I got the job done though, and that’s all that matters.
This? Nothing I tell myself about this makes it any different. And trust me, I want it to be even if only to fool myself into believing that I’ll be okay when he leaves.
“Look, we can skirt around it and pretend it didn’t happen, or we can deal with it. I prefer dealing with it so that we can have sex later, but whatever, it’s your choice,” I say, juggling the hot plastic dishes as he sets the table and holds my chair for me.
He’s quiet for a long time as I pick at my dinner, just thinking before he looks up at me and sighs.
“I grew up in a great home. My mom and dad are like the crazy version of the perfect parents. Daddy works hard, and Mama likes to make a happy home. They’re great. But they’re a little nuts, too. They don’t live life by plans, not since Mama had a miscarriage years ago, about three years after my sister, Kinsley, was born.”
Oh God.
“I’m so sorry.”
He shrugs and shakes his head.
“It’s okay. It was just a thing that happened. They were always so on the ball and busy, you know? Until Mama lost the baby. They had every reason to be sad, but not Mama and Daddy. No, they got right back up and thanked God for what they did have. After that, it was a free-for-all. They’d watch something on TV and then just decide at the drop of a hat that we should all go on vacation or Mama would arrive home with a cake to celebrate a birthday that wasn’t actually happening.”
That sounds so great, and yet the look in his eyes tells a different story altogether. I wonder what that must have been like. Nana and I may not have been rich like the Jacobs seem to be, but she was a rock. I never had to wonder about things because they were always done. And she’d never have just expected me to drop something and hop-to because she had a hankering for something.
And just like that, I get it, like a lightbulb flickering to life.
“They were running from their sorrow.”
He smiles and squeezes my hand briefly before going back to staring at his food.
“You’re the first person who has ever understood that, you know? Even my sister never has, and she freaking lived with it daily. It used to drive her nuts.” He laughs, probably an inside joke I don’t get.
“She’s OCD and plans her life down to the underwear that she color-coordinates with her pants,” he explains.
“Yikes.”
“Yeah, anyway, that’s how we grew up. Our house was a happy place, one my friends loved because my mama is truly a great person. I had a happy life.”
But he learned never to settle anywhere because if he did, something bad might happen. I understand, but I don’t quite agree with him on that. I may have lost, suffered heartache, and gotten the short end of the tree trunk, but I don’t regret a thing about my life.
Sorrow only comes from experience if you open yourself to it, and while it sucks, it’s fleeting. Nana taught me that happiness can never exist without some misery, and I haven’t ever forgotten that.
It seems to me that Mr. Lexington Jacobs may be mimicking Mama and Daddy, thinking that he can skip the bad parts by never trying for the good.
“My nana was all I had, and trust me, some days that was not at all good. She was salty, I guess you could say. She had a job to do with me, and she damn well wouldn’t quit until it was done. She expected excellence from me because she expected it of herself, but I never once doubted that she saw me, you know? I was her number one.”
He smiles again and nods, letting me know that he gets it and goes back to choking down the lasagna, which tastes like a salt mine but is better than nothing.
I eat too, if only to keep myself occupied and sigh around every bite. It’s only when we’re done and I’m living on a glass of wine that he looks up and meets my gaze.
“I don’t want to settle down.”
“I never asked you to.”
“No, but I could, with you,” he admits quietly. “You’re a great woman, Rosetta. You’re smart and outgoing, and you say the weirdest things, but I like you. I’ve never let myself “like” a woman who isn’t attached, and that tells me that maybe I’m letting myself get too deep with you. It’s not that you’re not something I could want; it’s that I can see myself wanting more from you than some sex before I walk away. And the sex, too… I know I have to walk away eventually, and I don’t like it.”
“So don’t. Listen, we can be friends. It sucks a little, I won’t lie, because I like you too, and I so do not feel happy about letting you go when you’re so good in the bag.”
“Sack. Good in the sack.”
“Whatever. But I will. I may feel more for you than is smart and okay, so it hurts a bit thinking you’re going to just move onto to the next woman afterward, but I’m a realist as much as I want to be an optimist. We’re not at all suited. I live here, you don’t. I’m probably going to be unemployed in the next week or two, and you’ve got a job to do. I’m messy, you’re a neat freak. I get it, okay? What I don’t get is why you want to waste whatever time we have left sulking when we could be doing much better things,” I purr, pursing my lips to blow him a kiss.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Too bad, Jacobs, because I don’t really care. Hurt fades, and then you move on. It’s life. I’ll be fine, and besides, I’m not exactly ready to settle down either, you know?”
Lies! As if you didn’t name a baby just hours ago while you were pretending to sleep.
Shut the hell up and leave Gloria alone. She’s innocent in this you loser.
“You’re sure about that?” he asks doubtfully. “Women aren’t exactly known for their no-strings attitudes.”
“Please, I stopped dancing to that aria a long time ago, Lex.”
“Tune! Jesus, what is it with you and those sayings, woman?” he growls, making me chuckle.
“Nana and I used to have this contest. We’d mix a bunch of sayings together in the most ridiculous, nonsensical way. It was a thing, that’s all. I do it now because people laugh, eventually, and I like making people smile, Lex. That’s just me.”
“Come on then, clown. Let’s go burn up the night frill.” He laughs, making me giggle and high five his effort.
I may not have all that much time left, but I’m going to shove aside all my angst and fear and make the best of it. I have to, because as soon as I wipe my eyes clear, I’ll be alone in this house with nothing but myself and memories I’m probably going to regret.
Chapter Ten
Rosetta
“Oh God, right there.”
The mouth attached to my sex is wicked, knowing, and so damn hot I feel as if I could die happy before the orgasm even hits.
Lex is a sex machine, a God among men, the epitome of what a bad boy should be, and I should know, he’s been at me for the last four days without pause, taking me anywhere, at any time, whenever the mood strikes him.
And it’s only gotten better, if that’s even possible.
“Hmm, you’re wet,” he purrs, licking his way up from my opening all the way to my pulsing clit.
He strapped me to the bed an hour ago and started torturing me with pleasure: licking, sucking, and touching every inch of my oversensitive skin.
I love this side of him, the tender, wicked side, and I revel in it every chance I get, just basking in the knowledge that he can do this to me without even really trying.
He licks me again, and I moan, wiggling my hips to get more contact when he slicks his tongue away and goes back to sucking at my sheath. I want a hard, hot pounding, and yet it feels so good when he does this to me, as if he’s cherishing me in some way and building his own memories.
“You know what I like about this, baby?” he asks against my flesh, his eyes meeting my own. “You can’t do a thing but take whatever I give you.”
“Please do something.”
“This?”
His tongue burrows into me, and I feel my sheath quiver around the intrusion, trying
to pull him deeper for a more thorough penetration.
“What about this?” he asks when I moan loudly and pull against the silk ties keeping me pinned.
He moves up quickly and I scream when he latches onto my nub and sucks hard, the pressure intense and so welcome I come with a scream.
Once I can function again, just barely, I open my eyes and smile, looking up at him where he’s hovering over me, his shaft nuzzled into my wet heat.
“I love the sounds you make, Ro. I love that you aren’t bothered by feminine limits and that you let me do just what I want to you. Thank you,” he says solemnly, his blue eyes going soft when I smile and quirk a brow.
“Like I could resist you anyway? You’re like a sex machine, Lexington, and you’re all mine.”
That gets me a grin, and I’m smiling right back as he lowers his head and kisses me, softly, sweetly, putting all the emotion he never gave me before into that small contact.
This, I love, maybe even more than the sex. Lex can kiss me for hours without losing patience. He seems just as satisfied with necking as he is by getting his dick wet. I like that because it tells me I’m more than a warm body, even though he sometimes still fights it.
Last night for instance, he spent a good hour sucking at my mouth and licking at my lips and then did nothing more than wrap around me in bed and fall asleep plastered to my back.
That was my favorite, despite the arousal still gripping me. He just wanted to hold me. As if I mean something to him. I almost cried at one point, I was so touched until I realized that he’d freak out. I kept it in somehow and just enjoyed the feeling while it lasted.
Of course, he woke me later and pounded us both to a screamer of a climax. Come on, he’s a man after all, but the intention was there and I appreciated it.
“Hey. Stop thinking,” he growls, pulling his mouth from mine.
“Sorry, it’s your fault anyway, Lex. Is that erection going to take care of itself?” I ask, wiggling as much as my bound legs will let me.
He smiles evilly, and I yell out when he shifts unexpectedly and rams home in one thrust, grinning at my groan.
“This what you want, baby?”
“Yes.”
And more, I think sadly, pushing the melancholy away to focus on his face when he start pushing in and pulling out, his loving not slow but tender in a way.
The orgasm, when it hits, is a gentle crash—no less intense, but gentle enough that it brings tears to my eyes. He keeps eye contact even when he tenses and starts coming, groaning his pleasure in a long hiss.
“God, you’re perfect,” he moans, adjusting my legs to roll us, our bodies still connected as we catch our breaths.
“Well, duh, I get that a lot.” I giggle, snuggling into him.
“I’ve been thinking about this mess, and I hate to admit it, but you and my buddies are right. We can’t keep you locked away here forever. It’s been a week already, and he hasn’t made another move on you.”
I’m scared, but holding it down as I lay my chin on my hands and look up at him.
“I don’t like it either, Lex, not after Hussy and the car,” I admit. “But you know I’m right. We need to draw him out, and the only way that is happening is if I give him a chance to come at me again, which incidentally, is so doable because I have a party that I need to go to. My girl Lollipop is having her birthday bash at Oasis on the strip. It’s the perfect excuse to get out of the house and the security guys can blend into the crowd.”
He tenses a little but nods, looking annoyed at the prospect of going even though he knows I have a point.
“I guess, but you’ll obey my orders if we do this.”
“Yes!”
“I mean it, Rosetta. You do what I tell you to do and don’t move without me. You got it? While it could be to our advantage, going to a dark club could also get us into a lot of trouble. Logistically, it’s as much a nightmare as a good thing, so you have to promise to be on your best behavior, okay?”
“Pinkie vow.”
“Promise. Pinkie promise, woman,” he mutters, rolling me to his side before getting up and walking naked for the dresser where his phone is.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling in backup. I don’t trust Gino’s security after the last fuckup, and I damn well don’t trust those assholes not to get distracted by women.”
Oh goodie! I can finally meet some of his friends. I like Blaze the most from what he’s told me of his people, but I’m hard-crushing on Jericho, too.
The man is a teddy bear, though Lex assures me he’d kill a man for even glancing at his wife.
“Hey, it’s me. Yeah. Good. No, I need some backup.”
He trails off as he winks at me and walks out of the room, his beefy ass clenching and flexing with every step.
***
Lex
“This definitely sounds like a bad plan, man, though I agree with you and Rosie, it’s a good time to move,” Storm says quietly, his own anger at the situation coming through loud and clear.
“I get that, trust me. I’m not too excited about using a woman I actually like as bait. It’s a good enough plan though, as long as I can get two of the guys here to help me keep an eye on things.”
“No. Three. Jericho insists on coming, too. He says he’s dying to meet Rosie, and he’s been grounded for long enough that Cleo almost begged me to give him something to do. He’s driving us all nuts.”
I laugh at that. Jericho loves his wife and his home, but the man is not what you’d call easy. He likes his job and loves the danger and knowing that he is front and center in the action zone.
We’ve all been grounded for months now since Storm refused to send us out once the shooter appeared, and we got a hit on Zulu after the shooting at Evie’s designers’ ball thing, an event we attended when she received Designer of the Year.
When shots were fired and we managed to nab one of the shooters, we learned that someone was targeting our group. Storm was not happy about it, especially when every lead we followed came up empty.
It was pure luck on our part that Kinsley was involved in a military operation we did years ago, and she pointed us in the direction of the one enemy we had that got away from us.
My sister is a genius like that. Give her data, and she’ll come up with an answer for you. How she does it is a mystery, but I’m just glad we now know who to go after for answers.
Right now, I’m not even a little focused on that though. I’m all Rosetta, as I grab two bottles of water from the fridge and pause at the counter, soaking up the darkness and quiet that surrounds me.
“I need this over with, Storm. We have bigger fish to fry with the latest intel on Zulu coming in, and I want at that motherfucker so bad I can taste it. Get the guys over here pronto. I’m done waiting this asshole out.”
Storm grunts and sighs, his tone tired and definitely more than a little put out.
“Me too, man. Lenny is a month away from delivery, and I do not want any kid born into a situation where some fuck could come at us. I’ll get the guys to you ASAP, and then I want you all here so we can focus on this shit. King’s people in the CIA are waiting on anything we have for them. If Zulu doesn’t make a play for us, they’ll take him out free of charge, no questions asked.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting.”
I end the call and walk back to the bedroom slowly. My lips twitch when I walk in only to see Rosetta sprawled across the sheets, one ass cheek peeking at me while she snores softly.
What I feel for her at this point is so far beyond just “like” that it makes me sweat all over and turn cold, too. I more than like her, and as for the sex…phenomenal.
She’s uninhibited and gives me all of herself when we’re together, something that no woman has ever done. She doesn’t care that she’s not perfect. In fact, I think she kind of likes that about herself, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Rosetta, it’s that she’d rather be strange than run of the mill.
<
br /> As for the way she takes me over on those rare times that I give her the lead…it’s mind blowing. She revels in sex, in being connected and doing things to me that leave me gasping.
Yesterday, she took me down on the sofa and brought me to release with her mouth twice, her hunger for me a thing of awe-inspiring beauty. And she’s not bashful about that either. I never have to guess about her. She tells me she wants me without shame, and it’s refreshing to not have to be the only one who initiates sex.
I like being wanted so much that she sheds all inhibitions and just demands more. I don’t know how I’m going to leave this woman, and part of me, I have to admit, is yelling at me to stop this bait trap so that we have more time together.
It pains me to think that by the end of tomorrow night, I could be done here and ready to move on. I want more time, more…something, and as messed up as it sounds, part of me resents Rosetta for being this cool.
I dread clinginess as much as I wish that she would get clingy and demand more from me. Why doesn’t she want more? All women want more, especially when sex of this magnitude is involved.
Sure, she likes me. The woman is no slouch in the sharing department and even told me yesterday that if things were different, she’d likely tie me to her bed and keep me as a pet.
But she never asks for more. No, she just seems content to swan around taking what I give her and not needing me to make a commitment. Is it wrong of me to be annoyed that she won’t make things easier for me and put her foot down?
No, it’s cowardly, I think as I drain my water and turn off the light, slipping in to drag her soft skin against mine.
“Hmm, hey you,” she mumbles sleepily, turning into me with a sigh of contentment.
“Go back to sleep, baby.”
She does immediately, and I lie there for hours, planning, plotting, and wishing that things could be different.
Chapter Eleven
Rosetta
“You aren’t wearing that, lady!”
I roll my eyes at Lex and grin at the three men chuckling behind him, my patience at an end as the oaf glares at me.
THE WATCHERS: 6 Military Romance Bundle Page 70