Chapter 26
26
My hands were practically shaking as I opened the door to Marlowe’s house.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“No. Not really. How’s your head?”
“My head’s fine.” She walked over to where my backpack was lying on her dining room table, then looked over her shoulder at me. “So, you’re moved in?”
“My duffel is in your bedroom, so yeah. I’m moved in.”
She slowly grinned. “Does this mean we’re officially shacked up?”
I winced. “I’m not sure I like that term. It’s what Bernie said, too.”
Marlowe smiled wider. “It’s true.”
“Let’s get something straight. I’m taking over the rent.”
She laughed out loud. “Do you have a job?”
“Not at the moment. But I have my pension and a nest egg.”
“Why don’t you let me continue to pay for things as is, until you get a job?”
“Uh-uh. Not going to happen, otherwise my shit’s going back to the Pines.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “It’s fifty-fifty, straight down the line. Except when you ask to take me out someplace, then you can pay.”
“Deal. For the moment. We can renegotiate after I get a job.”
“Little Grandma said they were hiring.”
I sauntered over to my woman and grabbed her around the waist. “Thanks for always thinking about me,” I whispered in her ear.
“That’s how the game is played. I worry about you, you worry about me. We’re a team.” She looked up into my eyes, questioning. “Right?”
“That’s absolutely right. We’re a team. I told you last night where I stand. What about you? Are you all in?”
She wrapped her arms around my waist. “Damn right I am. I love you.”
I let out a deep breath.
“What? You knew that already, didn’t you?”
“You hadn’t said the words,” I whispered.
She pulled back so she had a better look at me. “Sure, I did, last night, when we were on the couch. I told you how I felt.”
I chuckled. “Honey, you were out of your head with a headache and the after effects of chloroform. Trust me, I would have remembered if you’d said you’d loved me.”
She pulled me in tighter. Chest to breast, then leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed the underside of my chin. “I love you so much, Kai. I don’t know how I existed in this world without you. You make the sun shine brighter. I feel safe with you.”
I snorted. “Yeah sure. You almost die on Amber Road, then you’re almost kidnapped.”
She put her fingers to my lips. “Do you know what I was thinking when that scum had me in his van?
I shook my head.
“I didn’t think it. I knew it. Deep down, I knew that you were going to save me. I knew it to my bones. You’re my hero.”
Something clicked in me. It was like all the broken parts of me somehow pieced themselves back together with a resounding snap. She’d put me back together with her words. I felt like me again. A whole man.
I bent down and brushed my lips against hers. I needed to kiss this woman who had come to mean the world to me. This woman who could weave magic with her words.
Marlowe didn’t hesitate. She moved, and her hands were caressing my cheeks as she opened her mouth to invite me in. Soon I was tasting the flavor of Marlowe, the heady essence that could send me to the moon and back. This time when I couldn’t carry her to the bedroom, I didn’t even flinch. It didn’t bother me in the slightest. This was my new normal, and it didn’t make me less than.
I put my arm around her shoulders, and she put her arm around my waist.
“You don’t make your bed,” I teased.
“Why would I do that? I’m just going to get back into it later that night. Seems like a waste of effort to me. Do you make your bed?”
“Every morning.”
“Freak.” She giggled.
I pushed her down onto the unmade bed and she continued to giggle. I started taking off my clothes and she knelt up on the bed, taking off her clothes too. Apparently, it became a race. I hoped she’d win. That would mean I had the most Marlowe naked time.
“You’re sure the headache is gone?” I asked as I went to my duffel to grab condoms.
“If I still had it, this would be the perfect remedy.”
I turned and squinted at her.
“Stop it. The headache is gone. I promise you. Want sex. Now. Remember?”
I hesitated.
“Look, ta-tas.” She lifted up her full, firm breasts.
“I’m looking.” I dumped the strip of condoms on her nightstand and tugged her down so that we were both lying next to one another. Her beautiful brown eyes were dancing with mirth.
“What are you looking at?”
“You. Just you.” I went in for another kiss. Soon I was lost. Just being connected to her in a kiss had me forgetting that we were naked in a bed. But when Marlowe grabbed my ass, I remembered the plot. I broke away from her mouth and started to string biting kisses downward.
“Oh goodness. You’re good at this.”
“No, Sweetheart. We’re good at this. Trust me, this is a we thing.” Her eyes fluttered shut as I licked at the pulse point on her neck. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Soon I was confronted with her beautiful breasts. Ta-tas. What a silly word for something so miraculous. As I licked all around the tip of her nipple, I reveled in her whimpers of pleasure. Then I took her pointed nub into my mouth and she let out a loud sigh.
“Yes. Just like that.”
I continued my ministrations. I used my right hand to tease her other breast.
“Yes. So perfect.”
That was my line. She was so perfect.
I trailed my left hand down. Past her bellybutton, until I got to the good stuff. I found her soaked.
Marlowe spread her legs, eager for my touch. Yet another thing that made me feel ten-feet-tall. I speared two fingers into her hot, tight channel and she bucked upwards, her soft body hitting my hard, aching cock. Game over .
I removed my fingers and licked them. She was watching every move I made, and me licking her essence off my fingers turned her on. I grabbed for a condom off the nightstand, tore it open and rolled it on as fast as I could.
“I wanted to do that,” she pouted.
“Maybe next year, when I have more control around your naked body,” I promised.
Her sultry grin did nothing to help my self-control.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Weren’t you the one testing the waters?”
I barked out a laugh. “I guess I was. Yep, you’re ready.”
Marlowe’s bruises were now green and yellow, so I rested most of my body weight onto my one forearm, as I guided my penis to her delicate entrance. Just like the times before, she reared upwards, taking more of me than I was ready to give.
My woman was greedy.
My woman was perfect.
I thrust the rest of the way inside of her body, and my groan of pleasure mirrored her moan. I stayed there. Not moving. Basking in the way we fit together. Marlowe opened her eyes and looked at me from beneath her lashes. Then the minx squeezed me. I groaned again.
“You’re not going to go easy on me, are you?”
“What’s the fun in that?” she purred.
She had a point.
I pulled out the tiniest bit and thrust back in. I did it two more times in quick succession.
“Now who’s not going easy?” She gasped.
“All’s fair.”
She clamped down on me again, and my grin matched hers. Just like that, I was riding the best ride in the amusement park.
Our bodies were soon slick with desire as we fought to bring each other to the brink. Back and forth we played with one another. She tried to push me over onto my back. I made her work for it before I acquiesced. Her smile of triumph was a thing of beauty.
“I’ve gotcha now,” she crowed.
“Yeah, but what are you going to do with me?” I smirked.
“This.” She rose up, then slammed down on my cock, then she bit my chest.
God, this woman was made for me.
I rolled her back over and nuzzled her neck as I thrust in and out, I could tell I was hitting that magical spot inside of her, because her moans were getting serious.
“Kai. Do something,” she begged.
“I thought I was,” I teased.
“More. Make it more. Kai. Do more.”
I loved the way she wasn’t making sense. Hell, I was about close to gibberish, that’s the reason I wasn’t talking. I pressed in deeper, making sure to twist my hips. Each time I did, Marlowe would gasp, or moan, or cry out. Each sound she made would push me closer to the edge.
“I’m close. So close,” she whispered.
Thank God.
I thrust deep.
“Yes! God yes.”
Her channel gripped me like a vice, and I went over the same hill of the rollercoaster.
“Fuck, yeah.”
We were both reading on the sofa when my phone played Lynard Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” Marlowe looked up at me, a question in her gaze.
“That’s Beau,” I answered her unasked question.
“Say hi for me.”
I nodded. Then went to the dining room table and picked up my phone. It was still a shock to see a variation of my face staring back at me.
“Bernie said there’s a problem. What is it?”
“I’m good, brother, thanks for asking. How are you?”
“Fuck that, Brady. Tell me what’s going on.”
“The name is Kai.”
Beau sighed. I watched as he squeezed the bridge of his nose. Weird. Apparently some things were just genetics.
“Okay, Kai. How are you? What’s the weather like?” Beau paused. “Do you feel all warm and snuggly now? Can you tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Marlowe was served papers. It was an Unconditional Quit Notice. Basically it means?—”
“I know what it means. It’s bullshit. I didn’t file it, and I’m the owner. Ignore it.”
“Not quite that easy. The person who filed it, did it with the county clerk’s office. They must have shown up with the deed to the house.”
“That’s impossible.”
I could see Beau getting red in the face. Time to cut to the chase.
“It was filed on behalf of Arthur Beaumont,” I told him.
Beau stared at me for almost thirty seconds. “You’re not kidding me, are you?” he whispered.
“No. I’m not.”
“Your father?—”
“Our father,” I interrupted him.
“Okay, our father. That fucking bastard has the nerve to come to Tennessee after twenty years with some bogus piece of paper and pretend like he owns a house that my mom?—”
“Our mom,” I interrupted again.
“Okay, our mom had to scrimp and work her fingers to the bone to afford? Not bloody likely. I have the title to that house. His deed doesn’t mean jackshit.”
“It meant something to the county clerk,” I said.
“Fuck that noise.”
“If you have the title, e-mail it to me, and I’ll get it to the county clerk and explain things.”
“Again. Fuck that noise. I’m here at Camp Pendleton. I’ll be there tomorrow.”
“You will?”
I was surprised.
“Goddamned right I will. I’ll see you tomorrow, baby brother.”
“What are you talking about? We’re twins.”
“Well I was born first. You’re number two. So suck on that for a while, why don’t you.”
In an instant, I was looking at a dark screen.
Well, that went well.