Black Rose (Lewiston Blues Series/Black Family Saga Book 3)

by Scully, Felicia X.

  My head snaps up and I squint, trying to decipher her meaning. “You what?”

  “Live here. There’s this firm that’s been scouting me for a year or so. They called me again saying they were moving their offices and since I’m close by would I be interested in seeing what they have to offer.” She shrugs. “I’ve never been a big fan of the owner. He doesn’t treat his clients with the most respect, but well, I do, and a place like that could use a change.”

  “S-so you just moved here? When?”

  “A month ago.”

  “I moved here a month ago.”

  “I know.”

  “But I’ve never…seen you, you didn’t…”

  She moves her hands from behind her back and I stare down at the thing she’s holding in front of her—a single dried rose. Black

  “Is that…?”

  She nods.

  “You kept it?”

  “Of course I did.” She twirls it between her fingers, glancing up at me. “I live on the other side of town,” she says quietly. “And I doubt you’d have seen me anyway. Ross says you don’t get out much.”

  “Ross? He knows you’re here.”

  “I bumped into him last week. But I told him not to mention anything. I had to go away for work and I didn’t want you to think I didn’t want to see you. Because I did.” She steps past me into the condo and I finally close the door behind us.

  She’s so close. She smells so good. Like the perfect mix of chocolate and fruit. And those eyes are staring at me like they’ve been deprived of anything remotely satisfying in far too long. “I wanted to come right away,” she says, touching my arm. “I wanted to run as fast as I could to tell you…how sorry I am that I almost made a huge mistake. It wasn’t the rose that changed my mind, Luke. It was you. Seeing you let go the way you did. Seeing you broken.” She reaches up to touch my cheek and I close my eyes. “I realized, you’re the one I’m supposed to be with. And maybe I’m too late, I don’t know. Maybe you’ve already moved on or you’ve decided I’m not worth it anym—”

  I pull her to me, stopping her with a kiss, sealing the words inside. It could never be too late and how she doesn’t know that by now is beyond me. But all I can think about right now is showing her.

  “Of course you’re worth it,” I say, pressing my forehead to hers. “You’ll always be worth it.”

  I kiss her again and when I draw back the way she’s watching me, her gaze darkened, sucking on her bottom lip, I know there’s no more time for words. No more room for excuses. We’ve waited too long. Held off, denied ourselves for all the wrong reasons. I turn, quickly grasping her hand as I pull her toward my room. I’m not waiting another second. This girl needs to be mine. Completely.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Coco

  I can barely remember how we ended up like this, but I don’t much care either. Luke’s hands are caressing me everywhere, his lips exploring every inch of my body and the heat in his room has risen to an almost unbearable temperature. But it is August. It is the city and in a situation like this, this volcano that’s been bubbling at the surface for weeks, it’s no surprise it’s erupted the way it has.

  Luke presses his palms against the mattress pushing away from me so that we’re forehead to forehead. He kisses me lightly on the lips, his gray eye shining. “You just made my fucking day.”

  I smile back, running my hands along his ribs and up around his back. “Now it’s your turn to make mine.”

  He groans, muttering something under his breath before kissing me again. He lingers on my mouth this time, all other areas of my body forsaken. His tongue is deliberate in it’s mission to taste absolutely every millimeter of mine. And he tastes so sweet, like some delectable dessert made just for me, that I’m finally starting to understand why I can’t get enough of his kisses. Why the feeling of his lips on mine is enough to threaten to send me over the edge prematurely.

  Luke pulls away and I can tell by the way he regards me my kisses do exactly the same thing to him, but something else flickering behind his eyes tells me there’s so much more to come.

  He trails his tongue down my neck, lingering for a moment, sucking on my flesh so hard I moan in response. His hands cup my breasts and he squeezes so lightly I arch my back eager for more. Luke laughs, reaching up to kiss my mouth again before bending down to suck one puckered nipple into his. I let out a little gasp, my sex instantly melting. Hooking a leg around his waist, I pin him closer but he easily breaks free, working his way past my chest and down my belly, one warm, wet kiss at a time.

  “Luke,” I whimper, digging my nails into his skin.

  “Yes, Puffs?” His teeth graze my skin. “What is it you need?”

  I sigh when his tongue tickles my hipbone.

  “Tell me,” he says. “What do you need?”

  I’m panting so hard I can’t speak. So I push my hips forward instead and, as though he’s reading my mind, or I’m reading his—I really can’t tell—his tongue darts out and he drags it slowly along my crease.

  I gasp, gripping his hair as his tongue swirls even more slowly, more deliberately around my throbbing clit. “Luke,” I groan. “That feels so…” But I can’t even describe the way fire shoots through my body, every which way. My toes are actually curling, my thighs shaking. My nipples aching with need. “Luke.” It comes out in nothing but a shriek and as he increases speed, his moans mirror mine. “Don’t stop. Please don’t ever stop.”

  He reaches up, moving his flattened palms in slow circles around my hard nipples. His hands are barely touching me, but it’s enough to induce a delighted scream. And that scream is enough to cause him to abandon his post. He crawls upward, hovering above me his gray eyes smoldering.

  When he kisses me again, the sweet and salty mixture melts me even further into the mattress and when he finally pulls away, there’s no question what’s coming next. Luke reaches into his night stand and pulls out a box.

  Instinctively, I raise an eyebrow, but before I can comment, he shuts me up with another kiss. “For you,” he says, once he manages to pull away. “I got them for you. I waited for this day, but you never came. I never thought you’d come.”

  I take the box from him tearing it open and handing him the condom. He rises up on his knees to put it on and I watch his every move, until he’s hovering over me again.

  Fingers at my center, he traces lazy circles around my swollen bud, watching my reaction, every hitch, every jerk, every sigh, every moan. “I want to explore you,” he says. “To taste you until I can’t taste anything else. I want you engrained in my memory so that when you’re not around, which I hope won’t be very often, you’ll still be here.”

  I bite my lip as his fingers, plunge further inside of me exploring my moist, warm flesh. “But we’ve got time,” he continues. “I’ve got time to get know the things you like, the things you want, the things you need.” My hips buck when his fingers meet my clit again and my legs open wider. “But right now…” he sighs. “I don’t want to fuck you, Coco. I want to show you how I feel.”

  I nod. “Have me, Luke. Show me. Take me. Own me.”

  He removes his hand, bringing his fingers to his lips, then mine. Then he repositions himself, his hand sliding up my thigh as I hook my leg around his waist again. Locking my knee against his side, he presses his forehead against mine and rocks his hips forward. He enters me at the same speed he’s done everything else, an even pace that lets me know he’s enjoying every second. His gaze never leaves mine as he stretches me wide. And despite the tiny explosions that have erupted in every single nerve in my body, I stare right back, breathlessly biting my lip and matching his rhythm. The way we’re moving against each other is nothing compared to the way I know we both feel, frenzied, desperate and eager, but we don’t speed up. We don’t throw down or lose control because what we feel is so much more than that and the way his light eyes are devouring mine, I know he feels it just as I deeply as I do.

  The otherwise quie
t room is filled with the sounds of our desire, Luke’s groans and my breathless whimpers. My hands are in his hair, holding him against me as I taste his sweet lips again. I’m floating, falling deeper and deeper into something I desperately want to swallow me whole and, as we both release, gripping each other tightly, it does. Every piece of Luke owns every piece of me and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Luke

  She lies across the bed, on her stomach as I feather my fingers across her back. I’m lying on my side, her head angled to face me and I smile, before leaning down to kiss her forehead. She actually blushes which, after what we just did, makes me laugh.

  I push a stray curl from her face and kiss her temple. “If you knew after that night,” I murmur against her skin. “What took you so long to tell me?”

  She lets out a sigh and rolls onto her back. I take the opportunity to lie back down, pulling her against my side.

  “I wanted to,” she says. “But the timing never seemed right. I didn’t want to make that time about me—about us. And then when you didn’t want me to go to Montana with you, I just thought…you were done with me. But after I saw the rose on my doorstep, I figured maybe I was wrong.”

  I kiss her forehead again, breathing deeply before holding her just a little closer. As happy as I am, relieved that she’s finally come to her senses, I still can’t help but wonder.

  “Cocanda.” Her gaze flicks up to mine and there’s no way I can hide the anxiety I feel. “I want you to be sure,” I begin. “I want you….I want you to know. Without a doubt I need you to know that at the end of every day for the rest of your life you’re going to want to come home to me. You’re going to want to tell me your secrets. You’re going to want to tell me your problems and you’re going to trust me with all of it. With all of you. No matter what. I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never take you for granted. I’ll never leave you wondering if I feel the same. Because I do. And I always will.”

  She brushes her fingers across my lips. “I’m sure,” she says. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I know I hurt you, Luke. And I’m sorry. I really am. I was with Dash for so long and I cared about him. But I realized it was more of a fascination with helping him, with changing him, turning him into some kind of fantasy than anything else. And I realized it just wasn’t worth it anymore.”

  “Because he broke you.”

  She nods. “Not just my soul. My body too.”

  My chest thumps and I tilt her chin upwards. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a lot we need to talk about. It could change things between us.”

  “Nothing could ever change anything between us.” It’s taking everything inside me not to bolt out of this bed and hunt him down. “What did he do to you?”

  “He…” She looks away and I place a finger on her cheek, gently forcing her to face me.

  “You can tell me.”

  “I should have told you before. I wanted to, but I didn’t now how. It’s such an awkward conversation to have. And I’ve felt so dirty about it ever since…Luke, I’m so sorry. I—”

  “Well, we’re having it now. What happened?”

  “Back at the beginning of the summer I thought I was pregnant. I went to the doctor and she ran some tests.” She closes her eyes. “It turns out Dash gave me chlamydia.” I feel my mouth drop open and she shakes her head as our gazes meet again. “It was a long time ago. He’d cheated on me, but we got over it—I got over it. I forgave him and we moved past it.”

  I clench my jaw, schooling myself not to let my distaste show in my demeanor. “And?”

  “And he didn’t know he had it. I didn’t know. We were exclusive and he was the only guy I’d ever been with. I didn’t know. I wasn’t smart enough to get a test after I found out about that girl.”

  “The one with the rubber boobs?” I grunt.

  She sighs.

  “This isn’t your fault, Puffs. None of it is. He should have never cheated in the first place. He’s the experienced one, he’s the one who should have thought to get tested. You should have never been put in that position.” I trace the line of her jaw with my nose and whisper against her sweet skin. “I’d never put you in that position and I’m so sorry you had to deal with something like that in the first place.”

  “There’s more.” Her voice cracks and my stomach lunges.

  As if that’s not enough, what more could he have possibly done to her?

  “Even though I’m cured, I had it for so long—three years—that it led to an infection that caused…” she sucks in a breath and squeezes her eyes closed. A single tear trails down her temple and I kiss it away.

  “It’s okay.” I’m not sure it is, but I want her to feel that way.

  “There’s some scarring on my tubes and my doctor said it might be hard for me to have kids.” She looks up at me again with glistening brown eyes. “I know that might not be important to you. I mean, because you already are a dad. But I always imagined having kids of my own and…” She covers her face. “Oh, god. I told you this was an awkward conversation. Look at your face.”

  “What?” I force my expression to go neutral. I hadn’t even realized I was grimacing. And not for the reasons she probably thinks. But because of all the injurious things I want to do to Dash Martin for making this perfect girl hurt so much more than she ever should. “No,” I say. “Puffs, it’s not that. You should be able to have as many babies as you’ve ever dreamed of and I should be able to plant them there.”

  She laughs and I shake my head.

  “Sorry.” I recoil at my own asinine expression. “What I mean is, if you want kids, we’ll have kids. I’m just so pissed you’ve had to go through all of this on you own. That he did this to you at all. I have half a mind to drive all the way back to Lewiston just to kick his ass.”

  “Well, he’s in New York now and it doesn’t matter anymore,” she says. “All that matters is that I’ve left that part of my life in the past. And I’m never going back.” She traces her fingers along the lines of my pecs and I pull her a little closer. “Do mean that? You want to have more kids?”

  “If that’s what you want, Cocanda Rose, that’s what you’ll get. We’ll do whatever it takes. I just don’t ever want to see you hurting because of him—because of anything—ever again.”

  For a long while, she says nothing. She just holds on to me, her fingers moving lightly across my skin, urging certain parts of me to pick up where we left off.

  I turn onto my side, taking her with me so that her bare skin is flush against mine. I drop a kiss on her temple, my hands straying to her most sensitive areas. Her rigid nipples, a soft brown that literally makes my mouth water, her smooth stomach with just the right amount of dips and curves. And that heated space between her legs that I can tell is as ready for me as I am for her.

  Coco sighs and leans her head back, her hand clasping over mine. “I guess it’s true what you said, Luke—damaged people can heal. They just have to do it on their own. It’s not my job to fix him. It’s my job to fix myself.”

  I take a deep breath. The very mention of that asshole grinding my libido to a halt. “Have you ever felt like you needed to fix me?”

  She links our fingers, then shakes her head. “With you it’s different. It’s always been different. I know you and even though there are things you still hold onto, I get it. I understand it and I’m okay with that. I feel like you get me too. You don’t just listen, you hear me. You don’t just look at me, you see me. And the idea of you owning every piece of me doesn’t scare me. I’m totally vulnerable but I’m still safe. At the end of the day I want us to be able to heal together. I want to be yours. And I want you to be mine.”

  I smile, nipping her earlobe before my digits, still entwined with hers, continue their elicit exploration. She gasps when meet her damp center, the swollen flesh that’s practically begging for my undivided attention.

  “Then it’s offici
al, Puffs. You belong to me and I belong to you. ‘At first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.’”

  Epilogue

  Fourteen Years Later

  “Why don’t you wait outside, sweetie. I need to talk to your father.” My little curly-haired, hazel-eyed heart throb screws up his face. An action that doesn’t make him any less handsome. “I won’t be long. I promise.”

  “The game starts in two hours. And I like to be early. Plus, Dad promised me chili dogs and coke. And he still has to drop something off for Uncle Ross. You guys always take forever when you talk.”

  Luke’s hand slides down the back of my bare thigh and, after all these years, it still melts me, turns me into liquid submission. My heart skips and my center flutters.

  “Shane.” I do my best to keep my voice steady, while reluctantly stepping away from the gesture that would normally have me straddling my husband in five seconds flat. “Please just go wait in the truck. Your dad’ll be out in a minute. Okay?”

  “Go ahead, buddy.” Luke rises to his feet, his hand settling on my waist as he squeezes past me and into the kitchen. “Here.” He hands our son a cooler. “Throw this in the back seat. You can even take your tablet with you while you wait.”

  I throw him a look but Luke ignores me.

  “But Mom said no screen time for—”

  “Just go.” Luke laughs and Shane scoops up his tablet from the top of the fridge, grabs the cooler and makes a beeline for the door.

  The moment it closes behind him, Luke’s front is flush with my back. “That ought to buy us at least twenty minutes.” He kisses my neck and I close my eyes. “Sorry our date nights had to be swapped. The Mariners are playing the Rangers and if he misses this one I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  I turn in his arms, offering him a slow steamy kiss that garners a frustrated groan. I giggle pushing him away. “I promised five minutes tops.”