It Happens

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Before I could so much as complain that he’d stopped, I found myself without not only his fingers but his cock as well.

  One second, I was on him, writhing and trying to find a good rhythm, and the next I was on my knees, face in the bed, and ass in the air.

  One of his hands was pushing me into the mattress while the other was hiking my hips up high.

  “Jesus Christ,” he said. “Just look at you.”

  I didn’t have that option, but it wouldn’t have mattered.

  I’d never found myself sexy. But him? It was more than obvious that he felt things about me that I didn’t think about myself.

  He made me feel sexy. With the looks he tossed in my direction. His words, both in and out of the bedroom. Hell, even his insults did it for me at this point.

  Once he was sure that I was going to stay where I was put, his hand left my head. Moments later, I felt his cock at my entrance and slowly pushing inside.

  “I like the way you felt without the condom,” I told him.

  There was a long, lengthy pause.

  Then he pulled out of me so abruptly I squeaked. I heard the snap of plastic.

  Seconds later, he was poised at my entrance, but he didn’t push inside.

  It was as if he was asking for permission before we crossed this particular line.

  In answer, I pushed back against him.

  He took that as answer enough and surged inside so hard and fast that I was pushed upward on the bed a good two inches.

  My knees even went up off the bed for a few short seconds.

  I moaned my reaction and clenched my fists into the bedspread, loving each and every second of his entrance into my body.

  “God, yes,” I pleaded. “More.”

  He gave me more.

  Then he spanked my ass.

  The stinging slap against my flesh sent a surge of wetness coursing over his invading cock.

  “Feels so good,” I told him. “God, why is it so hot?”

  And it was.

  He was hot, silky, smooth and thick.

  It was amazing.

  I shouldn’t be able to feel that much of a difference between a condom-covered cock and a bare one.

  Should I?

  But holy shit. Every single aspect of his invasion was different. Better. Hotter.

  God, I was already close to coming again, and he’d literally just made me come not even five minutes prior.

  He didn’t say a word as he took me. Just pumped that fat cock in and out of my depths, hard and fast.

  The sound of his hips meeting my ass filled the room along with our paired labored breathing. Not to mention his grunts and my moans.

  If we’d had neighbors, they would’ve definitely heard us. We were loud. We were also unapologetic.

  Something this good wasn’t something you apologized for.

  It was too right to be wrong.

  “Gonna come,” he said, sounding strained. “Please tell me you’re close.”

  Before I could open my mouth, his hand met my ass again, causing a loud smack to fill the room once again.

  And that ‘I’m about to come’ turned into ‘I’m fucking coming right the fuck now.’

  I clamped down so hard around him that I tore a curse straight out of his mouth.

  Seconds later, his cock started to jerk inside of me, and the added wetness only made his thrusting inside of me better.

  He came quietly while I practically wailed mine.

  And when it was all said and done, when the truth of our actions finally started to settle, I didn’t feel the panic that I might’ve at one point in time.

  Zee dropped down onto the bed beside me, pulling me with him to my side.

  Before his cock could fall free of me, he repositioned himself so that he was snugly ensconced inside of me. His body wrapped around mine until there wasn’t a single inch of his body from chest to mid-knee that wasn’t pressed up against me.

  “I tell myself that I should control myself,” he rumbled into the back of my neck. “That wasn’t smart. But…I don’t care. I really just don’t care.”

  I knew what he meant.

  I didn’t care either.

  I wanted him. I wanted everything he had to give.

  And that included that little bit of himself that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten if he’d been wearing the condom when he came.

  “The possibilities of anything happening are nil,” I told him honestly. “The doctor was adamant that it wouldn’t happen.” I paused. “I…the finality in the doctor’s words? I know I’ll never have kids.”

  He seemed to let those words sink in for a few short seconds before saying, “Do you want kids?”

  “Not…” I didn’t finish.

  “Not until me.”

  “Right,” I whispered. “I’m not sure I should feel this way,” I told him bluntly. “Me and you? We have a lot of history. So much history that it’s likely a shit idea that we’re even entertaining the possibility of anything more than just one more time.”

  He snorted. “Can you imagine if we go home and everyone sees us together?”

  I couldn’t.

  Eitan and me? Annmarie and Ezekiel?

  Shit. We were the town sweethearts.

  When you thought of one of us, you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from thinking of the other.

  Shit, but the one time that I’d had Zee pick me up off the side of the road where my car had broken down and take me to get my school schedule, everyone in our classes had lost their shit. Rumors had spread that we’d cheated…all over a stupid ride.

  I couldn’t imagine what would happen now if we were to go home and actually announce ourselves as a couple.

  “They’d lose their shit,” I said. “But, saying that, our fathers took it well. I don’t ever plan on going home…so….”

  He grunted out a reply. “I don’t either. I like it here—well, there. Where we’re supposed to be. There’s nothing in Arkansas for me anymore but ugly memories and what could have been. I won’t be going back except to visit.”

  My sentiments exactly.

  Feeling his breath on my shoulder, and his hand pressing back against my belly, ensuring that his still hard—how the hell was it still hard?—cock stayed firmly put inside of me, I couldn’t find it in me to want to be anywhere else but where I was.

  He softly bucked his hips, and I felt things inside of me start to stir again.

  Things that were thoroughly sated, yet incredibly greedy at the same time.

  How that was possible, one only knew.

  “Why is it that I always have to tell you to pay attention?” he growled, his mouth now at the back of my neck.

  His beard was tickling my shoulder, and I reached backward blindly so that I could bury my fingers in it.

  He’d grown it longer in recent months, and I found myself really digging the caveman look he had going on.

  He’d kept the sides just as trim, but the lower part of his beard was now upward of about four inches in length. Business at the top, and party on the bottom.

  I also loved the way it was so thick and rough—like a man should be.

  There was nothing soft about Ezekiel McGrew.

  Nothing.

  “What’s that look for?” he asked.

  I hadn’t even been aware that he was looking at me, but when he moved his body so that he could get a better look at my face, while also inadvertently pushing up inside of me just a wee bit deeper, he sure had my attention.

  “I was thinking about your beard,” I told him honestly, giving it a tiny squeeze.

  He grunted and bucked his hips once more.

  “What about it?” he asked.

  I licked my lips once more, tasting the saltiness that was coating them.

  “I was thinking that it probably smelled like me,” I answered truthfully. “And I was wondering if that bothered you.”
/>   He dropped a kiss to my shoulder. “I’m not sure why you would think smelling your pussy on my beard would ever bother me. In fact, maybe they should make a beard oil that smells like it. Then again, maybe not. I’d probably stay hard until it wore off or I washed it off.”

  I could do nothing but shake my head.

  My eyes grew heavy, and I yawned, long and loud.

  By the time I was done, he was laughing.

  “What?” I asked, eyes watering due to my lack of sleep.

  I’d normally have had a nap by then.

  Maybe sometimes even two.

  But today had been long and eventful, and one nap hadn’t happened, let alone two.

  “You,” he said quietly into the room.

  My eyes closed, and this time I couldn’t open them again.

  “What’s so funny about me?” I wondered, voice trailing off into a whisper.

  “Nothing, baby,” he growled. “Go to sleep.”

  I couldn’t help but comply.

  We fell asleep like that, him inside of me. Still hard.

  And when I woke up, an hour earlier than I would’ve wanted to the next morning, to him moving inside of me?

  Well, let’s just say it was the best wakeup call ever.

  Chapter 13

  One day, you’re going to see your girl eating a foot long coney and think, that’s her. She’s the one.

  -Zee explaining why he loves Jubilee

  Zee

  “Hello?” I answered tersely, tattoo gun in my hand and Rome’s massive bicep in the other.

  “Boy,” my father said into the phone. “We got a problem.”

  I sighed and leaned back, wiping a few drops of blood and ink off of Rome’s arm before saying, “And what’s that?”

  He growled something incoherent.

  “I need you to keep Jubilee there.”

  The words didn’t quite register, and my eyes locked with Rome’s.

  “You want me to what?” I asked in surprise.

  “I want you to keep her there for another few days,” my father repeated. “We found evidence that someone’s been living in her attic.”

  “Um, what?” I shook my head. “Like…someone that’s not her?”

  Had I heard him correctly?

  “Yeah, someone that’s not her,” Dad confirmed. “We’re not even sure that she knew that she had an attic. Pete asked her yesterday when he called to see if she wanted something done that was an easy fix, and he found out that the attic was locked when she moved in, and she hasn’t been able to open it.”

  I shuddered as horror washed over me.

  “She’s been living in a house where someone else has been living?” I asked, almost out of disbelief than for the affirmation. “And she didn’t even know? Or suspect anything?”

  “Yes,” he repeated. “Ask her yourself. See if you can find anything out without alerting her.”

  I just shook my head.

  “Is that all you found? What did you find?” I asked.

  There was a long pause, then my father said, “I would’ve told you in a heartbeat before I found out you were with her. Now I’m not quite so sure that you should know all the details.”

  That hung in the air for a few long seconds as we digested that little bit of knowledge.

  Then I said, “Well, Dad, how do you expect me to protect her if I don’t know what’s going on?”

  Silence.

  “Signs that he’s been living there for a while. Found a city newspaper up there from a few months ago. A stockpile of food. Trash. Clothes. Not many, but enough that he can change his clothes. Size large shirts and thirty-two thirty-four pants. So we’re looking for someone quite skinny and about six foot.”

  I swallowed hard as my father continued to speak, not realizing the turmoil that was rolling through me.

  “He has a bank full of cameras set up in there,” he finally said. “But none of them are pointing at her house but two. One at the front entrance, and one at the back. I guess to make sure he knew when she was and wasn’t home.” He paused. “But, saying that, there are holes drilled into the floor, so if he wanted, he could look through those to watch whatever she was doing in there, but for some reason I doubt that he does that seeing as he could’ve just as easily set up a camera to make it where he didn’t have to lie on the floor to look.”

  Like that made it any better.

  My hand clenched, and I stared unseeing in front of me, thinking about what I knew about Jubilee’s house.

  I’d been over there a handful of times, most of those times over the last week as I was helping install the security system and the cameras.

  “There’s a ladder underneath the back deck that I believe he uses. It’s one of those collapsible ones like they use in cases of emergencies. One that you can fold out and fold back in at the drop of a hat,” he said. “Comes in and out easy as pie.”

  “I heard Turner mention to Jubilee once that Jubilee’s place was haunted,” I said softly. “She said something about how her cell phone never worked when she went into the house. Maybe you should ask Turner.”

  Dad made an approving sound in the back of his throat.

  “I like that,” he muttered. “Plus, we can use Turner to help us keep her there while we do a little digging. We won’t be able to keep her there forever, but it could buy us just a few more days while we investigate further.”

  I agreed with him on that.

  But Jubilee wouldn’t stay away from her house or work for long. I’d give it another day and a half, max. Especially since she’d finished off the last dead person for her aunt about twenty minutes ago.

  She was literally being brought over by her uncle as we spoke.

  “I’ll figure something out,” I said, looking at Rome’s tattoo that I’d nearly completed over the last six hours.

  Normally I would’ve broken this session up in sessions, but since we were leaving, and I knew Rome wouldn’t want to wait another six weeks for his arm to heal enough for me to finish it, I kept going even though my hand was numb from holding the tattoo gun for so long.

  “Good,” Dad said. “I’ll let you know what Turner has to say.”

  Then he was gone, and I was left staring at Rome’s arm as a drop of blood started to roll down his bicep.

  “Well, shit,” Rome finally said, hanging up the phone for me.

  I wiped up the drop of blood with the towel I had in my hand and nodded.

  My stomach was in knots, and I wasn’t sure what to do about the feeling.

  I wasn’t used to caring at all.

  A text message came in before I could reply to him, and Rome held it out to me to see.

  The screen unlocked when my eyes made contact with it, and the text message popped up, causing me to curse.

  However, I knew that it could work.

  “What does it say?” Rome asked, not caring whether it was private or not.

  We were brothers, though not by blood. But blood didn’t make you family. How you treated each other did.

  And Rome was my family, just like I was his.

  “It says that I should take her home to Arkansas,” I said softly. “That her mother and mine will concoct a reason to go.”

  Liner, who’d come with Rome for moral support, said, “Thought you hated it there.”

  I did.

  “I do,” I repeated my thoughts. “My ex-wife is there, not to mention every single bad memory I ever had.”

  “Not to mention his ex-wife is a huge, gigantic bitch. He really doesn’t need to go up there and have to deal with her bullshit,” I heard from the doorway. “Plus, let’s not forget that’s where my sister and his brother died. It holds a lot of memories that are just better left repressed.”

  That was the truth.

  “Hey, baby,” I said as she walked into the room.

  Rome shifted so that my phone wasn’t visible to Jubilee who’d walked up b
ehind me and threw her arms around my neck, pressing her body up against my back.

  I felt things below my belt start to stir.

  “Hey,” she said softly, pressing a kiss to my neck before she leaned over even farther to get a look at Rome’s arm. “Wow, that looks amazing!”

  “I still have some shading to do,” I told her and Rome, who’d lifted his arm and rolled slightly so that Jubilee could see his entire arm extending over to his back. “And then I can take you out to eat.”

  “It looks amazing, like it’s real,” she whispered, her voice soft. “It’s so beautiful.”

  I felt something in my heart stretch awake at her praise.

  “Thanks, baby.” I gestured toward a chair across the room next to Liner. “Go have a seat. I’ll probably be another hour.”

  She walked over to the chair next to where Liner had been propped up and sat down.

  “Hello, Liner,” Jubilee said. “How are you tonight?”

  “Okay,” Liner answered, sounding almost distracted. His face was in his phone, as it had been for the last hour and a half, and he was texting someone furiously, back and forth. His face would take on a thunderous expression every few seconds before it would soften back to neutral. “How about you?”

  It was an absent question, I was sure. He hadn’t been expecting the full-on explanation of her bad day, because he stopped what he was doing and just looked at her as she unloaded on him.

  Causing me to want to laugh.

  “Well, I got all my dead people fixed up,” she started. “All put back together all nice and pretty. Then I got a call from my electric company. I called them about a week ago questioning my high bills. They got back to me and told me that I needed to check my house for answers. They told me that they saw a rise in meter activity about three months ago.” She sighed. “Then I got a call about my water bill. That’s up, too, and they’re threatening to shut it off because I didn’t pay enough this month to cover it. Usually I only send them thirty-five dollars. Whether it’s the right amount or not, because that’s usually enough to cover it. Only the last three months it hasn’t been.”

  My eyes met Rome’s.

  He was thinking the exact same thing that I was.