by Marie James
That wait for me took all night, as in Tinley never opened her door back up after her shower. She didn’t eat or come out to tell Alex goodnight. I imagine she passed out, exhausted from the trauma of Alex being hurt and the long trip to get here.
My back is killing me when I wake, painkillers and coffee the only things on my mind when I climb off the couch with a groan. Shit, when did thirty-one start feeling like sixty?
The coffee pot takes a lifetime to spit out the dark brew, and as I wait, I’m seriously tempted to just lean my head down and guzzle it from the machine. With fingers tapping on the counter, I glare at it as if mentally urging it to work faster will help.
It doesn’t.
If the way I feel right now is a clue as to how my day is going to go, then I think I’ll curl back up on the couch and risk permanent damage to my back.
“Hey, Dad.”
And that’s all it takes to make my lips curl up in a genuine smile.
“Hey. Are you hungry? There’s not much in the fridge but I can put in an order for delivery.”
“How about some of that coffee?”
I scoff. “Not a chance, but there is juice in the fridge.”
He rolls his eyes before walking across the room to get a glass out of the cabinet. “Where’s Mom?”
“Still asleep,” I tell him as I’m finally able to lift the coffee cup to my mouth.
It lights the skin inside my mouth on fire, but the pain is worth the infusion of caffeine.
“Maybe some of those sausage sandwiches I like?” Alex says as he pours his orange juice.
I grin, pulling my phone out and opening the delivery app. I know exactly what he’s talking about. It’s a good thing I know what Tinley likes from there as well because as much as I’m anxious to see her pretty face, I’m not going to wake her up to ask what she wants for breakfast.
“Twenty minutes,” I tell him once I get the confirmation on the app.
We both turn our heads when someone knocks on the front door. Alex looks anxious, and I rest my hand on his shoulder to set him at ease.
“It’s fine. You’re safe.”
He stays back, lingering in the kitchen while I head to the door.
I give Deacon a nod as soon as I see it’s him standing there. “Hey, man.”
The door is pushed back open when I go to close it behind him.
“Wait for me.” A frown turns my mouth down.
“What are you doing here?”
Brooks gives me a wide smile. I still haven’t forgiven his ass for flirting with Tinley in front of my house.
“I wanted to meet Alex.” He shrugs, shouldering past me into the condo.
“Alex,” I call. “This is Deacon Black, my boss, and Brooks Morgan, a guy I work with.”
Brooks frowns at the lackluster introduction, but both men shake my son’s hand like he’s grown, neither mentioning the bruises on his face.
“And the reason for the visit?” I prod, a little agitated they’re invading my world when all I want to do is spend time with my family.
“Just swinging by before work,” Deacon says, eyeing the coffee pot on the counter with expectancy.
I head to the kitchen and pour Deacon a cup, smirking at Brooks when he looks affronted that I didn’t pour him one.
“Mugs are in the cabinet,” I say as I walk past him. His chuckle tickles my back, but I ignore it. “And how are things at work?”
“Same old, same old,” Deacon mutters as he takes a sip of coffee. “Wren is in the doghouse, or should I say bird house with Whitney. I think Puff and Simon’s little feud is taking a toll on their relationship. He texted this morning that he was moving into the office.”
I chuckle. Wren couldn’t stay away from his woman for a solid twenty-four hours, so I know better.
“Have they tried—” I begin.
“The bird? Like Puff Daddy?” Alex smiles wide. “Can I meet him?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Deacon says. “He’s absolutely disgusting.”
“He’s hilarious,” Alex counters.
“Who’s hilarious? Oh—” Tinley says as she walks in, stopping dead in her tracks when she realizes it’s not just Alex and me in the kitchen. “Umm, hi?”
Her arms go to cross over her chest, and I know it’s because she isn’t wearing a bra. It concerns me because the guys are here, but also tells me she doesn’t mind me seeing the outline of her nipples if she was going to walk out here with me in the room.
It proves we’re making little steps of progress, and any movement in the right direction makes the prospect of my day better.
“Tin, this is Deacon my boss and—”
“Mr. Morgan?”
Deacon drops his hand to his side when her attention goes to the man she’s already met.
Her eyes flash to mine, anger and betrayal clear on her face. Whatever progress we made just took a couple steps in the wrong direction.
“We were just talking about Alex meeting Puff Daddy,” Deacon offers.
“The bird?” Tinley says, her mouth a hard line because she’s always had trouble not speaking her mind in the moment. “Alex won’t stop talking about him.”
“Can I go meet him, Mom? Please?”
Tinley looks to me, and I give her a shrug.
“I think that’s fine,” she finally mutters, earning a whoop from our son.
“Looks like you’re coming with us, kid.”
Alex is overjoyed as he runs from the room to change and grab some shoes.
Thick tension fills the room, Tinley’s eyes darting between Brooks and me. She doesn’t open her mouth and demand an answer, and I’m certain it has to do with my boss being in the room. She doesn’t want to cause a scene because she’s concerned for how it will reflect on me, and that speaks to her character. God, I love this woman.
Alex is out in a flash, barely saying goodbye to us as they file out of the apartment.
“Coffee?” I ask when she just continues to glare at me.
“You work with that man?”
“I do.”
“So, he didn’t buy my house?”
“Technically he did, but I turned around and bought it from him. But the house is yours, Tin. You only need to sign and file the paperwork.”
Her jaw works back and forth, arms still crossed over what I know are perfectly pink nipples.
“So, another lie?”
My eyes jolt up from the spell I’m trying to put on her arms so she’ll drop them.
“What? No, Tin. I didn’t—”
“If you tell me one more time that you haven’t done the things you’ve done to manipulate me, I’ll scream.”
“Then scream,” I say.
I’m exhausted over this whole situation. I’m not going to give, but God this woman can be infuriating.
“I’m not going to change the story because I’m telling you the truth. I’ve tried to explain it more than once, and you won’t listen. Are you willing to listen now?”
“To more lies and—”
“Okay, that’s a no. I’m going to take a shower.”
I slide past her, letting my hand run down her arm before I walk out. I can’t resist her despite how irritating her stubbornness is. She takes a shuddering breath but doesn’t say a word to stop me. She’s like a scared cat needing to be coaxed out of a corner, and I guess it’s a good thing that I found patience in the last few years. She’s going to require a lot of it.
The shower is quick, economical, and cold because even when she’s riled up and spitting fire at me, she turns me on. I don’t want to spend a second away from her. Like always, my best thoughts come to me while I can’t do anything about them, like showering. I formulate all the things I want to say, wondering if begging on my knees will help as I dry off.
Wrapping a towel around my hips, I head to my closet, but instead of clothes I find Tinley on my messy bed, need in her eyes.
My cock thickens behind the plush towel as my quick
ly cognizant brains tries to flip through all the options and outcomes of what I should do.
Chapter 36
Tinley
“Tin?”
His voice is a whisper, but it still meets my ears with something similar to desperation.
I don’t speak. I can’t.
There’s so much between us, time and distance that seem nearly insurmountable, but it’s the physical space between our bodies that’s hurting me the most right now, so I stand, pulling the hem of my t-shirt over my head.
Cool air in the room hits my breasts, making my nipples tighten. I ache to touch them, to rub my palms over them, but I don’t. I shove down my sleep shorts, panties included, and step out of them.
“Tin?”
He’s hungry for me. That much is clear from the way he licks his lips and his forearms flex as he clenches his hands opened and closed, but he doesn’t move. He doesn’t reach down and grip his straining cock or step closer.
“Tell me you love me,” he begs.
I have to look away. I’ve said those words to him so many times, and they were thrown back in my face. Tears burn the backs of my eyes because I know I can’t say them again.
Do I love him? God, more than anything. To myself, I can admit that despite my anger, I never stopped loving him. His love, what it felt like to be in his arms kept me from moving on, from having a real relationship after him.
“Can you, Tin?”
I still can’t bring myself to look at him, not when he walks past me, not when I hear him getting dressed, not when he leaves the room without a word.
Fat, hot tears roll down my cheeks unchecked. I know what Mom would say if she were here. She’d tell me to take a step back and look at the facts. She’d tell me that Ignacio has done nothing but help since he showed up, that all the things I thought he was doing to make things worse were conjured in my head and not based on facts.
She’d tell me that she could look at that man and see that he loves me, that he’s sorry for hurting me, that it hurt him too. She’d tell me he was so young, and made the wrong choice, and I shouldn’t hold that against him because I made a wrong choice by not telling him about Alex when I had the chance.
She’d tell me to forgive him, to risk my heart, giving it to him again because he won’t break it this time.
She’d tell me to stop being stubborn and to go get my man before someone else does.
I know she’d say all of those things.
And it feels like her hands on my back are urging me to fix things as I grab the closest article of clothing and tug it over my head, realizing with a smile that it’s Ignacio shirt he took off before his shower.
I pull the fabric up to my nose as I leave the room and go in search of him.
His back is to me when I enter the kitchen, shoulders slumped forward with this head hung low. I hate the sight of it. I want to go to him and wrap my arms around his waist. I want to tell him the words he wants to hear, but there’s still so many other things left unsaid.
“I may have only been eighteen, but I loved you with my entire heart,” I begin, losing some of my nerve when he turns around to face me. I straighten my back and continue. “I knew, just knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with you. When those two lines showed up on that test, I wasn’t sad or scared. I didn’t wonder how you would react. I didn’t regret being in that situation. I was happy, ecstatic, overjoyed to be facing that next step in our lives with you.”
I fight down the tears and do my best to keep going as he watches my face from across the room.
“You broke me that day. It’s like you ripped my heart from my chest and—”
“I thought I was doing the right—”
I hold my hand up. If he interrupts, I won’t be able to get this out.
“I know you thought you were doing the right thing, and I wish I could say the same. I’ve lied for years, telling myself that keeping Alex from you was the best thing for everyone. I listened to your words that night, not your actions. I can picture it in my head like it happened an hour ago instead of over thirteen years ago. I can see the pain in your eyes, the way your throat worked when you lied to me. I don’t know why I didn’t see it then. Why I didn’t challenge you just a little harder. Your love and devotion to me was in every action, every touch. Every time you looked at me, I felt it to my soul. But I’m stubborn.”
His head cocks to the side as if saying Duh, but he remains silent.
“I convinced myself that Alex would be better off without a man like you, and I know now that was another mistake. I know you would’ve been a great father. I know you would’ve moved heaven and earth to provide for us. I know this now, but back then I was hurt. I can make excuses, repeat the lies I told myself, but it all boils down to me being wrong.”
I pause, knowing what I need to say, what I want to say, but also knowing it has the power to change everything. If I say it, I have to let my walls down. I have to risk my heart, but I don’t think that’s the real challenge because he already owns it.
“I loved you at seventeen, and I love you now, Ignacio. I n-never stopped loving you.”
His eyes flash, bottom lip trembling slightly.
“Say it again.”
“I love you. I love you so much I don’t feel whole when you’re not around. I’m incomplete without you, and I don’t know what that says about my ability—”
His lips crush to mine so quickly, I don’t even register him moving across the room.
“W-wait.” I manage as I push at his chest.
“Tinley,” he growls, his hips pressing against me.
“I want the life you promised. I want to live here, and watch Alex grow up. I want it all, but I’m scared.”
His hand cups my jaw, dark eyes staring down at me. “I know you are, but I want you to know I’ll spend the rest of my life making up my mistakes to you, the rest of my life proving how precious you are to me.”
“You left again.”
“Left?”
“I would have given in to you, but you left, walked right past me and didn’t say a word. I had to find out from Alex that you were leaving Texas.”
He takes a step back, moving his arms to indicate various spots in his condo.
“I came back to pack. Fuck, Tinley. If you weren’t going to move to Missouri, I was moving to Texas. Leaving you, leaving Alex was never an option. Didn’t Alex tell you? I was due back next week.”
“He didn’t. I thought you were gone or working on taking him from me.”
“I would never—”
“I know that now, but I was convinced you were done, that every interaction had become more ammunition to get custody.”
“I love you. I wasn’t giving you up without a fight.”
I bite my lip to keep from smiling because although I was hoping that he’d say it, the confirmation makes my heart swell.
“I’ll prove that I’m not going anywhere. I’ll—”
“Just kiss me,” I whisper, and he does.
His lips press to mine, soft and thorough, the urgency he was feeling earlier slipping away until our mouths are melded together as if they are one.
“Tell me again,” he urges against my lips as he starts walking us backward.
I whisper I love you over and over and over until his bed is at the back of my thighs. My shirt disappears just as fast as his own clothes, and I sigh in relief when he lifts me to the center of the bed and settles between my thighs.
“God, you’re fucking perfect,” he praises, his eyes gliding down my body to where his thick cock slides wetly against my clit.
“Ig,” I groan, his name a plea.
“Patience, sweet girl.”
I moan again, nearly to the edge from him just sliding his cock against my pussy.
“Look at me,” he urges, and my eyes find his dark gaze. “Feel me.”
With a skillful move, he shifts his hips, his cock lining perfectly up with my entrance, and he enters me slowly. M
y mouth falls open, a soundless cry on my lips.
His perfect teeth dig into his lower lip as he seats himself fully inside of me.
Our eyes stay locked the entire time. We don’t look away when my legs wrap around his hips or when my back arches from one slow thrust after the next. They stay locked when my fingers dig into his back when I get close to coming. As if in a trance, I can’t even close them when they roll back as my body submits to him and the most powerful orgasm I’ve ever had tries to pull me from the earth.
“Tin,” he groans, the muscles in his back tensing against my fingers. “Fuck, baby.”
And he comes, too.
Chapter 37
Ignacio
“This is the best,” I tell Tinley as I pull her naked body closer.
Her head is on my chest, nimble fingers toying with the trail of hair on my lower abdomen, the simple action telling my cock to get ready for round two.
“I’ve missed you like this.”
“We didn’t get much time in a bed before.”
She chuckles, her breaths teasing across my over-heated skin.
“I don’t want you going back to Texas,” I say, chancing her pulling away.
The sex was phenomenal. It always has been, but I need more than just her body.
I’m done with keeping my mouth shut, with expecting her to know where my head is at.
“I hate it there. Alex hates it there.”
“I want you here in St. Louis with me.”
There. Straight-forward and to the point.
She grips me a little tighter, but the silence is killing me. I gently push at her shoulder, clutching her chin so she has to look at me.
“I want you here.”
She bites her kiss-swollen lips. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer about something before in my life. If you don’t like the condo, we can move somewhere else.”
“This condo is great.”
“Only two rooms, Tin. That puts you in my bed because I won’t spend another night on that god-awful couch.”
Truthfully, I’d sleep on the floor at the foot of the bed just to be near her, but I’m sure she gets my point.
“It is a comfortable bed.”