And my every instinct was screaming at me to throw myself into his arms and ask him just what exactly he needed to make him happy. I wanted to make this work.
I blinked, then smiled. “What do you want me to do?”
“What’s that smile for?” Des asked, interrupting my thoughts.
I grinned at her. “You remember when I told you about mine and Dean’s first date?”
She nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“I was just thinking of a way I could make him…remember our first date,” I explained. “Do you think he’d go for it?”
Her face broke out in a wide grin.
“You’re going to go to jail if you’re caught,” she replied bluntly.
I shrugged. “It’ll be worth it if he remembers.”
“He’ll remember,” she said. “If he doesn’t, then I’ll nut punch him.”
Des’ eyes sparkled.
“You’re going to have to give me all the details, you know.”
I grinned. “Oh, I will. Don’t you worry.”
***
Later that night, my nerves started to get the better of me.
“Where are you taking me?” Dean asked, leaning back in his seat, his eyes closed and his body relaxed.
I was driving his truck; firstly, because he was tired and looked it. He’d just come off of working a forty-eight-hour shift, and he’d been doing that more and more lately to cover for co-workers who all seemed to be going down with the flu.
Secondly, because I didn’t want him to say no before we got there.
I didn’t find out until a month into our relationship that Dean hated this restaurant. In fact, I’d not gone back in so long, even though it was my favorite restaurant to eat at in five cities, because it brought back too many memories.
Both good and bad.
Regardless of him not liking this place, I’d made a decision to go with it; despite his misgivings about the restaurant.
“It’s a surprise,” I said. “Are your eyes closed?”
“Mmm-hmm,” he grunted, sounding sleepy.
I grinned and turned back to the road, spending another five minutes winding my way through the busy streets of Kilgore to Cancun Dave’s.
The moment I pulled into the parking lot, Dean’s body tensed.
“What?” I asked him in worry.
“You’re not taking me where I think you’re taking me, are you?” he asked warily.
I grinned.
“Maybe,” I teased. “But we’re not going in.”
His eyes snapped open, and fire started to pour over me at the look he gave me.
“We’re not?” he asked silkily.
I shook my head, my body responding to the heated look in his eyes despite my mind telling my body to simmer down.
Dean reached for me the moment I had the truck in park, and I went willingly.
“You remembered,” he said.
I nodded my head. “I felt like doing a little reenactment.”
“A bit optimistic, aren’t you?” he teased, his lips going to my neck.
I breathed out slowly. “It’s better than being a pessimist like you.”
“What’s so bad about being a pessimist?” he asked.
I grinned, then said, “A pessimist carries a knife with him in case of an attack.”
“And what would an optimist do?” he teased.
“They would carry a knife in case there was cake,” I replied deadpan.
He blinked, then threw his head back and bellowed in laughter.
“Are you comparing me to cake?” he challenged.
I shrugged.
“If the shoe fits.”
He grinned and pulled me closer, his mouth finding its way down my neck.
“I noticed you parked in a dark corner of the lot,” he said. “Last time we did this under the streetlamp.”
“I know,” I panted. “I was hoping you wouldn’t make me do that again.”
He grinned and leaned forward, running his tongue from the base of my throat to the tip of my chin.
“I feel like a damn teenager,” he said. “All I think about is fucking you.”
I snickered.
“That’s a bad thing?”
“No,” he disagreed. “Unless it’s interfering with your daily life like it is with me.”
I ran my hands up his chest, coming to the tops of his arms and smoothing them up and down again.
“I watched our video last night,” I said. “Masturbated to us.”
He growled.
“I also ordered myself a cock-mold. I can make a mold of your penis and use it when you’re gone,” I batted my eyes at him.
“You’re not going to get a mold of my cock,” he replied. “If I can’t have you while I’m at work, you can’t have me either.”
I harrumphed, and his eyes lit up.
They glittered in the dark.
The mood, however, was killed when my belly growled ferociously.
I hadn’t eaten beforehand, hoping after I had him nice and satisfied, he’d agree to go inside for a quick bite.
Instead, it derailed my plans entirely.
“Let’s go get you something to eat,” he said, pushing at my hips.
I shook my head.
“No,” I denied him, wrapping my hands around his neck.
He chuckled when my belly growled again.
“You’ll need your energy,” he said. “I plan to use you later, not to mention this parking lot now has cameras all over it.”
I stiffened.
“What?” I breathed.
He nodded his head in apology. “Got ‘em last month due to an increased amount of break-ins. They have a company out of Longview monitoring them 24/7.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Holy shit,” I gasped. “I almost forced myself on you, and people would’ve seen!”
“I don’t think it’s considered forcing yourself on me if I would’ve welcomed it,” he noted, pushing open the door and dropping out of his truck.
He reached back in for me, and I jumped into his arms.
He caught me and held me off my feet for a few long seconds as he stared into my eyes.
“I love you, you know.”
My eyes lowered as I said, “I love you, too.”
His face lit as I returned his words, and I silently cursed myself for not telling him sooner.
He’d first said those words to me almost two months ago and had repeated them multiple times since then.
I’d just been too scared to tell him I felt the same.
What was different about tonight, I didn’t know, but I found myself grateful that the words had slipped free of my lips. His smile was worth the fear of rejection and uncertainty.
“Come on,” he said, dropping me to my feet. “Let’s go eat.”
He beeped the locks on the truck and took my hand as we made our way inside.
The entire way to the door, my belly growled, eliciting a snort from the clearly amused man.
“What?” I asked.
“I can’t believe you brought me here.”
I shrugged.
“I’ve been dying to have it, and my desire for the food overruled your hate for this place,” I told him bluntly.
It was true.
I’d been craving it for weeks now, and the cravings had only gotten worse.
The more I tried not to think about my favorite Mexican restaurant, the more I wanted it.
“You are nuts,” he groaned. “I’d just like it to go on record that I said that.”
I rolled my eyes.
“It’s not that bad,” I challenged him with my eyes.
He opened the door for me and I hurried inside, breathing in the delicious aroma of freshly made tortillas and Mexican spices.
“They’ve spilled a Coke on me each and every time I’ve been here,” he said. “The woman does it on purpose. S
he hates me.”
I gave him a narrow eyed look.
“You shouldn’t have made her go if she didn’t want to,” I informed him.
He sighed and I heard the door behind us open and close, the bells above the doorway jingling with the newest arrival’s entrance.
“She got arrested, and she was injured. She needed medical attention, and the arresting officer made me take her to the hospital. I couldn’t refuse,” he told me once again.
The woman that owned the place was a crazy gal and found herself in trouble quite a bit because she just didn’t abide by all of the laws. Such as the ones that limited the occupancy of an establishment like hers. Granted, it had been a day when a famous country singer had been there, and she’d been eating up the fact that she had a celebrity in her restaurant.
The country singer’s people had called the police to get some crowd control, and Erin, the owner, had refused to kick anyone out.
She finally agreed to kick some people out to appease the cops, but once the cops left, she let them right back in.
She’d gotten hurt when an overzealous fan decided to climb the glass countertop and stand on it to see over the dividing wall.
The glass had broken and shards of glass had sprayed out in all directions.
No one else had been close enough to get hurt. No one, that is, but Erin.
An ambulance had been called, and then Erin had been arrested for being overcapacity while she was being treated for her wounds.
The police officer had informed Dean that she needed to be seen at the hospital, and Erin hadn’t wanted to leave her restaurant because leaving meant she needed to close it since she worked it practically on her own.
Dean had taken her despite her refusal, and the bond between the two had been established ever since.
“I…”
“Well, hello there, July,” the voice of a man I despised drawled beside me.
I turned to find Barrett and Jensen standing about four feet away from where Dean and I were standing at the hostess stand.
My stomach roiled, and Dean’s hand clenched around mine.
“Hi,” I said, turning back around and saying, “Two” to the hostess.
“You like this place?” Barrett asked at my back. “We’ve never tried it.”
I wasn’t sure why they were even there in the first place. This was my city, not theirs.
I turned and smiled at them over my shoulder. “Love it.”
Jensen’s full body scan had my belly clenching.
Barrett got closer, and Dean moved me until my body was in front of his, pushing me to trail the hostess who’d gestured for us to follow.
“Fucking fuckers,” Dean murmured under his breath.
I shivered.
“I’ve seen them more in three months than I have in ten years. This is creepy,” I said to him.
His eyes found mine.
“I would hardly call twice creepy, but they are annoying, that’s for sure,” he mumbled.
I shook my head. “I’ve seen them about ten times since the reunion. Not just two.”
His eyes widened.
“When?” he asked.
“Everywhere. It’s almost like they’ve moved here. I see them all the time.”
His body went stiff.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal…is it?”
He pursed his lips.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s helpful,” I snorted, smiling at the hostess that placed two menus on the table in the very corner of the room. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she exclaimed. “Enjoy!”
“She’s cute,” I said once she’d gotten far enough away from our table.
My eyes went around the room, admiring all the work Erin had done to the place since I’d last been in. “I love these chairs.”
Dean didn’t reply, and I looked up at him to find him typing a text on his phone.
“Remember the rules!” I teased him.
He looked up and shook his head.
“I’m texting your brother to let him know you’ve been seeing those two jokers everywhere,” he explained, placing the phone on the table.
I sighed.
“My brother’s paranoid enough, so thanks for that.”
Our dinner was less than stellar, but not because of the fact that Erin terrorized Dean.
She did.
Quite a bit. Although she never spilled anything onto his lap, and she also refrained from sending him burnt food.
The heckling wasn’t spared, though, and she let Dean know in no uncertain terms that she really didn’t like him.
She liked me, though, and had given us good service, as well as made some excellent food.
I just couldn’t enjoy it, though.
Not with Jensen and Barrett two tables away. Both of them sitting so that they could see me.
Both of them not even trying to hide the fact that they were watching me.
By the time our dinner had ended, I was not in the mood for anything. The night had been a bust, and to top it all off, Dean’s pager went off.
“Shit,” he said, looking at it. “We gotta go.”
I nodded and stood, my eyes widening a bit when Dean threw a fifty-dollar bill down on the table to cover the tab.
“That’s a big tip,” I told him.
We’d spent twenty dollars, at most, and a thirty-dollar tip for a woman that clearly made no real attempt at hiding her contempt for my man wasn’t necessary.
He gave it anyway, though, leaving me no choice but to follow him out.
“I’ll take you to the station,” he said. “You can drive my truck home from there.”
I nodded, but a thought occurred to me. “What about all your things you need? Your Kevlar vest and gun?”
I saw him smile as he piled into the truck. “I have extras at the station.”
That was all he said, and I decided not to push for any more information. The less I had to worry about, the better in my opinion.
“Okay,” I replied softly. “I’ll go home to my place, though. I have to grab more food for Mr. Feathers.”
“Just go buy some,” he suggested as he made a U-turn and started into traffic on the opposite side of the road. “And, if you’re out, grab some pregnancy tests.”
I blinked, turning to him slowly.
“What?”
The question was shrieked so loudly that he winced.
Then the motherfucker smiled.
“I haven’t done you with a condom on in the last few months we’ve been together, and you haven’t had a period in the same amount of time,” he informed me smugly.
I counted back to my last period, and then recounted.
“What…how…why?” I stuttered. “I can’t be pregnant. I’m on the shot. There’s no reason for you to be using birth control!”
I wasn’t due to get my next shot until two weeks from now.
I’d also been religious about getting them. I’d even gotten one about two weeks into my new relationship with Dean. There was no way in hell that I was pregnant.
“I’m not pregnant,” I told him haughtily. “I’m fat. You’re making me fat.”
“Something I did made you fat, yes. But it’s not the food, that’s for sure,” he leered at me.
I glared at him through narrow-eyed slits. Surely I had had a period in the last four months, right? Though, I was on the shot. Being on the shot sometimes fucked with your periods.
“Shut up.”
He did, but the annoying man smiled all the way to the police station.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered to me. “It’ll be okay.”
I glared at him harder, causing him to laugh.
“Say you love me, July Amsel.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, and he grinned before gettin
g out of the truck and jogging up to a side door.
Not willing to let him leave me for a SWAT call without him knowing, I got out of the truck and ran up to him.
He stopped when he heard me approaching, and it was then I became aware of the men that were making their way to us.
I didn’t stop, though.
I knew who they were.
Two were his fellow firefighters. More of them were cops that were on the SWAT team with him.
I didn’t feel the least bit intimidated as I threw myself into his arms and wrapped my legs around his hips.
He grinned at me.
“Yes, ma’am? You mauled?” he teased.
I pressed my lips against his. Once. Twice. Three times. Then let my feet drop from his hips.
He let me go, and I slid to the floor beside him. “I love you, too.”
He gave me a slap on the ass as I turned to leave, and my face flushed with color as I waved to the men who were waiting for us to move out of the doorway.
After a tiny wave, eliciting smiles out of the group, I ran for Dean’s truck.
And headed straight for the store.
A store where I would not be buying pregnancy tests.
And thank fucking God I didn’t.
Chapter 18
Once I learn someone hates me, I make sure to go out of my way to piss them off because that’s what adults do.
-Fact of Life
July
My face felt funny, and I was fairly sure that I’d been drugged.
My head also felt like it was going to burst due to the pressure that was throbbing to a breaking point in my skull.
“Can’t fuck her. Boss said all we were allowed to do was detain her,” a familiar voice drawled. “He also said we have to feed her and keep her healthy. She’s already been bought. We’re waiting on the buyer to get her travel ironed out.”
I peeled my eyes open, and immediately vomited all over the small cage I’d been placed in. Like a dog.
“Gross. Gonna have to drag that outside and hose her down,” another familiar voice gagged.
“Just let Raven do it. Raven needs to earn her keep, anyway,” the other voice that was becoming more and more familiar, replied.
I bit my lip and finally looked up through the wire cage of my prison, and started at seeing both Jensen and Barrett staring down at me.
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