He looked angry, strong and so freakin’ hot.
His muscles were bulging, his eyes were laser focused on me, and his cock, once he wrestled it out of his jeans, was so hard that it looked downright painful.
I bit my lip and watched as he wielded it like a sword and lined it up with my entrance.
In one glorious motion, I felt him fill me—hard and fast.
I lost my breath once he hit the end of me and came just a few heartbeats later.
His eyes locked with mine over my shoulder when he pulled out just a few strokes later, watching my eyes on him as he came all over my back.
I felt the wet heat of his release decorate my spine.
Long spurts went over my ass and landed somewhere near my shoulder blades, and I gasped in surprise.
He’d never, not once, been as rough—or as fast—as he’d just been. He’d completely lost control.
I’d have bruises on my hips tomorrow where he held me in place, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
If he needed to be rough to let go of the stress from the day he had, I’d willingly give my body over to him so he could do just that.
Anything.
***
When I woke up, and he was gone, I groaned and rolled over, coming to my feet in one smooth motion.
I looked down at the air mattress with a new appreciation for it.
I’d never slept on one before, but it’d been fun…until the end when I was trying to get up without smearing Johnny juice all over the place.
I cracked up at my ‘Johnny juice’ and walked to the living room, finding him nowhere in sight.
It was more than obvious that he wanted space, so I dressed quickly and was out of his apartment moments later.
Since the door had been locked, I relocked it behind me and headed down the hall to my own.
When I walked inside, Amanda was slinging her coat over the back of the couch.
She looked exhausted, but she took one look at my face and immediately knew that something was wrong.
“Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit is right.”
Then I proceeded to tell her about my day and how off the rails it’d gone.
Chapter 24
Did you order your dinner? Yes? Good. Let me play you the song of my people.
-Johnny as he listens to the tones dropping for a 9-1-1 call.
June
It was mid-week, Johnny’s first day off since ‘the day’ when our lives had changed.
I had a to-go cup of tea in my hand from the Taco Shop, and Johnny had a glass of tea in his that was about twice the size of mine.
“I’m sorry, Johnny. But with his compromised immune system, it’s best if he’s not around too many people.” The somber expression on Rosie’s face and her sugary words were canceled out by the look in her eyes.
Her son might very well have a compromised immune system, but she wasn’t kicking me out of the room because of it. No, she was kicking me out because she didn’t want me there, and she had a perfectly good excuse to use to force me to leave.
Bitch.
But I’d stay out here because she was right. I wasn’t going to put that little boy in danger. Not with how small and sickly he looked.
She may not want to protect him, but I did.
He deserved it.
Johnny’s eyes turned to survey me. “Would you mind?”
I would’ve laughed, but I could clearly see that he was torn. He didn’t want to leave me alone, but he also didn’t want to miss any more time with his son.
I’d give him anything in the world if he’d only ask.
“I’ll go spend some time with my grandpa,” I suggested. “You want to just call me and let me know when to come pick you up?”
Relief washed over his features. “That sounds absolutely perfect.”
I knew it did. Because it was very nice and perfectly understanding of me.
I winked at him, trying to hide how much I hated that Rosie was getting to stay with him, and waved. “See you in a little bit.”
I did end up going to see my grandfather, but he’d had a bad day, and he wasn’t up to visitors.
After leaving the nursing home, the icing on my shit-tastic day came when my mother came barreling out of the convenience store I’d stopped at for gas and to waste some time.
The moment she saw me, she froze.
Her eyes narrowed, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get away with leaving here without talking to her.
I hung the nozzle back up on its holder and twisted the cap back on while I watched her march over to me out of my peripheral vision.
“I just got him out of jail, and you fucking sent him back!”
I knew what she was talking about.
When my grandfather had pressed charges against him for using his money, he’d gone back to prison for violating the terms of his parole.
Meaning my mother now had to pay the bills by herself once again.
I closed the fuel door over the gas cap and then turned to survey my mother.
“I didn’t tell him to steal from Grandpa,” I told her.
She sneered at me.
“You owe us.”
I laughed at her without humor.
“I owe you?” I asked. “You’re so full of shit. I don’t owe you a goddamn thing.”
“I gave you a roof. I gave you life. I gave you a start. That’s more than I can say for some parents,” she sneered. “I may not have been the best mother in the world, but I did what I had to do to put food on the table.”
“So, to put food on your table, you allowed men to touch me when I never should’ve been touched?” I asked, wanting clarification.
She grinned, and it showed her rotting teeth that were likely due to her drug addiction.
It made my skin crawl.
“I got Tennessee to take you home. I saw what your daddy was allowing to happen and got Tennessee to come take you. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Then she turned and left after dropping that bomb, something that I never knew.
She’d been the one to call my grandfather?
The sound of rocks crunching on pavement had me turning to see what was making the sound.
I looked up to find Coke standing there, staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
“A father’s job is to protect his baby girl, not hurt her more. Whatever you take home from today, just know that the man that your mother just described? He’s no father. He’s a pimp, nothing more. You don’t ever owe your parents anything. That’s their job, to take care of you. It’s not your job to take care of them. And it’s people like them that give the good parents like us bad names.”
With that, he tugged me in close, pressed a kiss to my forehead, and then ruffled my hair as he walked away. He got into his truck that I hadn’t even noticed was there and drove away.
I felt my heart practically stall out in my chest.
It was nice to have someone defend me.
But my mother was at least right about something.
She did save me. Had Tennessee Common not come back into my life when he did, I’d have definitely been a whole lot worse off.
***
I was blaming the run-in with my mother for my lack of tact when it came to broaching the subject of my suspicions.
If I’d been in the right frame of mine, I would’ve never brought it up at all.
But one of Johnny’s comments about how Hank had looked just like him had my feathers getting ruffled.
And I opened my fat mouth before I’d had time to think about what I was saying.
Then he’d asked me to throw the trash away when he was standing right next to it, and I can’t say that it was one of my finest moments.
“Johnny,” I hesitated. “There’s just something that’s not right here,” I admitted. “Why did she say that he was yours so fast? I mean, she’d let all
this time pass, and then, you find out, and she’s like, ‘Oh! He’s yours!’” I shook my head. “This doesn’t seem right. There’s something more going on here.”
He shook his head. “I think she just saw the writing on the wall. She knew that she’d been found out, so why deny it?”
He had a point, but still. He hadn’t seen the gleam in Rosie’s eyes. He hadn’t seen her practically roll her shoulders and stand up straighter when she saw Johnny’s reaction.
Sure, it didn’t make much sense to lie about it once we’d found out, but there was something else really wrong with this situation. Something really, really wrong.
And Johnny was too confused, too emotionally invested to see it.
“I think…I think you should get a DNA test,” I admitted. “Just in case.”
Johnny glanced over at me. “June, you were the one to recognize this kid as mine. Not to mention, you were the one who started all this. There’s no denying that he’s mine. He has the same eyes, facial features, and skin tone as me and my dad. Trust me when I say that this is a slam-dunk. I don’t need a DNA test to prove it.”
He probably was right…but goddamn. Rosie’s smug look was really, really bothering me.
And I didn’t like that. I’d find out what was really going on, I could promise that.
“It won’t hurt to try.” I kept going when I should’ve left it alone. “Seriously, Rosie is a bitch. This is something she’d do. You have to admit it.”
Johnny, obviously, wasn’t in a very good state himself, because he snapped at me when I’d said what I said.
“Rosie is trying to do what she can to get by. Can I say that I would’ve done the same thing if I’d been the one in her situation? No. Because my mother would’ve been a better bet than a grunt like I’d been. I was an E-2 in the Army. I literally made twenty-two thousand dollars a year. Hank’s medical bills were in the upwards to hundreds of thousands of dollars range.”
“She didn’t know he had a medical anything when she first found out she was pregnant,” I countered. “She kept him from you,” I pushed.
“She did what she had to do!” he blew up, standing up from the table so fast that I was staring at him with a little bit of alarm and fear.
He saw that fear and got angrier.
“I would never hurt you,” he snarled.
I knew that.
Logically, I knew that.
But Johnny was a big man. It was hard not to feel intimidated when he was towering over me like that with his anger practically palpable in the room around me.
“Okay,” I lied.
“I think we need to take a step back anyway,” he spat at me as he walked away.
I felt my heart lurch in my chest.
“Johnny…”
But before I could even get out my sentence, he was gone.
***
If anyone could feel even lower than I did at that moment in time, I’d be surprised.
I felt like utter shit since Johnny had walked out my apartment door, and the sad thing was, was that he was right down the hall.
Yet I couldn’t find it in me to apologize.
I sat down and looked blankly at the table in front of me.
We’d arrived, and Johnny had two cups in his hand. Mine—that had somehow been stolen by Hank at some point during Johnny’s goodbye, and Johnny’s.
Both of them sat abandoned on the table after our fight.
I looked down at the cup that used to be mine, bite marks all along the straw.
Then I looked over at the cup that Johnny had used.
An idea formed, and I suddenly couldn’t wait any longer.
I just couldn’t.
I had to know.
I walked out of my room, then knocked on Amanda’s door.
She opened it, her eyes wide.
“Did you just seriously break up while I was locked in my room?”
I nodded.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she burst out, throwing her arms in the air. “You literally just told me two days ago that he had a son, and now you’re telling him to get a DNA test? You told me they looked exactly alike!”
They did. I had.
“I just…Amanda, have you ever known me to ever freak out like that without cause?” I whispered, suddenly feeling ill.
She pursed her lips, then shook her head. “No.”
I swallowed and looked down at the two cups in my hand.
“I need a favor.”
***
Amanda led the way to the lab that her friend, Isaac, owned.
Isaac and Amanda had a weird relationship. The biggest problem was that Isaac loved her, but Amanda was clueless. Isaac was also too timid and tame to ever make the first move, so until Amanda realized what was right in front of her nose, she wouldn’t ever get with the one guy who I knew would treat her like she deserved to be treated.
“Isaac!” Amanda said, hurrying toward the door he was holding open. “Thank God you were still here.”
Isaac worked at a LabCorp in town, and they ran the blood diagnostics for all of the local doctor offices. He looked harried and tired.
“I’m so glad that you’re here,” Amanda blurted.
He smiled, and his face flushed. “You can thank my boss for spreading the flu around the office. I’m literally the only one working tonight.”
I immediately felt bad.
But not bad enough that I wasn’t going to ask him to do what I needed him to do.
Amanda explained what we needed as he ushered us inside, and I could tell after she’d finished that he didn’t want to do it.
He looked at something over his shoulder, and I did, too.
Wincing when I saw the stack of paperwork on the table.
Likely, that was all that he had to do, and I’d just added one more thing to his pile.
“Please,” Amanda asked, blinking innocently at him.
He swallowed, lost now, and nodded. “Anything.”
Amanda squealed and yanked the cups out of my hand. “Okay, the big one is Daddy’s—supposedly Daddy’s—and the small one is the little boy’s. Though, June also drank from it. Does that matter?”
He shook his head.
“You said you drank from this one?”
I nodded.
He sighed. “I’ll need your DNA too, to weed out whose is whose.”
I smiled wide, and I made a decision right then and there that I was going to make Amanda see exactly what she was missing.
Normally, I was one who would let things lie where they may so fate could work it all out. However, Isaac looked absolutely miserable, just as Amanda did when she let her guard down.
I’d make sure she knew, and then I’d make sure that she got exactly what I knew they both wanted.
Chapter 25
It is never okay to put anything inside your body, and then call the police about it. It’s called common sense, people. That is all.
-Hostel PD FB page
Johnny
Saturday came fast, and I was in no better mood now than I had been on Wednesday when I had walked out June’s door.
I know that I’d been too rough on her, yet I couldn’t find the courage to apologize for my dumbass behavior.
This entire situation was a goddamn clusterfuck, and I found myself in a bind.
I wanted to call her.
I wanted to go see her.
I wanted to have her in my arms.
But…I couldn’t get her to answer her phone.
I’d said some pretty hasty things to her, and I hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt.
I surely wasn’t one to be able to judge character at this point.
In my opinion, Rosie had been a right bitch, but I hadn’t thought she was going to hide something from me like a son.
Sure, she had a perfectly acceptable reason. Rosie’s mother had never indicated that she didn’t trust me.
Now that I’d had three days to myself and time to think, I was ready to admit that Sharon, Rosie’s mother, wouldn’t have required me to stay away. If that was her grandbaby, she would want the best for him.
Which was why I found myself standing in Rosie’s living room in her apartment across town.
It irked me that Hank wasn’t there with her, and I realized that I still had a few questions, like why wasn’t she living with our son for starters.
I walked into Rosie’s apartment and took a quick glance around.
The place was very nice, and it looked like she’d been living there for years instead of just a few months.
I walked to the stool next to her countertop and took a seat with one foot hitched up on the stool, while the other was planted on the ground for traction.
I felt like my stomach was roiling, and I wanted to be anywhere but here.
Like with June.
But I also wanted to be near Hank to get to know him better.
I’d seen him twice now this week, and although I felt like I should miss him, I didn’t.
And that had a lot to do with the woman currently smiling at me like a cat that ate the canary.
“I’m so glad that you accepted my invitation for dinner,” Rosie purred. “I hope you like steak.”
I liked steak, but I had zero appetite at that point, yet I didn’t tell her that.
“Rosie, I have some questions, and I need you to answer them.”
She looked like she’d rather not, but she took a seat beside me and held her hands out in front of her as a ‘get it over with’ gesture.
“Why don’t you live with Hank?”
She looked at me. “You know the answer to that.”
No, I didn’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking her.
“Humor me and tell me anyway,” I suggested.
She sighed. “I’m not good mother material, Johnny.”
That, actually, was the truth. If there was anyone on this planet who didn’t need to be a mother, it was her.
In the time that I’d been around her and Hank, I had not seen any sort of mother-son bond between them. Now, when the nanny came back? There was more of a bond there between Hank and Brigid than there was between Rosie and Hank.
“So, what’s your endgame here?” I finally asked. “Are you okay with me taking him in and acquiring custody?”
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