Zoe and I watch Sam stare at a space a foot from her face.
Donna’s right.
While I only secretly dance by and for myself — or for Gage — my sister has a gift that should not only be exercised but shared. Restaurants are great money, shiftable hours, and you don’t watch the clock.
But…
But…
However…
Just like how Paige always says I need a job that plays to my strengths, Sammy needs one that plays to her gift.
Suddenly it dawns on me, and my heart races on the blurted, “Samantha, I have an idea.” Feeling jelly in the corner of my lip, I give it a quick wip.e “Why don’t you quit that restaurant, and I quit Om This, and together we start up a dance school for kids?”
Zoe gasps.
Sam stares at me. “Can we do that? Is that possible?”
Terrified she doesn’t like the idea, I hurriedly launch in, “I’ve been doing the books for Paige. I’m really good at it after all this time, and I was just thinking, what if I applied this business knowledge to running one of my own? I could be my own boss. But then I thought, what kind of business would I run? And nothing came. No answer. I’ve been sitting with this idea for a long time and then suddenly I saw it. You and me, little kids, dance, and nobody telling us what to do. It’s like going back in time only now we’re in charge!”
She startles people by screaming, “This is the best idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life!”
Zoe laughs, while hope makes me grin, “You really like it? You wouldn’t mind going into business with me?”
“Why would I mind?!”
Pretending it’s no big deal, I shrug, “You said I have big feelings…remember?”
“Caden said that.”
“Yes, and you said that I just don’t know where to put them sometimes. I know what you meant. The ups and downs I have are kind of extreme.”
She motions for us to follow her as she walks over to where the lady-whose-name-I-forget sells fried sweets and strong coffee. “I need a napkin.” Wiping cinnamon sugar off of her fingers, Samantha reassures me, “The second you said we could go into business together, all I thought was a big yes. A huge yes.”
Relieved, I grin, “It would be so fun. I know it’s a lot of work to start something from scratch, but they always say that if you love what you do, it’s not work!”
Zoe reminds me, “But you dropped out of dance,” with a confused tilt of her pretty head.
She’s right. I did, but, “I got out of dance because I didn’t see a career in it. And I didn’t like how competitive it was. Just like Sam.” I hurry to explain a little bit more blah-blah stuff, so I can get to the most important fact: “I love kids. It would be us running the show. Our show. Our studio. Oh my God, a studio, just like how Dad has his! We’re still going into music, just in a different way.”
Sammy laughs, warm brown eyes on fire with happiness, “And a different kind of studio.”
I remind her also that if Floaty-head can run her own flower biz, and be successful, then this will be a piece of cake for us.
Or a donut.
Fun and easy!
After all that hard work.
But fun hard work.
Because it’s ours.
Sammy’s phone rings and she digs it out, letting us know by her answered, “You’re a day early,” that it’s Logan.
They talk every Monday, no matter where he is in the world.
Zoe says to me, “This is excellent time to celebrate with a bear claw.”
“Oh hell yes.”
We walk over to join the chatty line for one we’ll share, our departure giving Sam and her male best friend — I’m her real best friend — a little space.
Who knows how long they’ll talk? Hours maybe. We could be driving home with her still laughing into that squeezed-tight phone, soaking in every detail of his amazing life.
While we’re out of earshot, I sigh to Zoe, “Logan.”
She glances over to Sam. “I miss him.”
“We all do. But not nearly as much as she does.”
“You think Sam knows, deep down?”
“Deep down knows?”
Zoe’s moss green eyes lock onto me, huge and guileless. “Yeah, deep down knows.”
Staring at my sweet, smart, and talented sister, I answer, “She hasn’t got a clue.”
We pay for the bear claw, tear it in half, shoving bites into our mouths as we return just in time to hear Sammy lying through her normally honest teeth, “Lexi’s crying over here, Logan. It’s Brad again. She’s really upset. I have to go. I really am happy for you. Of course I am. That’s so neat that you finally have a girlfriend.”
Zoe and I stop chewing.
Her fingers are shaking as she listens to his response, smile forced, “Talk soon,” and hangs up, staring off for a very, very, very long time.
We don’t move.
Sammy finally locks eyes with me. “When do we start this business?”
I want to make her own up to her true feelings, but my sister is reaching for a way out of pain, not one deeper into it. “No day better than yesterday.”
She mutters a distracted, “Good. Let’s do this,” and starts walking to the car like a zombie.
Zoe grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze, whispering, “Lexi!”
“She needs to ostrich this one. It’s too huge.”
We hurry after Sam, with me saying, as if everything is okay in the small, familiar world of Atlanta, “You know what helped give me the idea about running our own place, Sammy? Gage owns his shops, so I thought, if he can do it, I figure we can, too, right? And I helped Paige’s yoga studios get into the black with my advertising. I’ll apply what I know to our kids dance classes! We’ll have students in no time! And we can start with our cousins’s children, right?! Imagine Kayla learning from us how to dance!”
Sammy spins around, caught in that nebulous place between numb and weepy. “I think this is the best idea you ever had.”
I give her a huge hug, holding my sticky bear-claw away from her dress. “How much fun is this going to be?!”
Her numb arms wrap around me. “It’s exactly what I need, Lexi.”
Zoe runs up and hugs us, “I’m so happy for you guys,” and while it makes Sammy laugh, the sound rings out with that familiar relief I used to know all too well. Denial.
When it breaks there’s no telling what will happen.
Oh Sam. I’ll be there with you, no matter what.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
LEXI
Bonus Scene 2
I ’m awoken by Gage nuzzling my neck, lingering here before sensually kissing naked skin warmed by his blanket.
On a happy sigh I roll over, our limbs stretching, braiding. We lock hooded eyes, silently welcoming the other to a new day, bodies ready to mesh and mold since it’s Saturday.
Gage’s generous thickness presses against my inner thigh, the firm and silky tip brushing my pussy as he shifts his muscular body.
I just left a dream behind. It was about Grams and my Great-grandpa Jerald — a man I’ve heard so much about and who I always wished I’d had a chance to meet. They were smiling at Gage and I, over dinner. Not one of our family BBQ’s but in a restaurant for a special occasion, though it wasn’t clear which one. There was champagne and chocolate soufflé’s, too many for us to eat. So we gave them to the tables around us, walking around handing out dessert and celebratory bubbles for everyone to share.
I’ll tell him about it later.
Kinda busy right now.
Just hope I don’t forget…
Gage pins my hands above my head, our ribcages stretching. His left hand rubs slowly down my right side, goosebumps rising to beg his return. He groans as his cock’s tip peeks inside of me, and pulls back out. The tease.
Bare skin on skin, heat shared between us, lulls my pussy into a steady throb of anticipation. I know how good his cock feels, all mine.
It’s been o
ver a year since we said I love you for the first time, my longest relationship ever. My only one, in fact. So it still feels really new to me, being this loved.
Sometimes I doubt it will last. But I know that’s fear. And there’s no controlling anything but the present moment.
His crocodiles narrow as he rises on one knee, the other leg bent and spread like both of mine. Thick fingers slide to stroke my pussy, coax it to get ready for something much thicker. I don’t know that I’m biting my lip until his smile tugs in the now familiar way that tells me I’m doing it. A grin spreads on me but quickly vanishes as he dives in.
Throwing my head back, I moan his name, soaking in pleasure, filled by such a sexy beast of a man.
He pulls out.
“No, Gage, don’t tease me!”
“You love it, Cherry,” he rasps, watching me writhe, sparked in a new way, silky tip so very, very slippery from my arousal. It’s no longer a rough push and pull over my sensitive skin, but a glide that teases every bit of my throbbing pussy into need. “Tell me you love it.”
“No.”
“Say it.”
A slow grin tugs at my lips. “No.” He dives his cock inside, stretching me in the most delicious way, but pulls back out, making me push my wrists against his grip. “Come on! Don’t tease me!”
“You want me to fuck you?”
“Yes!!!”
“Then say it.”
“I just did.”
“Beg me.”
I start laughing, and he shuts me up with a kiss that sends shockwaves of pleasure throughout my body.
He rises up, and I demand, “Tell me why you taste minty!”
“Right before you woke up.”
“Not fair!”
“You’re fine. I just passed it on to you. Now beg me to fuck you.”
“No!”
He starts laughing, and shakes his head, “Okay,” letting me go, even rolling off of me.
“Hey!”
Stretching his naked body, Gage groans like it’s a new day, time to get up.
Not cool.
I reach for his cock and he swats my hand away. “I’m almost out of coffee. Should probably go to the store.”
“Gage!”
He starts to get up. I latch myself onto his broad back, but am wrestled off quicker than I can believe.
Frustrated, stubborn and unsatisfied, I stare as he walks to his closet. The threat of clothing forces out my whispered, “Please.”
Gage cups his ear, bedhead-hair pointing every which way. “What’s that?”
I roll my eyes. “Please.”
“Huh.”
“What, huh? Huh what???!”
He returns to the closet even though he’s rock hard. “Doesn’t sound convincing, Cherry.”
I fling myself onto the bed, grabbing the pillow and screaming into it. As I throw it, I see his smirk, and that body, and those crocodiles. There is no way I’m letting him go downstairs without feeling his length again!
On all fours I crawl to the end of the bed, ass like a cat’s, whispering a hesitant, “Please fuck me.”
He hikes an eyebrow, gaze raking over my form as he palms his thick cock. “What’d you say?”
Watching him stroke himself fires raises my volume and lowers my inhibition. “Please fuck me, Crocodiles.”
“What?”
“Please, please fuck me!”
With a primal groan he steps closer to my outstretched arm. I cover his hand with mine, bend to take his cock into my mouth, sucking the tip while we stroke him together. My hips sway, breasts, too, eyes shut until he tackles me.
Rough.
Hungry.
Primitive.
The pressure of his weight, his grip, his thighs, his cock, all of it softens me into submission while we fuck, flames licking my pussy, engorging my clit into an aching heartbeat.
Everything fades.
There is only this moment.
This man.
This love.
I feel him tense as he holds back, and I tell him, “Please cum, Gage! I will if you will. I’m on the edge. You’re so hard right now! So big!” Something every man wants to hear no matter his size.
He roars.
Lets go.
Gives in.
Crashes his lips into mine.
Moves his hips with skill that teases my orgasm out from hiding. Tiny bursts explode, giving way to thick spasms contracting around his length, pulses that compell him to thrust harder, deeper, growling in my ear the whole time. I claw into his wide back, my legs tense, clit pulsing, inner thighs soaked.
Gasping for air, we hold onto each other, a mass of satisfied flesh, his face buried under my earlobe. “Move in with me, Cherry.”
My eyes pop. “What?!”
“I want to wake up to you every day.”
He eases out of me, climbs out of bed, and guides me toward a shower.
As he turns on the faucet, hot water not yet here, I brush my teeth, mind racing. Samantha. Zoe. Ralphie May and Sally Ashes.
Through the foam I say aloud, “House Three.”
With running water as our soundtrack — both shower and sink — Gage comes up behind me, our eyes locking in the mirror’s reflection. “Think about it.”
Rinsing out my mouth, I bend and press my ass into his resting cock, “Okay,” and turn off the sink faucet, leaving only one source of natural music left.
He turns me around, crocodiles amused. “You’re here almost every night. And if you’re not, I’m over there. I’ve been waiting until Sam met someone to ask you.”
“Steve isn’t her someone.”
“He might be.”
I burrow into Gage’s naked chest. “He can’t be.”
“Don’t you like him?”
“Sure, he’s great. Super cute. Loves her. Good guy.”
“Yeah, I like him. We get along great. Good at darts.”
“You haven’t met Logan.”
Gage lightly chuckles, “You mean the guy with the girlfriend?”
I sigh, thinking about the move-in-with-me invite because it’s true, Sammy’s not there very much, and neither is Zoe.
He kisses my head, takes my hand, “We can wait,” and leads me to a shower like all of the others we share. In here together, we never rush. It’s an unspoken rule, so much so that when I’m in a hurry I don’t let him in. He picked up my cue and does the same, if he’s gotta rush off.
We don’t want it to stale, or for us to take for granted bathing together — its sexiness, its care, its bonding intimacy where nothing else matters but us. It gets so busy out in the world, so many distractions. I instinctively protected these moments to keep our connection strong and passionate, and he went along with me. If he hadn’t, I’d have told him why I like to shower alone when I’m pressed for time — explaining that I want to keep our showers sexy would have vanished any argument he may have had. Who doesn’t want a great sex life?
And this is exactly what I tell my mom over lunch the next day. Turns out, she agrees.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
GAGE
Bonus Scene 3
A s I approach the table where Lexi and her mother are having lunch, I overhear Sarah Cocker — a curly-haired redhead with a sharper tongue than her daughter’s — say at normal volume despite nearby tables able to overhear, “Keeping things hot in the bed department — or in your case, showers — is what has gotten your father and I through many hurdles. You’re on the right track. Keep it up. Gage! What’re you doing here?!” She sits straighter, “Jason?!”
Lexi’s, “Dad?” has the same confused shock, his appearance at the bistro on Peachtree even more surprising than mine.
Mr. Cocker greets his eldest daughter, “Hey beautiful,” kissing her forehead before turning to his wife, “Hello mouth.”
Sarah laughs, “Stop eavesdropping,” rising to greet him with a brief kiss and a bewildered stare.
The skin around Mr. Cocker’s ice-green eyes is cri
nkled more by time than amusement. “Eavesdropping? Stop talking about our sex lives loud enough where everyone can overhear you. You’re lucky my job is surrounded by bad reputations, so I don’t have to protect mine. And that you didn’t marry my brother.”
“There are many reasons I’m lucky I didn’t marry Justin, but maintaining the sanctity of his political stature isn’t one. What’re you doing here? Sit! Sit!” She motions to our waiter, circling her hand over the table. “Would you mind bringing two more set-ups for us when you come back? Thank you!”
Lexi is frowning through her grin, over a quinoa salad and glass of white wine, still seated. “Did you guys run into each other outside or something? And why are you here?”
Her mother repeats, “Sit, Jason, sit. Gage, sit!” gesturing to the two empty chairs, but not yet seated herself.
But he stands where he is, and rests his hand on her shoulder as I kneel in front of Lexi, presenting the black velvet box I’d been holding behind my back, heart racing with excitement as she covers her shocked mouth.
“Cherry, I want you and me to take one more risk. The biggest one. I know that a lot of people have a hard time believing love lasts, so why tie the knot, but I think we’ve got a foundation that will. And we’ll take it from there. Forever.” I open the box and show her a slender silver band, and on it, the perfect emerald that I knew would, when the light catches it as it’s doing now, exactly match her bright green eyes. “Marry me?”
Leaping off the chair, “Yes!” Lexi kisses me until I topple over, laughing as the restaurant goes up in applause.
Jason helps us up, and Sarah’s round cheeks are drenched.
Lexi hugs her mom, and over Lexi’s shoulder her mother locks eyes with me. “Thank you for letting us be a part of this!”
She runs into her dad’s arms next and he whispers in her hair something I strain to overhear, “I like the kid. He’s a good man and he gets you. That’s all a daddy can ask for his wild little girl.”
Hearing that is all a man who lost his father long before he got married, can ask for, too.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lexi Cocker (Cocker Brothers Book 25) Page 19