That was bullshit, so much of it, Walker had to fight back a smile.
Then he nodded.
Then he asked, “How long you stayin’?”
“Long enough to network and get my ass back before my parole officer knows I’m in Colorado.”
Walker nodded again and whispered, “Grateful, man. Dewey fuckin’ me, need a new avenue.”
“Well you got it.”
Walker drew in breath and held it. Then he let it go. He didn’t say anything and Julius didn’t expect him to say anything. Julius wasn’t doing anything that Walker would not do for Julius if he needed it. It was just that Walker needed it.
Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t grateful. He just didn’t have to say it.
Julius knew.
Time passed as they studied the landscape.
Then Walker remarked, “Had an interesting development tonight.”
“Yeah?”
He straightened and turned, hip to the railing, eyes sliding into the house. Lexie was heading out to the back deck carrying plates on top of which was cutlery. They were close to dinner.
So he talked, low and swift as Julius listened, eyes to the view, forearms to the railing, telling his friend about Detective Angel Peña.
When he was done, he looked back into the house to see Lexie filling serving plates. Family style. As big of an event as she could make it without time to prepare. None of that business of the men filling their plates from pots and skillets. They were going to sit down and spend awhile, telling Julius, as best she could, he was welcome company, his visit an event to celebrate.
Pure Lexie.
Walker looked down at his leaning friend noting the silence had lingered.
Then Julius ended it.
“That is an interesting development.”
“Yep.”
“You trust this guy?” Julius asked.
“Known him ten minutes, know he wants in my wife’s pants and he wants that bad. Those two things are not conducive to me trusting him.” He paused then went on, “Still, I do.”
“Different,” Julius muttered. “Name clear. Restitution.”
“Don’t give a shit about that.”
Julius turned his head and looked up at Walker. “You should.”
“Doesn’t bring back five years.”
“No,” Julius agreed. “But the real you got that’s solid and races to you practically the minute you get home, presses close even though you’re still wet with sweat from the gym like she don’t even notice, your name clear, restitution is a gift for her. Gives back a little of what she’s givin’ you.”
“She didn’t do five years,” Walker replied.
“No,” Julius again agreed and looked back to the view.
“She’s with me on this, brother,” Walker stated quietly.
“So am I,” Julius returned just as quietly. “Whatever you do, I’m with you. You don’t wanna sit back and hope this brown boy from Texas can make another miracle for you, I don’t blame you. I’m just sayin’.”
“I hear you,” Walker whispered.
He’d just said the last word when they heard, “All right boys, soup’s on,” and they both turned to see Lexie standing in the opened door. “Give me drink orders and head out to the back deck. Serve it up, it’s waiting.”
Walker pushed away from the railing, feeling Julius follow him.
“Beer, babe,” he said, moving to her.
She nodded on a grin up at him then her eyes moved beyond him to Julius. “You need a refresh?”
“Yeah, woman,” Julius replied.
She grinned at him, turned and lifted her face when Walker got close, he gave her what she didn’t verbally ask for but he knew she wanted, bent and touched his mouth to hers.
Then he moved beyond her into the house.
Julius followed.
When he hit kitchen, he looked back to see she was returning to the house after collecting his cup and Julius’s empty.
And seeing that, Julius’s words hit his brain.
Gives back a little of what she’s givin’ you.
Fuck.
He set it aside and walked out to the back deck to see she’d put out placemats, cloth napkins, plates, cutlery and she’d lit little, squat candles around the base of the umbrella. Some of these were recent additions she’d bought when she was with her girls, getting it in order to make a nicer table.
And there was also the food, fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, greens and rolls.
A celebration for Julius, the best she could do with no notice and it was obviously still really fucking good.
Gives back a little of what she’s givin’ you.
Fuck.
He again put that aside and sat, Julius sat opposite and Lexie came out with three beers, announcing, “Apple pie and ice cream after dinner. It’s a frozen one but it’s a good one.” Her eyes came to Walker and she gave him a smile. “Luckily, went to the store on my way home from the salon before Julius showed.” She sat between them and her eyes went to Julius. “He works out loads but my man has got a sweet tooth. Can’t keep stocked.”
“Not big on desserts inside,” Julius told her as a joke but saw his mistake immediately when the shadow crossed Lexie’s face. Therefore he instantly muttered, “Sorry, baby doll.”
She pushed through it, declaring, “That’s why I keep stocked.”
Julius studied her a moment before he grinned.
Walker let him have her return smile before he shot his hand out, caught his wife behind the neck and pulled her to him. Her head turned as he moved her and he caught her mouth just in time. No touch, he wanted a taste and the minute he started opening his lips, she felt it, opened hers and gave him one. He touched the tip of his tongue to hers and let her go.
Her smile for him was a fuckuva a lot better.
Then he grabbed the platter of pork chops and handed it across to his brother.
* * * * *
Walker slid his hand from his wife’s hip, over her ass, down her spine to the middle of her back and pressed in. He didn’t have to press hard, she gave him what he wanted instantly, her back arched, her arms slid out in front of her, her torso pressed into the bed and her ass tipped higher toward the ceiling, allowing him deeper access.
Yeah, she offered her pussy any way he wanted, not even a noise of protest.
Lexie was on her knees, those knees at the edge of the bed. He was on his feet beside it, powering inside her, rough, hard, nearly brutal. He hadn’t had this for two weeks, he was taking it and there she was in front of him, his wildcat, so fucking wet she was drenched, so tight, so sweet, loving every second of it.
He knew this to be true when the sweet, sexy noises she was making changed, went from pleasure to desperation. She was close, it was almost on her.
He pulled out and instantly her head flew back, her neck twisting at the same time.
“Don’t stop, baby,” she whispered, that same desperation in her tone.
He bent forward, his hand in her back slid around her ribs to the front, he pulled her up and turned her to face him, his arm around her back now going down over her ass. He lifted her up and her arms circled his shoulders, her head tipped down, her mouth finding his, her tongue sliding inside.
He put a knee to the bed, her legs circled his hips, the other knee went in and once he was in, he fell forward, taking her to her back. Then, their mouths still connected, their tongues tangled, he surged back inside.
He lost her mouth when her neck arched.
Fuck, but his wife liked his cock.
He got up on a forearm in the bed, tipped his body slightly to the side and kept thrusting deep and hard, his eyes on her, his other hand gliding up her body to wrap around the side of her neck. Her head righted and her eyes found his.
No words, he didn’t like them when he had his cock buried deep in wet pussy, she didn’t need them. During sex or not, her eyes spoke for her.
And he liked what they were saying
.
So his fingers dug gently into her neck as he tilted his hips and powered back in, finding her sweet spot, giving it to her and she took it. Her back arching, her arm behind his back flexing, her legs circling his hips tightening, her other hand flying to his wrist at her neck and holding on tight, she gasped first, deep, audible, then came the loud moan and then the whimper.
He dropped to her, gave her his weight and grasped her hips, yanking her down on his cock as he drove up inside her, near savage. He was heavy, he knew it, felt and heard her breath stay labored and not just with sex. But she’d give him this, she’d done it before, she’d hold her breath until she passed out, take his cock no matter how hard he gave it to her, hold him tight like she was just then, all of this to tell him he could have what he wanted how he wanted it.
But he never did it unless he was close.
And he was close.
Then he was there, ramming so hard and deep, she cried out, he planted himself to the root and came.
The instant he could, he took away his weight but stayed rooted and covering her.
He gave it a minute before he lifted his head to look down at her. When he did, one of her arms went from around his shoulders so she could cup his cheek, her hand shifting, her thumb sliding over the scar at his eyebrow and down to the smaller one under his eye. She did this often too, ever since he’d whispered to her one night in the dark that his mother gave him that scar by throwing a glass at him when he was nine, a glass he’d left in the living room, something she didn’t like, a glass that broke on his face. A miracle it didn’t do worse damage, he’d told her. She didn’t agree. She saw no miracle at work in that scar and she touched it like she could make it go away then, when her thumb moved and it hadn’t disappeared, the specter of disappointment that she hadn’t succeeded in erasing the physical manifestation of this memory shadowed her face before she fought it back.
He watched that specter glide through and disappear.
Gives back a little of what she’s givin’ you.
She was on her back in their bed for him. No less uncomfortable that it was Julius a stairway away and not Ella, he told her he was done with bathroom sex and she objected no further. Though he promised her he’d asked Julius to make certain he closed his door, he couldn’t know if Julius had complied. She still gave it to him like he wanted it.
Gives back a little of what she’s givin’ you.
Fuck.
He should tell her about Peña, open that option to her, discuss their future and how he should play it. He knew it. Lying on top of her, still inside her, her hand still at his face, her eyes sweet on him through the moonlight, he knew it.
But he wasn’t going to.
Instead, he whispered, “You took my cock hard, baby, I hurt you?”
Her lips tipped up at the ends and she shook her head.
Yeah, she got off on it.
He grinned at her.
“Missed our bed,” she whispered back.
He knew that, she’d been creative, creative enough he knew she was storing that shit up, it had built so high, she couldn’t contain it and unleashed it all at once. That was why he gave it to her so hard, because she spent some time and effort working him up.
“Yeah,” he replied.
Her hand left his face so her arm could circle his shoulders and both arms gave him a squeeze.
“I like Julius,” she murmured.
“Good,” he murmured back.
Her eyes went soft and they did that often but not that way. That was new. And it settled in the way he’d felt earlier. It was weighty but not heavy. Warm. Welcome. Deep.
“What’s on your mind, mama?”
“That I like it when you call me ‘mama’,” she lied instantly.
He shook his head.
“Just called you that, Lex, so that wasn’t on your mind,” he replied softly.
She sucked in breath. Then, always putting herself out there for him, even at the beginning, she didn’t do anything different now and said, “Lived under a shadow one way or another all my life. Now it’s bright. Even at night. Not used to it and sometimes it hits me. That’s what was on my mind.”
There it was again. That thing settling, welcome, warm and deep.
He bent his head and touched his forehead to hers briefly before lifting it up and pulling out.
“Get cleaned up, baby,” he muttered and rolled off her.
She rolled with him, shoved her face in his neck a moment, kissing him there then scooted off the bed.
He got in it.
She did her business in the bathroom, came out and joined him. They’d fucked without the lights on for once but the moonlight still shone through the windows. Still he didn’t see that she got in bed without tagging her panties and tugging them on, he heard it.
That meant Walker was grinning at the ceiling as she slid across the bed and curled around him.
His wildcat was far from done.
Moments passed and he waited for it.
She gave it to him.
“Honey?” she called.
“Yeah.”
Her arm around his gut gave him a squeeze. “You tired?”
“Mama, just fucked you hard.”
Her body slumped into his side and she whispered, “Oh.”
He grinned at the ceiling again.
Then he said, “Doesn’t take a lotta energy to eat you, though.”
She shifted restlessly against him.
She liked that. Wanted it. Fucking wildcat.
Walker turned into her and found her mouth in the dark. It wasn’t hard to find, she’d tipped her head back to offer it to him.
He didn’t kiss her, he spoke. “On your back, Lexie, and spread for me.”
“Okay,” she whispered against his lips.
Then she got to her back and spread for him.
Then Walker ate his wife and then he fucked her again.
After they were done, she got back to bed from the bathroom and again didn’t tug up her panties before she did it but this time not because she wanted another round. This time, because she was out the minute her cheek hit his shoulder.
Five minutes later, she rolled, he rolled with her and he was out the minute her body settled into the curve of his.
And from her leaving him to go to the bathroom to Walker falling asleep, not once did he think of the bars, of the smells or of the feel of the institution. All that shit was gone in a way he didn’t even notice that it was.
And it was unfortunate he didn’t notice because, if he did, he’d have realized Lexie gave that to him too.
And if he’d realized this, the next day he wouldn’t have done what he would do.
Chapter Thirteen
An Hour
“What do you think?” I asked Dominic as I showed him the flier I’d painstakingly crafted on software I’d never used before considering my skills with computers were limited to e-mail, internet shopping, facebook, downloading e-books on my reader and looking up weather and movie times.
In other words, working on it between taking phone calls, ringing up services and purchases, dusting and restocking shelves, assuring every exiting customer that they looked fabulous, the flier took me five days.
And the flier was important. It announced the soon-to-be released new services Dominic’s spa was offering, making his spa that was really a salon into an actual spa.
Therefore I wanted it to be right but knew it wasn’t.
“I love it!” he cried, snatching the flier out of my hand to examine it closer.
Perhaps I was wrong.
“You do?” I asked, thinking it looked what it was, like a blind six year old with learning difficulties designed it.
“It’s brilliant!” Dominic exclaimed then shoved it back in my hand and looked at me. “Print out fifty. I’ll send Daniel out with Blue Tack, a stapler and a mission.”
I grinned at him, he grinned back then his eyes slid over my shoulder to the front window and n
arrowed.
“Shit! Shit! On a Saturday,” he snapped then hissed, “figures.”
I turned my head to see what he was looking at but couldn’t see anything but a figure moving at the window behind the blinds that were partially closed against the heat of the sun.
He went on, “Never calls for an appointment. Thinks she owns the town, I swear. She always waltzes in here and thinks I can do her walk-in. Do I look like a stylist who accepts walk-ins? Uh… no.”
Then the door opened; the figure that was obscured by the blinds moved through the door and Misty Keaton walked in.
I froze.
Shit. Shit. Fucking shit.
“Misty!” Dominic cried as if she was his bestest best high school friend who he hadn’t seen since they got shitfaced at their graduation party and they’d just locked eyes at their twenty-five year reunion and he had not been bitching about her five seconds earlier.
But Misty was frozen too, her eyes on me. Clearly, she had no idea I worked there.
I came unlocked first and moved to the reception desk, not taking my eyes off her, my mind filled with options on how to play this, so many of them, I couldn’t get a lock on a single one and all the while I moved I felt Dominic follow.
“Long time, no see, darling. What brings you to Dominic’s House of Eternal Beauty?” Dominic asked Misty (this wasn’t actually the name of the salon, it was called “Carnal Spa” but Dominic referred to it by different, inventive, hilarious names all the time).
Her body jerked and she hesitantly moved to the high front of the receptionist desk.
“Uh, here to see if you can fit me in, Dominic,” she said softly, her eyes shifting back and forth between Dominic and me. She stopped in front of the desk and locked on Dominic, sucking in breath; she gave him a shaky smile and finished, “Emergency procedure.”
She was nervous. And she was nervous because of me.
She should be. She knew I knew what she did. She knew I was standing there wanting to tear her hair out, scratch her eyes out and take her to the ground, kick her in the stomach and spit on her when she was down (amongst other things).
Unfortunately, for Ty, I could not do that.