by MJ Fields
He squeezes me tight and sighs, “I ask myself that same question every day.”
Then he pinches me lightly, and I laugh.
“We still in love?” he asks.
“Gonna go with yes.”
“Thank God.”
“Can we eat now?” Nathaniel says, causing me to jump.
“Did you even shower?” Raff scratches the back of his neck.
“Yes, a quick one, and I’m starved.”
Sitting around the table with them, my family, I am so at peace. It’s quickly become my favorite part of the day.
“Can you pass the garlic bread?” Nathaniel brings the large glass of milk to his lips as I pull apart the loaf, handing him another buttery roll. “Sooooooo good,” he grumbles, putting down the glass and taking a giant bite.
I’m not a fancy chef, but I know the food I make tastes good. The boys inhale my spaghetti and creamy meat sauce, and not for the first time I’m relieved Raff plated my food before they started eating.
I’ve tried the “just make more” tactic, but regardless of how much I make, they finish it.
“This is my favorite dish.” Raff smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. He uses some crust from the bread to clean up the chunky sauce in his bowl.
“Oh,” Nathaniel chimes in. “For me, it’s between this, the sticky honey ribs, and the cheese lasagna.” He takes another big bite.
“Raff, do we have wine for tonight?” Over the last few weeks, we’ve been doing wine tasting every Monday and Friday. We use the excuse that it’s for the bar, but it’s become something fun between us, a date of sorts, without leaving our home.
“Yeah, I picked up something for us earlier.” He stands up, walks across the room, and opens the refrigerator, taking out a bottle before taking the opener from the drawer.
He grabs two wine glasses before heading back to the table and sitting down. “Whispering Angel.”
“Festive.”
“Troubled Turkey would be more holiday-appropriate.” Nathaniel laughs at his own joke.
“Good one.” I smile at him, and he gives me a high-five.
Raff opens the bottle expertly before pouring it for me. I take a sip and hum. “I think this is the best one yet. I bet our Thanksgiving guests will love it, too.”
He takes a sip. “I agree.” He looks down, his phone buzzing, and answers it. “Hello. Uh, huh? Sure.” He stands, putting his napkin on the table, annoyance evident as he stands. He gives me a quick kiss on top of the head. “I need to deal with this.”
“Of course.”
“Bet it’s Steakhouse on Main. That’s like his problem child.” Nate shakes his head.
“Always giving me trouble.” Raff squeezes his shoulder before walking out.
“No problem. I’ll, um, leave our wine glasses in the frig for when you get back?” My voice comes out more like a question than a comment.
He stops and looks back at me. “Sure.” Then he looks at Nate. “Be good, and don’t forget to finish your homework.”
“Got it, Dad.”
He grabs his coat, puts on his shoes by the door, and heads out, leaving Nathaniel and me alone for the first time in days.
“So, dessert?” I take another sip of wine and set it down. “Cookies?”
“Definitely.”
I put two on his plate and refill his glass of milk.
He takes a bite, and some chocolate smears on his cheek. “You look like her.”
“Look like who?” I stand up, head to the kitchen, wet a paper napkin in the sink, and then bring it back and hand it to him before pointing to the chocolate spot.
He wipes his cheek. “My mom. You’ve got the same hair color. I guess my dad has a type, huh?”
I laugh, knowing he means well. “Maybe he does. Your mom was really beautiful, so I will take it as a compliment. I knew her.”
“You did?” His eyes grow wide.
“Mm-hmm. I grew up in Holiday Springs, and so did she. She was a few years older than me, but I really looked up to her. Your aunt Faith, too.”
He scoots his chair in, trying to get closer to the table. But I can tell he wants to hear more about his mom. “Everyone who knew her looked up to her. She was really incredibly smart and received a scholarship to Oxford in England. It’s one of the best schools in the world, you know. Anyway, when she was in high school, everyone wanted to be her friend. She was not only gorgeous, but she was nice, too.”
“Did she also know you?”
“She did. Not well, but she would say hi to me when she came into the shop. I was an awkward kid, but I don’t think she was ever anything but perfect.”
“Does it bother you that the pictures are still up?” He doesn’t allow me to answer. “Dad and I are thinking about taking it—”
“Don’t you dare take them down. I won’t have it. She’s a big part of all of this, isn’t she?” I ask. He smiles and nods. It’s obvious that he’s happy I don’t think it’s weird. In fact, I think it makes this even more incredible.
“You know, I promised I wouldn’t say anything to your father about our super-secret pumpkin patch talk… but I didn’t promise him that I wouldn’t tell you that even before you and I had a similar discussion, he told me something you’d said that was similar but with not as much detail. So, if you discuss it again, please remind him without Hope, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“Okay.” He smiles.
“Actually, without Hope, you wouldn’t be here at all. She gave you life, and from what I understand, she taught your dad how to love. So, I’m going to insist she stay,” I reach over and touch him, “here in your heart and hanging above the mantel.”
“Maybe we could get a picture of us and put it up there, too.”
Keeping my excitement of such a thing happening at bay, I simply say, “Maybe.”
“Should we clean up?” Nate asks, killing the silence.
“Let’s,” I say as I stand.
Rule Number Twenty-Seven
Always support those you love
Raff
Sliding into bed, I exhale the bitterness I feel after taking that phone call that lasted two fucking hours.
“Everything okay?” Nikki yawns as I pull her back against my chest.
“Wasn’t a work call.”
She moves away from me and turns to her side, facing me.
“My brother, Arthur, is coming with my parents and—”
“Wait, you have a brother?”
“Not in many years, but apparently, my parents think it’s time we mend fences.”
She looks at me with deep concern in her eyes.
“Fuck, Nikki.” I roll to my back and scrub my hands over my face.
“Whatever it is, we can manage.”
“I’ve no concern with us. It’s him. And I don’t want him around my son. Hope’s son.”
She lifts her hand, letting her fingers drift across her lips. “You’re scaring me.”
“Money is everything to the lot of them, and Nathaniel is a Graham. Heir to a fortune that makes what I have look like pennies, your ex look like a fucking beggar, Beckett look like, well,” I pause, “terrible example.”
“You’ve raised an amazing son. He has your heart and Hope’s. That should convince you not to worry. It’s okay that your brother chose a different path.”
“My twin brother,” I pause and let that sink in and watch as she blinks rapidly, obviously caught off guard.
“Wow,” she exhales.
“Sorry, I know it’s a bit of a shock, but Arthur has no sense of duty or responsibility, let alone loyalty. He didn’t even have the common decency to come to my wife’s funeral. He was in Ibiza, partying on the yacht.”
She runs a hand through my hair, her nails scraping gently against my scalp. “We’ll kill him with kindness. That way, no bodies to bury. In fact,” she pushes me to my back so I’m lying on the bed, “I’ll make sure you’re so physically drained, you won’t even have the ener
gy to inflict bodily harm.” She climbs over me, curtains of silky auburn hair surrounding us.
My hands skate up her nightshirt and cup her perfectly round tits. “You bribing me with anything sexual is a horrible idea. You’ll be setting a precedent that will make me look for ways to misbehave. Before you know it, your body will be permanently embedded into this mattress.” I flip her to her back, and she squeals. “And eventually we’ll be homeless, or I’ll be in prison for all the laws you forced me to break simply by implying you’ll reward me for my less than honorable behavior with a taste or a touch of your delicious pussy.”
She gasps, “Mmmnnn…”
I lean down and take her hardened nipple between my teeth and suck harshly, her hips thrusting upward, colliding with my erection.
She rocks against me, needing the friction. “Raff,” she begs.
“The nectar of the gods is in order, my love.” I kiss down her body.
Once settled between her thighs, I lift her legs and place them over my shoulders, taking my time, placing kisses as soft as the petals on the flowers she put in a vase to display on the counter… our counter, against her thigh. She’s squirming beneath my lips, need building inside both of us, the kisses turn to sucking on her inner thigh. I watch in the light of the moon as she grips the gray flannel sheets in anticipation of the next place my lips will touch.
Her eyes open and find mine. “Raff, Raff, RAFF!” she pleads, saying my name over and over again.
Hooking my thumbs under the strings of her thong, I raise a brow in warning before snapping the strings holding the white scrap of lace that taunts me.
Tossing them aside, I tell her, “Panties are hereby banned from our bed.”
Before she can respond, my mouth covers her freshly waxed pussy.
She grips the headboard, hooks her ankles behind my back, and raises her hips. I grab her arse and hold her still as I flick my tongue across her clit over and over, watching her head fall back and release a near-silent cry.
She grinds against my face, wanting, needing, begging for me to give her more. I don’t. I want her to lose her fucking mind over me like I am for her.
She tightens her ankles and twists her body, my mouth forced to follow her pussy until I’m on my back, and she’s sitting on my face.
“Fuck, yes.” I grip her thighs and pull her body down on me. “Ride my face, Red.”
Her hands grip my thighs as she leans back and rubs her hot, wet pussy against my mouth.
“Oh, yes,” she whimpers, “yes, yes, yesssss.”
Her pussy tightens around my tongue, and I feel her slickness increase.
Panting, she turns, and I think she may lie down, rest, and recover, but she doesn’t. She straddles me facing the other way, arse close enough to bite, she grabs my cock and…
“Fuuuuuck,” I hiss as she takes me in her mouth until my cock hits her tonsils.
Freshly showered and thoroughly fucked, we lie in bed, facing each other, saying not a damn word.
“Love, you need to sleep. You have a meeting with Becks and Shep tomorrow.” I push her hair away from her face.
She yawns and nods.
“I know you don’t need me to tell you this, but you’ll be amazing. And I get that you love Shep.” I pause. “Like family. Not like—”
“I love you,” she interrupts.
I smile. “Love you, too, Red, but I was trying to open up a conversation about Shepard,” I admit.
She looks like she’s pondering a thought, definitely holding back something.
“Please tell me he wasn’t your first. I don’t want to hate him.”
She grins and shakes her head, turning to her side to face me. “No, but I do know there was only one girl he was remotely interested in. Took her to a dance in the ninth grade. Went all out, too, flowers, chocolates, a freaking limo. Hell, he even learned to slow dance.”
“And?” I ask, realizing I’m now fully vested in Shep’s ninth-grade love life, and yes, it’s disconcerting.
“She sat in the corner, reading a book the entire night.”
“What?” I laugh.
“Yep. She was three grades above him, a senior at seventeen. She’d tutored him in English class. He was almost failing. She’s actually the one who sort of figured out he had dyslexia.”
“No kidding?”
“Nope. He was all kinds of in love with her. When she came home during the summer from college, he would disappear, presumably to be with her. The cabin, I’m sure, was originally built for a place for them to sneak off to.”
“And what happened?”
“She broke his heart. He joined the military and obviously let everything on the property go to hell in the figurative handbasket.”
“Does this heartless harlot still reside in Holiday Springs?”
She laughs. “She sure does. She came back from college and never left. Actually, she owns a business here in town.” Something flashes in her eyes, getting me curious.
“I don’t enjoy town gossip one bit. However, I’m invested. Who is this tart?”
“I’d advise you to reserve judgment and stop the name-calling.”
“Never, in fact, I think we should go throw rotten tomatoes at her windows tomorrow night.”
“Well, that will be all you. I’m going to stay out of it.” She turns around and lifts a bottle of water from the side table, taking a deep sip.
“I see, well, give me the location at least.”
Turning back to me, she now looks like she may fall over in a fit of laughter. “You want the name of the store?”
“Yes, as a matter-of-fact, I would.”
“Okay, but don’t you dare drag me into this. And don’t you dare—”
“Your secrets are safe with me, but I’m going to insist on the location.”
She sighs and shakes her head. “Bookland Bookstore.”
“What?” I gasp, sitting up.
She nods, laughter dancing in her eyes.
“Our Faith is the heartless harlot, the older woman, the one who broke a young dyslexic man’s heart?!”
She nods again.
“Faith. Hope’s Faith. Nathaniel’s Faith. She was involved in a scandal?”
Finally, the laughter breaks out from her lips. “You know what they say, don’t you?”
“Apparently not.” I scratch my head in thought.
“Never judge a book by its cover.”
“He what?” Nikki pulls the mascara stick, er, wand, off her eyes.
“He wants me to come to the meeting.”
She shakes her head. “Why? I mean… what?”
“Nikki, I have no idea. I’m guessing it’s out of respect for you.”
She finishes doing whatever she does to her eyelashes before pacing back and forth. “Shep is my friend. This is my meeting, and he invites my freaking boyfriend?” She’s talking under her breath, but it’s directed at me.
“Red, I’m not sure how you’d like me to answer that. However, we’ll be late for your meeting if we don’t leave now. It’s snowing and—”
“It hasn’t snowed since the day we met,” she huffs, taking two white shirts that look exactly the same to my eyes and puts them up against her chest. Facing the mirror, she exhales.
I take a seat on the bed. “Then I take it as a sign this meeting is going to go exactly as it should.”
She turns her head to face me, her bottom lip popping out slightly before she holds up one of the two nearly identical shirts. “I’ll choose this one.” She slips off her soft black sleep shirt and puts on a lacey white bra before putting her arms into the blouse.
By the time we pick up our coffees from the Starbucks drive-thru, her anxiety has lessened.
And when Jenny called, halfway to the office building, telling her how badass she was, and even insisting I play “Eye Of The Tiger” on repeat, I realized how proud I am of Nikki.
She has the ability to push past her natural instinct to be soft, kind, and full of heart and
can turn into a badass who will make her mark in her professional life.
I park next to Shep’s blue Ford. “He’s early.”
“I suppose I should be happy he even showed up.” Then she mumbles, “Traitor.”
“Do you need one more listen to four minutes and four seconds of that incredible and uplifting song again?”
“Shush.” She laughs.
I turn to her. “I’m not Survivor, but unlike the band, I’m here for only you. Fuck Shep, fuck Beckett, and fuck whatever they decide. You’ve done the work, and if they don’t see your worth and the fact that you have literally spent the past month looking at every way in which this could work for your boss, who knows damn well you are probably the only human being on the planet to get Shepard Granger at the negotiation table, then he can eat shit. And if Shep doesn’t see that you’re not just doing a job, but looking out for his best interest as well, he can suck shit, too.”
She looks down. “I know he’s going to reject Beckett’s offer.”
“And that’s why you have a second offer prepared, eh?”
She looks back up at me, pleadingly. “But Beckett doesn’t like it.”
I shake my head. “If he didn’t see value in it, he’d have tossed it.”
With a deep inhale, she tells me, “Let’s go.”
Nikki and I get out of the vehicle as Shep steps out of his. He’s got a cap on his head backward. I know he’s not exactly conventional, but he could have at least cleaned up a bit. If not for the meeting, for Nikki.
“What’s up, Nikki?” He shuts his door and walks toward us.
She straightens her shirt. “Morning, Shep,” and walks toward the building.
He chuckles like he thinks she’s cute, and it pisses me right off.
As he steps forward, I put my arm out, blocking him from advancing. “A minute.”
He looks over at me, a smirk still in place. “Something on your mind?”
“Plenty of things, but could you start by telling me why it is you asked me to be here for the meeting? Nikki is downright offended.”