Chapter 4

As soon as they were in the screened-in back porch he knew that she was upset. However, how upset she was, he couldn’t judge. Walking toward her, taking off his clothing as he made his way to her, she inhaled sharply when he pulled his shirt off his body and let it lay where it dropped.

“I’m mad at you.” He asked her if she was mad at him or just sexually frustrated. “How am I supposed to know? I’ve never had sex before. I mean, I’ve had sex, just not had a climax. I suck at being sexy, too, just so you know.”

“You could be in a burlap sack that was smelly and old, and I’d think you were sexy as hell.” She smiled at him, but he could tell that she was still upset. “Have I told you how much I love you? I do. With all my being. And I will love you forever, too.”

“That’s very sweet of you. But what if we’re not compatible?” He started to laugh but caught himself in time. He didn’t realize until that very moment that she was as insecure as he was confident in his love for her. “Are you laughing at me?”

“No. I’m amazed if you want to know the truth. I can’t believe that anyone you had sex with wouldn’t do everything in their power to make sure you had enjoyment more than them. I live for making you first in all things.” She asked him if he was serious. “I am. Right now, my only pleasure would be to make you enjoy us making love to the fullest.”

Waylon pulled her toward him and kissed her. Her mouth was wet and warm, her tongue tangled with his over and over until he felt as if he’d touched every part of her. He was doing exactly what he wanted. He needed to claim her. Reaching down, he spread his fingers along her back and pulled her closer, her breasts pressed against his bare chest. When her hands moved up his shoulder to his hair, he shifted her until she was riding his thigh. Cupping her ass, he pulled her up and down his leg until she moaned. He tore his mouth away and put his forehead onto her.

“I want you. I want to take you right here and right now. I can’t seem to get enough of you. Touching, tasting.” He stepped back and dropped to his knees before her and pulled her to his mouth, bikini bottoms and all. “You smell delicious. I want…I need to eat you.”

He yanked her bottoms down to her knees and buried his face into her soaking curls. When she curled her hands into his hair again, Waylon couldn’t have stopped if someone put a gun to his head.

Sliding his fingers up and into her wet sheath, he fucked her as he suckled at her pussy. The warmth of it, the heat of her, was making her flood his mouth with all the cream that he wanted. And he found that he wanted it all. When she pulled at his hair, he looked up at her and growled low.

“Not here.” He looked at her, confused. “Not out here where the neighbors can see what we’re doing. Please? Let’s go into the house. I don’t even care if there is a bed involved, but I don’t want to make love to you right here in the open where people can watch us.”

Standing up, he picked her up in his arms. He nearly tossed her over his shoulder but realized that if he were to just turn his head to the right ever so slightly, her pussy was right there for him to taste again.

The living room deck door was hard for him to open. First of all, he knew that he wasn’t seeing what he should be doing, and secondly, he knew that if he didn’t get her someplace right away, he was going to not give two shits about who saw them. He and his gorilla wanted her so badly that he was weak in the knees just thinking about it.

Finding the couch, he put her down and bent her over it. The site that greeted him was her lush, plump ass. Bending over her, shutting the door—none too easily either—at the same time, he licked a path from her dimples to her pussy and back again. Her moans and begging were getting the better of him, and he didn’t want to rush things too quickly for her.

Leaning over her, he wasn’t surprised to feel her backing up to have him take her harder. Filling her pussy this way, filling her from behind, he noticed that he could see her breasts as they swayed while he took her. The beautiful orbs with her hard nipples swayed back and forth in time to his fucking her, and he was so lost in the movement that he nearly missed her first climax.

“Holy, Christ, I’m coming.” She screamed out his name. Even as he fucked her faster, harder, he reached down between the two of them and cupped her breasts in his hands. Toying with her nipples, all he wanted to do was suckle them until he passed out with the pleasure of it all. And when she came a second time, he bit down on her shoulder, using it as a lifeline so that he’d not come apart too much. Waylon emptied himself deep inside of her even as she cried out that she was coming again.

When he woke up, he was lying on the floor. There was a throw over him, for which he was glad for while he looked around for Londyn. She wasn’t anywhere near him but he knew she wasn’t far. Sitting up, he had to lie back down twice before he could feel safe enough to move much more than he already had. Christ, he was sore and exhausted.

“I’ll help you up, but you can’t touch me.” He grinned at Londyn, telling her that he had to touch her to get up. “My body is still buzzing. I mean, even going to the bathroom a few minutes ago was too much, and I swear to you, I came while I was peeing.”

“That’s not sexy, yet it is at the same time.” She helped him up but she backed away from him quickly, nearly tripping over the footstool that was just behind her. “Careful there. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“If that was what a regular climax feels like, I can tell you for sure that I’ve never ever felt like that before. While I’m sure that it was special between the two of us, I don’t believe that we can have sex like that again for a while, however. I’m sore, too.” Using only his heels, he made his way to the bathroom, asking her if she needed him to help her up the stairs. “I just told you I’m sore. How on earth…that was very nice of you, but no. I’m going to go upstairs and run a hot bath. I can’t believe that you’re walking around at all. I love you, but no, please don’t touch me right now.”

When he finished up in the bathroom, he made his way to the upper levels. Now that he was moving around, he did feel better and by the time he was up the stairs, he didn’t hurt at all. But he knew that a nice warm shower would take out the rest of his kinks, should they appear tomorrow, and waited until Londyn was finished with her bath by sitting on the commode and talking to her.

“Just so you’re aware, I’ve never come like that before either.” She was washing her legs by bringing them up out of the water to the point where he could see her thighs. “You’re the most sexy creature that I’ve ever seen. And I love you.”

“I love you so much, too.” She frowned a little, and he nearly asked her what was wrong when she spoke again. “I’m an attorney. I know you’re aware of that but I was thinking that I’d like to do some cases for your family. To help them out if they need it. I know your dad is one as well. Maybe we can work together. What do you think?”

“Let me ask you this first. Do you want to work, or do you think you have to work? You don’t if you don’t wish to. My mom does a great deal of charity groups and is on the board of a lot of the businesses around town. Like the library and the hospital. Also, she does a great many fundraisers throughout the year as well.” Londyn said that she did notice that she was busy all the time. “I was thinking too that you could come in and work the hardware store with me but I’d be closed more than opened. Chasing you through the shelves would just be too much fun not to try. I don’t know that my parents could work together either. Dad’s not very neat when he works at his desk, and it drives my mom nuts. Her area, usually the dining room table, is neat as a pen, and she knows just where everything is.”

“I would enjoy going to see where you work sometime but you’re right, we’d never be able to sell anything if you and I are together for very long. Even though I’m still a bit sore, I can see us having fun like we did downstairs against the cash register.” He laughed, telling her that was just the way he’d take her too. “I need to work. I can’t be idle for long before I start down the path of being depressed. I’ve had depression all my life and low self-esteem. The only reason that I was able to do what I did was that I kept telling myself that it would end soon and I’d be on my own as an attorney. That’s all changed now. I still want to be one but I want to work for a single family, yours. Will you get in the tub with me?”

“Yes.” Once he was in the water behind her, he washed her arms and shoulders while thinking about how to answer her. “Dad would love to have you with him on things like that. He doesn’t go all that often, but when he does, he usually wins. Also, it would be good too to have you around as you’d be able to read contracts. We usually have a couple of those we need to go over a week for one thing or another. I don’t know that you know this but I also own General Hardware. It’s a place that I worked at for a long time as a kid so when the time came up for it to be sold off, I bought it and didn’t change a thing. It works well in keeping me busy, as you said. I’ve only just realized that you probably know very little about my family. Do you?”

“No. I mean, I’ve heard bits and pieces. I know that Dallas works at the zoo, and that’s how he met Amy. She’s a photographer.” He told her that Dallas was part owner of the zoo and that he had a doctorate in animal husbandry. And that Amy takes pictures of zoo animals so they can be made into calendars to sell. “I didn’t know that much at all.”

“Jayden used to teach but is now the administrator for the district. He has his office right there in the building with the little kids. He’d been the teacher of the year for about five years in a row before that. He wants to be in the middle of—Also, I just thought of something. Amy’s brother is the president.” She asked him of what. “The United States. When we were trying to find your boss, Jamie, that’s his name was the one that got us into some of the buildings that Roman was in. He also has extra guards on him for us because you’re not officially, but you are a part of Amy’s family. We’re all under surveillance with the Secret Service all the time.”

She turned and looked at him. “Are you serious right now? I mean, the president of the United States helps out this family?” He pointed out that she was a part of the family as well. “Yeah, sure, by about a million times removed. She really is his sister?”

“I wouldn’t kid you about something like that.” She nodded and went back to playing with the bubbles in the tub with them. “Let me see. Booth teaches Spanish at the high school. He can teach a lot of languages but that’s on the curriculum right now. Falkner, as you know, is still living at home, working on becoming a doctor. He’s decided that he wants to be a pediatrician/OBYGN doctor when he gets out, and we’re all proud of him.”

“And Cullen? What’s he doing? I know that he’s home from some place but I don’t know that I ever heard from where.” He told her just as they were both getting out of the tub. She paused when he handed her a towel. “What do you mean he’s just a serviceman? I’m pretty sure that if he’s a Dixon, he’s not telling you the entire thing. He must be something like special ops or a green beret. You guys are much too competitive for you to be just plain old anything.”

“I didn’t say he was a plain old serviceman. I just said that’s what he is. And the only person that would know anything like that would be Dallas. He’s the closest to him.” She was mumbling something about Cullen running for president someday as she snatched the towel away from him and dried her body like she was angry with it as well. “Honey, you’re going to rub your skin off if you keep that up.”

“You drive me crazy.” When she stomped her foot at him, he couldn’t help but laugh. Storming out of the bathroom, he went to find her while drying off. He didn’t know why she was so upset but he was willing to bet it was going to be his fault. He found her on the bed sobbing. He asked her what was wrong. “Nothing. Everything. I’m just…and I am just a plain person that you tried to save. You guys know presidents, are land and business owners, and I’m barely cutting it by hanging around you. I have money but only because my…are you laughing at me?”

“You’ve had money since the moment I met you. As for being a business owner, you also own the hardware store. I put your name on the business and the deed. And as for your family money, honey, you could toss it all away for all I care. Having you to hold and to love is the best I’ve ever thought to have in a mate. You’re loving and kind. Smart too. I’d put you against my dad any day of the week if you had to go toe to toe. As for Cullen running for president, believe it or not, Dallas is working on that very thing. Jamie is helping him fill in the gaps of what he needs to do so that when he steps down in a few years, he’ll know that the torch has been passed to him, and he’ll make sure that things go just the way that the two of them have planned out. Why, I’d bet that Jamie would run as his running mate if I had to guess.”

“I love you.” He kissed her on the nose and pulled her body to him. “I have to ask you one more thing then I’m going to sleep. What happened to Todd?”

“You mean the little boy that Hazel called Logan about?” She asked him if he knew any more Todds. I do, as a matter of fact, but you’re right. I should have known who you were talking about by the way you keep changing the subjects—ouch. That flipping hurt.”

“And I’ll pinch you again if you don’t tell me what I want to know.” Her smile got him. He could live on that for the rest of his life without food if need be. “Well?”

“He’s gone.” She rolled her eyes and threatened him again. “What I mean is, he’s been taken care of and put in a prison for the rest of his life. He did kill his parents, along with the neighbors, to the right of their home. Not only that, but Logan was able to find where he had plans to kill off Jayden and Hazel as well as the baby. Not that it would work, but he had a very sick mind. And a very spoiled way of looking at things. I’m glad that you and Hazel talked that day, or there is no telling what might have happened to them.”

“I’m glad. I’ve never seen her so upset before. I’m happy that Logan simply took him away without arguing with her about it, too.”

He got into bed with Londyn and held her to him. She continued to ask him questions, mostly about his other half as well as the others. He was going to have to let her see his gorilla soon so she’d know how to tell him from his family. Also, he didn’t want her to freak out—words that he’d never say to her face if he had to shift to save them. She was yawning when she said something that he’d not heard from his family.

“The Crowns are wanting Allen back, did you hear? They’re saying that your family pressured them into letting him go.” She snuggled down in the pillow. “Hazel is having a fit, and you can imagine how Jayden is taking it.”

When she was asleep, he reached out to his brother. Yes, the couple, Daisy Crown and David Winehouse, were wanting their child back and were in the process of suing Jayden for his and Hazel’s part in the kidnapping of their little boy.

“What’s going to happen to him? Or you guys, for that matter?” Jayden said that Hazel was, of course, upset and that he was trying his best not to hunt the kids down and beat their asses. “They more than likely heard that there was money, and they’re out to get a piece of it.”

“That’s what Mom said, too. She was a bit more colorful about it, however. But you’re on the right track. They’re suing us and Sister Mary Grace. She’s one of the sisters at the hospital who helps with the babies. Also, the hospital.” He asked him why. “As I said, I don’t know, but Mom and Dad are over here tonight getting some loving in. Hazel is beside herself with fear. Logan keeps telling her that they don’t have a leg to stand on, but we both know that anything could change at any moment.” He did know that and told him he’d be here for him. After thanking him, the two of them closed the connection, and he willed his body to sleep.

Waylon had a truck coming in tomorrow. Mr. Brown’s attorney wanted to speak to him as well as he wanted to spend the entire day with Londyn to get to know her better. He just wished they’d have a sort of normal day.

~*~

Sherman tried his best to listen to what was going on with his grandson, but all he could think about was that someone was going to come and take him away from them. Allen was a huge part of him feeling like a new man, and he wasn’t willing to give that up easily. Jamie snapped his fingers in front of his face, and he glared at the man.

“I’ve been saying your name for the last five minutes. I didn’t mean to be rude just now, but I was actually concerned that you were having a heart attack.” He shook his body, telling the younger man that he was upset. “I understand that too. But I’ve been looking into things. It’s amazing what a person can do when they have so many people willing to do their bidding. But I have it on good authority that Jayden nor Hazel had any contact with the Crown/Winehouse couple.”

“What does that have to do with the price of tea in China, might I ask?” Jamie grinned, telling him that was an old saying. “It works, doesn’t it? Stop teasing this old man and tell me what it is you’re going on about.”

“They’re claiming that Jayden and Hazel came to the hospital to talk them into letting them have the baby for a price and that they’d not received any money. They’ve never met. Also there was never a time when there was supposed to be money exchanged for the child. Did you know that they have videos all over the hospital that are simply for the use of things like this one? I didn’t. But I’m glad that they did. The hospital is saying that Daisy, the biological mother, got into a huge fight with Sister Mary Grace about her not ever wanting to see the child. The Sister was explaining to her at the time that it was a closed adoption. They’d not know who was taking their unwanted child. We’re still trying to figure out how they knew it was this family that adopted him.” Sherman said it was more than likely a greedy nurse or someone who had a grudge against one of his grandchildren. “It could very well be. Or their grasping at straws.” Jamie looked around, and so did Sherman. “I don’t suppose you have any more of those wonderful cookies I had the last time I was here? They were blueberry lemon cookies. I could eat them forever.”

After pulling out the little tin that he’d been using as a sewing box for nearly twenty years, he laughed at the look of disappointment on his face. Giving him the cookie jar, he was still laughing when he got up to get the two of them a glass of milk. They were just waiting on the rest of the family to show up, and Sherman decided that he was going to get him a bit of information now before the rest of them came in and started hogging up all the time.

“Something else I want to share with you while I’m thinking about it. If you’d not mind reminding me when they get here, I’ll get around to telling them about Roman Davis as well. He’s going to skip a trial and go directly to prison. When he threatened Waylon’s wife, who I love like my sister, he threatened me as well. I know that it might not stick, but that’s what was on the report. He’s also been stripped of his licenses as well. I’m to understand that he had a wholesaler’s license as well as having his driver’s license.” He asked about the man’s family. “Mr. Davis is closing down his offices and retiring. That was his idea, not mine. But he said he’d not have to answer awkward questions when people would come around asking them.”

“I’ll remind you. I don’t want to be insensitive here, but have you heard any more about your mother? I know that she’s passed on and all but what are the press saying about it? And I want you to know that in no way was I trying to open old wounds.” He told him that he’d not heard a whimper of news anywhere. She was just gone. “Good riddance to her, too, if you ask me.”

Jamie and Amy’s mother had an unhealthy obsession with her son. She thought, even though she was in her late fifties at the time, that she was going to marry her son and have his perfect children. And that they’d be in the White House forever. She’d been killed just recently when she killed two guards while trying to get to her son because she felt that he wasn’t getting her messages about being with him. She was a sick individual.

When the family started showing up he was thrilled to see that they brought him little Allen. He loved that little boy more than he could explain to someone and was happiest when he could hold him and feed him his bottle. The little tyke looked at him, too, like he knew that the two of them were going to be up to no good before too much longer.

There was food aplenty, too. Sherman loved pizza. His favorite thing of all time was one of them calzone meatball subs. He could nearly eat an entire one all by himself. Of course, he didn’t, having to share with the rest of the family, but he was happy when there were leftovers. A cold meatball sammich was about the best there was over a hot one.

Jamie, true to his word, had to have him remind him of the things they’d talked about. Sherman loved having to be the one that kept the younger man in line. It did his heart good, too, to see him getting along with his family, too. The man even changed a nasty diaper like it was nothing to him. He supposed it was.

After all the food mess was cleaned up, he was given another bottle to feed young Allen. Since he’d already heard about the things that Jamie had to say, he was content to sit in the library and rock his great-grandson to sleep. He might well have dozed off a few times as well, but he was forever careful that he didn’t get too deep in sleep so he’d not drop the little man.

Londyn came into the room just as Allen was fussing about his diaper and he asked her if she had any practice in changing him. After telling him that she did, she had his diaper off and a clean one on him before he could put up a fuss about taking the little baby away.

“I have something I’d like to ask you.” He figured that she’d want to talk to one of the others, telling her that he was an old man and that he didn’t know all that much anymore. “I don’t think that’s the slightest bit true. I think, no, I know you can run circles around everyone in this house and they’d not know what happened if you were to put your mind to something. But this is important to me.”

“All right, darling, you go on ahead and tell me, and between the two of us, we’ll get it all worked out.” She paced a bit, and he let her. Jayden came in to get the baby and while he was sorry to see him go, he was kind of glad for it. He was going to get to be the knight for Londyn so he wanted to pay attention to what she had to say to him. “Are you sure you want to ask me?”

“I’m sure. I have some money now. A lot more than I ever expected to have in my lifetime. But I lost my family in order to get it.” He nodded, hearing about how her family were all killed in a landslide. “I want your help in setting up a fund to help people get the kind of information that I should have used for my own family. Like how to find out where their insurance records might be. What kind of things need to be put in a will. Getting cemetery and services paid for in advance. I don’t want to do that sort of work. I think that might be something later down the road, but that’s something that I think everyone could use.”

“I didn’t have mine worked out until a few years ago. We were going to be buried in the same church cemetery that we got married in. A nice bit of land out there that has a pretty little cherry tree by it. I’d love to be there, looking up at the blooms and think of the day we got married. That’s what I was thinking. Now we’re all going to be living forever, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be put into that hole and swallowed up.” He looked up at her. “You’d come and visit me, wouldn’t you, darling? I sure would like that.”

“I don’t want to think about you being swallowed up, thank you. You’re my grandda since I have none to claim as my own. And I would surely visit you if it came to that. You’re the glue that holds this family together. Did you know that? I’ve heard them all say that they’re going to go to Grandpa Sherman for advice at least a dozen times in the last week or so.”

“Oh, go on with you. Glue? Well, I do try and keep the peace.” He didn’t, and she was sure that they both knew that. He loved to pick at the boys just to get them going on each other. It made his day to have them get all huffy with their brothers. “I tell you what. I’ll put together a list of things, and you and I will work on it. Yes, sir. That’s something that I’d love to do with my favorite granddaughter.”

“We’re all your favorites, and you know it.” When she kissed him on the forehead, he felt blessed. For a man to have so many people loving him, Sherman thought that he was about as lucky as anyone could be right now.