At Peace (40 page)

My hands started moving again. “Well, thanks,
I guess.”

He grinned down at me. “You’re welcome, I
guess.”

My hands both slid over his ass and stopped,
my fingers gripped and I lifted up to touch my mouth to his. “Turn
out the light.”

“Nope,” he replied and my head settled back
on the pillows.

“Nope?”

“Nope.”

“Joe –”

“Got shit we gotta get outta the way before
we play.”

My hands flexed into his ass again but not
for fun this time.

“What?”

“Talked to Dane,” he announced.

“What?” I whispered.

“Caught him before he went into the house to
pick up Kate. Asked him over. We had words or I gave him some
words. Don’t think you’ll be buyin’ any baby shit anytime
soon.”

My hands went from his ass to his waist and I
held on.

“Please, Joe, tell me you didn’t threaten a
seventeen year old kid.”

“Fuck no, Vi, Jesus.”

“What’d you say?”

“Let’s just say, he gets where I’m comin’
from,” Joe unusually evaded.

“Where are you coming from?”

“Kate’s off limits.”

My stomach did a somersault.

“Joe –”

“He understands respect, I reckon he
understood it before but I reminded him.”

“Was he cool when he left?”

“He’s into her, got the impression he was
glad I was lookin’ out for her. He’s a good kid.”

I didn’t know what to do with this. This was
bigger than the rest. This was Joe out-and-out taking care of Kate,
not for me, for Kate.

“Joe –” I started again.

“Still, gave him condoms.”

My body went solid underneath him but my
fingers dug into his waist.

“What!” I snapped.

Joe shrugged. “Shit happens.”

I turned my head on the pillow, looked at the
bed and breathed, “Oh my God.”

His hand came to my face and he forced me to
look at him. “Baby, it’s bein’ smart.”

“It’s giving him ideas.”

Joe smiled. “Buddy, he’s already got those
ideas.”

I knew this but I didn’t need to be reminded
of it so I glared at Joe and his smile got bigger as his head
lowered and he kissed me.

I tried to be pissed off but when his kiss
grew deeper and his hands up my tee got greedier, I forgot to be
pissed off.

“Turn off the light,” I repeated, not knowing
why he turned it on in the first place. When we were at his house,
we never turned on the light.

“No, baby,” he said softly against my mouth,
his hand leaving the tee, going to my arm, trailing down it as he
slid off my body to the side.

“Joe, why –”

I stopped speaking because I knew why when
his hand guided mine to my panties and then it guided it in.

“Joe –”

His finger pressed my finger against my clit
and he murmured, his voice thick, “Gonna watch.”

“Joe –”

“When you’re done, you’re gonna watch
me.”

My hips bucked up and I felt my lips part in
wonder.

I liked this idea.

“
That made you wet,” he muttered, his
finger guiding mine down and then both his and mine slid in and I
moaned as he finished, “or wetter.”

“God, Joe,” I breathed, grinding down on our
fingers.

He slid them out and took them back to their
original position.

“Make yourself come, baby.”

“Okay,” I whispered and he left his finger
where it was so he could feel it as I did as he asked.

This wasn’t hard because his head came down
and his mouth went to my ear and he encouraged me by whispering
stuff to me that turned me on so much I was squirming. His head
came up and his eyes moved to my legs and I watched him, his face
openly hungry and I knew, in the moment right before I came, he
felt that hollow feeling, that hungriness for me that I felt for
him

The moan tore from my throat and his mouth
slammed down on mine, swallowing it, drowning it out so the girls
couldn’t hear.

He cupped his hand over mine around my sex
and kissed me until I came down. Then he pulled our hands free,
rolled to his back, positioning me at his side and he guided my
hand over his at his cock as his other hand forced my head close,
my mouth on his.

“Hold on, baby,” he muttered and I wrapped my
hand around his on his shaft and held on.

I alternately kissed him and watched him,
liking both but liking watching him better.

I returned the favor when he came, swallowing
his growl.

His hand moved away but I stroked him while
he came down. Then he lifted his head and kissed my shoulder, left
the bed and went to the bathroom. He came back, turned out the
light and settled in on his back, again positioning me beside
him.

His hand sifted through my hair and he
whispered, “You like that, baby?”

“I like everything with you, Joe,” I
whispered back and twisted my neck to kiss his chest.

At my words, his hand fisted in my hair then
he used it to pull up my head and hold it steady for his mouth to
take mine in a deep, heady kiss.

He settled us back to where we were and I
stared at his shadowed chest in the dark.

Then I took a chance.

“
I know it isn’t why you’re here but I
don’t care,” I said to Joe in the dark, my arm moving around his
waist, closing in, going tight. “I’m glad you’re here because I
like what we just did and because I like you in my bed and because
I feel safe and I feel my girls are safe. I don’t want you to go
all Joe on me and remind me that isn’t what we are. I don’t care it
isn’t. You should know that’s how I feel and I haven’t felt safe
for a year and a half and you cannot know how much that sucks. So,”
I twisted my neck and kissed his chest again then murmured into his
skin, “thanks for makin’ us safe.”

Then I settled back, cheek to his shoulder
and gave him a squeeze.

His body had gone still while I talked, still
and tense. I felt it but I ignored it and decided to go for the
gusto.

“And, by the way, I liked having you at my
table and the girls did too. I know that isn’t what we are but
you’re welcome there anytime you get hungry and I’m cookin’.”

“Vi –”

“Shut up, Joe.”

“Buddy –”

“I said, shut up.”

Surprisingly, he shut up.

And he didn’t do what I worried he’d do,
retreat, not in any way. He turned into me, slid his knee between
my legs, forcing my thigh to hook on his waist and he gathered me
close in his arms as mine went around him.

He didn’t say anything, not a word, he was
silent.

I fell asleep before him, I knew I did
because his weight didn’t settle but his arms kept me locked
tight.

But I fell asleep hoping that maybe I just
gave him a little something that would make him feel less
empty.

And I was hoping hard.

The End

Cal left Nadia
and went to his truck.

He didn’t fuck
her, she wanted it but he wasn’t in the mood and he had to get
home.

It was going to
end with Vi tonight.

He knew it
because when Nadia got dropped at his place, Vi, Kate and Keira
were saying good-bye to Sam and Melissa in their front drive.

The timing
couldn’t have been better. Tina was also getting in her car and
Colt, Feb and Jack were just getting back from somewhere. They all
saw Cal greet Nadia in his drive with a kiss, they saw him put her
in his truck and they saw him drive away.

He’d looked
through them. Tina looked smug; he could see it two yards away, the
fucking bitch. Colt looked pissed, Feb worried. Sam and Melissa
looked confused.

But it was Vi,
Kate and Keira that hit him, straight in the left chest, a twist
and squeeze so brutal it was a wonder he didn’t drop to his
knees.

Kate looked
shocked but in that way someone looks when they just got hit with a
surprise attack, not expecting it and then, all of a sudden, they
get socked in the gut, the wind knocked clean out of them.

Keira looked
betrayed. It was plain on her face, betrayal and pain.

But Vi looked
like he’d inflicted a mortal wound, face pale like he’d shoved a
knife in her and twisted it, letting her blood leak out.

He just got in
his truck and drove Nadia to her place.

* * * * *

The last week
with Vi and the girls had been good.

He’d stayed
home. After the gift had come, he’d had Lindy rearrange his
appointments, telling his clients he had an emergency.

The gift had
been an enormous, expensive vase. No card, no prints that came up
in the system, just some random message from a dickhead who liked
fucking with people’s minds.

Cal checked
Vi’s front steps before joining her in bed at night and he checked
them after he got up and went home in the morning. Nothing
more.

But Vi had
changed, after that night she found him on his deck drinking beer,
she’d changed. She wasn’t unconsciously getting under his skin just
by being Vi. Now, she was digging her way in.

And he was
letting her.

He knew she
went to dinner with Mike because she let him know.

But when he hit
her bed, every single night for a week, she was all about him, all
about finding that opening, tearing it wider, forcing more of
herself in.

Fucking her had
always been great but it got better. She didn’t lie when he’d made
her make herself come and she watched while he did the same, she
liked everything they did together. He thought he had her, she was
all his when they were fucking but she proved differently. When he
was in her bed, she opened something up in herself and there was so
much of it flooding out, if he wasn’t careful, he’d get washed
away.

And she talked
to him in whispers either before he fucked her or after or in
between. She talked about work, about the side job she got doing up
someone’s yard, about maybe starting her own business the next
summer if that worked out. She talked about Keira’s new dog who was
creating havoc in the house. She talked about the girls, their
friends, the crazy shit they did and said, laughing softly against
the skin of his shoulder, by his ear, her face pressed into his
neck.

He laughed with
her because the crazy shit they did and said was funny. And he
liked the idea of her setting up her own business designing
people’s gardens, by the look of hers, she’d be good at it. He
liked hearing the hint of excitement in her voice, as if that was
something she never thought of but something she really wanted to
do, a dream that snuck up on her. He liked listening to her share
pieces of nothing, scraps of life that somehow measured up to a
full meal.

And he also
liked that both Keira and Kate had taken to popping by his house
when their Mom was at work, just to say hi or ask him to dinner or
tell him they were going to a movie and seeing if he wanted to come
(he never went, but then again, they didn’t figure he would, they
were just using it as an excuse to talk to him). He liked it
because, when they did he knew they were okay, just being kids
having a good time over the summer and not touched by Daniel Hart’s
madness. He liked it because, each time, they grew more comfortable
with him, less hesitant, more sure of themselves, and they stayed
longer and longer. They were opening themselves to him too, giving
just by talking, letting him know they liked having him around.

He didn’t eat
at Vi’s table, not after the pancakes, so no more family time that
felt too good but was pretend. He was a stand in, not who they
wanted to see in that chair, so it sure as fuck was not something
he needed.

Except when he
went over to have dinner when Sam and Melissa were there last
night.

That’s when he
knew he had to do something.

Because the
girls acted like he was over all the time (which he was, they just
didn’t know that). They acted like he wasn’t a stand in. They acted
like he was a welcome staple in their lives and they’d welcome it
if he became more of a staple. Keira teased him. Kate even grabbed
his hand and clutched it when she laughed at something he said.
Like their mother, they were sucking him in, using him to plug that
hole their father left and their combined power was almost
unbeatable.

But it was also
because he liked Sam and Melissa. Sam acted toward Vi like Cal
remembered Uncle Vinnie acting toward his Mom. He didn’t hide his
affection for Vi and her kids. He loved him. The world shone in his
eyes when he looked at them and he let them know it. He was fucking
hilarious too and an easy man to like. His woman was the same,
funny and easygoing, a straight-talker and she felt like her man
did about his family. It wasn’t like she’d been in their lives
since she met Sam. It was like she’d been in their lives the length
of it. They were a unit, bonded tight and unbreakable. A family
that was blood but their bond ran deeper than blood.

What Cal had
always wanted.

And Vi behaved
just like her girls. She wasn’t demonstrative with Cal but she
found her times to give him looks, touch him, promise things with
her eyes that needed no words.

They’d gone to
J&J’s after dinner and Sam and Melissa proved they were what
they were, funny and able to have a seriously fucking good time. Vi
let herself loose with them, laughing more than he’d ever seen her
laugh, her face relaxed, happy and even more beautiful than normal
because of it.

If he let
himself go, he would have enjoyed it. Instead, he had his word with
Sam and got the fuck out of there.

His word with
Sam didn’t go as easy as his words with Tina and Dane did. Sam
wasn’t going to stop and told Cal this flat out then he took the
time to explain. Cal understood his reasoning, even admired it, but
he gave it back to Sam straight that he was playing with fire and,
he got burned, so would Melissa and Vi.