He turned back to me. AND WHAT DID SETH SAY?
THEY’RE LOOKING FOR ASHLEY AND HER BROTHER. GOAL IS TO BRING THEM IN FOR QUESTIONING. NEITHER ARE WANTED FOR ANYTHING, BUT HE SAID HE’LL DO HIS BEST TO FIND OUT IF EITHER OF THEM ARE INVOLVED IN THE MESSAGES. FIGURE OUT IF SHE NEEDS HELP AND WHAT WE CAN DO. TRY TO FIND OUT WHAT HER INTENTIONS ARE.
If this was a severe depressive episode or something entirely different.
And fuck, I wanted to help her, but not at the cost of my son.
Not at the cost of losing him to her.
My stomach turned with the possibilities, with the unknowns, and my thoughts drifted back to that guy on the sidewalk in front of A Drop of Hope who’d called me a freak for no reason at all. The letter on my car when I’d come back out.
I tried to focus. To dig through my mind to find if he was familiar in any way. To pinpoint if he might have a reason for this insanity.
Problem was, I was coming up dry.
Unable to sort through the mess.
Unable to make the frayed ends fit.
Dad nodded. OKAY. IF THERE’S ANYTHING WE CAN DO, LET US KNOW.
THANK YOU, I told him, so honestly, so sincerely. Wishing there was a way I could express to him how much I appreciated all he’d done. All the way back to when I was a child to the present. To make amends for letting him down.
But I realized the only thing I could do was never repeat it.
Prove to him what it meant rather than trying to find the words to make it true.
FRANKIE IS STAYING, I added.
I was pretty sure the sound he made was an affectionate scoff, and he gave a slight shake of his head. FIGURED THAT. GUESS IT’S BETTER THAN HER SNEAKING IN THE WINDOW THE WAY SHE USED TO DO.
Affection filled his expression when he looked at her, and Frankie was trying to subdue a guilty laugh, the tiniest bit of lightness breaking into the heaviness. “We were just friends.”
“Liars. Both of you.” Dad pointed between us, grinning soft.
Busted.
Like they didn’t always know.
Felt the movement from above, and I glanced up to find Mom coming down the darkened staircase, wearing a nightgown and her hair twisted up on her head. “Oh, you are here. I thought I heard something.” Worry crested her features. “Are you all okay? I hate that this is happening. I just . . . want some peace for y’all. For this baby.”
She hit the landing and moved directly for Frankie, her arms outstretched. “May I?”
“Of course.” Frankie handed him off to her, though she clearly didn’t want to let him go.
Thought maybe she would stand right in that spot and hold him forever.
Mom pressed a bunch of kisses to Everett’s temple, bouncing him a little when he stirred from sleep. “Did you get anything to eat?” she asked us.
“No, not yet,” I told her.
“There are some leftovers in the fridge. Why don’t you two go heat yourself up a plate, and I’ll take this little guy upstairs. He can hang out with me for a while . . . or spend the night in Grammy’s room, if that works best.”
She angled her head between Frankie and me like she was offering us some privacy. A reprieve.
I couldn’t be more grateful, and still, there was a huge part of me that didn’t want to let him out of my sight.
“That’d be nice, thank you. I’ll probably pop in and get him before we go to sleep.”
“Well, leave him as long as you like. Believe me . . . getting Grammy time is no problem at all.”
I sent her a soft smile, and Dad wrapped his arm around her waist.
Two of them were the picture of devotion.
Dad started to lead them up the staircase, but he hesitated. “I’m glad you two are finally figuring this out. Last few years have been rough on all of us . . . think the thing we need to remember is to be honest with each other. Open. Talk about our pasts and our futures.”
I nodded, and he did, too, before they turned to climb the stairs.
I moved for Frankie. “Are you hungry?”
She ran her hands up her arms. “I should probably eat.”
I set my hand on the small of her back. Figured we both needed the connection. Never close enough.
We headed in the direction of the kitchen, but Frankie surprised me by taking my hand and ducking us into the den off to the left.
Pulling me into the darkened room, she clicked the door shut behind us.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I asked, hands getting slowed in the tension as Frankie rounded around me.
Shadows danced and played and leapt through the oversized room. The drapes that hung over the massive windows that overlooked the backyard were parted a foot, the sheer fabric exposed letting the moon flood the room in a milky glow.
A huge bookcase took up one large wall, floor to ceiling, and two big sofas faced each other in the middle, a pool table toward the back.
That energy banged against the walls.
Two of us bottled in the force of it.
Our connection bounding and shivering.
I JUST NEEDED TO BE ALONE WITH YOU.
Could see the bob of her throat as she swallowed, the moisture clouding her eyes. “Your dad is right—we need to be honest—and I have to be honest right now and tell you how scared I am of losing him. When I saw you runnin’ after her? I knew it. I knew it was her and I was already feeling a crater getting carved out of the middle of me at the thought of having to let him go. I still can’t understand how she could possibly leave him in the first place.”
She’d turned her head a bit in profile, so I had to decipher part of what she was saying, but I got it. Understood it on a level that terrified me, too.
When she turned back to me, helplessness had taken hold of her features.
I started to edge her way. Slowly. The energy shifted as I moved for her. “Unicorn girl.” My fingers reached out to trace the angle of her face. “What did you tell me? One day together is worth a thousand years of pain?”
Her eyes dropped closed. Lingered there. Her mouth forming a quiet, “Yes.”
“Then we fight for every day that we can. We fight for Everett. We fight for us.”
E-V-A-N.
She signed it up close to my body, her fingers flitting out to touch my chest. I grabbed her by them, dragging her arm up and curling it around my neck. I started to edge her deeper into the room.
“Evan,” she said this time, her breath caressing my face.
“We do this together, Frankie. No more walls. No more barriers,” I murmured down at her.
Remorse twisted through her face, and I shook my head to stunt it.
Last thing I wanted was her focusing on the time we’d lost.
We didn’t have time to regret the past when the only thing we had was our future.
“It’s you and me, Frankie Leigh.”
She released a gush of air, and I swallowed it down, took her in a kiss that I poured into her with everything that I had.
I hoisted her up on the edge of the pool table.
Could feel her needy gasp.
Desire a lightning burst that flashed through her body.
I stepped back so I could stare at her sitting there in that skirt and that shirt.
Her brown hair was as wild as it came, mussed and frizzy, kinked up curls that I reached out and grabbed a fistful of. I spread my opposite hand out on her hip and dragged her back to me.
Dick already hard. Lust speeding out of control, the need to get lost in this girl overwhelming.
To forget. To remember.
To touch and take and tease.
I was kissing her again.
Deep and hard and demanding.
Unchecked.
Could taste her moan, and I swallowed it down, taking our kiss deeper. Tongues flicking and our hands losing the little control that we’d had.
She slipped hers under my shirt, palms rushing up my abdomen as she drew it over my head. Need thundered, and I did the same,
ripping the fabric from her body so I could get to what was underneath.
Chills lifted in a flash across her skin, gooseflesh racing.
I dipped down to chase it with my tongue, kissing along the delicate curve of her neck and across her collarbone, dragging all the way down to pull her nipple into my mouth through the lace of her bra.
Nails dug into my shoulders. Sharp pricks of perfect pain as I sucked at the hard as stone peak. “Evan.” Could feel the breath of my name skate across my back.
A shiver of a pledge.
I pushed up the fabric so I could get a better taste, sucking her tight bud into my mouth, swirling with my tongue, loving it when she was fisting my hair in her hands.
I flicked my tongue out to the opposite side while I reached out to unclasp the hook of her bra.
Frankie Leigh arched as I peeled the black lace from her arms.
Begging for more.
“Fucking gorgeous, Frankie Leigh. You have any idea what you look like right now? How sexy you are? Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
I edged back, dragging my fingertip from her lips, running it down the length of her trembling throat to her quivering belly. “What do you need, Frankie Leigh?”
Her hands flew in a rash plea. YOU, EVAN. YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE ONE THING I’VE NEEDED.
My palms slipped up the tops of her thighs, chasing the goosebumps that lifted on her flesh, riding all the way under the fabric of her skirt.
It bunched up around her waist.
I took her by the knees, spreading her, a matching scrap of black lace covering her drenched pussy.
I dragged it down her legs, watching her, the way her entire being convulsed with anticipation.
Second I dropped her panties to the floor, I pushed two fingers inside her heat, her walls clutching in a needy throb.
“Evan. Please. Don’t tease me. I don’t think I can handle it tonight.”
A smirk pulled to my mouth as I pumped my fingers slowly. “You teased me my whole damn life, Frankie Leigh. Think you deserve a little of it, don’t you?”
Knew the words had to be coming off as gruff. Scraping with a demand. Because the truth was, I was just teasing myself.
Cock so damned hard it was painful.
Mind getting swept up in a rush of dizziness.
This lingering disbelief that I was worthy to touch her this way.
“You’re a liar,” she rasped. “I was always the one who was beggin’ you. Chasin’ you. You were the one who kept me waitin’.”
She angled back, planting her hands on the table behind her, spreading herself wider.
An offering.
A gift.
Everything.
“And I don’t want to wait anymore.”
I didn’t hesitate, I nuzzled my head between her thighs, going right for her swollen clit, fingers fucking her hard and fast, driving her straight into oblivion.
Frankie writhed, pressed herself closer, wanting everything I could give.
Thirty seconds later, she busted apart. A shockwave of bliss detonated.
Fracturing.
Splintering.
I led her through her orgasm, kept suckling at that sweet spot, girl panting for air as she tried to come back down.
I kept thrusting my fingers when I edged back. “Don’t get too relaxed, Unicorn Girl. I’m not done with you yet.”
Greed jutted her chest at that, and I pulled her off the pool table and spun her around.
Her hands flew out to steady herself, the girl arching back as I pushed that frilly skirt up over her waist.
Girl bare.
Her slit was perfect. Pink and wet. Her puckered asshole just as sweet.
My cocked twitched, desperate to let go.
Wanted it all. Every inch. Every cell. Every moment. All her heartache and all her joy.
I found her reflection in the huge ornate mirror that sat on the ground with the top rested up high on the wall to our right.
Taking in the whole scene.
The pool table.
Frankie Leigh.
Me.
Us.
Those eyes flashed need.
Surrender.
I smoothed a hand over her bottom. “You wore this just to drive me insane, didn’t you? You knew exactly what it’d do to me, didn’t you?”
She pushed back, begging for my touch, our eyes locked in the reflection. “I told you I was dressin’ for someone special.”
I let my knuckle run the course of her slit.
She was shaking, holding on, her ass in the air as I wound her back up again.
I stepped back so I could flick through the buttons on my jeans, shoved them and my underwear free while I relished in the sight of her shivering with anticipation.
Still was having a hell of a time realizing that this was us. That she was mine. That she was always going to be.
“You are every fantasy I’ve ever had, Unicorn Girl.” I twisted her hair up again, tugging her back an inch, meeting her eye in the mirror. “Did you know that? Look at you.”
I leaned over so I could kiss along the curve of her shoulder, tongue licking out, eyes watching her in the mirror through the shadows.
That energy rushed. Boomed and simmered. Coming to a head.
Like it was getting ready to turn into something brand new.
Her head shook, wild mane flying all over. “I can’t believe it’s even half as good as looking at you. You keep stealin’ my breath, Evan. Same way as you stole my heart the first day I saw you.”
F-R-A-N-K-I-E.
I signed it out against her back.
A brand.
A tattoo.
I LOVE YOU. LOVE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH. NEVER GOING TO LET YOU GO. NOT EVER AGAIN.
I gripped her by the waist, shifting languages, loving that Frankie could hear me in every way.
Our senses tied.
Our spirits bound.
“Tell me you want me as badly as I want you.”
She strained back, pressing her ass against my dick. “Yes. Please. Always. Forever. Any way you want me, I’m yours.”
I slipped a single finger through the cleft of her ass, dipped it into her needy pussy.
Frankie Leigh squirmed, desperate for more.
Body nothing but a plea.
This time, it was me who was groaning when I grabbed myself, pressed the head of my cock to her lips.
I slowly spread her. Nudged in an inch.
Lust clutched my guts, and I took her in one solid thrust.
Frankie jolted forward, nails scraping at the green felt of the pool table, girl bent over this way the most seductive thing I’d ever seen.
Paradise.
This girl was paradise. The feel of her clutching my dick, the constant throb of our bodies as we begged for the other.
Bare.
Frankie was on the pill, and I was clean, and there was no better feeling than zero space between us.
“You are perfect,” I raked out, splaying my hand out to run up the small of her back, riding up her spine as I pressed her chest against the table.
I wound my other hand around to find her clit.
Rubbing her fast.
Fucking her hard.
My attention turned to the mirror.
To the silhouette of us as I rocked my hips, as she fought to meet me thrust for thrust.
The intensity swelled and the energy flashed.
Strikes of lightning.
Thunderbolts of greed.
Devotion tightened my chest and the impending pleasure knotted my guts.
I drove faster and faster, words tumbling from my tongue, “You are my life, Frankie Leigh. I’m going to give you everything.”
“Everything,” she confessed, giving me the same.
Her pants rose into the air. Meshed with mine.
Our hearts racing to meet.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Bodies smacking. Her sweet body getting ready to blow.
Could feel her clamping down on my cock. The friction and the slide.
Took her as deep as I could, until her mouth was dropped open, riding a fine line of pain and pleasure.
Felt it the second she shattered.
Splintering into a million pieces.
Her body an earthquake.
She throbbed and pulsed and it set me off.
That ball of greed fracturing out.
Broken.
Coming together.
Two of us one.
And it shouldn’t be possible, but after today? After the highs and the lows? I didn’t think we had ever been so close.
I stayed there bent over her, holding her in my arms as our chests heaved and our pulses thundered.
As our spirits swam.
I inhaled a tight, ragged breath, pushed back the mess of her hair with my nose so I could nuzzle against her cheek, both my hands winding around to hold her by the chest. My mouth moved to her ear. “Want to marry you, Frankie Leigh. Want to build a home. Want to be with you like this every day.”
She twisted her face around so she could look at me, hooked her arm back to wrap around my neck. “I am yours.”
I knocked lightly on my parents’ bedroom door. Sure my hair was a disaster and I smelled like sex, but I didn’t care. Couldn’t wait for their call, so I carefully cracked open the door and peeked inside.
Mom was sitting up against the headboard, her readers perched on her nose, reading a book. Dad was passed out with a sleeping Everett draped across his chest, his hand protectively set on his back.
Emotion surged.
Thick and overwhelming.
Mom took off her glasses and smiled, gesturing for me to enter. “Hey.” Could tell she was whispering.
“Hi.” I kept mine the same as I crept inside. “He’s out, huh?”
“He never even stirred.” She turned her gaze on Dad and Everett before she turned the weight of it on me. “That’s one beautiful sight, isn’t it?”
My smile was almost wistful. “Yeah. Never thought I’d get to witness a sight like that. Never thought I’d get to have it.” I eased down to sit on the edge of her bed.
Mom reached out and touched my cheek. “I’m so glad you have this chance.”
I cut my gaze over to Everett before I returned it to her. “I get it now, Mom, how you always told me I was perfect to you, no matter my disabilities. Don’t think I ever really believed it before. Thought it was something you and Dad told me to make me feel better. But I get it. It doesn’t matter how this turns out, I will love him the same.”
Hold on to Hope Page 26
