by KB Winters
“You know what I mean, Mom.”
“I do,” I admitted on a weary sigh because I did know, and I understood more than he could understand at his tender age. “And I wish I could make it all go away, believe me I do. But for now all we can do is cope with the cards we have.”
He frowned at me from the passenger seat, a tiny smile twitching on the right side of his mouth. “You said that wrong.”
“Did I?” He gave an exaggerated nod but all I cared about was that his smile grew bigger and bigger. “What would you say about pizza for dinner?” Even though he didn’t have a traditional diet, Beau was no different from any other kid who’d jump for joy at the mention of pizza.
“Okay.” It was reluctant acceptance but I knew that wouldn’t last long. “Key Largo’s?”
“Where else?” I’d never ever set foot inside a tropical themed pizza parlor until moving to Nevada, but Key Largo Pizza Haven never did anything halfway. The goddesses must have been shining down on me because we found a spot inside the parking lot, not that it would make the wait any shorter but if Beau suffered another attack I’d have to carry him and for that, distance mattered.
The place smelled amazing, like it always did because for some reason coconut oil and pizza sauce worked together.
“Cross!” Beau darted between four tables, narrowly missing a pitcher of beer.
“Beau,” I called, always worried when he ran when he should walk, anxious that exertion would bring on an attack. If only I had the secret to putting a level head on such young shoulders.
Then I spotted the reason for his excitement. Cross sitting by himself in a booth, a large pizza on the table in front of him. He looked good, even with the bruising. “Hey kiddo, how’s it going?” I heard him say as I came up behind Beau.
“Okay,” Beau said, pushing his glasses up again. “Did you get picked on too?” Beau pointed to his still healing busted lip and Cross grinned.
“People try to pick on me, but I don’t let them, Beau.” Cross turned to face Beau so they were eye to eye. “How are you, really? Your mom said you were having trouble breathing again.”
Cross looked up at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. “Hey, Moon.” Was it pleasure at seeing me? Total disinterest? Why couldn’t I read this man? Why wouldn’t he let me?
“Hey, yourself, Cross.”
I turned my attention to my son, and froze, waiting for Beau to clam up as he usually did whenever anyone mentioned his illness. But he surprised me, opening up easily. “I don’t like the nebulizer.”
I quickly changed the subject. “What do you want on your pizza, Beau? The usual?”
He didn’t take his eyes off Cross, just giving me an enthusiastic nod, so I left Beau at the table while I went to place our order. I figured he would be fine for a few minutes since Cross appeared more amused by him than annoyed. Though I wondered about that flash of pain in his eyes I sometimes saw when he looked at my son.
It didn’t take long to place the order but who knew how long the wait would be, so I took a moment and grabbed some vegetables from the salad bar. And I might have taken a small moment for me, away from Cross and his delicious scent before returning to the table, where Beau was talking about his favorite thing in the world. Sports.
“The Golden Knights are going to take the Stanley Cup this year,” he said with an air of authority that had Cross covering his mouth.
“But what about those Sharks?” Cross asked.
Beau nodded and I knew exactly where this conversation was heading. Stats. “Yeah, but the Knights are—”
“—Eat some vegetables while we wait for our pizza.” I slid the plate over and he carefully looked at the options before grabbing a baby carrot. “Sorry,” I mouthed to Cross.
His mouth curled into an irresistible smile. “Don’t be.”
“I have a booster seat if you want one,” the woman at the table beside us offered.
I smiled gratefully, Beau never used them even though he was a touch small for his age. “Thanks, but it’s not necessary.”
“What?” Cross looked at Beau who stood beside the empty chair warily. “How are you gonna stare your food in the face before you tear into it? You gotta show that pizza who’s the boss.”
Beau still looked wary but Cross picked up a slice of his meaty pizza and gave it a mean look before biting into it aggressively. “Aargh! See?”
And just like that Beau’s hesitation vanished and he laughed hysterically. “Okay. Thank you, miss.”
“Oh, aren’t you sweet,” the woman said, immediately stepping forward to place the booster on the seat beside Cross. “Enjoy your pizza young man.”
He climbed up into the seat and waved at the retreating woman. “I can’t wait to be this tall.”
Cross chuckled. “Enjoy being a short stack while you can.” He winked at Beau who tried a wink back as if he accepted the older guy’s wisdom, and then picked up a carrot stick.
“Okay,” he said simply.
And me? Well I had to send a wish out to the heavens above that it was just lust I felt heating up my insides and not something else.
Chapter Thirteen
Cross
“I’m leaving. Right now.” It was the third time I made that particular promise with my lips hovering a breath away from Moon’s. We didn’t have much time left before Beau came home from school.
“You already said that,” she shot back, her voice filled with heat and amusement. That pink tongue darted out and slid in a hypnotic motion from one corner to the next and I knew I’d say those words a fourth time. The tip slid along the seam of my mouth and I was lost to the electricity of the kiss. The heat and the hunger. She was like a magnet pulling me in and I was too needy to step back. To turn away.
I needed to be inside her. Now. “Tell me to leave,” I growled because if she told me to, it was the only way I could walk away from her while my body trembled with need. A dark, hungry need that I couldn’t deny.
“I will,” she promised on a breathy pant. “But not yet.” Then her mouth was on mine in that slow sensual way she had. Moon wasn’t a rush through it kind of woman. No, she was the type to savor every touch and every taste. And right then she savored my mouth like it was one sweet morsel of chocolate. “Upstairs,” she commanded in that low, husky voice of hers.
Moon only had to tell me once. My cock was hard—throbbing hard—and anxious to be inside her. I locked the front door before turning to follow her down the hall and up the stairs, smacking her ass once in a while just to let her know I was still back there. “Moon.”
She stepped inside the bedroom and turned to face me, making my heart pound so loud I couldn’t hear a damn thing. “You plan to stay over there, wearing all of that?”
“Fuck no.” I stalked to her, my animalistic intent written all over my face as I took her mouth because I couldn’t resist her sweet, pink lips, her hot, wet tongue and the way it yielded under my own. It was always like this, raw and greedy, and as I made love to her mouth and stripped her down, kissing her from her collarbone down to her breasts, the intensity never let up. I savored those beautiful breasts, pulling one nipple and then the other into my mouth until she arched into me with a moan.
“Cross, yes!” Long, nimble fingers tangled in my hair and pulled me closer. Like she fucking couldn’t get enough.
Of me.
I listened to every gasp, every moan and every cry of pleasure as I kissed my way down her body, stopping at the curve of her hip to nibble. The soft flesh of her lower belly before I slid lower. And lower still until I was on my knees in front of her. Her legs trembled when I inhaled her spicy, erotic scent, and I let her fall to the bed, long legs hanging over the edge.
“Fuck,” I grunted at the sight of her glistening pink pussy, clit throbbing just for me. My mouth watered and I bent low to satisfy my appetite, licking at her slick, pink lips and that bundle that called to me. Lapping up her juices while she writhed beneath me, holding me close while trying
to push me away.
“Cross,” she said. Her tone was a warning. She was close and I was right there to push her over the edge. “Oh yes! Cross!”
The way she cried out my name hit me straight in the cock and I was ready to slide into her. But I didn’t. Not yet. I wasn’t done tasting her. Moon trembled when I licked down to her ass, sliding my tongue into that tight little rosette as she continued to writhe and pulsate.
“Cross!” When my finger slid into her pussy while I licked her ass like the sweet peach it was, she came apart and creamed all over me. My name on her lips. “Incredible,” she sighed as the last tremor shook her body. Then a laugh escaped, nervous and wild. Sexy as fuck.
“Not sure a laugh was what I was going for.” I stood and licked her from my fingers before I took off all my clothes.
“It was uncontrollable. Sometimes you feel so good that a laugh is the only way to express it.” The way Moon looked at me, like I was her last meal on earth, had my cock standing up and taking notice. Leaking with his excitement to be so close to where he wanted most to be.
“Come here,” she crooned.
“Gladly.” After climbing on the bed and hovering over Moon, I wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted one long leg over my hip, leaving her exposed to me. “Ready?”
She nodded and arched into me. “More than ready. Please, Cross.”
She cried out as soon as I thrust deep, body moving to catch the rhythm. She rolled her hips with me, allowing me to sink deeper and deeper into her delicious wet pussy.
“So fucking wet,” I groaned. She was responsive as hell, taking little more than a nibble on her ear to drench her panties. “Moon.”
Her head pounded into the pillow, again and again, and she moved one of my hands to her tit, urging me to squeeze, to knead while she kept up a symphony of erotic noises that made it harder and harder to think about her pleasure.
Her cunt pulsed around me and I lost it, gripping one hip so hard I knew she’d bruise but I couldn’t think straight while her pussy clenched tight and trembled around me. Her orgasm was right there, building while I threw more kindling on the fire by arching her back so I could fall deeper inside her.
“Oh fuck, Moon!” I pinched her nipple and she fell apart, shattering all around me, pumping and pulsing while I kept fucking her until that tight cunt pulled my own orgasm from me. “Ah, fu-uuck!”
She continued to vibrate, to shake with the aftershocks of her orgasm. Her pussy pulsed hard, still squeezing me until I pulled free and every drop of cum covered her round, pale ass cheeks.
“Wow!”
Her breaths came in hard and fast. Another blast escaped but it was me this time.
“Told you,” she said on another laugh.
I could listen to Moon laugh all night, especially if that’s the sound she made between orgasms.
“You’re insatiable.”
She laughed again but this time it was more amused. “You do something to me, Cross. It’s like you just know all the buttons to make me off the chart explosive.”
I would never get tired of her blunt honesty, especially when it came to praising my skills in the sack. “I hate to argue with you Moon but I think you might have had something to do with that.”
She nodded, now focused on catching her breath as she turned on her side and faced me. “So hot.”
My lips curled into a grin. “Thanks.”
Her expression turned serious and I got nervous. Moon saw too damn much and right then I didn’t have enough brain capacity to hide from her. “How are you doing, Cross?”
The only reason I didn’t get the fuck up and walk out was because Moon seemed to genuinely give a damn. Her eyes were sincere and I knew she wouldn’t press it so I felt okay giving her a bullshit answer. “I’m okay but not good. Hell, I’m not even better. But I’m working on it.” My sleepless nights and racing thoughts were all that fueled me to keep going for my guys. My family.
“All you can do is work on it.” Her words were simple and easy but the kiss she placed on my chest was something else altogether. “And ask for help when you need it.”
There it was. The advice I really didn’t want to fucking hear. “I don’t ask them for help, Moon, they come to me for help. That’s my role as President.”
“That’s crap,” she sighed, calling me on my bullshit without using the profanities that laced my words and thoughts. But never Moon’s. “You know what, Cross? You remind me of my father, always so stubborn and so sure he was always right and knew everything. He made all the decisions and the rest of us could either fall in line or fall away. Never asking any questions or input from the rest of us.” She sighed and laid those eerie green eyes on me. “He thought he was being a strong leader but you know what the rest of us thought? That he didn’t have the faith or confidence that any of us had anything valuable to contribute.”
There was so much information contained in those few short sentences that I wanted to dissect and ask follow up questions, but Moon was too good for my clumsy conversational skills. “Sounds like you have a very interesting family.”
“Had,” she corrected with a hint of sadness in her eyes. “They’re alive but we are what you might called estranged.” With a shake of her head she used her hand to prop her head up to look at me. “My point is that you are stronger together. Combined, you guys have the skills to accomplish just about anything. You are the leader Cross, without a doubt. But that doesn’t make you the expert in all things. Let your men do their part to help figure out whatever’s causing you stress.”
It was a valid point. One I would take into consideration. Later. When Moon’s hand wasn’t grazing down my thigh and wrapping around my cock, stirring him to life. Her tongue licked up the side of my neck and a groan escaped. “Is this some new motivation technique, because I think it’s working.”
She laughed and pulled back, her gaze glued to mine as she kissed her way down my body, stopping to explore and tease some parts more than others. “Is it?”
I nodded but my eyes were closed tight and my head thrown back as her lips wrapped around my cock, disappearing into the wet heat of her mouth. Moon handled my cock like she was the one getting pleasure from sucking me off, moaning as she took me deeper and deeper. Her tongue swirled around the sensitive head until I shivered and bucked into her mouth. She didn’t choke but opened right up and I thought I might die right there on the spot. “Fucking heaven.”
My hands went to her hair and she didn’t even flinch when my grip tightened and I began to thrust down her throat. Instead, she fucking moaned and took me as deep as she could.
She fucking moaned.
My phone rang and vibrated somewhere on the floor. “Fuck.”
She laughed around my cock but, woman that she was, Moon didn’t stop. Instead she took me so deep I could feel her tongue swipe against my balls.
Little temptress was feeling playful. “Yeah,” I grunted into the phone.
“You need to get to the clubhouse ASAP,” Lasso said without his usual over the top greeting. “We have visitors.”
The rest of his words were nothing more than white noise as my head began to spin and my heart pumped into overdrive. “Shit. Okay.” The call was over and my cock was still buried in Moon’s mouth which meant I had to say the three words I really didn’t want right now. “I gotta go.”
She looked up with a smile. “Two minutes?”
“Ambitious.”
She accepted the challenge in my voice and arched a brow. “Confident,” she shot back before those sinful lips enveloped my cock again, sucking me deep and hard. Ninety seconds later I filled her with my come which she took like a pro before turning onto her back with a moan.
Silence passed in the room as I slowly got dressed, trying to focus on Lasso’s words about the visitors. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I had fun but life has a way of intervening, doesn’t it?” She didn’t want an answer which was good because I didn’t have one. “Every
thing okay?”
Damn her and her sincere worry. “Yeah. Two detectives showed up at the clubhouse. No big deal.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes, making me wonder what a hippie soccer mom artist had against the police. “Good luck.”
I smiled and dropped one final kiss on that sweet mouth. She didn’t know just how bad I needed some good fucking luck.
***
I hopped on my bike and hauled ass back to the clubhouse. There was only one goddamn reason two detectives would show up and ask for me by name. Vigo fucking Rizzoli. Even in death that motherfucker was causing me problems but I knew the routine. They would press and I would give them nothing because I didn’t talk to cops if I didn’t need to.
I took one minute to get myself calm before dismounting my bike. The detectives stood about ten feet in front of the clubhouse entrance and I walked slowly up to them because there was no way in hell they would get inside without a warrant.
“Detectives, I hear you’re looking for me.” I knew these guys. One was a regular cop and the other was a fucking asshole.
“Yeah.” That was the older cop with the hair that was more gray than brown these days. “We have some questions.” He took charge of the interview. “You’re familiar with Vigo Rizzoli?”
“I am, but I assume he left town, considering.”
“Considering what?” The little one, Dodds, puffed his chest up and took a step forward. I stared at the pissant and waited for him to make his move or back the fuck up. “Well?”
“Is that a question, because I’m not sure I understand it.” The little one opened his mouth to speak but I turned back to the other detective, Haynes. “I assume you do know that he owns a car that looks a lot like the one that shot my friend? In the neck?”
“And I guess you’re seeking retaliation?” The little one was determined to edge his way in to this conversation and I was just as determined to keep him out.
