It is a book. Not just any book. It’s the book, the one that completes my collection of Grandfather’s books. The missing book. The book that was written just for me and destroyed in the fire.
“How?” I say as I gasp at the beautiful illustration on the cover, my fingers caressing the embossed letters of the title.
A Little Merry Tale and a Little Angel, Named Nora.
I’ve wanted to hold this book since I was a child with a passion truer than any I have ever felt. The undying desire to hold it kept me company through every unpleasant and every joyful moment of my life.
I lift my gaze to Lukas. He’s watching me with loving eyes, encouraging me to relish the moment.
“Do you two want to be alone?” he jokes with a toothy grin.
“Lukas,” I say. “My god, Lukas. You are amazing.”
As I leaf through the pages, my heart soars higher than ever. Grandfather wasn’t the best artist in the world but his little illustrations used a wonderful contrast of light and shade, always walking the fine line between a story meant for children and a general metaphor for life. I realize now I took my love of art from him. That if it wasn’t for him, I’d never be in this office with Lukas. This moment will live forever in my heart, this moment that connects me to all the light of the whole wide universe.
Lukas knows what I’m about to ask before I form the question.
“I started doing research right after you told me about your lost book. I asked some friends to help. Professional investigators. One of them got lucky.”
I wish I didn’t have to ask the next question but I need to get it out of the way. “Did you start the research to use it against me somehow?”
He chuckles. “I guess I deserve that, but honestly? I don’t know. It was a challenge, I guess. There were times I thought I’d like to give it to you to win your trust, but most of the time I just wanted you to have it.”
“And now?”
“Now I want to give you everything.”
He lowers his head and I want to cry. Every last cell of resistance within me melts away. “Lukas,” I whisper. “If we’re ever going to have a chance, we have to be perfectly honest with each other.”
“I’m on board with that,” he says. “I will tell you everything you want to know. No matter how dark. I’ll be an open book for you, regardless of whether you want to give me a chance or not.”
“It’s not about you,” I say, avoiding his eyes. “It’s about me. I’m the one who needs to come clean, but not here. Let’s go outside.”
I take him out onto a terrace with plastic tables and chairs and big red umbrellas to protect us from the sun. There’s no one here but us. We sit at the table closest to the white railing.
“Nora,” Lukas says, taking my hand. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to say.”
I nod but I want to tell him. I need to know once and for all what’s in his heart, what’s his true motivation. I need to know how sincere he is about wanting to leave the past behind.
“You were right,” I say, trying to stay calm. “My father is alive.”
I pause, waiting for his reaction. There’s intensity in his gaze, but he’s waiting patiently for me to finish. Maybe he doesn’t trust himself with questions.
“I only found out recently,” I go on. “I didn’t know when you had me in the desert. At least, I didn’t want to know. Maybe part of me suspected but I had no confirmation. I certainly didn’t know where he was. I still don’t, in case you’re wondering.”
He squeezes my hand, still saying nothing.
“What are you thinking, Lukas?”
He looks at me now. “I’m thinking that I don’t care. Not anymore. James McRae can go fuck himself. I’m grateful he made you.”
It’s cute the way he says it with a lopsided grin, but I’m not sure I should believe him, yet. I’m not sure he can even believe himself.
“What if I told you there could be a way to find out exactly where he is?” I say, throwing the ultimate test at him.
“Nora,” he says as he moves his chair closer to mine. “Look at me.”
I do. His eyes are a lighter blue when we’re outside in the sun, as if they take their color from the sky. My attention is on him and him only.
“I’m a fucking moron as has been proven a million times over but you’re the only thing that matters to me. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if you let me. That doesn’t involve going after your father. It’s done. Nothing will bring the family I lost back, but I can have a new family. With you. Here. I’m never going to jeopardize that."
The tears that threaten to overtake me are the happiest tears I’ve ever known. I cover his mouth with my hand. “Shush now,” I tell him. I’m not sure I can handle a single added drop of emotion.
He takes my hand off his mouth, kissing it. “When you got in that SUV and drove away, leaving me behind in the desert, I hunched over like I was punched in the gut. The loneliness was overwhelming. I could not breathe. If I tried, it hurt. It brought me to my knees. You brought me to my knees.”
“I doubt that,” I say, trying to smile through the tears. “I don’t think that anything could bring Lukas Dupree to his knees, but I’m glad you think I’m badass enough to do that.”
“I thought we established you’re badass-itude.”
I kiss his lips to shut him up. I get my arms around him and he does the same, until we’re not two people anymore. We’re one and the same, a big, fluid creature with multiple arms and legs, like an octopus in an animated movie.
When we walk through the door to my apartment, the first thing I do is show him the new drawing I made of him last night. I drew the lines quickly, like I was fighting off a fever, the shading reflecting his fierce soul and newfound optimism. I lingered on every curve of his strong face, trying to restore his light lost in the darkness that had colored his features all these years.
He studies the sketch for a while and then he smiles and lifts me off the floor. “That man right there, Nora, is the man you deserve. I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to find him for you.”
Chapter 32
Lukas
It’s all beginning to fade away now. All the ugliness and all the pain that we both kept inside for months slip away now like water over the stones of our past selves. She’s beginning to trust my words again, little by little, and I’m becoming addicted to her in ways I thought not possible. It’s not just her body or her spirit I’m in love with, it’s everything, from the allergy that makes her sneeze incessantly sometimes to the annoying little sounds she makes when she’s having a bad dream. I’m in love with all that is Nora.
We’re officially unengaged now and taking things slowly which is proving more than a little hard. I’m doing my best to keep my hands off her until she’s ready, but my cock isn’t entirely on board with the plan. It’s been cold shower after cold shower for a week now. Sometimes she pretends she doesn’t notice and other times she grins at me, knowingly. I’m not complaining. She’s letting me stay at her place since I moved out of mine which would seem like a miracle only days ago.
She comes to me now and sits on the couch in her nighty and I know another torturous evening lies ahead.
I pause the random football game on the TV and turn my attention to her. “How was your bubble bath?”
“Fucking sublime,” she says. “I so needed to relax after the day I had at work. Deadlines take some of the fun out of it.”
She crosses her legs slowly. I catch a glimpse of her white panties and I just about die. Images of her naked body in the tub with suds and bubbles kissing her hard, rosy nipples have been taunting me since she announced the bath and it’s only getting worse now that I have her next to me in the flesh.
“Well, maybe I should take a shower,” I say, getting up. A very cold shower, I might add.
Her small hand reaches for mine. “That won’t be necessary,” she says in a low voice. “I want my big
guy tonight.”
Holy fuck. Is this shit happening? “Now? Are you sure?”
She smiles. “It’s about time, don’t you think? I didn’t even touch myself in the bath. I saved it all for you.”
Caveman time. I pick her up and take her to the bedroom, kicking the door open. I set her down on the bed, quickly undressing. She looks me up and down like it’s the very first time she’s seen me.
She licks her lips and sits up to trail my bare chest and abs with her fingertips. I cup her face, letting my mouth crush on hers. She lifts her arms so I can pull the nighty over her head.
The beauty of her paralyzes me for a second. I can’t get enough of her delicate neck, her perky nipples, her bellybutton that seems to have a heartbeat of its own. She’s perfect and she wants me as much as I want her.
I growl as she grasps my cock, making it throb. “You are so hard,” she says. “You must like this.”
Like it? I push her down on her back and tug at her white panties with my teeth until they’re down around her thighs, giving me a nice view of her pussy. It’s fucking breathtaking. I dive in nose first to take in her sweet scent, placing soft kisses on her pussy lips.
She lifts her ass to get rid of the panties so she can spread wider, inviting me in for a juicy feast.
The sight makes my cock throb and ache and grow so hard the skin hurts.
“You’re driving me crazy, Nora McRae,” I say, taking a nipple in my mouth. God, how I’ve missed her nipples.
I settle myself between her legs and ease into her, slowly, enjoying her pussy as it clamps down on me little by little.
She moans before she wraps her legs around my hips tight, her hands scratching along my back.
“So fucking sweet,” I growl, digging into her, unable to control myself anymore. Fucking has never felt so good.
Her breathing gets shorter and faster as I pound into her, holding her hands in mine above her head. Little moans escape her lips, turning me on more than anything else.
I speed up and her pussy clamps down even tighter, squeezing my cock so hard it hurts so good.
“Oh my god, Lukas. I’m going to come,” she says as her quivering begins. I feel every ripple of her orgasm on my cock, driving me closer to my own release. I let go as soon as she quiets down and begins to purr like a cat in my ear. I blast my load deep inside her, filling her up as my whole body explodes and ruptures.
Fuck, it’s been a while. Her body feels heavenly. I collapse on top of her, pressing my forehead against her forehead. The smile on her face is the sweetest sight anywhere on this Earth.
I smile back and roll off her. She rests her head on my chest. We breathe in and out for a while and I’m just happy. Completely happy, maybe for the first time since I was a child.
Nora starts laughing.
“What?” I say but she just keeps on laughing, her chest quaking, unable to control herself.
It’s contagious. I begin to laugh alongside her. She looks so silly. She turns to her side and attacks me with her fingernails, trying to tickle my underarms and my fucking balls and anywhere she can reach.
I fight back, trailing my nails along her ribs, causing multiple spasms of laughter, her breath almost taken from her from all the tickling.
As soon as I take pity on her and release her, she’s back at it, running soft fingernails on my thighs and stomach, making me writhe.
I roll on top of her, trapping her hands inside mine. “What the fuck, Mac?” I say, more than a little amused,
“It’s just,” she says through chuckling.
“It’s just what?”
“You know, it was such a polite fuck. I mean, after all that we did before, it was like the most vanilla shit but your face was precious. Like you had never fucked before in your life. You were so ecstatic. This diet of no sex I put you on taught you to appreciate the simple things again. You’ve been tamed. Gotcha!”
My face? If only she could have seen her face. Her eyes rolling back like she was high. “Okay, that’s it,” I say. I roll her onto her stomach and slap her ass hard, first one cheek and then the other.
“Is that polite enough for you, you brat?”
Her skin turns pink instantly and, fuck, I can see the shape of my hands on both ass cheeks. Maybe I was too rough, but my cock disagrees as it stiffens to the point of maximum veins popping.
“More,” she says
“More what?”
“More spanking.”
It’s official. I’ve created a monster. I guess I could spank her, or I could fuck her, or I could do both.
I go with plan C. I lift her hips high to take her from behind as my hand lands hard on her ass one more time.
*
“Will you play a game with me?” she says over our take-out dinner. The pillar candles cast long flickering shadows across her face.
“Give me a moment here,” I tell her. “I’m not a sex machine. I need refueling. Weren’t you the one that wants to take it slow?”
“Ha ha, too funny,” she says, throwing a piece of bread at me.
“What did you have in mind?”
She scrunches up her nose. “I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to tell me if I’m right or wrong.”
I think it over a little. “Deal,” I say in the end. “As long as I can ask a few questions of my own.”
“You got it, but I go first.”
I nod. I did promise her I’d be an open book from now on.
She clears her throat as she locks her eyes on mine. “The escort I was supposed to meet never had a motorcycle accident, did he?”
“Right,” I say, nodding.
I’m barely done answering when the second question comes. “The puppy you brought back to the owner, that wasn’t really staged.”
“Wrong,” I say, feeling a little embarrassed confirming more details of my stupid plan all over again.
She doesn’t like my answer, I can tell, but she did ask for honesty.
“When I walked in on you in your underwear,” she goes on, “you meant for that to happen.”
“True,” I admit, hoping the questioning will end soon. I’d rather play with her tits and ass again.
“The wedding proposal,” she says. “That was all staged, too.”
I linger on her eyes before answering. “False.”
“What do you mean false?”
“It was an impulsive, spur of the moment thing.”
“Like you meant it?”
“True,” I tell her. “Odd, but true. Now I have a question. Do you still intend to claim the inheritance?”
She shakes her head. “False. Not even a little.”
“I’ve never been prouder of you,” I say, leaning in to kiss her lips. And I am proud. Nora McRae has come a long way since I met her. She’s been through the darkest hours imaginable and still able to walk back into the light unscathed. My girl is a total badass.
“You should be looking for a job, by the way” she says, seriously. “No more tough guy stuff. A real job.”
I don’t mind at all that she’s a total pain in my ass. Well, I might as well tell her now. “I have one more truth,” I say.
“Should I be scared?”
“Maybe. I have money. Quite a lot of it. Not McRae money but enough to get us started.”
She raises her eyebrows as the news sinks in. “Who would have thought you’d be the one with the dough in the end,” she says, sticking her tongue out.
Okay, it doesn’t seem to bother her.
“Everything I have is yours, baby,” I tell her.
“Any more surprises?”
“Hmm… That house in the desert? It’s mine.”
Her face goes dark, all amusement gone. “You’re fucking selling that house. Like tomorrow. And I’m this close to punching you in the cock because you haven’t done it already.”
“Done,” I say. “And, by all means, punch away. That sounds good.”
And there she is, smiling a
gain. My beautiful naughty girl.
Epilogue
Lukas
Early December
The table is set with an herb lamb roast and oven baked potatoes that fill the room with their savory aromas. Tanner and Trista, the girl that managed to soften the big bad man after they fought and bickered for years, have joined us for dinner tonight.
Nora and Trista are getting along as if they’ve known each other for years. It’s Tanner and me that are having a disagreement.
“What the fuck, Sarge?” I protest. “You can’t go to fucking Europe for Christmas. It’s full of Europeans, you know that, right? You guys should stay here with us. We’ll need some friends. Our friend Jules wears us out when she’s the third wheel.”
“Honey, let them do whatever the fuck they want,” Nora says, throwing me a lethal glance. “And speak ill of Jules again, I dare you.”
Tanner laughs loudly like a big bull. “You’re right, bro. Nora’s not one to trifle with. She’s as fucking fierce as Tris who swears like a sailor,” he says. “She’s a walking Urban Dictionary. She makes me blush and that’s real talk.”
Tris shakes her head at him. “Shut up, big guy, before I slap you around a little,” she says.
Tanner takes her hand. “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t mean it. You’re pure like a flower.”
“Yes, you did mean it,” Tris says. “And you’re not going to have our friends here to protect you when we get home.”
We all laugh, except Tanner who’s more than a little worried.
There’s a knock on the door. I get up still laughing to go answer.
Shane does a sliding dance move when I open the door to somehow shimmy past me into the apartment. He spins back to give me a high five. That dude is always overloaded with hyper energy, but this is a little extra.
“Hey, Michael Jackson,” I say. “Good timing. Tanner and Tris just arrived a few minutes ago.”
“Nah,” he says. “I can’t stay. Say hello to everyone.”
“What’s got you so pumped up?”
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