CHAPTERTEN
“It’s okay to be emotional. That’s where real strength lies.” -Walt talking to his sister, unaware I overheard him (Once Upon a Billionaire)
Dee
I came again, all right. I don’t know how I had one more in me, but Walt found it.
He shudders out his own release before pressing me deep into his plush bedding. I ignore the poke of a bulb against my butt cheek and accept his weight. A shudder wracks his strong shoulders. I run my fingers over the bumps in his back and down each arm, to the lean, fit muscles on the sides of his torso.
CrossFit. Mama like.
“I’ll have to start working out to keep up.”
“No,” he mumbles into my neck. He kisses my collarbone, then my shoulder, and then my lips. “I like you like this.”
“Like what?”
“Soft.” His hair is a mess, his grin as big as I’ve ever seen it. I missed his nose, a bit large for his face. I missed the brackets on the sides of his mouth. I missed the dazed look in his brown eyes after sex. I forgot to write that one down, but I will. Just as soon as I can move my legs and get out of this bed. No rush on my part.
“I won’t lose my softness.” I ruffle his hair, but it bounces back to where it was. “I finally found it again. After years of using armor to protect myself, I learned that vulnerability is a superpower.”
He kisses me again, lingering with his lips over mine for a breath. He’s still inside me, his elbows alongside my body. “I like hearing that.”
“Hand-delivering those notes, while wearing a Santa suit, was my way of being vulnerable. I wanted to prove to you how much you mean to me without any guarantees you’d take me back. I honestly had no idea if you’d throw me out or not.”
“Never.” He stamps my mouth with a final kiss before leaving my body in a long glide that has us both groaning. “Be back.”
He disappears into the hallway. A second later, the bathroom door closes. I roll to my side, facing the door, and become aware of two things. One, I’m still tangled up in Christmas lights, and two…
“I’m starving,” I tell him when he comes back. After taking a minute to admire the muscles in his legs and the heavy cock hanging between them. Damn. He’s a beautiful man.
“Christmas dinner at Viv’s might still be an option.” He takes inventory of my nakedness before concluding, “I’d rather keep you here, like this, and order pizza.”
“I don’t want to interrupt their Christmas, anyway. They’re probably doing what we just did.”
“Gross,” he answers like any brother should when reminded of his sister’s sex life. He stuffs his legs into his boxer briefs, snapping the band around his waist and shaking his minuscule ass while he’s at it. Taut and firm, but small. I missed that ass-wiggle too.
“I know it’s in here somewhere.” He’s digging through his closet, which is strangely organized. Also, strangely filled with button-down shirts. And a few sportscoats.
I sit up in bed and wrap a sheet around my body. Now that the post-sex haze has faded, a chill has crept in. “What are you doing over there? Are you going to give me a fashion show of the new and improved Walt Steele?”
“Walter Steele, Junior.” He pauses to lift the sleeve of one of the jackets before going back to whatever he was doing in there. “Wouldn’t Dad be proud?”
Would he? No idea. I would like to think, even though his late father embezzled a fuck-ton of money from people and went to prison for it, that he would be proud of where Walt and Vivian have ended up.
“Got it!” Walt faces me, whatever he found hiding behind his back. He eases onto the mattress. Gone is the guy shaking his butt at me. He was replaced by a man who looks like I felt when I first saw him tonight.
Nervous. Unsure. Scared.
“What do you ‘got’?”
He makes an offended sound. “You didn’t take me seriously, did you?”
“About?”
“Really?” He leans in, his words rumbling from his throat as he comes closer and closer to my mouth. “Have you forgotten the sweet nothings I said while I was fucking you reverently, as promised?”
My pulse picks up between my legs. Good God. How could I want more sex? “I— I didn’t forget. You said you loved me.”