Wallflowers: One Heart Remains

by CP Smith

  “Has Mr. Jacobs seen her?” she chuckled.

  I looked down at the black T-shirt with silver rhinestones, proudly declaring SCAD was established in 1978. “Not yet.” I smiled. Nate was gonna hit the roof, and it would be fun to watch.

  The server, whose name tag said she was Rose, made a wide sweep with her arm, inviting us to enter. “Please don’t go through the side entrance, I wanna watch his reaction.”

  I smiled at her and wiggled my brows.

  Gertrude tugged on the leash, anxious to get back to her home, so I stepped inside and scanned the area for Nate. He was behind the bar with Martine. Their heads were down, looking at a paper. Rose, who was as anxious as I was to see Nate’s reaction, hollered at my boyfriend, “Gertie’s back.”

  Everyone inside the bar swung their heads in unison and began to chant, “Gertie. Gertie.” Apparently, she was a bit of a celebrity. Who knew?

  Note to self: Check to see if she has social media pages with blue check marks.

  Nate’s eyes landed on me, and he smiled. Then they dropped to his dog, and his expression stalled. I could have sworn I saw an eye twitch as he took in her appearance. I rolled my lips to keep from laughing. His expression was priceless. When his eyes met mine again, he crooked his finger at me. The whole bar uttered a low, “Ooooo,” as if they expected fireworks.

  I straightened my shoulders and met Nate at the pass-through.

  “Kitten. What. The. Fuck.”

  “Doesn’t she look great?” I answered, holding onto my laughter.

  Evie said now that I was in his life, weight had been lifted from his eyes. I figured my nuttiness had something to do with that, so I planned to keep right on being myself.

  He deadpanned me. “No.”

  “Not even a little?”

  “No.”

  “But black is her color!”

  “No.”

  “Are you gonna keep sayin’ no?”

  His lip twitched. “Yes.”

  “But it’s my alma mater,” I explained.

  He looked down at Gertie, and I could tell he was trying to keep from smiling. “No.”

  “Your mother was right, you are stubborn,” I said, pouting my lips for maximum effect. Feeding the second wolf not the first.

  His eyes dropped to my mouth, and they heated. He took a step closer and leaned down until he could kiss me. He whispered, “No,” before brushing my lips with a nip of his teeth.

  The bar erupted again in a round of, “Awwwws,” as he smiled against my lips.

  All righty then.

  “Can I have the key to your apartment, so I can let her in?”

  He dug a ring from his pocket then pulled off a key. “Put this on your keychain, it works on both doors.”

  Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. He was giving me a key to his place on day two? “I can give it back,” I breathed out.

  “Or you can put it on your keychain like I said.”

  I thought about what his mother said. 1. Hold your ground. 2. Don’t let him make all the decisions. 3. Don’t let him feed the wolf. Would it kill me to keep the key? Nope. Would it make him happy and joyful if I did? Probably. So why argue?

  “You’re kinda bossy, as well as bein’ stubborn,” I pretended to gripe.

  He grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me to his mouth again. “Get used it,” he mumbled then kissed me harder this time with a little more tongue.

  I clutched his shirt with my free hand and kissed him back, advising, “Have I told you that your bossy turns me on?” before winking and letting him go. I wound my way through the tables with a huge smile on my face until I reached his door and unlocked it.

  I unharnessed Gertrude once inside and looked around for his stereo system. I found a receiver sitting beneath his TV and flipped it on. Opera spilled through the speakers. I glanced over my shoulder at Gertie. Her ears were perked up higher, and her head was cocked at a cute angle. She woofed low then made a howling noise, singing along with the soprano. It was adorable, but she needed better taste in music. I rolled the dial looking for a country station and found one. Luke Combs raspy voice was belting out “Beautiful Crazy.” I started swaying to the beat, singing softly to the beautiful song, encouraging Gertrude to sing along. She woofed and began to wiggle her whole body as solid arms wrapped me from behind. I smiled when Nate began moving with me, keeping perfect rhythm with the beat. Less than a week ago, I’d been in a bar dancing with a woman after a tornado almost ruined a gay wedding. I’d watched him discreetly as I was twirled around the room, wondering if he danced. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. He grabbed my hand and twirled me around to face him then began two-stepping me around his living room. His head was pressed to the side of mine as he moved us slowly in beat with the song. When Luke crooned the words beautiful crazy again, Nate sang along in a deep, velvet voice. I melted into him as he kept singing in perfect pitch, twisting and turning us around the furniture until we’d danced through his bedroom door. His lips moved from my ear to my neck, his tongue snaking out to taste my skin as he sang the last note, and that’s all it took for me to lose control.

  Goosebumps popped up on my arms and my nipples hardened against his chest, while he teased the tender skin on my neck. I pulled his shirt up so I could touch his skin, impatient to feel his heat against me.

  Nate reached behind his head and pulled the shirt from his body at my insistence while I discarded mine. The moment his chest was open to me I leaned in and tasted his skin, running my hands over his hard pecs and flat plains. His hand fisted at my waist when I ran my tongue around his nipple, grazing the tender flesh with my teeth to draw a reaction from him.

  It worked better than I’d hoped. Nate spun me until my back hit the wall, then he dropped to his knees and peeled my panties and shorts from my body. My head hit the wall when he teased the tender flesh between my legs, stirring embers that seemed to never fade whenever he was close. I buried my hands in his hair, vaguely noting how soft it was. He growled when I tugged the long locks, desperate to have him inside me. Instead of moving, he tugged my leg over his shoulder and doubled his efforts to bring me to orgasm.

  Air trapped in my lungs as a climax hit me hard and quick, rising from the depth of my core in a brilliant flash. I called out in a raspy voice, the moan spilling unchecked across the room when it hit me.

  “Again,” Nate ordered, not letting up.

  His tongue, teeth, and fingers all worked to bring me to another release within minutes of the last. I began to slide down the wall, my head shaking back and forth against the wall as my mouth fell open, gasping for air. No sound came out when my second orgasm hit me. I convulsed around his fingers so hard I swear I saw stars.

  Nate rose quickly after and dropped his jeans. He picked me up, keeping my back pinned to the wall, and wrapped both my legs around his waist. In a single movement, he buried himself deep inside then covered my mouth to catch the cries of ecstasy that burned in my throat. My head spun with each thrust, the nerve endings deep in my core firing simultaneously, building yet another release.

  Turning without warning, still buried inside me, Nate placed me on his dresser, pulling my bottom to the edge. He pulled out slowly then sank back in, rather than pounding into me. It was torturous and beautiful at the same time.

  “Watch,” he bit out between clenched teeth.

  I dropped my head and looked down like he ordered and whimpered low as I watched his swollen shaft sink inside me.

  “Keep watching,” he growled, his thumb coming up to roll my clit in delicious circles.

  I braced my hands on his shoulders, hanging on for dear life. Between his slow thrusts and his fingers’ dedication, I fell off the edge of sanity into bliss a third time. My fingernails digging into his shoulders as I called his name. Nate grunted low as my walls milked him, then he pulled out and wrapped his hand around his engorged shaft and moaned deep in his throat while he spilled his seed on my stomach.

  Before I could recover from one of the
most erotic things I’d ever witnessed, he slammed his mouth over mine again and lifted me from his dresser, falling onto his bed with his back to the mattress. I straddled him and kept kissing him, not caring there was a mess on my stomach.

  “Is that a guy thing what you just did?” I asked, panting in between kisses.

  “It’s a possessive thing,” he answered, shutting down my response with his mouth.

  I ripped my lips from his because I had to ask. “Why are you bein’ possessive?”

  “Your ass. Your legs. Those shorts. All in my bar walkin’ away from me. Every man and some of the women’s heads turned and watched your fuckin’ strut.” He rolled me to my back, so I was pinned beneath him.

  “You’re not serious?”

  He cupped my bottom and squeezed. “As a heart attack.”

  That warm, fuzzy feeling spilled into my gut, making it hard to breathe. Possessive Nate was such a turn-on. Like I said, it’s the simple things that do it for me. “I hate to admit this, but I kind of love your Neanderthal side.”

  Nate’s eyes sparked with fire. He slid back inside my core, waking up my body with a slow tempo that heated my blood. I wrapped my legs around his hips and rocked in rhythm with his thrusts.

  “Don’t tell the girls,” I panted when he circled his hips.

  “Don’t tell them you like my Neanderthal side?” his voice was deep and hungry, and I responded to it like a warm caress.

  “Yes,” I said breathlessly. “I don’t want to get thrown out of the club.”

  His chest began to shake with laughter, but I ignored it when he buried his face in my throat to hide a smile. I mentally fist pumped instead, because that right there meant he was happy.

  Thirteen

  NAT THE RAT

  NATE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY of his bedroom and watched Poppy sleep. She was naked, his sheet barely covering the body he’d explored thoroughly. The room smelled of lust, sweat, and musk. And strawberries mixed with baby powder. His fingers twitched with the need to touch her again. To skim her silky skin with his fingers. To use them to drive her wild like he had for the last hour.

  He drew a deep breath into his lungs to control his desire, then checked his watch. Devin and Bo would be arriving any minute, so he shut his bedroom door and headed for Jacobs’ Ladder.

  Devin was sitting at the bar when he entered, so he made his way over, nodding at some of his regulars as he passed. His preferred table was empty, so he grabbed one of his staff to reserve it for his meeting before speaking with Devin.

  “Is Strawn on his way?” Nate asked as he slid up beside his friend.

  Devin jerked his head toward the front of the bar. Strawn was entering with his phone plastered to his ear. “Heard Poppy put a bedazzled shirt on your bull.”

  Nate glanced at one of his bartenders. The man’s head was ducked, and he was smiling. “Word travels,” Nate answered.

  “So do pictures,” Devin chuckled then held up his phone to prove his point. He’d pulled up the social media page for the bar. In the time since Poppy had strutted her way into the bar, there were multiple images of Gertrude and her rhinestone encrusted shirt.

  Strawn walked up as Nate tried to hide his smile. He should have been pissed, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. That’s what Poppy did to him. When she was near, a sense of rightness and calm filtered through his system, making it easier to think and brush off things that normally would have pissed him off.

  Strawn stopped next to their huddle as he hung up his phone. “That was Parker. NCIC is a bust. No man with the name Dragon has been arrested. Alias or otherwise.”

  Nate jerked his head toward the booth in the back, and both men followed.

  “I need to bring her aunt in,” Strawn continued. “She’s the only one who can shed light on this guy.”

  “What about Knox?” Nate asked. “Poppy said he came to town every few months. It’s possible he met this guy.”

  They sank into the circular booth and spread out, then Nate motioned to a server to bring him three beers.

  Strawn eyed him for a minute, his expression stern. “I got a call from Knox after their lunch this afternoon. He wants in on the investigation. I held him off until I spoke with you.”

  “Bring him in. We need all the help we can get.”

  “Can you remain calm around him?” Devin questioned.

  Nate raised a brow. “Can you?”

  Devin flashed him a grin.

  Looking at Strawn, Nate reclined against the booth’s cushioned back, crossing his arms. “He’s not my favorite person, but I won’t let it get in the way. Call him. Maybe he knows who this Dragon is. If he doesn’t, we’ll question Shirley so we can end this for Poppy. She can’t move on until this guy’s behind bars.”

  “At least she doesn’t have the press to contend with anymore,” Devin added.

  Nate’s attention switched to Devin. “Why’s that?”

  “You haven’t heard?”

  “Senator Scott was accused of sexual misconduct by one of his staff members,” Strawn relayed. “He held a press conference about an hour ago. He was pressured into steppin’ down from office.”

  “Blackmailed more like it.” Nate figured. “I’m thinkin’ whoever tried to kidnap his daughter to control his vote, decided to eliminate it all together.”

  “Agreed,” Devin said. “So the kidnapping is old news.”

  “Makin’ the Wallflowers old news,” Nate pointed out.

  “God bless the fickle press,” Strawn muttered.

  And one less problem, thank Christ.

  “Call Knox,” Nate ordered, more determined than ever to end Poppy’s nightmare. He wanted the bastard behind bars if he wasn’t already, and he needed a fuckin’ name to do that. “Get him down here. If we’re lucky, he’ll know who this is, and we’ll be one step closer to endin’ this for Poppy.”

  _______________

  I sat up with a start when a loud bark woke me from a deep sleep. I peered around the room, trying to place it. Then it hit me—I was at Nate’s. I swung around in a panic and looked at the clock.

  Petunias!

  It was after seven, and the girls were supposed to pick me up at my apartment at seven.

  Pulling the sheet from the bed, I wound it around my body then dashed into the living room to look for my purse. I emptied the contents on the couch, digging through the flotsam and jetsam for my phone. It wasn’t there. I ran back to the bedroom where my clothes lay strewn across the floor and grabbed my jean shorts. Nothing. Gertrude came in and licked my face, then watched with doggie interest while I tossed the bedcovers then crawled on all fours while searching for my phone.

  Ha! Dust bunnies. Nate wasn’t as clean as I thought.

  Heck.

  Yes!

  “Where’s my phone, girl?”

  She cocked her head at my question. Running my hand behind her ear, I scratched until her back leg began to kick out in doggie bliss. It hit me then I must have lost my phone when the jogger ran into me. I moaned in frustration.

  Left with no other choice, I grabbed my clothes and ran into the bathroom. I needed a quick shower before heading home, in hopes I could still catch the Wallflowers before they left without me.

  While I showered off the remnants of our roll in the hay, I wondered, with just a hint of anxiety, how Nate’s meeting was going with Bo and Devin. Would the name Dragon be in Bo’s system? Would they find my abuser and stop him from hurting someone else? Was he already in jail for the same offense?

  While lathering soap across my body, I had visions of Nate releasing himself onto my stomach, and it gave me pause. I wished I’d been looking at his face when it happened. It had taken on a fierceness the last time he’d found his release that morning. The sight was breathtaking in its raw beauty; the way his eyes darkened, and his head fell back on his shoulders. The sight alone could send me over the edge, if I were honest.

  Gertrude began barking while I was rinsing my body, so I opened
the shower door and listened.

  “Poppy!” Cali shouted from the living room. “Nate said you were sleepin’?”

  “Two seconds. I’m in the shower.”

  The Wallflowers’ voices filtered through the bedroom as I finished my shower. Once I was dried off, I threw on my clothes and met them in the living room.

  “We’ve been tryin’ to call you,” Sienna accused.

  “Sorry, I lost my phone.”

  “You’re jokin’? Cali lost hers too.” She shook her head. “This is turnin’ into an expensive vacation.”

  I blinked. What were the odds? “Did a jogger run into you as well?”

  Cali shrugged. “I think I laid it down when I was scopin’ out rental agencies while you were at lunch.”

  “Speakin’ of . . . are we still on for that adventure?” I asked.

  Cali looked at her watch. “The one I wanted to hit tonight closes at eight.”

  The clock on the wall said it was twenty after seven. Not enough to make it to Tybee in time on a Saturday, but I didn’t want to hang around either. If Nate figured out who Dragon was, they could tell me about it once he was behind bars. I was getting stronger every day, but I had no desire to see the man again. He was the dragon beneath my bed. The bogeyman. Count Dracula on a dark night. Without the blood.

  I suppressed a shudder. “We could case the joint. Look for cameras so we know which angle to turn our heads. Normally criminals take their time studyin’ their intended target, you know.”

  With a shrug and a nod the girls agreed, so we grabbed our purses and headed out the side door to Sienna’s car.

  A young woman passed us as we were climbing inside with a flower tattoo running the length of her arm in a sleeve. It was full of color, the pinks and purples shaded to the point it looked real. I admired it through the window as she walked away. I didn’t have any tattoos. Not because they didn’t appeal to me, because they did, but my artistic side felt anything that graced my body should have deep meaning. I’d never felt led to mark something permanently on my body, but the powerful reaction I had to that flowered sleeve stirred something deep inside me.