His hands slid down my ass to my thighs as he bent slightly then I was going up, he pulled my legs apart and I wrapped them around his hips as his hands slid back to my ass and my arms went around his shoulders. Carrying me, he started walking down the hall.
“I’m not leavin’ for two weeks not gettin’ my fill of you.”
“Joe –”
“You come to me after he’s done with you.”
Oh God, why was this so fucked up?
“Joe, I don’t –”
He put a knee to his bed and then my back was to it and he was on me.
“You come to me or I come to you. Buddy, you want me fuckin’ you with your girls in the house then you stay home. You don’t, I hear your feet on the steps of my deck.”
His hand pulled my blouse from my jeans as I asked, “You’re not askin’ are you?”
His fingers pulled down the cup of my bra when he answered, “Nope.”
“Joe –” I whispered when his thumb swept over my nipple and I felt only that and forgot what we were talking about.
“Vi,” he called and I realized I’d closed my eyes so I opened them and focused on him. “There’s five hundred dollars on my nightstand, when you go home in the mornin’, you take it.”
My body stilled under his.
“What?”
“It’s for Keira’s dog and food.”
“The dog only costs two hundred dollars.”
“Then you can buy a lot of food.”
“Joe, you can’t do that.”
“You don’t buy her the dog, I talk to her tomorrow, find out where the dog is, I buy it and the food.”
“You can’t do that.”
His thumb did another swipe and I bit my lip.
“She wants a dog,” he stated.
“But –”
“Baby, she lost her Dad, she should get a fuckin’ dog.”
I swallowed and my body relaxed under his.
“I know,” I whispered and I did know, I’d known since the minute she brought it up.
“So take the money, buy her the fuckin’ dog.”
I put my hand to his scarred cheek and ran my thumb along his cheekbone.
“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.
“That’s for Keira, there’s no payback for Keira. You need somethin’ from me, we’ll discuss payback.”
“Joe –”
His mouth came to mine. “Done talkin’ now.”
“Joe –”
“Might be gone two weeks, we need to fuck.”
“Joe, please.”
“What?”
I dropped my head and slid my nose along his jaw until my mouth was at his ear and I whispered, “Thanks for the dog.”
With my mouth at his ear, his mouth was at mine when he whispered back, “Shut up, buddy.”
Then his finger met his thumb and he pinched my nipple and my mind went blank again.
Chapter Nine
Visitor
I lay on my back on my bed staring at the ceiling and hearing the TV in the other room. Kate, Dane and Keira were watching a movie that, from what I could tell, had a lot of explosions.
My cell phone was on my stomach, my hand curled around it and I had two choices. Either I needed to make the call to end things with Joe or I wanted to make the call just to talk to Joe.
I closed my eyes.
Things couldn’t get weirder or more messed up.
It was now Thursday.
On Saturday, during the day, I’d had to have the talk with the girls, telling them I was going out on a date. I couldn’t just trip out the door with an unknown man and call, “See you later!” as much as I wanted to. I had to do what I could to make this transition from Mom and Dad, to Mom no Dad, to Mom dating as smooth as possible even though that was impossible.
I still had to try.
So I stood at the kitchen counter while they both sat on stools at the bar opposite me and I told them I met a man named Lieutenant Mike Haines and we were going out on a date.
I expected they’d both be pissed. They loved their Dad and I couldn’t imagine that, the time having come when I was moving on with life, dragging them with me, they’d be thrilled to bits.
What I didn’t expect was Kate to say, “That’s great, Mawdy.”
But I kinda expected Keira to snap, “What about Joe?”
Which was what she did.
I closed my eyes but opened them when Kate asked Keira, “What about Joe?”
“Joe’s a hottie,” Keira replied to Kate.
“Yeah, he’s a hottie, so? Mom likes the clean cut guys,” Kate returned and this was true, Tim was a clean cut guy and Tim had been the only guy who I’d liked. Then again, it was kinda untrue, Joe was anything but clean cut.
“Joe bought us dinner, told Mom she looked great in her Lucky’s and gave us electric eyes,” Keira retorted and when Kate opened her mouth to speak, Keira finished, “and he likes her cupcakes.”
“Maybe this Mike guy’ll like her cupcakes too,” Kate suggested.
At this point, I was feeling weird about my girls talking about the men in my life liking my cupcakes so I waded in. “Girls –”
Keira looked at me and declared, “I like you with Joe.”
Kate leaned into Keira and declared, “She’s not with Joe.”
Keira’s head twisted around to Kate and she returned, “She could be. He likes her, I can tell.”
“All right,” I cut in, “enough. This is a date, just a date, with Mike. Joe, Keira baby,” I looked at my youngest, “let’s just let that lie for now.”