Alexander (2 page)

She was giggling. He thought it was better than tears, but he didn’t like them any better. He pulled her closer, kissed her on the mouth, and swatted her ass too.

“
Hey, mom-to-be here. What was that for anyway?” She shifted over him and stilled suddenly. “You’re very hard, Mr. Stone. Do you want something?”

Her voice was husky and warm. He rocked upward and moaned when she pressed down onto him. He wondered if there was ever going to be a time when he didn’t want her like he did now, like he did every time she touched him.

“
Willow, you keep this up and your parents are going to wonder what’s taking us so long.” Until that second, he’d forgotten they were downstairs. “Unless of course you don’t care. At this moment, I certainly don’t.”

He grunted when she rolled off him. Then he groaned and reached for her. Her nipples were poking through her shirt. His mouth watered to taste them. She stepped back when he reached for her.

“
Please, baby. Just a taste. A little something to tide me—” He nearly swallowed his tongue when she lifted her shirt and bra up over her breasts.

The bounce is what had him whimpering. When her breasts bounced and quivered slightly, he reached down and rubbed his hand over his cock. Her nipples, always a source of delight for him, were hard and long. Sitting up on the bed then sliding to the floor, he crawled to her on his knees. He took one hard tip into his mouth and suckled. Hard.

“
Jared, please. Please make me come. I need it so bad.” Never one to deny her, he pulled the snap open on her jeans and yanked them down panties and all.

“
Christ, you’re wet,” he moaned as he buried his fingers in her slit. “You’re going to owe me for this, baby. I’m going to need you hard and dirty later.”

“
Yes. Please, just hurry.”

He made his way down her torso, nipping and kissing her exposed skin as he went. When he got to her navel, he whirled is tongue deep as he continued to fuck her with his fingers. She rocked into his hand.

When he was near her apex, he looked up at her face. Lust, hunger, and desire were written there. She watched him as he kissed her trimmed nether lips.

“
You’ll have to be quiet when you come. If not, then everyone will hear you.” She nodded. “Can you be quiet, baby?”

Jared’s cock hurt. He wanted her, wanted to bury his cock deep into her pussy and never leave. He couldn’t wait until later. He needed her now.

“
Baby, I—”

She moved away and back then went to the edge of the bed. Bending over at the waist, she spread her legs wide and then looked back at him. Standing quickly, Jared opened his fly and freed his cock quickly. It was already dripping with his need.

Not saying a word, he walked up behind her and entered. She tightened around him immediately, her sheath rippling along his cock and milking him. He knew she was coming and could barely hear her screams as she buried her face in the blankets.

Moving out to the tip of his cock, he slammed hard back into her. His fingers dug deep into her flesh at her hips. He held her still while he fucked her. He could feel his balls tighten up and fill. Three then four strokes and he felt his own release hammer at him. It was all he could do not to roar out her name as she came again.

~Chapter 2~

Alex left his apartment later than he’d wanted. So now it was nearly seven in the morning and he was starving. He knew he’d be welcomed at either house, his sister’s or his parents’, but he wanted to just have a few minutes of quiet time and some strong coffee.

He was driving down the main street—he thought it was actually called Maple Avenue—when he saw the little shop. They were doing a good bit of business, he saw, and after finding a parking place nearly a block away, he went inside House of Aromas.

Alex was nearly bowled over by two women in business suits with two white and pink striped boxes tied with strings in their hands. Each of them smiled up at him as they clutched their boxes and hurried out the door. When Alex turned back, he felt his belly rumble and his nose flare.

The shop was named well, he decided. The smells emanating around the room were strong and delicious. Blueberries and cinnamon, apples and chocolate just to name a few of the warm scents that made his mouth water for a taste. He looked around the small shop as he made his way to the front counter.

There were about a dozen or so tables, some with two chairs and others with four. All of them were striped with the pink and white material. And all of them were occupied.

The walls were a bright white and one of them was covered with framed pictures. Even from halfway across the room, he could see that the majority of them were of people and nearly all of those had some sort of dessert in them. There were even a few wedding cakes with brides and grooms.

The opposite wall was a mural of the area right around the shop, including the shop itself. Alex guessed the early fifties if the cars were any indication. The shop was in the middle of the painting with a woman and three young boys out front. It didn’t look the same as it did now.

The building then had been a one-story with an awning out front. It was a brighter pink than was being used now, but with the name of the shop in a very nice script. No stripes, though. The building now was a nice two-story with two large display windows out front filled with antiques from the time period and baking pans. The awning was still pink and, of course, now striped.

But it was the counter that has his full attention now. Alex would bet that it was one of the original display cases on the left with the one on the right being new and much bigger. The lighting and glass shelves were in the new, as the older one had a wooden shelf filled with beautiful displays. He wondered how they could get away with that and the board of health when he saw that pastry items in this one were plastic. And very good models at that. He grinned at the woman behind the counter when she spoke to him.

“
What’ll you have?”

She looked happy, Alex realized with a start. He was so used to seeing the wait staff at the coffee shop he went to looking surly and bored that he was caught momentarily speechless. When she blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes and winked, he laughed.

“
I’m sorry. Owner?”

She shook her head at his question. “Nah, Mom’s in the back. She’s trying to talk the delivery guy out of holding her flour hostage for a date. Guy never gives up. You need her?”

“
I was just going to tell her what a charming place she has here. Will she be long, you think?” He didn’t know why, but he really needed to tell her. “I can come back if she’s really busy.”

She opened the gated counter and let him through, but not before saying he should try and make the guy see reason. Alex wanted to help, but decided he shouldn’t get involved. If she needed help with the guy, he would only do so if she asked him to.

“
I’ll see what I can do for her.” She mumbled her thanks and shouted for the next person to order.

He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t even close to what he walked into. The big, burly guy had an older woman pressed against the wall and was groping her. She was beating him against his shoulders and even with the man’s hand over her mouth, he could hear her screaming. Tears streamed down her face.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he walked across the room and jerked the guy away. As the woman crumpled to the floor, Alex went after the man.

“
She wanted it. You can’t blame a guy for—” he started.

“
Sure I can,” Alex snarled at him. “And I’m going to enjoy showing you how it feels to have your rights taken from you.”

The first punch caught the man in the nose. Blood gushed forward even as the man staggered away. The second caught him in the jaw and had him hit the wall behind him. Alex wasn’t sure how much longer he might have enjoyed using the man as a punching bag, but he slid to the floor unconscious. Alex took several deep breaths before he turned to the woman.

She grinned up at him, her lip swollen and bleeding. “You’re not supposed to be back here. But I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.”

He helped her to a chair and when he got her seated, he handed her a towel that was nearby. She put it to her mouth and looked up at him. “Thanks,” she said.

“
My pleasure. I think you should call the police now. He assaulted you.” Alex looked around the room for a glass to give her a drink as he continued. “The girl up front, she told me I could come back and tell you what a great shop you have.”

“
Yeah, real nice. I’m not sure…he never...” She shuddered. “He’s a bastard and I hope to hell he loses his job.”

Alex couldn’t help it; he threw back his head and laughed. “So do I. And if he doesn’t, we’ll have to make sure he does in another way.”

~~~

Heather Laird stacked the plates on the tray and picked up the heavy burden. Four more hours. Four more hours and she could go home and see the love of her life, Jack. Well, she amended, one of the loves of her life. Big Tom, her grandda, would be there too.

Heather dumped the glasses and threw out the trash as she stacked all the dishes she’d just bussed off her table with a practiced ease. When the dishwasher guy, Mike, came back, he grinned at her.

“
Ain’t nobody helps me out but you, Heather.” He began loading the dirty dishes onto the rack. “‘Course none of them others is as sweet on me as you are either.” He winked at her when she laughed.

“
That’s right. When are you going to marry me and take me away from all this, Mike?” It was an old joke between the two of them.

He stacked the last dish, opened the door to the ancient dishwasher, and slid the rack inside. When the door was closed again, he hit the switch that started the washer and started loading the next rack as he answered her. “Well for one, I’m old enough to be…we’re gonna say daddy but we both know I’m closer to be your granddaddy. Second, and more importantly, my wife would skin me alive. That woman is the sweetest person I know next to you, but damned if she don’t scare me to death at times.” He winked again. “Besides, you need to find you a nice young buck to take you places. You work too hard.”

Heather looked away. It was always like this when someone mentioned her getting married or dating. She’d get scared then teary. When she was exhausted like she was now, it wasn’t always easy to put up a front. But she knew Mike wouldn’t comment on the tears or pry so she let a few of them fall. She hated self-pity, but also knew she didn’t fall this far into a pity party often.

When Charlie the cook yelled her name, she took the paper towel Mike shoved at her and went to get her order. She glanced at her watch. Three and a half hours to go.

She’d been waiting tables since she’d been fifteen and on her own. It wasn’t until later, after her grandda had found her living in the shelter, that she’d found the two of them an apartment. Then when she’d had Jack, Grandda had stayed. Thomas Laird couldn’t have come at a better time. She had sobbed when he had told her he was staying to help, telling her that he would have talked to his daughter, Heather’s mom, if she wanted. She didn’t, and only when her mother called did the man speak to his daughter.

He told her he hadn’t known about what had happened to her. Her mother had thrown her out the day she’d found out she was pregnant. She’d never asked about the boy…man really, but had blamed her for her stupidity and told her when she gave the baby up or got rid of it any other way, she could come home. Heather hadn’t spoken to her since. And Jack, her son, was still hers.

At ten minutes until six, her last table had been bussed and she had already filled the sugar containers and salt and pepper shakers. Her replacement, Bailey, was there on time for a change. Heather was on her way home at five after and was smiling for the first time all night.

Grandda and Jack were having a heated debate over football again. Jack was a diehard Bengals fan and her grandda the Browns. Heather smiled as she put her coat in the closet. It seemed both teams had lost. Again.

“
I did not say they were hopeless, young man. I said the situation was. They have no defense and as far as—”

“
Have you been watching your own team, Grandpa Tom? They suck.” She walked into the kitchen in time to see Jack put his plate on the counter instead of the sink. “The only reason they know what game they’re playing is because the ref hands them the ball every time.”

“
Why you little turd. If you were my kid, I’d wash your mouth out with soap.” Grandda stood and moved toward Jack. “I just realized you are mine.”

They both dissolved into laughter as she stepped further into the room. “Has another crises been averted or do I need to go out and come back in for round two?”

Jack untangled himself first from the spry sixty-eight-year-old still on the floor. He got up slower than his great grandson, but no less happy to see her, she could see.

“
We were debating on the super bowl chances of our teams. Your son has a smart mouth. I wonder where he gets that from,” he asked her as he kissed her cheek.

Heather only smiled. His mouth could be just as sassy as hers was and he knew it. She went over to the counter and looked down at Jack’s empty plate. Without a word, he picked it up and rinsed it off before putting it in the sink along with his empty glass and silverware.