13. Bones
Chapter 13
Bones
I crushed the empty can between my hands and threw it onto the dining room table.
Non-alcoholic beer was a damn joke, but I wasn’t going to fall into old vices.
Even if Coors Edge was the worst thing I’d tasted since some guy’s ball sweat a few matches ago.
Now that we were set to headline Seattle’s biggest underground attraction at Heathens Hollow in barely two months, I needed to be on top of my game. At my best. Ari said I was in my prime, and I sure felt like it.
Then why couldn’t I beat River?
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his right hook coming straight for my jaw. I could still feel the pain in my side when he cleaned my fucking clock.
He was a fucking hurricane, and I was wading through the storm without a raincoat.
Would two months really be enough to get into shape? Never mind trying to figure this shit out with Ari. Lotto was right. Troy’s money would make Smiley’s state of the art and line our pockets for a while. Plus, whatever we won and bet at Heathens Hollow. We’d be rich as fuck if we could pull off the win.
If we could.
My head pounded like I’d had ten beers, and I rubbed at my temple with a knuckle. Everything about this situation pissed me off. Dealing with Nero and throwing the matches had been my choice—a shitty choice, but a choice, nonetheless. But with Troy, it was different. It wasn’t going to end with saying no. Dicks like Troy Godwin would come after everything to make you bend at the knee, then laugh in your face when you finally did it. Signing a decent contract was the best-case scenario for Smiley’s.
But that didn’t mean I had to like it.
I slumped back in the kitchen chair and stared at the framed picture of my dad on the wall. I fucking missed him. Since I hadn’t received a call from an estate agent or a box of ashes, I had to assume he was having the time of his life down in Mexico City. Lotto held me back from going to visit him a few times. Phone calls didn’t feel like enough. Especially now that we were wading in a sea of green bills and dark blood without a damn paddle.
“You’d know what to do, old man,” I said at the happy picture. He always had the best advice, even if I didn’t want to hear it. He was always there for me at my lowest and thought the best of me. In some sick way, it felt like I was letting him down… again.
The front door squeaked open, and Lotto’s familiar footsteps padded into the kitchen. He was still wearing his suit from the meeting with Troy, but his red tie was undone and hung from his shoulders. His suit jacket hung open with three open buttons of his dress shirt showing off his broad chest. He looked sexy as fuck, even as he stared down at me with a hard expression.
“Glad to see you.” He glanced at the smashed can. “Drinking?”
“Non-alcoholic,” I confirmed. “And complete shit.”
“That’s what happens when you buy shit beer.”
Lotto shrugged out of his suit jacket and threw it over the back of the other kitchen chair. My body spiked with heat as he began to undo his cufflinks. Every muscle in his arms strained against his tight white dress shirt.
He continued undoing the buttons on the front of his shirt as he spoke. “I tried to speak with Frankie. He told me to fuck off.” Lotto smirked and threw open his shirt, tugging his tank out of his slacks. “Are you going to tell me the same?”
I had to force myself not to stare at his firm chest. “Why would I?”
“You didn’t look too happy with me earlier.”
“I thought you’d back me up.” I exhaled through my nose. The reminder of his afternoon brought back the annoyance I’d felt at Smiley’s. “I don’t want Ari to do this.”
“But she’s going to. You’re not going to convince her otherwise.” Lotto gave me a look. “Did you get ahold of Teo?”
I sure had and by the end of the call, I’d wanted to pummel his face in. As soon as the words “fight at Heathens Hollow” came out, Teo pounced on it. Even when I explained the entire deal, down to Ari’s forced fight with Misty, Teo wouldn’t change his mind. It was a “fucking amazing opportunity, dude.” No matter what I said, Teo was in for the fight—and so was Ari.
So I kept my damn mouth shut.
Too bad Lotto knew me like the back of his hand. He chuckled and shrugged out of his dress shirt so I could get a good look at his tattoos. My gaze roamed over his upper chest as he began fiddling with his belt.
“So, by your own metric, you’re outnumbered two to one.”
“Ari will see reason,” I argued.
“My eyes are up here, Bones.”
I snapped my eyes to his, and his all-knowing smirk made my dick pulse. He knew exactly what I was thinking and what I wanted. He tugged his belt out of the loops, putting on a show now that I was caught red-handed.
“Now that I have your attention.” Lotto threw his belt down on the table, then crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s the reason you don’t want her out there?”
“I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“The real reason,” Lotto urged. “Not some bullshit lie to make yourself feel better.”
I swallowed. The reason? I was fucking terrified. I’d seen plenty of people get into the ring and come out a different person. Broken bones, missing teeth, and in one case an eye, seizures. The cage changed people. For someone like Ari—who had so much fucking light to her—to step foot in such a dark place… I didn’t want to risk it. Not after having already lost so many people close to me.
“I can’t…” I cleared my throat to ward off the dryness. “I can’t lose anyone else, Lotto.”
Lotto sighed. “He would have agreed with Ari.”
“Who?”
“Pops. He would have one hundred percent been on her side with this.”
The confidence in his sentence pissed me off. I slammed my hand on the table. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“He left us in her care. Told her to watch over us and keep us safe, and that’s what she’s doing.” Lotto crouched by my side and set a hand on my thigh. “In her own, stupid way.”
“At least we agree she’s being stupid,” I grumbled.
“She cares about us. She loves us. All of us.” Lotto squeezed my thigh and started trailing his hand up higher. My muscles jumped at the strength in his touch. “Ari is trying to protect us like we protected her and Smiley’s. We need to give her a chance or we’re going to push her away.”
“Who’s we?” I argued, but there was no heat to it. Lotto’s wandering hand had most of my attention.
He shifted onto his knees, grabbing onto my other thigh. “You and Frankie.” He smirked as his hands pushed into the bottoms of my basketball shorts. I gritted my teeth to keep from groaning. “She knows I’m with her.”
“There’s gotta be another way.” I swallowed. Lotto dug his nails into my flesh, and my cock throbbed. It was already half-hard with just the faintest touches. “Something we haven’t thought of.”
“That means you should talk to her.” Lotto’s grin turned into a smirk when he brushed his hand over my dick. I shifted to open my legs wider so he could grab it through my boxers. “Maybe when you’re a little less pissed off so she doesn’t roundhouse kick you to the head.”
“So tomorrow?”
Lotto didn’t answer my question. He hummed and started stroking my cock through my boxers, settling between my legs.
“How about I help you relax before that?”
I swallowed and nodded. Lotto always knew how to make me feel better, whether with his words, his mouth, or his cock. He pulled his hands from my shorts and leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to my lips. He ghosted along my chest and sides as he kissed me, everything about his motions feather-light. It was as frustrating as it was calming.
When his tongue swiped my lower lip, I opened on command. As soon as our tongues met, I moaned into his mouth. It was deliberately slow, small flicks and twirls that had me sitting on the edge of my seat. I melted into him and let him lead. He ran his tongue over everything, just like his hands all over my body. I tried to throw my head back when he flicked my nipples through my undershirt. But Lotto held onto my chin, forcing my head back down so I couldn’t move.
He kissed me like I was sweet tea on a hot summer’s day. The slow, deep passion he poured into our kiss made my cock throb. I trusted Lotto with my everything. After so long together, he knew exactly how to take care of me and bring me down from the edge. Or in this case, bring me to the edge. I swallowed my impatience, and he swallowed my moan. Lotto caught my bottom lip in his teeth, sucking and nipping until it was plump and red.
I panted for breath as he kissed down the column of my throat, tracing my tattoos with his tongue. He touched everywhere but my pulsing cock. In frustration, I jerked my hips up, but it only made him chuckle. He pushed me down onto the chair with strong hands, hot breath fanning my skin with his murmur.
“I’m going to take my time with you. Make sure you’re begging for me and then tease you some more. Don’t even think about moving or I’m walking away.”
I grunted. That sounded like hell on Earth… and just what I needed right now.
Lotto made a mess of my neck and collarbones, sucking traces of him until they bloomed red and blue. He pushed his hands under my shirt and dragged his nails over my abs. I grabbed onto the chair to keep from bucking into him. Lotto wasn’t playing around. One wrong move and he’d leave me to an extremely cold shower, and jerking it out alone wouldn’t ease the fire growing within me.
Lotto swirled his tongue along my collarbones at the same pace he circled my nipples. They hardened almost painfully. He pulled and twisted, smirking when I groaned and shifted helplessly. My entire body was on edge. This was so much worse than the fight with the others earlier. My cock twitched and leaked against my boxers every time he tugged my hard nipples.
Thank fuck he showed me some mercy. With just two tugs, my shirt was in a pile on the floor. Lotto took a nipple into his mouth and grabbed my cock through my shorts. Every single stroke was painfully slow. He grazed the tip of my dick with his fingers but never fully touched. Begging was on the tip of my tongue. I was about to explode, and he hadn’t even fucking touched me yet.
My skin was on fire, hair on my arms rising when he bit down on my nipple. I couldn’t help it. I ground my hips up into his hand for more friction.
Lotto pulled away from my chest with an all-knowing smirk. “Are you ready to beg yet?”
“Hurry up,” I growled and grabbed onto his shoulder. I tried to push him down, but he easily swatted my hand away.
“If you’re not relaxed, I can stop.”
A smirk. A challenge. A promise. Lotto had me in the palm of his damn hands. I gritted my teeth and dropped my hand back to the chair, gripping so hard it creaked. Lotto continued making a mess of my chest and nipples, stroking my cock so slowly I wanted to scream. He was playing with me. Winding me up. By the time he was done licking and sucking everywhere on my chest, I was pretty sure one round wasn’t going to be enough.
“Lotto.” I grunted when he pulled away from my chest.
“Beg,” he ordered. How was he so calm when I could see the outline of his hard cock through his slacks? His restraint never ceased to amaze me.
“Suck me off.” I jerked my hips toward him. “I want to feel your mouth.”
Something about the way Lotto’s lips quirked unsettled and aroused me. Lotto relished taking control. Me begging for his cock was nothing new, but he looked so fucking sexy when he knew he had it. Like this was always how it should have been. I could have come just from the heated look he gave me.
I lifted my hips so he could jerk off my shorts and boxers. My cock twitched when it sprang free, and my entire body shuddered when Lotto took me into his mouth. He ran his tongue over the tip of my cock a few times then started bobbing, strong hands keeping my thighs glued to the chair. I was at his mercy and slow pace. The warmth of his mouth was driving me crazy, made worse by his fucking teasing.
I bit my lip to keep from complaining, and the chair creaked again with how hard I gripped it. Lotto hollowed his cheeks as he sucked, squeezing at my full balls with his fingers. Heat burned through my stomach; all his teasing made me a volcano ready to blow.
He pulled back.
“What the fuck,” I groaned. My cock throbbed painfully, red and in desperate need of release. The heat in my stomach subsided, but the fire in my veins still burned. “I thought you wanted me relaxed?”
Lotto grinned. “I do.”
“If I was any further from relaxed, I’d be in fucking Antarctica.”
He wrapped a hand around my cock and started pumping. Lotto didn’t say a word as he took me in his mouth again, sucking and jerking until I became a moaning mess. The heat spiked even faster this time. I was right fucking there, my release only a few more sucks away?—
Lotto pulled back again.
“I swear to fucking God, Lotto.”
He looked like Lucifer himself sitting there between my damn thighs. If he didn’t make me come soon, I was going to explode and take this whole house with me.
“Are you ready to come, Bones?” The fucking devil. He knew the answer and wanted me to say it. “Want your reward?”
“Yes,” I gritted out.
Lotto hummed and took me into his mouth again. He worked me so quickly it made me dizzy. It wasn’t long before my thighs were shaking, and I couldn’t catch my breath. Just as I opened my mouth to tell him I was going to come, Lotto popped off my cock and stood up.
I stared at him as he wiped his mouth clean and picked up his shirt. My cock twitched and jerked from the sudden lack of stimulation. And here Lotto was, packing up his shirt like it was laundry day and not “Bones Needs a Good Fucking” day.
“Lotto, what the fuck?”
“You said to suck you, and I did.” He looked so casual, even with his cock hard against his pants and a little bit of my pre-cum still on his lips. “But you don’t get a reward. Not yet.” His glare was hotter than my entire body. “Not until you talk to Ari.”
“What?” My brain couldn’t keep up with the events of the past five minutes. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Go talk to Ari. Work this out. And then you’ll get your reward.” Lotto leaned down to press a small kiss on my swollen lips. “If you hurry, you’ll catch her at Smiley’s.”
Then he fucking walked off, leaving me a confused, sweaty, and extremely horny mess in the middle of our kitchen.