I would’ve asked what she died of, because I was insanely curious like that, but before I could ask, my phone rang.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s my mom.”
The woman at my side grinned at the face I made. “Answer it.”
I did.
“Hey, Ma,” I said as I answered my phone. “What’s up?”
“What’s up is that I have a birthday coming up this weekend, and I want to see you,” my mother informed me. “You’ll be coming over to Benton this weekend and staying a few days, right?”
I hadn’t planned on it.
I planned on sending her a fruit basket or something.
I licked my lips. “I have a new thing with someone. I don’t really want to leave her behind. If you’re okay with me bringing…”
The ‘new thing’ comment had Crockett widening her eyes and scooting away.
Or trying to. I caught her ankle before she could so much as twitch.
“You have a new thing with someone,” she said, interrupting me. “Like a new girlfriend kind of thing?”
I grinned at the lack of tone in her voice, at all.
“It’s not Juniper,” I promised, squeezing the ankle a little harder when Crockett tried to rip it from my grasp.
My mom breathed out a sigh of relief. “The way you just put that made me think that you didn’t want me to say no, so you weren’t going to tell me her name until I’d already agreed. I got a little nervous.”
To say that Juniper wasn’t my mother’s favorite person would be an understatement.
Not that I could really blame my mother.
She and Juniper had gotten along famously until Juniper had decided that I wasn’t worth what she was having to go through.
I had a feeling, though, my mother would love Crockett more.
“Her name is Crockett,” I said. “And no, we don’t need multiple rooms.”
Crockett’s mouth all but fell open in surprise as she heard my words.
“I like that name. It’s great.” My mother sighed. “Bring a cake. You know your daddy always disappoints me in the cake department.”
At that, we hung up after saying our goodbyes, and I was left with a really confused woman on my hands that was looking at me like I’d just surprised her.
CHAPTER 12
You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.
-Murphy to Crockett
CROCKETT
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
Instead of addressing the huge elephant in the room—I.e. his words that he’d just said to his mother about me being his—I chose to come up with some bullshit excuse.
That bullshit excuse worked, though, when he immediately let my ankle go and then helped me stand up before leading me to the bathroom.
The bathroom was just as nice as the rest of the pool house.
Nicer, in fact.
If I could move in wherever I wanted, I’d move into Six and Lynn’s pool house.
It was the perfect size, had a great kitchen despite the smallness of the rest of the building, and the bathroom was to die for.
There was a very big glass-enclosed shower in the middle of the bathroom.
On one side was a double vanity with a makeup counter in the middle of them, and on the other side was what had to be the toilet as well as a closet of some sort.
“Wow,” I said as I stared at the glass shower stall. “This is amazing.”
“This is a waste of space,” he said. “They could’ve put it in the corner and gotten way more out of this space.”
My lips twitched. “Such a man.”
His eyes turned to me lazily.
“That a bad thing?” he asked.
And suddenly, all the things that I was trying to tell myself when it came to that man—he was bad news being one of them—flew out the window.
Because I didn’t care if he was bad news.
I liked the man that Zach Caruso was.
A lot.
“What’s that look for?” he asked as he stared at me.
I licked my lips and looked away. “That stuff you just told your mom. Why did you lie to her?”
When he didn’t answer for a long period of time, I couldn’t stop myself from turning to face him. He was looking at me so intently that I felt my heart stutter in my chest.
“What?” I asked.
“I didn’t lie to her,” he said simply. “I’ve lied to myself, though.”
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hear the rest.
Not with the way he was looking so intently at me.
But, alas, I wasn’t a coward.
“What?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve spent the better part of six months trying to stay away from you,” he told me. “The first day that I got out of prison and saw you? I wanted to claim you right then and there. But all I could think about was how you didn’t need a man like me. You deserved better.”
I hesitated to ask my next question.
“What changed?” I whispered.
He moved in so that he was only inches away from my face. His lips so close, if I hadn’t just puked for half an hour, I might very well close the distance and press mine to his.
“I decided that I didn’t care anymore,” he told me. “I decided that I would make you forget that I’m a bad person.”
CHAPTER 13
I wasn’t raised like you. My mama whooped me. She even killed me one time.
-Text from Zach to Crockett
CROCKETT
I decided I can make you forget that I’m a bad person.
His words had my head spinning, and my heart pounding away.
I licked my lips. “You’re not a bad person, Zach.”
“See?” he rasped, his eyes wary and his face slightly blank. The only thing that I could make out was his slight worry over my welfare. “You just don’t freakin’ get it.”
I had no clue what he was talking about.
Furthermore, I wasn’t sure that I wanted him to convince me of anything.
I wanted to stay blissfully unaware of everything that he thought was wrong with him, because I didn’t want him to convince me to stay away.
Though, the more time that I spent with him, the more I realized that his perceived ‘faults’ weren’t faults at all so much as just a constant ‘I’m not good enough for her’ attitude.
I stood up, my stomach only giving a slight roll, and stared at him closely.
“I get it perfectly,” I said softly. “I get that you think that you aren’t good enough for me.”
He said nothing, so I kept going.
“I get that you think that by doing anything with me, dating or otherwise, you think you’re going to ruin my life,” I continued.
His eyes narrowed, but I could see agreement there.
“But let me tell you something,” I said. “Nothing you can say, do or be is going to change how I feel about you. I’ve been in love with you for a while now. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know why it happened. I don’t care. I just know that, now that I know how you feel, I won’t be staying away.”
He sighed, his hands coming up to scrub at his beard, cheeks, and eyes.
“That store you own, once people know that you’re mine, they won’t want to come there anymore,” he murmured.
“That store that I work at,” I corrected him. “And that store isn’t my dream. That store is my grandfather’s way of keeping himself busy. If it wasn’t there anymore, it would hurt me because he’d miss it. It wouldn’t hurt me because I’d miss it or care.” I paused. “And, just sayin’, Murphy really likes you. I think he’d choose you for me over the store any day of the week.”
“A lot of people hate me,” he tried.
“It’s pathetic,” I whispered as I reached for the IV bag that was connected to me and pulled it free of the little stand that it was hung on.
His head tilted sideways, his eyes narrowing in co
nfusion. “What is?”
“How deep you’re having to dig to convince yourself you’re a bad person,” I said. “You’re making shit up on the fly now.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m not making shit up.”
I rolled my eyes and shuffled to the bathroom. “If you say so.”
After using the facilities, washing my hands, and brushing my teeth with a brand new toothbrush that I’d found underneath the bathroom sink, I made my way back out into the main room of the pool house to find it empty.
Feeling much better now that I had some fluids dumped into me, and time for whatever Melody had given me to wear off, I didn’t question my need to find Zach. I just went with it, running my hands through my hair as I held the IV bag with my teeth.
Once the tangles were sufficiently combed out, I realized that Zach was nowhere to be found even from what I could see through the pool house windows.
At least, I thought, anyway.
When I made it outside and called his name, he surprised me by being much closer than I thought.
“Zach?” I called out as I paused in the doorway.
“Here.”
I spun slightly to the left, finding him sitting on a lounge chair that’d been partially covered by the large palm trees that took up the front of the small pool house.
“Oh, hey,” I said softly, walking toward him.
He scooted over slightly, and I felt a flock of birds take flight in my stomach.
I knew exactly where he wanted me, and that was a damn sight closer to him than I’d originally intended.
When Zach chose to finally drop those barriers…
“Sit,” he ordered when I must’ve taken too long for his liking.
I bit the inside of my lip and started his way, only belatedly noticing that I’d somehow lost my shoes in the transport from the wedding venue to Lynn and Six’s pool house.
The grass was cold and wet on my feet, but I didn’t notice it all that much the closer I got to where he was sitting straddling the lounge chair now.
“Sit right here,” he ordered. “That way I can hang the IV bag on the tree right here.”
I carefully guided myself exactly where he wanted me, being super cautious not to brush myself against his skin in any way as I did.
The moment that my butt made contact with the soft chair, he relieved me of my IV bag and hung it from a twig that was jutting out from the tree.
Once his hands were empty, he reached forward and ran his fingertips along my collarbone.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked.
I swallowed a sudden ball of nerves and was proud of myself when my words came out even instead of husky and needy.
“I’m feeling much better,” I admitted. “Now I think I’m… hungry.”
He murmured something soft under his breath, and then I felt something soft press against the exposed skin at the back of my neck.
His lips.
He was skimming his lips along the smooth expanse of skin along my trapezius muscle.
It was everything.
And all he’d done was give me the most chaste of kisses.
What would it feel like when it was his mouth on mine? What would it feel like when we were skin to skin? What would it feel like when…
He growled and bit me on the shoulder, making me jump in surprise.
My eyes opened wide, and I couldn’t stop myself from staring off into the setting sun with a look of complete awe on my face.
“What was that for?” I asked breathlessly.
He didn’t reply. Instead, he caught my hips, and only when he’d stilled them did I realize that I’d been practically squirming between his legs.
And now I was very much touching him all over.
“You make me have zero control,” he murmured. “We need to take this slow…”
I couldn’t stop myself from turning around, hitching my leg up high over his thigh so that I could turn sideways between his splayed thighs.
“Why?” I all but demanded.
“Why what?” He paused, his eyes going to my thigh. My very exposed thigh.
The dress that I was wearing had already been short.
So short, in fact, that I’d considered wearing running shorts underneath it.
But the red dress and black running shorts would clash, so instead I chose to go with red boy-short underwear that covered the essentials but were also sexy enough that if I somehow flashed anyone, they wouldn’t automatically think ‘granny panties.’
Now, I was glad that I’d gone with the sexier of the panties.
In fact, I was really glad seeing as with the dress riding up so high, you could just barely make out the outline of the lace on the top of my thigh, giving away a hint of ‘more to come.’
He growled and tore his eyes away from my exposed thigh when I said, “Why do we have to go slow?”
He opened his mouth to say more, but I kind of… snapped.
One second I was being a good girl, minding my manners, and the next the thought of ‘why can’t I just take him’ rolled into my mind.
And I had to act on it.
Had to.
I didn’t want to.
I had to.
For one brief moment, his gaze locked with mine.
And the next, we were too close to stare into each other’s eyes.
One moment I was sitting between his legs, and the next I was straddling his very hard thighs, and pressing my body completely up against his.
He was hard all over.
Not soft in a few places.
No, he was hard.
His thighs were like straddling two rocks. His arms were like being surrounded by steel bands.
His abs were like lying against a board.
And his jaw was so finely chiseled that my hands felt like they were cupping stone when I kissed him.
In comparison, I was soft and plush.
When his hands cupped my thighs, his fingers sinking deep into the softest flesh, I couldn’t help the shiver of delight that rolled through me.
Though, it might’ve also been because his tongue finally touched my own.
My breathing halted completely in my chest, and all of a sudden, I was a wild woman in his arms.
I was rocking against him like I was made for him, and my hands were sinking into all that dark black, lovely hair instead of cupping his jaw lightly.
Soon, his hands transferred from my thighs to my ass, and he was pulling me into his body so roughly that it caused me to start breathing again.
I gasped against his lips and pulled back, but he didn’t waste time.
He only moved his lips from my mouth to the spot between my jaw and my neck, his mouth sucking lightly on the skin there.
“Zach,” I breathed, my hands smoothing down the length of his chest to come to a stop where his t-shirt hem met the top of his jeans. “Can we…”
He didn’t let me finish.
He leaned back and ripped his t-shirt off and my eyes automatically went to his chest.
I almost moaned when I could barely see what I was looking at due to the setting sun.
Between when I’d first kissed him and now, the sun had almost completely finished setting, leaving us in near darkness.
The only thing that lit the night up now was the glow of the green pool lights beyond the chair.
They cast even more shadows, making me wish that I’d brought a damn flashlight.
Because I knew Zach’s body would be something that I’d want to remember for the rest of my life.
“What are you staring at so hard?” he asked, running his finger down the bridge of my nose.
I bit my lip and considered not telling him.
Then decided fuck it.
I liked this new and improved Crockett.
“I was wishing I had a flashlight so I could see your body,” I told him bluntly. “I want to see everything you have.”
His growl warmed me up and sent shive
rs down my spine.
“There’ll be plenty of time to look your fill… next time.” Then he flipped us, me going onto my back in the lounge chair, and him switching our positions so that I was now the one with my legs spread wide.
He situated himself between my splayed thighs, careful of the IV line, and I moaned when his hardness came into contact with my softness.
And I wasn’t talking about anything but his cock at this point.
Sure, later I would think about all the other sexy body parts he had, but when the size of the cock that Zach was pressing against me made itself known, I could think about nothing but it.
Voices filtered into the darkness around us, but Zach didn’t stop his assault on my senses.
With slow, measured breaths he ground himself against me, working me higher and higher with the swivel of his hips alone.
Then his mouth came into play, running open-mouthed kisses down the length of my throat to the valley between my breasts.
“How’d you get into this thing?” he asked, tugging lightly on the neckline with his teeth.
I licked my lips. “I, uh, had to put it on over my head and tug it down. The zipper is from about lower rib to hip. It’s not easy to get on, either.”
“Or off,” he grumbled, his hands moving down to push up underneath my dress.
“Or off,” I agreed. “I had to do a shimmy and a shake, and lube myself up with body lotion to get it on.”
His rumble of appreciation sounded from his throat, and I felt a shiver of delight chase his hands as they moved up under the flared skirt of my dress.
“These underwear,” he said, tracing the line of them from hip to hip. “They’re sexy as hell, and I haven’t even seen them.”
I snickered, then sobered very quickly when the blunt tips of his fingers dipped into the front of my panties, fingers encountering the tip of my slit.
“I’ve been dreaming about what you would feel like,” he said, dipping just a little bit deeper. “What you would taste like. What you would smell like. What you would…”
He trailed off when my breath hissed in.
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