Page 27 of Restored Dreams

“You seem off, Lily pad. What’s going on?” Slowly, he unbuttons my shirt. My hands grip the counter behind me, willing them not to touch him. I can’t answer him. I don’t know what’s wrong. It’s like a switch flipped, and I can’t stop wondering what we are doing.

But then he touches me like this, and I can’t think anymore.

When he finishes opening my shirt, he pushes the material off my shoulders. I’m wearing another cotton cami without a bra. He reaches around me again, covering the spreading knife with frosting and reaching for the top of my tank with his other hand.

“You aren’t coming anywhere near me with that knife,” I choke out with a laugh, the tension slowly leaving me at the teasing expression on his face. He sets the knife back in the bowl and hooks another finger in the creamy mixture instead. Lowering the front of my cami, he trusses up my breasts and tweaks one nipple with a coating of frosting. Leaning forward, he covers the globe with his mouth and sucks at the dollop covering me.

“You’re better than a cupcake, Lily pad.” He reaches for another helping of frosting, but his hand freezes. I twist to look over my shoulder, following the gaze of his eyes.

“What’s this?” He lifts the bottle and holds it between us. Caramel. I planned to use the liquid as a garnish over the apple-vanilla cupcakes I’m experimenting with. My breath hitches, my chest rising and falling with anticipation of what he might do next. With firm fingers on my sternum, he presses me back a little and drizzles the gooey liquid over one breast. Sticky and thick, it slowly rolls down the slope, and he watches before diving forward to follow the trail with his tongue.

“Delicious,” he mutters as he chases the drip. I’m lost once again to the way he devours me. His tongue working over the sensitive tips of my nipples. His hands grip my waist before his fingers deftly travel to my shorts. The button on my jean cutoffs unsnaps, and then…his phone rings.

“Ignore it,” he mutters, but the vibration of the mechanism on the counter can’t be dismissed nor can the gritty rap music with the name Chopper in it. Brut lifts his head and peers over my shoulder.

“Damn it, Chopper,” he mumbles.

“You should take it.” I don’t want him to ignore his son. In fact, the trill of his son’s name draws me back to reality. He reaches around me, picking up his phone with one hand but stilling me from moving with the other on my breast. He squeezes as he answers with a choked greeting and a teasing glint in his eyes. He watches his fingers tweak me while he nods in response to something his son has said.

Two can play this game, I decide and swiftly tug down his basketball shorts. He’s returned to a pair similar to what he wore earlier in the day. To my surprise, he’s commando, and I drag myself down between the counter and his thighs. He pulls back, surmising my intention, but I grip his shaft before he can step away from me.

My eyes narrow up at him as my tongue slips forward and licks across the swollen tip. He chokes again into the phone while his other hand falls behind me, bracing himself on the counter near my head. He’s shaking his head at me, knowing he’s in a precarious position. He can’t pull back with the hold I have on him, and something in the way he stands says he doesn’t want to.

“Chopper, can I call you back?” With the question on his tongue, I draw him into me and suck him deep. My tongue twirls around the thick length, and his hand covers my hair. A soft fuck purrs above me. I draw back, hollowing my cheeks before filling my mouth with him again. His tender hand cups my chin.

“Sheila? What did she want?”

Something in his voice instantly stops me. The way he said the other woman’s name along with the bitterness of his question prevents me from continuing. I pull back suddenly, embarrassed by what I’m doing. I’m sucking his dick while he asks about another woman.

The past crashes into me fiercer than the wave that took me off the board yesterday. He has other women in his life, despite what he said earlier in the day.

I stand slowly, using the cabinet at my back to guide me upward on shaky legs. Once fully upright, Brut pins me to the counter with his hips, but my hands come to his shoulders, pressing him away from me. I can’t look at him. I can’t believe this is happening.

“Chopper, I gotta call you back.”

“No,” I say, too loud, too close to the phone. I glare up at him, and then I hear his son’s voice. “Who’s that?”

Brut’s wide eyes weigh on my face as I try to press more firmly at his shoulders.

Let me go, I will him.

“That? No one. Television is too loud.”

I stop pushing at him, my body going lax at his words. His eyes hold my astonished stare for a moment, his body relaxing against mine.

I’m his dirty little secret once again.

I use the timing to push him again. The force breaks me free of his cage, and I race for the stairs.

I can’t believe I fell for him…a second time.

18

Making plans after all

[Brut]

I climb the stairs with heavy feet and an even heavier heart. I admit I panicked. And the look of horror on Lily’s face will be forever burned in my brain next to the expression she wore when I finally told her the truth all those years ago.