Life can be unfair and ironic.
“In that outfit, yep,” Mammoth says. “But she’s delicate and sweet. I don’t want to kick your ass for breaking her heart, but I’d do it if you did.”
A lesser man would probably piss himself at this point, but not me. I’ve known men like Mammoth my entire life, and being in the military taught me how to handle guys with big egos and even bigger barks. “I’m not planning on breaking her heart.”
“Gigi said you asked Lily to move in with you. Kind of a big step for a girl like her,” Pike says, studying me.
Jesus Christ. This is like a Gallo family grilling but without the Gallo family sitting around me. Anthony and Joe had to like these guys—and probably because they were just like them. Protective, aggressive, and unafraid to speak their minds.
“I need a place to stay, and Lily said she was living at home and seemed miserable about it. Figured we could get a place together, split the rent for practical reasons, and…”
“And you’d have built-in pussy?” Mammoth adds.
I shake my head. “You said you know Lily. So, I’d assume you also know she wouldn’t just put out for anyone. She’s not that kind of girl, and I’d never think she’d be there to be my sex slave.”
Pike’s fingers tighten around the bottle. “Maybe you just want a maid to clean up after the other pussy you plan to bring home.”
“Listen.” I rub the back of my neck, not liking where the conversation is going. “I don’t want a maid either. I’m a grown man and can clean up my own shit. I also don’t want to live with a messy guy who’s just looking to party. I want to live with someone who’s solid, who I know, who I trust.”
Mammoth grunts. “She’s that.”
“I also know her dad well enough to know he wouldn’t want his daughter living on her own. I figured it would be a win-win for us both.”
“She likes you, you know,” Pike says, ignoring everything I just told him. “More than I’ve ever seen her like someone.”
“You think?”
“She’s all dressed up for you.” Mammoth smiles genuinely. “I’d say she more than likes you.”
I gaze across the field, old friends dancing and drinking to the music under the ink-stained sky. Does she like me? She’s never really shown much of an interest in me. The few times we’ve talked, she’s never come on to me or even hinted that I had a shot at getting her.
“Just don’t fuck this up, and we’ll be fine,” Pike mutters. “Even if she likes you, she’s not that type of girl.”
“I know,” I groan and set my beer in the grass next to me. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen. I have to go see about a girl.”
Mammoth laughs. “Watch the wood,” he tells me.
I shoot him a thumbs-up, giving him a fake smile, because I can’t forget about my dick, and I wish he’d stop reminding me about it every chance he gets.
“Hey,” I say when I’m within a few feet of the three girls.
“Hey.” Gigi gives me a chin lift, her eyes sparkling with trouble. “I better get to my guy and see how he’s doing.”
Tamara giggles, placing her empty beer on the end of the tailgate before hopping down. “Yeah, babe. Let’s go check on our men. I’m sure Lily can keep you company.”
Lily looks like a deer in headlights. Eyes wide, not moving, just blinking at me like I’m about to slam into her.
“You doin’ okay over here?” I ask her, trying to find something to say that won’t revolve around my dick.
She nods, biting down on her lip, chewing the soft skin. “Yeah. I’m good. You?”
God, she looks so damn beautiful right now with the moonlight falling across her skin. So damn good that under any other circumstances, I’d make a move and see if she really liked me. But I can’t risk it. Not now. Not with my dick so angry.
“Yeah. I’m great,” I lie, hiding my misery.
“You sure have a lot of friends,” she tells me, doing her best not to look right at me.
“You know this place. Throw a party and everyone comes. It’s not me they’re here for, but the free beer.”
She laughs, and it’s the best goddamn sound in the world. “They’re here for you. You were the most popular boy in school. All the girls wanted you, and the guys wanted to be you.”
“Did you want me, Lily?”
Her laughter dies as she slides her gaze to me. Even under the moonlight, I can see the pink stain her cheeks. “Jett,” she whispers as her eyes shimmer. “I…”
“I always wanted you,” I tell her honestly.
“I…” Her teeth are back at her lip, nibbling the skin I’d always dreamed of kissing. “You wanted me?” She crinkles her cute little nose, still not moving.
I nod, telling her the truth for the first time in my life. “I did.”
“You wanted every girl.” She waves me off, snorting. “You did your best to get them too.”
She’s blowing me off, throwing my shitty behavior in high school right back in my face. Sure, I slept around back then and maybe even more so while in the Navy, but they never satisfied me. Those women, the ones before now, meant nothing and didn’t fill the void left inside me for one girl in particular.
I rub my neck, trying to hide my agitation. “You want to go for a walk? There’s a cave nearby, and I bet with the full moon—” I tip my head back, glancing up at the cloudless sky “—the water looks beautiful.”
“There’re caves here?”
I nod, knowing some of them very well. They were always an escape when being around people became too much. They were the only place I could go where nobody would find me in a small town like this. “A few, but the best one isn’t far.”
She glances around, her finger moving to her lips. “You sure it’s safe?”
I nod, hoping it’s just as it was the last time I was there. “It’s safe, and quiet too.” I smile, knowing Lily prefers silence to a rowdy party. “We’ll just go for a minute, and if you don’t like it, we’ll come back.”
“I don’t know, this is your party. We should really stay.”
“No one cares. They’re not even paying any attention. I’ve never shared this place with anyone before. It was always my little secret, but I want to show it to you. Come on. Sneak away with me.”
She brings her head up, a smile spreading across her face. “I’d be the first?”
“The one and only, sweetheart,” I promise, completely truthful.
She nods and pushes off the tailgate, standing straighter, looking more beautiful somehow. “Show me,” she says.
I motion for her to follow me, and she does. “Stay close. It’s a five-minute walk from here, but it’s been a while since I’ve done this in the dark, and I don’t have a gun or knife if something’s in the woods.” When there’s no sound behind me, I glance back, seeing Lily frozen again.
“Something in the woods?” she whispers, staring off into the darkness in front of me.
“Sweetheart, it’s Florida. There are more than a few things that want to eat you.”
Namely me, but I don’t say that. There are predators everywhere here. Alligators, bears, coyotes, but nothing more dangerous to Lily than me.
“That’s why I’m not an outdoors type of person.”
I turn and walk the few feet back until I’m right in front of her. “I’d never let anything happen to you. Trust me, if something comes after us, I’ll let them get me before I’d let them get their paws on you.” I hold out my hand to her. “Do you trust me, Lily?”
She peers down, staring at my open palm. “I trust you, Jett,” she whispers, sliding her soft skin against mine.
Her words wash over me, bathing me in the sweetness that is her. I close my fingers around hers, really touching her for the first time. I don’t speak but tick my head toward the darkness. The moment doesn’t call for words.
We walk in silence, our hands clasped together as we leave the loud music and people behind us. The farther we go, the quie
ter everything gets. Nothing but the sound of the animals rustling in the brush, Lily’s breathing, and my heart pounding filling the air.
I realize then, I’ve never held a girl’s hand. How odd is that? I’ve never been one to have a girlfriend, finding attachment just too much entanglement for a guy like me. But here, in this moment, nothing feels more natural.
“What was that?” Lily asks, slowing her pace as a branch cracks in the distance.
“Maybe a lion,” I lie, squeezing her fingers. “Get closer to me so we look like one person, and maybe he’ll think we’re too big to attack.”
She scrambles closer, plastering her body against mine.
Fuck, I really am a goddamn dumbass. Get closer to me. What the hell am I thinking? I’m not. That’s the problem. I can’t risk a hard-on, but here I am, telling the beautiful girl with half her body exposed to plaster herself to me. Smart. Real freaking smart. Obviously, I love torturing myself, or I wouldn’t have opened my dumb-ass mouth.
“Are you sure this will work?” she whispers, her warm breath skidding across my shoulder.
“More than you’ll ever know,” I tell her and keep moving us forward to stop myself from grabbing her softness and tasting her.
When we make it to the opening of the cave, she pauses and yanks my hand back. “Are you sure it’s safe in there?” She peers into the opening like something is going to jump up and bite her.
“It’s safe. I’ve been here a hundred times. Anyway, the water’s too cold for gators.”
“Oh, well,” she mumbles, “that’s comforting.”
“I’ll help you inside,” I tell her before I climb down the small hill, testing out the ground in the darkness. Turning, I reach up, grabbing both her hands this time, and help her inside, careful she doesn’t slip.
“This is really a place,” she says, as if she didn’t believe me but came anyway.
“Of course, it’s a place. I wouldn’t lie to you.” I’m careful with her, holding on to her way too long, but I can’t stop myself. “The water’s over here.”
The moonlight disappears for a moment, shrouding us in darkness as we move toward the light ahead. Any other time, I’d be on Lily, trying to taste her sweetness after a lifetime of starvation.
“Oh wow,” she says, standing at my side as we find the water, blue and bright under the night sky and the opening above. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It is,” I say, but I’m not looking at the water. I’m only staring at her.
I turn and dip my head, wanting to kiss her, but she ducks and moves away. “How did I never know about this place?”
I run my fingers through my hair, tamping down my frustration. “Not many people do.”
Lily crouches near the edge of the water, brushing the surface with her fingertips. “It’s so peaceful here.”
The music from the party is nothing but a soft vibration. No voices. No traffic. No other people. We’re totally alone. It’s the reason I come here to think and get away when things in life become overwhelming or I need a break from others.
“It’s my escape,” I tell her, watching her as she stares into the water, studying the depths.
She turns her head, gazing at me, the moonlight reflecting off the water, illuminating her face. “An escape from what?”
I squat next to her, admiring her beauty as she turns back to gaze at the blue depths. “Anything and everything.”
“That’s why I read,” she replies without taking her eyes off the water. “It’s an escape for me. I can be anything, do anything, live through the characters instead of staying trapped in my life.”
“Trapped? Do you feel trapped?” Her words surprise me. I never thought of Lily as trapped by anything. I always knew she liked to read, never seeing her without a book in her hand.
She shrugs, keeping her eyes straight ahead. “Sometimes, but not as much as I did before.” Lily turns her head, peering at me for a moment but turning away as soon as she notices the way I’m staring at her. “When I dropped out of school, I felt like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders. But sometimes—” she swallows, pausing for a moment “—I still feel the same way when I look around, realizing I’m back home, living with my parents like I was in high school.”
“I was serious about you living with me,” I tell her, holding myself back from touching her, but wanting to so badly.
“We barely know each other,” she whispers. “Why would you want to live with me?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to live with you?”
She shrugs again. “I’m boring, Jett, and we don’t know each other that well.”
“Yes, we do,” I argue.
“Not really. This has been our longest conversation ever. I’m the least interesting person you know. I’d rather stay in, curled up with a book, than go out drinking and partying.”
Clearly, Lily still sees me as the eighteen-year-old boy who walked away from this town five years ago, heading to boot camp. I’m no longer that person, just like she’s no longer the sixteen-year-old girl too scared to even look at me.
“I don’t want to drink and party. I had enough excitement in my life being in the military and hitchhiking around the country for the last year. I want quiet. I want boring. I want you, Lily.”
Her head snaps up, and her eyes widen. “You want me?”
Shit. I do want her, but I don’t want to scare her away. I didn’t ask Lily to move in with me so I could get in her pants. If that happens, it’s a bonus, but I couldn’t think of anyone else who would be a quiet, considerate roommate except for her. Now, if she decided to walk around the house with very little clothing on, that would be another bonus.
“Of course, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
“Right, Jett,” she whispers, my name sounding like heaven coming from her lips. “I do want to get out of my parents’ house.”
“Then say yes,” I beg, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “Say you’ll at least look at a few places with me and think about it. It would get you out of your parents’ house, and you wouldn’t have to live alone. It would be a win-win.”
“Maybe,” she mutters, her gaze dipping to where our hands are connected.
I squeeze her fingers. “Promise me you’ll think about it.”
God, if my dick weren’t broken, I’d be all over Lily, kissing her smooth skin, tasting her sweet lips. But right now, just kneeling next to her holding her hand is painful. Any time she’s around, my cock wants to remind me just how very lonely he is and how stupid the idea of a cock piercing was.
“I’ll think about it, Jett,” she says, making me so damn happy.
I give her fingers another light squeeze. “Would it be so awful, living with me?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve never—” she swallows as she averts her gaze away from me and back to the water “—lived with a man before.”
“Well, I’ve never lived with a woman either, so we’re even.”
She giggles softly, the sound echoing in the small space like a sweet melody. “You’re kind of crazy.”
I smile, unable to stop myself because Lily is so damn adorable. “I’ve been called worse, and I’ve never claimed to be normal.”
“Normal is overrated,” she whispers, standing in front of me, staring up into my eyes. “I guess we would get along, and I’d feel safer with you than living alone.”
“I would hope so. I’d never let anything bad happen. There’s nothing better than having a man in the house.”
“I do own a gun, Jett, and I’m not afraid to use it.” She doesn’t even blink when she says that, but I do. I never thought Lily would be the type to be packing, but knowing her family and her father, I’m not completely surprised.
“Well then, I guess maybe you’ll be the one protecting me.” I chuckle, unable to take my eyes off her big blue eyes.
“Don’t worry,” she tells me, leaning into me, and I hold my breath, thinking she’s going to kiss me. S
he places her hand on my chest, smiling up at me. “I’d never let anyone hurt you.”
But I wonder—who’s going to protect me from Lily?
6
Lily
Last night was weird. There’s no other way to describe it. Jett kept looking at me funny, and every time I thought he might kiss me, he didn’t. Maybe I had made too much of his compliments. He had always been a nice guy. Was I confusing his kindness for something more? Possibly.
I’ve never been good at reading people. My social skills have always been awkward and clunky. I’ve never been outgoing like Gigi and Tamara, instead finding crowds exhausting and overwhelming. Around my cousins, I’m not shy, and I don’t try to hide my weirdness completely. But around everyone else, including Jett, I’m a total dork.
Why I’m standing here, next to Jett, staring up a big yellow house, is beyond me. He called. I came. Simple as that. Last night, he asked me again if I wanted to move in with him, but I still thought he was joking. I mean, why would he want to live with me when almost anyone in town would jump at the chance to live with Jett Michaels.
“What do you think? I know the color’s ugly as sin, but the outside isn’t too bad, and the inside is… You’ll just have to see it to believe it,” Jett says.
I keep my eyes straight ahead, not daring to look at him, but I can feel his body heat against my arm. “It’s not so bad. It’s the color of sunshine,” I say, trying to be positive.
That’s me. Always a positive person. Never a bad thing to say about anything or anyone. Sometimes it’s exhausting, but why look at the glass as half empty when it’s really half full?
“I saw the photos online and knew it was the perfect place for us.”
I like when he says us like we’re a couple, when in reality, we’re not even friends. “We can look at it, but I still don’t think this is a good idea.”
His arm is around my shoulders as soon as I finish speaking, fingers stroking my skin. “Keep an open mind, okay?”
Blaze: Men of Inked Heatwave #4 Page 5
