I cry out against his mouth as he walks to the door and pushes me against it, his tongue lapping inside my mouth, hungry, needy, and greedy. He thrusts in so deep it hurts until pleasure overtakes pain and I am lost in our connection.

“Yes,” I hiss as my nails sink into his back.

“Yes,” he growls as he thrusts deeper, harder, at a steady, rhythmic pace. “So hot for me, and I’m so hard for you,” he groans. “Nothing better. Nothing ever felt so fucking right.”

“Nothing,” I cry as I come so hard my entire body trembles.

“Fuck,” he roars as he twitches inside of me, filling me full of his hot, thick come.

“Wow,” I say kissing his cheek, then his lips. “Amazing.”

“That was just the beginning, Yaya. Let’s get cleaned up, and then I want my mouth on you … everywhere.”

I lead him through the house to the downstairs bathroom just behind the kitchen.

“This place is insane,” he says as he looks around.

“The life of a hardworking drug slinger,” I say and then sigh.

“Yeah,” he says. “She may be a piece of shit mother, but right now, I’d kiss her for bringing you into the world.”

I laugh and squeeze his hand. “I wouldn’t let you.”

“I missed you so much.”

***

We walk out of the bathroom, and he looks around the kitchen. I have a towel around me; he doesn’t.

He looks at me, and I smile and shake my head.

“What?” he asks.

“Can you imagine what the women in cyberspace would think if they could see you now?”

He rolls his eyes. “Bigger question, do you think I give a fuck what any of them think?”

“I sure hope not,” I say quietly as I open the refrigerator and pull two bottles of water and a fruit and cheese platter out. “Noah and I had a movie night; this is left over. Would you like some?”

“Water sounds good.”

I hand it to him, and he opens it and drinks half of it down.

I take a drink and then smile. “Thank you for the picture. It is amazing.”

“Did you shove it in a closet or something?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I actually hung it up tonight. Would you like to see?”

“I would … definitely … like to see it. Was it clear, pixilated, dark—”

“Come on; I’ll show you. But you should put some pants on, just in case Noah wakes up.” Part of me thinks it would be okay if they met. Finn is a good man.

“I suppose I should.” He looks at me. “I would prefer you stay in that towel, though. I have some making up to do.”

After we grab our clothes, I walk up the stairs, holding his hand.

“You get lost in this place when you were a kid?”

“I sure tried,” I answer, trying to be funny, but the truth really isn’t.

He squeezes my hand, and I look over my shoulder at him. He gets me. He gets me, and I am sure I get him and this … this us thing he talks about: body to body, soul to soul. I want it so badly.

I open the door to my office where the picture is hanging proudly over my old day bed. “That’s us.”

“Sure is.” He walks ahead of me now, pulling me behind him, and sits on the bed, then lies back. “Lie with me. Let me hold you.”

I lie down and my head finds its place on his chest. His heartbeat hastens, and he lets out a deep breath.

“Can I ask you how your chat with your aunt went? About the missing money?”

“Well, you can ask, but I don’t know if you’ll understand the explanation.”

“Try me,” he says, rubbing my back.

“My aunt, well, she’s very critical, and I always felt like I owed her for moving across country for me and Noah. She was one of three people who pushed me to keep him. If she had told me to get an abortion, I probably would have, and Finn, I have never said that out loud. It hurts to even think about him not being here.”

“You did the right thing.”

“I know that now, but back then—”

“You don’t have to explain; just go on,” he says as he rubs my back harder.

“I will always be grateful. But anyway, she constantly talked down about my mother, about how she abandoned me—all of us—and I know it’s true to a point, but she did make sure I was set, that I had a home and money to go to school if I needed. And, well, to make a very long and complicated story short, Margie didn’t leave a lot behind.

“She and my cousins’ father ran a drug and prostitution business. When Mom went away, their contacts and suppliers did, too. Willie James left her and five kids. They came here because they didn’t really have anywhere else to go, and that is okay with me. We are family, but it was hard.

“She made me doubt my parenting ability. She never pushed me to get help, and in my head, I know it was so that she had this place, the money, and I can’t even fault her for that. She was doing what she had to do for her kids. Plus, I had people around me, which is more than I can say for when Mom was here.”

“I’m so sorry it sucks, Sonya, but you have Noah and you also have me now.”

I don’t want him to know what she has done, but I don’t want to hide anything from him anymore.

“Noah was sick, and she did take him to the hospital, but she was sick, too.”

He sits up and takes my hand. “Is she okay?”

“No. No, she isn’t. She’s in a treatment program. She drove Noah to the hospital and barely made it in herself because she was popping pills.”

“She drove with your son in the car when she was fucked up?” he gasps.

“Yes.”

“Thank God he’s okay. Jesus, what the hell was she thinking?! You should press charges. That bitch should—”

“She also took a second mortgage out in my name on the house and drained the household account, and—”

“Please tell me you called the cops.”

“I’ve done a lot of things, but neither of those. I sold some things off and made sure the mortgage was paid for a couple months until I figure out—”

“Do you owe more than it’s worth?”

“On the house?”

He nods.

“No.”

“Why are you staying here? Sell it, take the profit and your son, and come to Jersey.”

“I like it here.”

“Sonya, are you going to let her come back here?”

“I do owe her—”

“Owe her what exactly? Think about this. You don’t owe her shit. You are enabling her. She fucked you, and she could have killed your little boy. My fucking mother blew up a house cooking meth. I could have died if I were in it. Do you want that for Noah?”

“I will never leave him alone with her, not ever again.”

“So, what? Your mind’s made up? You’re gonna hang here, let your aunt and her five kids suck the life out of you, and sell shit on the Internet while staying holed up in a house that you clearly can’t afford but could walk away from with cash to start over instead of starting a new life with Noah?”

“Finn, it’s not that easy.”

“Sonya, life isn’t easy. We all make hard decisions. We try and sometimes fail, but we don’t say fuck it. We push harder.”

I look down as the tears begin to fall.

“Look at me.” He lifts my chin. “You are so smart, talented, beautiful, and your heart is so fucking big and pure it makes me want more. I even like the applause now. I thought about it, what had changed, what made me this way, and I know it was you.”

I can’t stop the flow of tears now. I lean in and hug him around the neck.

“You are not alone anymore. Hell, you have a whole team of misfits with bad attitudes who adore you.” He laughs as he hugs me tighter.

“Not River,” I say through even more tears.

“Who you been talking to?”

“Tally,” I answer and increase my hold on him.

“He’s changed his mind. We made up. He was feeling slighted.” He laughs. “Gotta sit back. I wanna see your face, those amber eyes, and the reaction when I tell you this next part.”

I sit back and wipe the tears away, and he helps me, smiling. God, his smile is so bright, his eyes so clear. Finn is such a beautiful soul. I was so wrong about him. So was she.