He looked down at her. “Baby, you got a great rack. Gonna have to put up with everyone noticing it but don’t wanna have to put up with that assclown’s eyes locked on it.”
Understanding flooded her face, understanding and disgust.
“Oh,” she whispered.
“Oh,” Layne repeated.
“Okay, I won’t jump,” she relented immediately.
“Appreciate it,” Layne replied.
Vera approached. “I’ve decided on pork chops and au gratin potatoes for dinner,” she announced and then went on. “And I’m making my Milky Way cake.” After this, Layne felt Rocky go completely solid at his side. “We need to get home. I need to get to the store.”
Layne suspected that Vera just pulled out the big guns. Pork chops, au gratin potatoes and Milky Way cake were his favorite and Rocky knew it because she was the one who’d made him his first Milky Way cake on the first birthday he’d celebrated with her and Vera had been there. Milky Way cake wasn’t Vera’s, it was Rocky’s. Except the fact that Vera had a variety of occasions in the last eighteen years to make it for him and Rocky had not. Layne wasn’t hip on chick war tactics but he suspected his mother just escalated hostilities.
“Ma –” Layne started to warn but Vera cut him off.
“We need to go,” she stated. “I’ll go get the boys.” Then she hustled in the direction of Jasper and Tripp, who’d managed to pry a throng of girls from TJ Gaines’s snare and were shining their football stud light upon them.
Layne’s eyes went to Rocky to see her eyes on his mother.
“Roc –”
“That’s my cake,” she whispered, her eyes still on his mother.
Layne sighed, then repeated, “Roc –”
Her gaze shot to his. “She can’t have that cake.”
“Just let her do what she thinks she has to do.”
Rocky glared at him then her eyes changed and Layne’s neck contracted when they did because he didn’t like what he saw before she hid it by looking away from him.
“Rocky?” he called.
She looked at him again. “You know, I haven’t made that cake in years. Not for Dad, not for Merry, even when they asked for it, and not for Jarrod.”
He understood the look, both his hands went to her hips and he murmured, “Baby.”
“That’s my cake,” she repeated, back to whispering. “And she knows it.”
Then she pulled from his hands and strutted away.
Yep, he was right, an escalation in hostilities.
He took in a deep breath through his nose, looked to see his mother corralling his sons and when they started to walk his way, Layne turned and followed Rocky to the car.
* * * * *
When they hit the house, Rocky was still pissed at Vera and, wordlessly, she marched through the house and up the stairs.
Layne followed her, not because she was pissed, she’d made that bed by leaving him and she had to deal with his mother her way. He’d said his piece, Vera had ignored it, Rocky clearly wasn’t going to bolt because of Vera’s antics so now he wasn’t getting involved.
No, he followed her because he was pissed. She’d made her play and got her way and Layne didn’t like how she went about it. It didn’t matter that she was right, putting that shit with Gaines under his nose so he’d intensify the operation. Because, in doing it, she’d also put herself out there and that, coupled with how she’d made her play, pissed him off.
It was time to teach Rocky a lesson.
She was halfway across his bedroom when he made it to the door and closed it loudly behind him. The instant he did, she stopped and whirled.
“I’ll be needing to have words with your mother,” she announced.
“Later,” Layne returned, moving toward her.
“No, in about two minutes, before she goes to the grocery store and comes back and steals my cake.”
“Got things bigger than cakes to talk about, sweetcheeks,” Layne replied, still advancing on her, her face cleared, she got a good look at him, she read him and astutely started backing up.
“Layne –” she started, her hand coming up and Layne didn’t stop moving but his eyes went to her hand then back to hers.
“Not wearin’ your bandage,” he remarked.
She kept edging backward, her hand still up and she asked, “What?”
“Bandage, baby, for your wrist,” Layne kept moving forward, she hit the edge of the archway to the bathroom and righted herself instantly, moving backwards into the bathroom.
“Um… it doesn’t hurt anymore,” she replied.
“Doc say you can take it off?” Layne asked as they moved through the bathroom and into walk-in.
“No, Layne, um… what are you doing?”
“I’m talkin’ about your wrist and then, in about two seconds, I’m gonna carry you to my bed, turn you over my knee and slap that sweet ass of yours.”
Her eyes grew round just as she hit the wall of the walk-in.
“Layne –”
He got deep into her space, her hand hit his chest and he kept going, forcing her arm to bend at the elbow and trapping it between them as he put his hands on the wall on either side of her.
“Played me, sweetcheeks.”
“I know.” She surprised him by instantly copping to it. “But it was important.”
“It’s important, we talk about it, you don’t fuck me.”
She stared up at him and rested her free hand at his waist. “I didn’t fuck you, Layne,” she whispered.
“Oh yeah you did, baby, now,” his head dipped and he got in her face, “I fuck you.”
“Layne,” she breathed, her eyes glued to his and hearing that, he lost it.
His hands moved from the wall to her jaws, he tipped her head back further and pulled her up as his mouth slammed down on hers.
She opened it immediately, his tongue slid inside, her arms glided around his shoulders and she pressed herself into him.
He kissed her hard, demanding, wet and she gave it to him, everything he took from her, her fingers moving to his jacket to pull it off his shoulders, he released her face, dropped his arms and let it fall. His hands went directly to her ass, pulling her hips tight against his hardening cock and her hands went to his shirt, pulling it out of his pants, going in, her fingers trailing his skin.
His mouth released hers and travelled down her neck, she turned her head and whispered, “Baby,” in his ear and his hand went under her sweater, up and he cupped her breast. She strained into his hand and repeated her whispered, “Baby.”
She smelled good, she tasted good and her nipple was hard against his palm. She was wearing one of her tight skirts and high heels and Layne liked all of that, he’d been liking it for awhile and he was about to like it a lot more.
“You want it?” he growled in her ear.
“I –” she started and abruptly he pulled away, turned her to facing the wall and moved into her.
“Put your hands to the wall and don’t move them,” he ordered.
“Layne.”
“Do it. Now.”
“Layne.”
He pressed his hard cock into her ass. “Now, sweetcheeks.”
She put her hands to the wall, he pulled her tight skirt up her thighs and heard her suck in breath as he looked down.
Fuck, she was wearing lace-topped thigh highs and satin-backed, dark blue panties that showed a fuckuva lot of cheek.
Christ, hot.
“Layne,” she repeated on a breath, he got her skirt around her waist and one hand went down, in the front her panties and the other hand went up, yanking her sweater over her tits, then he jerked down her bra and his fingers tugged her nipple.
That got him another gasp, his finger hit her clit, her hips jerked and she whispered, “Oh my God,” and moved to press back into him.
“Keep your hands on the wall,” he growled in her ear, working her clit and nipple at the same time.
Her head fell back on his s
houlder and her breath got heavy.
“Oh my God,” she repeated, turning so her forehead was pressed to his neck, her back arched into his hand and her hips ground down into his fingers.
“You like this?” he asked even though he knew she did, he wanted to make her say it.
“Yes,” she breathed.
He stopped playing with her clit, thrust two fingers into her drenched pussy and turned his head to watch her neck arch, pressing her head against his shoulder, her lips parted. She pushed back against him, losing concentration, her hands slipping down the wall.
“Hands to the wall, Rocky,” he ordered and her hips jerked as his fingers moved in and out of her and his other hand worked her tit.
“You,” she breathed urgently after he’d worked her for awhile.
“You’ll get me, baby,” he promised, watching her face, “fuck yourself on my fingers.”
She instantly did as she was told, Rocky, his Rocky, Jesus, so fucking hot. She took herself close, so close, she was reaching for it, it was going to be good and watching her he nearly came in his pants.
When she was almost there, he moved away, she gasped and started to turn.
“Hands to the wall,” he demanded, she kept her hands to the wall but twisted her neck to look at him, her eyes unfocused, her face filled with need and he hooked her panties with his thumb and tore them down her legs. “Step outta those.” She did as ordered again, Layne freed his cock from his pants and went on. “Spread your legs.” She again did what she was told, tipping her ass to him, ready for it, nonverbally begging for it. “That’s it,” he growled, bent his knees and thrust into her.
Fucking bliss.
“Oh God,” she whimpered and he drove into her, one arm wrapped around her belly, he moved his hand from her breast and covered her mouth as the moans came.
“Take me, Rocky,” he grunted as he drove harder, faster and listened as her stifled moans got deeper.
He kept at her, knowing it was building in her as it built in him until her head shot back, colliding with his shoulder and he felt her mouth open against his palm as her pussy tightened around his cock.
Beautiful.
He let go, drove in deep and exploded.
Fucking beautiful.
Christ, but he loved her.
He rode her gently as he came down then rooted himself and used his hand at her jaw to twist her neck so he could take her mouth in a kiss. Her tongue danced with his before he pulled out, turned her back to the wall and kissed her again while he shoved the skirt back down her hips.
His mouth left hers but their eyes locked, her arms wrapped around his back, one of his hands at her neck, the other one righting his pants as they stared at each other.
She dropped her eyes, pressed in and kissed his throat, her lips stayed there and he felt them move when she said, “Today is starting a lot better than yesterday.”
He grinned, his hand moving to her jaw to tip her head back so he could look at her.
“It ain’t Ozzie and Harriet, sweetcheeks,” he remarked.
“Poor Ozzie and Harriet,” she replied.
His grin turned into a smile before he got serious.
“Don’t play me again, Roc, you want something, we talk about it.”
Rocky didn’t feel like getting serious.
“I’m not sure that was a deterrent, baby, more like an incentive.”
“I’m bein’ serious,” he informed her.
“So am I,” she shot back.
He looked down at her face and it hit him that she looked happy. She hadn’t looked happy any of the times he’d seen her since he’d been home and now she looked happy. And he knew it was only part just having an orgasm against the wall in his closet. It was mostly being with Layne in his closet.
His irritation slid away as that look on her face settled deep in his soul. He slid his thumb along her cheekbone and softly asked her the same question she’d asked him last night.
“What am I gonna do with you, Raquel Merrick?”
Her expression shifted, he couldn’t quite read it but it looked like she was scared. It was not exactly fear, instead she looked anxious and maybe even timid before her quiet words explained her look.
“Anything you want, Layne, as long as you’re with me when you do it.”
There it was. Thank fuck, there it was.
Rocky was going to take a chance again on dark and wild.
Layne felt another golden trail burn through him but he asked just to confirm.
“I take it that means we don’t need to have a conversation tomorrow night.”
Rocky studied him only a beat before she nodded.
Layne grinned.
Then he dipped his face close and whispered, “Go get cleaned up, sweetcheeks.”
“Okay,” she whispered back, touched her mouth to his and slid out from in front of him.
She started to walk away but turned back suddenly, dropped to a knees-closed crouch, nabbed her panties and tossed them into the mostly empty but still partly filled hamper. Then she threw him a satisfied grin and walked into the bathroom.
Layne looked at her panties knowing exactly what they said.
Vera could have Milky Way cake and Layne’s laundry but Rocky had her panties in that laundry, panties he’d torn down her legs before he fucked her.
It was a dirty play, a hit below the belt, but it made her point irrevocably.
His hands went to the buttons of his shirt and he smiled.
His mother was a contender but Rocky was definitely fighting to win.
Chapter Eighteen
The Life and Times of Tanner Layne
Layne grabbed his smokes, his cell and headed outside in an effort not to kill his mother.
He slid the door back, stepped outside, slid it to and sat at the table. Shaking out a smoke, he fired it up.
Vera had spent the afternoon and evening taking a trip down memory lane and dragging Layne, Jasper and Tripp along with her.
She’d asked them if they remembered when Layne flew them all to Sedona for Spring Break and the boys had gone horseback riding.
She’d asked them if they remembered when Layne flew them all out to Colorado for Christmas, they’d driven up to Winter Park and the boys had gone skiing.
She’d asked them if they remembered coming down to Florida four years ago and “your father met that lovely Cassie woman and stayed out all night”.
And she’d asked them, while serving Milky Way cake, if they remembered going to LA for his birthday two years ago and she’d taught “that sweet Melody” how to make Layne’s favorite cake.
At first, these stories completely deflected off of Rocky and the boys had joined in with their grandmother. Rocky was too busy rooting for the Colts, eating junk food and bumping closed fists with Tripp anytime the Colts made a great play to cotton on to Vera’s new dirty game.
Then, after the never ending stories, it started to wear on Rocky and she ate less and got quieter. Jasper noted it at this point and stopped joining in and started paying more attention to texting Keira than his grandmother or football.
Then, when Vera brought up Cassie, Tripp got silent and became so engrossed in the game it was as if he’d be asked to re-enact it play for play. Rocky had been stretched out in front of Layne on the couch and when Cassie was brought up, Rocky went still as Layne went solid. She waited ten minutes, rolled off the couch and went to the bathroom. When she returned, she curled up in the side of the couch by his feet, her knees tucked to her chest, her elbow to the arm rest, her head in her hand, her eyes on the game and Rocky locked herself right in her head.
She’d accepted a piece of cake then set it aside after two bites which was approximately ten seconds after Vera announced she’d taught Melody how to make it.
Which was approximately five seconds after Layne’s cake plate hit the table with a crash, Vera jumped, Tripp’s shoulders slumped, Jasper’s concentration on his phone became visibly acute but Rocky didn’t
move her eyes from the TV.
Layne moved. He rolled off the couch, got his cigarettes and cell and went outside.
He took a drag and on the exhale flipped open his phone and called Merry.
“You’ve reached Lieutenant Garrett Merrick, I’m unable to take your call but leave a message and I’ll get back to you,” he heard in his hear.
“This is the third time I’ve called today, Merry, you get this, call me back,” Layne growled into the phone, flipped it closed, took another drag and on the exhale he called Dave.
“Hello?” Dave answered.
“Dave. Layne.”
“Tanner, son, how are you?”
“Been better, Dave,” Layne answered honestly, an answer he wouldn’t have thought he’d give after he woke up that morning and after what transpired in his closet that day but, fuck him, there he was, giving it. “Listen, I’ve been tryin’ to get hold of Merry. You know where he is?”
“He’s on call this weekend, Tanner, probably busy,” Dave replied.
This wasn’t an excuse for Merry not to take his calls. Merry always took his calls.
“He got anything else goin’ this weekend?” Layne pushed.
“Not that I know of. He had a hot date last night but then he’s always got a hot date. Boy needs to settle down, he’s too old for this shit. I don’t know what was wrong with Mia. Never could get that.”
Layne couldn’t either. He hadn’t been around when Merry hooked up with Mia but he knew her before he left town. She was a seriously pretty, petite redhead with a temper that matched her hair but a wicked sense of humor and a smile that rivaled Rocky’s, falling short because she didn’t have a dimple and Layne had never been in love with her. Word was Merry fell and fell hard then broke loose for no reason.
Seemed the Merrick kids shared a particular trait.
Fuck, he really needed to talk to Merry.
“Dave, can you tell him if you see him or hear from him that I need to talk to him?” Layne asked. “As soon as he can.”
“Sure, son, no problems,” Dave paused then asked, “How’s Roc?”
“We’re back together,” Layne announced without preamble and this was met with utter silence.
Layne let the silence stretch and waited for Dave’s response as he took a drag and exhaled.