Golden Trail (61 page)

During this exchange, Layne took off his
jacket and threw it on the armchair. By the time he turned, Josie
was finished speaking and Rocky was standing in the kitchen.

Her eyes flashed to him as she answered her
friend, “
No
, I was
interrupted.
”

“So all that was for nothing?” Josie asked
and while she did, she turned to pin him with an angry woman glare
too.

Layne crossed his arms on his chest. “Tell
me, Cagney and Lacey, what were you looking for?”

“Rental agreements,” Rocky returned
instantly.

“On what?” Layne shot back.

“On an apartment,
Layne,
” Rocky
retorted with deep sarcasm.

“What apartment?” Layne asked and Rocky’s
head jerked slightly.

“Sorry?”

“What apartment, sweetcheeks? I didn’t tell
you which unit he was in and I already told you he’s got nothin’ in
the name of TJ Gaines in this ‘burg, so how, exactly, were you
gonna find an agreement when you didn’t know what fuckin’ agreement
you were lookin’ for?” He watched her glare turn even angrier as he
pointed out her incompetence, he ignored it and continued. “There’s
fifteen units in this complex, forty-five apartments, not counting
the twenty townhomes. Every unit occupied. Were you gonna copy them
all?”

“I would have thought of something,” she
replied sharply. “Except I barely got through the window before
Scary Biker Bob interrupted the proceedings.”

“Count yourself lucky Ryker was with me,
Roc, he thinks this is amusing.
I
do
not.
”

Rocky gave him a long, last glare then
turned to Josie. “You know how I was telling you the other day that
getting back together with Layne was like someone had answered my
prayers?” she asked conversationally and Layne’s chest froze.

“Unh-hunh,” Josie answered on a mumble, her
eyes darting back and forth between Rocky and Layne.

“Well, I take that back,” Rocky snapped.

Layne looked at his boots as Josie asked,
“Do I need to take Rocky into protective custody?”

Layne looked at Josie. “It’d be smart but
I’m not gonna let you do it.”

Josie studied Layne awhile then she grinned.
“I expect punishment won’t be too harsh.”

She probably wasn’t wrong about that.
Probably.

“Anyhoots!” Josie suddenly cried, “I gotta
go.” She hitched her purse more firmly on her shoulder. “Even
though the operation was a bust, it was fun anyway since The
Brendel didn’t hire Chip to do their security and brought in a firm
outside the ‘burg which is
way
uncool and meant I couldn’t
have that trip to Hawaii I was planning after he put in his bid.”
She started to the door but she did it with her torso twisted to
Rocky. “See you at the game tomorrow?”

“Maybe,” Rocky replied. “I’ll want to see
Tripp and Jas play but I won’t want to be anywhere
near
their father so I’m undecided as to my plans tomorrow night.”

Layne’s neck got tight but Josie smiled like
she was trying not to laugh and replied, “Okay, see you at the game
then.”

At any other time, Layne would have laughed.
At that time, Layne didn’t laugh.

Josie had the door opened and was standing
in it when she delivered her parting shot and she did it to
Layne.

“She’s worried,” Josie stated quietly.
“They’re young girls and she’s worried. Yeah?”

She finished on a question but didn’t wait
for his answer; she knew she’d driven her point home. She just
stepped through the door and closed it behind her.

Layne’s eyes cut to Rocky who was moving
around the kitchen but she wasn’t ignoring him. He knew this when
she spoke.

“I have things to do tonight. Go to the
grocery store, grade papers, make some calls about the bachelor
auction, stuff like that.” She pulled the coffeepot out of the
coffeemaker and went to the sink to rinse it. “I’ll give your house
a miss again.”

“Roc,” he called and she picked up some
plastic thing filled with yellow dish liquid and swirled its sponge
around the pot. What she didn’t do was respond.

“Roc,” he called again and she rinsed the
soap out of the pot and upended it in the dish drainer.

Layne walked to the bar separating the
kitchen from the living room.

“Sweetcheeks, eyes to me,” he ordered
quietly.

She turned off the sink, leaned to the side,
grabbed a dish towel and turned, drying her hands with the towel.
Her eyes hit him and her brows went up.

Layne spoke. “Cosgrove got word from three
colleges they wanted to talk to Jasper. He didn’t pass on those
messages.”

Her brows lowered, her lips parted and she
started to look concerned as she tossed the towel on the counter
behind her.

Layne continued. “It’s time I started
focusing on Rutledge again but I don’t have that time because I
gotta work to pay my bills. I also gotta keep an eye on Stew and
Gabby’s house. It’s likely that fuckwad is gone and Colt’s lookin’
into shit but she goes home tomorrow and my boys go back to her
tomorrow so I can’t lose track of what’s goin’ on there. I gotta
keep sharp about Cosgrove because he’s thrown down, fucked with Jas
and he’s the kinda man who won’t see his shortcomings and
understand he brought all this shit on himself, he’ll make someone
pay. I reckon that’ll be Paige and Seth, Jasper or you. And I got
nothin’ on Gaines except I know what he drives, I know where he
went last night and I know he’s gotta be shut down. Both my boys
are out there on this and somehow, Rutledge, a dirty cop who’s
makin’ the Department look bad enough that pretty soon the Chief’s
gonna get his head outta his ass and figure out what’s goin’ on,
he’s gonna step in and he’s gonna fuck it all up because he got to
be Chief not by bein’ a good cop but by bein’ good at playin’
politics. But my boys and my woman come first. You want Gaines and
Tripp and Jas are seriously tied up in
all
this shit and I
gotta have their backs.”

She stared at him and he knew she was no
longer pissed but she wasn’t ready to let it go either.

So Layne went on, his voice soft. “I love
you, baby, and part of why I love you is because you’re worried and
you’d do something about it. Any other time this shit you pulled
would be cute. Now it isn’t because I don’t have time to have
your
back
and
my boys’
and
get the shit I need
done, done. I was gonna run Gaines’s plates this afternoon but I
couldn’t because I’m here.” Her face had changed completely, eyes
half-mast, mouth soft and Layne knew he’d gotten to her. “So, help
me out in a way that actually helps me out. Be there for me and be
smart. Those are the only two things you gotta do, easy enough for
you but they’d mean a lot to me.”

The instant he was done talking, Rocky
spoke. “You love me?”

Layne’s head moved to the side. “What?”

“You said you love me,” she told him.

Layne stared at her and replied, “Well…
yeah.”

“You love me,” she whispered, her eyes still
hooded but they were intense and Layne felt his chest freeze
again.

“Baby, what do you think we’re doin’ here?”
he whispered back.

She shook her head.

“You ever fall out of love with me?” he
asked softly.

“No,” she whispered and it sounded like she
struggled to get that one word out but Layne didn’t care, that one
word meant everything to him.

“That feeling is definitely mutual,
honey.”

She held his gaze one beat, two, three then
she sucked in breath, her eyes filled with tears and she looked
down and to the side.

Layne moved around the bar, walked to her
and pulled her into his arms. Rocky didn’t resist and slid her arms
around his waist and held on, twisting her neck and pressing her
cheek in his chest.

He dipped his chin and put his lips to her
hair. “This,” he said there, “this right now answered more than
just your prayers, Rocky.”

He heard her breath hitch as her body jolted
with a fresh wave of tears and she held on tighter with her arms
and pressed her body deep into his.

He lifted a hand and pulled her ponytail
holder out of her hair then ran his fingers through its length and
he kept doing it as he listened to her cry.

When her tears quieted, he whispered, “Ma’s
making beef tenderloin tonight.”

Her head jerked back and his lifted up as
she looked at him with wet eyes that apparently were ringed with
lashes coated with waterproof mascara. They were spiky with wet but
her cheeks weren’t streaming with black.

“Beef tenderloin?” she asked quietly,
knowing exactly what that meant. Layne liked Vera’s beef tenderloin
but Rocky loved it. She knew Vera wouldn’t make it if things
weren’t good.

“We had a chat,” Layne answered, she melted
even deeper into him, dropped her chin and rested her forehead
against his chest.

“I like Vera’s tenderloin,” she whispered
there.

“I’m bringin’ home cones and ice cream.”

Rocky’s head jerked back again, she looked
startled a second then she let out a little giggle.

“You’re impossible.” She was still
whispering and he grinned.

“Promise me you’re done with this shit, I’ll
take watchin’ you eat a cone and then, later, watchin’ you wrap
your hand around my cock and lickin’ it as payback for savin’ your
ass instead of tannin’ it.” The softness went out of her face and
she started to pull back but his hand went out of her hair and both
his arms got tight around her. “Promise me, Rocky.”

She tried to go into stare down but he knew
she didn’t have it in her when she muttered, “Oh, all right.”

“Is that a promise?” Layne pushed.

“Yes,” she snapped.

“All of it?”

Her head tipped to the side. “What?”

“No more stupid shit.”

She pulled her arms from around him and put
her hands on his chest but she replied, “No more stupid shit.”

“And you eat dessert tonight,” he
pressed.

“Fine,” she snapped.

“Then you eat me later.”

“Fine!” she repeated, still snapping and
still not meaning it and he smiled.

“Don’t pretend you don’t like it as much as
me, sweetcheeks.”

“Um, I think you like it more than me,
Layne
.
”

She wasn’t wrong about that.

He didn’t confirm, he ordered, “Now kiss me
good-bye, I gotta get back to the office and run those plates and
you need to get your ass to my house so Ma can get a head start on
makin’ amends.”

“You missed one more thing
you
need
to do and that’s quit bossing me around.”

He kept smiling. “Baby, what in all that
isn’t good for you?”

“The part where you boss me around, that’s
the part not good for me.”

Layne still kept smiling. “Quit bitchin’ and
kiss me.”

“Layne –”

“Sweetcheeks, kiss me.”

“If you’re so busy, maybe you should –”

Layne shut her up by kissing her.

Rocky was nursing a snit but still… she
kissed him back.

* * * * *

Layne’s shoulders were to the headboard, his
legs were spread, knees bent to the ceiling, his hands were in
Rocky’s hair and his eyes were glued to her mouth working his
cock.

Damn, but he liked her mouth.

But he didn’t want to come in her mouth, he
wanted to come in her pussy.

“Baby, get up here,” he growled and her eyes
went to him but her mouth stayed where it was, her fingers wrapped
tight around him and he watched her swirl the tip with her
tongue.

Fuck. Beautiful. Everything about it. Her
hand, her tongue, her hair framing her face and all over his lap
and her eyes telling him exactly how turned on she was.

“Get up here,” he repeated and she bent to
him, taking him deep one last time and sucking hard as she slid
back up.

Jesus. Fucking beautiful.

Layne closed his eyes and gritted his
teeth.

Rocky’s mouth released his cock, he opened
his eyes and watched as she crawled up his body to straddling him
and pressed her tits to his chest, her face to his neck and he felt
her tongue there.

“Climb on, baby,” he grunted, needing to be
inside her and she didn’t hesitate.

She reached between them, wrapped him again
with her fist and guided him inside, sitting up and filling
herself, her head dropping back, her back arching, her nails
dragging his chest and she moaned.

Heaven.

One of his hands went to her hip, the other
one cupped her breast as he ordered in a thick voice, “Ride
me.”

She needed no coaxing, she moved, not slow –
fast, hard. She was primed, so fucking hot, so wet, taking him deep
as he rolled her nipple between his fingers and watched his woman
drive herself down on his cock over and over.

When he was close and she was closer, he sat
up, both his arms going around her and he demanded, “Mouth on mine,
baby.”

She tipped her head down and did as she was
told, moving on him and breathing into his mouth, “Layne, baby, you
feel so good.”

“Faster, Rocky,” he urged and she did as he
asked, the noises coming from her throat telling him where she was
at.

One of his arms slid up her back and his
fingers tangled in her hair, fisting, he held her mouth to his as
his other arm moved and then he smacked her, hard, on the ass.

Her body jerked and her head jolted against
his hold but he kept it stationary.

“You gonna be my good girl?” he
whispered.

“Layne,” she breathed and he liked that,
fuck, he liked that, it went straight to his cock.

He smacked her ass again, her body jerked
again and then she started riding him harder. She liked this, his
Rocky.

“You gonna be my good girl?” he repeated and
smacked her ass again.

Rocky moaned into his mouth, her hand slid
to his neck, fingers digging in, her other arm around his back and
she started fucking him hot and hard and really fucking fast.