Chapter 26
Kendrick
Never in my life have I been more regretful.
Yes, my instincts were spot-on about Josephine Meyer, but there’s no vindication in that discovery. Not after she poured herself out to us tonight, her tone even and practiced. Like her story isn’t the most fucked-up load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.
What’s more: she went through it all alone.
During the hardest times of my life—losing my mom, getting my diagnosis, Emilia’s diagnosis, too—I needed people.
I had them. My boys. My dad. My uncle and auntie.
The girls, even though they’re a decade younger than me.
I needed my family. I needed them, and they were there for me.
I’m not sure I could have done any of that alone.
And yet, she did. Because she had to.
She suffered the unimaginable, yet she pulled herself out of the trenches, put in the work, bided her time, and created a fresh start.
She moved here for a new beginning, but only after jumping through hundreds of hoops to even get to a place where a fresh start was possible.
And to think, the moment I saw her, I jumped to all the wrong conclusions. Then I used my connections to flip her world upside-fucking-down.
“Oh.”
At the sound of her voice, I zero in on the woman I look for first now.
On campus. In a crowd. At the games. Around the house.
I’ve been seeking her out more and more, the need to be near her catching like wildfire the more time I spend in her presence.
“You okay, Mama?”
My question sends a flush creeping up her cheeks and a secret smile playing across her face. Yeah, she’s okay.
She’s a terrible liar. Her truth is always right there on full display. She can’t even pull the smallest prank over on Decker or get to the punchline of her own joke without giving herself away.
It's wild to think that, in the beginning, I looked at her and saw her candor, yet I couldn’t see all the beautiful parts of her truth.
Arms out, I beckon her. “Come here.”
That hint of a smile blossoms across her face as she saunters across the room, her hair wet and braided in two plaits.
I’m perched on the end of her bed, legs spread wide.
Without hesitation, she walks between them.
Looping my arms around her hips, I tip my head back and consider her.
“I asked Hunter and Greedy if they’d switch rooms with me for the night.”
She frowns a little, catching her pouty bottom lip between her teeth, but she doesn’t pull away.
“If you’d prefer to have them here, just say the word. Or I can take the floor or pull in a lounge chair from the balcony—”
She guffaws. “You have a game tomorrow, Kendrick.”
“Yeah, and I have my girl to take care of tonight.”
Her eyes go wide as she gently rakes her nails along my fade. “Your girl, huh?”
“I want to be with you, Jojo. But I need to make things right between us first. What I did… what I assumed, and how I handled things that night I saw you at the spa—”
Her hands freeze in place for a moment, then she grips my head and tilts it back so sharply I grunt.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I challenge.
Her blue irises turn stormy as she glares down at me with an intensity she usually reserves for Cap when he really pisses her off.
“Don’t apologize. Don’t treat me differently now that you know.”
Hoping to quell my temper, I pull in a deep breath.
This girl has the power to wind me up and leave me spinning.
I don’t even think it’s intentional most of the time.
The chemistry between us is potent enough to incite a cataclysmic event every time we come together.
It’s a chemistry I can’t wait to explore, but not until I can ensure our tempers won’t burn us both to ash.
“I was wrong about you. And I’m so damn sorry.”
“Kendrick,” she warns, her body going rigid in my hold.
“No, Jojo. You don’t get to shut me down. Not on this. Every fucking issue you’ve been forced to face since you showed up at LCU was because of me. You can’t honestly insist I shouldn’t apologize for fucking up and sabotaging your chance at the fresh start you deserve.”
She breathes in, bowing her head low enough that her lips tickle the skin below my ear.
“I don’t want to fight with you. Not anymore.”
“I need to make this up to you, though,” I reason.
Her warm breath hits my neck at the same time her low sigh registers. “You don’t think you being here is enough?”
“It’s not. It never will be. It’s—”
My words end abruptly, then, and all reasonable thought flees when she presses her lips to mine.
The move is so much more than a kiss.
It’s the kind of connection that demands full attention from both participants. The kind that inspires all sorts of visceral, physical reactions throughout the body.
One of the very few benefits of the chronic pain that flares inside me is that I have an extra sensitive pleasure gauge, too.
Every touch. Every caress. When it feels good, it feels so fucking good.
She licks the seam of my lips, and I gladly open for her, tilting my head back and angling it so she can tease the tip of her tongue along mine. Sweet mint registers on my taste buds as each caress turns up the heat of the fire growing in my core.
She lets out a wanton, primal purr when I cup her ass and pull her against my body.
For another moment, I’m lost in the taste of her, in the desire prickling down my spine, but then a flash of reality strikes.
“Wait.” Though I’m hesitant to do it, I pull back. I’m even more distraught when I see her puffy, swollen lips turn down into a pout.
“Can I stay in here tonight? I promised Hunter I’d let her know.”
She shoots me a coy smile, pushing back the game clock and making me sweat for a handful of excruciating seconds.
“You can stay,” she sing-songs, angling over me again and resting her forehead on mine. “But you have to deal with the fallout when Kylian finds out.”
There’s playful mirth to the statement, a testament to just how okay she really is.
Maybe it’s because she’s learned to survive on her own for this long, or maybe it has a little to do with me. Regardless, that sassy tone sends me every fucking time.
“Why do you think I waited until we were alone before I made my move? Text your friend so she knows you’re okay, Mama. Then go lock that door.”
With a cheeky grin, she turns and scurries away to take care of business, but not before I give her ass a playful swat. Then I duck into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
By the time I emerge, the room is cast in the dim glow of the bedside lamp.
I climb under the sheets, reveling in the certainty that she wants me here—that she wants me—and make my way to the middle, draping an arm around her and pressing my forehead to hers.
“What can I do for you right now?” I’m at her mercy. I’ll do anything she wants. Any favor, every whim. I want to honor her and cherish her. Because she deserves that. She deserves that and so much more.
She presses her torso into my chest, her tight little body straining against mine in the most tantalizing way.
In response, I place a chaste kiss on her forehead. I refuse to push my luck tonight. But apparently, that’s the wrong move.
“Don’t treat me like I’m breakable, K. Don’t pity me. Please don’t let what I shared tonight change how you view me.” She hitches one leg over mine, tangling our lower halves beneath the sheets.
“Never,” I vow, stroking a hand down her back.
“Prove it,” she challenges, her sass turned all the fucking way up.
Frozen—because I’m so fucking turned on by her snark yet still so fucking distraught over my transgressions—I croak, “What did you say?”
She ghosts her lips over my neck and up to my ear, eliciting goose bumps in her wake. “Prove it, Kendrick. You want me to believe that tonight’s revelations don’t change how you view me? Prove. It.”
She runs a hand down my torso and brushes against my cock, making her request abundantly clear.
I could argue. Push back. Hesitate. Question her.
But none of that would serve either of us right now.
So I roll over and cover her body with mine, shucking my boxers along the way, then fumbling to pull her sleep shorts down to her ankles.
I kiss her fiercely, intentionally, claiming her mouth as I roll my hips and press my cock against the apex of her thighs. Every move sends bolts of desire through me, lighting up every one of my nerve endings.
Rising to my knees, I capture her tits in my hands, smashing them together and biting at her nipples through the thin fabric of her tank top.
“Fuck… yes,” she hisses through her teeth, bucking her hips up to meet mine, chasing the connection we both know is inevitable.
“Let me hear you, Jojo,” I grunt, biting and sucking at the fabric over each breast until her nipples are peaked.
“Kendrick,” she moans, scraping her nails down my chest and abs before she heads straight for my cock.
“Thatta girl. Let the whole house hear you,” I command, burying my face between her tits and pinching her nipples.
She finds my length, fisting me from root to tip, and smears the pearl of precum around the head.
The utter euphoria it elicits sends me shooting up. Hands pressed to the mattress on either side of her head, elbows locked, back rigid. Fuck.
Beneath me, she eyes me coyly and slips her other hand down her belly and between her own legs. The temptress doesn’t look away as she gathers up her arousal, then coats the head of my cock with it.
“Goddamn, that was hot.” The words scrape out of me, my breaths escaping in ragged pants.
She pulls me forward, clawing at my ass with one hand while the other guides my dick between her thighs.
“Where you putting me, Mama?” I tease.
“Are we okay to not use a condom?” she asks instead of answering my question.
“You want me to pull out?” I grimace, because damn, I don’t know that I can fulfill that promise with how out of my mind she’s got me. I won’t take that risk with something so precious.
“I have the implant. I just wanted to make sure it was okay with you.”
“More than okay. I’m clear. I want to feel you—all of you, all the way. Put me inside you, Jojo. Let me give you what you need.”
She lines me up and shifts her hips, urging me to meet her. Obediently, I slide in to her tight, wet pussy, calling out as our bodies come together in the most intimate, amazing way.
“Proof, Mama.” Lifting up, I pull all the way out, then thrust until I’m buried to the hilt.
“You feel that?” I roll my hips, meeting her for every single thrust. Forearms pressed to the bed, caging her in, I run my nose along her neck, then bring my lips to hers.
“You feel all that proof?” I grunt, punching up and burying my cock in her sweet, warm cunt as far as it will go.
She bites down on her lip and moans again, fixing those gorgeous blue eyes on me as I fuck her into the mattress.
“Squeeze me.”
She does as I command, clenching her inner walls as she keeps pace with the slow, sensual, rolling thrusts of my hips.
The tightness around my cock is incredible. Pleasure sparks with each clench, desire spikes with every passing second. I pound into her with ferocity and reverence. I don’t take one second—one thrust—for granted.
“Fuck, Jojo. My heart beats for you. My body burns for you. I’m gonna fill you up with so much proof you won’t ever doubt me again.”
“Kendrick.”
Hell yeah. She’s close already. I brace myself on one arm and reach between our bodies, never breaking pace. I press my thumb into her wet, swollen clit, giving just enough pressure to send her over the edge as I fuck into her at the perfect pace.
“You feel so fucking good. Give it to me, Mama. Come on my cock while I fill you up.”
The first spasms of her pussy milk the orgasm right out of me. My hips falter as pleasure and release, happiness and joy, radiate through my limbs and light up every cell in my body.
She told me to prove to her that nothing has changed between us.
I didn’t realize until this moment exactly what I was proving to myself, but now it couldn’t be more clear. I’ll never be the same because of this woman.
I hold myself above her, creating a sated, blissful cocoon for the two of us as we come down together. I kiss her everywhere—from her needy, eager mouth to her heavy, supple tits—waiting until I’m totally soft before slipping out, rolling over, and pulling her into my arms.
“Fuck… I needed that.” She presses her ass into my crotch to emphasize the admission.
“It was a privilege to give you what you need,” I murmur, stroking my hands up and down her bare hips and legs. I can’t get enough of this girl. “I want to be here for you, always.”
She sighs, curling back into my arms, conveying that holding her and just being here is enough.
Stifling a yawn, I run my hand along her smooth skin. I refuse to fall asleep until she dozes off. She’s my priority, and I want to make sure she sleeps soundly. Her care is my greatest concern. I wait patiently, tracing a pattern from her shoulder to her hip, then down her thigh and back up again.
For now, her breathing is even, and she lets out a contented hum at the contact.
When I brush my hand over one ass cheek, she instantly pushes back, seeking more.
Tentatively, I tease one finger between her cheeks, toying with the rim of her ass.
“You let your boys play back here, Mama?”
With a moan, she whips her head around to look at me over her shoulder, her eyes full of smoldering desire.
“Not yet, I haven’t.”
“Good,” I grunt, applying a bit more pressure against her puckered hole. “I want this.”
“I bet you do,” she teases, grinding her hips with just enough force to have the tip of my finger nearly pressing in.
“I want everything where you’re concerned, Mama. But I can be patient. You’re more than worth the wait.”
Dragging my hand back up to safer territory, I loop an arm around her and pull her into me. Kissing the back of her head, I settle in to wait for her to sleep, so damn grateful to have a second chance with this woman.