Play Me to Infinity (The Broken Men Chronicles Book 3)

by Carey Decevito

  I got to the trunk of my car, popped it open and pulled out the large parcel.

  With one foot in the door, I said, “Close your eyes.” I entered the house, shutting the front door behind me. “Dani, make sure she listens, and I don’t want to hear anything from your mouth either.”

  Danica giggled. “Scouts honor. This should be good.”

  I walked into the room and Danica began to bounce on the couch when she saw my parcel. Nicole squirmed in her seat as I sat on the coffee table in front of her.

  “Open your eyes, honey.”

  The look on her face when she saw what I held was priceless. “You didn’t!” Her voice was breathless. I nodded. “But why?”

  “Because I know you’re happiest when you’re playing.” She reached to open the case and pulled out the guitar, her fingers skimming its surface reverently. “I can’t have you living here and not have your music. You’d be miserable, and I’d miss hearing you.”

  “I could have paid for all of this,” she repeated her earlier words and strummed the chords on the acoustic, her nose scrunching up, most likely because the instrument wasn’t tuned, “but I love you so much more for doing it.”

  Chapter 43

  I helped Danica get the babies into her car and waited until I saw my sister’s tail lights round the corner before heading inside, finding Nicole strumming away on her new baby.

  Leaning on the wall, I watched her for a short while before moving toward her. She smiled at me and set the guitar down on the coffee table when I crouched to sit beside her.

  “I don’t deserve this.” She shook her head, but her grin remained.

  “You deserve so much more.” She shifted to her knees and straddled my lap as I leaned back to look at her. “That smile of yours,” I ran my fingers through her hair, “it makes you look even more beautiful.”

  “You need to stop that. You’re already getting lucky.”

  I laughed. “That wasn’t my intention, but it is one hell of a payoff.”

  Her fingers grazed the stubble on my jaw, which I had yet to shave off. “Let’s get you to bed. You look beyond exhausted.”

  “The doctor did tell you to take it easy. I’ll go lay down if you come with me.”

  “I think I can swing that.” Her lips brushed against mine and she pulled away before I could deepen the kiss. “It’s not like I plan on going anywhere. I have no house and my boss won’t let me work until next Monday. That’s more than a week off, you know.”

  “I like the fact that you’re staying here.” I nuzzled her nose. “And I’m not reneging on you going back to work sooner. They were doctor’s orders more than mine, but you won’t hear any complaints from me.”

  “But you’re going to fall behind.” She got up and pulled me to my feet.

  “Honey, I love that you worry about me, but you have enough to worry about with the fire, the insurance, and the investigation right now.” She sighed deep and I turned her around to face me at the bottom of the staircase. “How’s this?” I squeezed her hands in mine. “I’ll let you take care of my schedule and emails, but that’s it, and it’ll be done from here.” She gifted me with a beaming smile. “Happy now?”

  “Very.” And she led me up the stairs.

  The door to my en suite opened and I was blessed with a vision of Nicole wearing a satin number that I had purchased for her.

  “I think someone has an aversion to traditional jammies.” She giggled.

  My gaze was slow in its appraisal. “Wow!” I swiveled my ass so I sat on the edge of the mattress, motioning for her to come closer.

  Nicole sauntered over with a lascivious smile. “You like?”

  “Very much.” I pulled her down so she straddled me and gave her a deep kiss. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good.” She pecked my chin. “Great, actually.”

  I ran my hands over the back of her thighs, over her ass until they met the satin covering her back. Her lips met mine and trailed a path of liquid fire down to my neck.

  “Honey…”

  “Shh.” She nipped my lower lip. “Let me.”

  “I don’t think so.” I flipped her so she lay under me, holding on to the back of her head so not to jostle her too much, seeing as quick movements still made her dizzy and intensified the pounding in her head.

  Crashing my lips to hers, her hands found their way up the back of my shirt. I retreated enough to let her pull the garment over my head. With one arm supporting me over her, I used my other hand to skim the flesh of her leg and halted when it reached her ass.

  I heard the buzzing of my phone on the bedside table and Nicole hesitated. “You should get that, it could be work.”

  I groaned. “It can wait.” Whatever it was, Danica would be able to handle it for today. She’d said as much before leaving earlier.

  Chapter 44

  The next morning, I smiled at the sight before me.

  “Good morning, handsome.” Nicole’s lips quirked upward, her eyes clouded with the remnants of sleep.

  “Hi, beautiful, been up long?”

  A wicked grin was present on that delectable mouth of hers. “Long enough for a few ideas to come to mind.”

  “Is that so?” I rolled her onto her back and hovered above her.

  She nodded.

  Her lips met mine in a feverish kiss.

  I trailed my hand down her side and rested it on her hip. My lips glided down her neck, over her collarbone and onto her shoulder.

  A groan escaped when her hand met my engorged cock.

  “I need you, Mike.”

  I snorted. “Try and keep me away. I plan on spending the next hour making sure you know I need you just as much.”

  Kneeling back, I pushed my underwear down from my hips. My desire for her was so extreme that I didn’t give a shit about her panties, pushing the material to the side and plunging into her depths.

  Her legs came up to wrap around my hips and her arms surrounded my neck, holding me close.

  Arching her hips into mine, we found a rhythm that took us to heights unknown. Our bodies hummed in the delight we were able to provide one another.

  Following our escapades, Nicole and I ate an early lunch and headed in to the office. I wanted a status report on a few ongoing projects prior to our grocery store run.

  Upon our return, we managed to get the perishables stowed away, as our conversation steered toward the previous day, and Nicole’s and Tracey’s altercation in the very room we were in.

  She grinned. “You liked that, huh?”

  “Hell, yeah!” I kissed her cheek as I put away a can of soup in the pantry. “Watching you put that woman in her place had me wanting to do all kinds of things to you.”

  With a wry grin, Nicole retreated toward the kitchen table and leaned back on it. “Like what?”

  “How about I show you?” I pounced.

  My lips crushed hers as I held her face between my palms.

  When her arms came around my neck, I lowered my hands to undo my pants. They dropped to the floor as I pushed up the skirt of her dress.

  She reclined enough until she was lying down on the tabletop, wrapping her legs around me.

  “Hold on,” I guided myself to her heat, “this is going to be a hard one.”

  I grabbed the edge of the table with both hands, up by her head, and began to ram her like a man starved.

  “Oh, God, Mike!” I could feel her throbbing around my cock almost immediately, as I thrust up to hit that sweet spot of hers.

  Her moans grew to cries, and when she clenched down on me with her climax, I felt her teeth biting into my shoulder.

  Edging on the side of pain, the sensation spurred me on, rather than making me pull away.

  I sent her reeling into her second orgasm within seconds.

  “God, don’t stop!” Nicole’s eyes opened and her head lifted to catch my lower lip between her teeth and she sucked it into her mouth.

  She was so intoxicating that it was impo
ssible not to give her what she wanted.

  And so I lost myself in her. Completely.

  When the tremors ebbed, I collapsed over her. She cradled my head in her cleavage.

  “Oh hell, Mike!” Her chest heaved. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk after that.”

  Her laugh grew hearty and I joined her.

  “That right?”

  “Hmm.”

  We shared a soft kiss and I pulled back to look at her. “It won’t pain me one bit to have to carry you around.”

  “You might have to.”

  My house phone rang, jarring us from the moment.

  Who the hell can that be?

  “I’ll get it.”

  Pulling away and yanking my pants up, I grabbed the cordless phone that sat on the kitchen island.

  I read Ben on the display.

  Chapter 45

  “Go,” Nicole said. “Take Jake with you. I think he could use a night out with the guys. I’ll hang out with Danica while you’re out.”

  Despite not being one to turn down a night out, I found it hard to leave her.

  “Are you sure?”

  “You need some time with them. You haven’t seen Ben all that much lately. He needs his best friend, and so do you.”

  She was right.

  I picked up Jake on the way to meet up with Ben at Fairfax.

  When my brother-in-law and I arrived, I was shocked to see that my best friend had corralled an entire group of men, most of them I’d grown accustomed to hanging out with since my move back to Jacksonville.

  “Hey, man.” Ben greeted me with a slap on the back and thrust a beer into my hand. “I figured it was about time we all got together.”

  “Hey, Ben? Incoming!” Paxton nodded toward the rear of the establishment. There was a table of women, one of them closing in on my best friend.

  “You should go for it,” I told Ben when he’d turned the woman down and she’d gone to rejoin her clan.

  Being hit on was a constant for him, yet he refused every single woman that ever approached.

  “I don’t need that. She’s in here every weekend, leaving with a different guy. I’m a family man, you know that.”

  “Yeah, but what’s wrong with getting the kinks out with a good lay?” I asked and Jake nodded in agreement.

  “I don’t need a quick fuck.” He took a drink from his beer. “And my shit works fine.”

  “Doesn’t mean you don’t need a woman. I mean, it’s not like you don’t have your pick of the litter around here. Hell, from what I’ve heard, women love a man who can sling drinks like Tom Cruise, and if that doesn’t do it for them, there’s always the firefighter gig. Chicks dig uniforms.” Jake gave a subtle laugh and Paxton nodded. “A hand will never be enough in the end, buddy.”

  “But you’re forgetting something,” Brent added to the conversation. “Meeting women in a bar doesn’t exactly shout out marriage material.”

  Brent had a point.

  Having grown up together, I knew Ben better than any of the other guys. The man was like my brother.

  What happened to him had been tragic, what with the freak accident that had cost him not only the love of his life, but his baby girl too. It took a while to get the man back on his feet and build himself into the guy he was now, but damn, how I wished he was moving on faster to rediscovering the guy he was before he lost everything.

  “Seriously though,” I gave him a sobering look, “you need to open yourself up a little more. Maybe not here per se, but I think a good woman would be all you need to make things right for you again.”

  “What the hell happened to you?” Ben asked. “You’re like the old Mike again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nikki’s really sunk her teeth into you, huh?” Ben stated more than asked.

  “What?” Brent started laughing. “You and Nicole?” I nodded. “Well shit! How the fuck did that happen? I thought she hated you.”

  I grinned. “There’s a fine line.”

  I gave them all the four-one-one on what’s been going on, including the psychotic happenings that led to her house being torched and her moving in with me.

  “You should have seen the two of them a week ago,” Ben added between bouts of laughter. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

  “I think you were more embarrassed than she was.” I chuckled. “We had a good laugh about it after you left.”

  “Wait a minute!” Jake said, his gaze on Ben. “You walked in on the two of them?”

  Ben nodded and took a sip of his beer and Jake said, “Damn!”

  Ben cleared his throat. “It was the day Dani sent me to check up on him since he wasn’t returning her calls. I walked in, thinking the poor guy would be moping, and there they were, in the buff, in the middle of the fucking living room floor, snuggling of all things! Like I said, bro, you need to lock the door.”

  “And you need to learn to knock,” I retorted.

  “Would have been a better show if I’d seen a bit more action.” He snickered.

  I took a sip of my beer and pointed its tip toward my best friend. “You should have been there ten minutes earlier then,” I quipped, making him laugh while the rest of the boys hooted and hollered.

  Most of the men had headed home, leaving it to Jake, Ben and I.

  Jake had gone to the men’s.

  “So what’s going on with you?” I asked Ben.

  The man shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s been busy lately.” I nodded. “How’s it going with Nicole, really?”

  I grinned. “She’s perfect. If it weren’t for all those side issues with our exes, I think we’d be well on our way to marriage and babies.”

  The man sputtered and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Did I hear you right?” A laugh was my response. “Fuck, Mike, you never talked about kids with Tracey.”

  “It just proves that she wasn’t right.”

  “That’s an understatement!” he mumbled. “So what’s going on with Nicole’s place? I heard the Chief say it was arson, that the old propane tank in the back is what blew the roof off the place.”

  And nearly blew my woman to bits with it. “Yeah.”

  “You know that things will take forever to get settled because it’s a criminal case, right?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I want to ask her to stay.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, why, you got something against that?”

  “It’s not that.” He seemed to deliberate something for a moment. “Never mind…” The man went from sporting a ponderous look to grinning like a loon. “I’m just shocked at this complete turnaround. I’m happy for you, I really am. It’s been a long time coming.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the loneliness that emanated from the man.

  Here I was happier than a pig in shit, when my best friend was still licking his wounds instead of living out a happy life.

  Still, the fact that his happiness for Nicole and me was genuine and unforced had me feeling less guilt. Along with his humor, it demonstrated that the remnants of my formerly-lively best friend were making a more frequent appearance. Maybe there was hope for him yet.

  I took a sip of my Bud. “You know, if it’s someone outside the bar you want, I might just have the person for you.”

  “Not happening, Mike.”

  Jake plopped himself down on a chair to rejoin us. “What’s not happening? By the way, Gabby’s got a fever, so we’ve got to run, but I want to hear this first.”

  “Mike thinks he can play match-maker,” Ben explained.

  “She’s right up your alley.”

  “Who is she?” Jake asked.

  “A colleague.” I swallowed the remainder of my beer. “She’s pretty quiet, but a complete sweetheart.”

  “Good,” Ben said, “why don’t you date her?”

  “Because I’m happy with my trouble-making kinky spitfire.” I grinned, making Jake laugh. “Just think about it, all right
?”

  “Fine!” I knew he wouldn’t, though. A man like Ben wouldn’t take handouts. He could find his own woman. “Now get lost. Say hi to Nikki for me and make sure to pay those legs of hers some undivided attention while you’re at it.”

  Jake shook his head. “I’m glad to see your smart-ass mouth is back, but you’re begging for it, Ben.”

  The man guffawed. “He knows I’m kidding.”

  I laughed. “You’re lucky you’re on my good side, or you’d be on the floor nursing your jaw instead of that beer.”

  Yes, Ben was definitely on his way back.

  Chapter 46

  After a grueling day at the office, I found Nicole on the couch, head bent, laptop on her lap and her cell in her hand at her side, as her other massaged the bridge of her nose.

  “What’s going on?”

  Her head snapped up. It was clear she hadn’t seen or heard me come in and the look on her face showed pure exhaustion.

  “I just got off the phone with the insurance company.”

  “And?”

  The flat line of her lips said it all. “They said the investigation needed to be closed before I can get the funds and do anything with it.”

  I sat beside her, closed the top on her computer, and set it down on the coffee table along with her phone. Pulling her into my arms, I kissed her hair. “You know there’s no rush for you to get out of here, right?” I kissed her hair.

  “I know.” She pulled away and looked up. “It’s just-”

  “If you think that I’ll grow tired of you, then you’re mistaken.”

  “You might change your mind a month or two from now, when-”

  “Just stop!” Her mouth snapped shut at my sharp tone. When I continued, my voice had softened. “I’ve been thinking about something.” Nicole’s brow arched, but she remained silent. “Why not sell the land and keep the cash?”

  “But then I’m still living with you.”

  I smiled. “Exactly.”

  “But…”