I propped one hand next to his head, using the other to stroke his cheek. “You’re so sweet for me.”
“I can be not sweet,” he offered.
“Do you want to find out what happens when you do that?”
Jack’s lips hooked upward on one side. “Fuck yeah.”
He sat up a little, reaching for my bra clasp, and once freed, practically ripped my bra from my body. I covered my breasts with my forearms. “I didn’t tell you you could do that.”
“I don’t fucking care,” he taunted me.
“Aww.” I slid my fingers along his scalp, then tightened them at the back of his head to his hiss. My other hand tweaked his nipple. “You might start to care.”
“Fucking Christ, Mara,” he moaned. “Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.”
“Aw, it sounds like you want to come. Is that right, Jack?”
“Yes, please.” A hand cupped my breast with the other gripping my hip. “Ma’am, please, I was so good.”
“Oh, is that right? I forgot because you misbehaved just now.”
Jack shook his head with his mouth hanging open, panting. “Mar, I can’t?—”
“Make me come and you can come with me,” I said.
“Fuck,” Jack whimpered, sending a frantic hand to my clit. “Like this?”
I slowed my strokes on top of him, riding him like the bull he was, and together, we rutted our way to release.
“That’s it, Jack. Let go with me.”
The guttural noise that came out of that man as his cock pulsed inside me was earthshaking.
“I . . . thought I was going to get sick for a minute,” he said. “Mara. What the fuck.”
I dipped to kiss him. “You were perfect. So fucking good, Jack.” I wiggled his collar. “And this looks good on you.”
He preened under my praise, and he gripped me with such sweet desperation as we came down. I didn’t even get up to clean us up for a few minutes, just lying on top of him, still joined, still sweaty, enjoying the thunder of his heart and the pressure of his kisses on the top of my head.
He may not have been ready to love me, but he said, “Don’t ever make me live without you.”
THIRTY-NINE
JACK
DECEMBER
“Let Mama go next!”
Our first Christmas as Leroy, party of six, was going great. We successfully got a family picture for the Christmas card, hard launching our new family. We had fun making chocolate chip cookies into shapes for Santa on Christmas Eve, reading Christmas books together, and taking the kids to some event where they had fake snow in L.A.
The kids had opened most of their presents and were having a blast playing with their new toys. I crawled under the tree and pulled out a small box reserved for Mara. “Here you go, sweetheart.”
Mara leaned to give me a kiss from where she sat on the ottoman. “Thank you.” Her eyes were warm. “What do you think, Hazel? Can you help me open it?”
Hazel sat on Mara’s lap while she tore at a corner of the paper. I had the box engraved with a note.
I’m always just a call away
