by Zoe Dawson
I was quite exhausted with my anger. It burned painfully in my abdomen. And besides the anger, Boone could be really exasperating, and I was never quite sure how to handle him. He was going to be here every day. But I would find things to get me away from the rectory, so I could avoid him whenever possible. River Pearl, Aubree…when she got back from New Orleans…and I had plans to do a bunch of stuff for the rest of the summer.
I felt a bit like a betrayer for not confiding in my friends. Over the course of the year, they had seemed so far away and inaccessible, but since we’d been back, it was as if our bond had strengthened. All of us were involved with the Outlaws. Me with Boone, and I knew she wanted Brax. Aubree? She was head over heels in love with Booker. Her journey through all that had happened to her had definitely changed her for the better. She was way less judgmental.
But what to do about Boone? I would have to talk to my friends about that night.
My original Boone plan had been to hide and evade. It was the middle of June, and I only had the rest of this month and two more to get through before I could move on to the next step in my plan. It was just a matter of time.
The next step involved talking to my daddy, and I knew that wasn’t going to be easy, especially since Ethan had left after a blowout with him. I was in daily contact with my brother. As much as the military allowed, anyway. He was my one and only support in this family unit. I loved my momma, and she was a calm in the storm, but she often sided with my daddy on family matters. There have been several times when I so desperately wanted to confide in her, but the shame always held me back. So I had endured it all alone. Made my decisions by myself, and was now trying to live with them. Ethan didn’t know about what had happened. Only God and I knew the whole story, but my brother did know I was struggling with personal stressors and the situation with our daddy.
He knew my plans for the future, though, and he enthusiastically supported them. Ethan was coming home. Daddy didn’t know, because they were estranged, but I couldn’t wait to see my brother. It would be so wonderful. We were and had always been close. The rift he’d caused when he’d refused to go to seminary and follow in my daddy’s footsteps had changed my daddy.
That’s why I had to be somewhat careful about how I dealt with the whole Billy Joe Freeman thing.
But what about Boone? How much did I want to tell him? Now that I knew he didn’t remember and he wasn’t a bastard, I felt compelled to talk to him.
Had Boone slept with Marcy what’s-her-name?
Crap! I was trying not to think about that.
I was such a hypocrite. I had distinctly told Boone to mind his own business. So I really couldn’t get into his. Even if he had slept with her, it was really none of my business. The fact that I couldn’t seem to help my jealousy spoke volumes. She had the luxury of touching him, kissing him…damn this was getting me more jealous and angry at myself and the circumstances.
I was looking at him right now and the external package was damned sexy, damned distracting, but who was Boone as a person? I lost sight of him and sighed. It was time I got over to the rectory anyway. I had promised our day-care center manager, Lindsay, I would help with the kids today.
When I emerged from my bedroom, I heard someone knocking. I walked over and pulled the door open, and found Boone standing there with some large square boards in his hands. His blue eyes locked onto mine, and, for a moment, I couldn’t take a breath.
Damn, I wished he wouldn’t do that.
“Verity. You did a really nice job of opening that door. Gold star.” There was some anger in him today, but something else that immediately made me wary, a bad boy vibe that kept making my heart skip a beat.
He smirked, and my own anger or was that my jealousy lost its dull edge and cut me. “I’d be even better at slamming it in your face.”
“Verity!”
I flinched at my daddy’s outraged tone and it was totally rude. I shouldn’t be acting out my jealous behavior on Boone. “Don’t speak to Boone in that manner, young lady.”
Boone smirked at getting me into trouble and I felt like I was still in high school.
I looked him in the eye and mouthed. Jerk.
He inclined his head and laughed. Which wasn’t exactly the reaction I expected.
“Invite him in and ask him if he’d like some refreshment.”
I stepped aside with a wide, inviting gesture. “Oh, please do come in, Mr. Outlaw,” I said. As he tried to move past me, I stuck out my foot and tripped him so he staggered and almost dropped the boards. “Oh, dear, gotta watch that first step. Would you like something to refresh you?”
He cut me a look of such pure, unadulterated amusement all mixed up with a bad boy overtone, I couldn’t help the way my stomach flipped over. And, okay, I smirked.
Did he always have to look so damned gorgeous?!
“I can have anything I want,” he whispered as my daddy’s cell chimed.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Sure, Boone, if you want to be crippled for life.”
“Ooh, ouch, darlin’.”
“What do you want to drink? I don’t have all day,” I hissed.
He rubbed at his temple and I noticed that his blue eyes looked a bit glassy. Looked like Boone was still either drinking or doing drugs. Maybe he hadn’t changed. I felt sad about that.
“Water is fine.”
I stomped into the kitchen and got him a bottle of water, muttering under my breath, “I hope you choke on it.” But when I came back out into the living room, they were in the dining room and the boards Boone had been carrying were on the table between them. I headed there to drop off the bottle and then get out of Boone’s presence.
But my gaze snagged on his drawings. Holy cow! They were amazing. He’d transformed the church and rectory. The display was tasteful and well thought out, exactly perfect, not only for the Founders Day Festival, but for every aspect of the church grounds. Boone hadn’t skimped on a thing.
I couldn’t image how much money he’d roped my daddy into paying for all these changes.
“I was thinking that I could build something nice for where you hold the socials. I have two choices for you. Of course, it would serve for the Founder’s Day festivities.” He searched the stack of boards and pulled out a couple. “Here’s the sketch for a pergola…and one for a gazebo.”
“The gazebo,” I blurted. “It would be so pretty lit up at Christmas, and the perfect spot to place the nativity,” I said, my voice filled with enthusiasm. “It’s really quite beautiful.”
Both of them turned to look at me. My daddy smiled.
“Well. I guess that’s settled. I’m going to assign Verity to you, Boone, as the liaison for the gazebo. You have him construct it to your specifications, honey.”
Boone’s eyes suffused with pleasure and a genuine smile lit up his face. Okay, now I was trapped in what everyone at high school used to call it when Boone dropped one of those patented Outlaw smiles on a girl—The Boone Swoon. I was swooning and my heart leapt.
When I realized I was gazing into his eyes with a totally loopy look on my face, I thrust the bottle at him. He took it but didn’t drink.
“Well, Boone,” my daddy boomed happily, “these plans are magnificent. I approve everything. Are you sure I can’t pay you something for your trouble and expense?”
Wait. Did my daddy just say that Boone was donating all this? What? I thought…I kinda was ashamed for jumping to the conclusion that he had roped my daddy into this. What else didn’t I know about Boone? What else had I gotten wrong?
“No, sir. I wanted to make a contribution to the community, and I’m happy to handle everything. I do have one more suggestion. I noticed last Sunday that you are stuck using rickety tables that you have to spend all this time setting up each week and then breaking down. I would suggest picnic tables instead. The kind that would be permanent and not need any extra maintenance. They have this cool product that is impervious to weather and insects. I think that would b
e the best choice here.”
“An excellent solution! That will save us a lot of time.”
“Also, the last suggestion I have for you is the built-in barbeque.”
“Oh, you won’t have to push too hard for that,” I said. “My daddy loves to barbeque. He’s got this cool apron, plus the utensils and the determination.”
My daddy chuckled. “I shore do. Okay, well, I’ve got to get going. Verity, you stay here and work all this out with Boone.”
“But…Daddy….”
“I need you to help out, honey. Summer isn’t just for playing. Work has to be done.”
“But I have to help out….” I bit out. There went my damned escape route. He frowned. My daddy didn’t take any sass from me, even if it was in explanation. It was frustrating.
“That can wait for a little bit. Boone can’t spend months here on charity work. He’s a businessman, so let’s get him situated and help him on his way.”
Okay, so every cloud did have a silver lining. The faster Boone completed this project, the faster he’d be gone. “Yes, sir.”
Daddy left and I was stuck there with Boone and his amazing plans.
He twisted the cap off the bottle and tipped it to his lips. He drank it down in one long swallow, his strong throat working. He looked like he was dying of thirst.
He winced and rubbed at his temple again.
“You know. It’s probably a good idea not to party on a week night when you have to work the next day. Coming to work stoned isn’t a good idea.”
His eyes hardened. “I didn’t party last night and I’m not stoned. What I do at night is really my fucking business.”
“I was making an observation.”
He snorted. “Right. Based on my reputation in high school. Nothing really does change in this town.”
Was I wrong about this too? His eyes did look glassy, though, and I figured he wouldn’t admit he was using drugs, anyway. I let it go.
“Look, I’m supposed to be helping at the day-care center today, so could we move this along?”
He gathered up his boards.
When he rubbed at his temple again, I sighed. “Do you have a headache?”
“Yes,” he said
“Did you take anything for it?”
“No. Forgot.”
Typical dumb male.
“Wait here,” I huffed as I went into the bathroom and searched in the medicine chest for something for his headache. As I closed the cabinet, I saw Boone’s tight face reflected in the glass. My heart jumped and I whirled around. There was definitely not enough space in this small bathroom to handle all of Boone Outlaw.
I didn’t think there was an auditorium big enough.
His eyes looked even glassier, and they had lost that smirky mischief sparkle.
“Now I know why you’re mad at me, Verity, and I’m glad it’s in the open so we can talk about it.”
My stomach jumped this time, and I stood there like an idiot holding the medicine bottle.
He crowded me against the sink, and for the second time in two days, I found myself cornered by the one man in this parish who tied me up into knots.
“Boone…”
“Go out with me.”
I blinked, my heart and mind simply suspended. After what I accused him of, how could he even want to be around me? “You’re asking me out?”
“Yes, how else will you get to know who I am if you don’t spend time with me? I’m not that person any…”
I covered his mouth with my fingers. “Stop. I don’t know what to believe, but you shouldn’t have to defend yourself against me. After what I said, how could you even consider it?”
He leaned in, and I couldn’t seem to make myself back away from him. He held my eyes in a gaze that just wouldn’t let me go. Intense, hot, and I felt the sizzle shimmer over me like the blast of a heated June wind.
He set his hands on the sink, his body way too close to mine. Memories that I wanted to forget made my body soften and my heart pound.
I looked at his mouth, and my fingers moved of their own violation, finding his lips so soft. I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I knew what it was like to kiss Boone. One of the problems was that I couldn’t forget.
I remembered how soft his lips were. I remembered how my whole body had gone up in flames. His gentle touch, his masterful kiss that took me down a path fraught with so much danger. I didn’t understand then what I was doing. Why I was so out of control. It was so not like me, and yet it had been freeing, had felt fantastic. The first and last man I had kissed ever in my life.
He took a quick breath, his eyes going hotter, an incandescent blue. I hated myself for remembering and for yearning for his mouth again. After everything he’d put me through. But I was having doubts about my opinion of Boone Outlaw. I was ashamed of the neat and villainous box I had put him in without even talking to him. That was immature and I was nineteen years old. My innocence had been lost and the struggle to accept reality had almost done me in. I hated to admit that the rumors had influenced my opinion of him. I had been naïve in high school. I had been a complete fool, in fact. I had paid the price.
He closed his eyes, like he was trying to gather his composure, and the angles and planes of his face were as fascinating to me as the patterns and lines of my designs.
Oh, God, his mouth was killing me, and because I had lost my innocence, I was quite aware that he had wanted to kiss me yesterday. Without even realizing I was going to do it, I replaced my fingers with just a brief touch of my mouth.
His eyes flashed open and I held his gaze for what felt like forever. I could feel the power of his character in that gaze, even while I could read nothing of his thoughts. I gasped and started to draw back, but he cupped the back of my neck and pulled my mouth against his with a soft groan, while bringing his body into contact with mine.
I had dreamed about this when the problems of the past year had been too unbearable. Dreamed of the time when I had been free to kiss Boone Outlaw. The man’s mouth made me want and want, and instead of the relief I expected to feel, my hunger increased. His bottom lip was so sensual, so full, that I couldn’t help using the tip of my tongue to savor the taste and feel of him. His parted lips were irresistible as he groaned again at the slide of my tongue.
His chest heaved against mine, the thin t-shirt no barrier against the heat of his broad chest. He pressed against my breasts, and they ached something fierce, my nipples tight, tingling knots. Both of us were panting, and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him again. His fingers were so gentle on the back of my neck. When I opened my mouth to taste him, the kiss just got deeper and I lost myself more.
Not rough, not forceful, but hot. Burning hot. Warm, moist lips meeting mine, still open and inviting, offering. He slipped his tongue inside, tracing slowly around the inner edge of my lips, then, probing, exploring. I tried to catch my breath, but he kept stealing it every time his mouth moved over mine.
The heat flowed down over me, followed by Boone’s hands. He ran them over my back, chasing shivers, setting off new ones, sliding lower. Desire swelled inside me, pushing aside sanity, blazing a trail for more instinctive responses. I arched against him, losing myself in this forbidden kiss, in this forbidden moment.
I gave in, I had to. The compulsion was a burning need that I couldn’t resist. His skin was hot when I touched him, slid my palm over his skin. I trailed my hand up his arm, over the thick ridge of his biceps, smooth and hard. Boone had certainly filled out. He’d been well built in high school, but now he was so much thicker through the chest, his arms hard, unyielding muscle covered in satin.
When his arm slipped around my lower back and he pulled me roughly against him, I grabbed on to the solid support of his shoulder. He deepened the kiss, taking me under as I finally reached his neck and trailed my fingers over the smooth, then rough, scratchy part where his beard met his neck. Into his hair, the midnight silk sliding between my fingers as I tried
to breathe around the tactile stimulation of all the textures Boone had to offer.
I molded my palms over the curve of his head and slanted my mouth across his as needs took over with a burning edge. I had been so alone. So heartsick. His knuckles skimmed over the taut muscles of my back, skating along the side of my rib cage.
“Verity.” My name was a whisper of sound, full of pleasure vibrating against my lips. I felt as if I was tumbling through space, dizzy, hanging on tight to my only anchor.
“Verity?”
Even though it was my momma calling me, it took a moment for it to register.
I broke away from Boone, and he stepped back just in time. I gripped the bottle so hard my knuckles whitened. My momma appeared in the doorway.
“Boone?”
“He has a headache,” I said, as casually as if Boone hadn’t been sucking me into a sensual vortex only seconds before. I obviously had perfected my lying skills.
“Oh, that’s too bad. Well get him a couple of those tablets and some water,” she said. “Are those your sketches on the table in the dining room?” she asked.
Boone nodded.
“Oooh, can I take a peek?”
“Of course.”
“He’s going to build a gazebo,” I said, and watched my momma’s face brighten.
“Oh, that sounds wonderful. Think about how beautiful it will be at Christmas.”
I nodded as she turned and left.
Boone leaned back against the wall. He really didn’t look good. Then he turned his head to stare at me. “You are about to kill me, Verity Fairchild. What the fuck was that kiss about?”
I walked past him and said softly, “Research.” The more information I could gather about Boone, the more I would know what to do about him and the secrets I carried.
His quick intake of breath gave me a lot of satisfaction. This time I’d been the one to surprise the hell out of him. That hopefully tarnished up my preacher girl façade.
