In the beginning, it had taken them a hot minute to find balance with each other. Collin had been the stepchild of bad horror movies: disagreeable, angry and filled with teenage angst. Resistant to change, he hadn’t been amenable to his mother’s new relationship and he had taken every opportunity to let them both know. But Matthew’s devotion to him and his mother had been the catalyst to a lifelong friendship that Collin trusted and valued. Now all he wanted was to make his father, and his mother, proud.
His father’s secretary ushered him inside, and his dad greeted him warmly. “Somehow, I knew I’d be seeing you, son!”
“Hey, Pop!” Collin said in greeting as he dropped into a chair. “I had a few minutes and figured I’d stop by.”
“Oh. I thought this might have something to do with your mother calling me about your new girlfriend.”
Collin laughed, “That didn’t take long!”
“You know your mother!”
The young man shook his head. “I really didn’t mean to upset Mom. I was hoping not to run into you two this morning.”
“Your mom was going to be upset no matter how she found out. It’s just her nature and you’re still her baby.”
“But I’m not a baby!”
“I know that. So does she. But you need to understand that for more years than not, your mother was a single parent and you were her sole responsibility. She didn’t coddle you but she was slightly overprotective. Now that you’re grown, she’s having a hard time letting go. But she loves you and she only wants the very best for you.”
Collin blew a heavy sigh, a gust of warm breath blowing over his full lips. “So, what do I do, Dad?”
“I think you’ve already taken the first step. You and your mother talked. She knows how you feel. Now, you just keep talking. Answer her concerns in a respectful way but stand your ground. This is your life and you have to live it your way. But let her share in your joy. If this young lady makes you happy, let your mom see that. Don’t keep it a secret. Bring Ms. Jacobs around every now and again so we can get to know her, too. Because all we have ever wanted for you is for you to be happy.”
Collin nodded as his father continued.
“And stop sneaking around like you have something to hide. If Ms. Jacobs is as special as you claim, then she deserves better from you.”
“I wasn’t...”
“You were. If you’re spending your nights with this young woman, just show us the courtesy of letting us know that you won’t be home, so we don’t worry. And don’t sneak her into or out of the guesthouse.”
Collin rolled his eyes. “It was just one night!” he muttered.
“So, you’re saying there won’t be any more?”
“I’m saying that I’m still trying to figure it out and I just need some privacy and some time to do that.”
“That’s fair. Just be mindful of everyone’s feelings and respectful of all concerned. That’s all I ask.”
“Was it this hard when you started dating Mom?”
Matthew laughed, “It was challenging because we didn’t want to do anything to compromise what we knew you needed. It was important to us both that we be an example to you of what a relationship should be and how you saw your mother when she did invite me into your lives. Now, your uncles were a complete and total pain in the ass! But they just did what family does when they care about you. What we will do to you, I’m sure!”
Collin grinned. “Mom’s always telling people what a romantic you are and how you blew her away with your first date.”
Matthew grinned. “I rented out the entire Dallas Cowboys Stadium. It was epic!”
“So, I should try something like that?”
His father laughed heartily, “I had deep pockets. Your pay grade is nowhere near there yet. You must do what works for you and your budget. Share with her what you enjoy. That will impress her more than anything. I’m sure your mother will also tell you that her favorite dates were those where we just sat and talked over coffee or read a book together.”
“London and I are going to a movie and dinner later.”
“What do you plan to see?”
“I thought I’d let her pick the film.”
His father nodded. “Well, just have fun. That’s most important.”
“I know you have a meeting to get to so I’m going to get out of your way. I might run by Uncle Mark’s office to see what he’s up to. Maybe get some advice from him, too.” Collin stood up, his father rising onto his feet, as well.
“I’m sure your uncle Mark has plenty of advice to give. Before he married your aunt Mitch he considered himself quite the Romeo with the ladies! You might be better served to go talk to your uncle John.”
Collin grinned. “I might go see them both, then!”
“Just remember, you can get all the advice in the world, but you still need to follow your own instincts. Do what feels right for you.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“I love you, son.”
“I love you, too, Pop.” Collin paused at the door, turning to give his father a look, his grin canyon-wide across his face. “Just in case, I probably won’t be home tonight.”
Matthew chuckled, “I’ll let your mother know,” he said.
Chapter 6
The sun was just beginning to set when London left her office. She was debating whether to catch the bus or call for an Uber when she saw Collin standing in front of her car. He was leaning against the trunk, his ankles and arms crossed as he waited. When he saw her, he smiled as he waved her car keys around his index finger. Her whole face lifted with glee as she waved a hand in his direction, practically skipping to his side.
“Hey there! You picked up my car!”
“I did and it’s running like a charm. Your starter was bad, so my aunt replaced it. She also changed your oil and did a maintenance check. She said you need to start thinking about new tires. You only have a few thousand miles left on the treads.”
“Thank you. What do I owe her?”
“You don’t owe her anything at all. It’s been handled.”
“I don’t want you paying my bills, Collin.”
“No need for you to worry about that. I hadn’t planned on paying your bills. But I did pay for the arrangements I made.”
“That’s really not...”
“Please, don’t give me an argument, London. It was the least I could do.”
London stared at him. There was a moment of hesitation where she bit back the impulse to say something snarky. But there was something in the look he was giving her that seemed to snatch the words, and the emotion, from her. “I missed you,” she said instead. “How was your afternoon?”
“Long,” he said as he passed her keys to her. “I ran into my mother down at the courthouse.”
London moved to the driver’s-side door, disengaging the door locks. She watched him as he sauntered to the passenger side and pulled open the door. “Your mother hates me, doesn’t she?” she asked as she slid into the driver’s seat.
Collin closed the car door and pulled at the seat belt. “No, she doesn’t. My mother would like to get to know you.”
“She said that?”
“She said a lot of things but nothing she said was derogatory toward you.”
“You’re a bit of a mama’s boy, aren’t you?”
Collin laughed, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“So, you admit it.”
There was a flicker in his gaze that London found intriguing as she eyed him intently.
“My mother was the first woman I fell in love with,” he said, his tone dropping to a loud whisper. “I measure every woman who has come into my life since against her. She has set a very high bar for any future Mrs. Stallion. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my mother because I know what she sacrificed to ra
ise me after my biological father died. I know she had to make some hard decisions over the years and I appreciate every opportunity she’s been able to afford me. I want her to be proud of me and I will do whatever I need to ensure she is. So, yeah, if that makes me a bit of a mama’s boy, I’ll own it.”
London cut an eye in his direction. “One day I hope I have a son who loves me as much as you love her.” She started the engine and pulled the car out of the parking spot and into ongoing traffic.
Neither spoke as London made her way toward her home. She reached for the radio and pushed the on button. Sam Hunt was singing the hook to his latest song. She began to bob her head in time to the music. When she broke out singing along Collin couldn’t keep his amusement off his face. She knew all the words to the next four songs as well, joining in with Blake Shelton, Sugarland and Darius Rucker. She had a beautiful voice, her tone like thick molasses and warm red wine.
“I would never have taken you for a country music fan,” he said.
“What did you take me for?”
“Hard-core rap, maybe even hard metal.”
London laughed, “Well, I happen to love country music. I love the storytelling aspect of each song. They make me feel good. So, what do you like to listen to?”
“I’m not a fan of any one genre. I just love music. Country, reggae, classical, everything!”
“You probably don’t have a favorite ice cream either.”
“That’s not true. Black cherry is my go-to flavor every time.”
“Interesting.”
“Why interesting?”
“I would have pegged you for chocolate, all day, every day!”
“Nope. Black cherry.”
“Then you probably like those chocolate-covered cherries that come out every year around Christmas.”
“I do. But I don’t like the cherry. Just the juice and the flavor, so I suck the chocolate and cream off the cherries and then I spit them out.”
“So, you eat the cherries in black cherry ice cream but not the cherries in candy?”
“They taste funny.”
She eyed him with a raised brow.
“I’m finicky about my food,” he said, his tone slightly defensive.
“You are so funny!” London exclaimed.
“Like you don’t have any food fetishes.”
“I don’t. I just like good food. The only thing I don’t eat is cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is nasty!”
“I like it with pineapple.”
“Well, you can have it.” She made a face and Collin laughed.
Her gaze flitted from the road to his face and back. She took a deep breath. “While we’re on the subject...” she started. “I think it’s important that you know I don’t jump into bed with just anyone. I don’t make it a habit to have sex with a man on the first date. I don’t want you getting the wrong idea about me. What happened between us was highly unusual.”
Collin shifted in his seat, his eyes blinking as he seemed to be pondering something. “How does the subject of ice cream and cottage cheese translate to sex? Please, explain that to me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You said, ‘while we’re on the subject.’ We were talking about food.”
London grinned. “It made sense in that moment. I saw the segue and I took it. I just needed to make it clear that I’m not easy.” She bit down against her bottom lip.
“Oh, I definitely didn’t get easy from you! I appreciated that you were that into me. That you recognized just what a great catch I am, and you liked what I had to offer. That you liked me. Really liked me!”
London grinned. “You are slightly full of yourself, aren’t you?”
Collin laughed with her. As they sat paused at the stoplight he leaned to kiss her, noting the heat that had risen to her cheeks, their color a warm shade of red.
“I’m full of you is what I am,” he said. “And I don’t think badly of you, if that’s what you’re worried about. What happened between us was a mutual decision. I wanted you as much as you wanted me.”
Relief seemed to wash over her. “I didn’t want to give you any mixed signals. We’d already talked about not wanting a romantic relationship and then we were sleeping together.”
“London, I really like you. I would like us to see where we might be able to take this, but it’s important to me that you are comfortable with whatever happens. If you want, we can put the brakes on and take a step back. I’ll follow your lead. We don’t ever have to make love again.”
London shot him a look, narrowing her gaze on him. She’d pulled into the parking lot in front of her building and shut down the car’s engine. “Well, that’s not going to happen,” she said emphatically.
He blew a heavy breath into the air, swiping a hand across his brow. “Whew! That’s good to hear. You had me nervous for a second.”
“So, you really didn’t mean what you just said?”
“Oh, I meant it. I just had my fingers crossed that you wouldn’t agree! It would break my heart if I couldn’t make love to you again. In fact—” his voice dropped an octave “—I’ve been fantasizing all day about waking up in the mornings, tasting you.”
London felt her face flush with heat, a current of electricity shooting like an arrow through her feminine spirit. She got a flashback of his head between her legs, her fingers twisted around his dreadlocks as his tongue lapped at her juices. She took a breath and cleared her throat. “For the time being, can we just say we’re friends with benefits and leave it at that? Because I really enjoy making love with you, too, and I don’t see any reason for us to fix what isn’t broken.”
“So, you just want me for my body?”
She rolled her eyes skyward. “For now, yes! You good with that?”
Collin stared into her eyes, his gaze dancing sweetly over her face. He pressed his lips to hers in a quick kiss and then he answered. “For now.”
* * *
Side by side, Collin and London juggled a tub of buttered popcorn, two large carbonated beverages and four boxes of movie theater candy—M&M’s, Twizzlers, Junior Mints, and Mike and Ike tropical-flavored chews. They were laughing hysterically as they navigated the twelve-screen movie theater to the fifth theater on the left and the comedy London had selected.
“Tell me, again, why you chose seats all the way in the back, in the corner?” Collin asked as he followed the beautiful woman up the flight of stairs to the reclining leather chairs they’d purchased online.
“Trust me,” she said. “These are the best seats in the house.” She lifted the center arm of the two adjacent seats so they could sit together with no obstruction. Minutes after they were settled comfortably against each other, the theater lights dimmed. London reached into the oversize tote bag she carried and pulled out a plush cotton lap blanket.
“You come prepared,” Collin said as he reclined his seat until his legs were extended and his back was tilted comfortably for optimal view of the big screen. He wrapped an arm around the back of the chair and draped it over her shoulders.
As London leaned against him, nestling herself comfortably against his side, she pulled the blanket across their laps. “The theater gets cold,” she said. “I hate being cold.”
Collin pressed a damp kiss to her forehead. “Then we don’t want you cold,” he said.
After ten minutes of previews, the feature film started. The theater was almost empty, save for the two people who sat rows below them. London laid her head on Collin’s chest, her own legs extended beside his. When he laughed his chest heaved up and down against her cheek and the heat from his body was deliriously sweet. She trailed her fingers down the length of buttons on his dress shirt, then rested her palm against his abdomen. Not quite a six-pack but darn close. His muscles were taut and firm beneath her fingertips.
Collin drew a large hand do
wn the length of her back. His touch was heated and when his fingers paused just above the curve of her backside, her breath hitched in her chest. When he palmed the round of her buttocks, first one cheek and then the other, her pulse began to race, her heartbeat like a drumline in her chest. London shifted herself closer against him, easing one leg over his. She jostled the bucket of popcorn that rested in his lap, spilling some over the sides. As Collin moved the container to the empty chair on his left, she brushed at the kernels of popcorn that had spilled. Her fingers grazed his slacks and stirred the rise of nature beginning to press for attention. He reached down to pull that blanket higher, the cotton throw having shifted down toward his knees.
Both pretended to focus back on the movie, but their attention was solidly on the other. Heavy caresses teased flesh as Collin slipped his hand beneath her cotton top, gently massaging her soft skin. London closed her eyes and savored the sweet sensations he was inciting from her body. She traced a line along the length of his thigh, up and then down, and back again, over and over. Slow, methodic strokes that soon had him rock hard and wanting.
Laughter rang out loudly from the other patrons, something on the screen evoking gut-deep chortles. London laughed, too, as she slid her body up and over his, pressing her pelvis against the protrusion of muscle that had blossomed nicely. Beneath the cover of darkness, she began to grind against him, an erotic side-to-side shuffle. Collin’s entire body tensed with pleasure as he pressed his hands to her hips and guided her movements.
London began to pant softly. She leaned her head forward, pressing her face into his neck. She dragged her tongue over his Adam’s apple, licking the salt and the sweet from his skin. He tasted divine and she was hungry for more. He nudged her with his cheek, seeking out her lips. He kissed her, his mouth possessive as his tongue snaked past the line of her teeth to dance in the wet nook. Her hands cupped his face, her mouth moving voraciously over his. His hands still clutched her ass as he pushed his hips into her, matching her rhythm with his own.
A Stallion Dream Page 8
