Elvira roped him in and Hawk wasted no time telling on me.
Joker paused, muttered, “Uh-huh.” Another pause before he said, “I’ll tell her.” One final pause before, “Yeah, later.” Then he shoved his phone back in his pocket and declared, “Gwen likes you. Had a good time helpin’ you move. We’re invited over for dinner with our only requirement being bringing Travis. Gwen will sort that shit direct with you.”
“That’ll be nice,” I said carefully. Then went on just as carefully, “Though, before we move on, I just wanted to point out I didn’t actually confess to being a goof.”
He just lifted his brows.
I let that go.
“And I’ll add that was uncanny in an eerie way, Hawk calling you right when we started talking about him.”
“Lee Nightingale is a supreme badass. Hawk’s a bona fide superhero who doesn’t wear a ridiculous suit. This is no joke. He probably sensed our discussion through powers he got when his mom was pushin’ him out and got struck by lightning or something. I don’t ask. He’s an ally. He’s also a brother of Tack’s. I’m just happy he isn’t an enemy.”
“I kinda wanna meet him now,” I shared.
“That’s good, seein’ as we’re goin’ to dinner at his pad.”
“Right,” I murmured.
“Speakin’ a’ dinner, as sweet as it is havin’ you in my arms, your man needs to get fed.”
My man.
I grinned.
He was so totally my boyfriend.
Carson Steele and Carissa Teodoro, boyfriend/girlfriend.
This made me happy.
We even had names that matched!
Joker watched me smile, watched me continue doing it without moving, so he shook me and said, “Dinner, Carrie.”
It was then it occurred to me I was the one who had to let him go and get my behind in gear.
And it occurred to me I had to do that because he didn’t want to let me go.
So that was when it occurred to me I hadn’t kissed my man since I got home from work.
Therefore, I rolled up on my toes in my Converse and did that.
He took over, as he was wont to do.
But I didn’t mind.
Then I got ready and my man took me out for a mountain pie.
*
In the dark, in my bed, I lay on top, straddling Joker’s naked body.
It wasn’t late. It wasn’t early. I had a belly full of mountain pie and a body that just sustained two remarkable orgasms. And I’d managed to get the last without causing Joker bodily injury.
I was feeling a strange feeling that was ecstatically happy in a peaceful way I didn’t quite understand. I’d never felt it.
But I had a feeling it was content.
Never having felt that feeling, I wouldn’t have said it was one of the more profound feelings in the myriad you could experience.
But it really, really was.
Slowly gliding my hands over his warm skin, my nose along his bristly jaw, my lips along his throat, Joker held me with one arm draped across my back, hand cupping my behind, his other hand was up in my hair, fiddling with it.
“Are you my man?” I whispered against the skin of his neck.
His hand at my bottom squeezed.
“Yep,” he replied easily.
Yes.
Ecstatically happy, but peaceful.
I slid my lips up to his ear. “Am I your woman?”
“Goes hand in hand, butterfly.”
That settled in me, and instead of making me want to jump around and do back hand springs, it made me melt deeper into him, where I was supposed to be. “You make me happy,” I declared.
Like he wasn’t telling it to do so, his hand at my head yanked me closer to his face.
“Look at my life, Carson. Outside Travis, happy is hard. But honestly, I could be in my old apartment, paying through the nose for daycare for Travis, squirting generic ketchup on generic tater tots, but if I also had you, I’d be happy.”
“You need to shut up or you’re gonna get fucked, Carrie.”
“I…” I shook my head in confusion. “What?”
He took his hand from my hair, caught mine with it, shoved them between us and I pulled in a sharp breath when he wrapped my fingers around his hard cock.
“Keep bein’ sweet you’re gonna get fucked, not slow and gentle, hard. You’re tired, you wanna go to sleep, you gotta shut up.”
I wasn’t listening to him.
I was feeling him hard in my hand.
He was ready again.
Already!
Automatically (honestly, it felt so good, I couldn’t help myself), I stroked.
“Right, baby, you called it,” Joker growled before he moved.
Fast.
He was up, I was in his arms, then I was back to the bed.
“Gotta get my girl ready,” he muttered to himself, his fingers wrapping around my ankles and tugging them apart.
“Carson,” I breathed.
That’s all I got out.
He bent deep and his mouth was on me between my legs.
My entire body shuddered and he wasted no time getting me ready.
When I was so ready I thought it would run away with me, he pulled away, lifted me up, twisted me, planted me in the bed, and I was on my knees in the pillows, facing the headboard.
Joker was there but not with me for a few seconds before I felt his knee pushing mine further apart, and he went in from the front and back.
Finger to my clit, cock ramming deep.
My head fell back, slammed into his shoulder, and his hand wrapped around my jaw, twisting it toward him.
He took my mouth, worked me, and yes, fucked me.
I liked it like that. I couldn’t deny it. It was crazy good. Astounding.
So I came fast and got to glory in the feel, moving with him, pushing my hands back to grasp his hips and feel the power of them flexing as he kept ramming into me, mewing then gasping at each stroke until he came too.
He buried himself deep and dropped his forehead to my shoulder.
“Okay,” I panted, still not in control of my breathing. “If that’s the official going steady ceremony, tomorrow I’m expecting a promise ring. But warning, I’m breaking up with you tomorrow night so we can make up and decide to go steady again.”