Chapter 13 Jericho
JERICHO
ONE YEAR LATER
Ilie on my back, panting and trying to catch my breath with a two hundred pound man laying on top of me and greedily stealing all of my oxygen.
“Get off, Li. I’m dying here.”
He groans, but does as I so impolitely asked. My dick slides out of his hole, cum-covered and over sensitive. We’re making a mess on my bed sheets, and I make a mental note to throw them in the wash.
Liam lays on his side, with his head tucked into the crook of my armpit, his breath tickling me with every exhale.
He absently rubs my leg, massaging the scarred tissue as his breathing starts to even out.
His eyes start to flutter close, shutting away the dark irises that I’ve grown accustomed to, and he presses a kiss to my upper bicep, right over the newest addition of ink I have there.
“Don’t forget our dinner plans tomorrow,” he murmurs. I kiss the crown of his head, soaking in the fresh smell of lavender from his leave-in conditioner.
“I won’t, I promise.” His heart rate evens out, and I watch him sleep. Taking in all of his features and staring at them in awe. He’s beautiful, and I feel grateful everyday that he gave me a chance, knowing how fucked I am.
When I’m confident he won’t wake up whenever I move, I maneuver myself out from under him and make my way to the kitchen where I left my phone on the charger when he came in.
Liam thinks I work too much, and I probably do, but I can’t help it. It's the one thing that gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. It’s not always the greatest job, and sometimes I’m stuck with asshole clients, but I love getting to work with my friends.
I have an unopened message waiting for me from Hollis.
Hollis: New case, come in first thing in the morn?
I roll the idea over in my head. New case means new clients and new clients means more money for me.
I’ve created quite the nest egg for myself since Hollis opened his private security firm and called me.
He didn’t give me the option of saying no, instead he called me and told me to get my ass up and be at his office in thirty minutes.
Along with Hollis, Connor and Ace work with me as well.
There were a few new guys I didn’t know who Hollis had recruited.
We all get along well, but I have a different bond with the three guys.
Me: only for breakfast
The typing bubbles pop up immediately, even at the late hour.
Hollis: Buy breakfast yourself I’m not buying you shit
Hollis: Burritos?
Me: and green salsa i dont like the red
Me: send me over the details now and ill review it
Hollis: Can’t sleep?
Me: no im obviously sleeping just fine
Hollis: Fuck you, Coco.
He still does as I ask, the notification popping up from my email.
The subject line says Private- For Coco’s Eyes Only.
Hollis is so dramatic. I have never shared the personal details of a case and I never will.
Ultimately, this is a job. No matter what high profile client we’re providing security for or what event we’re behind the scenes at, as soon as I clock out for the day, it’s purged from my mind.
I skim the proposal. It’s a one time job for a client who is touring to promote their new movie. They’ll be in town from tomorrow night to Thursday morning, needing our services around the clock from the minute they step off the tarmac until the moment their plane departs. Easy.
Me: put connor on tomorrow night and ill swap out with him got plans with liam
Hollis: You’re awfully demanding for someone who isn’t my boss. You didn’t even say please. :(
I roll my eyes at his theatrics, knowing that he’s going to do what I asked anyway. I text back offering up the only thing of value to him.
Me: ill be on your team for flag next weekend
Hollis: A man after my heart, better tell Liam to watch out or I’m going to steal you from him.
Hollis: And learn how to fucking text, Coco. I get tired of decoding your messages all the time.
I exit out of our text exchange, chuckling to myself.
Hollis has threatened to take me from Liam and Liam from me.
The first time I introduced them, I thought Hollis was going to mount my boyfriend right there in front of everyone and their brunch spread.
It was a good thing though. Liam has become a part of our group.
The guys like him, and the healthy snacks he makes them.
If only they actually knew what he was crafting together in the kitchen.
I’m sitting in front of the TV, watching an episode of 48 Hours when I hear footsteps pad out of my bedroom.
Liam enters the living room, sleep rumpled with a sheet mark cutting across his face.
He looks at the TV and looks back at me, before coming over to me and sitting in my lap.
Our fronts are pressed together, and he tucks his head into my neck.
I trace my fingers up and down the ridges of his spine, feeling each vertebrae poking out of his skin and creating a path for me to follow.
He shivers, digging his nose further into the column of my skin.
It’s not sexual, it’s intimate in the way we’re pressed together.
Two people trying to be as close as they can to one another.
The need to hold him tight to me so he can never leave me, never abandon me.
“Come back to bed,” he whispers against my ear, his hot breath tickling the cartilage.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” I hush his protests by kissing him on the lips gently, feeling his soft lips against mine and savoring the connection. I lift him off me, and situate the pajama bottoms he must have put on before coming to find me. The cute print with dogs dressed in halloween costumes.
“Don’t make me wait too long,” he says, but still finds his way back to my room in the darkness of the apartment, the only light being offered is the one from the TV still playing in the background.
I make my way to bed after shutting the tv off, letting the familiar path to my room lead me through the black space.
I lay in bed beside Liam, and he turns over and searches me out, tucking himself into the side of my body and nuzzling his face against the light dusting of hair on my chest before he dozes back off.
The next morning I wake up to Liam baking in my kitchen, the sweet smell of vanilla and coffee warming my senses.
He’s standing in the kitchen, pajama bottoms falling off his toned hips and one of my old shirts stretched tight across his back.
I creep up to him silently, watching as he measures out flour into a mixing bowl on the island counter.
I grab him around the waist, yanking him back from his baking.
He squeals loudly, the sharp sound ringing with happiness.
“You asshole!” He says, batting at my arms when I finally put him down.
I don’t acknowledge the insult, content to just place kisses against the base of his neck, free from his hair since he has it pulled up high, keeping it away from the mess.
He turns around and swipes a smear of the batter he’s mixing across my face.
“Oh, it’s so on.” I grab him around his waist, hefting him up and turning around. His legs tighten around my waist and I sit him on the nearest counter, pushing his things to the side so I don’t fuck up his baking.
I rub my face against his, making a mess of the batter against his face until we’re both laughing as he tries to push me off him. He gives one good shove, and my weight shifts to my prosthetic and I stumble, momentarily losing balance and reaching out to grab onto him to steady myself.
He immediately stops playing around, and instead reverts into caretaker mode. Jumping off the counter and coming to grab my upper arms tightly in his palms.
“You okay? I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t think–” he worries his bottom lip between his teeth and the guilt lining his face makes my stomach drop.
Even after the time we’ve spent together, he still deals with my having a prosthetic.
It’s just an extension of me, the same way anything else would be.
But if I even move wrong, he puts on the kid gloves to fix me.
I don’t want to be fixed, I’m fine as I am. I just wish he could see that.
I grab his face in my palms, squishing his cheeks together and pressing a kiss to his pursed lips.
“I’m fine, baby. Stop worrying.” I paste a fake smile on my face and tug his hair down from its ponytail, raking my fingers through it and massaging his scalp.
“Get ready, I made some plans for us before we go to dinner with my parents.” His smile is back and he kisses me hard on the mouth before going to his overnight bag to grab his clothes.
“Wait! The–”
“I’ll take care of it,” I tell him, knowing it will take him longer to get ready than it will take me.
While he gets dressed, I finish up what he was doing. Gently whisking the ingredients like he taught me. When I place the concoction into the baking pan and place it in the oven, I set the timer. He can adjust it when he comes back in here.
I quickly wash the dishes and place them on the drain board, taking the time to clean off the counter and return everything to its rightful place.
I’m just finishing up putting the milk back in the door of the fridge when Liam appears, freshly showered and clothed.
He looks good, his white shirt tucked neatly into a black pair of jeans, showing off his muscles beneath the tight material.
He’s in the process of throwing on his brown leather jacket when he catches me ogling at him.
Liam smirks, the tilt of his lips lethal.
He prowls towards me and pushes me back against the fridge, my back gently hitting it and the cool stainless steel is a shock against my skin.
“Didn’t get enough of me last night?” He whispers against my lips, and flashes from last night cross my mind.
Liam on top of me, riding my dick hard and his miles of dark skin looking godlike in the fading sunlight.
The tight vice his ass made around my cock was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
His dick is hard against mine, the layers of our pants the only thing from keeping us from rutting against each other.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” I answer honestly, biting his lower lip between my teeth and tugging on the sensitive skin. He groans, deep and loud, and my dick responds.
My phone ringing cuts us off before we can go any further, and Liam takes a step back from me, putting space in between us so I can grab it.
“It’s my mom,” I tell him, walking towards my bedroom, “I put the pans in the oven, if you need to adjust the timing, you can do it while I finish getting ready. We won’t leave until it’s done.” He flashes me a thumbs up and turns his back to check on it.
“Hey mom,” I answer, shutting the door behind me and thumbing through my closet to look for something to wear.
“Hey, sweetheart. Have you two left yet?” I pull a maroon shirt off the hanger and toss it on the bed, continuing my perusal for a pair of pants.
“Not yet, are you meeting us there?” The surprise before our dinner plans is a farmer’s market that my parents found yesterday while they were on their way to date night.
Liam loves farmer’s markets and has been complaining that there’s not a good one around here.
I hope he’ll be excited. It might be cheesy but I just keep thinking about seeing the excitement on his face as we walk from stall to stall looking for things for him to experiment with.
“No we’re not, we’ll meet you at The Lotus.
Dad wants to go to the mall first to look for halloween decorations for the house.
” Halloween is in two weeks, and last year Liam had us dress up to hand out candy at his house.
He always goes all out for decorations and splurges on the expensive candy.
The chuckles of kids as they saw Jojo dressed up as an Octopus were worth the hassle of dressing her up.
“We’ve gotta stop by Liam’s to get Jojo. I thought she would enjoy the farmer’s market.” And Jojo will enjoy it, she’s ten pounds of straight fluff and people love to fawn over her, and she loves the attention. The pomeranian mix has been the light of my life since Liam started bringing her around.
“Oh my gosh! She will, you’ll have to get her the homemade dog treats that I sent you a picture of yesterday. We got her some, but I don’t think she’ll have too many.”
“I’ll make sure we get her some mom.”
She carries on the conversation as she tells me her and dad’s plans for decorating the yard for Halloween, and I offer to help set up all of the wooden yard ornaments they have.
The timer for the oven dings, so I say goodbye to my mom with one last confirmation that we will see her and dad for dinner.
In the kitchen, Liam is using the oven mitts he brought over to take the pans out of the oven. The tops of them are golden brown and the faint smell of cocoa and bananas fill the space now that the baked goods are done.
Liams presents them to me, smiling widely and exclaims, “Banana nut bread, sans nuts and in its place is cocoa powder and chocolate chips. And this one is regular banana bread, but I used the fancy vanilla your mom gave me for christmas.”
“They both look delicious, baby. You did amazing.”
He puts them on the cooling rack and comes over to wrap his arms around my shoulders, pulling me down to give me a loud kiss on the mouth. “You and your sweet talk.”
I flush bright red, but I smile through the embarrassment. I’ll never get over hearing his flirty tone.
“Ready?” I ask, grabbing his arms from around me and pressing a kiss to both of his knuckles. He covers the bread with a lid and nods, looking at me expectantly.
“Ready.”