by Lane Hart
“What do you want, Cooper?” I say with a heavy sigh. “I haven’t heard from you in a week, since you were released from jail.”
“I just wanted to say that I love you. And this annulment?” he picks up the papers and rips them in half and then in quarters. “I don’t want to end our marriage. I want you back.”
“That’s…Cooper, I don’t think I can do this with you again.”
“Do what? Live with me? Keep being my wife? Love me? What part can’t you do?”
“All of it! Jesus, Cooper, when I found out you got arrested…I think my heart stopped, and it stayed lodged in my throat until the second you walked out of the jail.”
“I’m sorry. I know it was stupid, looking back on it. After I got out, I finally went to the doctor about my…about my nightmares. They gave me some medicine, put me into therapy, all kinds of shit. The doc says it’s PTSD and what they call survivor’s guilt that’s been tearing me up. I haven’t told any of the guys about it, but I wanted you to know. Besides, with the club’s connections, and being able to show I’m getting treatment…shit, you already know. The thing with Kozlov, it was just chalked up as an inmate scuffle, and my charges have been dismissed.”
“That’s great news, all of it, but, Cooper…” I begin as I pull out a chair and sit down.
“Please, Liz, hear me out,” Cooper interrupts as he leans across the table and takes my hand. He flips it over, so that the wedding band I’m still wearing catches the light. He still has on his, as well. “You are far and away the best thing that has ever happened to me. Better than the club, better than the money, better than everything. I know I made a mess out of things, and I don’t want to just blame the explosion, but…”
“You were hurt so badly,” I whisper.
“I was,” he agrees. “And I lashed out at everything. My brothers to a degree, but especially you. I’ve apologized to Cedric for the worst of my tantrums, but he just shrugged it off and told me to save it for you. Liz, I’m begging you. The love I have for you means everything to me. If there is even a chance that you and I can put this behind us and build our lives together…well, I’d do anything to make it happen. Anything.”
“All right,” I whisper.
“I just want you to think about it…wait, what did you say?” Cooper stares at me slack-jawed. “You know I can still barely hear when you mumble!”
“I said all right,” I smile at him as I raise my voice. “I love you, Cooper Cummings. God, you can be infuriating, but what we have isn’t like anything I’ve ever known. I was so afraid that after Ruby, that just seeing me would always remind you of what could have been, and that you just wouldn’t be able to move past it. But if you’re serious…”
“I am,” he interrupts me as he stands up from the table still holding my hand. “Oh God, Liz, I’ve never been so serious about anything. I love you.”
“Then I think…” I smile as he comes around the table and helps me to my feet. “I think that it’s time for you to kiss your bride and finally take her home.”
Epilogue
Cooper
Six months later…
“Where are we going?” I ask Liz as she heads for the highway.
“It’s a surprise. Put on the blindfold,” she replies, holding out her black sleep mask to me.
“Okay, kinky,” I say with a grin as I slip the elastic over my head and cover my eyes.
“We’ll be there in about ten minutes and then you can take it off.”
“What’s with the secrecy?”
“I was afraid that if I told you where we’re going that you would refuse and blow me off.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Guess we’ll find out soon enough,” she replies.
A short time later, the car comes to a complete stop and Liz says, “All right. I’ll come around and help you out.”
I hear the passenger door open, and then she unclicks my seatbelt and pulls me gently by my arm, guiding me out. As soon as the car door shuts, she tells me, “Okay, take off the blindfold.”
I jerk the fabric up and find a group of kids running around a playground, chasing each other down the slides, pushing each other on the swings. It reminds me of Ruby and all the things we’ll miss out on with her. She wasn’t old enough to bring her to a park like this, but I can imagine how she would have cackled and enjoyed it and all of the things we never got to do with her.
“Sorry, Liz. I don’t know why you would bring me here, but it’s just too damn depressing,” I say when I start to turn and walk back to her car.
“Wait,” she says when she grabs the front of my cut to stop me. “Suck it up, buttercup, because however depressed you are is nothing compared to these kids. These…orphans.”
“Orphans?” I repeat. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Liz places her finger to my lips and whispers, “Small ears are around us. Watch your mouth.”
“So why are we here?”
“Because we have been approved for adoption for months, and all of these kids need a good home. I thought maybe we could play with them, talk to them, see if there’s one we can’t live without…”
“You’re serious? You want to just pick out a kid like we’re shopping for produce at the grocery store?”
“Yes. And, since these are all orphans, free and clear of parental rights, we could take a child home with us today.”
“I don’t know, Liz. I appreciate the thought, but Ruby’s not a toy you can just replace. She was special to me. To us. There’s not another one of her in the world. Besides, we’re just getting used to being together again –”
My protests are interrupted when a small, wobbly blonde girl comes running toward us saying, “Meow! Meow! I’m a kitty.”
“Ah, hi, kitty,” I reply.
“Meow?” she says again. “Kitties no talk. Kitties only meow!”
Looking at Liz, who is hiding her smile, I tell the girl, “I’m sorry. Meow, meow, meow.”
Her adorable face lights up at me before she starts running in a circle. “Kitty chases its tail, meooow, meoow!”
“Oh my gosh, she’s so freaking cute!” Liz whispers when she comes up beside me and takes my hand. “Does kitty have a name?” she asks.
The girl stops spinning and lurches hard to the right. I catch her just before she faceplants.
“Kitty’s name is Lily.”
“Well, hello, Lily. It’s nice to meet you,” Liz responds.
“Meow?” the girl asks with her hand cupping her ear.
“Sorry. Meow, meow, meow, Lily.”
Lily bursts into giggles, tickled that Liz played along with her before she runs back over to the group where two women are staring at us cautiously. The leather biker cut doesn’t exactly say warm, loving father. But looks can be deceiving.
“All right. Where do we sign?” I ask Liz.
“You don’t want to meet any of the other kids?” she asks, gesturing to the playground.
“No. Do you?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she answers with a bark of laughter. “Is it crazy that I can already see her riding a Power Wheels motorcycle around our front yard?”
“They really have those?” I ask, pulling out my phone to search for it on Amazon and one-clicking. “It’ll be here tomorrow,” I tell Liz with a grin when I put my phone away and take her hand.
“Then what are we waiting for?” she asks. “Let’s give Lily, the kitty, a home.”
The End
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue were created from the authors’ imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual people or events is coincidental.
The authors acknowledge the copyrighted and trademarked status of various products within this work of fiction.
© 2019 Editor's Choice Publishing
All Rights Reserved.
Only Amazon has permission from the publisher to sell and distribute th
is title.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editor’s Choice Publishing
P.O. Box 10024
Greensboro, NC 27404
Edited by Angela Snyder
Photo by Paul Henry Serres
Models Nick & Leonardo Bayne
Cover by Marianne Nowicki of www.PremadeEbookCoverShop.com
WARNING: THIS BOOK IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ANYONE UNDER 18. IT CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND GRAPHIC SEX SCENES, INCLUDING A FEW SCENES THAT ARE MM, MFM, AND MMF.
Synopsis
Gabriel Cross has spent his entire life keeping a secret from his older brother. The tattoo artist all but inked the two words on his flesh, and yet Abe still hasn’t figured it out. Terrified of losing the only family he has left, Gabriel keeps his mouth shut, even though he hates himself for being a coward.
Ian Long loves women. After being locked up for five miserable years, he can’t wait to make up for lost time, all while trying to forget about a certain someone who took care of his needs during weekly visitations. He’s convinced himself that being with Gabriel was a matter of convenience and nothing more.
Gabriel foolishly assumed that his secret affair with Ian would continue once he became a free man. However, Ian doesn’t waste any time hooking up with the first woman he sees at his homecoming party, even doing so right in front of Gabe’s face to prove just how little he meant to him.
Jealous and hurt, Gabe knows it’s time for him to move on. He has to quit waiting for the impossible to happen with Ian and find someone who will give him the unconditional love he craves without having to hide who he is anymore.
But what neither Gabe nor Ian realize is that the woman who comes between them may turn out to be the one who finally brings them together.
Prologue
Ian
A year ago…
“Thanks for finally seeing me,” Gabriel says to me after I’m led into the visitation room by one of the prison guards. It took forever for me to get down here from my cell thanks to the shackles on my ankles requiring tiny steps.
“What do you want, boy scout?” I ask, cutting to the chase as I take a seat on the metal bench across from him. Instead of looking directly at his face, I simply stare at the badass black and white dragon tat wrapped around his right arm. For months, Gabe’s been sending me letters and shit, telling me how the guys are doing, asking how I am, and begging me to add him to my visitor list because he needs to talk to me in person.
“I just, I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about everything that happened the night you got arrested,” Gabriel says. When I finally lift my eyes to his face, it’s just in time to see him swallowing hard enough to make his Adam’s apple bob. So great, I walked my ass all the way down here to listen to him repeat the same bullshit he puts down in his many, many letters, none of which I’ve responded to. I wanted to fucking forget everything about him, but he isn’t making it easy.
“Shut the hell up,” I growl at him before he can say anything else that one of the guards could overhear and use against me. Now that I’ve had to see the reminder of his too pretty to be masculine baby face and soulful, dark chocolate eyes right in front of me, it’ll be even more difficult to pretend like Gabriel Cross doesn’t exist.
Sometimes I really regret asking Torin to let me be his fucking sponsor. If I hadn’t felt responsible for Gabe, I never would’ve stopped by his tattoo shop to check on him before heading out of town. And then maybe I wouldn’t be spending five fucking years locked up.
“Don’t ever mention that shit again,” I warn him. “Don’t talk about it to me. Don’t write about it. Don’t even fucking think about it. Do you hear me, boy scout? It’s done and over.”
“I’m going to make it up to you,” he says with a clenched jaw, basically ignoring every word I just said to him like a stubborn child.
“Oh yeah?” I huff out a laugh. “How do you plan to do that? You gonna break me out of here? You and what army? You want to try and switch places with me? I doubt even Houdini could abracadabra these cuffs from me to you,” I say when I hold up my handcuffed wrists and make the metal jingle.
“Maybe…maybe I can’t do any of that, but there must be something I can do to make things easier while you’re stuck in here,” Gabriel says. He looks stubbornly determined, like the naïve boy he still is, even though now he can at least legally drink unlike before I got arrested. “Do you need any commissary money or phone time added to your account? I could bring you a book to read or some Easy Rider magazines. Name it and I’ll do it for you. Just think about it…”
“Oh, I know,” I tell him sarcastically with a snap of my fingers. “How about you sneak one of the club sluts in here for me to fuck before I rub my dick so raw it falls off?”
As soon as his dark eyes widen, I know I shouldn’t have said that, but I’ve never had a filter on my mouth and I’m so fucking horny I can’t see straight after four years of only having my dry hand to keep me company. At first, I tried taking care of business in the shower, lathering up with soap. But I got sick and tired of all the creepy peeping Toms watching me. So the only other option is to wait until late at night when my bunkmate goes to sleep. It’s pathetic and unfulfilling, to say the least.
“Hold on,” Gabe says when he pulls out his wallet from his back pocket and takes out all the cash he has inside. Then, he gets to his feet. “Let me see what I can do.”
“What? Where are you going?” I ask. When he walks up to one of the guards, I know I’m probably going to regret opening my fucking mouth.
Gabriel Cross
“Exit’s that way, buddy,” the big, bald guard points with his thick, meaty finger toward the opposite wall.
“I know,” I reply with a wince before I do something so stupid it could very well land me right in here with Ian. Actually, that’s even more reason why I don’t back down. If I can help him, then I’ll gladly take that chance. I deserve to be locked up, not him.
Palming the hundred and sixty bucks, I offer the guard a handshake. “I’m Gabriel Cross, and I plan to start visiting Ian Long on a regular basis,” I tell him, slipping him the cash when I pull away.
“Okay,” he says with a single arched eyebrow, which I take as a good sign that he’s not going to report me for bribery.
“How much ‘visitation’ time in that bathroom will a hundred and sixty get my friend?” I ask with a nod of my head to the restroom door.
He eyes the door, then slips the cash down into his uniform pants pocket, thumbing through it to count as it disappears. “Ten minutes. Make it count.”
“Oh, no,” I say when he misunderstands my intentions. “I meant next week when I visit and bring Ian’s…girlfriend with me.”
“I may not be working then, so you and your boy can take it or leave it today, twink,” he says with a wink that implies he knows my type. I’ll occasionally pitch with other guys but prefer to catch.
“Ah, okay, thanks,” I say in defeat before I go back to the table to break the bad news to Ian.
“Are you trying to get me killed?” he whispers in a hiss when I retake my seat, his dark blue eyes seething at me.
“No. I was just trying to get you laid,” I tell him.
“Oh,” he says, sitting up straighter in surprise and then licking his lips. “Any luck with that?”
“I asked the guard for some time next week so you could add one of the club girls to your visitation list, but, ah, it’s a no go,” I explain. “He said he would give you ten minutes in the bathroom, but that it-it expires today.”
“Today?” Ian repeats as his shoulders slump. “Fuck.” He scrubs both of his cuffed hands over his face and through his short, dirty blond hair before he shoots up to his feet. “Fuck it. Let’s go.”
“Ah, what?” I ask.
“Clock’s ticking, right?” he
says. “Didn’t you say you wanted to make it up to me? You can start by getting on your knees.”
“Hold on. Are you sure?” I say quietly to him. I know how fucked up things got the last time I got on my knees for him.
“Yes or no, Gabriel?” Ian asks with his scruffy, golden jaw ticking.
Do I want to get my mouth on his dick?
Hell yes.
Ian doesn’t look at the guard as he walks over and yanks open the bathroom door, shuffling his feet inside with me right behind him. As soon as the door shuts, Ian spins around; and then his hand is pressing on my shoulder, pushing me down to my knees.
“Think you can make me nut down your throat twice in ten minutes?”
“God, yes,” I agree as I tug his orange cloth pants down. He’s already getting hard, so his cock bounces up and slaps against his stomach. Wrapping my fist around the base of his girth, I slip the head of his dick past my lips and soak it with my wet tongue.
“Oh fuck,” Ian hisses as his entire body shivers. When I look up, his jaw is tight, blue eyes are closed, and his head is thrown back in ecstasy. He’s so fucking gorgeous it hurts. “You can’t… tell anyone,” he says. “I just…I need this today. That’s it. Never…never again.”
Grabbing either side of my head, he holds me in place and begins pumping his hips, shoving himself deeper and deeper into my mouth ruthlessly like it was made for the sole purpose of giving him pleasure. While he’s good and distracted, I slip my hand up his shirt to caress his warm, sculpted stomach. It’s smooth with a thin trail of light hair leading down to his cock. Fuck, he’s hot enough to make me come in my pants just from being able to touch him. Ian isn’t the only one who is horny. I haven’t been with anyone else either these last four years, not since the night he was arrested.