She sat back on her heels with a sexy pout, and Bo felt the tug of amusement all the way through his bones. This woman could easily wrap him around her finger if he allowed it.
“Who said you’re picking me up after work?” She crossed her arms over her chest, covering her glorious breasts.
Bo gave a warning growl and then threw her to the bed, pinning her hands to the mattress next to her head. He settled himself fully on top of her, pressing his hardness between her thighs. “I said I’m picking you up after work.”
Cheri arched, and then wrapped her legs around his waist. “I can feel how much you want to stay in bed with me.”
Bo rocked his hips forward, yearning for her heat. Fuck, he wanted to be inside her so bad. All he had to do was shove his pants down a couple of inches and he could drive home. He could take her so easily, give them both pleasure. He had to stick to his guns and do what he’d said. The fact he even considered it proved how quickly his control was slipping.
“Bo, kiss me.” She licked her lips provocatively and his cock pulsed in response.
The vixen knew exactly how much he wanted her, and whether she realized it or not, she was trying to use sex to get him to do what she wanted.
Bo allowed his lips to quirk up in a slight smile and pressed a gentle kiss to her mouth. “How bad do you want me to kiss you?”
“So bad,” she breathed out.
“Hold on to the headboard.” He waited until she complied and then scooted down the bed, shoved her legs apart and pressed a kiss right on her silken folds. Mmmm, she tasted like sex. “You want me to kiss you here?” He taunted.
“Yes!” Her hips bucked and he slid his hands beneath her butt holding her up and open.
Without giving her any more warning, Bo lowered his head and devoured her, licking her from the bottom of her slit to the top, lapping up her juices. She bucked and writhed in his grip, already close to losing control, which was exactly how he wanted her. He sucked her into his mouth and nipped gently, reading her every move, her every whimper and shudder. “Is this what you wanted, Cheri?”
“Yes! Don’t stop.”
She had a white-knuckle grip on the headboard. Her head was thrown back, eyes shut. He knew if he licked her one more time, she’d go straight over the edge.
Bo stopped and sat back on his heels, waiting patiently for her to look at him, and when she did, he nearly lost it. Her emerald eyes were glazed with unchecked desire, her body flushed pink with arousal. Fuck, her sexiness nearly undid him.
“Come on, Bo.” Cheri groaned and arched her entire body off the bed.
“You got five minutes. Get dressed and meet me at the front door.”
It took a second before her eyes widened with realization. She bounded off the bed, standing in all her naked glory, staring daggers. “You can’t be serious.”
Bo unfolded himself from the bed and got to his feet, cupping her cheek in his hand before pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. “You taste yourself? I do. You taste like heaven. I’m going to work all day with your sweet juices coating my tongue.”
She tried to throw her arms around his neck. Bo immediately stepped back, putting a good two feet between them. He might be in control, but he wasn’t a fucking saint. His limits neared and he knew if he didn’t get out of there in the next second, his resolution would crumble and he would take her. Again.
“Bo, you can’t do this to me.”
Bo held her gaze for a moment longer. “Yes, I can.”
“Fine. I’ll take care of myself.”
“You touch my pussy, I’ll make you regret it.” He pointed to the bathroom. “Five minutes.”
20
He actually left.
He made her get dressed and dropped her ass off at the house, knowing how badly she ached.
She’d deliberated for more than a few minutes in the shower about finishing the job on her own, but she couldn’t quite make herself do it. For some reason beyond her comprehension, she knew her orgasm belonged to Bo Lawson.
Cheri yanked the brush through her hair a little bit harder than necessary and winced when she snagged a tangle. Tossing her brush to the counter, she applied a light layer of makeup and her favorite cherry flavored lip-gloss, her hands shaking with frustration.
I’ll taste you all day. Bo’s words roared through her mind. She was wearing lip gloss, and Bo was wearing her.
Fuck. She was so turned on she couldn’t even be mad at him. It was like her body had been put into overdrive, and all she could do was feel. Feel how her breasts ached. How her clit throbbed. Even her skin tingled.
She looked at the clothes laid out on her bed. Just the thought of putting anything on her sensitive skin was torture.
She glanced at her bed. Her vibrator practically screamed her name. She’d made it three steps and stopped. Although the last one he’d given her had rocked her entire world, she knew Bo always kept his promises. And he said she’d regret it; this was one time she wouldn’t push his limit.
But it didn’t mean she couldn’t make him regret his decision.
Cheri walked to her closet, ignoring the cut-offs and tank top on her bed. When Bo picked her up tonight, she’d make him forget everything except her. She had a deep green dress she’d been saving for a special occasion.
Making Bo Lawson lose his precious control was a major occasion.
Cheri practically skipped through the living room on her way to the kitchen to grab a soda.
“That’s the kind of outfit the girl wears when she’s trying to get her a man.”
Ginger Burnell. She had the kind of voice that made nails on a chalk board sound pleasant. And right now, she was stretched out on Cheri’s couch in an outfit worthy of the trailer trash version of the Victoria’s Secret Runway.
“You’re a fine one to talk about someone else’s clothing dressed like that.” Cheri shoved a fist on her hip and lifted her chin, pinning Ginger with a glare. Ginger was the kind of girl who made women instinctively run for their men and cover their eyes. No man was off the table as far she was concerned, despite the fact she’d been married for nearly ten years.
Ginger ran a long purple and gold fingernail down the center of her chest, and smiled, her dark plum lip liner stretching out over lips painted five shades lighter. “Oh honey, I already got me a man.”
Which reminded Cheri of the fact Lamont hadn’t broken it off like he‘d promised. Men. Show him a nice pair of tits and they became putty in your hands, not that she would ever classify Ginger’s tits as nice. “You need to leave my cousin alone. You’re nothing but trouble for him and you know it.”
Ginger kept her wanna-be seductive smile in place but her eyes glittered. “And you need to stop acting like his mother and keep your nosy ass out of our business.” Ginger unfolded her long skinny legs, rising from the couch. “Me and Lamont’s got something special, and I ain’t gonna let you mess it up.”
Cheri took a threatening step forward. She’d always known Ginger had the heart of a whore. It wasn’t like she had anything against whores, unless they were out to suck you dry and move on to the next man as was Ginger’s case time and time again. “Do I look like someone’s mama?”
Ginger gave her a once-over. “No, you look like a little girl trying to act like she’s grown up.” Ginger took a threatening step in Cheri’s direction. “Now run along back to making googly eyes at the sheriff while he keeps on ignoring you.”
Anger pulsed through Cheri’s veins so hot she was surprised the living room didn’t catch on fire. A real woman would keep relationships to herself, unlike Ginger who’d blasted hers all over the state, despite the fact she was married. If it didn’t mean Ginger would win, Cheri might keep her night with Bo a secret. “That’s funny since I spent last night with Bo. Guess I finally got my wish.”
Ginger blinked and then quickly recovered, rolling her shoulders. “I’m glad for you honey; the man is divine in bed.”
A punch of shock hit her first, followe
d immediately by disgust. She might not have been with Bo for long, but she’d known him long enough to know he wouldn’t wipe his feet on someone like her. “You and I both know Bo doesn’t even know you’re alive, except for the fact that your husband keeps calling looking for your ho ass while you’re banging other men. Why don’t you do everyone in this town a favor and go buy some duct tape and wrap it around your knees.”
“Bitch! You can’t talk to me like that. Lamont? Come get your cousin before I claw her eyes out!” Ginger shook her head as she spoke like a rooster getting ready for cockfight.
Lamont poked his head out of the bedroom, took one look at the two women facing off and immediately disappeared back inside.
“Lamont!” Cheri and Ginger screamed at the same time.
He poked his head around the corner and then stepped just outside the door and lifted his hands up in surrender.
“Cheri, I can explain.”
“I’d be real interested to hear your explanation right now. You promised you were done with her. Can’t you see she’s poison?”
“Lamont, sugar.” Ginger slinked right past Cheri, draping her arm around Lamont’s shoulder. “Tell her how much you love me. How much you can’t live without me.”
Before Lamont could open his mouth, Cheri interrupted, “Just like your husband said at your wedding.”
Ginger shot her an evil stare.
Lamont, to his credit, peeled her arms off him before answering. “Listen Cheri, I gotta talk to you. Some shit’s gone down you need to know about.”
Cheri was pissed off to hear anything except what she wanted to hear, which didn’t include the excuse he had at the ready. “I’m not talking about anything until you get this piece of trash out of my house before she spreads her STDs all over my furniture.”
Cheri knew she was trying to goad Ginger into a fight. Hell, she wanted any excuse to lay hands on her and literally throw her out the front door. A classy girl wouldn’t say things like that. Too bad I’m not classy.
Cheri continued, “Go on and tell him, Ginger. I saw you walking into the county health office last week. What do you have now? Crabs?”
Pure adrenaline blasted through her veins, and she braced herself, sure her taunt would push Ginger right over the edge of reason. But Ginger took it one step further in a move that left Cheri reeling in shock.
She took Lamont’s hand and placed it over her hollowed out stomach, and then she gave Cheri a smile that could skin a cat. “Lamont, honey, you want to tell your nosy bitch of a cousin why I went to DHS last week or should I?”
Lamont paled considerably and swallowed in a huge gulp.
“Tell me what?”
Ginger lifted her chin. “We’re gonna have a baby.”
The floor dropped out from beneath her feet.
“Cheri, I was gonna tell you. Ginger left Stan. Me and her, we’re getting married. Gonna make a family.”
Cheri had to strain to hear Lamont over the loud roaring in her ears. He was leaving and marrying Ginger? “How do you even know it’s yours?”
“Oh, it’s his. Everybody in this town knows I’ve only been with Lamont for months now.”
Cheri held up a hand. “I’m not talking to you.”
“You better learn how really quick, otherwise you won’t be talking to Lamont either. It’s not healthy for a child to be around family members who fight all the time. And from what Lamont tells me, I think you know that.”
The ringing in her ears intensified as she turned hollow eyes on her cousin. “You told her about our family?”
“Chère…” Lamont spoke with his deep Cajun drawl he’d always used to soothe her when she was upset, only right now, it didn’t have the least effect on the well of despair opening up inside her.
“You told this bitch about our family?” Cheri couldn’t help the rising note of anger in her voice. She and Lamont had made a pact when they left Louisiana never to talk about their pasts.
“Chère,” Lamont said a little bit more forcefully this time, “I love her and she’s having my baby. I ain’t about to do to her what my daddy did to my mama; you and I both know it. I’m going to raise my boy up right, surround him with so much love he’ll never know about any hurt in this world.”
How could she… What could she… Why? “Lamont, you need to have a paternity test. You know she hasn’t been faithful to you just like she hasn’t been faithful to her husband.”
Lamont’s gaze hardened in a way she hadn’t seen since he’d stepped between Cheri and her father’s fist for the last time. “He’s mine.” Lamont put a possessive arm around Ginger and she practically climbed in his lap.
She fought the ensuing wave of nausea. She couldn’t give up. Not when she knew Ginger would be Lamont’s downfall. She might not cause it right now, but disaster sure as shit would be coming like a freight train down the track. “Prove you’re pregnant. Let me see the test.”
“With pleasure.” Ginger tilted her head to the side and pulled a small slip of paper out of her back pocket and held it out.
Cheri approached the little piece of paper like she would a coiled snake, unable to control the trembling in her hand when she took the paper and unfolded it. A sonogram.
Her fingers went numb.
No. She refused to believe it was Lamont’s. Tears stung the back of her eyes. She ground her teeth together and shoved the paper back into Ginger’s waiting hand.
“Lamont, this doesn’t prove anything other than this woman is capable of reproducing life.” Cheri cast a scathing glance at Ginger. “Something God shouldn’t allow her to do. Think. If you don’t have a paternity test, and you find out years down the road the baby isn’t yours, how’s he going to be when you walk out the door? He’s gonna be just like you were without your father.”
Straight up fury flashed in Lamont’s green eyes and Cheri knew in that instant she should have kept her mouth shut. The slowly building pit of dread in her stomach turned to fear.
“Then he won’t ever know I’m not his daddy. I would never do that to a child. I don’t care who his daddy is. I’ll do whatever it takes to give him the life we never had, and won’t hear another word against it.”
Cheri looked desperately back and forth between the two, feeling the battle slip through her fingers. If she didn’t accept Ginger, she might lose the only family she had. But if she did accept her, she’d lose Lamont in the end anyway. “I… I don’t… I need to think.”
Lamont’s gaze softened incrementally. “I know it’s a lot, chère. But if you love me, you’ll find a way.”
Tears escaped out of the corners of her eyes, and Cheri angrily wiped them away with the heels of her palms, hating that Ginger had seen her weakness. She managed a nod, but her constricted throat wouldn’t allow any words to escape.
This wasn’t the end.
She would find a way to prove Ginger lied. She knew Ginger was lying, she could feel it in her bones. She just needed a little bit of time to figure out how.
“Have you told Stan?”
Ginger wrapped her hand provocatively over Lamont’s chest. “He didn’t care, of course.”
Cheri blinked rapidly and fought the pang of sympathy her words invoked. Ginger had married a man who cared more about oil fields than her.
Ginger slid a hand suggestively down Lamont’s abdomen and leaned in to whisper loud enough for Cheri to hear every word. “Can’t you get rid of her so we can have some alone time?”
Any sympathy Cheri felt disappeared. The bitch had probably slept with another man on her wedding night. “Can you give me a ride to work, Lamont?”
Ginger glared at her again, and Cheri pointedly ignored her, staring stared directly at Lamont, desperately hoping he would choose her over Ginger this one time. She knew she was pathetic, but she just needed…she just needed her family.
“Sure. Give me a couple of minutes.”
21
The next few hours at work passed by in a blur of Sunday night rush
crowd and didn’t slow down until about ten o’clock. Cheri took a quick break from the bar and went to check on Lamont. She hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to him all night, and she knew once he left, he’d go straight back to Ginger’s arms.
Her guilt had started eating at her about two hours ago. She wanted Lamont to be happy. She wanted him to have a family. He was a good man. He’d be a great father.
If there really was a baby growing in Ginger’s belly, it wasn’t Lamont’s. Now she just had to figure out how to convince her cousin of that fact. She’d heard enough rumors working behind the bar to know Ginger had never been faithful to any man. Not her husband. And especially not Lamont.
She’d never thought it was an important enough piece of info to share with him because he’d slept around on Ginger just as much. She’d never imagined a situation like this.
She breezed through the kitchen doors. “I’m starving.”
Lamont jumped and slammed the dishwasher shut and spun to face her. She didn’t miss that split second where his eyes had widened before he plastered on a fake smile. “Why are you messing with the dishwasher? Didn’t you say it broke a couple of months ago?”
“Yeah, just figured I’d see if I could fix it. Getting tired of washing those dishes by hand.”
The sink sat dry and empty to his right.
“Did you figure out what’s wrong?” She edged closer.
Lamont snatched a black bandanna out of the front pocket of his apron, wiped his face and shoved it back in place before answering, “Oh yeah, I forgot. Sorry. Crazy day, you know?”
“Tell me about it.” She snorted and rolled her eyes.
Lamont broke into a grin. “We’ll work it out, chère.”
Tears pricked the back of her eyes. Ugh. She never cried. “I can’t think about losing you. You were the only one who was ever there for me.”
Her throat closed, cutting off her words as more tears spilled. She was turning into a complete loser crying like this. She had to stop.
“And I still will be. But I got to be there for my baby, too. I’m man enough to admit I don’t love Ginger, but I love the child growing inside her.” Lamont closed the gap between them and took her into his arms.
Relentless River: Men of Mercy, Book 10 Page 13