“I know, sweetheart. I love you too. And, while we’re sharing secrets, you should know that I figured that out when you put the blanket on me.”

His head came up and he caught my eyes.

“What?”

“Our first, very long, very weird, very intense date. I fell asleep and woke up and you put a blanket on me. Not since my parents died has anyone cared if I might get a chill. Until you. A man who would think about that and do something about it, I knew deep down in a place that made me smile, was the man for me. I didn’t get it until, well… just now. But, you know… you should know.”

He grinned at me but muttered, “Never throwin’ that blanket away.”

“You try, I’ll wrestle you to the ground.”

I felt his body shaking against mine and I smiled at him.

Then my smile faded and I whispered, “One other thing you gotta know, honey, and I’m sorry, but Nick set that up with Drake Nair. He was on the street outside my place. He watched it. He didn’t get close to me but Nair told me Nick spoke to him and I know by the way Nick was watching me that he was the one to set that up.”

I watched Knight pull in a sharp breath then blow out an annoyed sigh.

Then he muttered, “Sorry, baby.”

“Me too, but it’s done so whatever.”

“Not whatever, puntin’ this shit to Carl.”

My head tilted and Knight started to run his fingers through my hair as he replied, “Been dealin’ with it. Not dealin’ with it anymore. Carl knows Nick’s f**kin’ up this bad, he’ll lose his mind. Brace, babe, he’ll also strap his ass into a seat in an airliner about five minutes after I share and he’ll come to Denver and rip his boy a new ass**le.”

I blinked.

Knight’s lips twitched.

“Just so you know, Carl was muscle for a local big man. Only way he could pry my Mom from her pimp was bein’ able to jack him up. Somethin’ he did. Carl is a good man but that doesn’t mean he’s clean. What he is, is big, built and he did and still does take care of himself. Nick has not made a habit of f**kin’ up exclusively with me. Carl has a way with gettin’ him to get his shit in line. Nick doesn’t take Carl’s way, the least he’ll do is make certain that shit no longer leaks to you and me. And Carl will probably be all kinds of pissed that I kept what I have from them and he’ll be loud about it. You’re around, don’t take that shit in. He’ll get in my face but he’d never hurt a woman or freak her out directly. After he tears me a new one, you happen to be there, swear to Christ, babe, he’ll turn to you and offer to get you a beer and give you a foot rub.”

I started giggling.

“No joke,” Knight told me.

I giggled harder.

Knight watched, smiled and his fingers ran through my hair.

I pressed closer.

Then his smile died and he said gently, “Okay, baby, you got it all, now you got my word that’s all there is but it’s also all you’re gonna get. That shit, the girls, the Russians, it is my business, not my life. You are my life. That doesn’t leak to it, except what I gotta do to maintain it that takes my time and energy. You are not new best friend to fifty-seven bitches. That does not exist for you. Rhash, he’s tight and gettin’ tighter with Vivica. He wanted no secrets, nothin’ between them. But you should know, he laid down that law with her too. Business is business, home is home, life is life. The first, you and Viv don’t have shit to do with, both of you are only the last two. You gotta share with her you know, so she knows she doesn’t have to worry that she’s keepin’ somethin’ important from her girl, you two talk. Once that’s done and outside of that, babe, we live quiet. You with me?”

I nodded.

His eyes roamed my face.

Then he whispered, “You’re with me.”

“Always, Knight.”

His gaze came to mine.

“Fuck me,” he whispered. “Fuck me,” he repeated then warmth washed over his face and he said it again. “Fuck me.”

He said that when I did something that moved him (and, of course, other times).

And that’s when I got it. For Knight, my sweet never went sour.

And that meant everything to him.

So I knew then I was giving him everything just the same as he was giving me.

And that meant everything to me.

So I pressed into him, my arms around him got tight, my head tilted back further and I smiled at my man.

Epilogue

The Real Ones

I felt Knight’s hand slide lightly between my legs.

“Wake up, baby,” he whispered in my ear and my eyes drifted open.

He’d called before I went to sleep and told me what he wanted me to wear to bed (my red nightie with the black lace and, as usual, nothing else) and not to pull the covers over me.

So I didn’t.

I was lying mostly on my belly, my top leg hitched high, my bottom leg slightly crooked, perfect access and I knew this when my belly curled at what his hand was doing between my legs.

“I’m awake,” I muttered sleepily.

“Good, baby,” he whispered, lips still at my ear. “Get up. Position for Daddy. You know how I like it. Facing the headboard. Arms up in the air. Yeah?”

“Yeah, Daddy,” I agreed softly and his finger trailed deeper through the wet gathering between my legs.

My eyes closed.

My reward.

Then his hand drifted away as did his heat at my back.

I shifted up. Getting on my knees, sliding them wide, I slowly lifted my arms up into the air.

I felt Knight move in behind me. His hands glided on the silk of my nightie, all over it and that felt lovely. His lips came to my neck and worked there. That felt better. Then his fingers curled into the deep lace edge at the bottom of the nightie and he slowly pulled it up my body. His mouth left my neck, the nightie cleared my hands and was gone.

“Right, baby,” his lips were back at my ear, “hold onto the headboard. Keep your hands there. Don’t move them. And you can talk if you want. Okay?”

“Okay, Daddy.”

“Okay,” he whispered in my ear then his tongue trailed down my neck as I dropped my arms and grabbed onto the headboard.

Then his hands came back to me, moving, gliding, sliding, over my ribs, belly, hips, down the outside of my thighs, up the insides. A barely-there touch between my legs. Lips and tongue at my neck, my shoulder. Hands drifting up my sides, over the curve of my armpits, down my arms then back.