Authors: Lynn Cooper
“Letting me? Lacey, you can’t stop me.”
And she didn’t. There was no time. His head disappeared between her thighs so quickly she could do nothing but accept the onslaught of his tongue on her most intimate, private part. Every vein in her body was singed with desire. The hot, rhythmic lapping of his tongue roused her senses to a fever pitch, seduced her heart, branded her soul and tantalized her emotions. She had never experienced such a rush of pure pleasure, and it was made all the sweeter by the fact that she loved this man. Her hips rocked, pushing toward release then pulling back from a white-hot heat that threatened to consume her.
She sucked in a sharp breath when Chance tightened his hold on her, anchoring her in place. He kept her steady, never letting her fall while bringing her to one explosive climax after another.
HE HAD FORGOTTEN HOW heavenly it was to lie on a bed—any bed—but especially one with clean sheets and plush covers. To sink down into a soft but firm mattress. To be in a house with a real roof, lying next to a woman who made him feel like an honest-to- God man instead of a no-good ex-con.
He smiled his satisfaction against Lacey’s silky, sweet-smelling hair. She was naked and nestled into the crook of his arm with her head resting on his chest. Lazily, he reached over and used his open palm in a back and forth motion to graze the tips of her distended nipples until she was panting for him. She lifted her face for a kiss, and he happily obliged. He ran his tongue over her lower lip before pushing it inside for a deeper, more sensual exploration.
Lacey moaned into his mouth, and he could see and feel the covers tenting as she bent her knees. He watched with pure animal lust while the blankets floated back into place. He knew she had let her knees fall apart. Her legs were spread wide in a silent invitation. One he planned to accept soon. But first, they needed to talk.
Raising up on one elbow, he gazed at her lovely face still flushed from their shower. Her big beautiful brown eyes glazed with the same desire that was thrumming through his veins. Her lips were rosy and swollen from his kisses. Her neck and breasts were marked with hickeys from his overzealous suckling. If her earlier writhing, sighing and moaning were any indication, she hadn’t minded it one bit.
She offered him a smile that was even sweeter than her apple pies. “What are thinking about, Chance?”
He rubbed his hand across his freshly-shaven face. “Oh, lots of things.”
“Like what?”
“Like how sexy you are. How good you and this bed feel. How I want to make you as happy as I am right now. I mean it, Lacey. I want to make all of your dreams come true.”
“That’s awfully sweet. But I really only have one dream.”
“Tell me, angel.”
“Promise not to laugh.”
“I swear on my life.”
“Okay,” she said, sighing. “I want to own my own bakery. I want to make apple pies and all sorts of sweets every day for the rest of my days. Do you think that’s silly?”
“No,” he said, reaching beneath the covers to stroke her inner thighs. He had been right. Her legs were spread wide. “I think it’s perfect. Tomorrow we’ll go find the best building for your bakery.”
Her eyes widened, and he knew it wasn’t because he had cupped her mound and was rhythmically squeezing it.
Her voice was soft and breathy. “Chance, there’s no point in looking. Neither of us could afford a lease. No offense, but you’re homeless, and I’m a fresh-out-of-work waitress.”
His eyes sparkled. “I’m not suggesting we rent a space,” he said, slipping a finger between the flowering folds of her dripping-wet sex. “We’ll buy one.”
She rolled her eyes. “I fear our lovemaking has clouded your mind or else you’ve had a stroke. Banks do
not
make loans to unemployed people who have no collateral.”
Slowly sliding his finger up her slit, he lazily circled her clit, pulling sweet littles cries of pleasure from her cute, pouty mouth. “We don’t need a loan. When you find the building you want, the sweetest spot for your bakery, we’ll buy it outright.”
Lacey slapped his hand away and bolted up to a seated position. Her voice was edgy and angry. “I don’t know what sort of callous, shitty game you’re playing here, Chance. But I do
not
appreciate it one damn bit. How could you so nonchalantly poke fun at my dream?” She folded her arms over her chest. “God! I never should have told you. I think you better leave.”
Chance hung his head. He shouldn’t have strung her along that long. But he was so fucking excited to finally have a reason to live again and over-the-moon happy to have someone to share his resources with.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just hear me out, okay? Afterwards, if you still want to me to leave, then I’ll go.”
She took a deep breath. “Fine! But make it quick. I have to get up early in the morning and look for work. Something you might want to try.”
Her words stung, but he understood she was lashing out in pain. Her feelings were hurt. She thought he was making light of something important that she had confided in him. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
“When Charlotte and I were little kids, we lost our parents to a tragic boating accident. We were raised by our grandparents until they died. By then, we were old enough to take care of ourselves.”
Lacey gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry that happened to ya’ll, but what does it have to do with you acting like a jackass?”
“I’m getting to that.”
“Good, because I’m getting madder by the minute.”
“I know. Anyway, dying so young, they didn’t have life insurance policies. When Charlotte and I graduated college, we decided it would be a good idea to get one on each of us. She was the beneficiary on mine, and I was the beneficiary on hers. See?”
“No. I do not see.”
“My policy lapsed when I went to prison, but it didn’t matter much since Charlotte was already dead.”
He saw a lightbulb flash in Lacey’s eyes. “But her policy was in effect when she died, and you got the money.”
“Her policy was worth two-hundred twenty-five thousand dollars with an accidental-death rider. Since she died in a car wreck, the amount doubled. All of it is still sitting in the bank in my checking account. It’s been there drawing interest for the last five years.”
Chance wasn’t sure exactly what Lacey’s reaction to the news would be, but he wasn’t expecting a slap across the face.
“I guess that means you still want me to leave,” he said, gingerly rubbing his stinging flesh.
“Not until you tell me why.”
“Why what?”
“Why the hell you’ve been living like an animal on the streets. Sleeping under a filthy train trestle in dangerous conditions when you have more money in the bank than most people ever see in a lifetime. That’s just crazy.
You’re
crazy!”
“My reasoning was simple. I saw it as blood money. I blamed myself for Charlotte’s death. I didn’t think I deserved to live, much less high on the hog at the expense of my sister’s life. If you could believe me capable of doing that, then you’re the one who’s bat-shit crazy!”
“Okay, that part’s understandable. Your lack of self-worth and feelings of deserving nothing from a roof over your head, to a slice of apple pie, to making love with me has been well documented. But I’m not sure I can understand you not helping the others. You have lived with homeless people for five years. You watched your street family go hungry and thirsty. You saw them shivering under cardboard and old newspapers. You knew they needed things you could provide, and yet you did nothing. In my book, that’s inexcusable. Unforgivable even. I can’t wait to see how you explain it away.”
He held up his hands. “You’ll have a fucking long-ass wait because I have no excuse or defense. All I can tell you is, until I saw you at Eva’s, I was a dead man walking. I had spent five years in a maximum security prison. My original fifteen-year sentence was commuted when an associate of Charlotte’s attacker got a case of guilty conscience on his death bed. He came forward and spilled his guts, revealing the names of other rape victims. So the penal system turned me—a beat-down, caged animal—loose to prowl about in an asphalt jungle. Existing and surviving for a decade under those conditions does something really bad to a man, angel.”
Talking openly about prison made him feel antsy and restless. He couldn’t stand still any longer. Turning away from the judgement he saw and felt in Lacey’s beautiful eyes, he paced back and forth. Moving around gave him the strength keep talking. He had to try and make her understand.
“I couldn’t help myself much less anyone else. Hell, there were times when I lost touch with reality. When I wasn’t even sure the money was there at all. I was too weak or scared or beat down to check on it. When you showed up at the trestle with those pies the first time, and I got a glimpse of what life might be like with a woman like you, I called my lawyer. He confirmed the money was in my account.”
“So you knew you had enough money to buy fifty bakeries when we were making out in the middle of a bullet storm this afternoon? You knew it when we were parked in front of my tiny, rundown apartment, talking in my piece-of-shit car? Knew it while you were licking my pussy clean in the shower? While you were fondling it just now?”
“Yes.”
She got up from the bed and stomped her foot. “And you didn’t think it might be a good idea to share this information with me right away, instead of letting me feel sorry for you? Did you get off on me begging you to come inside my apartment? Or was it having me wash five years’ worth of your grime down my shower drain that got you going? Or, maybe it was having a chubby girl declare her love for you and throw herself shamelessly at you when you knew all along you had enough money and good looks to have any woman the world.”
As he had at the trestle, Chance grabbed her wrists roughly. Only this time he wasn’t careful. He intentionally squeezed too tightly. He wanted to hurt her like she was hurting him right now. Her words scraped across his heart like a serrated blade, and he was bleeding badly.
“I didn’t withhold the information about my finances to get any jollies at your expense, Lacey. I just wanted the opportunity to get my head on straight. To buy a house. To court you properly. To be the kind of man you deserve. The kind of man you might want to marry. But before I had time to do any of that, you came flying up in that back-firing rattletrap of yours, stirring up trouble. And here we are.”
LACEY WAS STUNNED. SHE had spent the last week reconciling herself to the fact that she was in love with a poor, homeless ex-con. Now he tells her he’s wealthy and offers to buy her a bakery, making her lifelong dream come true. For the icing on the cake, he wants to be the kind of man she would want to marry.
While she was wrapping her head around all of it and trying not to get whiplash, she watched him pick up his filthy, tattered clothes. Just as he was stepping into his threadbare jeans, she said, “Before we go looking for a building to put our bakery in, we best buy you some new clothes.”
He dropped the pants and gave her a panty-melting smile. “
Our
bakery?”
“Sure. I thought maybe we could be business partners.”
He nodded and raised an eyebrow as if seriously considering it. “I suppose it’s about time I put my master’s degree in accounting to use.”
She clapped in her hands in excitement. “I was wondering what you’d gone to college for. It seems downright kismet to me. You have a head for numbers, and I have a head for flour, sugar and butter. What a team! We’re sure to be a raging success.”
He scooped her up and carried her to the bed. Laying her gently across it, he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the money. I wasn’t hiding it from you. I swear. I was trying to do the right thing by you. I love you, Lacey.”
“I know. I love you, too.”
She pulled his head to her breast and opened her legs as she had moments ago. This time he didn’t tease her feminine folds with his fingers. Instead, he latched his hungry mouth around her nipple—a highly sensitive pebbled bud of sensation—and firmly nudged the entrance to her pussy with the head of his dick. She moaned aloud her need, and he answered it with a growl. God he was always growling. And growling was good. Really good. But, the intimate merging of their bodies and souls would be even better.
Chance touched her everywhere. Licking and kissing a trail of fire across her skin, making her gasp with every flick of his tongue. Lacey had waited so long to feel him inside her. She was overcome with excitement and expectation as every move he made was bringing both of them closer to what they wanted most.
She trembled when he took his manhood in hand and sensuously slid it up and down the length of her slit. She was wet and slippery and eager. He stroked her clit with his hardness until she feared she might go insane from the pleasure. Weaving her fingers into his unruly hair, she moaned while he worked his magic on her.
Chance seduced her with his mouth as he pushed himself into the tight, welcoming depths of her womanhood. His breathing was ragged with exertion. Lacey made a few futile attempts to calm her own breathing, but it was no use. The sensations he provoked infused her entire body, rocking her just as deep and hard as his hips were. Her heart raced, and her pulse pounded like the beat of an exotic drum, keeping rhythm with the hammering of his thrusts.