Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Lot
Leaning.
“Lot?” Stunned, he says my name like he’s waking from a dream. A towel’s knotted at his waist, broad chest and shoulders glistening with water droplets.
“Hey, stranger.” The sight of him striking me right in the heart. “Surprise.”
That’s all it takes. He exits the bathroom in two long strides, sweeping me into his arms and burying his face in my neck. We melt together. Time and distance, the stress of the day eclipsed by the intensity of our attraction and the depth of our love.
“You’re really here,” he murmurs.
“Of course.” I smooth a hand down his damp back. “You’re not doing this alone.”
He exhales, long and heavy, then sets me down, his expression still shook. “I was just going to call you. But this… this is better.”
“Gotta keep up with your grand gestures,” I say, brushing my fingers over the crease in his brow.
“After we spoke, Queenie and I caught the next flight. I didn’t know how the meeting would go, but I wanted to be with you no matter what.
We don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready.
I’m just here to hold you down. Love you.
Make you boxed mac and cheese, whatever you need. ”
“You’re everything I need.” He cages me against the bedroom wall, palms planted on either side of my head, his breath warm across my lips. The delicious scent of citrus soap clings to his skin. Familiar and devastating.
I cup his bearded jaw and bring his mouth to mine. We kiss soft and slow. Restrained. The contrast between the hard press of his body and tender coax of his lips sends desire thrumming through me in an endless rhythm.
My hands trail down the column of his throat, curling around his shoulders. His tongue dips into my mouth, his bare chest grazing my nipples through the thin cotton. His hips shift, notching his towel-covered erection between my thighs. A moan breaks free.
Dice lifts his head, eyes hot and tender, voice molten. “I want to love on you, baby. Get naked for me.”
I unfasten my pants and push them over my hips, kicking them aside. I stand before him in nothing but a black thong and cropped graphic tee—candy-red lips wrapped around a lollipop, cursive script beneath declaring: Talk Sweet, Bite Hard.
“Promise?” he asks, giving me his sexy-as-sin smirk.
I nip his lower lip just enough to sting. He licks the spot, his eyes flaring as I peel the shirt over my head, revealing a satin bra. One flick of the hook behind me and I shimmy out of it, spilling my heavy breasts into his hands.
“I’m truly a blessed man,” he says as his fingers map me with reverence. Tracing the roses inked on the swell of my breast, bending to suck the peaks of my nipples, one by one, as his hands drift over the soft rolls that cushion my ribs, and the shelf of my love handles.
“You’re stunning, Web.” His voice roughens, each word punctuated with a touch. “These hips are a throne. This belly, an altar. These thick thighs—Goddamn.” He grips them. “They’re an offering.”
“Dice.” My pussy clenches. “I need you.”
“You’ve got me, Web.” He drops to his knees and drags my thong down my legs. “So wet and pretty,” he groans as he spreads me open with my foot braced on his shoulder.
I strain toward him, toward the inevitable wreckage of his mouth. And he gives it to me. His worship is relentless. His tongue rims my opening, teasing, taunting, licking the wet proof of my desire, before spearing that masterful tongue inside. His strokes are unhurried, merciless.
My head thunks back against the wall, my core rippling.
His muffled moans send vibrations shooting through me.
The pad of his thumb rubs my clit in quick, gentle circles.
I surrender to that erotic sub-world where pleasure is slick and midnight dark.
I clutch his head, grinding into the bliss, cries wrenching from my throat as an orgasm bursts between my legs, sending my pussy into tight, hard spasms.
It shatters the last vestiges of his control. He’s on his feet before I can catch my breath, his mouth crushing mine, sharing my taste. He yanks his towel open, his cock springing free between us.
Our eyes lock, mine riveted to his masculine beauty and the fierce desire on his face. He smacks both hands on my ass, canting my hips where he wants them, and drives into me where we stand. I bite back a scream, pleasure colliding with pain in that perfect, brutal stretch.
I grip his ass too, urging him deeper, harder, feeling the flex of his muscles with every plunge that slams me into the wall.
“You’re mine,” I pant, nails clawing his skin.
“Hell yes,” he rasps, his teeth scraping my ear. “And you’re mine. Milking my cock like your pussy knows who the fuck it belongs to.”
“You—” My moan splinters into pieces.
“Say it,” he growls, one hand sliding up to cuff my throat in a gentle squeeze, making my pulse hammer. “Say who you’re giving yourself to. Say my name.”
“Dice,” I whimper. “It’s you, baby. Only you.”
His eyes seething with heat, he hooks his arms beneath my thighs and lifts my feet off the floor. His cock thrusting into me again, and again, angling each one to grind against my clit. “Mine to fuck,” he groans. “Mine to love.”
“Yes… fuck… yes,” I sob, opening my mouth over his, needing all of him inside me. His breath, his tongue, his voice, his body.
We rock together, our hips like pistons, his arms straining, my legs aching. The rhythm gets faster, the thrusts harder. The pressure builds, coiling tight… until it detonates. I scream as tremors rack my body in a series of rapid explosions, clamping all around him.
“That’s it, baby. Don’t let go. Hold me right there. Make me come.” He pounds into me three more times before roaring my name and spurting hotly inside me, his large frame shaking violently with the force of his release.
All fucked out, he pins me against the wall, his face in my neck, both of us damp with sweat and winded. I’m amazed he’s still standing, let alone has the strength to carry me to the bed.
We collapse on the covers, skin to skin, catching our breath.
His arm snug around my waist, our legs tangled.
Hands lazily soothing each other through the soft afterglow.
This kind of intimacy is still new for me, but I crave it now.
The quiet luxury of sharing a bed, of letting myself have both the closeness and the calm.
I fall asleep to the steady cadence of his heartbeat under my cheek.
When I wake, the blankets are pulled high around me and his gaze is waiting, open and unguarded. Touched by his vulnerability, I lift a hand from under the covers and slide it up to his jaw and trace his lips. “Sorry I knocked out on you.”
“I don’t mind.” He kisses my fingers. “I dozed off too. You wore me out.”
“Me? You did all the work.”
“The kind of work I love.” He grins.
But it fades a moment later when I ask, “Speaking of work, what time are you going to Docks?”
“Benny’s covering for me. I wasn’t in the mood to be there tonight.”
The reason hangs like a cloud between us. “Do you want to talk about it now?”
He nods, his gaze apologetic, fingers lacing through mine. “I wasn’t shutting you out earlier.”
“I know. Sometimes you just need to process first.”
“Yeah, I do.” His throat works on a swallow.
“It was a rough conversation. I thought he’d tell me he was unfit, something that would make sense for why he couldn’t be a father to me.
But it wasn’t that. He was never with Jasinder in any real way.
Just sex after meeting in a bar. She shook him down for money.
He paid even though he wasn’t sure I was his.
But when I was a year old, he knew. He knew he had a kid.
He knew Jasinder was a thief and a con. And still didn’t do shit.
He chose the life he wanted—his career, his plans—over me. ”
My chest hurts, the ache slicing down the middle.
“The worst part was he acted as if thirty-four years of nothing could vanish just because he told me the truth. He said he wanted me in his life. Both of his sons. Like some neat little family reunion.” His laugh is brittle.
“I couldn’t. So, I walked out. Gave him the same fucking nothing he gave me.
But afterward… I felt like shit. Like I let Damon down. ”
“You didn’t let anyone down.” I stare into the guilt and conflict etched on his face.
“He doesn’t get to dump his mess and expect you to just accept it.
You’re allowed to be mad. To grieve. To choose.
You don’t owe him forgiveness or a timeline.
This isn’t about him or Damon. This is about you. Whatever you decide. On your terms.”
“I just feel…”
“What, baby?” I stroke my thumb over his knuckles.
“Like I’ve got nothing left to give to the anger.
I’ve nursed it for years. Living in the shadow of a ghost without a name, without a face.
That became my story. A father who didn’t want me.
A mother who was a con. Blaming myself for both.
” He breathes out each word. “Jasinder’s been gone since I was sixteen.
She’s toxic, destructive. That door’s closed.
With Hayden… it’s different. I hate what he did.
The choice that he made. But he’s not the monster I built him up to be.
He’s ashamed. Remorseful. He wants to make up for it, even though he can’t.
I don’t know what I’m going to do about him moving forward.
But I do know this: I can’t let what he did keep defining me.
Not anymore. Maybe that’s enough for now. ”
Tears sting my eyes. “That’s more than enough, Dice. That’s everything.”
“So, you don’t think I’m broken?”
“No. I know exactly the man you are. Your parents failed you, but they didn’t break you.”
His eyes burn bright as he leans in and kisses me with his whole heart. “I didn’t know how much I needed you here,” he murmurs against my lips. “I couldn’t do this without you.”
“And you won’t have to.”
He tucks me in tighter, holding me close. Leaning.
And in this evolving version of us, I lean right back.