“But why?”
I shrugged. “Who’s to say? Maybe to make believers out of all of us. It’s hard to deny that this”—I extended my arm out this time—“had to come from somewhere. Oh, I know. The Big Bang Theory and all. But that original particle had to originate from somewhere. And why can’t that coincide with God’s creation?”
“You’re preaching to the choir here. When I was in and out of it after the explosion, I saw all kinds of things that only confirmed my belief.”
“I lost all my faith in God when I was a kid living in the hell I grew up in.” Flashes of my father’s face nailed me in the sternum, and I sucked in air.
Her hand touched my thigh and she asked, “Hey, are you okay?”
I snorted with disgust. “I am now. But back then …” my voice trailed off.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Generally, I’d say no. It’s not something I ever talk about except on rare occasions, but with you, I feel different. My old man was basically a monster. He had his hands into all sorts of criminal activities, but the one that sent him behind bars was an illegal porn ring. He got mixed up with this group where they’d drug women and then video them having sex. Those videos would be sold on a porn hub afterward.”
“That’s awful.”
“My foster sister testified against him because she was one of the women he had drugged and raped.”
“Wait, are you serious? He did this to his own foster kid?”
“He raped her constantly while she lived with us. She ended up getting pregnant and running away. It was a tragic situation, all the way around. Her life was worse than mine. Her mom had passed and then she landed with us, only to find herself stuck with a vile animal like my father. I wanted to help her so much, but he threatened me. Told me he’d kill me if I opened my mouth or tried to intervene. Back then I didn’t weigh a hundred pounds.”
“Jesus. That’s … I don’t have any words for what that must’ve been like.”
I rub my head because this is the part I hate the most. “Here’s the worst. She came to me, begging to run away with her. I mentioned going to the police, but she didn’t want that because she said they’d send us into foster care. The idea freaked her out since she was living in a hell. Now that I truly understand what she’d been facing, I get it. But then I thought the cops would help. The system had to have been so broken that there were people like my parents who were able to get through. I’m not sure how it is today. I can only pray it’s better. She feared she’d land into another home like ours. So she ran and I stayed. She made it though. She turned eighteen and was free. When I turned eighteen, I left too and joined the Navy. That was my ticket to freedom. But to this day, the guilt still eats at me about not going with her.”
“But why? You just said she made it.”
“She did. But the baby she had didn’t. He died of a rare congenital heart defect. And she was all alone to bear that by herself. Had I been with her, I could’ve helped her get through that.”
“Oh, Rusty, you were still a kid. You didn’t know. Couldn’t have known. If there is anyone to blame, it’s your father. He was the one that caused all the pain. It wasn’t you.”
Smiling sadly, I said, “Yeah, I tell that to myself all the time, but it doesn’t help much. Knowing that my sister is happy and is married now and has two healthy kids makes me happy. She doesn’t blame me either.”
“I wouldn’t expect her to. Where is she now?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“My foster sister is Midnight Drake.”
Her mouth silently says the name and out loud she asked, “The movie star?”
“Uh huh.”
“That’s your sister?”
“Yep.”
“Oh my God. I remember now hearing about her when she went to court. But that was a few years ago and I was on my first tour, so I was getting the information sort of piecemeal.”
“Yeah. She’s the one who brought my dad down and then I also testified against him.”
“Wow. That must’ve been some trial. And your mom?”
“She died shortly after I left home. She was a bad alcoholic. She was aware of what he did because she got her share of beatings too. I imagine the alcohol was her way of dealing with him.”
She grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. “I can’t imagine living like that. My family is so normal and loving.”
“You should appreciate that and never ever take that for granted.”
Squeezing our locked fingers, she said, “You’re right. I never have and never will. Family is everything.”
She drove me back to the inn that night and I held her hand the whole way home. “Tell me this isn’t too much.”
“What?” she asked.
“You and me. I’ve talked your ear off, telling you things you may not have been ready to hear. I hope I didn’t freak you out.”
After she parked the car, she swiveled a bit to face me. I relaxed a bit when her hand touched my cheek. “I think we’re good.”
“Just good?”
She laughed and it was a great sound. It was bubbly like a child’s when they got excited over something. “Okay, we’re great.”
“Now you sound like Tony the Tiger in the Frosted Flakes commercial.”
“Oh my God. How’s this? We’re exceptional.”
“Much better. And I’m not Speedy. Never have been in the past anyway.”
“No?”
I slowly shook my head. “But there’s just something about you, Lee, that’s hit me.”
“How so?”
I cupped a hand to her neck and drew her closer. “I want to be close to you. In many ways.” Then I kissed her and it was the sweetest honey I’d ever tasted. I gained satisfaction from the fact that she returned my kiss. “But not just this. It’s more than this.”
“Tell me.”
I took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’m not sure if I can. It’s in here.” I laid her palm over my heart. “You’re probably thinking I’m super weird now.”
“No, not at all. I want to be close to you too. When I saw you walk into the cafe today, I felt you were different. But ever since the explosion, I’ve been wary of … well, you know. So I didn’t expect anything.”
It takes all my self-control not to pull her across the seat and put her in my lap. “Maybe you were only waiting.”
“Waiting?”
I lower my voice and say, “Waiting for me … for the right one.”
Her hand flies over her mouth.
“Is that so difficult to believe?”
“No. It’s not that. It’s something else. My great-grandparents. You won’t believe this.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lee
* * *
When I finished the story about how my great grandparents met, Rusty grabbed my hips and pulled me onto his lap.
“Do you believe in destiny?” he asked in a rush.
“I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”
“Think about it for a second. Their story and now ours. The two of us meeting at the cafe. Doesn’t it sound a bit more than coincidental? Why else would I have come to Drummond? It’s not exactly a huge tourist hub and when I found it online, I wondered myself why I made that reservation.”
“But the railroad museum,” I protest.
“Sure, I liked trains as a kid, but I haven’t thought about them in years. It’s not like I actively seek out these kinds of places. I’m not a homey town kind of guy. In fact, I hid this from my buddies. If they found out where I spent part of my leave, I’d never hear the end of it. It didn’t make much sense to me, but I didn’t have anything else to do so I figured, what the hell.”
He did have a point. A huge glaring one. Single men weren’t flocking to Drummond in droves by any means.
“Okay, score one for Rusty. But coincidences happen all the time.”
“Yeah, they
do. But not like this. Say we met, and then that was that. But Lee, it wasn’t just a meet and greet, how ya doin’, and adios. I don’t want to leave the day after tomorrow. I want to see you every day. I want to talk to you every day. The thought of going back to Virginia Beach is making me itchy. That’s not normal. And my instincts … I live and die by them.”
“Okay, score two for Rusty. I’m not exactly happy about you leaving either.”
“And then we have the meeting place. If we’d met passing on the street, or in a different restaurant, or even in that tiny museum, I’d say, maybe coincidence, but come on. You have to give some credibility to what I’m saying here. Great grandma and great grandpa are hard at work matchmaking, sweetheart. You can try and deny it all you want, but I’m giving them my blessing and thanking them. And I’m also going back to that little wood shop and thanking the old owner for sending me there.”
“What old owner?” I asked.
“You know, the old gentleman who sits in the back and does all the cool wood carving.”
“Nope, the only guy in that shop is Neal and he’s in his mid-forties.”
“Nah, this guy is at least eighty. His hands are all scarred up and everything. I asked if that train set in the window was for sale and he said it wasn’t. Then he sold me some other things instead.”
“No way. Neal is the only guy in there. He’s the shop owner. No one else works there to my knowledge.”
“Maybe this was Neal’s dad.”
“Huh uh. Neal’s dad passed about eight years ago.”
Rusty scratched his head. “I don’t know then, but I swear there was an old guy in there and he told me to go to The Depot Cafe to eat because they had the best food in town.
“Weird. I’ll have to check into that tomorrow.”
“Me too. But that’ll be after my breakfast at the cafe. Which, I’d better let you go because I know you have to work.”
“No, Jackson gave me the morning off. I’m to report in at noon.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.” I grinned at him. Jackson had all kinds of ideas, but I wasn’t going down that road yet with Rusty, even though I wanted to. I was a bit rusty—haha—and I needed a little more warming up in that regard.
“Care to come to my room, little girl?”
“What are you, the big bad wolf?”
“Not at all. I’m more like a cuddly puppy. And I promise to behave. I swear.”
“Ok. Under one condition. I won’t sleep with you because this is our first date.”
“Lee, I would never pressure you into that. Ever. But, I can’t swear I won’t kiss you.”
“I’m good with that.” And I was. Ever since I’d joined the Marines, I’d been one of the guys and it was different being treated like this. Rusty’s kisses made my stomach flutter, to the point that I wanted much more with him. He was better than anyone I’d ever been with and he could kiss me as much as he wanted. This would be my little secret. Letting him in on it wasn’t an option quite yet.
When he unlocked his door, his hotel room was much nicer than I thought it would be.
“Wow. This place is really great.”
“Yeah, I was impressed.”
It had a king-sized bed, a huge sitting area, and a giant bathroom with a separate shower.
“How much per night if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Only one twenty.”
“This is a steal.”
“I know. This town should add a few more things to do and it could take off. Especially since it’s only a few miles from the main interstate.”
“We’re hoping.” I held up my crossed fingers.
Rusty walked to the small refrigerator and grabbed a couple of beers, handing me one. But before he could pop it open, I impulsively reached for him and pulled his mouth down to mine.
The bottles forgotten, he lifted me higher to align us and took over the kiss. Sliding his tongue against mine, he tickled and teased every part of my mouth until I moaned. Currents of fire soared throughout my veins, and the unexpected idea of tearing his clothes off popped into my mind. I’d never been the aggressor in a relationship before, but surprisingly, I wanted to be that person now. I held back, of course, because I didn’t want him to think I was some shameless hussy desperate for a man. I also didn’t want to scare him off either.
He broke off the kiss and his piercing gaze penetrated my own. The emotion behind those emerald irises had the oxygen jammed in my lungs. He was right. There definitely was something firing off between us.
“You feel it too, don’t you, Lee?”
I swallowed the thick knot that had come out of nowhere and dipped my head slightly. I couldn’t bear to look away from him. “Yeah,” I breathed the word.
His legs took us to the bed, for which I was grateful. I wanted to lie in his arms and feel him between my thighs. I wanted to—oh, shit. I had not prepared for this moment at all. I was so adamant about not sleeping with him on the first date that I hadn’t bothered to shave or wax. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I groaned.
“What’s wrong.”
“Nothing. Not a thing.”
“It’s something. I can tell.”
“We’re not gonna get naked, are we?”
“Do you want to get naked?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of.”
He raised a brow. “Sort of?”
“I might have a slight issue.”
“What kind of an issue?”
“Promise you won’t laugh.”
He was so sincere when he answered that I was the one who almost laughed. “I promise.”
“I didn’t shave my legs.”
For one instant, he looked puzzled, and then he bit down on his lips. It was obvious he was trying his best not to break his promise.
“You promised.”
“I know,” he murmured between his lips he held together. Then little by little, his body began shaking.
“You’re supposed to be a freaking Navy Seal, forced to endure all sorts of torture and you can’t even contain your laughter.” That did it. He burst out in a huge guffaw, threw his head back on the bed and howled.
Did I mention the man was huge—in comparison to me anyway. He was about six feet two. And solid as a brick wall. I went to play punch him in the gut and my fist came up against steel abs.
“Jeez, Rusty, let me see what you have hiding underneath that shirt. Is it granite or what?” I tugged his shirt until it exposed the smooth flesh of his stomach and found the clearly defined ridges of an eight pack that veered off in both directions to form a perfect V from his obliques. “Good Lord. What kind of a workout do you do?”
“We have the best trainers in the country and we adhere to a rigid physical training program. It’s part of the requirement.”
“It’s obvious. I bet you can do pull-ups, can’t you?”
“That’s another requirement.”
But all talk about physical exercise disappeared when he pushed me on my back and hovered over me. “Now what was all the fuss about not shaving?”
“Er, you may want to close your eyes if we get naked.”
“Who said anything about getting naked, Lee?” His voice was hoarse and sent shivers across my flesh.
“I did.”
“I think we should take this one step at a time.”
“Me too. You kissed me. That was step one. Let’s move to step two.”
“Which is?” he asked.
“You undress half of me.”
“Which half?”
Using both of my thumbs, I pointed to my chest. “This half.”
He buried his hand in my hair and said, “I think I’m going to like this step.” His lips touched my neck and made their way down to where it joined my shoulder. My fingers sunk into the hard muscle of his arms and his hand slid beneath my tank top.
The idea of him seeing me without my top was fine, but the part below the waist made me freeze. I grabbed his hand and clamped down.
“What is it?” he asked.
The saliva in my mouth had disappeared and my tongue was scotch taped to the roof of my mouth. Words disappeared and I became mute.
“Lee, are you all right?”
I licked my lips, with a bone-dry tongue, then swallowed. “Um, I’m …” I couldn’t tell him. All my bravado was gone.
“What is it? You can trust me.”
I knew he was truthful, but yet, no one had seen my leg. Well, only a few people anyway.
“It’s just that …”
“Hey, we don’t have to do this, you know.”
“No, I want to. I’m a little nervous.” It was way more than a little, but I didn’t want him to know.
He held my hand and helped me take his own shirt off. When I saw what had been hidden underneath, my fingers began a little exploration of their own. The more I explored, the more I relaxed, and the more I wanted this man. My hands reveled in his strength, in the rhythm of his heart beating beneath my fingertips.
“You’re perfect,” I told him.
“Hardly.”
“You are.” And he was. He’d told me I was beautiful, but I’d never seen a more gorgeous man.
He leaned away from me and I sat up to get rid of my top and bra. When I was bared from the waist up, he only stared at me.
“Lee. I’ve never seen anything so lovely.” He touched me as though I were a fine piece of china afraid I would break. Gently, he pushed me back and his mouth sucked a nipple inside. My back arched from the sensation. I was flames and fire to his touch. He moved to my other nipple and all I could think of was how I wanted to feel him —all of him. Against me, in me, flesh to flesh, skin to skin.
He released me and moved back to kiss me.
“Lee, I’d like nothing more than to—”
“Yes, I want that too!”
He chuckled. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Weren’t you going to say you wanted to have sex with me?”
“No, I was going to say I wanted to make love to you before you got a little exuberant there. But”—he held up a finger—“maybe we should wait.”
“Why?”
“I want you to be sure.”
My heart nudged my ribs. How was I this lucky to have found a guy as considerate as him? “I’ve been waiting a long time for this and don’t think I’m going into this lightly. I’m sure, Rusty.”
I'll Be Waiting (The Vault Book 2) Page 7
