“N—no,” she moaned.
“Does this feel good, Bev? Huh? You like how I work your body, baby?”
“Y—yeeessss.”
“That’s what I thought. Down there talking about going home. You knew I wasn’t going to let you go without my dessert.” He started to swing his hips from side to side. “Now didn’t you?”
“Oooooh.”
“Didn’t you, baby?” he insisted. “You know you belong to me, right? I can have you anytime I want, can’t I?”
“Ooooh.”
Lucius stopped. “What—I can’t get this anytime I want?”
Beverly’s eyes flew wide in panic. “Baby,” she whined, thrusting her hips back, trying to get him continue.
He made one long stroke. Stopped. “Can I have this anytime I want?”
“Yes, yes,” she panted, climbing on her knees and gliding back on his long dick. She wanted more—needed more.
“Look at you,” Lucius murmured. “Work it, baby.” He smacked and squeezed her ass cheeks as she continued to ride him hard and deep. “Oooh, yeah. That’s my girl.”
Beverly glanced back over her shoulder, watched him as his face twisted and contorted with ecstasy. To turn up the heat, she started rotating her hips.
Lucius growled.
“Shhh,” she whispered, smiling. “You don’t want to stop this groove now, do you?”
“Come here.” He chuckled and forced her to stand up on her knees though they still grinded together. “You play too much,” he moaned in her ear, still working her clit and thrusting into her warm wetness.
A low heat simmered in Beverly’s belly as stars started to blink behind her eyes. Lucius stroked with all he had, causing a glorious friction to tip her over the edge. Her thighs trembled, her breath thinned.
“You coming, baby?”
She wanted to answer but only managed to nod while her gasping started to heighten.
Mindful of who was sleeping just across the hall, Lucius was forced to place his hands over her mouth. However, Beverly responded by sucking on his fingers, while he continued to knock the air from her lungs. Two more pumps and Beverly quivered and convulsed, her orgasm causing a kaleidoscope of colors to spin behind her eyes.
Lucius followed, his explosion marrying their souls together to the point that neither could tell where one of them started and where the other ended. Hot and sweaty, they collapsed back onto the bed. “God, I love you,” he whispered raggedly, peppering more kisses against her back.
No answer.
“Beverly?” He leaned over and saw that she had once again fallen fast asleep. Lucius smiled, kissed her shoulder and snuggled up against the curve of her back, and allowed sleep to claim him.
Once his breathing settled and evened out, Beverly’s eyes fluttered open as tears streamed from the corners of her eyes and soaked her pillow.
Chapter 17
The four-day holiday weekend turned into a minivacation for Lucius, Beverly and Ruby. First thing Friday morning, after Beverly snuck down to the guest bedroom before Ruby woke, they all gathered for a big breakfast and then got ready to hit the malls for the first shopping day of Christmas.
When Beverly saw the wild concoction Lucius had created on his poor daughter’s head, she quickly marched the child back up the stairs and performed an emergency hair makeover with all the pretty bows and ties her mother had packed in her overnight bag. When they reemerged, Ruby strutted like the princess she was in front of her dad.
Lucius gave a thunderous applause and whistled mightily before offering his little girl his arm and escorting her and Beverly out to their vehicle.
Beverly’s heart melted at the way Lucius doted on his daughter. It was there for the world to see how much he loved her. This was the kind of man she should’ve married the first time. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she had to shake the troubled direction of her thoughts. This was the sort of thinking that could land her in trouble.
All the stores were teeming with anxious and overzealous shoppers. Lucius kept trying to pull them into every electronics store they passed, while Ruby and Beverly sought out toys and clothes stores. Before long, Lucius was reduced to holding bags while his girls kept disappearing behind changing-room doors and then coming out to model different outfits.
Of course he loved every one of them and ended up dropping a fortune before lunchtime.
Saturday and Sunday entailed more shopping with a Disney movie tossed in the mix. But nothing was more adorable to Lucius than watching his daughter attempt to mimic the way Beverly walked or talked—sometimes even the way she laughed or gestured with her hands.
When Beverly caught wind of what Ruby was doing, she appeared flattered and rained a lot of hugs and kisses on her. This was the kind of woman he should have married the first time. She was beautiful, strong and independent. Yet, at the same time, caring, loving and willing to give and share her time.
During the weekend, Lucius kept feeling as if they were already like a small family, and the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. The truth of the matter was that he loved waking up every morning curled up with Beverly. When she wasn’t around, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And when she was around, he couldn’t keep his hands off of her.
They were a perfect fit in every way—but he was still sensing her trying to resist the inevitable. Every time he would mention the word love, she would either pretend not to hear him or conveniently fall asleep. Frankly, he was on to her, but he was willing to let it slide—for now.
“Well, well. Look who decided to come back to work,” Clarence said when Beverly finally strolled into Hoops Monday afternoon.
“What? I knew the girls had everything under control,” Beverly said, flashing a smile at Leslie as she sauntered toward the back of the store.
Clarence followed, switching his hips and carrying on his arm a gorgeous Fendi B Bag. “Clearly you’ve forgotten that usually we have a standing date every Black Friday,” he said, folding his arms and leaning against the door frame of her office.
Beverly’s mouth dropped open as her eyes widened to the size of half dollars. “Oh. My. God,” she gasped. “Oh, Clarence, I’m so sorry.” She blinked and shook her head. “I don’t know how on earth I’d forgotten about—”
“I do,” he drawled. “I know you’re not going to sit up in here and tell me that you weren’t over at Mr. Lover-Lover’s with your legs wrapped around his waist.”
“Clarence, behave.”
“I am behaving. You ought to be glad I’m not cussing you out for having me up at four o’clock in the morning freezing my butt off. I was trying to do my patriotic duty in wrecking the hell out of my credit cards and I got stood up.” He pressed a hand against his chest. “Nobody stands me up. Then I’m blowing up your cell phone and you don’t answer that.”
Beverly winced. “I left it charging on my charger at home.”
“Hmmph.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I did sort of get caught up with Lucius and Ruby.”
“Ruby-who?”
“Ruby. Lucius’s daughter.”
Clarence moved over to the chair next to her desk. “He introduced you to his daughter?”
“Yeah. Her mother changed her plans at the last minute so he had her this weekend.” She smiled. “You should have seen her. She’s the most adorable thing. Looks so much like her father.”
Clarence said nothing, but eyed her up and down.
“What?” she asked defensively.
“Nothing.” He shrugged.
Beverly’s eyes narrowed. It was obvious that her friend was lying. “Spit it out.”
“It’s nothing.”
Silence.
“I just find it interesting that you seem comfortable about being around his child. You know…since you’ve had a hard time dealing—”
“It’s not the same thing,” she said, cutting him off.
Clarence tossed up his hands, signaling that he was b
acking off.
Beverly shifted in her chair, annoyed and irritated. But when she thought about Ruby’s adorable face, she couldn’t help but soften up a little bit. She really did enjoy the time she’d spent with the little girl. In fact, she was flattered by how the child attached herself to her like they were lifelong best friends.
She loved that.
“Well,” Clarence said, breaking the silence, “I think it’s great. There. I said it. I’m not going to say anything else.” He popped out of his seat and headed toward the door. “Wait. I lied.” He turned and faced her. “All jokes aside, I really hope you don’t try to mess this up. It’s well past time that you move on and embrace whatever happiness you can find in this life. And there’s no denying that Lucius Gray makes you very happy.”
Lucius had planned on at least working a half day the Monday after Thanksgiving, but Erica never showed to pick up Ruby and he had to revamp his day and take his daughter to school. Finally he hopped up and dialed Erica’s number to see what the holdup was, but was further frustrated when she didn’t answer at any of her contact numbers.
Still he put up a bright front for Ruby, but secretly started worrying about the court case he’d planned to start preparing for today. Lucius had promised himself that he wouldn’t do any office work during his father-daughter time. He had done it once years ago and Erica had made him feel guilty for doing so. Since then, he’d promised that when Ruby was around, those rare times, he would give her his full attention. Today challenged that promise.
“Daddy, you’re missing the show!” Ruby shouted from the living room.
“All right. Here I come.” He hung up the phone and returned to the great adventures of SpongeBob and Patrick. That’s where they remained until five o’clock, when he finally stood and went to make dinner from their Thanksgiving leftovers.
Ruby seemed unfazed by the fact that her mother never showed and just simply returned her pink overnight bag up to her room. “Is Beverly coming home for dinner?” she asked, settling into her chair at the dining-room table.
He smiled into her eager eyes. “Um…I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. After the extensive time Beverly had spent with them over the weekend, he didn’t want to pressure or make her feel obligated to spend more time with Ruby simply because she liked her.
“I like your girlfriend,” Ruby said simply. “You should marry her.”
Lucius laughed at the way his daughter just cut to the chase. “Why are you so determined to get me hitched?”
She shrugged. “Because I want you to be happy.”
Their identical hazel-eyed gazes locked and Lucius’s heart overflowed at seeing Ruby’s open sincerity. “Thank you, baby.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
His daughter beamed. “So are you going to call her and tell her to come over?”
“How about I call her and invite her over?” he amended with a wink.
“Goodie!” She hopped up from the table and raced to retrieve the cordless phone like a future Olympian. “Here you go, Daddy. Call her.”
Lucius laughed as he took the phone. “All right. All right. Calm down.”
Instead of returning to her chair, Ruby danced and hopped around while chanting, “Call her. Call her.”
Relenting to peer pressure, Lucius dialed Beverly’s cell phone. “Hello,” he said, when she finally picked up, but before he could issue the invitation, Ruby snatched the phone and brokered the offer.
“Hey, Beverly. Do you want to come over?”
Pause.
Ruby’s gaze shot up to her father, and he feared that Beverly was politely turning down the offer.
“Pleeeease?”
Lucius reached for the phone.
“Oh, goodie!” Ruby resumed bouncing around. “See you when you get here!” She handed her father the phone back.
“Hello.” He checked to see if Beverly was still on the line.
“She’s so adorable,” Beverly said softly.
“And clearly crazy about you,” he said, standing from the table and moving toward the kitchen so that his little girl wouldn’t overhear him. “Look, I hope you don’t feel pressured to—”
“Don’t be silly. I’d love to join you guys for dinner. It’ll save me from having to cook something myself.”
“So you’re just using me for my cooking?”
“For your cooking in the kitchen and the bedroom,” she teased.
“Awww. I get it.” He glanced around and then lowered his voice. “You’re just using me for my body.”
“You didn’t know?”
He sniffed and pretended to be offended. “I was hoping that I’d finally found a woman who loved me for me—for my mind, as well as my body.”
Beverly laughed.
“I have feelings,” Lucius continued dramatically.
“Does that mean that you don’t want me to come over?”
“Now. I didn’t say that exactly.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said.
Lucius laughed. “So what time can we expect you here?”
“I’m leaving the shop now. Give me about twenty minutes.”
“All right. We’ll see you then.” He disconnected the call and started back to the table, where Ruby still bounced around in her chair. When the phone rang, Lucius snatched it up, thinking it was Beverly again. “Forget something, baby?”
Pause.
“Hello?”
“Lucius?” Erica questioned.
“Oh, there you are.” Once again, he turned his back to the dining-room table. “Where in the hell are you? I thought you said that you were coming back today. I missed a whole day at the office.”
“Oooh. Poor baby. Did the law office implode without you?”
He took a deep, calming breath. It wasn’t going to do any good to try to explain anything to Erica. “Okay. Fine. When are you coming to pick up Ruby?”
Silence.
“Erica?”
“Look, Lucius. Things are complicated right now. Andrew and I didn’t go to Boston this past weekend.”
Not sure where this was heading, Lucius folded his arms and leaned against the kitchen door. “Okay. So where did you go?”
“Las Vegas,” she said. “We eloped.”
Silence.
“Lucius?”
“I guess that means that congratulations are in order,” he said.
“Th—thank you.”
He drew in a deep breath. “Soooo, when do think you’ll be coming back?”
Silence.
An icy fear dripped down the center of Lucius’s spine. “You are coming back, aren’t you?”
“Look, Lucius. Andrew isn’t ready to be a father right now. And it really bothers him that Ruby looks sooo much like you.”
“What?!”
“Hey, don’t yell at me,” she snapped. “It’s not like this is easy for me. I’m not completely turning my back on Ruby. I’m just…we need some time alone right now. Sometime down the line, Andrew may adapt to the idea of being a full-fledged stepfather.”
“What—she’s going to miraculously stop looking like me?” he hissed. “I don’t believe this. I can’t believe that you are just dumping your daughter.”
“I am not dumping her. I’m leaving her with her father. You are that, you know.”
“Stop it, Erica. You’re not going to guilt-trip me. This is about you and the cowardly way you are handling this. I’m more than happy to keep Ruby, especially now that I know how her stepfather feels.”
“It’s not that Andrew hates her.”
“Save it,” Lucius snapped. “Just go off and enjoy your new marriage. It sounds like you two deserve each other.” He disconnected the call, wanting to scream and throw the phone against the wall.
“Daddy, your food is getting cold,” Ruby yelled.
Lucius drew a couple of deep breaths. He couldn’t believe this was happening. As of this moment, he was a full-time single father. That meant new scho
ols, day care—and how would this affect his erratic hours at the job?
“Daddy!”
Exhaling a long breath, he forced a smile to his face. “Here I come, baby.”
Chapter 18
When Beverly heard about Erica abandoning her child so she could be free to start a new life with her new husband she was just stunned. She couldn’t imagine a mother deciding to do such a thing. It even forced her to reevaluate some of the things that had gone on in her marriage.
The unfairness.
The injustice.
And poor Lucius was just stunned and tried his best to shield Ruby from all the real drama that was going on between her parents. It was also clear in the next two weeks that Lucius was overwhelmed. Choosing new schools and day care centers were monumental decisions and it pulled at Beverly to see Lucius wrestle with so many tough choices. Ruby on the other hand seemed pleased about the whole arrangement, especially the continued time she spent with Beverly.
In the beginning, Beverly kept telling herself to not get too close. This situation had nothing to do with her. But Ruby, like her father, had crept under her defenses and stolen a piece of her heart whether she liked it or not. By the second week in December, Beverly had gone from the no-strings-attached sex partner to acting and behaving like a member of this small family who laughed at the dinner table and cheered on their favorite football teams on Monday nights. And it was a complete madhouse in the mornings when everyone was trying to get to school and work on time.
As Clarence joked, Beverly was part of the family all but in name. The idea of that both thrilled and frightened her. How did she get here—and so fast? When she questioned herself on why she hadn’t just walked away, the answer was so obvious it smacked her in face. She was in this situation because, despite her precautions, she had fallen in love with Lucius Gray.
She loved everything about him. From the way he loved and supported her to the way he sat his daughter on a pedestal. And though he struggled with the toll of suddenly becoming a single full-time father, he went out of his way to hide his distress from his daughter. Although she sometimes missed her mother, Ruby Gray just knew that her father loved and adored her—and that’s all that Lucius wanted her to know.
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