“There’s nothin’ to settle.”
“The hell there ain’t.”
She clucked her tongue and looked away. It was a few seconds before she spoke again. “I get it. You just don’t want me anymore.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” The woman was out of her everloving mind.
She turned her head back toward him briefly, and that was when he spotted the fear and vulnerability in her pretty eyes. Bethann was never vulnerable, never scared of anything or anyone. She’d take on the devil himself without blinking an eye, but something had her spoiling for a fight. Something had her scared.
“You don’t want me anymore, Tommy. I see it. You work all the time or go out with the boys. You look at the sheriff’s daughter like she’s dinner and you’re a starvin’ man, even though she’s more’n ten years younger than you.”
He was dumbfounded. “I don’t know where in Sam Hill you got the idea I don’t want you. I love you, Bethann. Always have. I don’t get why you seem to doubt me now.”
“Then why are you never around?”
The crazy gene, the one Southerners talk about having in their families, must have skipped a few generations and caught up with Bethann. He just couldn’t wrap his head around why she was acting so damn foolheaded. “I ain’t been gone any more this week than I’ve been gone any other week. Damn, woman. I play poker once a week. I bowl once a week. And I play ball on the weekends. I’ve always done that. You know I’ve always done that. So don’t be givin’ me shit about not bein’ home.” He took a deep breath. “As for the way I look at what’s-her-name? If you were to see the way I look at you when you walk away from me, you wouldn’t question anything. You’re it for me.”
She swallowed hard, then her eyes welled with tears. “Then why won’t you marry me?”
He had to mentally take another step back and think before he spoke. “Marry? Who said anything about marrying you?”
“Exactly. You won’t marry me. Why not?”
He tried to keep a straight face and not give her any hint of how lost he was in their conversation. “We’ve never even discussed marriage.”
Bethann stomped her foot. “I know we haven’t. I want to know why.”
“Hell, woman, I don’t know why. We live together, sleep together. We do all the things married people do. I guess I figured we were happy this way.”
Her hands balled into fists at her sides. “Tommy Martin, you know damn good and well I’ve always wanted to have a life with you, with kids and the white picket fence. Well, I got the fence, but no kids and no wedding ring. Why don’t you want to marry me?”
Tommy took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair. He wouldn’t deny being confused as all hell. At least not to himself. As he’d told her, he’d just assumed that they’d live as they had ever since the day she graduated high school. Together. Forever.
He’d give her as many kids as she wanted. Give her damn near anything at all, but she’d never told him she wanted to get married. Everyone in town knew they were a couple, knew they’d die a couple. Sure, some of the people talked about how he and Bethann lived in sin and were going to hell, but he’d never listened to them. Didn’t think Bethann had either. Maybe he’d been wrong.
After all, they did live in a small town, and everyone’s business was everyone else’s.
“So, let me get this straight. You think I want someone else because I haven’t married you yet? Even though the subject of marriage has never come up?”
“No. I said you don’t want me anymore.” She paused and bit her lip. “But do you? Want someone else?”
“Good God, really? All this because some girl keeps flashing her ass in Daisy Dukes?”
“I don’t have her body,” she grumbled, “and even I can admit she’s hot.”
“No, you don’t have her body. You have yours, and I know every inch, every hill, every valley. And yeah, she is hot. So’re a lot of other college girls, but that doesn’t mean I want them. Shit, baby, you’re all I want.”
Her chin jutted higher. “Are you bored with me?”
She wasn’t hearing a damn word he was saying. “Where’d that come from? Who said anything about bored?” He blew out an exasperated breath, but leaned closer to the bars. “You keep jumpin’ from one thing to the other. I’m just not sure what you want here, Bethann. I love you. Since I was ten years old, I’ve loved you. I knew that day you walked into the school, holdin’ your mama’s hand, lookin’ so sweet and so scared, that I was gonna spend my life with you. I’ve never seen you look scared, not since that day, not until now.”
Her mouth trembled. “I don’t want to lose you, Tommy. Not to some wannabe cowgirl.”
“You’re not gonna lose me,” he said softly. “And so far as what you said about me lookin’ at her, yeah, I look. Doesn’t mean I want inside her shorts. Shit, I’ve never gone after any of the cowboys and ranch hands you’ve stared after.”
The guilty flush that lit her cheeks was all the answer he needed. For the first time in their long relationship, someone new had showed up in town and took an interest in what Bethann considered her personal property. Not that women hadn’t shown an interest in him before. But they’d all known he belonged to Bethann and that nothing and no one was gonna take him away from her. The sheriff’s little girl…she didn’t know all that, and even if she did she wouldn’t have cared.
She was interested in him, and Bethann had taken it poorly. Now she was talking nonsense and wanting marriage and reassurance.
He knew Bethann looking at the cowboys had no bearing on their relationship. He knew she was his and would never do more than admire from afar. Deep down inside, she knew he wouldn’t stray either. But for some reason, her feathers were ruffled.
He kind of liked her this way, though. All hot and bothered and jealous. Not for the fact she seemed genuinely upset, but for the fact that she was willing to do anything to protect what they had together.
It didn’t hurt that her hair was a wild mess, that her shirt was wrinkled with a few buttons undone down the front, or that her shorts showed off her strong, tanned legs. A few hours in the slammer just made her hotter than hell to him.
He eyed her from head to toe, taking in every beautiful inch. “You know everyone’s gonna be talkin’ about you bein’ in jail.”
She snorted and tossed back her hair. “They wouldn’t have anything to talk about if you hadn’t called the sheriff.”
“You’re right. But dammit, Bethann, you’ve been goin’ off half-cocked since that little girl came into town, and it has to stop. You scared the poor thing half to death.”
“Then she shoulda kept her hands to herself. I already told you that.”
He knew he really ought to end the conversation now that it was going in circles, but she looked so damn cute with her face turning red and her eyes sparkling with anger. “It’s not like I was encouragin’ her,” he murmured, knowing he was just feeding the fire.
“You weren’t discouragin’ her either,” she said, her voice getting snippy.
“So this is what it’s really about then? You bein’ jealous? You ready to admit it?”
“If you’d had a ring on your finger, she wouldn’t have been messin’ around you.”
Tommy ducked his head and hid his smile. He fished the jail cell keys from his back pocket and jangled them in front of her before sliding a key into the lock.
Her eyes widened. “You had those all this time? And you’re just now lettin’ me out? When I get my hands on you…”
“You’re not gonna do anythin’,” he said, soft and dark as he stepped into the eight-by-ten cell. He advanced on her until she’d backed herself into the bars on the adjacent wall. “You’re gonna listen and you’re gonna listen real good, baby.” He took her hands, one by one, and lifted them to the bars above her head. “Don’t let go until I tell you that you can. Got it?”
She nodded, her eyes still wide, questioning. He knew his demeanor had changed in a
split second, but he’d bet every dime they had in the bank she was soaking wet between her thighs because of it.
He let go of her arms and got to work on the buttons of her shirt. What was left of them, anyway. One by one, he slipped them through the little loops until her shirt was wide open. Her full, heavy breasts filled the lacy bra nicely, and as much as he wanted at her bare skin, he’d make do with tracing the edge of the material with his fingertips.
Bethann shivered and moaned as he got closer to her nipples and although he wanted to touch them, tease them, he didn’t. “I don’t want another woman,” he started softly, staring into her eyes while his fingertips began moving down her sides and across her stomach. “Not the sheriff’s daughter. Not Maxine in the diner. Not Dixie at the car dealership. Not your mama over at the bank.” He popped the snap on her shorts and felt the quiver in her belly. “I want you, Bethann. Only you.” The zipper was next, giving way at the insistence of his fingers. “You wanna get married? Fine. I’ll marry you before the courthouse closes today. You wanna get started on kids? We’ll do that right now. You wanna stamp a brand on me? All you gotta do is say so, and I’ll let you put it wherever you want.”
He slid his hand down the front of her shorts and found her just the way he knew he would: soaked and scalding hot. They both groaned when his finger grazed her clit just before sliding up inside her. “Some new girl in town isn’t gonna turn my heart away from you. I don’t care how smokin’ hot she is. You’re mine and I’m yours.”
The last was said against her lips just before he crushed them with his own. Her body strained against him, her hips thrusting up into his hand, and his tongue speared into her mouth much like his finger was doing inside her pussy.
He wrapped his tongue around hers and urged it into his mouth for a good hard sucking, for a chance to nip at it with his teeth. She lit him up inside, always had. The way she responded to him was as unique as the way he responded to her. He wanted her as much today as he had the first time she surrendered her kisses to him. He’d waited for her to be ready, to be of age. He’d waited, but she’d thrown herself at him more times than he could count, and the fiery temper she’d always displayed when he’d pushed her away was just as scorching as the passion was when he’d finally relented.
She’d thrown herself against him so hard it had taken his breath away, that day and every day since. She gave him everything. He would never betray her.
Right now she was giving him everything he wanted. She was up on the toes of her boots one second, pushing her cunt into his touch, but then she was back on her heels trying to fight the orgasm he knew would claim her before too long.
Tommy nibbled her tongue hard enough to make her squeal, then let go. He drew deep, silent breaths as he watched her gasping when their lips parted. With his free hand he pushed at her shorts and she wiggled enough to get them down to her ankles, then over her boots. She kicked them away.
“So, what’s it gonna be, darlin’? Marriage before five?”
“You…” She gasped, her eyes blinking hard. “Are you serious?”
He popped the buttons on his Levi’s and pulled his cock out. He was hard as steel, his blood pounding through the engorged shaft, his balls heavy. He needed desperately to be inside her.
He hitched one of her legs around his waist, and with his honey-coated fingers, positioned his cock at her entrance. His gaze connected with hers as he slowly pushed upward, filling her, screwing himself into her with a swivel of his hips. “I would never joke or tease you about marriage.” With one hard surge, he pushed himself into the heated walls that had always fit him like a glove. “I am yours and only yours, Bethann.”
He pressed her into the bars long enough for her to get her other leg up so she could lock her boots together. Then, gripping the bars on either side of her hands, he gave her short, pointed thrusts that kept her in position. He pounded her, dipped his hips and ground into her, watching her pupils dilate as her hunger rose.
Being with her like this never got old, never failed to suck him in. His love for her knew no limits—and neither did his lust. It was love at first sight for him and the feeling had never waned.
She drew in a quick breath, and her voice snagged on her need to cry out. He knew her, knew she was fighting the wild streak that ran deep. “Let it go, baby. No one else is here. No one’ll hear,” he murmured against her lower lip as he nibbled on it.
“Th-they will. They…they always know when we…”
She was right about that. The people in their small town always knew when they were getting dirty in places they shouldn’t be. The memories only made him harder, thrust faster, grunt louder.
The church balcony during choir practice.
The old treehouse down by the lake before the town picnic.
The Fourth of July float just a few months ago. God, they’d been caught butt-assed naked going at it on a tractor seat. Didn’t matter that it was his tractor that was being used…
“I love it when people know, darlin’.” He nipped at her jaw and up to her ear. “You love it when people know, too,” he whispered right before he bit down on the lobe.
She bucked against him and screamed his name. It echoed off the concrete block walls, and her pussy began contracting on his dick. The muscles in her arms tightened, and her hands held so tight to the bars above her head that her knuckles turned white.
He loved watching her come apart. She gave everything in the way she flexed her thighs against his hips, in the way she gripped his cock with her body, her muscles milking him, coaxing him to join her in letting go and flying free. Her booted heels dug into his ass, and he lurched forward, attaching his mouth to hers. He wanted to swallow her bliss and pleasure. The kiss ravished her as much as his steely cock did, a reaffirmation of his need for her.
“Let go of the bars,” he whispered against her mouth, unwilling to let go of any part of her, but wanting to feel her completely wrapped around his body.
She dropped her arms and slid them across his shoulders. She trailed her mouth over his cheek and buried her face in his neck. “Yes,” she said between little bites and sucks of his skin.
“Yes?” He was momentarily lost.
“Marry me.”
His cock strained inside her cunt as happiness surged through him. He fucked her, taking her body with every ounce of strength he had. She held him tight within her arms and legs, curving herself to fit him.
“You askin’ me?” He didn’t really care if she was asking or telling. He was closing in on his orgasm and finding it hard to think. Pretty soon, he wouldn’t be able to do more than grunt and shake as he unloaded inside her wet heat.
“I am.” She lifted her head and brought her hands up to hold his face between her palms. “Will you marry me, Tommy?”
And that was it for him. He’d had no idea the thought of marrying the woman he’d spent his life with, loving with his whole heart, would have such impact on him, but hell if it didn’t. He nodded as come flowed from his balls through the shaft of his cock to fill her. “Yes,” he hissed, the painful bliss of such a hard orgasm taking his breath away and forcing his eyes closed.
He’d had no idea this was what he’d wanted until she asked. He shuffled forward a smidge and pressed her hard into the bars, enough that there’d be impressions from them in her back. He didn’t care. He’d soothe them.
She kissed the tip of his nose in a tender gesture, and he smiled. “I love you, Tommy,” she said softly against his ear.
“Thank God for that, baby,” he panted, trying to gather his breath. She giggled, and he smiled into her hair. “I love you, too. No more jealousy?”
Bethann sighed dramatically. “Oh I don’t know. The make-up sex was kinda good. I kinda like doin’ it in jail.”
Tommy laughed and began untangling her from around him. He let her slide down the front of his body. “That it was. We can cross it off our list.”
“Think people will talk?” she asked with a grin a
s she righted her clothes.
“Yeah, people will talk. We’ll definitely make the morning edition.” He tucked his slicked-up dick back into his jeans and buttoned them. “Bethann?”
She looked up, soft and sated and a beautiful wreck from their little tussle. “Yeah?”
“You mean it? ’Bout gettin’ married?”
“Yep. Soon as you get me outta here, we’re beatin’ the pavement to the courthouse.”
He stepped aside and made a grand sweep of his arm toward the open cell door. “Then by all means, lead the way.”
Bethann wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at him. “I always do.”
Tommy laughed and bent to pick up the hat she’d thrown to the floor. Yeah, she always did, and it was what made her famous in their small town. She blazed her own trail, did her own thing, had since she was seventeen. He’d been by her side from the beginning and would be until the end.
Slapping the hat on his head, he took long strides to catch up with her. He didn’t want to be late for his own wedding.
THE STORM
Tahira Iqbal
The storm arrives with wild abandon, twisting and turning, gray fury unleashing torrential rain that blurs the horizon.
“I don’t think you should drive in this weather, Candace!” my friend says from the covered deck.
I shrug away her concern, tossing my jacket over my head, and run for my car.
“I’ll be fine, Renee!” I yell over the rumbling. “Thanks for lunch!”
Soaked to my ankles, I start the SUV I borrowed from my daddy—my car is at the dealership after a suspicious rattle under the hood demanded attention. I switch on the wipers, which beat rapidly across the windshield but barely make a dent in the deluge.
I wave to Renee, hoping that she can see me, and maneuver up the drive to the main road.
Borrowing the SUV was a good idea, but taking the back roads isn’t. Water gathers against the body of the powerful vehicle as I drive through a flooded dip in the road, the engine growling menacingly as it chokes on the rainwater.
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