by K. Webster
“When we leave here, it stays. Got it?”
I nod. “Got it.”
My phone chimes while we shake and when she lets go, I pick it up.
Ames: Apparently your monster’s reputation has gotten out… Jason works tonight. Maybe you should stop by and give me a spanking. I’ll cook your favorite. :)
Me: I want you bare assed and ready.
Tay got his wish. It snowed and I got a kick out of all the pictures Kasey sent to my phone throughout the afternoon. My heart is full having her back in my life with her two kiddos in tow.
I shiver as I trudge through the snow up Jason’s front steps. Amethyst has been looking for an apartment but is staying with her brother-in-law until that time comes. We’ve hardly found any moments alone in the last few weeks. A stolen quickie here or there. But tonight is all ours.
When I raise my hand to knock on the door, it swings open. My beautiful blonde stands there looking sinful as hell. Her wispy hair has been braided into two schoolgirl braids on either side of her face. She’s makeup free tonight except for a pink, shimmery lip gloss that coats her full lips. But it’s her outfit that makes me crazy. Her lips tug into a grin as she spins for me to see. And boy do I see.
“Don’t you think that skirt’s a little short, missy?” I say with a growl. It’s a red and black flannel pleated skirt with a buckle on the side. The damn material barely covers her ass. Her white knee socks are sexy as fuck. She’s a naughty girl.
Her cheeks tinge pink and she flutters her eyelashes at me innocently. “Oops.”
My gaze falls to her white button up shirt that’s been undone to reveal her pert tits spilling out of a black bra. I’m seconds away from ripping the damn thing off of her. When she shivers, I remember it’s cold as fuck out here and she’s barely wearing anything.
I stomp the snow off my shoes on the porch before coming inside. Once I’ve kicked off my boots and shed my coat, I gather her into my arms. She smells like garlic from the lasagna I know she’s cooking.
“I missed you, beautiful.” I bury my nose against her neck and taste her soft flesh. She lets out a needy moan that sets my body on fire with desire.
“I missed you too, Kaspy.”
With a smile, I nip at her flesh and feel her tit up through her shirt. “I talked to Nadia today. Apologized for everything. But you know that already don’t you? Since you two seem to share...everything.”
She giggles which makes me growl. Pulling away from her, I snatch her wrist and then guide her into the living room.
“Time for that spanking I owe you.”
She squeals when I push her over the back of the couch and shove up her skirt. Sure enough, she’s bare beneath the fabric. If I know my girl, she’s probably dripping with want too. I slip my finger between her thighs and push it into her pussy. A moan escapes her and my finger slips right in. So wet. I start fucking her with it until she’s squirming and about to come. Then, I pop it out of her.
“How do you feel?” I question, my voice low.
She whines. “Unsatisfied.”
I grin and smack her ass. “Good. Are you going to kiss and tell anymore, Lames?”
She wiggles and shrieks. “No! I swear!”
Smacking her once more, I revel in the way her pale ass turns bright red in the shape of my big hand. “Beg for me to fuck you.”
I push my finger back inside her and she moans. “Fuck me, Kaspy!”
God, she’s so fucking cute. Only she could get away with calling me something so stupid at a time like this. When she’s about to lose control once more, I pull my finger from her and yank at the buckle on my belt. As soon as my dick is out and sheathed in a condom, I tease her opening with it. “Say you want my monster.”
She giggles so I smack her ass again. “I want your monster, caveman.”
Grasping my thick cock, I drive into her hard and fast. This is what she and I do. We fuck like a couple of horny cavepeople when we get the chance. It’s not long before she’s coming all over my dick and I’m exploding inside of her.
“I miss her.”
Her fingertips tickle over the hair on my chest in her dark bedroom. I cover her hand with mine and draw it to my lips to kiss her palm. “I know you do, babe.”
She’s quiet for a few minutes before she speaks again. “I feel guilty some days. Her life was stolen from her and here I’m just finding mine. It doesn’t seem fair. I should have been the one to die that night, not my sister and her little girl.”
A growl thunders in the room as I roll on top of her naked body. I press my lips to hers and run my fingers through her hair. “Don’t say shit like that, Ames.”
She sniffles and I swipe away a hot tear as it slides down her cheek. “I told you I’d be no good at this relationship thing.”
“Shhh,” I coo against her lips as I begin pressing kisses on her flesh to her throat. “You’re perfect. And you’re mine.”
Her entire body stiffens. “I don’t belong to anyone, Kasper. We’re just having fun.”
My cock twitches in agreement with the fun part. I spread her thighs apart and tease the tip of it as I slide between the lips of her pussy. “You belong to me. We’re most definitely having fun but you belong to me.”
She lets out a kitten-like growl of protest but it dies in her throat when I push my dick into her slowly. We don’t go slow, she and I. We’re always in a needy, eager rush to come. But right now, I want her to feel how we belong together.
“You make me a better person, Ames. From the moment I saw you in that airport, I’ve been tethered to you by some invisible rope. I have only ever been under that dark cloud of bitter hate. But then you showed up, tugged on that rope, and brought me into your light. You made me want to shine right along with you. Together we make rainbows. Don’t you see?”
She starts to sob. “Y-Y-You’d choose now to be sweet and make me cry.”
I suck on her bottom lip and then bite her gently before pulling back away. All the while, I thrust into her with slow, even movements. “I don’t want to make you cry. I want to make you fucking happy, woman.”
Her fingers thread into my hair and she smiles. I don’t have to see it in this dark room because I can feel it in my soul. “You do make me happy.”
Sliding a hand between us, I massage her clit. Her small gasps of pleasure ignite a raging fire within me. “And I’ll continue to make you happy. I don’t want to mess what we have up. I need you to tell me if I’m fucking things up. Promise, Lames?”
Her body quivers as her orgasm nears. “You’re not fucking things up.”
Closing my eyes, I groan when my balls draw up as I start to come. She lets out a moan as her climax overtakes her. Her sweet pussy clenches around me and forces out my own release.
“That was different,” she whispers, her fingertips drawing circles on my shoulder blades. “Good different.”
I smile and press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “It was different because I just made love to you. Because I do love you. I love you a whole fucking lot.”
She chuckles and lets out a ragged sigh. I don’t miss the sadness and guilt tinting her voice but there’s a hint of hope too. A hope of a happy future. With me. “I love you and your monster a whole lot too, Kaspy.”
My heart aches and bleeds but in the best kind of way. This is what love feels like. This is where any lingering hate at myself for what I’ve done completely dissolves away. I’m light now. Cloaked in her warmth. I am floating. Like a goddamned ghost, go figure.
I’m finally fucking free.
Two years later…
“Need any help?” I question from the doorway of our open-plan kitchen. This kitchen is what sold us. Well, Nadia at least. I was sold on her smile when she saw it. Knew right then I’d buy it for her on the spot if she wanted me to.
“You can pull out the ensalada de pepinos,” she says absently as she stirs the sauce on the stovetop.
Today she’s fucking glorious in a fitted sweater
dress that shows off all her delicious curves. Every delicious curve. If we didn’t have company chatting it up in the next room, I’d already be balls deep inside her. When it comes to my wife, I’m a man possessed. Insatiable when all I want to do is devour her completely.
“Everything okay, beautiful?”
She turns to regard me, a smile gracing her lips. My eyes skim over her plunging neckline that reveals her gorgeous breasts. Nadia’s pregnancy tits are what porn stars dream of having. Full, supple, bitable as hell. All mine. Her belly is round and I go crazy if I don’t get to touch it at least seven hundred times a day. Like now, I’m already reaching for her. To connect with my daughter—a healthy, bouncing baby girl inside.
“Everything’s perfect.”
And I believe her. Our lives have gone from confusing and heartbreaking and uncertain to fulfilling, joyful, and whole. My family is my entire fucking life.
“Why don’t you go and sit down?” Selene’s voice chirps from behind me. “I can finish up in here. You look exhausted, mi hijo.”
Nadia flashes her mother a relieved smile. Those two are inseparable. I was sure when Nadia finally confronted her about what Selene had done for her, there would have been claws and tears. Instead, my brave wife thanked her mother. Told her how much she appreciated the sacrifices she made in her own life to ensure the happiness of her daughter. Selene told her she’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant Nadia would have the full life she has now. I’ll forever be grateful for Selene’s unconventional ways that brought my love from halfway across the world and into my heart.
“Come on,” I say as I wink at Selene. I grasp Nadia’s hand and guide her into the living room where our guests are shooting the shit.
“Mamma!” Van shouts from the floor where he and Tay and Kass are playing. “Unkie Jason showed me how to wiggle my ears.”
She laughs and starts for him, but I pull her back to me to steal a kiss.
“Don’t you two ever quit?” Kasper groans. “Ow!”
I grin at his fiancée, Amethyst, who’s just slapped him upside the head. When Nadia walks away, I glance over at Kasey. My wife’s best friend. Those two have spent hours on the phone crying, whispering, and screaming in the past two years. Together, they work out the hate they had for Logan but they also talk so openly about forgiveness. That, I struggle with. How they can forgive a man who took so much from them. I’m still tender from the place where he tried to cut my heart right from my body. To think that someone who I trusted and damn near loved like a brother was capable of the sick shit he did. And he even justified it in his goddamned head. Some nights, I toss and turn trying to make sense of it. Forgiveness isn’t even on the table as far as I’m concerned.
“Hey, Donovan,” Kasper says as he stands and strides over to me. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
I nod and wave for him to follow me into my office. We both step over Van’s trike that sits in the doorway and sit down in the two chairs opposite my desk.
“What’s up?”
His features harden and he scowls. “Kasey’s gone to see him.”
“Who?” I demand with a growl.
“Logan. And Rhodes went with her. What the hell is up with that?” He scrubs his face with his palm in frustration.
“Closure maybe?”
He shakes his head. “It wasn’t the first time. In fact, she goes about once a month. She told me she wants her children to know him. When I blew a gasket, she informed me this was her life and her decision. I swear, you’d think I was trying to be her damn father or some shit. I’m just worried that she’s in love with Logan or something.”
I think about how I walked in on Jason and Kasey in a more-than-friendly embrace last weekend. In fact, his tongue was down her throat. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s moving on from her past.
“Fighting with her about it won’t solve a damn thing. Believe me. Nadia and I have come to blows about this shit over the past two years. You just have to give her the space to make her own decisions. Trust me.”
He grumbles but nods. “I guess. Did Nadia tell you the news about Ames?”
I smirk when a shit eating grin spreads across his face. “That you knocked up your girlfriend?”
His laughter booms in the room. “God, there’s no keeping any fucking secrets between those three women.”
Scratching at my jawline with a fingertip, I narrow my eyes and regard him seriously. “You know, Jason’s a good guy.”
He picks at a piece of lint on his sweater and considers my words. “Apparently he’s the best. He’s known as Lieutenant Rhodes now,” he says with a sarcastic drawl.
“Technically he’s the second best,” I reply with a wicked grin, “Chief.”
He groans. “I hate that title.”
“But not the job.”
“No, not the job. The job’s badass, getting to tell everyone what to do. But that title reminds me of…”
Our eyes meet and we both frown.
“Dinner’s ready,” Jason’s voice booms from the doorway. “Nadia sent me to get you.”
Kasper stands and strides over to him, the trike the only thing between them. “Hey you, be straight with me, man. Are you sleeping with Kase?”
Jason’s jaw drops and he cuts his eyes to mine for support. I shrug my shoulders. Not getting in the middle of that one. “I, uh… maybe you should talk to her or something—”
His words evaporate the moment Kasper grabs him by the front of the shirt and jerks him forward. Jason stumbles over the trike and looks up at Kasper as if he’s lost his mind.
“Listen, Ghost—” Jason starts.
“No, you listen to me. That’s my baby sis in there. You fuck her up and I fuck you up. Got it, motherfucker?” Kasper’s words are a venom filled threat.
“I, uh, yes,” Jason spits out, “Jesus fucking Christ. We’re just taking it day by day, man.”
Kasper narrows his eyes at him, doing that police shit he’s so good at. After a moment of careful scrutiny, he releases Jason’s collar. “Don’t hurt her.”
Jason growls as he straightens his shirt. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Little Kass interrupts their exchange from the doorway, clearly annoyed the trike is in her way. Her little button nose scrunches up and she whines. She reaches up her chubby arms for Jason. Without hesitation, he scoops her up and rescues her from the obstacle in her way. When she lays her head on his chest and rubs her eyes, Jason smiles.
“Look, man,” Kasper says with a huff of resignation, shocking Jason and I both. “I’m just happy to see your ugly mug smiling again. You, after Ash and the baby. And her, after Taylor, and then that monster Logan. I just want you both to be happy.”
“Here’s to hoping.” Jason nods, with a very sleepy toddler in his arms, and walks away. When he’s gone, I let out a laugh.
“You’re an asshole. You knew?”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m a perceptive asshole. Of course I fucking knew. I knew the moment she started dropping in for surprise visits to see me a few months ago. Kasey sees me every day. She and the kids live with me and Ames, for crying out loud. Kase didn’t come to see me. Apparently she’s been lusting after the good lieutenant.”
I pick up the trike and move it from the doorway before turning to regard him. “You turned out okay, kid.”
He slaps at my back as we start out the door. “So did you, Donovan.”
Together we make our way back to our family—an unusual combination of blood, friendship, and unbreakable bonds between a group of unlikely people.
As we gather around the table, I pull Nadia into my arms with her back pressed against my chest and kiss the top of her head. Her hair smells of garlic from cooking and I want to bury my face in it. If all these people weren’t here, I’d do just that. Of course we’d be naked too.
“She’s kicking,” Nadia purrs, her voice thick with happiness.
I splay my hands across her swollen belly. My daughter rolls around inside and a
thrill shoots its way straight to my heart.
“I love you, sweet Jayne.”
Her hands cover mine and she rubs her thumbs across them. “Yo tambien. Te quiero, mi amor.”
Most days, I don’t know what the hell she says when she speaks in her native tongue. For all I know, she could have told me she had a craving for dill pickles and chocolate ice cream.
But I hear.
I always hear.
It never fails to send the same message to me no matter what she says.
I fucking love you too, Donovan Jayne.
Three years after rescue…
The cold metal table under my forearms causes me to shiver. I’m nervous to see him today. It’s not like I haven’t been to the supermax US penitentiary in Florence County before, where Logan is serving two consecutive life sentences. In fact, I come about once a month unless I’ve been informed Logan is in solitary for doing something stupid, like fighting. Today, though, I’m good for a visit and my nerves are shot.
It’s just Logan. Breathe.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift to happier times before his actions caught up with him.
“My kids already in bed?” Logan’s deep voice rumbles, startling me awake on the couch.
I sit up and glance at the clock. It’s after midnight. When my eyes find his, my heart sinks. He looks terrible tonight. Something is weighing heavily on him.
“Come sit,” I urge.
He kicks off his shoes and yanks off his tie before slumping down on the couch. Once he’s settled, I straddle his lap and palm his cheeks. His dark eyes, shame flickering in them, find mine.
“What happened?”
He tears his gaze away from me and focuses on my hair as he tucks some loose strands behind my ears. “Donovan came over, looking for Nadia. Things got pretty bad. The house is all fucked up.”
My heart thunders in my chest. This is what she and I have been working toward. We need for people to notice we’re here. Sounds like all her hard work is paying off.
With a frown, careful not to let my hope shine through, I regard him. “Logan, baby, it’s just Donovan. What’s he going to do? You already said you announced your engagement. They can’t tear your house apart on assumptions. Nadia is convincing is she not?”
