Under Locke

by Mariana Zapata

Holy shit. I was in love with The Dick.

I respect you, babe. Not just because you break my goddamn heart every single fuckin' time I see you smile but because..." He blew out a long breath of air from his lips, blinking blue eyes again and again and again. "I just do. You got me?"

Those familiar fingers, tipped in black ink, threaded through mine

I was that jealous bitch.

“You get me hard as a fuckin’ rock, honey.

"The thought of you...you with...holy fuck, I can't...I can't say it." Dex was jealous? Jealous?

“Nothin’ happened with her that night you’re thinkin’ about, babe. Or any other night since you walked into my shop with your sorority girl clothes.”

He squeezed me to him, tight. “But you don’t gotta worry about anything. There’s only a few things I’ve ever given a shit about. Everything else...is seasonal, as Ma would say.” He pressed his mouth to my temple, whispering, “Then there’s you.”

I just sat there watching him with a huge, stupid smile on my face. What else would I want to look at?

“You’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, you know that?”

“I’ll get one of the guys to bring you some Advil,” Dex whispered, kissing my jaw with a tenderness he so rarely possessed.

No sooner had he slipped into the driver seat than he was fishing my hand off my lap and pulling it onto his, linking our fingers together.

“Never wanted anything the way I want you,” he groaned into my skin. “Feels like I’m gonna die if I don’t have your hot little pussy wrapped around my cock, baby.”

"You've gotta be the best thing I never knew I wanted."

I flashed him smiles every time I got to a different body part, smiles he returned to me genuinely.

Dex pressed his cheek to my forehead. “That's my girl.” His voice was a quiver.

Those brilliant blue eyes locked on mine. He breathed, “I don’t know what the fuck I’d do if somethin’ happened to you.” Dex squeezed my kneecaps. "Scared the livin’ shit outta me, and I’m gonna make sure your pa knows what that feels like."

He tipped his head to touch his lips to mine. “I’ll never let anything happen to you,” he murmured as his thumb brushed over my cheekbone.

He'd ground his stiff erection against my butt in a slow circle.

“You can’t expect to care about somebody that hasn’t cared about you, babe. It’s only natural.

"Everyone takes things for granted, little things, big things—everything."

Lock that sweet girl down before you regret that shit.

"You're one of the best people I know."

His free hand went up to smooth over the top of my head. "C'mon, lazy bones." There's no doubt in my mind I resembled an adoring puppy on the walk to our room.

"I want this shit over with...Yeah...I wanna go back home, and she's comin' with me. How fuckin' hard is that for you to understand? She's mine, my brother, and I don't give a single fuck if you're mad about it or not. It is what it is and you gotta remember how well you know me....You think I'd be here if I didn't?"

I know for a fact at the end, Sonny said “do you love her?” And Dex replied with “you think I’d be here if I didn’t?”

"But you," his nostrils flared, "my sweet, sweet baby, have gotta be my favorite by far. I think you win first through one-hundredth place."

Tattoos were Dex. My friend. My protector.

If I had a baby, a little tiny boy or girl that had grown up in my arms, there was no way I could ever leave them willingly.

Everything in me that had been crushed and stomped on by my father's careless words and stupid actions, regenerated itself with Dex's touch and words.

He lowered his mouth right next to my ear, his teeth nipping at my lobe before he whispered, "Love you." The feeling that swamped me was indescribable.

"I love you, Ritz."

"Love your fuckin' face, your that's what she said jokes, your dorky ass high-fives and your arm, but I really fuckin' love how much of a little shit you are. You got nuts bigger than your brother, baby."

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of completion that these two caveman-esque idiots were mine. My proud, loyal morons.

When he palmed my cheeks and kissed each of my cheeks and nose and forehead, slowly like he was savoring the pecks and the contact, I ate it all up. Like always, and just like I always would. "Fuckin' love you," he breathed against my ear, an arm slinking around my lower back to press us together. "More than anything."