Heaven and Hell (47 page)

I’d hurt him.

Oh God.

What was happening?

I didn’t get it but what I did get was that
I was thinking Sam had told me earlier that I couldn’t ask.
Instead, I had to take it as I got it.

I closed my eyes.

Then I did the only thing I could do in that
moment, for him and for me.

I whispered on a squeeze of my arm around
his gut, “Okay, baby.”

His hand relaxed, sifted through my hair
then drifted down to become an arm wrapped around my waist.

Sam fell asleep about thirty seconds after
Memphis.

It took me a lot longer.

A Mission

My eyes flitted open and I saw the wall of
Sam’s chest as well as the wall of Sam’s bedroom. It was grooved
wood painted light gray.

His room also had white woodwork, dark wood
floors with a big dark gray area rug under the huge bed. His bed
had dark gray sheets and a dark red comforter cover. Black
furniture, mission style, tall, wide dresser, nightstands,
attractive lamps over the nightstands built into the wall that
swung around so you could position them where you wanted them.

The only thing on the wall was a framed
black and white photo of a headshot of Walter Payton wearing a
white headband and looking over his Bears jersey covered, shoulder
padded shoulder, his handsome face reflective.

It was an awesome picture.

Sam was asleep. I knew this from his
breathing but also from the feel of him. You could sense his power
always even if he was only in the vicinity. Now his power was shut
down.

Memphis was also asleep. I knew this because
she was pressed to the small of my back and immobile.

So I had time. Time to decide what to do
about Sam.

But I didn’t need time. It came to me
immediately.

And what came to me was that
I had
time.

Time to convince him he could trust me. Time
to prove to him he could give me his secrets, open his heart, show
me his soul and I’d take care of it just like he was taking care of
mine. Time in his capable hands to put myself back together and
give him the real me.

We were new, I reminded myself. I needed to
give him time. I needed to give him me without expecting more than
he was already giving me. And I needed to work toward gaining his
trust.

No more tantrums. No more dramas. No more
pushing.

It would come.

In the meantime, I needed to keep my promise
and take him how he could give himself to me.

Because, seriously, what did I have to
complain about?

On this thought I pressed into him, putting
my lips to his chest, gliding them up to his shoulder, his neck
then to his jaw.

His arm around my waist tightened and he
pulled me mostly on his body.

He was awake.

Time to get to work.

I lifted my head and looked down into his
beautiful eyes with their spiky, thick lashes, eyes that were now
languid and thus hotter than their usual
hot
and I
grinned.

“I like your picture of Sweetness.”

His arm got tighter and his lips turned up
slightly at the ends. “You know Payton?”

“Who doesn’t know Payton?”

“Thought you weren’t into football,
honey.”

“You don’t have to be into football to know
Walter Payton was the best running back the game has ever
seen.”

His lip turn got bigger. “You know what a
running back is?”

“No, but my guess is they run and I
definitely know Sweetness could run.”

His body shook with his chuckle as he
rolled, taking me to my back, making Memphis scoot away and ending
with him mostly on me.

My fingers started exploring his back as his
hand ran up my neck, his fingers sliding into my hair from the
bottom, his thumb extended to stroke my jaw as I kept talking.

“I like your bedroom too.”

“Good,” Sam murmured, dipping his head and
running the side of his nose along the side of mine.

He’d never done that. I liked it. It was
sweet.

“And your whole house,” I whispered.

His lips swept my lips then he whispered
back, “Good.”

“And your view,” I kept going.

“Good,” he repeated on a mutter, his whole
hand slid up into my hair, cupping then tilting my head, his
slanted the other way and he kissed me.

I planted a foot in the bed, heaved up, Sam
let me roll him so I was on top and I did this all while kissing
him back.

Then I lifted my head and informed him, “But
if you have a Ferrari in your garage, that’s a deal breaker.”

Sam burst out laughing. I watched for a
couple of seconds, smiling down at him then I dropped my head and
kissed him again. He laughed into my mouth for a second, I liked
the feel of it, then he quit laughing, took over and it got
heated.

When his mouth broke from mine, I was
breathing harder and focusing on his lips gliding to my ear where
he murmured, “Got a Ford F-150 supercrew cab. That work for
you?”

My lips had landed on his neck, my mind
vaguely processing I had no freaking clue what a supercrew cab was,
though I did know what a Ford F-150 was, so I mumbled,
“Mm-hmm.”

“Good,” he mumbled back.

My lips decided they wanted to move down, so
they did. Then they decided they wanted to explore, so they did.
Then they decided to further their exploration, so they did.
Finally, I slid between Sam’s legs, he opened them and cocked his
knees, giving me unfettered access. I took him in my hand and
didn’t delay and sliding him in my mouth.

“
Fuck,
” Sam groaned, both his hands
sifting in my hair on the sides, pulling it back and fisting in
it.

My eyes tipped up to him to see his eyes on
me. He always watched me working him. He liked how I worked him, he
liked to watch and it must be said, so did I.

I slid him out, held him to my lips, rolled
the tip with my tongue and he pushed off on his heels, taking
himself (and me) up the bed until his shoulders were to the
headboard so he could more easily watch.

Since he was in position, I gave him a
show.

He was liking it in a big way which was
about as much as I was liking it and I knew from experience he was
close to ending the show and taking over. This was another way I
considered Sam a gentleman. He always finished in me and he only
finished after he made me do the same. He might allow me to give
and in so doing take but he never took it all unless he’d given it
all to me.

I loved that about him.

And just when his growls were going so deep
I could feel them in my mouth through his cock, the feel
corresponding wet gathering between my legs, his phone on his
bedside table rang.

I slid him out of my mouth and looked at
it.

“Ignore it,” he ordered, his voice super
rough velvet, gliding over me, coating me in invincibility.

Yes, invincibility. I forgot. With Sam, I
was invincible.

I could do this. I could be me. I could make
him trust me, share with me and fall in love with me. With Sam, I
could do anything, nothing would beat me.

My eyes slid to him as the phone rang
again.

“Baby –” Sam started but I grinned.

He could pull out and make me wait for
it.

I could do the same.

I quickly crawled up his body watching his
face turn dark with frustration, my grin became a smile and I
reached out and grabbed the phone from its cradle.

“Do not answer that, Kia,” he rumbled.

I straddled his gut, looked to the phone,
found the on button, hit it and put it to my ear.

“Please, at this hour, do not be a
telemarketer,” I greeted, my gaze tipping down to Sam who now had
his fingers curled into my hips and an expression in his eyes that
said I’d pay for this but in a way I could look forward to.

Several seconds had gone by before I
realized no one had answered my flippant greeting.

My eyes went unfocused and I called,
“Hello?”

Sam’s upper body knifed up, I slid down to
straddling his lap and one of his arms curled around me.

Then a woman’s velvety but hesitant voice
came at me through the phone.

“Uh… hello. Is Sam there? This is his
mother.”

I froze solid.

Shit!

His mother!

I’d answered the phone flippantly and it was
his mother!

I was
in bed
in
the morning
with Sam and I interrupted
the blowjob
I was giving Sam in
order to answer the phone flippantly and it was
his
mother!

“Baby, who is it?”

I unfroze, gave Sam big eyes and waved my
hand at him to shut up.

Then I forced myself to stammer, “Uh, yes.
He’s here, uh…”

Sam pulled the phone out of my hand and put
it to his ear.

Oh God! Now she was going to know he was in
bed with me!

“Cooper,” he said into it, listened for a
nanosecond then his eyes cut to me and he smiled huge. “Hey,
Ma.”

I tensed to launch myself off him but his
arm around me clamped tight.

Then Sam spoke again.

“Yeah, that was Kia, the one I told you
about.”

He told her about me? When? Why? What did he
say? And, again,
when?

Sam kept talking.

“We got here yesterday.” Pause. “Right.”
Pause then his arm spasmed around me, his eyes slid away, his
amusement faded and his brows drew together. “No, don’t do
that.”

Uh-oh.

He kept going.

“No, Ma, seriously, we just got here and
now’s not the time for company.”

Uh-oh!

“Ma –” he began, was obviously cut off then,
“Not a good idea.” Pause then, “Ma –” Another cut off, this one
lasted longer and ended with a clipped, “Shit. Fine.”

No!

My hands lifted, fingers curling tight on
his shoulders where they met his neck and his eyes came to me.

“Right, we’ll pick you up in Raleigh on
Thursday,” he said.

No. No.
No!

My fingers tightened on his shoulders, his
eyes moved over my face then they started twinkling.

Twinkling!

Was he
crazy?

I couldn’t meet his mother! It was way too
soon for one. Sure, he’d met my whole family but someone was trying
to kill me and Sam was my self-appointed protector. There was no
way to avoid that. For another, I couldn’t sleep in the same bed
with Sam if his mother was in the house. I was from Indiana. I was
the daughter of Essie and Ford Rigsby. My mother and father could
look the other way and pretend Sam and I didn’t have a sexual
relationship outside of marriage if we were staying at my house and
it wasn’t in their face. And they did so contentedly considering
Sam was my self-appointed protector who’d wrangled up a crew of
badasses to make sure I kept breathing. This bought you a lot of
leeway, even with church going folk in the Bible belt. I could not
sleep with Sam or
sleep with Sam
when his mother was in the
house. And Sam wouldn’t allow it to be any other way. I knew it.
Furthermore, his bedroom, walk-in closet and master bath took one
whole side of the upstairs. The other side was another bathroom, a
guest room and his office. His mother would be in the guest room
and there was nowhere else for me to sleep except one of the
couches downstairs.

Eek!

Sam again spoke, taking me out of my fevered
thoughts, “All right, Ma, call me or text the details and we’ll
meet you outside the terminal.” Pause. “Yeah.” Pause. “Lookin’
forward to it.” Pause. “No, that’ll be fine, considering I’ve been
forced to eat Kia’s Mom’s cooking, I’m sure she’ll be good with
eating yours.”

Forced? What would Mrs. Cooper think, Sam
saying he was “forced” to eat Mom’s cooking?

Eek again!

Sam went on, grinning into the phone and
muttering, “I’ll explain it later, Ma. Need to see to Memphis.”
Pause. “Kia’s dog.” Another pause. “Yeah, she’s cute. You’ll love
her.”

Oh God. I hoped so. It would suck if Sam’s
Mom turned out to be the only human on the planet (outside Hap and,
kind of, Teri) who hated Memphis.

It would suck more if Sam’s Mom turned out
to be the only human I knew on the planet (outside Vanessa) who
hated me.

Sam kept speaking. “Right. See you soon.”
Pause. “Love you too, Ma. Later.”

He beeped off the phone, twisted, taking me
with him, put it on the cradle then twisted back and his eyes
locked on mine.

“What chance I got that you’ll use your
mouth to get me hard again so I can fuck you?” he asked through a
shit eating grin.

“Zero,” I answered while trying not to
hyperventilate.

“Figured,” he muttered, still grinning.

“This isn’t good,” I told him and Sam’s
other arm curved around me, both of them giving me a warm
squeeze.

“She’ll love you, baby,” he whispered.

“Okay, well, maybe so but
you
won’t
love me sleeping on the couch.”

The grin disappeared and his brows drew
together. “Come again?”

“Hello? Sam? Again, I’m from Indiana.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not and neither is Ma.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do it. It’s
impossible. I’ll break into hives or something.”

“Baby, you’re overreacting. Your parents
know I’m fucking you.”

Ohmigod!

I forced his words out of my head even as I
responded to them. “Yes, okay, but they only didn’t give me a
lecture or hit us both with their heavy censure because they think
it’s your reward for keeping me alive. In normal circumstances
–”

He interrupted me with another arm squeeze
and stated, “In normal circumstances, Kia, baby, you are
twenty-eight and you can do whatever the fuck you wanna do. And in
our current circumstances, my Ma knows me pretty well, she does not
have hang ups about that shit but if she did, she knows better than
to share them with me or make you uncomfortable. You are not
sleepin’ on the couch, you’re sleepin’ with me.”