He gently wiped the tears. “I know. I know. You’ve still gotta lot of shit to work out with that clown-ass nigga you divorced yesterday. But from here on out, you’re retired. If somebody or some situation wants to get at you, they gotta see me. I lace up. I climb in the ring. I’m the brawler. From here on out, you’re soft. You’re marshmallows. You’re cotton balls. You’re baby blankets.”
Bright was cracking jokes, but I felt the seriousness and the sincerity behind his words. I kissed his lips and followed that up with a real kiss. Our tongues glided against each other, mingling easily. He rolled me onto my back and nestled comfortably between my legs.
“Thank—” I didn’t get the phrase out before he slid inside of me. It had been months since Xander touched me in an intimate way. The stretching to accommodate Bright’s large size was immediate. My intake of breath was sharp and sudden.
“Don’t tense up. Breathe. You can handle me. It’s just been a minute.” He pressed my legs further apart, helping me acclimate to his size.
His movements started slowly, allowing my body to receive the command to acquiesce to his invasion.
“You feel so fucking good, Bae.”
He felt good too. I just couldn’t form the words to tell him, because I was too far in my own head. Too deep into the warmth of his presence, the gentleness of his spirit, and the pleasure of his strokes. My hands went to his back, holding him to me. I sank willingly into the intimacy of the missionary position he had me in. The cracks of my heart seemed to mend as he immersed himself in me over and over again.
I lifted my hips, meeting the crash of his pelvis with crashes of my own. When he bit down on my shoulder, my body went into sensation overload. Physically I rocked with tremors while explosions of colors went off behind my eyelids.
Bright’s sex hit me differently than any other man’s ever had in the past. In the past, sex had been frenzied, hurried, and purely for physical release. This was different. Passionate. Purposeful and even thoughtful. He was giving himself to me in the form of long strokes—putting himself in my hands and asking me to trust him. To rock with him. To give him a chance. I could sense it, but I could also feel it.
He stroked me deeply, his hands moving through my hair and over my face as he lowered his mouth to mine. There were so many sensations. Almost too many sensations. Pinpricks of bliss began to overtake every nerve ending in my body. My moans became more ragged. More incoherent. The aching need in my lower region was palpable and so messily entangled with pleasure that I couldn’t distinguish the two. My eyes rolled back in my head as pleasure won the battle of sensations and sent me happily over the edge with a shriek of pure delight.
Bright supported himself on his palms, looking down at me from a push-up position as I lay under him.
“Oh my goodness.” I grinned up at him even though I was still working to catch my breath.
He grinned back at me silently. Finally, after a few beats, he spoke. “You’re pretty as hell, Bailey. And I’m about to do everything I can to make you mine.”
Chapter
Fourteen
Bailey
I reluctantly pulledmyself from the cozy comfort of Bright’s embrace while he was still snoring into his pillow. I shot a quick text letting him know that I was going to my mom’s to shower and change. I planned to reconnect with him later for lunch. I knew he would probably be disappointed that I dipped out on him, but I needed a little bit of time to myself to process all of the thoughts and emotions swirling inside of me.
My mom, Bayliss, Perkins, and Church were already at my mom’s kitchen island as she made breakfast when I walked into the house. “Good morning,” I said to all of them collectively.
“Good morning? With you still looking like last night?” Perkins gestured toward my wrinkled outfit.
I ignored her as I dashed up the stairs to both brush my teeth and shower.
When I reappeared in the kitchen, my mom gave me a knowing smirk. “You hungry?”
Bayliss laughed aloud at that comment.
I slid onto an empty stool. “I am.” I took in the array of food choices she had arranged on the island, grabbed a plate, and began to fill it with food.
We all must’ve been pretty hungry because for the first few moments, there was no sound except our forks hitting the plates. Finally, I took a gulp of orange juice and spoke. “Yesterday I took Bright sightseeing. We went downtown. We saw the fountain, the Bean, Grant park, and the museum campus. We had lunch and dinner down there. I even took him on a boat tour, and we watched the fireworks at Navy Pier.”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” Alisha glanced at Bayliss. “I need to show you Chicago like that.”
Bayliss nodded.
“What I realized,” I continued, “is that I really love Chicago. There’s so much beauty here and so much to see and do. But at the end of the day, there is absolutely nothing keeping me tied to this city.”
My mother’s face broke into a huge grin. “Don’t get my blood pressure up, Bailey. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I turned my letter of resignation in to HR yesterday.”
Perkins whooped loudly. “Praise the Lord! Because I really didn’t like the idea of leaving you here all by yourself.”
