67. Bay
SIXTY-SEVEN
bay
I wake up in bed, remembering Ozzy brought food without me asking and silently asked me to eat.
We didn’t talk about the video anymore—one of the times I’m truly grateful he’s a man of few words—and I must’ve passed out while he played “K” by Cigarettes After Sex.
It felt normal and safe. It felt good just to be stared at by Ozzy and lie peacefully in silence without the loudness of the world.
However, what’s not so fucking normal is the rock-hard abs and the arm wrapped around my middle.
It’s not Levi.
The smell of motor oil and sandalwood doesn’t fill my nostrils, but I know Ozzy wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye to me.
Even though he’s not in the room with me right now.
Craning my head over my shoulder, I find the sleepy figure of Cairo Black shirtless behind me.
He doesn’t stir when I slowly fall to my spine to get a better look at him. Nor does he feel my gaze on him while I watch him sleep.
We haven’t talked about Torin and Emilio. I haven’t pushed Ozzy to hook up a meeting, because I figured Oz would tell him everything he needed to know.
I would only be repeating myself.
Plus, it saved me another conversation about Pretty Boy and having to think about him.
“Why are you staring at me like a freak?” Cairo grumbles, pulling me a bit closer to his warm body. “Go back to sleep, Little Terror.”
“Says the freak who crawled into my bed to begin with, Sinatra. Why are you here?”
“You summoned me.”
I hum the use of his words because it’s not like I have the complete capacity to do such a thing. “I’m sure you already know.” He bobs his head, eyes still closed. “And I wanted to give you a heads-up.”
“That’s the second time you’ve saved Torin.”
My nose wrinkles at his accusation—or truth as most people would probably call it. “I was doing my due diligence. Don’t read too much into it.”
“I’m reading into a lot of things.”
“That’s just looking for disappointment.”
“Maybe. But I’m reading that you’re still not done with him.”
I shove at his arm because he’s starting to irritate me now. “I can assure you, I am.”
“If you say so.”
“Where’s Ozzy?”
“I dunno. Go to sleep.”
I roll over to my side to get out of his hold, when his steely arm wraps around me again and yanks me right back to where I was.
This time, he props the side of his head with his palm and peels his dark brown eyes open to look down at me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To remove myself from this conversation.”
“We haven’t talked yet.”
“And we’re not going to. Not when you want to keep bringing up my non-existent relationship with your brother. We’re not together anymore. I don’t want to be with him anymore. Just because I didn’t open my big mouth about the ocean incident and was going to talk to you about Emilio’s genius plan doesn’t mean I want to go deeper than that.”
Cairo smirks, and fuck me and the entire world, he should do it less. “Okay.”
My brows clash. “Okay?”
“That’s what I said.”
I stare at him again, falling back into the silence of my bedroom and noticing the sounds of birds, it still might be early morning. Ellie and Mae must still be sleeping, which is fine by me because I don’t feel like making breakfast.
“Why are you here?” I whisper, eyeing his nose ring and the little scar on his left cheek. Anything to keep some of the anxiety that’s creeping into my veins at bay.
“Ozzy said you fainted. You’re not eating. You’re not you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” He says that next to my ear, sending my body into a detox of reality and not the blackness of sleep. “You’re not fine because I know what that looks like.” A few beats go by before he says, “It looks like me.”
My heart skips a bit at the sliver of vulnerability he just shared. With his brothers falling apart, his new role as the King of Wharf Bay, and the discovery of Reeve’s father, I can’t imagine how overwhelmed he might be.
“Ozzy has fully committed himself to you,” he mutters in my hair. “If you don’t know how invaluable that is, sweetheart, I can’t even put it into words. You’ve gained him for life, and he’ll do anything for you now.”
Somehow, I know that.
Not only with the limited number of words he’s spoken to me, but it’s his eyes. I wonder if mine look the same because something about Ozzy makes me fall in line with him.
“I don’t want him risking his life for stupid things,” I reply whole-heartedly. “What he did?—”
“Was for you. Did I like that he went solo? No. However, Oz works a bit better that way. And I trust him.”
“Do…you need anything with Reeve’s dad? How is he? Did you find him?”
“No.” The small amount of hope I had that Reeve was located drops into the black pit of my stomach. “But we’ll find him. Right now, Luther needs his son more than anything.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yeah. The doctors can’t even decide or fully diagnose what he has because every time he’s awake, he freaks out. He doesn’t remember me or Torin or even Oz. He thrashes around, terrified of everyone around him.” He sighs, defeat outlining his disappointment. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“Why not take him to a hospital?”
“I don’t want Elaine to know we took him yet. I don’t understand why she did this, but when Reeve finds out…”
He’s going to get worse.
“You’re doing the best you can.”
“It’s not enough,” he utters softly. “Everything…it’s just not enough.”
“You can’t fix everyone and everything, Cairo. You just can’t.”
“And what do you suggest I do?” he mutters, and I’m surprised he’s asking me, let alone, lying in my bed. “I want to fall asleep and never wake up because all of this is like being in a fucking nightmare. All this watching and planning has been for nothing. Everything we’ve wanted…we can’t put him in a ward. I don’t want Reeve to go through that.”
I notice he changed the subject to keep his feelings in check, but it still doesn’t mean I didn’t hear them. I know Cairo’s endgame is peace, but with all of us going through something, he’s the only person holding shit upright the best he can.
“We can figure something else out.”
“You said we.”
He finally opens his eyes. Dark muddy pools of brown that glimmer with the morning sun, and I never thought brown was a pretty color, but Cairo’s gaze is earthy and makes me feel grounded.
Clearing my throat, an uncomfortable lump forms there, and I feel as though it’s choking me out. “Cairo, you didn’t have to come here.”
“I wanted to. I wanted to see if you were okay.”
My teeth sink into my bottom lip to keep my breathing or a sob from giving my anxiety and grief away.
For the dismantled and ruined relationship Torin and I now have.
For Reeve and the way I threw him away like he meant nothing at all.
“I can’t do this,” I blurt out, balling my fingers into fists as tears burn in my eyes. “I can’t do any of this.”
“Do what?”
“I can’t sit on that seat.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I return my cheek to my pillow, wanting my bed to swallow me whole.
Cairo gently pulls at a few strands of hair, tucking them behind my ear when he says, “You can do anything. You took on Torin and me on that street. You’ve taken his bullshit and?—”
“ Stop mentioning him.”
“Why?” he says again. “Because it hurts?”
My jaw clenches, but I keep my words to myself. There’s no point in explaining a fucking thing when he’s seen it all explode into a million and one pieces. How I’ll never ever be able to trust him again for what he’s done to me. For taking my vulnerabilities and literally drowning me with them.
“Listen to me,” Cairo’s fingers splay over my stomach, sending a rippling feeling of uncertainty and security all wrapped together in a confusing bow, “I’m not going to watch you fall. Wallace wouldn’t either. If anyone could do this, it’s you.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You’re the missing piece, Astor. I need you.”
“Don’t.” I shake my head against my pillow. “Don’t rely on me.”
“I already do,” he admits. “You’ll become a queen. And I will protect you at all costs.”
“I just said not to rely on me.”
“It’s the term and responsibility, isn’t it? You already have enough. But you’re not going to do this alone. It’s only until Emilio and Ramsey are dealt with.”
I pop an eyebrow. “Oh, so now you’ve added Ramsey to the mix.”
Cairo narrows his gaze a bit. “You knew he was. You can’t just chop off an arm, you have to kill the whole thing.”
“You do it.”
“I plan on it.”
“And leave me out of it.”
He smiles at me, but it’s not some sweet lift of his lips that gives me any sort of comfort. “I knew you were a fuckin’ asshole, but not delusional.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
The fingers that were just resting on my gut fly up to my throat. Cairo’s classic move, I see.
“Tell me you’re not,” he challenges me, a bit of malice to his tone. “Why Matteo would allow his men to use you in front of him only proves he’s a fucking twat without a brain. You’ve seen the dark side of men. You’ve endured shit at a young age, and while you had a wannabe king at your side, Bay, I am one. I earned my seat against your ex and kept it. You’ve had a prince who turned his back on you, and that’s his cross to bear. But I want you… and you need someone to keep that attitude of yours in check while encouraging you to rise.” His thumb glides down the column of my throat. “I’m that fucking man.”
I don’t even know what to say to that. All his words sound like he’s had some epiphany to the madness that always seems to make up our premise.
I don’t think I’ve come to that just yet.
“I need to talk to Levi.”
“Bay, I need you to do something for me.”
“Save it.” I kick at my comforter and feel the mattress shift with Cairo’s weight. His grip on my neck getting firmer and silently telling meI’m not going anywhere. “I will kick you in the balls and scream if you don’t let me go.”
“And what do you think that’s going to do?” I send my elbow back, nailing Cairo just underneath his ribs, and he repositions me to my back, getting in my face with his next words. “Tell me, I’m curious.”
“It’ll get Ozzy in here.”
“Ozzy took a walk.”
“Get the fuck off me,” I leer, kicking at his legs. “You’re so confused and delusional that you don’t know if you’re coming or going.”
“I’m hoping I’m going to be coming here really soon.”
Geezus fucking Christ.
Cairo positions himself over me, wedging his body between my legs as my palms meet his shoulders and shove.
He goes nowhere, of course, and is embarrassingly quick to grab one wrist and hover it over my head and into the pillow.
“You’re gonna let me talk?” he solicits, not that it’d matter on my answer. He’s just made it for me.
“Absolutely fucking not,” I clip back. “Because you’re just like Matteo.”
Cairo makes it a mission to grab my other hand, joining it with the one over my head, and the man on top of me makes it no secret how much he’s enjoying this.
“I always pictured you fighting me,” he says, his tone low and guttural, as if he’s fucking pleased by the fact. “That I’d have to force my way in because you and I butt heads too much.”
He leans in, causing me to whip my head to the side to keep his lips away from me.
“Do you think I need to kiss you to get you coming all over my cock?” It’s the way he says it. Taunting, mocking, and it makes my pussy clench a bit. “You needn’t bother bringin’ up De Leon to ward me off, sweetheart. That’s only going to make me want to do it even more.”
If this motherfucker thinks he’s gonna fuck me once and be done, I’m gonna scream so loud that Levi is going to hear me from wherever he is.
“And then what?”
“You know the answer to that,” he mutters softly. “You know exactly how this shit goes. I’m gonna fuck Matteo De Leon out of your head, Little Terror.”
“Doubtful.”
The sudden fingers at the waistband of my shorts make me jolt as Cairo slowly draws them from between my ass and the mattress. He doesn’t even acknowledge what I’ve just said, which freaks me out a tad more when I don’t know what the cool and collected entity of Cairo Black is thinking.
“What would Vivian think?” I hedge, trying to make it so unattractive to keep toying with me that he just gets pissed off and leaves when the cotton material makes it to the middle of my thighs.
“Keep mentioning people I don’t like, Bay, and I’m gonna fuck you harder.”
I roll my eyes, can’t help it. I’ve heard the talk but haven’t seen shit to back it up.
“I think we should call her up and ask,” I continue. “She might not approve.”
Cairo’s index finger hooks around the edge of my panties, opening me up to him as he keeps his tight hold on me. “Go ahead and call.”
“I need the use of my hands first.”
“Then, I suggest you try harder to make it sound like you really don’t want me to fuck you,” he proposes like the dickhead he is. “You stopped fighting me.”
My nostrils flare, motivating me to bring my knees forward to wedge in between us, but that only gets Cairo to lean on them so his weight keeps them there. “You’re such a good girl,” he muses, running his knuckle up my wet center and to my aching clit. “So fucking predictable.”
I meet his dark brown eyes, and he must see it, because I thrust my head forward to catch his nose, but he jerks back just in time to see his fuckable face.
This man infuriates me like no other.
Almost more than Torin.
His hot and cold, along with the promises he gives… I don’t know if he’s coming or going.
And maybe it’s me just thinking way too hard and long about this.
I’ve developed feelings, and I’m afraid where those are going to take me. Like the ones I got hit with in regards to my emotions toward Ozzy and how strongly violent they are. So much so I was ready to rip Vivian’s throat out of her neck if I found her near him one more time.
It’s a problem.
Cairo is a fucking problem.
“You forget I’m a fighter, Little Terror,” Cairo muses, pressing a soft kiss to my temple. “And I’m not everyone else.”
No, he’s not.
Cairo is obnoxiously calm and collected, and I’m pure recklessness. I react off my temper and not the full picture.
He’s not okay.
I’m not okay.
Cairo came here tonight, crawled into my bed—still like a freak—all because I asked for him. He stopped whatever the hell he was doing to come to South Shore and to be here when I woke up.
“Are you done?” he asks me, and he’s lost the cocky attitude that only fuels my inner petty. “I’m not here for games. If you want me to let you go, I will. But I don’t want to.”
“Why?” I taunt just one last time. I need the color of this black-and-white scenario. Just one color to show me I should allow this Forsaken Boy in my room, in my bed, and not scream my lungs out. “Are you afraid that, when I have The Landings seat and after I’ve had Emilio and Ramsey taken out, I’ll have you assassinated next?”
“Yeah, sure, that’s it,” he replies with zero fear or concern. “However, how about we put less energy into that and you start listening?”
“That hasn’t worked out for anyone else.”
“And like I said, I’m not anyone else.” I feel the hard tip of his cock right at my entrance, and a mixture of lust and pride clogs up in my throat and ego. “Three seconds—that’s all you get.”
To deny him.
His velvety tip pushes forward a bit more, coaxing the word he’s looking for—a yes, a no, a let me think about it —but it doesn’t happen.
It doesn’t happen because, deep down, I don’t want him to stop. No matter how much my heart and head are currently battling it out with each other.
Adding Cairo into a deeper part of my life only spells out trouble, but I need him because he’s them.
Yet, I’ve been here before. I just murdered both connections with Reeve and Torin. I’m never going to get them back.
And adding on the man who’s on top of me sounds like a death sentence.
Another crack in my sanity.
“Time’s up, Little T.”
Then he thrusts inside me. Filling me in one swift and full motion, and seizing my next breath. It causes an inability to concentrate on anything else but the King of Wharf Bay and falling first in this war of butting heads.
“ Fuck ,” he leers, his fingers compressing more around my wrists that there are gonna be bruises there tomorrow. “This is what I was afraid of.”
“What?” I pant as he goes in again, but this time painfully slow. “That your dick was too small?”
Cairo releases my wrists, giving me some sort of relief, but he uses his palms to grind himself to the bed.
Then he gives me more.
Cairo leans in, chest pressed against mine, then suddenly halts the moment his dick is so embedded inside me I’m not sure he can go any farther. “How does that feel for small, baby? Nice and fucking deep that it looks like you’re having a hard time catching your breath.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re on top of me.”
He bites down on my bottom lip, drawing it down as he begins to rock into me again. “You and your fucking mouth, Little T. You’ve been needing someone to shut you the fuck up.”
“Torin used to with his big dick.”
Cairo slams unforgivingly into me, but he doesn’t comment on the fact. Nor does he mention another thing with both his hands propped on either side of my face as I try my damndest to not make a fucking peep. To not give him the satisfaction of how burly and God-blessingly amazing he feels.
His dick works just fine.
Each propulsion of his hips heightens my body. Rippling every nerve ending, and I can’t help but yield into it, arching my body for more.
It’s exactly what Cairo wanted—control.
His lips slam into mine, delving his tongue into my mouth and tasting me again for the first time in days.
I wasn’t lying when I said half the reason I couldn’t get a lung of air was his weight on top of me, but I wouldn’t dare have him move. Not when he’s warm and full, that long hair on top of his head hanging in front of his eyes as he fucks me like he can’t get enough. Like he can’t get far enough inside and create a mold only for him.
It’s fucking insane.
The King of Wharf Bay finally breaking down his walls and tossing away all his bullshit.
It’s a small victory for me.
One I’ll keep to myself for now because just watching him have his fill is enough for me. It’s far more than what I need to make the flick spark in my gut and spine.
Especially when Cairo won’t let up on my mouth. Fucking and tasting, reeling in my control like he was born to tame and rationalize it out.
The calm versus the rash.
Cairo is everything I’m not but everything I need. He won’t back down from a fight unless I go too far, and apparently to prove a point, he’ll fuck me into next week.
Who knew fighting with him could have its good parts?
He moves to my cheek, dragging hot kisses against my skin.
Everything about him makes me want to rebel, and that’s probably the fucked-up part because I know he’ll punish me just like this.
Because, deep down, a part of him cares.
“Your pulse is going a million miles an hour,” Cairo rumbles, sucking hard on the very spot he and I feel it. “Is that for me, Little Terror?”
“What do I get if it is?”
“You get to come.” I roll my eyes against the thrill tingling through my veins at each lunge of his cock invading between my legs. “Wanna test that theory?”
Normally, I’d call that bluff.
But in spite of the fact he feels way too good, I’m going to behave.
“No,” I reply like the so-called and temporary good girl I am. “You know it’s you.”
“Who’s cock is deep inside you?”
Like I need the reminder.
It’s not every day I’m mercilessly pounded into like an animal by Cairo Black. My pussy is going to blissfully ache like a bitch tomorrow.
“The King of Wharf Bay,” I reply, submerging my tone into a lust-filled octave of my own.
A groan hums against my lips, motivating him to bring his head back around and take my mouth again. What I thought was rough before was child’s play. What I believed was a sore cunt tomorrow is going to be me split in half because Cairo amps up his game and literally hammers into me so hard my whole body springs forward toward the wall.
Cairo’s palm falls oto one of my hips to keep me as close as possible, kneading it and causing me to cry out between his lips.
“You’re mine now,” he declares, as if to tell the both of us. “And anyone who fucks with you is dead.” Another lash of his tongue against mine, and I’m practically brain-dead when I hear him say, “Starting with De Leon.”
My eyes fly open, but Cairo is too deep into making out with me that his remain closed. I pull back a bit from his unyielding lips, barely making it out to only get out, “Wait?—”
“I will, and I can.” He chases my mouth, not allowing me any reprieve. His kisses are more demanding to drive in his point. Actions speaking louder than words could never say since we’ve been brought back into each other’s lives. “I hate that motherfucker.”
As much as it warms my little heart that he’d want to wipe away my problems, I think we need a game plan before popping off in other towns.
Right. Like Ozzy sorta did.
“Tell me you’re gonna let us do it. I want the message loud and fucking clear.”
“Since when did you become this insane?”
“As of two minutes ago, when I shoved my cock inside you and heard that pulse of yours.” His forehead presses into mine as he rolls his hips, hitting a new angle and causing my body to ardently tense from the sensation. “I knew you could listen. Almost tempted to think you’ve been wondering about this as long as me.”
“I’ll keep you grounded on your ego, Sinatra.”
Cairo’s palm slides underneath my right ass cheek and spreads it. “Just wait until I have to share you.”
That hand disappears before his thumb finds my clit, strumming away at it as he continues his unsynced thrusts into my body. I can’t find a rhythm, which sends my nerves and the tingling sensation in my gut all over the place.
In bed, Cairo is uncalculated and raw. He takes and demands everything from my body for his own pleasure. The only ounce of selfishness I’ve seen from him.
“You’re so close, aren’t you?” I don’t need to bob my head because it’s doing it already with each hard drive. “C’mon…show me why the boys are so addicted to you creaming all over their dicks.”
I’m right in the ballpark of breaking apart around him. The relentlessness of his fucking me. The way he lays claim to never permitting me to forget that he’s done this. A guarantee he’s going to be my biggest pain in the ass and one hell of an aftermath in between.
My orgasm is triggered when Cairo actually slows down a bit, making sure I feel every slide of him filling me while his tongue gently brushes against mine, calming something yet again as I crumple into an adrenaline-filled climax.
My mini screams covered by Cairo’s mouth send him over the edge, spilling himself all over my cunt, and the prick rubs it in with his thumb when he’s done.
Which earns him a punch to the shoulder.
“We got some shit to talk about, Little Terror.”
I groan at his sudden buzzkill and speediness of going back to business.
God, he’s such a fucking weirdo.
“Do we have to?” I ask, my voice sated, tired, and completely satisfied. “You’re not going to ask if it was good for me?”
“I know it was good for you. But it’s important.” I blow out a heavy exhale, which gets Cairo to roll next to me, finally giving up his weight and pulling me into his chest. “Little T…I think you’re pregnant.”