“Age ain’t nothin’ but a number, beautiful.” He didn’t give a fuck how old she was. He didn’t give a fuck she had two daughters who were practically adults. He gave a fuck about her. End of discussion.
“Sometimes that number matters.”
“Not to me.” Most of his life, he’d been with people older than him. Whether by force or by choice.
The only exceptions had been in the last couple of years with sweet butts, but he avoided tangling with them as much as possible. Mostly because they were nosy and needled him to get naked. They’d get pissy when he’d refuse to answer questions or do anything more than yank down his jeans only enough for them to blow him or let him blow his load inside them.
Since they only served one purpose for him—the whole reason they wanted to be a sweet butt—he would like it better if they left him the fuck alone. He never approached them, they approached him.
But those weren’t the only reasons he avoided the club girls.
After he discovered he liked women, he quickly learned he didn’t prefer younger ones. They always seemed to be too loud, too pushy, too everything. Everything Shade tried to avoid. What might be a turn-on for his brothers, wasn’t for him.
“Wouldn’t give a fuck if you were fifty-one, Chelle.”
“I’d have a problem if my girls dated someone too old.”
“You ain’t too old, beautiful. You’re just right. Don’t see a number, see you. Your girls ain’t done cooking yet. So, yeah, they don’t need someone who’s too old shapin’ their lives, someone who ain’t their smart momma. You’re the only one they should listen to right now for guidance, not a man who wants to mold them to his wishes.” Or needs. Or to fill his sexual desires or perversions.
She frowned. “Are you talking about grooming?”
Fuck, he went too far. He should’ve just shut her up with a fucking kiss. “Somethin’ like that.”
“What do you know about grooming?”
The real question was: what didn’t he know about it?
Christ. “Nothin’. Just sayin’. No more questions. Not tonight. I’m hard for you, Chelle, that’s all you gotta know.”
The halogen security lights along the roof of the building illuminating the rear parking area caused shadows in her station wagon. Even with the pockets of darkness, he could see her chewing on her bottom lip.
The age thing was going to bother her. He could lie about his age or he could just tell her the truth and hope she didn’t order him out of her car, leaving him with an unrelieved hard-on.
He forced a breath out through his nostrils, reached up and thumbed her lip free from between her teeth. “Promised I’d make you forget where we are. Now need a promise from you.”
Her throat visibly rolled as she swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“If I tell you, it ain’t gonna change a thing.”
She nodded but didn’t answer.
That wasn’t good enough. “Need to hear it, Chelle.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
That had to be good enough. “Turned thirty a few weeks ago.”
She didn’t say anything for the longest time, but she didn’t have to. He saw it in her face. The conflict. The struggle. What he feared.
“We’re just fuckin’, Chelle, that’s it. Nobody gotta know shit if it bothers you. Your girls don’t gotta know. My brothers don’t gotta know. Nobody. You teach me to read. I help you paint. The other shit is for us, between us. Our business, no one else’s. I want you. Wanna eat you out ‘til you beg me to fuck you, then gonna fuck you ‘til you beg me to stop. In that time between, you’re gonna come and gonna come hard. And I’m gonna love every goddamn minute of it. ‘Cause I wanna please you and me pleasin’ you is gonna get me off. You got that?”
He didn’t know how many words he fucked up in that long spiel, but he didn’t give a fuck and as long as she got where he was going, that was all that mattered.
She breathed out a shaky, “Yes.”
She got where he was going. Thank fuck. “Good.”
“Let me tell you something, too. You saying that... All of that... With as slowly and deliberately as you speak... That was...” A shuddered breath slipped from between her lips.
“What?”
“That was like foreplay. If I haven’t soaked your jeans yet, I will soon.”
“Fuck yeah,” he whispered.
Too many questions or not, he could fall for this fucking woman.
He’d never done it before, never thought he would, but Chelle could be the one to prove him wrong.
“I never thought I’d be a cougar.”
“You’re the right kinda pussy for me and I’m about to make that kitty purr.”
Her fingers gripped his chin. “I’ve always been a romantic at heart but let me tell you, what you’re saying is a lot more effective than sappy poetry.”
“We done talkin’ yet?” Because he was so done talking.