I don’t respond. He doesn’t need that from me. I know him well enough to know when there are things he has to get off his chest.
“We had a boy, Graham.” His voice breaks. “Lloyd Junior.”
LJ.
“He passed when he was fourteen.” He rubs his eyes. “It was cancer. It was aggressive, and there was nothing anyone could do for him.”
“I’m sorry,” I say sincerely. “I’m so fucking sorry, Lloyd.”
“It happened years before we met you.” He glances down at his hands. “It shattered Sela. I felt as though a part of me died with him and we just existed. It was day by day, hour by hour for a long time, and then you were there.”
I nod. “I broke into the store.”
“You broke through our fog.” He chuckles. “You were a little older than LJ was when he died but so different than him. Sela and I were lost. You were lost, so we decided to help you.”
“I’m forever grateful to you both.”
“I knew when I found you in the store that I had to do something for you,” he says. “At first, I think it was just about that. We saw a troubled boy in need, and we wanted to lend a hand.”
I don’t have words, so I stay silent and let him continue.
He glances toward the window. “It became more to me when you were just shy of your seventeenth birthday.”
“What do you mean, Lloyd?”
He pats the bed. “Give me your hand, Bull.”
I take his shaking hand in mine.
“I wanted you to be my son.” His eyes well with unshed tears. “I wanted you to be Graham Abdon. I felt that in my heart. It wasn’t about LJ anymore at that point. It was about you. You cleaned up your act. You were making your grades. You were someone I was proud of.”
I tear up too. “That was all because of you.”
“Sela couldn’t do it,” he whispers. “She felt it might be a betrayal to LJ if we adopted you. She loved you, Bull, but in her heart, there was just enough room for him.”
I squeeze his hand, touched that he shared something so incredibly personal with me. “I’m honored that you even considered the idea, Lloyd.”
“You may not be my son on paper, but you are my boy.” His tears fall. “I want to be there for you and your wife. I want to meet your children one day, and I want to sign the company over to you.”
“You’re going to be around for years to tell me how to run it.” I laugh through my tears. “The first step is getting you rested so we can get you out of here. Then, I’d like to go to New Jersey with you. I want to sit with you in the place where Sela and LJ are resting.”
“I’d like that,” he says through a sob. “I’d like that a lot.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Trina
“I can make something for us to eat,” I say as we step off the elevator and into our penthouse. We left the hospital and headed straight home to rest and recharge.
We’ll go back in a few hours after Lloyd has had a chance to rest.
Graham shakes his head. “I’m craving my wife.”
I laugh. “You want to have sex? You have energy for that after the night we just had?”
“We are alone in this big penthouse.” He slowly unknots his tie and slips it off. “I can fuck my wife anywhere I choose.”
I kick off one shoe sending it flying to the left before the other one follows it. “Where will we start?”
“I’ll fuck you here on the floor.” He perks a brow as he drops his suit jacket.
“You’re that desperate for me?” My fingers grip the zipper on my skirt, sending it down.
“I’m always desperate for you.” He smirks as he makes quick work of the buttons on his shirt.
It slides from his shoulders.
I step closer to look at the tattoo on his arm. “I can’t believe that beneath all those lines and bands of ink there’s a bull.”
“That’s right.” He drops his hands to his belt. “I believe we had an agreement. I’d show you a picture of my old tattoo, and you’d wrap those gorgeous lips of yours around my dick.”
I slide a fingertip over my bottom lip. “I’m ready if you are.”
He looks me over. “You’re not ready. Strip, Trina.”
I quickly lose my skirt and blouse until I’m standing barefoot wearing nothing but a black bra and a pair of black lace panties.
“Let’s renegotiate,” Graham says as he yanks his belt free.
“I liked the deal we struck earlier.” My hands dart to my hips. “One blow job for a picture of your tattoo.”
“One long and slow pussy eating session for a peek at that picture.”
The corners of my lips lift into a smile. “I get to see your tattoo, and you’ll eat me out?”