KEPT: A Second Chance Fairy Tale (47 page)

Michael

Thankfully, Lucy’s no longer as pissed off as she was in the restaurant when she first set eyes on Victoria. She said her piece, accepted what little she allowed Victoria to say, then did what I still haven’t been able to do.

Lucy forgave her.

Watching the woman who taught me love face off against the woman I once thought I did was surreal. Those questions Lucy needed to ask were answered. Sentiments Lucy needed to make were made. I felt an unexpected peace rush over me in hearing Lucy, in her own way, saying goodbye to her husband for good.

“Giving in yet?” I tease, using my thumb to manipulate Lucy’s body into agreeing to what I’ve asked.

Her legs begins to shake and her body starts to tense. I’m not sure if she can still even hear me.

When my tongue surges into her wet and ready core, Lucy’s moan echoes off the walls right before she pulls my hair to the point of pain. I’m not ready to give her all her body is asking, though.

Not yet.

Pulling back, I look up to appreciate her, naked and wanting, spread out on my bed, before repeating myself. This time, I rephrase my question as a demand. “You’re moving in with me, Lucy.”

“Do that again,” she instructs, subtly raising her hips toward my face, which is settled comfortably between her thighs.

I refuse to budge.

Tonight, watching Lucy lash out against Victoria the way she did, ready to battle until the death, was something I found so unbelievably sexy, I had a difficult time holding my composure.

Watching Lucy
forgive
the woman who set about to ruin her trust in all others was something perplexing, yet beautiful at the same time.

“Michael,” she moans, looking down as I remain still. “This isn’t fair.”

Shaking my head, I run my thumb against her again, smelling her arousal and wanting nothing more than to quench the ache I know she must be feeling.

But I won’t do anything until she concedes.

“It’s a simple answer, Lucy. Yes or no. I want you here every morning when I wake up and every night when I go to sleep.”

As she throws her head back down on the pillow and looks up at the ceiling in frustration, I want to smile but don’t. If she were doing the same to me, I’d be livid.

“You can’t expect me to answer this now,” she complains. “I mean, really, how fair is this?”

“Yes or no,” I state again, adding additional motivation. Thrusting my finger inside, Lucy’s body jolts. Her hips lift slightly off the bed once she realizes I’m not going to stop.

“Oh god. Please, please, please,” she begs.

Once she’s on the verge of coming apart, I pull away.

Standing up, unbuckling my belt and removing my pants, I watch as Lucy brings her focus around to mine. My cock is thirsting to be inside her. Helping to relieve my own ache, my hand grasps my length, massaging up and down, again and again, as I wait to hear her answer.

“I don’t want to lie to you, Michael, but I will,” she smarts off, bringing her hands to her chest and playing with her hardened nipples. “Lying isn’t wrong if you’re doing it under duress.”

Fuck, she’s going to win this. I know it.

In an attempt to stand my ground, I walk over and lay beside her, but I refuse to touch her. Our heads turn so our eyes are on each other.

“I love you,” I insist, moving a piece of hair matted with sweat from her neck. I’ve been teasing her for a while, hoping she’d break and give in. However, this is the part of Lucy that I both love and hate. She’s stubborn to a fault. “And I love you more now, after you forgave Victoria tonight, than I did before.”

Lucy thinks to herself, her eyes never leaving mine, before she admits, “I’m afraid you’ll move me in here, then change your mind.”

God, the woman is ridiculous.

“I won’t change my mind, Lucy. It’s taken me this long to figure out I can’t live without you. I have no doubt about this.”

“I’m boring,” she whispers. “As in, I can be pretty lame.”

There’s nothing I can do to stop the laughter from bursting into the room.

“What?” she shrieks. She grabs the wrist of the hand holding my head, and I lean in to her to keep from falling over. “What’s funny?”

“You are anything but boring.”

She shrugs and mindlessly plays with the hair behind my ear before running her fingers over the top of it to keep her focus on something else.

“We’ve been through so much drama,” she explains. “Between visiting your family, then coming back here and not telling anyone. Then, ya know, there’s your not-so-dead ex-wife.”

“So?”

“So take all that fun away and you’ll see I’m pretty simple.”

Positioning my body over hers, I use my knee to spread her thighs. My hand drops between us, spreading her further and placing my cock at her entrance. I lean down to kiss her lips softly, then pull back before demanding more.

“I like simple,” I state with all honesty. “Other than your persistent need to make me crazy, simple sounds good.”

Sighing, she looks past my shoulders and to the ceiling. “Okay,” she agrees. “Dillon and I will move in.”

With her approval stated clearly, no way possible for her to take it back without a fight, I slide into her with a nearly violent thrust. It’s my own private way of, once again, claiming what was always mine.

Her hands immediately tense along my waist and her hips instantly mold into mine as the steady rhythm of our first night as an ‘us’ finally begins.

“I knew you’d come around,” I whisper before using my teeth to pull at the skin of her neck.

Lucy’s insides tighten, forcing me to push her harder.

“You’ll learn to see things my way,” I test. “There are a lot of ways I plan to have you.”

A small whimper emits from her throat, and she buries her face in my neck to avoid looking at me directly.

“Think of all the opportunities I’ll use to take you when you’re here every day,” I add, running her nipple between my fingers, then pulling slightly to hear her desperate gasp for breath.

“And when I’m bad?” she asks.

Caught off-guard, not following her question, I stop moving inside her and look down to find her smirking and biting her bottom lip.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’ll make my ass red,” she answers. Using her tongue to lick my throat, then my jaw, she stops once she reaches my mouth. Putting together what she’s asking in her own crazy way, my cock hardens to the point of pain. “When I’m
naughty
,” she whispers in my ear.

I fucking knew she’d win. Son of a bitch.

Not giving her a verbal response, I rock back and forth into her. I don’t stop until I’m on the edge. Although she’s beneath me, taking every inch, I can’t get enough of her.

Never enough.

Grabbing her hands to keep them from touching me, I pin them over her head. She has no choice but to look directly into my eyes. I finally form the words to answer, “I’ll beat your ass red, but I’ll gag you for saying
naughty
the way you just did.”

Lucy giggles, causing her to grasp me tighter. It sends my pending release to the surface and I spill into her without warning. Before I’m finished, her body tightens as her legs pull me in closer, holding me as she climaxes at the same time.

A life I hope to have full of Lucy will require tactical decisions and well-made plans.

Recognizing this, I immediately plot my next move.

Lucy

“S
TOP THROWING IT SO HARD,”
I offer my motherly advice to Michael from my place on the bench. He’s showing Dillon how to catch a ball while protecting his face at the same time.

Both of them are dressed in jerseys and baseball pants. Dillon’s wearing the jersey we bought for the Yankees game, and Michael is wearing one I’ve never seen. They both have hats to block the sun, but a lot of good it’s done. Dillon’s lost a few tosses in its bright rays.

“Mom, he has to throw it that hard,” Dillon smarts, losing more of his patience with each of my interjections.

Michael hits his gloved hand against his leg, turns to me with displeasure, then moves his finger to his mouth to shut me up.

“Go easy, Michael,” I add, mainly because I’m a mother fearing for her child’s teeth.

Holding two bottles of water, Shannan plops down beside me. Handing me one, she observes, “Your man looks hot in that uniform. I’ve never had a thing for baseball players, but I’m thinking–”

“Don’t talk about that now,” I clip. “Dillon’s getting dehydrated. Look at him.”

When I point to Dillon, laughing at a ball he threw over Michael’s head, Shannan feigns concern. “Yeah, he looks super sick.”

Once Michael and I got to the apartment this morning, he had a chance to meet my mom. It took all of two seconds for Dillon to process what the sight of Michael and me together meant. Then he smiled – big.

“So.” Shannan grins before taking a drink. After she’s swallowed, she wipes her mouth. “You two are together?”

“Yes,” I answer. “He asked me and Dillon to move in with him.”

The memory of how he asked, more so demanded, has my thighs clenching.

My best friend gasps, just as I thought she would. “Oh, my god, Lucy! That’s
huge
.”

“I haven’t told Dillon. If he doesn’t want this, we won’t.”

Shannan takes a second to see what I see – Michael standing next to Dillon, pulling his glove apart and placing the ball inside it. I assume he’s showing him where a catch should land. I can’t hear their debate, but Dillon nods and starts to walk away before Michael raises his arm to throw it again.

“You were never
not
together. Dillon likes him and you love him. What’s to think about?”

Nodding, I only reply, “I know.”

Shannan and I turn our heads to see Corbin coming up from behind us. He’s wearing a yellow polo which offsets his bronzed skin and tan khakis.

He looks at the open spot next to me first, then the one beside my gorgeous friend.

He chooses her and settles in, but looks over her head to me. “What’s going on?”

I point. “Baseball.”

“Ah,” he answers, grabbing Shannan’s water from her hand before taking a healthy drink. He hands it back and casually utters, “Thanks,” as she sits between us with an open mouth, probably mentally cursing his bold move.

Shannan, this is Corbin.

They met briefly at Tryst when he all but threw us out. I’m not sure she remembers, though.

“Mike texted this morning. Asked me to stop by for backup.”

Shannan isn’t following, but I am. “Backup?” she questions. “The kid is six. What’s Michael need backup for?”

Corbin smiles, his teeth sparkling and his dimples huge. “Wasn’t backup to protect Michael from Dillon.”

“Me,” I snip. “He sent you for me.”

Corbin looks down, bracing his elbows on his knees and holding in a laugh. “Yep.”

“Wow.” Shannan sighs. “Does your man know you or what.”

I’d tell her to shut up, but now she has Corbin on her side. It wouldn’t do any good for me to defend myself.

“Lucy, you got a minute?” Corbin quietly asks.

“Go. I’ll watch. Pick me up another water, though,” Shannan sneers at Corbin, holding up her nearly empty bottle.

As Corbin and I walk the distance from the bleachers to the car, he stays quiet. I haven’t talked to him since the night he told me everything I thought I knew wasn’t real.

“I know what you’re going to say,” I tell him, although I really have no idea.

“You don’t know,” he returns. “Fuck, maybe you do. You
are
Lucy.”

“What’s that mean?” I hiss, turning to check if Dillon’s face is still uninjured.

Corbin lifts the trunk of Michael’s car, then pulls two water bottles from the cooler.

“I want to apologize,” he explains. “I owe you that.”

“You don’t.”

“I hired you knowing everything I did. There were opportunities to tell you what I should’ve, but didn’t.”

“Thank you.” His eyebrows lift because he doesn’t understand, so I explain, “If you’d have told me, I wouldn’t have…”

I lose the words, but he fills them in. “Fallen in love with Michael.”

Yes
.

“He’s a good man, and he loves you.”

“I know.”

Squinting in the sun, he continues, “I have my best friend back, Lucy. That’s something I never thought would happen.”

Corbin’s sentiment is sweet, but he’s appreciative only of what I’ve
done for Michael. It’s not only my life Michael has changed, fighting my battles without my knowing it. He’s also given that to Dillon.

Thanks to Michael, my son is getting firsthand experience of what life’s second chances have to offer. How, if you leave yourself open to them, they’re just as good, if not better, than the first.

Gabe gave me Dillon. I wouldn’t change those years of contentment for anything.

But, in the end, it’s Michael who’s bringing everything together.

“He gave Dillon more.”

Corbin silently contemplates. For a moment, I think he understands, then he asks, “What do you mean?”

“Because of Michael, my son will know what ‘happily ever after’ looks like.”