by Lane Hart
“Good,” I reply. “He’s been inside for too long.”
“No shit,” Sax mutters. “So long that, if I had to guess, things are gonna be rocky for him when he gets out.”
“Yeah, I bet you’re right,” I agree. A lot has changed over the past five years with the Savage Kings. Ian has been out of the loop for a long time, so it will take time before he feels back to normal.
“I’ll call the governor now and tell him your decision. No chance you’ll change your mind in the morning, is there?” Sax asks. “If we wait too long, he’ll leave, and then there’s no telling how long it will take to track the bastard down again.”
“I’m good,” I say as I watch Ruby’s heavy eyelids drift closed as she finishes off her bottle.
I end the call and then put my phone away to sit up a milk drunk, sleepy baby and get her to burp before placing her back in the center of her crib.
“Goodnight, sweetheart,” I whisper to her as I smooth down one of her stray, brown curls.
Back in the dark bedroom, I try to undress quietly so I don’t wake Liz, but as I slip underneath the covers, she says, “Everything okay? I heard the phone.”
“Sorry,” I reply softly as I slide over to her, throwing my arm around her waist to pull the front of her body closer to mine. “It was Sax. They found the bomber.”
Liz sits up at that statement. “And?” she asks.
“The Morehead City police are going to arrest him,” I tell her.
“Really?” she asks.
“Yeah, you were right. I don’t need his blood on my hands,” I tell her as I pull her back down to the mattress.
“Thank you,” she breathes before her lips press to the corner of my mouth, searching for me in the pitch black. Her lips then lead to tongue and her tongue leads to her jerking my boxer briefs off.
“It’s late and you have to be up early for work,” I remind her.
“I don’t care,” she replies as she climbs on top of me and straddles me. “I want you right now. Need you.”
“I need you too,” I murmur against her lips as her hot little cunt starts sliding up and down the length of my hardening cock, coating it with her dampness.
Before I can even ask her about a condom, Liz is impaling herself on me, and it feels too fucking good to stop her.
“Jesus Christ,” I groan at the incredible sensation of her flesh wrapped tightly around mine with nothing in between us, nothing in the way. Liz is on the pill. I’ve seen the circular container in the cabinet and even peeked inside a few times to see if she was staying current on them. She is, and for that I’m eternally grateful. It means I can actually be with her like this without worrying. It also means that she trusts me enough to take the chance, like she knows I would never put her at risk. I wouldn’t, because I love her too much to ever hurt her.
I’m in love with Liz.
I’m not sure why it took me this long to figure that out. She’s fucking amazing and I would do anything for her.
“I love you,” I tell her while I’m inside of her.
She goes still on top of me, and for a second, I worry that I shouldn’t have blurted that out right now. But then she says, “I love you too” before her mouth slants over mine.
Both of us pour our love into the hottest, most intense kiss of my life. And even after I’ve filled her with my seed, we keep at it. If anything, it gets better because what we have together goes beyond sex and pleasure. It’s a one of a kind, unwavering, unlimited, and unconditional love that I feel in my soul. I know the same is true for Liz without even having to ask. I feel like I know her heart better than my own.
Chapter Twenty
Elizabeth
I’m cramming a peanut butter cracker into my mouth, trying to rush through my quick lunch so that I can get back to work on preparing my closing arguments for Timothy Hall’s drunken B and E trial. Still, when my phone rings with a facetime call showing Cooper’s name on the screen, I take the time to answer it.
“Hey!” I say in greeting as his face appears.
“Hey. I know you’re probably busy, but someone wanted to see you and say hello.” The phone’s angle changes, and then there’s Ruby in her bouncy seat grinning like she’s thrilled to see me.
“Hi, Ruby! How are you, sweet girl?” I ask in my ridiculous, high-pitched voice that I now recognize is just for her.
“She started cackling when I sneezed,” Cooper says when he puts the camera back on him. “I’ve had to keep fake sneezing to keep her going for the last half hour. Watch this.” Once I’m seeing Ruby again, he goes “Ah-ah-achoo!” and she bursts into giggles.
“Aww, that’s so cute!” I say, wishing I was there.
He sneezes one last time to get her going again, and then Cooper’s face is back on the screen. “So how is your trial going?”
“Ugh,” I mutter. “Not as well as we had hoped. The state is trying to claim that some of the victim’s jewelry was missing even though it was never in the police report, so that caught us off-guard, but I think we still have a chance at a not guilty.”
Timothy was a twenty-one-year-old student at one of the local universities the night he drank a little too much and ended up stumbling home and into bed…only it wasn’t his bed that he passed out in. The homeowners found him around lunchtime and called the police, who charged Tim with breaking and entering. By the time he woke up, his blood alcohol was almost normal; but I’m trying to convince twelve jurors that he was mentally incapacitated during the commission of the offense and should be found not guilty. He’s been kicked out of school and can’t get a job because of this felony charge on his record. The kid’s entire future hangs in the balance.
“Do you think you’ll finish up today?” Cooper asks.
“Oh yeah. All that’s left now is our closing arguments after the lunch break, and then we wait for the jury to come back with a verdict. It could take them hours or days. The longer the deliberation, the better it is for him.”
“Good luck, even though you don’t need it,” he says. “This case never should’ve been indicted in the first place. Even I know that. The kid didn’t intend to do any harm. He made a drunken mistake. Who hasn’t?”
“Exactly! I think I’ll add that to my closing. Thanks,” I tell him with a smile. “I may be home late if the jury wants to stay over to try and reach a decision.”
“We’ll be here waiting when you get home. How about I get a nice, relaxing bath ready for you after we have dinner?” he asks.
“Now that sounds perfect!” I reply. “Have fun with Ruby this afternoon! Tell her I’ll see her soon!”
“Okay. See ya,” Cooper says before ending the call.
I’m looking forward to getting home after a long, stressful day in trial. The verdict didn’t go our way for Timothy. A hung jury? What the heck? The idea that the twelve jurors wouldn’t be able to reach a unanimous decision didn’t even cross my mind. It sucks and means that now we’ll have to start from the beginning and go through another trial unless the state decides to dismiss, which is very doubtful. Still, first thing tomorrow I plan to go talk to the DA to try and convince him to let Tim do some community service and attend AA meetings for a few months in exchange for a deferred dismissal.
As soon as I walk through the door, Cooper is there opening it for me with his finger pressed to his lips in the universal gesture of be quiet.
“I just laid Ruby down,” he says softly as he takes my briefcase from my hand and places a kiss on my cheek. When he pulls back, he says, “If we’re careful, we may be able to get through an entire meal and take a bath together.”
“Mmm, a bath sounds perfect,” I whisper back to him. “Can we skip dinner and go straight to the tub?” I ask.
“I’d rather get naked with you than eat any day of the week,” he responds with a grin that’s full of promise. It’s a grin that says he’s going to be helping me relax in more ways than one, and I can’t wait.
“Let me turn off the oven
and I’ll meet you in the bathroom,” Cooper says before his hands grip my waist and he kisses me. It’s so hot that I almost tell him to fuck me right then and there in the foyer. But then he pulls away.
“God, I missed you today,” he says as his hands reach around to grab my ass. “I miss my office visits too.”
“So do I,” I say to him as I run my palms up the front of his shirt, feeling his hard, rippling abs. “But last night in bed was pretty damn good. I have a feeling our bath will be too.”
“Oh yeah it will,” he promises. With a swat to my ass, he tells me, “Now go get undressed in the bathroom before I burn down the house.”
“Okay,” I agree.
I’ve taken off my shirt and am working on my pants when Cooper joins me in the master bath, shutting the door behind him. He goes over and turns on the faucet in the garden tub all without taking his eyes off of me. “Let me remove the rest of your clothes,” he says.
“Sure,” I agree. While I may never be completely comfortable getting naked in front of Cooper, it’s getting easier. It probably helps that he’s not currently working at Avalon with naked women. Although, their rebuild will be finished soon and he will have to go back. I try not to let that thought put a dark cloud over the right here and now.
Coming to stand in front of me, Cooper’s hands go down to the front of my suit pants first, undoing them and then shoving them down my legs. He goes to his knees and follows them, placing soft, damp kisses on my stomach, and then my hip, my inner thigh and my knee, intentionally skipping over the one place I need his mouth more than anything. The smirk he gives me as he pulls off my shoes and pants tells me that he knows exactly what I want but plans to keep teasing me before he gives it to me.
My guess is proven correct when his nose presses into the apex of my thighs and rubs upward until his teeth are biting at my skin and the waistband of my satin panties. As he tugs them down, his mouth passes right over my pussy, causing my hips to give an involuntary pump forward.
“Oh, I know where you need my tongue,” Cooper says as he slides my panties down to my ankles between his teeth so I can lift my feet for him to remove them.
“Please,” I beg without the least bit of embarrassment for how desperate I sound.
His tongue finally, finally, sweeps through my folds, then his lips seal around my clit, sucking hard and lapping at it.
I’m so lost to the sensations of his mouth that I almost don’t notice his fingers kneading my ass or the way they’re moving closer and closer to the crease until Cooper’s pressing his fingertip right over my puckered hole.
Oh Jesus. That’s what he wants tonight, huh?
As my thighs tense and begin to shake as the liquid pressure builds inside of me, I decide anything is worth the price of his oral skills at the moment.
“Yes! Oh my god, yes!” I scream as I come apart, my body trembling so hard I have to grab onto the sink to hold myself up while my legs shake.
Thankfully, Cooper lifts me off the ground before I fall and lowers me into the warm water in the tub.
“Aren’t you coming in?” I ask, feeling drowsy and as light as the bubbles that come up to my waist.
“Fuck yes,” Cooper agrees, stripping his shirt over his head.
While he’s undressing, I lean my head back on the edge and close my eyes to soak up the relaxed feeling.
I feel the water slosh as Cooper climbs in the tub with me. He shuts off the water, and then he’s straddling me, his chest pressed to mine. Damp lips and tongue devour my exposed neck, sending a jolt of pleasure through me as my core clenches at the reminder of his earlier ‘kiss’.
I grab hold of his shoulders while he lines up his shaft and rubs the swollen head through my folds.
“Tonight you’re all mine. No work tomorrow. No trial. No sleep tonight,” Cooper tells me softly. And with that warning, he thrusts forward, penetrating me, filling and stretching the emptiness with his hard cock.
“Oh…oh god!” I exclaim at the fullness of him. My fingers dig into Cooper’s flesh, holding on to him, holding him to me.
“How’s that feel?” he asks. Bracing his hands on the tub behind me, he lifts his face enough to look down at me.
“Good…so good,” I trail off. “Just, give me a second.”
“You can have another second,” he replies before his lips lower to mine. “But then I have to move, to fuck your tight little pussy that’s squeezing me so damn good.”
“Go,” I reply, giving him permission because I need more – more of him inside of me, taking, giving. I want it all.
“Thank you for letting me have you. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he chants with each stroke. “Fuck!”
“I’m so close…so, so close…again...”
“You need to come again? Good. Give in to it, baby.”
His fingertips reach between us to circle around on my clit and I detonate. The pleasure takes me over, and it’s so intense, so spectacular, that tears fill my eyes and overflow down my cheeks while he drives into me, chasing his own release.
I love coming home to Cooper and Ruby, having dinner with him, taking baths with him, spending all of my free time with the two of them.
But what if it doesn’t last?
Soon we’ll find out if Theodore Fuller is Ruby’s dad and if he’s going to take her from us.
What will happen to Cooper and me then? Would that be the end of us too?
I don’t want this to be over, yet I know that I can’t have a happily ever after with Cooper either, not when I still love another broken man.
“Guess what?” I say excitedly when I come home from work on Monday afternoon. “The DA agreed! Tim is going to attend six months of AA meetings and do five-hundred hours of community service. And in exchange, the DA will dismiss the case and he can have the charge expunged from his record. It’ll be like nothing happened. He can move on with his life and go back to school!”
“That’s great,” Cooper says when he gives me a hug. “You needed this win, didn’t you?”
“I did. It seems like I don’t get many in this line of work.”
“That’s not your fault,” he replies. “Your clients…they do shit, and they have to deal with the consequences. It’s not on you to save all of them from themselves.”
“I guess that’s true. Still, I always feel guilty when things don’t work out. Criminal clients are just normal people who make a stupid, sometimes split-second decision and get caught. The criminal justice system isn’t big on second chances.”
And I finally realize in that moment that I’ve never been a big fan of them either.
After Owen, I promised myself that I wouldn’t fall for the type of man who runs with the wrong crowd and gets into trouble.
Yet, I gave in to Cooper’s advances, taking a second chance at finding love and happiness with him and it actually worked out better than I ever expected.
Now I just hope that he can get a big win too with Ruby’s adoption. He deserves to be her father, and I want to be her mother more than I ever dreamed.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cooper
“Thank you both so much for coming in today,” Janet says when she leads us to a conference room.
“I take it you’ve received the DNA results for Mr. Fuller?” I ask her.
“Have a seat,” she says, nodding to the empty chairs at the six-person table. I get the feeling that she’s about to give us bad news, which is why she doesn’t want to tell us at her desk, out in the open, in the middle of the office.
“He’s her father, isn’t he?” I ask as I fold myself into a seat and Liz slowly lowers herself into the one next to me. She reaches over to cover my hand with hers, likely sensing the same thing that I am.
“I’m afraid he is,” Janet finally responds, her eyes lowered. “And Mr. Fuller notified us today that he’s decided that he and his wife want to raise Ruby.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I exclaim while Liz squeezes my hand.
“His wife will have nothing but resentment for Ruby! Every time she looks at her, she’ll be reminded of the other woman her husband slept with behind her back!”
“It is an…unusual situation,” Janet replies. “But I met with Mr. and Mrs. Fuller and both are excited to bring Ruby into their home. Apparently, Mrs. Fuller has always wanted a daughter and they have two boys.”
“Wow,” I mutter with a shake of my head.
“I’m very sorry things didn’t work out for the two of you to adopt Ruby,” Janet says. “And I know it won’t be easy, but the Fullers would like to pick her up today. They insist on it actually since they’re in town and believe it would be easier to take her back home with them tonight.”
“This isn’t right,” I huff. “If Jenna had wanted him to be Ruby’s father, she would’ve told him about her! But she didn’t.”
“I guess we’ll never know Miss Higgins’ intentions,” Janet replies. “Still, you should take comfort in knowing that Ruby will be with her family, not only her biological father, but her siblings as well.”
“Yeah, right,” I grumble.
“If you two decide that you’re still willing to adopt, I’m sure there are many children in the state’s custody that would be incredibly happy to have you as their parents.”
“No,” I say without hesitation.
“Cooper,” Liz starts.
“I don’t want to go through this again, to get attached to another baby, to fall in love with her, only to have someone come along and yank her away from us.” Getting to my feet, I pull my hand away from Liz’s and tell the social worker, “Thanks for nothing.”
Elizabeth
“I apologize for his outburst,” I tell Janet when I stand up to try and stop Cooper from storming out of the conference room but fail. “He’s just disappointed. In a few days, he may change his mind…”