Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
brOOKS
My girl is dead on her feet.
She didn’t even hear me come through the front door, which I don’t like because she should always be aware of who comes and goes from this restaurant. However, given it was an eighteen-hour day for her, I’ll give her a pass.
She’s covering a tray of something with plastic and carries it to the big fridge in the back. When I walk around the corner to watch her, she’s leaning on the closed fridge, her eyes shut.
Christ, she’d fall asleep right there if I let her.
Actually, she might already be asleep.
“Let’s go home, baby.”
My voice is soft, so I don’t scare the shit out of her, and she opens her eyes and smiles over at me.
It looks like even that much movement is strenuous for her.
“Home sounds great.” She sighs and walks right into my arms, buries her face in my chest and leans into me. “It was such a good day.”
“I know I said it about a dozen times today, but I’m so proud of you, Wildfire. You were the talk of the town today.”
She doesn’t fight me when I lift her into my arms.
“It’s past midnight.” I kiss her forehead once, and it feels so good that I do it again. “Tell me that you got everything prepped so you don’t have to come in here in four hours.”
“I’ll come in at six and start baking,” she replies with a yawn. “You have to put me down so I can shut everything off and lock the door.”
I don’t like it, but I do as she says, and follow her around as she turns off lights, checks the stove and ovens, then tosses her apron in a hamper and grabs her handbag.
She checks the lock three times before she turns to climb into my truck.
Once I’ve pulled onto the road to head home, I take her hand. “Why do you always check the locks three times, Juliet?”
She squeezes my hand, and I hear her sigh next to me.
“Because Justin used to sneak into my room to fuck with me. He’d hide in there, and when I came in, he’d do the jump-scare thing.
Startle me. He loved to do that when I was in the shower, too, and one time I fell and hit my head.
Knocked me out. I woke up a few minutes later, still in the bottom of the running shower, and Justin was laughing his ass off in the kitchen. It’s a wonder I didn’t drown.”
My hand tightens on the wheel, and anger pulses through me.
Motherfucking asshole.
“It got to where I not only made sure that I locked the door, but I got to be a bit OCD about it, checking over and over again. Now it’s just a habit to check three times.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t the worst of it.
” She says it so casually, as if it’s so normal, it makes my teeth clench.
“Between the control he had on every dime I spent, basically isolating me from everyone, and well. It doesn’t matter now.
What an asshole. I’m glad I had them pull the plug, but I’ll deny it if you ever tell anyone I said that. ”
“I’d like to resurrect him and skin him alive.”
I feel her gaze on me as I pull into our driveway.
“And I don’t give a fuck who you tell that I said that. I’ll say it to anyone who asks. That motherfucker deserved far more pain than he got.”
Here in the dark quiet of my truck, Jules lifts my hand to her cheek and smiles softly.
“I’m so great now, Brooks. I’m not scared or sad.
I have an incredibly full life, with two houses that my insanely hot husband bought for me, a business that’s thriving, and friends and family who make me feel like they’ve been mine forever.
It doesn’t get any better than this. So we don’t need to be angry with him anymore. He’s gone, and he can’t hurt me.”
“You’re incredible, you know that? Come on, let’s get you into bed.”
“I need a shower,” she says as she opens her door.
“What are you doing?” I can hear the amusement in my voice when she frowns over at me. “You never open your own door, Wildfire. Not if I’m around.”
“Yeah, yeah, chivalry and all that.” She rolls her eyes, but I lift an eyebrow, and she lets out a chuckle. “Well, get a move on, husband, I’m tired.”
“You’re so going to pay for that,” I mutter as I get out and walk around to help her out of the truck.
Jules heads straight back to the bedroom, shedding out of her clothes on the way, leaving a trail behind her, which I happily collect and toss into the hamper when I get to the bedroom and see her gorgeous naked ass stride into the bathroom.
The shower comes on as I strip out of my own clothes. Although I’ve already had a shower, there’s no way in hell that I won’t go in there with her right now.
My girl is in there. Naked. Wet. Perfect.
I need to get my hands on her.
“Baby, I’m coming in there. I don’t want to startle you.”
I open the glass door and find her smiling at me.
“You don’t always have to—”
“Yeah, I do.” I grab the loofah out of her hands and take over, gently washing her perfect body. Her pink nipples pucker, and she bites that lip.
“I’m so exhausted, you would think that I wouldn’t even think about sex,” she says quietly, dragging her fingertip over the ridges of my stomach.
“But?”
“But here you are, so damn hot, with a dick that dreams are made of and—”
Not giving her the chance to say anything else, I drop the loofah and plant my hands on her thighs, lifting her. She wraps her legs around my waist as I push her up against the tile and kiss her sweet lips.
“You want my cock, Wildfire?” I growl against her lips and rub my hard dick through her wet slit, making her grin.
“Always.” She wiggles her hips. “I always want you. Even when I’m so tired, that I can’t keep my eyes open.”
“That’s my girl.” I grin against her lips and then push the crown inside her, and her pretty blue eyes widen. “Talk to me, baby.”
“It’s … fuck, it’s just so damn good.” She starts to close her eyes, but I slip a hand up and wrap it around her throat, not squeezing off her air, just holding her.
“Eyes always on me, Juliet.”
I slide in the rest of the way, my pubic bone grinding on her clit, making her squeeze me like a goddamn vise, and we both groan.
“You fill me up in every single way.”
Resting my forehead against hers, I start to move. Not fast and wild like we usually are, not hard enough to leave a bruise.
This is tender.
This is love.
“You’re so damn tight,” I breathe, and feel tingles run down my spine. “Baby, I need you to come for me.”
Her pussy flutters around my dick, and every muscle in her body tightens.
“That’s it. Fuck, you’re so gorgeous when you come. Whose pussy is this, Juliet?”
“Yours.”
“Say it again.”
“I’m yours, Brooks. Oh God!” She shatters in my arms, so perfectly that I’m helpless to do anything but follow her over, grinding into her until my cum is dripping out of her and down my legs.
It’s fucking amazing.
“Bed,” she murmurs, resting her head on my shoulder. “Must sleep.”
“Let me clean you up real quick, baby. Can you stand for me?”
“Maybe.”
I grin and gingerly lower her to her feet. She wobbles a bit, but she leans a hand on the tile, and I quickly wash us, then grab the spray handle down to rinse us.
Once we’re both dry, I carry my sweet wife to bed and tuck us in. She wraps herself around me, lays her head on my chest, and sighs.
“Thank you for the best day, Brooks.”
“You did all of the work. Besides, you deserve to be this happy every day, my love. Go to sleep.”
“I have to wake up by five.”
“I’ll wake you.”
“Why am I so nervous?” Jules asks a week later as we park in front of Chad Kincaid’s office in Silver Springs. “I mean, we’re just getting information. I’m not on trial for murder or anything.”
“It’s okay,” I reply and kiss the back of her hand. “Once we start getting answers, the nerves will fade. Let’s go see what the man has to say.”
She nods and waits for me to walk around and open her door. With our hands linked, we walk into the attorney’s office and are quickly escorted back to his private office.
“It’s nice to meet you in person.” Chad shakes Juliet’s hand first, and then my own. “Can I get you some coffee or anything at all to drink?”
“Whiskey might be good,” Jules mutters, but then shakes her head. “No, thank you.”
“Please, have a seat.” Chad gestures to the two brown leather chairs in front of his desk, and Jules and I each take one as he lowers himself into his desk chair. “Let me just summarize the situation, so I make sure that we’re all on the same page.”
Jules nods. “Yes, sounds good.”
“Your late husband, who passed almost three years ago, left his entire estate to you upon his death, except for a trust in the amount of two million dollars with a woman named”—he checks his notes—“Nadine Smith as the beneficiary. The trust lists you as the trustee, or the person appointed to oversee the funds for Nadine.”
“Yes.”
“Was Nadine a relative?” he asks.
“She was his mistress.”
Chad pauses. His eyes come up to meet mine and then go back to her. “Your late husband put a trust in motion that made you pay his mistress for as long as one of you is living?”
“Yes. Lovely, isn’t it?”
He glances at me. “And Brooks is your new husband.”
“Yes, he is. We just got married a couple of weeks ago.”
“I reached out to the attorney in Washington, and he didn’t reply. So I called his office, and the office no longer exists. I assume the practice went out of business, but he still has an email address.”
Jules frowns next to me. “It’s impossible that the practice is out of business. It was a generational practice. His grandfather opened it fifty years ago.”
“How do you know this?” Chad asks before I can.
“Because Daniel was Justin’s best friend. He handled all of Justin’s legal stuff.”
Chad frowns and rubs his hand over his chin, thinking as he stares over Juliet’s shoulder.
“I’ve requested the trust paperwork from the state,” he says. “That can take a few weeks, depending on how backed up they are. In the meantime, I’m going to also make a few calls and see what I can find out about this Daniel guy. Something isn’t right with this situation.”