Motown Throwdown (32 page)

Coming to her side and pulling her behind me he looks up at me and gets a huge smile on his face. “Rome!” he says trying to pull me in for a man hug.

“Get the fuck off me,” I tell him pushing him back.

Drunk and not listening he zeroes in on Kandace who in return is checking her nails. “Heard you were out, man!”

“No shit.”

“How you been?”

“Out on parole, you fucking prick, how do you think I’ve been?”

“Wait, I know her…” he says trying to get a look at her. Glancing up she flips him off and steps forward.

“Let me help, baby,” she says hooking her arm around my waist. “Ahem,” she says clearing her throat. “I dunno, man, she could be hot in like ten years and a fuck load of alcohol.”

Looking completely confused he looks from me to her then it clicks. “Oh shit,” he says smiling at his brilliance. “Are you for real? It’s the bitch from---“

Yeah, so I couldn’t let him finish that sentence.

Leaning over him she pushes him with her foot then offers me her fist to bump. “No one fucks with you,” I tell her and it was the truth. Only difference was I wasn’t a cocky kid holding onto a scholarship he couldn’t risk anymore. I was a grown fucking man that protected what was his.

“Rome!” says Jules throwing her hands up with Bishop holding back his laugh. “You don’t even work here anymore and you’re giving me a headache!”

“Jules,” says Kandace sweetly. “He touched Rome and I reacted, oops.”

“This is the lot bullshit all over again, isn’t Kandy Kane?” she asks grinning.

“Are you mad at me?” she asks with a pout.

“Bishop!” she says after smacking Kandace on the ass. “Clean this mess up, lazy ass!”

“On it, Boss,” he says picking the guy up. Once he’s secure he approaches us takes one look at Kandace grinning and says “Lucky fucker,” before dragging the guy away.

“So,” she says sliding her hands in my back pockets and squeezing. “How’d that feel?”

“I’ve been waiting ten years for that,” I smile down at her. Throwing her head back to laugh I see an opportunity to claim her again so I take it. Leaning in, inhaling her and not giving a fuck who saw it, I bite down.

“Oh God, Rome. Get me home,” she moans pulling me closer.

Licking the sting away, I get her out of the club, home and under me in record time.

“You still love the guy after all these years, huh?” he asks quietly.

“I do, Gage. I really do.”

“He loves you too, you know. He was a wreck without you, sis. He pulled it together, manned up. I can’t fault him for that. We’re good now, you don’t have to worry.”

“Yeah,” I say watching him play ball with my dads.

“Who knows, maybe one day I’ll man up and have a woman looking out the window like that at me.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask feeling rude for tuning him out, but he was already gone.

Clinging to him and refusing to let go, he carries me through the front door kicking it closed behind him. Sucking his lip between my teeth and clawing the shirt from his back, we crash into the couch with him adjusting so I land on top of him.

“Fuck,” he moans grinding on me. “You up for this? Not too tired?”

“Less talking,” I moan.

“More fucking,” he finishes ripping my shirt off. With both of us bare from the waist up, we stop just long enough to stare at each other. “I can’t believe you love me,” he says running his fingers around the side of my breast.

“I can’t believe you doubted it.” I say taking his hands and linking them with mine. The contrast in our skin will never cease to amaze me. We were beautiful apart but we were breathtaking together. With linked hands, he tightens them behind my back to suck my nipple. Watching him, enjoying him, it’s when he looks up at me that I lose my breath. “Your eyes see me, they always have haven’t they?” I ask studying them.

“I never doubted you, Kandace, I doubted myself.”

“I know,” I whisper. “No more hiding, Rome, no more doubt. Fuck the past, it’s you and me now.”

Sliding my pants down and using his thumb to get under my panties, he sits up to watch as he plays. “It’s always been you and me, I was just too fucking busy sitting on the bench. Afraid to get in the game.”

Helping him slide his pants and underwear off, then climbing back on top of him, I lean down bite his nipple and silently thank God he was mine. “See this?” I ask pointing between my legs. “You’re in the end zone, baby. My quarterback needs to get down the field and score, we’re in OT, seconds count.”

“God damn,” he moans getting ready. Then lining up he slides between my legs and groans, “Touchdown,” against my lips. Taking me to my side he covers me fully while he slowly fucks me. Holding him close, I meet his thrusts offering my own. Reaching between my legs he uses his thumb causing me to bow.

“Found it,” he says working me faster from the front and back. Moaning, I reach back and anchor my hands on his head and absolutely explode.

“Tell me,” he says pounding me. “Tell me, I have to hear it.”

“I’m selling my house,” I say reaching back to cradle his balls. Stopping, he pulls me to face him and the look was priceless. “I’m going to need you to say that again,” he says holding my face in his hand. “I said, I’m selling my house.”

“I’m working this pussy and instead of ‘
I love you, Rome’
, or you have the biggest cock I’ve ever seen, you say I’m selling my house?”

“Bad timing?”

“You want to live with me?”

“Well yeah,” I say kissing him. “I like your bed better.”

“It is a nice bed,” he says slowly.

“Plus, I look really good in it.”

“God damn,” he says flipping me on to my stomach. Raising my hips up, he forgets finesse and goes right for plunging. Gripping the pillows and screaming my approval, he sinks his hands in my hair and pulls back, exposing my neck to him. Rome had a thing about my neck.

“Tell me,” he demands. “Won’t come until you do.”

Arching up so he can see me I tell him. “I love you, twenty nine.”

“My secret,” he moans getting ready to come. “My secret to fucking everything.” Shouting his love for me, he comes good and hard then collapses next to me on the couch where I stayed awake a little while longer, thinking.

We all make choices knowing each one has a consequence. Since I was eighteen years my choice was to believe in a boy who didn’t believe in himself. That despite having it all, he was lost. I have loved the man in my arms for better and for worse before I even understood what that meant. I just had to wait an extra ten years to tell him.

He will now and forever be, worth the wait.

No two ways about it, Kandace was going to kill me.

Showing up on her doorstep without notice with a bossy female covered in blood was not going to go over well. Kandace would step up like always but Rome was going to be a pain in my ass with the questions. They guy was over the top protective of my sister, which a brother can appreciate especially when bringing this to them puts them in danger.

When all this shit started, I vowed that it would never touch my sister or my dads.

I hated breaking promises.

Looking over at her, it bothers me that she’s quiet. The woman was a lot of things, but quiet wasn’t one of them. She was a talker, a joker, hyper and wicked smart. After all these years of feeling her but never actually being close to her, the circumstances in which it was finally happening were less than ideal. This was not how I saw my first time meeting her going. I’ve depended on her presence in my life even if it was just by phone. Camo was the only person I could spend hours talking to, joking with and harassing. She gave it right back and we got each other.

I could wax poetic about her for hours, days. But it all comes down to the heart. Camo had mine and I wanted to have hers but you needed trust for that. Trust wasn’t something people in this business give easily. With her though, I may not trust her motives but I did trust her. Camo liked games, liked control. She also just saved my ass, again. Motives aside, the woman spends her time protecting my life so I was going to have to fuck the motives. Now she was hurt and I was a fucking wreck.

She was… unique. The way she could blend in to any environment, become a shadow or the main attraction was enviable. The way she could alter her appearance was…magic. That was her then, unique and magical.

Mine.

Holding her arm and biting back the pain, I can feel her struggle from the driver’s seat. Not once has she bitched, moaned or begged. She simply accepted it, channeled it, locked it down. My circle of trust extended to my sister (who I love) and Camo (who I barely know, but love too). Someone takes a bullet for you though, that person may even trump your baby sister.

For a woman, she but built like an athlete, maybe a swimmer or a crossfit junkie. Nothing on her moved and I know this because I couldn’t stop looking when she in front of me. For a man who makes a living killing, finding a woman (or in this case, her finding me) who is his equal in every way fucked with that man’s head. Here I had a woman who spent years protecting me when all I wanted was a chance to do the same for her, but she would never get close enough to let me.

Now she was in my God damn passenger seat, bleeding.

“My sister’s name is Kandace,” I begin filling the silence, hating the cause of it. As much shit as we’ve talked about over the years, we both kept family out of it. “She’s a doctor, a great one. Her man’s name is Rome, he’ll quiz us both. She knows a little about what I do but she doesn’t know any of this. My name is Gage use it in front of her, don’t slip and call me Gadget.”

“Keeping your loved ones safe,” she says fighting the pain. “Admirable.”

“We’re close,” I tell her, wanting to offer some kind of comfort.  When she didn’t throw a zinger out, I knew she was hurting bad. Camo’s mouth and what came out of it was usually shocking. To have her so still, so quiet, was a testament to her discomfort. Turns out, I didn’t like her in pain.

I liked her
being
a pain.

When her chin tucks and her head falls forward, I panic. “Stay with me Camo,” I order her. “Open your eyes, we’re almost there.”

Groaning, she cuts her eyes over to me and says, “I’m napping, not dying, sir panics-a-lot.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, I get off I75 and was in Rome’s driveway in record time. When she makes a play for her door, I was there getting it and helping her out. The fact that she let me pleased me, in truth I haven’t felt useful in a long time.

“I can walk,” she says biting her lip.

“I know but lean on me anyway.” I say hooking my arm around her waist and lifting. Just before reaching the door to knock I realized we had a loose end. “What’s your name?” I ask her. “I can’t have them calling you Camo, I need your name.”

Looking up at me and deciding if I was to be trusted or not she says, “Pepper.”

“Pepper,” I test out and liked it immediately. The name fit her to a tee.

“Hey, Gage?” she says my name then squeezes me. “I’m going to pass out now, okay?”

Then she went limp in my arms and my panic went into overdrive. Kicking the door with my foot, Rome threw it open saw the woman in my arms and yelled for Kandace.

“Help her,” I begged with pleading eyes. Running to grab her medical shit, Rome helped me situate her on the couch. “I’ll buy you a new one,” I tell him when her wound starts to gush all over the cushion. “Fuck the furniture,” he says putting a pillow under her head.

When Kandace comes back she was in full doctor mode. Fuck, but I loved my little sister. She was always prepared. “Explain,” she says as she cuts her shirt away. I didn’t like that Rome would see what’s underneath before I did at all and gave him a look that said so.

“Oh fuck yourself,” he says catching my anger. “I’m banging your sister, I could give a shit about other females. Plus, this one looks like she’s twelve.”

Letting out a growl at his show of disrespect, it was my sister who shut us both down.

“Oh this is going to be fun,” says Kandace wiping her shoulder down. “Gage, explain now.”