Page 205 of Duty and Desire
It was good to be loved.
I just wished being that loved wasn’t so loud and didn’t interrupt bathroom-counter sex with my man.
I mean seriously, if this shit didn’t stop, my neighbors were going to come over and complainto me.
“Yeah, Smithie,” I replied.
Smithie studied my face, couldn’t process the love I knew was shining there in company, so he turned his attention up to Mo.
“Hey, Mo.”
“Yo,” Mo grunted.
With that, Smithie took his leave, but not before I grabbed his hand as he tried to make by me and made him stop so I could give it a squeeze.
Smithie squeezed back.
Then he vamoosed.
When we heard the front door close, Tex asked me, “Am I gonna have to fight ’em all back with a club?”
He might mean Ray.
He might mean Mag, Auggie, Axl or Boone.
Hell, he might even mean Paul, Taylor or Rick.
My family was expanding, bonds were tightening, and it was just simply the manner of men I was fortunate enough to have in my life.
But for that role, there was only one for me.
The one who made my mother happy.
And the one who would pick that song to dance the father-daughter dance.
I smiled at my stepdad. “No, Tex, I think you’ve successfully staked your claim.”
“I better,” he muttered. Then he asked, “You healin’?”
“Almost good as new,” I told him.
He turned to Mo. “What’re you up to today?”
“Hopin’ I can spend a quiet Saturday with my girl without my sisters, her sisters, my brothers, her brothers, or any other parental units like you fuckin’ it up,” Mo replied.
“Right, that’s my get-the-fuck-out cue,” Tex said, came to me, dropped a hand on the top of my head before he removed it and kissed me there, gave Mo an insane-looking grimace that I was pretty sure was a smile, then he took off.
Mo moved to the front door to lock it behind Tex and came back.
The instant he hit the living room, I asked, “Where were we?”
Then I cried out because I was over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.
Seconds later I was on my back in bed with Mo on top of me.
Oh yeah.
That was where we were.
