by Zoe Dawson
People just didn’t realize that I actually did have a little bad girl in me. Well, at least when it came to Boone Outlaw. There had only been one other time that Boone and I had been this close. I would have expected to feel nothing but disgust and revulsion this time. But the total opposite happened.
“Well, seems your business is somehow connected to me.” His voice was hard and accusatory.
Anger and agony coiled in my gut. I wanted to push him away, my mind told me get away from him and get out of this situation. It was too volatile. But I did nothing. I didn’t even want to touch his chest to push him away. Put my hand on all that hard muscled skin and the heat of him. Just the thought almost made my knees buckle.
His scent was all sexy, wet male. Dark and forbidden.
And, just like that, the bastard, he made me remember everything I was trying to forget. My whole body just lit up like I had somehow spontaneously combusted.
His eyes roved over my face, then focused on my eyes. Electric blue. Oh man, so blue.
“He totally snowed you,” he said,
“What?” I said, losing my place for a moment.
He shook his head, which made the smell of him intensify. “Your parents aren’t going to The Gardens tonight. I overheard your daddy saying he and your mother were going to be busy at the hospital.”
My words were barely a whisper, my breath so backed up in my throat. “Maybe he didn’t know my daddy would get too busy to go.”
He got close. Closer than was considered appropriate in the South. But I had a feeling Boone Outlaw had never attended Miss Amelia’s etiquette classes. And wouldn’t have given a damn if he had. He captured my gaze, his mouth softening, and my pulse jumped like hot oil on a skillet. His stormy eyes roamed my face and settled on my mouth, honed in on it. My lips tingled and I licked them nervously. He watched the progression of my tongue.
I couldn’t seem to breathe.
“And maybe he’s as big a liar as you are, Verity,” he said low and dangerous.
The anger in me ignited, mixing and mingling with my unwanted desire for Boone Outlaw. My arm moved and it was a reflex. I didn’t mean to do it. I slapped him so hard the blow vibrated up my arm and my palm stung.
He didn’t even flinch. Was he goading me? Damn him.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, there was something there I didn’t want to identify. He smirked. He was such a bastard.
“Does that make you feel better?” he taunted, crowding me. Placing his mouth close to my ear, he rasped, sending tingles into my bloodstream to whirl and agitate. “We’re in a church, so maybe I should turn the other cheek so you can slap that one, too, but no amount of pounding on me is going to change the fact that you are a liar.” He whispered the last word like a sweet nothing.
I shoved him, and I was well aware that he allowed it. “Get out!” I shouted. The pain, the agony of the past year coalesced in my gut.
He backed up towards the table and snatched up his tablet. “See you around, darlin’. I’ll be here every day in case you wanna…confess.” He spun around and walked out of the kitchen, slamming the door on his way out.
I leaned against the counter and squeezed my eyes shut tight as the tears threatened again. I clutched at my stomach as it roiled with a sick, terrible feeling.
What Boone had said was true.
I was a liar. With my words and my actions and by omission.
But I would be damned if I let the secret I held way down inside me, boiling with all that misery and heartache, free rein.
It would destroy me all over again.
Chapter Two
Boone
Fuck this town!
Fuck this fucking job!
Fuck Verity Fairchild!
Fuck her. Fuck her. Fuck her.
That was the damn problem now, wasn’t it?
Holy Mary Verity, who had been off limits in high school, and then disappeared right after graduation, was my fantasy fuck.
That was only half the equation if I was being honest with myself. The other half, I laughed without humor, was I had always wanted to get to know her. Just hang out and talk, you know? Verity was different from other girls, mostly because of the way she looked back at me. There was this quality about her that said my reputation meant nothing to her. I often wondered if that was my imagination, that I wanted her to feel that way because it made me feel better about myself.
She was smart and always had her hand up in class. Had always been prepared and organized. I wanted to muss her up half the time. Make her lose her focus. The other half, I wanted to touch her hair, breathe in her scent.
Yeah, major crush on Verity.
But the first and last time I mentioned her name to my brothers, they laughed like I must be joking about being interested in the preacher’s daughter. Secretly, I hated my last name and link to Duel Outlaw and all the other Outlaws that had come after him, including my daddy. I hated him the most. He and all of them had sullied our name and ground it deep into the bayou mud. They made me agree that she was off limits for all of us. I agreed, because back then I did recognize that mussing her up was forbidden.
Forbidden still. My dick was hard after our little tussle in the kitchen. My cheek still stung from her hand. I punched the side of my truck, relishing the pain radiating up my arm and into my shoulder. The rain was still coming down, but I didn’t give a shit.
Geezus! She was gorgeous when she was pissed. I had to admit that I had pretty much believed she was a little pushover.
My cheek said something different. Why she was lying to me gnawed at my gut to go with the unsettled feeling constricting my chest. How could I have done anything to her? I barely knew her.
She had been totally off-limits to the guy I had been in high school, even before my brothers made me promise. I’d tried to stop thinking about her, but she was in most of my classes and she always seemed to be there, but just out of reach. There was always that one girl. Just like Aubree for Booker and River Pearl for Brax, although he would never admit it. Verity was mine.
I wasn’t that guy anymore. And I was working for her daddy. I didn’t want to look at why I had decided the church really needed a good overhaul. It might have been about the time that Verity came back home. But like Brax, I wouldn’t ever admit that.
Fuck.
But before I could even approach her, even that first night she’d shown up at Outlaw’s, she’d been giving me a wide berth and the stink eye. I never even got a chance to get near her.
Originally, I thought my reputation didn’t mean anything to her, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe she had bought into all the shit that was always flying around about us. It didn’t help that Booker and Aubree Walker had almost been killed by Daniel Langston only three weeks ago, the gossip still thick and ugly. Why couldn’t I get used to being judged for my family history instead of who I was? I’d lived in this town my whole life. Most people still treated me like I had 666 tattooed on my ass and any minute my head was going to start spinning around.
And on top of everything else, I’d never liked Billy Joe Freeman, and I liked him even less now. I didn’t like the way he looked at Verity. It made me want to punch his self-righteous face. He had flat-out lied to her just so he could coerce her into dinner. And she’d defended him. Well, maybe they deserved each other.
The two fucking liars.
I opened the truck door, tossed the tablet onto the passenger seat and climbed inside.
I took a shuddering breath and my hands clamped around the wheel.
Lace bra.
She had on a lace bra beneath her wet shirt. The elusive design outlined against the white tank top was unmistakable.
Black lace.
On the preacher’s daughter.
Verity Fairchild liked black lace.
And I liked black lace on Verity Fairchild.
It would be so good to take it off her.
Fuck me.
I wanted to trail my finger along the f
ine material, everywhere it covered her full breasts, pull down those cups and take what was purely feminine beneath into my mouth. I wondered how she would react. Would she close her eyes? Would she make a sound in her throat? That purely ball-tightening, carnal sound a woman made when a man touched her with the wet suction of his mouth.
Fuck. I’d always had thoughts like this about Verity. I just never let them have their way with me.
Now I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wondered how her mouth would taste if I took it hard and fast like I wanted to when she was spitting fire. I’d been tempted, and that right there should have made me back off.
But now I couldn’t. She was the one who’d crossed the line, and there was no going back until I found out why.
I couldn’t work today because of the rain, and I was much too angry and agitated and turned on to stay here. If the rain stopped, I would come back later. But I had a paying job over in Lafayette waiting for me. I drove there and met with a lady who had the dream of an English garden. She loved my sketches and ideas. After promising to get something solid to her next week, I drove back to Suttontowne, and by this time it was after lunch.
I stopped at Outlaw’s and went in, waving to Marcy at the bar. It was packed as usual. As I headed to the kitchen, she waylaid me.
“Hey, Boone. I didn’t expect to see you here so early. I was wondering if you wanted to hook up after closing tonight.”
Verity’s slap and dark, accusing eyes made me shift. I needed some easy and temporary comfort. Marcy had been trying to get into my jeans for a while. I smiled at her. “Darlin’, you’re on.”
“Great.” She smiled with pleasure and I moved on into the kitchen. Once I got a good whiff of what Brax was cooking, my stomach grumbled loudly.
The kitchen was a bustle of activity and my brother was in the middle of it. He was standing near the back door, talking to Chase Sutton, brother of River Pearl Sutton. River Pearl was best friends with Aubree Walker and Verity. Chase had a cooler in his hands and Brax was giving him cash. Once he took the container, he walked to a counter in the kitchen and set it down. I waved to Chase as he left.
He turned to go back to the stove and saw me. “Hey, Boonie. Where you at?”
“It was raining, so I couldn’t do the job at the church. Met with a client in Lafayette instead.”
“Why the fuck you volunteered your time at the church stumps the hell out of me. Most people in this town think we’re the trifecta of evil. You trying to polish up our rep?”
“No. I just noticed that they could use a spruce-up, and we get a lot of people visiting for the Founders Day Festival. It’s good publicity for me.”
Brax shook his head. “All I know is you’re doing a lot of moping lately. It coincides with you beginning that project. Any correlation?”
Damn, he was an observant bastard.
“Why would there be?”
Brax shrugged, and his knowing blue eyes, just like mine, pinned me. “You tell me.”
“Nothing to tell.”
He gave me a skeptical look, but let it go. “You hungry?”
“Starving. What you got?”
“Jambalaya.”
Brax removed the lid of the pot on the stove and dished out a thick stew filled with Andouille sausage, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and vegetables. He handed me the bowl and a hunk of cornbread.
I dug in and closed my eyes. Geezus, my brother could cook. Even though he had no formal training, he could easily out-cook any fancy chef anywhere. “Brax, this is good.”
“Damn right it is,” he said as he opened the container from Chase.
Confidence had never been my brother’s problem.
Me, on the other hand….
“What was Chase Sutton doing here?”
“Delivering fresh seafood. I have a standing order with him for oysters, crayfish, frog legs, and such.”
“Weird the way he went off the deep end and disappeared into the bayou. I wonder what it takes to make someone bolt like that.”
“Why don’t you ask our daddy?”
“The law was after Daddy, so that doesn’t really count. I wondered about Chase when it happened. He always seemed to have his shit together.”
“Everyone handles pressure differently. His daddy likes to keep a tight fist on all his children.” He gave me a sidelong glance as I shoveled the stew into my mouth, his eyes assessing.
He huffed, then sighed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Why are you asking me that?”
“Because, Boonie, you’re Mr. Sunshine, and I don’t see no sunshine today.”
“It’s raining.”
“Ha fucking ha. You crack me up. You should take that on the road. We’ve already been through the Booker and Aubree mess. Really, Boonie, don’t put me through more of that shit.”
“Then why the fuck did you ask?” I snapped and set the bowl into the sink a little too hard.
“Because you’ve got complicated girl vibes messing with my triplet radar.”
I turned to stalk out of the kitchen. He grabbed my arm and shoved me back. “Geezus you are on edge today.” He set his hands on his hips and sighed like he’d rather be asking me anything else. He wasn’t big on talking about our feelings, but I knew he cared. “Spill, huckleberry.”
I tightened my lips. Talking about Verity with Braxton wouldn’t serve any purpose except to just piss me off more. I knew exactly what he would say. That she wasn’t the type of girl Outlaws could expect to snag. And if I wanted to get down and dirty, then I should look elsewhere.
Dammit. For the whole year she’d been gone I thought I might have gotten over this infatuation I had for her, this curiosity, but apparently not. I still remembered the graduation party when she’d walked in with Stacy Chambers. Stacy was a party girl and Verity wasn’t. I had to wonder if Verity had decided to cut loose that night. As far as I knew, Verity and Stacy weren’t exactly friends and most definitely didn’t run in the same circles.
Of course I’d been drinking, which was nothing unusual. But when she sat down next to me I could smell her clean, fresh girl scent. I had gotten this hollow feeling in my chest. She was close to me as she conversed with Stacy in soft tones, her voice just as sweet as her disposition.
Craving.
Not many people understand what it is to crave like that.
It ties you up in knots, twists you into a pretzel and makes your gut hurt so bad that you trip over your words and stutter like a fool. You get distracted and turned on and don’t know what to do with your hands. All you can think is you want to put them everywhere, touch and feel until all that sweetness seeps inside you and changes that painful longing into one of blissful satisfaction.
That’s when I had proceeded to drink myself into a coma, trying to drown that damn longing. Passed out in the bed of my truck and woke up the next day stark naked.
Brax crowded me against the sink. “Boone. You think I don’t know when there’s something wrong with you? I feel it like an itch I can’t scratch. It’s the curse of us triplets. So, I’m in your business and you’ll probably be in mine for the rest of our lives. Booker’s brother senses are probably tingling right now, too. The guy’s a fucking do-gooder.”
I cracked a smile. I couldn’t help it. Braxton was the most sarcastic son of a bitch.
“I just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. That’s it.”
“All right,” he backed up. “I’m not going to get all Oprah on you if you don’t want to talk.”
“Oprah ain’t got nothing on you.”
“Whatever. Get outta my kitchen. I got work to do. Go use your Boone Swoon on Marcy.”
I laughed. “Ha. Boone Swoon. I haven’t heard that since high school.”
“Yeah, if I remember correctly. When you flashed that grin and your baby blues, you had all girls swooning. You still got it, huckleberry. Go get laid.”
“That’s your answer to everything.”
He spread his arm
s and gave me a cheeky grin. “I’m an uncomplicated guy. Sex, food, music. I’m good.”
As soon as I stepped out of the kitchen door, my cell rang and I pulled it out of my back pocket.
Booker.
Shit, Brax wasn’t off the mark at all. I pushed ignore. There was no way I could talk to Booker right now. If his tripdar was acting up, I’d just wait until he was back in town from his trip with Aubree to New Orleans to settle when he would move there and where they’d live while she was in school.
Can’t say I was thrilled to have him two hours away. But things were changing and we were growing up. It was inevitable that we would go our separate ways eventually. But I knew that I would still have daily contact with my brothers, no matter where they were. That’s just the way it was.
I wandered out into the bar area. I really didn’t want to go back to the church. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to face Verity. I did, but that girl had something powerful going on and it had something to do with me. I knew it.
She didn’t want to talk about it. That was clear.
I didn’t give a damn. I was going to get it out of her.
Why?
She was driving me crazy with the way she was staring at me. All the time.
I could feel it when I was sketching and taking pictures at the church.
I gnawed on my bottom lip and slipped my fingers into the loops of my jeans. Why the hell was Verity so mad at me? I wasn’t going to be able to rest until I found out. And what was that slap all about? It seemed so out of character.
But maybe my perception of Verity needing updating.
Marcy smiled at me again. She was pretty and sweet. But Verity’s snapping brown eyes, like warm cinnamon, and her beautiful, long dark hair, intruded. It had come over me slowly, but by my junior year, there hadn’t been a day when I hadn’t thought about wrapping all of that gorgeous hair around my fist and pulling her head back to get to her creamy throat. I wanted to kiss the hollow of it, run my mouth against her collarbone, taste her skin.
