake. Like this.”

  “Shake!” He nodded. “I know how to do that.”

  I grinned and let his hand go, not caring in the least that my hand was now sticky like his had been.

  He asked for a popsicle when we walked in the house together a few minutes earlier, and I’d thought nothing of it.

  What I hadn’t expected was for the boy to be so messy. Seriously, at the age of five, I don’t remember Sean being as dirty as this one…but then again, I never really let Sean have popsicles, either.

  “Another rule is that you always eat lunch with the new kid. You will never know if that new kid is your best friend if you don’t put yourself out there.”

  “Yes. I sat with Etan last week. He moved from Canananada.” He agreed. “What else?”

  Etan was actually Ethan. He wasn’t from Canada, though. He was from the Great Lakes area but had traveled with his father on business trips often that took him across the border.

  Cody headed toward me and held his hands out, asking in universal sign language for me to pick him up.

  I did and settled him on my lap, remembering a time when my own son would sit exactly where Cody was now sitting.

  God, it didn’t seem like it, but that was over thirty years ago.

  Jesus, how time flew.

  “Never be afraid of asking out the best-looking girl in the room,” I continued. “They may be stunners like your momma, but you’ll never know if you have what it takes to persuade her to date you if you don’t take that first step.”

  “I don’t like girls. They’re gross,” Cody countered. “Did you know that the average female lifespan is longer than the male lifespan?”

  I grinned. “Yes, I did know that one. Do you know why?”

  “No, why?” Cody questioned.

  “Because females don’t do stupid stuff in their youth like males do. If they make it past their young adult years, they have a fairly even chance compared with females.”

  Winnie broke into our conversation. “What are you teaching my son?”

  I grinned at the best-looking girl in the room—hell, in the whole fuckin’ county.

  “How to be a man.”

  Her smile was brilliant. “I’m glad that someone is teaching him those things. Isn’t he a little young, though?”

  I shook my head. “No. A man’s got to start being a man young, because he’ll be there before you know it. You’ve done a good job starting him with please and thank you.”

  Winnie winked, then blew us both a kiss before leaving again.

  About ten minutes before, Winnie had walked over to ask me if I wanted to go on a walk.

  I hadn’t.

  The next twenty-four hours I was off. I usually ran about four-to-five miles every day, and then lifted weights afterward. Tomorrow, I might consider running—or walking with her. Howev
er, after the day that I’d had, I wouldn’t be walking or running or, hell, even eating healthy.

  When I’d seen the crestfallen look on Winnie’s face, I’d offered my babysitting services, and she’d accepted.

  Which led to now, Cody dripping popsicle juices on my pants, and me checking out his mother in tight black pants that molded to her ass almost perfectly.

  “Another,” Cody ordered.

  I tore my gaze away from his mother’s ass and grinned. “You gonna eat that or just let it melt down your arm and onto my pants?”

  “Melt,” he said. “Did you know that the ‘rule of thumb’ is derived from an old English law that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb?”

  I burst out laughing. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Conleigh was watching a show that I was watching from the hallway. It said it there,” he answered. “Did you beat your wife?”

  I shook my head. “No. I didn’t. Some men do, but that’s illegal now.”

  “Good.” Cody nodded surely. “I would’ve hated to find out that you did. Then you couldn’t be with my mommy.”

  Before I could tell him that I would never do that to his mother, or any woman, he continued.

  “My daddy kissed my mommy’s best friend. And last week when I was over there, Morgan broke his arm. He was standing on the counter, trying to get the candy that my daddy had put on the top of the fridge to hide from the kids. He tried to jump from the counter to the fridge but missed. Daddy was with mommy’s best friend outside drinking beer. Does beer taste good? Do you know if it was made in America?”

  “The beer?” I questioned.

  “No, the fridge,” he said. “It’s a Kenmore.”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “I can Google it for you.”

  “Do that, would you?”

  I grinned and pulled out my phone, then found out that Kenmore refrigerators were, indeed, made in the USA, which I relayed to him.

  “What else?”

  “What else what?” I wondered.

  The boy jumped around like a jackrabbit.

  “What else is made in the USA?”

  “A lot of stuff,” I said. “But a lot more of it is made outside of the country.”

  “I like stuff that’s made in the USA. Only because it has our flag on it, though. Did you know that there are fifty stars on the flag?”