As we drove home, he told me about what happened.
I winced when he got to the part about Patman getting his face punched.
“Did you know that your mom, dad, and Patman used to have this like, love triangle thing going on?” he asked. “I think that’s why he was so mean to you. You probably look like her when she was younger, don’t you?”
I did.
“I guess,” I admitted, feeling something uneasy start to fill me at Sammy’s words.
I’d have to call them later and find out.
Because I did not like where this was going.
“You can’t file charges anymore.” Sammy sighed dramatically. “Apparently your assault gets canceled out by my assault. If I want to keep my job.”
My mouth fell open.
“You were at risk for losing your job?” I gasped.
He shrugged. “Worth it.”
I thought about all that as I drove home, pulling into not Sammy’s driveway, but my own.
I didn’t miss the beautiful brunette that was across the street pulling a box of what looked like barbeque out of her back seat, though.
She turned with a friendly smile when I got out. That friendly smile fell off her face slightly at the sight of her son waving at her behind me.
“Mama!” he called out. “You’re going to be a grandma!”
I felt my face flame.
That was also when I realized that there were quite a few people out in front of their houses.
It was shift change. Some were getting home at the same time that others were leaving.
Son of a bitch.
“Sammy,” I hissed. “Put a sock in it!”
Sammy smiled and moved clumsily around the car, as if he wasn’t quite used to his large feet.
He walked right up to his mother and asked, “Are you happy?”
Mercy’s eyes went from me to Sammy and back.
“Umm,” she said. “Is it true?”
He whipped around and put his hands out like Vanna White presenting a fucking car.
“Yes, it’s true!” he cried. “I’m going to be a daddy!”
Mercy’s eyes started to water as her mouth fell open.
“Is it true?” she asked, turning to focus solely on me.
I sucked it up.
She would’ve had to figure it out eventually.
Though, just sayin’, but I would’ve liked to be introduced first.
“Yes,” I answered, thankfully getting through that one word without adding anything bad onto it.
“Oh, sweet Jesus.” She placed her hand over her mouth as tears started to roll down her cheek. “I’m going to be a grandma?”
“Yes, Dad?” I heard Sammy say. “I’m going to be a daddy. You’re going to be a granddad. Sierra and Blue are going to be aunts. Are you fuckin’ stoked or what?”
I snatched the phone away from his ear and handed it to Mercy who took it and placed it to her ear.
She was still crying as she spoke low to the man on the phone.
“Let’s get you inside, chatterbox,” I growled, taking him by the arm and leading him to his house. “Keys.”
Sammy reached for them and offered them to me. Just as he did, he turned to yell at his mother.
“And she writes about sex!” he called out. “You might have heard of her. She’s an author. Of sex.”
I closed my eyes as a wave of horror washed over me.
Just as I was sliding the key into the lock, he said, “The key to my heart is on there, too. You can keep it.”
The irritation I felt at his announcing to everyone that I was pregnant and that I wrote about sex was quickly washed away.
“What am I going to do with you?” I asked seriously.
He pushed open the door to his place and I winced at all the laundry everywhere, just like I did yesterday.
“You’re going to keep me. Forever,” he ordered, sounding stern.
Then he collapsed onto the couch and instantly fell asleep.
Just. Like. That.
I sighed and stood there with my hands on my hips for a few long seconds before I heard Mercy enter the room behind me.
“It’s not his fault,” she said softly as she closed the door. “He has really, really bad reactions to the meds. And this was likely only Vicodin. You have no clue what he does on actual anesthesia. Jesus. When he was fifteen, he had to have his tonsils out. He announced to everyone in the room that he was a product of almost-maybe not-possibly so-rape.”
My mouth fell open.
“That’s a story for another time,” she said. “I’ll tell you about it when he’s not about to wake up and start putting in his two cents. But, needless to say, he’s not a product of rape.” She winced. “But yeah, he announced it to the entire operating room, apparently. And when they got him out, a nurse asked if I needed help getting away from my husband.”
I slapped my hands on my face. “He didn’t.”
“He did,” she confirmed.
I shook my head. “That’s… wow.”
She smiled at her son who was on the couch looking as if he hadn’t just embarrassed the crap out of me.
“My son tells me you’re an author, but he didn’t tell me what pseudonym you write under,” Mercy said a few seconds later. “I read romance. Maybe I’ve heard of you.”
I scrunched my face up as my heart started to pound. “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!”
Mercy grinned at me. “Don’t be nervous. I swear, I’m totally normal. I won’t stalk you at all.”
A burst of laughter escaped me.
“It’s not that.” I shook my head. “Just the idea of you reading my books makes me kind of nervous. I’ve been observing these hot guys lately, and my books have gotten a little racier than they used to be.”
Then a thought occurred to me.
“You didn’t… do you know about me?” I asked. “My Tourette’s?”
She hadn’t looked at me oddly or anything.
And she didn’t react to my weird comment—at least what appeared to be weird to the person that didn’t know that I had Tourette’s. I hadn’t had to introduce myself when we’d met.
Mercy’s lips turned up at the corners as she smiled softly.
“I do. He’s had a lot to say about you.” Her eyes took in the room around us. “He’s such a fucking slob.”
I snorted then and bent over to pick up a couple of shirts that were near my feet.
“I did a few of his socks yesterday,” I admitted. “I think he just buys new socks instead of putting the old ones together.”
Mercy snorted and picked up a pair of jeans by her feet.
“You’d be right.” She paused next to a pair of underwear, and instead of picking those up, she kicked them into the kitchen.
I followed her, babbling on about my pen name, when I started writing, and what my next book was going to be.
“So he talked about me?” I questioned.
She looked at me.
“A lot. All about this beautiful neighbor of his that walked away with his heart,” she confessed. “He’s talked a lot about you over the last couple months. You going to Alaska threw him for a loop. And you ignoring him.” She started to snicker. “I think that’s the best thing you could’ve done, and I’m sure you didn’t even realize it.”
I scratched my head. “How’s that?”
“My son is a…” She paused. “He’s a really good kid. To be honest, he’s always been rather sedate compared to my husband and my daughter. Or hell, even his cousins. He doesn’t like to go out and party. He’s a stay at home and relax kind of guy. He’s had his share of girlfriends and all, but they never kept his interest enough to get him to do things outside of his comfort zone. You, though? You had him going crazy. He told me about you about a week after you left for Alaska, asked me what he should do. Then, over the next couple of weeks, I think I saw him more than I
have in the last year. He was frustrated. Grumpy. And totally and irrevocably caught, if you catch my drift. You piqued his interest, and with you being gone, you made him think.”
I licked my lips as cautious hope started to fill me.
Last night, Sammy had admitted quite a few things to me.
Basically, he wanted to try to make this work.
I wanted this to work.
I wanted there to be an us.
Though this baby was a big deal, I wanted the baby’s parents to have a relationship.
I wanted a partner. A lover. A person to call my own.
I didn’t want just a baby daddy.
Because I had a feeling if that was all that Sammy was to me, I would be miserable.
Sammy had piqued my interest, too. I felt things for him that I only ever wrote about in my books. Things that I’d never thought to feel in real life. Things that I thought weren’t freakin’ real.
“I have to admit, though.” She looked at me curiously. “I didn’t think that you’d be pregnant. I thought you’d come back and give him a hard time. Make him work for it.”
I snorted. “I can still make him work for it.”
She kicked the underwear into the laundry room, then went to the dryer.
Pulling it open, she said, “Just don’t make him work too hard. I know that he’s really into you.”
My eyes were likely sparkling as I said, “I don’t think I could if I tried. Sammy is really persuasive.”
It was hours later after Mercy finally went home.
Luckily after Sammy’s nap, the buzz had finally worn off for him. He was close to normal.
And embarrassed because he remembered everything that he said and did, apparently.
“Bye, Mom,” he murmured, giving her a hard squeeze as he lifted her off of her feet slightly.
Mercy placed both of her hands on either side of his face.
“We’ll talk about this new grandchild of mine this weekend when y’all come for dinner.” She turned her gaze to me. “You’ll be coming.”
I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face. “Of course.”
She winked. “And I’ll be looking you up. Thank you for giving me your author name.”
My face flamed a bit. “Just promise that the one I’m writing now, you’ll never read.”
She rolled her eyes. “I promised, didn’t I?”
She had.
But I wanted to double and triple check that she’d heard me.
There were things in this book that I knew she likely wouldn’t like.
Because basically, I was writing mine and Sammy’s love story.
There were just some things that I didn’t want to share with a man’s mom.
“Take care, Mom,” Sammy said as he followed her out on the porch.
Together we stood there as she walked to her car. And only when she got in and drove off did Sammy turn to me with a remorseful look on his face.
“I am so, so, so sorry.” He groaned, covering his face with his hands.
I moved into his big body and wrapped my arms around his chest.
“So, before we go to your parents’ place for dinner this weekend, we’ll stop by mine for lunch.” I winced. “I need to tell them about this…” I placed my hand over my belly. “And I need to talk to them about Patman.”
Sammy curled his fingers through my hair as he said, “I know I said yesterday that I wanted to take it slow.”
My brows went up to my hairline.
“But I don’t think that I can.”
Chapter 16
Dead inside but caffeinated.
-T-shirt
Sammy
“Are we talking about sex? Or something else?” she asked curiously, her hand moving to rest on my belly right above my belt buckle.
My abs tightened in response to her hand coming to rest where it did.
“I was talking about our relationship,” I admitted. “But sex sounds wonderful, too.”
Laughter shone in her eyes as she moved until she was pressing against me from crotch to chest. Her face was only inches away from mine as she stood on her tiptoes, so I took advantage of it and dropped my mouth to hers.
I hadn’t intended for this to be where this took us. I’d wanted to talk about other things. Other things that had her moving in with me, or me moving in with her.
I knew that it was fast.
Hell, it’d been like a few weeks total that we’d known each other.
But I didn’t want to miss a freakin’ thing.
I wanted to be there when she woke up. I wanted to be around if she had a question about her book. I wanted to be there.
But most importantly, I wanted to be there to witness all the firsts.
The first time that she noticed her baby bump. The first time that she felt the baby kick. The first time that she smiled at me from across the pillow after I stayed the night.
I wanted her.
I wanted her bad.
And it was obvious in the way I pressed against her in response to her hand’s position at my belt.
“Let’s do sex first.” She laughed against my lips before running her tongue along the seam. “Then we can talk relationship after.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said as I bent down and scooped her up.
It was kind of awkward at first as I carried her into my bedroom, but she didn’t say anything about the wobble as I found a comfortable place for my cast, and neither did I.
Instead, she moved to press her lips against my throat, slowly licking over the pulse along my neck.
When we got to the bedroom, I dropped her onto the bed and growled as I saw her tits bounce.
“At least I didn’t say anything about these,” I teased as I tugged the shirt away from her skin and allowed it to pop back. My shirt, might I add.
“No,” she scoffed. “But you might as well have. You totally fondled my boob when we got out of the car.”
I had. I remembered.
Because I’d noticed that her breasts were unbound.
Would anybody blame me? I mean, she had perfect tits.
I slowly lifted the polo shirt off over my head and she groaned when my skin was revealed to her hungry eyes.
I felt my nipples tighten at her attention and knew that she was just as impressed with my body as I was hers.
Following suit, she slowly tugged my t-shirt off over her head and allowed it to drop onto the bed beside her. She bit her lip as she raised her brow as if to say silently, “You next.”
I reached for my belt, slowly slipping it free of the hook before completely pulling it free of my pants, all while using one hand.
Her eyes went hot at the show I’d inadvertently put on.
“More,” she ordered. “I’m not wearing anything under these leggings. You have more to take off than I do.”
My eyes zeroed in on her mound which was covered by the thinnest of material she called leggings.
“You’re not?” I asked as I got to work on my pants.
She shook her head as she watched me work the button and zipper down on my jeans, then sit down on the bed so that I could get my boots off without falling over.
I wasn’t saying that I was completely recovered from my drug-induced euphoria from hours before, but I was better. That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t fall flat on my face if I tried to balance on one foot as I unlaced my boots.
She took pity on me and bent down to help me finish undressing, standing up once my feet were bare of boots and socks.
I took advantage of her closeness by wrapping one arm around her waist and tugging her to me.
She moaned when my mouth found her collarbone and sucked.
“Touch me, Sammy.” She groaned. “Touch me everywhere.”
I did, running my fingers over the length of her sides, loving the way her soft skin felt underneath my calloused hands.
Scooting
down until her mound was in line with my face, I took my first swipe of her flesh.
She gasped and bowed, her body reacting violently at the feel of my tongue against her overheated core.
“Holy shit,” she breathed, her back coming back down to rest against my soft, coral duvet cover.
I hadn’t picked the color ‘coral’ out. My mom had. But now I could definitely see the appeal of the color.
Hastings’ tanned skin against the bright orangish, pinkish, whatever the fuck color it was a mix between, looked divine.
Like I wanted to lick my tongue over every single inch of skin she had available to me.
But there was enough time for that later.
Right now, I wanted to run my tongue over more special things. More interesting and responsive things.
Like her clit.
Which I did in the next second.
Dragging the flat of my tongue over the bundle of nerves, she hissed a breath and latched onto my hair, her fingers spearing into my scalp, tangling in the longish curls.
I’d always hated my hair.
I hated cutting it.
I hated that it grew so fast.
And I hated it being long.
It was a vicious cycle.
But with my hair the length that it was, I could see how it would be a good thing to have something that she could sink her fingers into. Something that she could hold onto while my mouth devoured her pussy. While my cock sank into her tight, sweet heat.
I groaned just as she cried out when my tongue met her tiny bundle of nerves all over again.
I laughed when she made me chase it, flattening one forearm over her lower belly to hold her in place while I devoured her.
It was only when she was a quivering, crying out mess that I took pity on her and reared up.
Seconds later, my cock was at her entrance and I was pushing inside.
“Fuuuuck,” I groaned at the feel of her tight, hot and wet surrounding me.
I’d never, not ever felt something so beautifully right before in my life.
I groaned, burying my face into the crook of her neck as I pumped slowly into her heat. Over and over again, so fucking slow that it was probably killing us both.
Her gasping breaths were making my balls draw up, and I couldn’t help speeding up a bit when I felt her inner walls start to clench.
Say It Ain't So (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 9) Page 14