Chapter 26 Payback
TWENTY-SIX
PAYBACK
I was at the bar of my kitchen, sitting on one of my thrifted, mismatched barstools, my laptop in front of me, my baby shower delivery made, when Gabe left college football on the TV to get another beer.
I was into what I was doing, namely alternating between updates on my website (deleting the delivery option, changing the address, you know, awesome shit like that), along with making a list of desserts to talk to Lucia about adding to the menu, and crafting a business plan to submit to Tex and Tito about running Willow’s Good Stuff out of SC.
There was a lot of addition and multiplication going on, not my strong suit, but I needed to figure out what kind of offer to make Tex and Tito that didn’t take too hefty of a bite out of Willow’s Good Stuff but did them right in letting me run the business out of their kitchen.
I was factoring up the savings of bulk flour purchasing when Gabe’s handsome hand came into view and he tapped the counter by my laptop.
I looked up to see him resting on a forearm across the bar from me.
Now, how did I miss my man getting into that attractive position?
“I thought you were going to rest this afternoon before the big show,” Gabe noted.
“I just want to get a start on this,” and a finish, I didn’t say. “So tomorrow can be all about sleeping, and eating, and lazing, and sex.”
His eyes heated but his mouth said, “You can carve out some time tomorrow to finish it up.”
“Gabe—”
“Cupcake, do what you gotta do. I’m just sayin’, you need to be game ready. The brain is not a muscle, but it gets fatigued just like one, and you need to hit tonight fresh, not with your mind exhausted from dealing with your day job.”
It was fabulous having a wise boyfriend.
I saved my work and shut my laptop.
Gabe gave me a smile.
Worth it.
He took his beer and himself to the couch.
He sat in it, all man, one arm along the back, legs sprawled wide.
Seeing him in that position, I flashed on a memory, my mind liked that memory, so my body moved with a mission.
I headed his way, he looked from the TV to me, started to adjust to let me in to get to the lounge side of the couch, but I received his hyper-focused attention when I ordered, “Don’t move.”
He settled back in.
And he watched as I hitched a leg over his knee, then the other one, and I settled on the floor between his spread legs.
“Baby,” he murmured.
I looked up at him as I lifted his tee to expose his ridged abs.
His eyes went hooded.
Oh yeah.
Encouraged by that, I kissed his skin and licked a line across the waistband of his jeans.
He opened his legs wider and slouched deeper into the couch.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I cupped his junk, got off on his soft growl and undid the top button.
Dragging hard against the line of his stiff cock in his pants with my finger, I undid his fly with the other hand.
Gabe slouched further.
Tugging his briefs down just enough to give me access, I pulled his dick free and looked up at him.
He was taking a pull from his beer, but his eyes were aimed around it at me.
God.
So, so, so, so, sooooooo…
Hot.
To express my gratitude for how hot that was, I put my lips to the tip of his cock and took him deep.
“Fuck, baby,” Gabe groaned.
Oh yeah.
So, soooooooo hot.
Mouth full of him, I looked up to see his head had fallen back on the couch.
Insanely hot.
Returning my attention to his amazing cock, I did some licking, but mostly I concentrated on sucking, doing it hard and giving him all I had.
After doing this for a while, I took a chance, cupped his balls and gave them a gentle squeeze.
He bucked up into my mouth, grunting, “Christ, baby. Yeah.”
Awesome.
I put the other hand in play, stroking, so I was stroking, sucking and carefully squeezing.
I did this until Gabe warned, “Cupcake.”
I looked up at him and told him how this was going to go by shoving his tee up his belly.
“Fuck,” he bit, I worked, he tensed, grunted, “Babe,” I understood him, so I slid him out and jacked and squeezed while he jetted thick ropes of cum onto his stomach.
Man, he was always very easy to look at.
But he was seriously beautiful when he came.
I didn’t get to watch very often because I was busy doing the same with him, so I notched this activity at the top of my frequently indulged hobby list.
I continued to milk him as he came down, and then I carefully tucked him away as he lifted his head from the back of the couch to look down at me.
Eyes lazy and sated, but there was residual heat.
Face gorgeous. Body amazing. Heart strong. Head smart. Spirit generous.
All mine.
“I’ve wanted to do that since you sat like this in the couch when I was telling you all the reasons we didn’t work, and you twisted them into all the reasons we do,” I confessed.
“Fortunately, you were full of shit, and I was right, so I just got the best head in history.”
I frowned.
He leaned to put his beer on the coffee table, and when he sat back, he took me with him with his hands under my arms. He set me on the couch beside him.
“Best blowjob I ever had,” he semi-repeated. “Bar none. I’m serious.”
My frown turned upside down.
“But that’s not the only reason I was right, and you know it,” he finished.
Ulk.
He’s speaking truth, Real Logic swam from the depths of wherever she’d recently disappeared to, to point out.
And that was the best blowjob we ever gave. Bar none, Dreamer added.
You can go away now. I’m good, I told them.
Oh, we know. We’ll just surface when you decide to do stupid shit, Real Logic said.
Not me. My work is done. At least for now. So I’m out, Dreamer announced.
Oh God.
God!
Dreamer was right, and I hadn’t even noticed!
It wasn’t like I’d never dream again.
But the important stuff?
It had all come true.
“Babe?” Gabe called.
I focused on him.
“Sittin’ here with my cum on my stomach, you put it there, and it’s like you’re in another room. What’s up?” he asked.
“I just realized I’m living the dream.”
Gabe’s head cocked violently.
Even with that extreme reaction, he didn’t kiss me or pull me in his arms or…anything.
Instead, he got up like I hadn’t just dropped that happy bombshell and walked out of the room.
I heard the water going in the bathroom.
Well, I guessed he didn’t think it was as big of a deal as I did.
He walked back out, jeans done up, tee righted.
He went to his beer, and standing, took a long drag.
Then he put it down and reached for me.
I squealed when he shunted me to lying on my back on the couch.
I did not squeal when his fingers went to the button on my jeans.
“Payback,” he muttered, before yanking them off along with my panties.
See?
Spirit totally generous.
Gabe settled between my legs, throwing both over his shoulders, and he (and his luscious beard) went down.
But fifteen minutes later, I flew.
Damn, payback was sweet.
And dreams?
Well.
Dreams were real.
* * *
Late that evening, one team (Raye, Luna, Titus and Joey) followed Duane to do the pickup with Dex just to be certain it went okay, but also to be certain he wasn’t followed when he left.
That accomplished, they met the other two teams.
One was the rest of the Angels.
The other was Persia and Lotus, who were going to take Duane somewhere safe while all of this went down.
When Alpha Team arrived where we were meeting (outside an old warehouse on the edge of the south side of downtown where a homeless encampment used to be, but it was now a ghost town), they got out.
After they came to us, Jessie commented, “Looks like that went okay.”
“They didn’t send anyone to follow him,” Joey shared. “Which Titus says proves how seriously they’re dumbfucks.”
I was no criminal mastermind, but I got this.
If I handed over a lot of money to some stranger I didn’t know solely on the understanding he liked the friend he met at Food City, I’d track that money to make sure he really did like his friend at Food City.
“He’s good to go, babies,” Titus said to Persia and Lotus.
“Okay, daddy,” Lotus purred.
“We’ll give you the heads-up when all is clear,” Luna reminded them.
Persia shoved Duane’s shoulder to get him moving to their car.
Duane didn’t move.
“We gotta get this done, Duane,” Raye reminded him.
“You all going all out on this—” Duane cut himself off and visibly swallowed hard.
We all waited.
“You need somethin’ from me, no porn, for the first two times you show,” he stated. Though, being Duane, he didn’t leave it there. “But still, bring cupcakes.”
With that, he walked with Persia and Lotus to their car.
“I think that’s as nice as he gets,” Joey guessed.
“We could show without porn, he wouldn’t care,” Luna decreed. “But we’ll bring it so he can save face.”
“Right,” Gemma whispered.
“Okay, here’s the news,” Titus said.
At his tone, we all focused on him.
“I asked around. This drop,”—he hefted the bag he was carrying—“is a quarter of a mil.”
Holy shit.
There was a quarter of a million dollars in that bag?
Whoa.
“Dex does not have that kind of cash,” Titus told us. “He leaned heavily into men who like their money paid back on time. They get grouchy when it isn’t. And their grouchy is delivered at the end of a baseball bat to your kneecap.”
Oh crap.
“This money disappears, and he doesn’t have any product to push to pay back what he borrowed, he’s in a world of hurt,” Titus continued. “You still in, knowing the extent of how this is gonna play out?”
Before anyone could even open their mouth, Joey spoke up.