Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Lawson and Lucas are taking off,” he told Jet.
Lottie’s head came up and her eyes found him.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I’m good, baby,” he answered, moving into the room. “You okay?”
“She needs her sister’s chocolate sheet cake,” Nancy decided.
“I’ll get on that,” Jet said, scooting to exit the bed.
“How about you get on this and I’ll get on getting those boys to move along?” Nancy asked him, tipping her head sideways and down to her girl.
He was one hundred percent down with that.
Lottie pushed up.
She was down with it too.
Jet touched his forearm as she moved around him.
Mo went to the bed.
He helped Nancy out of it. Seemed she had something wrong with her arm, not a lot of mobility with that. Though the rest worked fine.
Probably a lasting result of the stroke Lottie mentioned.
“Thanks, Mo,” she murmured when she was steady on her feet.
He didn’t wait a long time to ascertain that before he slid in and took her place.
Lottie didn’t hesitate to put her head in his lap.
“Be back, baby girl,” Nancy said.
“Okay, Momma,” Lottie replied to his feet.
Mo gave Nancy a look, she gave him a small smile and moved out of the room.
Mo then gave it a beat, another, up to five.
Then he murmured, “Okay, now, how’s my girl really doing?”
“I just had a blip. I’ll be fine.”
He curled his hand around the side of her neck, ordering, “Stop it.”
She twisted that neck so his hand was light on her throat and she could look up at him.
“Really, Mo, I’ll be fine.”
“That for me, your mom, your sister, a combo, all of us, or are you just lying to yourself?”
She closed her eyes, rolled her body and shoved her face in his gut.
It was for all of them.
Including herself.
He slid his hand into her soft hair, cupped the back of her head and held her there.
It took some time before she said, muffled by his stomach, “I will, you know.”
“What?”
She turned her head slightly to look up at him. “Be fine.”
“It’s just now, you’re not.”
A hesitation before she nodded. “I’m a little freaked.”
“Natural,” he told her.
Her gaze went vague and she muttered, “Feels weak.”
“It’s natural, Lottie.”
She focused on him again. “Yeah, but it feels weak.”
“It isn’t.”
“Okay.”
“It isn’t,” he stressed.
“Okay,” she snapped. “Jeez. Stop being all supportive and sweet. It’s annoying.”
He grinned down at her. “Right, I’ll snap into being an asshole. How’s that go again?”
“You know, in this moment it’s troublesome you’ve no clue how to do that.”
“I could share that the first time I had your face in my lap, this wouldn’t be my call on how you’d be using it.”
She rolled her eyes and mumbled, “That works.” She stopped mumbling to tell him, “Though I will say my blowjob plans being indefinitely delayed pisses me off.”
“We’ll get there,” he told her.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Not a lot of dudes would be free and breezy with indefinitely delayed blowjobs.”
“The guy who did this to you is fucked,” he announced. “He’s going to be charged on some serious felonies, three of them Federal indictments. It’s doubtful bail will be set, and if it is, he can afford to post it. You’re safe. You got a lot of people who love you and will look out for you. I got all that and I’m with you in your bed, somewhere I’ve wanted to be for what feels like years. I’m gonna sleep beside you here tonight, not on that fuckin’ couch. And I’m gonna wake up next to you tomorrow. With all that, I can wait for a blowjob.”
Her pretty hazel eyes warmed and she pulled herself up so she was curled in a ball in his lap, not beside him on the bed, her cheek tucked tight to his chest, his arms around her.
Her head in his lap didn’t suck, no matter how he had it.
But still, having her in his arms was a whole lot better.
“I don’t like that I didn’t handle things too well,” she told his pec.
“You handled them fine,” he told the top of her head, pulling her closer.
“I buried it. Acting strong isn’t the same as being strong.”
“Whatever works, works.”
She tipped her head back. “I fell apart, Mo. Lost it in front of everybody.”
“Do you think any of those men care you lost it in front of them?”
“I—”
“Lawson’s kicking himself in the ass a million different ways, he laid it out for you and the way he did,” he shared. “Education, Lottie. Those men love you. As for Lawson and Lucas, they respect you. And the only thing they’re feelin’ now is honored you’d trust them enough to show weakness. I’ll tell you what, if Tex, Eddie, Hank, Luke and the rest had a choice, only one, either to be there for you and catch that guy or be there for you to catch you, they’d pick the second. In a way, they got that. So move on. They have.”