The Will

  “How dirty you want it?” Amond asked and Jake didn’t exactly understand the question but he also didn’t care.

  “I’m in love with her so I want her breathing easy and doin’ that quick. That house is all she’s got left of her grandmother. I got her in a good place where she feels safe with me, my kids, but I figure it’s still the only place she truly feels safe. She doesn’t wanna let it go. They’ll never get that house but even the threat of it is gonna fuck with her head and I’m not good with that. Stone has the power and money to drag this out and I’m not good with Josie dealing with that either. They’re also bringing up bad shit she should not ever have to face. So I don’t know what you’re asking but you feel like getting dirty, however that comes about, I’m not gonna stand in your way.”

  “I can get very dirty,” Amond told him.

  “I’ll repeat, I’m not gonna stand in your way.”

  “Where are you with dirty?” Amond asked.

  “My hands gotta stay clean seein’ as I got a woman and kids I need to see to after this is done.”

  Amond didn’t miss a beat before he asked, “You’re in love with her?”

  And Jake didn’t miss a beat before he answered, “Absolutely.”

  “She loves you,” Amond informed him.

  “I know,” Jake replied.

  Amond held his eyes.

  Then he whispered, “Fuck, that kills.”

  Fortunately, Jake was not, nor would ever be, in the position to feel his pain.

  Still, he got him, but he said nothing.

  “I’m gettin’ Henry’s fucked up vibe right about now,” Amond shared.

  “She’s in good hands,” Jake told him.

  “She been to your titty bar?” he asked.

  “Prefer strip club, man, and yeah. She advises the girls on how to do their hair to get maximum tips.”

  At that, Amond burst out in deep, loud laughter.

  Jake let himself smile as he did.

  When he was done, Amond gave him the stamp of approval by saying, “We’re good.”

  “No offense,” Jake replied. “But I wouldn’t care if we weren’t. She’s mine and that’s not ever gonna change. But for her, I’m obliged. She’s essentially had one woman as her entire family her whole life. That one woman was a really fuckin’ good one but Josie deserves more. I’m givin’ her that. You keep things good with all of us that gives her more. And I want her to have everything.”

  “Point made, brother,” Amond replied quietly, his eyes never leaving Jake’s.

  “Excellent,” Jake returned.

  Amond grinned. “Now I’m in the mood to check out your talent. Gotta get my crew out here, bring a roll of fifties ‘cause I snuck a peek, man, and gotta say, bumfuck Maine has got some seriously fine tail.”

  And that was when Jake grinned.

  * * * * *

  Holding her down with his hands at her wrists in the pillow over her head, Jake rode his woman.

  The only thing she could use to latch on with were her legs and her pussy so she had her legs wrapped tight around the backs of his thighs and her pussy was pulsing around his cock.

  Jesus.

  Heaven.

  Just like Josie, she was getting there fast.

  “Hold on, baby,” he whispered against her mouth as she panted against his.

  “Jake,” she breathed, squirming under him.

  He rolled his hips, thrust in and he knew he hit the spot when her pussy clutched him tight.

  Jesus.

  Heaven.

  “Hold on, Josie.”

  “God.”

  He kept taking her.

  She kept squirming, panting, her legs tightening.

  “Let me have my hands, darling,” she begged.

  “Let me ride you, honey,” he returned, rolling his hips back, powering in, and getting a soft, sexy gasp.

  Beautiful.

  He kissed her, driving his tongue inside as he drove his dick into her.

  Her head tilted at the same time it came off the bed so she could press her mouth against his to get more.

  He drove in harder.

  She tore her mouth from his, turning her head to the side, whimpering, “I can’t hold on.”

  “Then let go.”

  She let go, he heard it and felt it. Gliding his hands up, he threaded his fingers in hers and she clasped tight as she moaned low and used his thighs as leverage to lift her hips into his thrusting ones.

  He took her harder.

  She kept whimpering, moaning, panting and clutching him with everything she had, her fingers releasing and gripping each time she took his cock.

  Gorgeous.

  So fucking gorgeous, it moved over him. He slammed deep, shoved his face in her neck and let it happen.

  She slid her heels up his thighs so she could wrap her legs around his hips and she did this tight, holding onto his hands, clenching her pussy around his cock.

  His hips bucked twice as he poured himself inside her.

  When it left him, he tasted the skin of her neck, smelled the remnants of her perfume, the scent of her hair, liking all that but not as much as her pussy undulating against his cock in her own aftermath.

  Fuck yeah, he liked to have her ungloved.

  Finally, he felt her lips at his ear where she asked quietly, “Can I have my hands now?”

  He pressed his forearms deeper into the pillow, pressing her hands deeper into it, as he lifted slightly up to look down at her, her hair now dark in the shadows, spread all over. He couldn’t see her distinctly but he still knew she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen, the best lay he’d ever had, the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  So he gripped her hands harder with his fingers and dropped his head to give her a slow, deep, long kiss and he kept giving it to her until her legs grew taut around his ass and her fingers clenched his.

  Only then did he let her mouth and hands go.

  She immediately moved her arms to wrap them around him and she used them as well to hold on tight.

  “I think I like you waking me up when you get back from the club,” she noted and his body started moving on hers, doing it to shake with laughter.

  She would.

  He’d woken her with a kiss then he kissed her other places and did it for a long time. Only after that did he fuck her.

  She liked his mouth.

  She liked his cock better.

  “I’ll make a note of that,” he replied.

  She started moving her hands light on his skin and Jake had never had a woman whose touch was so light. So sweet. How it could be delicate and give so much, he had no fucking clue.

  He just knew it did.

  “You wanna clean up?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she answered but she sounded like she preferred the opposite and he knew it was because she would be losing him and she didn’t like that.

  But he liked that she didn’t.

  He kissed her again before he lifted up to kiss her forehead, down to kiss her nose, down to kiss her throat, down to her chest and he slid out, kissing her ribs. He rolled off and kissed her stomach.

  Only then did he plant a forearm in the bed beside her, lift up to look at her and order, “Hurry.”

  “All right,” she replied, moving into him to take his jaw in both her hands, touch her mouth to his and slide off the bed.

  He watched through the shadows as she pulled on her nightie, her panties then she grabbed her robe off the end of the bed and swung it on before she padded barefoot to the door. She was careful not to make a noise leaving the room and he knew she was careful once she left the room because he didn’t hear shit until she was back.

  He had a light on and was out of bed by then. Having rooted through his bag to get his pajama bottoms, he had them on and was tying the string.

  She came right to him, shrugging off the robe and tossing it aside to land on the bed before she slid her arms around him and pressed close, tipping her head back t
o catch his eyes.

  “Things go all right with Amond at the club?” she asked as he curved his arms around her.

  “He had six boys in his crew, his manager, his other manager, two bodyguards, his music director and some guy he introduced as a ‘consultant.’ He told me they left his publicist and stylist behind because they’re chicks. But they didn’t leave the rolls of fifties and hundreds behind. My girls freaked and right now, by my count, four of ‘em are gettin’ laid and the other manager, both bodyguards and the consultant are gettin’ lucky but only because they primed that luck by handin’ out cash. And by handin’ out cash, I mean I counted but quit after I got over three grand and they were far from done. My girls had a good night and it was clear they were ready to show their gratitude.”

  “So I take it that it went well,” she noted.

  “They all drank top shelf and by that I mean the top top shelf. The shit we gotta get outta the safe when someone’s either so drunk they don’t give a shit they’re maxin’ out their credit card on hundred fifty-dollar snifters of cognac or they’re celebrating something huge. Even I haven’t tasted that shit until tonight.”

  When he finished talking, she was smiling when she repeated, “So I take it that it went well.”

  He grinned into her smiling face. “Yeah, it went well.”

  She pressed closer, saying, “I knew he’d like you.”

  He gave her a squeeze. “Baby, he likes you and he’d like whatever made you happy, he wouldn’t give a fuck what that was.”

  Her face got soft and he thought it was for Amond but what she said next proved him wrong.

  “Yes, he’d like whatever made me happy.”

  Fuck, but he liked to see that look on her face, that shine in her eyes, all of it directed at him, giving it to him. And what she gave him was the knowledge that he gave it to her.

  He never expected this, but there it was.

  And it took everything he had not to kick his own ass that he didn’t go for it before.

  But he didn’t.

  Now he had it.

  That was where he was, that was where he had her.

  So he had to focus on moving forward.

  “We gonna stand here huggin’ all night or are you gonna let me get some shuteye?”

  She let out a quiet giggle before she gave him a squeeze, rolled up on her toes, tipping her head way back and he accepted the invitation, dropping his to brush his lips against hers.

  When he was done, she said, “I’m going to let you get some shuteye.”

  Her arms loosened, his did too and they moved to the bed. He was turning out the light even as she was cuddling into him so by the time he was settled, she was tucked tight, tangled up and relaxed deep.

  “’Night, Slick,” he muttered.

  “Goodnight, darling,” she whispered into his skin giving his stomach a squeeze.

  He reciprocated the squeeze and after a few minutes, felt her weight settle into him.

  A few minutes after that, his weight settled into the bed as he fell asleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  At Least Twice

  The next morning, I opened the door to Maude’s House of Beauty and only had one foot inside when I heard Alyssa command, “Get over here, get those fancy-assed pumps off and sink your feet in the drink, babelicious, ‘cause I…got…news.”

  I looked into her excited eyes, then moved my gaze and saw she had the pedicure chair ready and even had a glass bowl filled with foamy water sitting on the ledge by the arm of the chair.

  She was ready.

  With a look back at her face, I wasn’t sure I was.

  But I nevertheless hurried to the chair, took off my jacket, plopped it and my bag in the chair beside it and pulled myself up.

  I barely got my bare feet into the warm sudsy water before Alyssa reached out a hand, grabbed my wrist, plonked my fingers in the bowl and announced, “Got bitch dirt, and by that I mean Donna Spear and Terry Baginski bitch dirt.”

  I felt my back go straight and my eyes go wide as I asked, “Really?”

  “Really. Big dirt. A freakin’ avalanche of full-on mud.”

  Oh dear.

  “Is it good?” I queried.

  “Uh…sister,” she started, yanking one of my feet out of the tub, setting it on the pad, dabbing it with a towel then reaching straight to her cart of implements to grab some cotton wool, doing all of this talking. “Would I be nearly creaming my pants to tell you if this shit was bad?”

  “Um…no,” I replied.

  “Right, no. Now, listen up,” she ordered and sucked in a huge breath.

  I braced, furtively looking around and seeing two of her hairdressing chairs were taken, stylists working on clients, but they were all the way across the salon so we had a least a little privacy.

  My gaze went back to Alyssa when she launched in.

  “Soooo, Donna’s got a best friend, they been tight for freakin’ yonks. Her name is Rita. She’s a good gal. Really like her. She’s been a client for a long time, got a couple kids who are the same ages as a couple of my kids. We did the carpool thing back in the day and—”

  “Not to be rude, sweetheart,” I cut in gently. “But do I need this Rita history prior to you telling me about Jake’s ex and the woman who seems to have it out for me?”

  “Right,” Alyssa mumbled and switched my feet, doing this talking. “Just to say, she’s cool. And the way she’s cool is that, first, she stood by her girl for a long time and a lotta that time was hard time. And second, you know this ‘cause you two are scary open in a way that gives me the heebie-jeebies”—her eyes came to me—“but you told me that Jake laid Donna out this weekend.”

  I grinned at her “heebie-jeebies” comment, especially when it was caused by honesty between partners, and confirmed, “Yes, I know it.”

  She nodded and looked back to my feet. “Okay, so Donna was cut up about this, like, in a big way. Called her girl over to moan about Jake and do it inhaling rum. Now, Rita’s been listenin’ to this sad song for a long fuckin’ time and that night, she got over it. Way over it.”

  “Oh my,” I whispered.

  “Yup,” Alyssa agreed then carried on with my pedicure right along with her story. “So Rita decided to perform a one-woman intervention right there, though with bad timing seein’ as Donna was drunk off her ass. But that didn’t stop her from laying it out for Donna, telling her everyone in town knew Jake was a no-go for her and was never gonna be a go for her again. She also shared that most people in town thought it was sad, and by that she meant pathetic, that Donna fell into her cougar ways. Not done, she told Donna that everyone in town also thought she was a shit mom. Thought mega-less about her because of it. Thought Jake was the bomb ‘cause he stepped up so huge in takin’ care of his kids without her help. And new talk in town was that everyone was super excited that Jake found you ‘cause folks have always wanted him to get himself a good woman, and he did. But more, they wanted his kids to have a good woman in their lives and they got that too.”

  This felt very nice, that I had the townspeople of Magdalene’s seal of approval as Jake’s woman, but I was still concerned about this Rita woman laying it out for Donna.

  “And how did Donna take this?” I asked.

  “Not real great ‘cause Donna is not about honesty. Donna’s about denial. Gettin’ it straight from Jake and her best friend all in the same night?” She shook her head. “Had a piss fit. A big one. Kicked Rita out then called around to the rest of her crew to start moaning about Rita. Problem with that was, she did this, they all agreed with Rita and walked right through the door Rita opened to tell her that shit.”

  “Oh goodness,” I murmured.

  “Mm-hmm,” Alyssa replied, grabbing some cuticle clippers. “So, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that Donna didn’t nurse her hangover thinkin’ things through and deciding to get her shit together. Nooo. Instead, she nursed her hangover, walked into work yesterday morning and gave notice. Word is, she
’s moving to Boston.”

  I felt my entire body get tight.

  “Pardon?” I breathed.

  Alyssa looked at me. “She’s chucking it in. Another client of mine said that a friend of hers said that she talked with Donna in the grocery store and Donna told her she can’t live in the same town with a Jake Spear who has another woman, so she’s gone. That woman didn’t ask Donna but she did ask my client how Donna managed to miss the fact that Jake had two other wives and a few others besides but apparently her dream world was a fortress until Jake blew it to smithereens and she missed this shit.”

  I was barely listening.

  I had only one thing on my mind.

  “She isn’t thinking of trying to take Conner and Amber with her, is she?” I asked urgently and Alyssa stopped working on my toes, wrapped a hand around my foot and squeezed reassuringly as she looked up at me.

  “Honey, no,” she said gently. “Has that woman ever considered her children when she’s made a decision?”

  I had only known her a very short time but what I knew of her, the answer to this was no.

  But I answered, “I don’t think so.”

  “No. She hasn’t. Donna thinks of one thing: Donna. Strike that. She thinks of three things: Donna and Jake or gettin’ laid by someone who looks like him.”

  I bit my lip.

  Alyssa studied me before she noted, “You don’t look happy.”

  “Boston is two and a half hours away,” I reminded her.

  “Yeah, and Junior’s got no exes that had his ring on their finger but if he did, I’d be a lot happier they were two and a half hours away.”

  “I would be happy, if that didn’t mean she wasn’t also two and a half hours away from her children.”

  Her face got soft and she muttered, “See your point.”

  “Do you think she’ll follow through with this?” I asked.

  “No clue. She could have had a wild hair and now think better of it. Or she could be gone. She’s got a good position as a manager at Anderson’s dealership. Be stupid of her to give that up.”