Instead, he whispered, “You took my c**k hard, baby, I hurt you?”

Her lips tipped up at the ends and she shook her head.

Yeah, she got off on it.

He grinned at her.

“Missed our bed,” she whispered back.

He knew that, she’d been creative, creative enough he knew she was storing that shit up, it had built so high, she couldn’t contain it and unleashed it all at once. That was why he gave it to her so hard, because she spent some time and effort working him up.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Her hand left his face so her arm could circle his shoulders and both arms gave him a squeeze.

“I like Julius,” she murmured.

“Good,” he murmured back.

Her eyes went soft and they did that often but not that way. That was new. And it settled in the way he’d felt earlier. It was weighty but not heavy. Warm. Welcome. Deep.

“What’s on your mind, mama?”

“That I like it when you call me ‘mama’,” she lied instantly.

He shook his head.

“Just called you that, Lex, so that wasn’t on your mind,” he replied softly.

She sucked in breath. Then, always putting herself out there for him, even at the beginning, she didn’t do anything different now and said, “Lived under a shadow one way or another all my life. Now it’s bright. Even at night. Not used to it and sometimes it hits me. That’s what was on my mind.”

There it was again. That thing settling, welcome, warm and deep.

He bent his head and touched his forehead to hers briefly before lifting it up and pulling out.

“Get cleaned up, baby,” he muttered and rolled off her.

She rolled with him, shoved her face in his neck a moment, kissing him there then scooted off the bed.

He got in it.

She did her business in the bathroom, came out and joined him. They’d f**ked without the lights on for once but the moonlight still shone through the windows. Still he didn’t see that she got in bed without tagging her panties and tugging them on, he heard it.

That meant Walker was grinning at the ceiling as she slid across the bed and curled around him.

His wildcat was far from done.

Moments passed and he waited for it.

She gave it to him.

“Honey?” she called.

“Yeah.”

Her arm around his gut gave him a squeeze. “You tired?”

“Mama, just f**ked you hard.”

Her body slumped into his side and she whispered, “Oh.”

He grinned at the ceiling again.

Then he said, “Doesn’t take a lotta energy to eat you, though.”

She shifted restlessly against him.

She liked that. Wanted it. Fucking wildcat.

Walker turned into her and found her mouth in the dark. It wasn’t hard to find, she’d tipped her head back to offer it to him.

He didn’t kiss her, he spoke. “On your back, Lexie, and spread for me.”

“Okay,” she whispered against his lips.

Then she got to her back and spread for him.

Then Walker ate his wife and then he f**ked her again.

After they were done, she got back to bed from the bathroom and again didn’t tug up her panties before she did it but this time not because she wanted another round. This time, because she was out the minute her cheek hit his shoulder.

Five minutes later, she rolled, he rolled with her and he was out the minute her body settled into the curve of his.

And from her leaving him to go to the bathroom to Walker falling asleep, not once did he think of the bars, of the smells or of the feel of the institution. All that shit was gone in a way he didn’t even notice that it was.

And it was unfortunate he didn’t notice because, if he did, he’d have realized Lexie gave that to him too.

And if he’d realized this, the next day he wouldn’t have done what he would do.

Chapter Thirteen

An Hour

“What do you think?” I asked Dominic as I showed him the flier I’d painstakingly crafted on software I’d never used before considering my skills with computers were limited to e-mail, internet shopping, facebook, downloading e-books on my reader and looking up weather and movie times.

In other words, working on it between taking phone calls, ringing up services and purchases, dusting and restocking shelves, assuring every exiting customer that they looked fabulous, the flier took me five days.

And the flier was important. It announced the soon-to-be released new services Dominic’s spa was offering, making his spa that was really a salon into an actual spa.

Therefore I wanted it to be right but knew it wasn’t.

“I love it!” he cried, snatching the flier out of my hand to examine it closer.

Perhaps I was wrong.

“You do?” I asked, thinking it looked what it was, like a blind six year old with learning difficulties designed it.

“It’s brilliant!” Dominic exclaimed then shoved it back in my hand and looked at me. “Print out fifty. I’ll send Daniel out with Blue Tack, a stapler and a mission.”

I grinned at him, he grinned back then his eyes slid over my shoulder to the front window and narrowed.

“Shit! Shit! On a Saturday,” he snapped then hissed, “figures.”

I turned my head to see what he was looking at but couldn’t see anything but a figure moving at the window behind the blinds that were partially closed against the heat of the sun.

He went on, “Never calls for an appointment. Thinks she owns the town, I swear. She always waltzes in here and thinks I can do her walk-in. Do I look like a stylist who accepts walk-ins? Uh… no.”

Then the door opened; the figure that was obscured by the blinds moved through the door and Misty Keaton walked in.

I froze.

Shit. Shit. Fucking shit.

“Misty!” Dominic cried as if she was his bestest best high school friend who he hadn’t seen since they got shitfaced at their graduation party and they’d just locked eyes at their twenty-five year reunion and he had not been bitching about her five seconds earlier.

But Misty was frozen too, her eyes on me. Clearly, she had no idea I worked there.

I came unlocked first and moved to the reception desk, not taking my eyes off her, my mind filled with options on how to play this, so many of them, I couldn’t get a lock on a single one and all the while I moved I felt Dominic follow.

“Long time, no see, darling. What brings you to Dominic’s House of Eternal Beauty?” Dominic asked Misty (this wasn’t actually the name of the salon, it was called “Carnal Spa” but Dominic referred to it by different, inventive, hilarious names all the time).