She gazed at me for a long minute.
“Are you sure?”
“If you are,” I replied. “There isn't much of anything I could want more.”
She lowered herself a little, and her wet pussy ran along my cock. As I groaned, she leaned forward, pressing her lips to mine as I felt her hand grasp me again, angling the tip of my dick so it was positioned at her opening. She reached into my mouth with her tongue, and she slowly started lowering herself over me.
I was pretty sure there was no better way to heaven.
As my cock slowly spread her open, my entire body went stiff, and my mind went completely blank. I was nothing but the slow sliding sensation of her heat wrapping around me, guiding me inside of her, pulling me in and hugging me tightly.
Safe.
I took in a single sharp breath—more of a gasp, really. I opened my eyes slowly, and I looked up at her—the beautiful angel above me with her hair shining on one side where the light from the bedside lamp made it shimmer. I wanted to speak—to tell her how much I loved her—but nothing would come out of my mouth.
I was inside of her.
Inside my Rumple.
And it wasn’t just my cock shoved up in her pussy.
It was much, much more than that.
It was as if she was everywhere around me, and her warmth and scent and everything that she was had wrapped around my body and completely encompassed me. It was as if she was in my head—in my soul, if there was such a thing—and I was in hers. It was the single most incredible sense of elation I had ever felt in my life.
There must have been something strange in my expression because Nicole’s hand ran across my cheek and held my jaw.
“Are you okay?” she asked, breathless.
“More than,” I managed to say. I closed my eyes as she shifted her hips a little and the feelings ran up my body again, making me gasp. My cock was throbbing inside of her, and we weren’t even moving. “God, you feel good.”
The words were totally inadequate, but there weren’t any words to describe it, so maybe it didn’t matter too much. Nicole placed her hands on my shoulders and pulled up a little. I groaned and grasped her hips.
“Stay still a second,” I begged. “Jesus…baby…you feel incredible.”
After a moment, I gathered myself a bit and opened my eyes again. She was still looking down at me with her lip mashed by her teeth. I could see her breasts rising and falling a little as she tried to steady her breaths.
“Okay,” I whispered, “but go slow.”
She moved slowly, pushing up with her legs and pulling me about halfway out before she sank back down again. I dug my fingers into her hips, holding her still for a moment before loosening up so she could do it again. Warm, wet, silky resistance covered me, and the same thought went through my head again.
Safe.
This…this was where I belonged.
With her.
I let out a long groan as she moved up a little farther and came down with a little more force. I took a deep breath and tried to control myself as she found a slow, torturous rhythm.
“So good, Rumple…”
“Thomas…” Her hot breath hit my ear as she leaned over and nuzzled her nose into my hair. “Never felt like this…never…”
“Me too.” It was all I could say. I knew it wasn’t just because there wasn’t a condom between us—it was so much more intense than that. It was because it was us. Just us.
She moaned softly, ending in a bit of a grunt as she brought us completely together again. I brought one of my hands around her back, running over her skin in slow circles as the other one reached for the back of her head. I brought her face to mine, taking her lips and sucking on them as she kept moving on me. I reached my tongue into her mouth, capturing her cries as she moved again.
Up and down, she moved a little faster, and I could feel tension in my thighs even though I couldn’t do anything about it. It seemed almost automatic. I wanted to dig my heels in and thrust into her—meet her movements—but my body was unable to cooperate with the notion. I wanted to buck my hips up against her, and I did—a little. I couldn’t get the leverage I wanted without the use of my legs to assist, which probably would have pissed me off more if I could have thought about it. I couldn’t though—my head was full of her, and there wasn’t any room for self-pity. I had more important things to do.
I wanted her to get off again.
The hand on her back moved around to the front, and I slipped a finger between us, finding her clit and circling it with the tip. I latched onto the side of her neck and then slowly moved up toward her ear.
“Oh!” she cried out, and her hips angled forward a bit as I rubbed.
“You like that?” I whispered huskily into her ear. “You want me to touch you while you ride my cock?”
“Thomas! God…”
“My Rumple likes to hear talk about my cock, don’t you baby?”
“Y…yes!”
“It feels so good…buried in your pussy…so tight and warm…”
“Unngh!” Her hips thrust forward a bit more, and her legs increased the rhythm of my penetrations. I shoved the back of my head into the pillow to get a little more lift with my hips, trying to match her pace as much as I could.
“So good…” I moaned. “Fuck me, Nicole…that’s it! Oh yeah—harder, baby! Fuck me!”
She obliged, practically jumping up and down on me as her tits bounced all over the place and made me want to try to play a game of capture the nipple with my lips. I rubbed my finger harder against her clit, and I could feel the muscles in her legs tighten against my sides.
“Oh yeah—baby! Come on my cock!” I strained my stomach muscles trying to push up harder against her. I felt her clamp down on me as she cried out in one, long moan. That was all it took to send me over the edge. I felt my balls tighten up, and the sensation rippled through me and up into her. My cock spasmed as it filled her deep inside, coating us both with thick semen.
“Nicole! Oh...oh God! Nicole!”
With my eyes squeezed shut, I wrapped my arms around her and tightened my grip until her chest was right up against mine. I tucked my head into her, practically hiding my face in her hair, and just held on to her like she was driftwood in the open sea.
There were tears in my eyes.
“I love you,” I said quietly, but my voice still cracked. “God, I love you so much, Rumple.”
“I love you, too, Thomas,” she replied. She wrapped her hands around my head, and she softly kissed my neck. “Always.”
As Romeo spoke of Juliet, so I felt about Nicole. “Come what sorrow can, it cannot countervail the exchange of joy, that one short minute gives me in her sight.” Somehow, as long as she loved me, I knew everything would work out.
Now I really, really needed some sleep.
CHAPTER 32
NEW PLAY
I looked into my Rumple’s eyes.
We had been on our sides, just looking at each other for the longest time. She looked at me as her fingers traced back and forth over my jaw, and I looked at her while my fingers drew little geometric patterns on her back. It wasn’t the least bit awkward or anything, either. I could have stayed like that forever.
Until some obnoxious beeping noise came from the kitchen.
“That would be dinner,” Nicole said quietly as her cheeks turned pink. I had no idea why dinner made her blush, but it was fucking adorable. She broke out of my embrace and pulled her T-shirt and pants back on before running to the kitchen. I kind of wished she had just run naked so I could watch her ass bounce around as she left the room.
Maybe next time.
Next time.
Yeah.
There was definitely going to be a next time.
I had heard the term post coital bliss before, but I had never experienced it. It wasn’t just due to an orgasm. I’d had plenty of those. It was more about holding her afterwards, knowing her rapid heartbeats and quick breaths were all my doing.
/> Well, and her doing.
Whatever.
It was awesome. That was for sure.
She walked back around the little dividing wall, asked if I needed any help or anything, and asked if I wanted to come eat in the kitchen or have her bring it to me. I was seriously tempted to just lie there, but Danielle’s voice popped up in my head and told me to get off my ass, so I did. I did let Nicole hand me my clothes, at least.
Getting pants on was a bitch, but I could manage. It just took fucking forever, which pissed me off. It wasn’t just that my legs didn’t move at all—they did, a little. I just couldn’t control them enough to have them do what I wanted. When I tried to get my legs to help—like bending a knee a bit so I could reach my foot and get the pant leg over it—they ended up jerking around and generally being in the way.
After wrestling with my pants, I pulled my shirt over my head, shifted myself back into the chair, and wheeled into the kitchen.
Vroom, fucking vroom.
Not.
I sighed and tried to bring myself back to the bliss I had been feeling just a few minutes before. Seeing Nicole dishing out…whatever the fuck she had made…onto plates and pouring dressing over a salad as she smiled up at me helped to bring back the mood.
We ate relatively quietly, just kind of glancing at each other and smiling a lot. Sometimes we snickered, but again, it wasn’t uncomfortable, just…happy.
It was weird.
And I loved it.
After dinner we went straight back to my bed. Since we didn’t know just when Greg was going to get back, we kept our clothes on and just made out a little bit. We did a lot of staring at each other, and Nicole tried to keep my hair behind my ear. Eventually I just closed my eyes to the feeling, and before long I drifted off.
For a day that included burying the only father I had ever known, it was a damn good one.
I woke to my phone ringing and tried to grab it off the nightstand before it could wake Nicole. The dim light coming through the window told me it was morning already, and we had obviously completely zonked out. As I hit the answer button without looking at who was calling, I wondered when Greg had come home.
“Hey, Malone,” a fairly somber voice said.
Fuck.
“Oh…um…hi.” I glanced over at Nicole and saw her looking up at me. I took a deep breath. “You want something?”
“Yeah, we need to talk,” he said. “Now a good time?”
“Not really,” I replied.
“Well, yeah—I figured.” He was quiet for a moment. “You need to come into my dad’s office. He’s got some shit to go over with you—you know, will shit.”
I didn’t respond and heard him take a deep breath again.
“Fuck, Thomas—I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“It’s okay,” I replied, deadpan. “I’ll give him a call and make an appointment.”
“Can you get in tomorrow?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Ten o’clock?”
“Fine.”
“Do you need me to pick you up or anything?”
“No,” I said. “I’m good.”
“Okay…I’ll…um…I’ll be there if you want.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Later, Malone.”
“Later.”
I hung up and put the phone back on the nightstand. I glanced at Nicole again, who was looking up at me with her eyes full of questions.
“I need to go see Dad’s lawyer,” I told her.
“Oh,” she replied as she looked away. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
“He’s in town,” I told her.
“I can take you.”
“Shouldn’t you be in school tomorrow?”
“Not if you need me,” she replied. “I was planning to take a couple days off—just until you’re settled in.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
“I know.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I want to.”
She played with the collar of my T-shirt.
“Are you going to…to call…” Her voice trailed off and she bit her lip.
“My real father?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I guess I should,” I answered. “He’s in a hotel in town, too.”
“I heard.”
“Right.” I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.
“Do you want me to go with you?” she asked. “I mean, actually go with you? I’ll drive you either way, but I’ll also, you know, stay with you, too. If you want.”
I thought about it for a minute, and it was seriously tempting. I knew I couldn’t take her into the lawyer’s office, but to talk to Thomas Gardner? Yeah, that was tempting.
But I also knew I had to do it myself.
“Thanks, Rumple,” I said with a half-smile. She probably didn’t buy it. “I’ll definitely take the ride, but I think I have to talk to him on my own.”
Her hand came up and brushed my cheek.
“It’ll be okay,” she whispered. “I just know it will.”
I nodded slowly, not nearly as convinced. Regardless of the outcome, I knew I still had to do it. I had to see him, hear him out, give him the chance to tell me why I spent my life with Lou Malone instead of him.
Once I was out of the car and back into my wheelchair, I looked up over the door to the sign: Lucas and Lucas, Attorneys at Law.
Yeah, right.
“You want me to come in?” Nicole asked. “I can just stay in the waiting room or something.”
“It shouldn’t take long,” I said. “I guess I’d rather you just, I dunno…hang out here for a bit? If it looks like it’s going to take longer, I can call you.”
Nicole narrowed her eyes a little as she looked me over.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll be in the car.”
“Thanks,” I said. I tried to give her a bit of a smile, but I wasn’t feeling it. I rolled far off to one side of the entrance to get up the wheelchair ramp, then pushed hard to make the angle. I still wasn’t used to going up inclines, and that shit wasn’t easy. Once I got to the door, there was one of those buttons you could push to make the door open up. I made my way into the waiting room and looked up to the counter.
I recognized the chick there but didn’t know her name. She was chewing gum noisily and smiled down at me as she hung up the phone.
“Good morning, Mister Malone,” she said. “Mister Lucas is expecting you.”
She walked around the counter and escorted me down a hallway, opening the door and holding it for me as we got to the end. P. Lucas—I couldn’t even remember what the P stood for—was sitting behind his desk with stacks of documents all over it. He waved me in, and the receptionist was kind enough to move one of the office chairs out of the way so I could roll up across from him.
“Max said he talked to you,” Lucas said. “Sorry I didn’t make the funeral. It seemed more prudent to stay away.”
I just nodded.
“He’s still at your service if you want to keep him handy,” Lucas informed me. “We still have a contract, but we can work all that stuff out later.”
He smiled, and the corners of his eyes tightened a little when he did. I thought about the slight, unintentional movement, and I knew it didn’t exactly indicate honesty. There was nothing about the Lucas family that was on the up-and-up. Max Lucas had been my go-to person for shady dealings and information since I got my first cell phone.
“The will?” I prompted. I didn’t want to be here any longer than I had to. I almost wished I had let Nicole come with me. Almost. I didn’t want her around Lucas. He was a seriously underhanded character and used to dealing with all kinds of nasty shit. Once, Dad said that Lucas was connected to bigger crime in Portland but only as one of their informants or something.
“Very basic, actually,” he said. “I’d been trying to get your father to update it for some time, but it h
asn’t changed since your mother passed. No trust fund, nothing complicated—you are the only offspring. You are over the age of eighteen, and you get it all.”
“What’s all?” I asked.
“The bank accounts, stock portfolios, house, the three cars—one of which is already in your name—the summer place in Michigan, the island…”
“Island?”
“Yes,” Lucas said with a short nod, “your father bought an island some years ago. Just off of Saint Thomas.”
“I have an island?” I was a little taken aback. How could I not know he bought a fucking island?
Lucas chuckled and went on, tallying everything that was worth mentioning. The assets came up to about nine million, plus the stock portfolio, which was another six and a half. Lucas continued to babble.
“Give me the bottom line, Lucas,” I snapped, interrupting him. He bristled a little, but he seemed to remember whose son he was dealing with, at least. I knew how to be an asshole. I’d learned from the best.
“Your father had three insurance policies,” Lucas said. “One from the hospital, one through the mayor’s office, and his whole-life insurance through Arden Mutual. They are all still valid since they’ve been in place for several years. The suicide clause has elapsed, so you’ll get it all.”
“How much?”
“Well, the mayor’s policy isn’t very big, and it will take a while for them to get off their asses and write a check. I did get a copy of the death certificate for them—I didn’t want you to get delayed. The hospital will be more of a nightmare than the city—their administrators are kings of delay tactics—”
“How much, Lucas?” I said through clenched teeth. I did not want to be here all day, listening to him babble.
He looked across the desk at me and wiped the back of his sweaty neck with his hand.
“Combined, once they’ve all gone through and you pay a bunch of taxes on it, about twelve million. Twenty-seven mil with everything else.”
“Damn.”
Lucas smiled, and I was reminded of great white sharks with their rows of threatening teeth.
“That’s a lot for a kid to deal with, Thomas,” he said. His voice got soft, like he was trying to buddy up to me. “My retainer is already paid through the end of the year, and I’m going to make sure you and your money are taken care of properly.”