“I love that you’re so hard and smooth at the same time,” she says, her hands traveling over every inch of skin she can get her hands on.

“I have something else for you that’s hard and smooth,” I tell her, making her flop back against the bed laughing. “You don’t want it?” I ask, smiling. I love that I can laugh with her during sex. I grab my cock, sliding the tip through her pussy. I bite back a groan when I feel her wetness against me. She uncovers her face, and I lean forward to kiss her, nibbling her lips, her tongue touching mine. Her nails dig into my sides, pulling me forward until I slide inside. “Jesus,” I say against her mouth, pushing the rest of the way in.

“Yes,” she hisses when I feel myself touch her cervix. I don’t want to hurt her, but I swear, she loves that shit.

“Who does this tight little pussy belong to?” I swivel my hips, picking up speed.

“You! Oh God! Don’t stop,” she cries.

“Easy, baby. I lick up her neck. “I love the way you taste.” I feel her tighten around me at my words. I bend my head forward, taking her nipple into my mouth and tugging with my lips. “Tell me you love it when I’m inside of you.”

“I love it when you’re inside of me,” she moans. Her legs wrap around me, her hips meeting mine as I lift one foot up onto my shoulder, spreading her out, watching myself disappear inside of her. “Oh! Right there; don’t stop.” She lifts her hips, using my shoulder as leverage. Right before I feel her come around me, her eyes focus on mine; her bottom lip is caught between her teeth. A few more strokes and I follow behind her, groaning her name against her lips. I flip us over so she lands on top of me, running my hands down the smooth skin of her back. After a few sated minutes, she whispers, “I’m sorry about my brother.”

“Don’t be. I’m sorry that you have to deal with him at all.”

“I hope that he’s okay. Kara seems sweet; she was at the spa with us, and I really like her. I hope he doesn’t get her mixed up in anything.”

“Me too, baby.”

“Do you think he’s telling the truth about what he said?”

The truth is I do believe him. I don’t know why he made the stupid decisions that he did, but I believe that he is really working undercover for the cops now. “Yeah, I do believe him. I don’t know what happened to get him to this point, but I do believe what he’s saying about working for the cops.”

“Me too,” she whispers. I look out over the water, listen to her breathing even out, and I eventually fall asleep, still in my piece of heaven.

“I’m so happy that you came with Liz,” Rita says, resting her hands on my shoulders. I look across the dance floor to see Liz dancing with George.

“There is nowhere else I would want to be,” I tell her mom truthfully. My girl looks beautiful today. Her hair is all up, with small pieces braided throughout, and tied in some kind of knot to the side of her head. Her dress is strapless, and hugs her breasts and waist. The color is a dark green, bringing out the color of her eyes.

“She loves you,” Rita says, watching Liz and George dance.

“I know.” I smile. I know it’s cocky, but who fucking cares? Rita starts laughing, her face going into my chest, just like her daughter’s does when she laughs.

“I can see she has her work cut out for her.” She looks up at me smiling.

“I love her too, more than I even thought possible,” I tell her mom.

“I’m glad she has you.” Tears start filling her eyes. “When John died, she took it hard. They were so close; she was a daddy’s girl from the day we found out we were having a little girl. Her dad would lay with his face on my stomach, telling her stories. When we brought her home from the hospital, she wasn’t happy unless he was holding her. Even as she got older, if he was going somewhere, she wanted to be with him. I know I messed up with her and Tim, but I was so lost in my own grief that I had a hard time seeing that there were other people who were missing him as much as I was. I didn’t realize how badly I messed up until the day of her graduation,” she says, looking across the room at Liz, who’s still dancing with George, smiling up at him. “I had been depressed all morning, thinking about John missing out on one more thing that he would have loved to be a part of. So that morning, I decided that I was going to do something I never did, and went to his grave. When I got to the cemetery, Liz was there in her cap and gown, laying in the grass on top of his grave. I knew then that she must have spent a lot of time there. That’s when I realized that I needed to pull my head out of my ass and fight for my daughter, who was just as lost without her father as I was without my husband. I know I will never completely get over losing him, but every day it becomes a little easier, and my heart fills with a little more light. George is wonderful, and I’m blessed to have had two men who have loved me so completely, even with all of my faults,” she says, just as George starts walking towards us with Liz.

“Hey, baby,” I say, holding out my hand towards Liz.

“Hi.” Her smile is shy. She leans up to kiss George’s cheek and whispers something in his ear; he smiles and pats my back, takes his new wife from my side, and leads her out onto the dance floor.

“Did you have a good dance?” I pull her into my arms, tucking her head under my chin.

“Yeah, it was very sweet,” Liz says, as we sway slowly to the music.

“Good,” I say, my lips at the top of her head. I look around when I feel someone watching us. That’s when I see Tim on the other side of the dance floor with Kara.

“How about you have a dance with your brother?” I ask.

“Why?”

“I can tell he misses you. And I know you miss him.”

“I don’t know.” She bites her lip, looking across the room to where her brother is dancing.

“I’m right here if you need me; just rub your ear and I will come over to save you.”

“Okay,” she laughs, looking up at me.

“Okay.” I kiss her forehead, leading her towards Tim. When we get to where he’s dancing with Kara, he stops and whispers something into Kara’s ear. She smiles at Liz, and then walks off towards the restrooms.

“Can we dance?” Liz asks Tim. He nods his head, taking her hand, and leading her out onto the dance floor. I watch as he says something to her. She looks at me smiling, then back at Tim, who looks at me, giving a chin lift. I stand off to the side watching Liz. Kara comes to stand next to me.

“Tim told me some of the stuff that’s going on. Thank you for giving him that.” She nods towards the dance floor. “I know he messed up, and he knows he did too. We talked, and he wants to move closer to his mom and sister. I don’t have any family, so it would be good to have people around when the baby gets here.”

“Liz would like that.”

“He’s going to talk to the detectives that he’s working with and see if they can make a bust with the information he has gotten so far.” I think about November and July, knowing that Asher would kill himself if something ever happened to them because of something he did.

I turn towards her, watching her closely. “If you want to come to town and stay with us until things get sorted out with him, I think it might be wise for you and the baby,” I tell her, looking down at her round stomach.

Her hand rubs her belly, looking down. When her eyes meet mine again, I can see tears in them. “I might take you up on that offer. I don’t want to be away from him, but the people that he is dealing with scare me. They know where we live and that I’m pregnant. Tim keeps telling me that things are going to be okay, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

“I’ll have Liz talk to him and see if she can help change his mind.” I say confidently. She smiles, looking across the room.

“You know, when she told him that the two of you were together, he freaked out about it. He ranted for an hour about you and your history with women.” She looks at me and smiles. “I can see that you really love her; I think that he sees that now, too.”

“More than anything,” I confirm, watching Liz walk towards me holding Tim’s hand. Just as she reaches my side, George picks Rita up, announcing he and his new bride are retiring for the evening. They leave the room with hoots and hollers following behind them. I smile at Liz, whose face has turned bright red.

“Let’s all have a drink and talk,” I say, looking at our group. The rest of the evening is spent talking and laughing. The next day, when we head home, I know that I need to find a way to put a ring on Liz’s finger, and make her mine permanently.

Chapter 8

Liz

It’s been two months since we got back from Jamaica. Two months of heaven. The week after we got home, I officially moved in with Trevor. I would love to say that he wasn’t his normal bossy self when he asked me to live with him, but sadly, he was himself. I had been at the house all day with Lolly. I cleaned and did laundry, and when Trevor came home with his work clothes covered with mud, his boots leaving muddy prints all over my freshly mopped floor, I was pissed. So I told him that he should’ve taken off his stuff before tracking mud into the house. He told me I didn’t have a right to bitch about it because I didn’t live with him. So I told him if that’s how he felt, then I was never going to live with him, and that I should move back to Mike’s. When I said that, he threw the beer that he’d just opened across the room, where it exploded against the wall. He yelled that he didn’t know why I wouldn’t unpack my bag and put my shit away, when I acted like we were living together.

That was about the time I picked my purse up off the table, and left to stay the night at Mike’s. Well, I tried to stay at Mike’s. It was about three o’clock in the morning when I was picked up and carried to Trevor’s truck. He didn’t say anything except, “Can’t sleep.” When we got back home, he tucked me under his big body, kissed my hair, and fell asleep. In the morning, when we woke up, he apologized for acting like a jerk, and said that he hated seeing my bag tucked under his bed; it made him feel like I could easily leave without much effort. Then he proceeded to slide inside me, his mouth over mine when he asked me if I would move in.

Now, you tell me, if Trevor Mayson was inside you, asking you to live with him, what would you do? Exactly. You would no doubt move in without a second thought, especially as he’s thrusting inside you, telling you how much you mean to him and that he loves you.

Since I moved in, we started to renovate the kitchen. The first thing we did was knock down the wall in-between the kitchen and living room. The next step was taking down all the old cabinets. Then we went to Alabama for the night so that we could go to Ikea and pick out a whole new kitchen. We chose white cabinets with a large country sink, stainless steel appliances, and his friend who works with concrete did painted concrete countertops that looked amazing with the bright, multi-colored back splash that we chose. I have been feeling like I’m living a dream, waking up to the man that I love every day. The only thing that nags me is that he hasn’t brought up proposing again since Jamaica. I know that he said to forget it, but I can’t; I keep wondering why he told me to forget, or that he said anything about it. I want to be Elizabeth Star Mayson more than anything. I talked to November about it, and she said that I shouldn’t stress, and that she’s sure that he loves me, but wants to make sure that the timing is right to ask me to be his wife. I don’t know what to think at this point. The other day, I caught him counting my birth control pills when I walked into the kitchen. When I told him that I was taking them and not to worry about it, he got a funny look on his face, pulled me to him, and kissed me silly.