Chapter Eleven

West

It was 3:00 AM. While I should have been home days ago, relaxing in my own surroundings and planning my retirement, I was no surer of my future than I'd been this time yesterday. Lying in the Dallas hotel in the plush bed with its high thread-count sheets, the temperature a perfect sixty-five degrees, instead of enjoying a deep, peaceful sleep, I was wide awake, irritable, and anxious.

For so long, I'd just drifted through life, my heart void. Soulless. Emotionless. My body nothing more than a stoic statue. While knowing this vicious cycle I had lived for two decades had come to an end and that I had the rest of my life to live anywhere I chose, still it wasn't enough.

Emptiness lingered inside me.

I missed Brooklyn. Goddamn it to hell, I missed her on such a level that I hadn't been able to make myself leave. From the moment she smiled at me, something inside my chest felt like it was dissolving. Like something opening, pulling me in, and molding me into a different man. But as the saying goes, you get what you give. Reap what you sow. I wasn't a good person. My fate was in the hands of Satan. Demons still lingered in my head, and the past still haunted my days and definitely my nights.

Far from religious, maybe I'd been wrong when I laughed at the concept of a greater being. Maybe that supreme power did in fact exist. Maybe it was looking down at me right this minute and laughing its fucking head off.

Maybe this was my retribution. Agony. Grief. Soul-crushing loneliness.

I squeezed my eyes shut, pleading for sleep and for this endless misery to subside. Anything was better than the ache in my loins, the grave hunger to taste her, feel her pussy around me one last time and look into those hypnotic eyes. My gut was twisting and my chest clenching with something I couldn't describe. In forty-one years, I had never felt something like this. The urgency to better someone's life. A desperation to bring peace and harmony and happiness. Brooklyn Nelson enamored me. Pushed every button inside me. I wanted to know her, to protect her. Goddamnit, I wanted to love her.

"Fuck! Fucking fuck!" I pushed at my temples, the pain inside my head nothing compared to what I felt in my chest. I couldn't leave this city without knowing she was okay.

Forty-five minutes later, I was stepping out of my car and striding toward Brooklyn's doorstep with my pulse racing and palms sweating. Not sure she would open the door and not sure I'd blame her if she didn't, my heart felt like it almost pierced my chest when she answered.

"West."

She looked tired and shaken but sounded like an angel. My angel.

"Hi baby. How are you?"

She blew out a loud, long breath. "How am I? How do you think, you fucking asshole? You tell me you love me, make love to me like I mean something, hold me in your arms and make me feel safe, then leave me with nothing but a note? A childish damn note? I have nothing more to say to you. You got what you wanted, so go live your life and let me live mine."

I couldn't help but smile. My pretty little deceiver was still so full of shit and still so incapable of fooling me with her lies. I hadn't known her for long, but I was so damn on to her. The tremble in her voice. The sniffle of emotion. Shifting from foot to foot and rapid blinking. "I want you, baby. Fuck me to hell for not walking away when I damn well knew I should, but I love you. God help me, I'm so in love with you it hurts. I want you in my life."

"Not happening."

"Then do me one last favor," I said with a mix of hope and panic pushing through me. "Make some of those fabulous cherry pies. Brew some hot, strong coffee. But think about what I just said, remember how good it felt when you were full of my cock, and how hard you shivered when you came. Should you change your mind, I'm in room 605 at the downtown Omni. I'll be there until 7:00 PM."

She frowned, the area between her eyes crinkling. "Goodbye, West. It's been swell. But fuck you."

****

Ten minutes before seven, my bag was packed with the few items and two extra changes of clothes I had brought from home. I stared out the hotel window at the Dallas skyline for the last time wondering why I never much liked this city. Houston was a hell of a lot worse. With what felt like a strong punch to the gut, I shut the curtain, reached for my tote bag, and crossed the room. It was time to go home.

Ready to leave and never look back, my heart beat a little faster when I opened the door to see a beautiful, raven-haired angel. Her face was red with anger, her nostrils were flared, and her eyebrows low and drawn together.

She was goddamn perfection.

"Thank God." I gestured Brooklyn to come inside only to have a strong palm connect with my cheek as she slapped the living shit out of me. Damn, the woman had one hell of a strong hand. Then again, why would I expect anything different?

"I just need to say some things to you. First, my brother may be weak, but you… You, West McCoy, are the epitome of a pussy. It's a wonder you haven't shot your own dick off with that gun you keep in your pocket. And lastly, I couldn't let you leave without saying good fucking miserable riddance."

Watching her shake, shifting from toe-to-toe, and trying like hell to avoid my eyes, I dropped the bag in my hand, lifted her into my arms, and pushed the door shut with my foot.

"Put me down, fucker. Otherwise, I'll scream my damn head off, call the cops and tell them what you did. You'll be behind bars before the sun comes up," she said with her bottom lip quivering. "And we both know what happens to pretty boys after the lights go out in prison."

My grip around her tightened and I lowered my mouth a breath from hers. "I don't need any fucking prison to learn what happens to pretty boys after the lights go out. So shut your goddamn mouth and kiss me before I bend you over, turn your fine ass every imaginable shade of red, then give you your own taste of uncomfortable lights out action." I slammed my lips against hers, caressing her tongue, and kissing her until I couldn't breathe. "I love you and I'll die making you trust me if you give me the chance. But if I put my cock in you again, there's no going back. No more threats. And no more lies."

She flinched while her pupils dilated with need. "And if you ever fuck me, then leave me another shit-filled note, I swear on all that's holy that I'll find you, castrate you in your sleep, and preserve your balls in a pretty jar on my fireplace mantel."

"You don't have a fireplace, sweetheart. Try again."

She huffed a breath, then eyed my jeans that were thick with my cock. "Lay me on the bed, you alpha asshole. Show me that phenomenal dick of yours. Then fuck me without a damn condom. And I still hate you by the way."

"Don't I know it, sweetheart. Don't I fucking know it?"

Ten minutes later, she was still face down, her thick ass hoisted in the air and my handprints a deep red on her soft flesh. Her taste was still honey on my tongue, her pussy full of my cum, and the crown of my cock pushed through the tight opening of her puckered hole while her fingertips curled into the sheets.

"Relax. Breathe. Let me in, baby." And just like that, her body was letting up, she was releasing the breath she had been holding, and her hole opening for my cock like the delicate petals of a rose. This woman who I'd meant to frighten, intimidate, and show my darkness to had stirred something in my blood. Pulled something from deep inside me I never knew existed. She was a blessing, a picture of beauty, lust, and submission, and an unexpected reprieve from the life I'd learned to accept.

She lifted her hips, pulling me in deeper as I savored every one of the little whimpers falling from her lips. "I love you, West. Nobody but you. Now stop barking orders and fuck me already."

Greed wound its ugly arms around my heart, and I slammed inside. Hammering into her, I fucked her deep and hard, possessing her, dominating her, and wrecking her pretty asshole as she lifted her hips into every brutal thrust. Together, we were frantic, on fire, and intoxicated with lust and relief.

Mine, goddamnit. Mine. Only fucking mine.

I hooked an arm around her belly and pushed two fingers inside her that overflowed with my cum. "You love me in your ass, don't you, baby? You love the risk, the nastiness of it."

"The hell I do. Only a woman with half a brain would love seven inches of thick cock up their ass. Oh! Oh, God! I'm gonna come."

My little deceiver's line of bullshit had my dick swelling, my balls seizing. Grinding against her as far as I could while I felt her body quaking, I jerked and spurted and filled her ass until I was spent. Empty. Bone fucking used up.

"Only with you," she uttered as I eased out of her.

"Goddamn straight only with me," I replied as my body collapsed onto hers. "I love you, baby. You deserve so much better, but God help me, I'll die before I let you go."

"Again." She pushed out from under me and turned onto her side, satisfaction filling her beautiful face. "Say it again."

"I'll say it until my last breath. When I look at you, everything else becomes secondary. Nothing else matters. I love you, Brooklyn. So goddamn much."

I was still trying to pick up the pieces of my past and wasn't sure how long that might take. I had Ben to contend with, and demons that still tried shitting on my brain. But one thing I was certain of was that this woman made me feel human and worthy. As soon as I was able, I was going to drop to one knee and ask her to be my wife. Should she give me the honor of saying yes, I'd spend every minute of every day making her the happiest person she could be. I wasn't a good man and if hell existed, I had a front row seat waiting for my arrival. But until then, as long as I had my pretty little deceiver beside me, every one of the demons in my head could take a fucking hike. For now, I was ready to experience love. Real feelings and true emotions.

Maybe there really was a supreme being.

Maybe he'd sent Brooklyn into my life to save me.

Maybe I had a heart after all.

The End