Chapter 31 Zuri
zuri
. . .
Tonight, I lathered on cocoa butter and tugged into fuzzy pajamas.
I glanced over my shoulder. Had to remember that, after four years with my baby roomie, Darius was asleep in the other guestroom. I’d slept so well last night—nice … warm … cozy.
Thankfully, Montana hadn’t come in before the move. That dang kid had us sleeping in a waterbed again. He must’ve peed every couple of seconds, because urine samples cooled within minutes, and I’d felt warm.
I placed the lotion next to my calendar of Fake Dating Doom. Wait? I didn’t mark today’s date.
I crossed out today’s date, February 6th , and then propped the calendar against the magenta woman.
Madison’s art. Though I tried not to, I turned to another page in the calendar and found the contract.
I’d tucked it inside the calendar days ago.
To preserve it? Maybe. As I picked up the half-torn paper, a knock at the window made me jump.
Rip.
Growling, I threw the pieces into my purse.
I sauntered to the window and shoved it open. “I haven’t even put on my fuzzy socks. My feet are cold, Montana. What do you want?”
“Damn, bébé, I just wanted a kiss goodnight.”
“The last time you kissed me good night …” I placed a hand on my hip, not even stepping back as he climbed into the window. “I rushed out of your house at the crack of dawn.”
“Who made you leave?” He lifted a brow.
“What are you doing?” I squeaked as he approached my purse. “Uh, no, you didn’t just dig in my purse. Just because you’ve given me money doesn’t mean you can go snooping around.”
He held up the contract. Well, some of it. “Why you got this in your purse, Zuri?” He started to ball it up, but I snatched it away, hyperventilating as I stared at it.
“Zuri?”
“The contract is valid until … the fifteenth.” Way to say you’ve never enjoyed V-Day, Zuri. But whatevs.
“Say, bébé.” His voice, a low rumble, drew my attention, and the world seemed to fade away. He removed the contract from my hand, and the anxious knot in my chest fled. “Take a walk with me?”
The words were an invitation.
“Nope. We can walk tomorrow. I need to …” Do what, Zuri? Super glue and duct tape wouldn’t revive what the contract meant.
“Don’t do me like that.” A slow, knowing smile tugged the corners of his mouth and vibrated through me, soft and teasing. “Which way you wanna go, chère, out the window or the front door?”
“Surprise me,” I retorted, annoyed by how real this should be. I shoved my bare feet into leather biker boots and laced them up. Sacrilegious. No socks.
Should’ve known Big Country. He walked us through the living room and grabbed the throw blanket from the couch and straight out the front door.
My heart fluttered with every step past the stables and over the lush grass.
Louisiana at night sounded melodic with the soft rush of the Bogue Falaya River.
We settled on a bench in a gazebo overlooking the water. My eyes wandered to the arched wood ceiling. “Didn’t know this existed. Peaceful.”
Montana leaned back, one arm draped over the bench, pulling me closer. “You don’t seem crazy about the outdoors.” His smooth NOLA drawl had a rhythm more soothing than music. “Darius and I got wild outdoor stories. We even got him a toy fishing boat.”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, muttering low. “I’ma have to get him a real boat. We start with something small. A johnboat. If he got patience? We might even do something more.”
Ugh. Rather not hear that. Him pretending to make … room for us. I addressed the most innocuous part of what he’d said. “I just see you guys feeding huge horses and … I can’t. I’m good with outdoors. Just not horses.”
He laughed.
“What?” I murmured.
“Why is that contract in your bag? Looks like it’s been through a blender. You think I’ll mess up, so you’re ready to hold it over my head. That ain’t gone happen.”
“No, I …” I burrowed deeper into the cable knit blanket, then forced the words out as evenly as I could.
“The contract is real to me, Montana. Foster agencies have this foster parent-child agreement. It includes a bunch of meaningless fluff that doesn’t resonate with loving parents, since they don’t need to sign a paper saying they won’t hurt their kids.
I will feed them. I will ensure they have doctor visits.
Dental visits.” Love. My knuckles ached as I clutched the blanket tighter, blocking him out.
Leaving him in the cold like he’d do me …
on February 15th. “That contract connected me to them. Made my fake family feel real … until they were done.” I stared at him, my facade emotionless.
Montana nodded slowly, then shrugged. “That paper? Ain’t real. Just paper. Hell, a mistake. The whole contract was a mistake.”
What?
“Gave me power over you, Zuri. I don’t want that. At the end of the day, I ain’t God. You’re supposed to be my equal. You got money and a car? Girl, what I gave you was nothing. I want you to be comfortable. Elevate you. Not have you running around.”
“Montana, do you think I want to run off?” Dang, that was a big issue. Not the issue at the moment, though.
“You don’t get this, Zuri?” He shook his head. “I’m saying screw the contract. We done breeched it already. No dips? Please. You real. You that one thing I want, chère.”
My heart ran in circles—Scooby and Shaggy fighting each other over the last sandwich. Was he really saying this right now? Night draped over the gazebo, but the air grew thick and hot. I stared at him, memorizing the strong planes of his face.
The deep set of those eyes and those thick lips pulled me. “Chère, I love you. Your hair that I can’t stop wrapping around my fists. Your toes. When have I not had those toes in my mouth?”
I giggled.
“When have I not tasted, loved, touched, cherished every inch of you? I value even that slight snaggletooth—”
“I don’t have—”
“The canine one. Turns a quarter centimeter. Listen, I wouldn’t have noticed. But Big Country saw it one day. Don’t worry, we both love it.”
“Montana, you’re crazy.” I shoved him away as he opened the blanket between kisses. I muttered, “I’m cold and snaggletoothed.”
“Mm-hmm, but I love your snaggletoothed behind, bébé.” He wrapped the blanket around us, nipping the pulse at my throat.
He snatched me onto his lap, hands pressing at my face. Hot. Callused. Rough and firm. “Chère.” His voice was hoarse. “I need you.”
The gazebo became our world. Night wrapped around us, a blanket pressing out everything but our intertwined bodies. His hand traced my hips, while mine slid over the strength of his brown skin.
As I straddled him, he leaned in, low and deliberate, his breath warm against my neck, teasing before claiming. “Zuri, I love and cherish all of you …” Every nip along my throat made me shiver and melt all at once.
“Love the way you …”
His affectionate words made me moan softly as they resonated within me, finding a home in the deepest parts of my heart.
“You protect yourself. Makes me want to protect you forever,” he murmured against my lips, voice rough and sexy.
“You l-love me?” I moaned, sliding my palms against him in shock.
“I love you, bébé.” He pulled me so close that oxygen didn’t exist between us. And then an unexpected fierceness with which he nipped my lip took me by surprise. Ouch.
“Chère, if you don’t say I love you too, I’ma …”
My chest heaving and falling against him, I quickly spoke the words. “I love you, Montana.”
The vow fell out like I’d tripped over every syllable. And for a second, I wasn’t sure my words even reached me. My heart thudded so loud it drowned everything else.
After a brief pause—when my own words seemed to jump-start my brain—I repeated my avowal, this time slower, steadier, less … awkward. “I love you so much. I never imagined I would love like this.”
The confession trembled between us, but his powerful arms held me steady. God, he’d become my anchor. His gaze softened, and the quiet fire in his dark eyes said he saw every scar, every jagged piece of me, and that he loved me. Montana Babineaux loved me.
I was in a daze, unable to fully process, but at least he heard me. Really heard me.
I swallowed, smiling through tears, while my thighs tightened around his waist, and I hoped this drove home how much I cared for this man. “I love you.”
His lips found mine again, soft and warm against the pain he’d caused. My body eased closer to his frame, rough, powerful, familiar in all the ways that made me feel safe.
My pulse fluttered as the warmth of his body seeped into mine and the blanket clung around me from behind. Every touch entwined with his declaration of forever. His hands traced the path of my spine. The quiet strength in his grip pulled me closer until I melted against him.
We moved in unison—slow, sure—wrapped in something that felt infinite. That would expand longer than every hour. I felt a thudding fear deep in my throat. Longer than forever. Our soft moans and whispered names mingled in the night air.
The river moved below, the stars sparkled above, but the way he made me feel? Loved, protected. Desired.
Eventually, we tangled beneath the blanket. Somewhere between breath and heartbeat, my legs, light as air, danced around his waist, each touch electric with pure exhilaration. I rested my head against his chest, counted his heartbeats.
“Since we out here being messy, nullifying contracts”—Montana’s baritone voice caught my attention as his fingers slid over my slick flesh—“I gotta tell you something, chère.”
“What?” I whispered against his powerful chest, my voice barely audible.
“I leave for Camelback Ranch on February 15th.” He cleared his throat. “Spring training.”
“What did you just say?”