Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3)

by Jessica Prince

  I went back to cleaning my station once the devil woman finally left my shop.

  “If that bitch books an appointment for me to tat a goddamned unicorn or some other bullshit, I’m gonna kick the ever-loving shit out of you.”

  I turned around and smiled at Mickey. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll keep her off everyone’s schedule if you never, ever mention this little situation to Lizzy.”

  “Deal!”

  “Wifey, I’m home,” Trevor called his usual welcome when he walked through the front door.

  “Upstairs,” I shouted back as I put the finishing touches on my hair. I’d gotten a call from Savannah early today that the guys were going to be playing at Colt 45’s tonight and everyone would be there. I’d gotten home and scoured through all of the print-screened t-shirts me and the girls made for the nights the guys played, trying to find one that was suitable for a married woman. I didn’t think Trevor would find the Rocker Butts Drive Me Nuts shirt all that funny, so I finally settled for the simple I’m with the Band tee to prevent any more fist-fights.

  “Whatcha doing?”

  Looking in the mirror, I saw Trevor standing behind me, his large, muscular body propped against the door frame. Arms folded across his chest, the sleeves of his t-shirt strained against the bulge of his biceps. Just like every time I’d seen him recently, my body reacted in a way that was anything but platonic. My stomach dipped and that all-too-familiar tingle began in my nipples, shooting bolts of electricity down between my thighs.

  “Working on a cure for world hunger,” I deadpanned as I pulled the flat-iron through my hair one last time before shutting it off and unplugging it.

  “Why do you do that?” he asked, ignoring my sarcastic remark.

  “Do what?” I said as I lifted my mascara wand to my lashes and applied one more coat.

  “Get rid of the curls,” he answered as he ran his fingers through my straight locks. I lifted my gaze in the mirror and stared at his as he studied my hair.

  “You don’t like it?”

  His eyes came to mine through the glass as he said, “Of course I do. I always think your hair’s pretty. I just love it when it’s curly. I miss pulling on it when you wear it straight like this.”

  His teal-blue eyes bored into mine as his fingers tangle in my hair.

  “It looks like a rats’ nest when I wear it like that,” I answered quietly, still sucked into his penetrating gaze.

  “I think it looks beautiful like that. Always have, cher,” he told me, the deep, low timbre of his voice doing insanely-delicious things to my insides.

  “You do?”

  “Always, baby. I think everything about you is beautiful. From your curls to your freckles. I love it all.”

  My heart beat a staccato in my chest as we stood still, our eyes locked on to one another. I felt his heat at my back and my body wanted nothing more than to melt into his. I wasn’t sure what was happening between us, but whatever it was felt monumental. Something told me that things had changed between us in a very permanent way, that there was no going back to the way it was before. That thought both thrilled and terrified me. If this whole marriage thing blew up in my face, I risked losing one of the most important people in my life.

  I don’t know how long we stood like that before the chirp of my cell on the counter pulled us out of our daze. Breaking our connection, I looked down to see a text from Stacia letting me know everyone was already at Colt’s.

  “Uh…um… are, uh, you going to Colt’s to hear the guys play?” I asked lamely, stuttering over my words. I’d never felt awkward around Trevor, but now that my feelings were all over the damn place, there were times when I wasn’t sure how to act around him.

  “Well, who do you think is driving you?” he asked with a chuckle, still leaning against the doorframe all relaxed and casual. I envied him that; I was feeling anything but relaxed. I felt like one touch from him would be the breaking point of the taut string holding me together.

  “I can drive myself, Trev. You don’t have to take me.”

  “No offense, cher, but you ladies kinda have a reputation for getting a little too wild. I’m on driving duty tonight.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I spun around, hands on hips, all awkwardness from earlier forgotten as my redheaded anger flaired.

  “That means I cover you, Luke covers Emmy, Gavin covers Stacia, Ben covers Mickey, and Jeremy covers Savvy. You five are notorious for trying to drink each other under the table. As a matter of fact, we have a bet going on which one of you gets into the first bar fight.”

  “We’re not that bad!” I defended; knowing deep-down the guys had actually hit the nail on the head. Together and sober, my girls and I were great. Together with alcohol was a totally different scenario. We tended to be a little volatile.

  “Pfft,” he scoffed. “I got my money on you blowing first tonight, tiger. So make Daddy some money.”

  “Okay, first, don’t call yourself Daddy…ever. And secondly, sorry, but I’m afraid you’re going home broke tonight.” I shoved past him and sauntered out of the bathroom with my chin in the air as he laughed behind me. I’d show him. No way in hell was I drinking a thing tonight. I wanted to make sure he lost every dollar he bet.

  Asshole.

  “Why aren’t you drinking?” Savvy slurred an hour later as we stood at the front of the stage while the guys played their set.

  “Because,” I shouted over the music so everyone could hear me. “Did you know the guys make bets on which one of us is gonna get in the first fight every time we come here?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Emmy hollered. “Luke said he’s thinking of pulling out since I can’t fight in my condition. He’s already lost three hundred bucks since I got pregnant.”

  “I made Jeremy a hundred that night we ran into Allison, remember?” Savannah added.

  “You mean y’all knew they were betting on us?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, you didn’t? Stacia asked with a confused expression on her face. “It’s not like they’ve kept it a secret.”

  “Well, shit,” I muttered to myself. “If I’d known, I would have started stacking the deck. At least then me and Trev could have split the damn pot.”

  “Night’s still young, babe,” Savvy said with a drunken pat on my back.

  “Aw, screw it, I want a beer then!”

  The girls cheered as we pushed our way through the crowd to get to the bar.

  “Uh, Lizzy?” Stacia said, pulling on my hand. “Looks like you might get the chance to stack the deck after all.”

  She was looking at something over my shoulder, and when I turned to see what she was staring at, my blood instantly boiled over. Trevor was sitting at the bar with an anxious-looking Luke. His attention was straight ahead, but the bleach-blonde whore currently leaching to his arm didn’t seem to notice his lack of interest.

  “Who the hell is that bitch?” I seethed, not recognizing the soon to be dead woman since her back was to me.

  “I don’t—Oh, holy shit on a shingle,” Savannah shouted when the woman trying to suck Trevor’s face turned, giving us her profile.

  “Shit,” Mickey whispered.

  “What’s going on?” Ben asked. He was completely clueless as he joined us, standing behind Mickey and wrapping his arms around her waist.

  Emmy went stiff as a board. Anger radiated off her so intensely she was practically vibrating with it. “Oh, hell no,” Emmy spit out. Disengaging from the rest of the group, she began stomping her way in the direction of Allison Crabtree, whore-extraordinaire. Allison had been doing her best since we were in school to make Emmy’s life a living hell, even taking it so far as to hook up—well, partially hook up—with Luke one night when Emmy was eighteen. It absolutely crushed her and started an eight-year-long downward spiral that she wasn’t fully pulled out of until Luke finally returned to Cloverleaf a while back. Needless to say, we all hated Allison Crabtree something fierce.

  Luke, noticing his very ang
ry, very pregnant fiancée’ charging toward them like a bull, jumped into action, cutting Emmy off and dragging her back toward the rest of us before she could get anywhere near Allison.

  “What the fuck is she doing within fifty feet of you, Luke?” Emmy pushed out between clenched teeth.

  “Easy, baby girl. She wasn’t even talking to me, swear to God. She’s been all over Trevor for the last ten minutes.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Luke cringed. “Sorry, Lizzy-Lu, didn’t mean it like that. He hasn’t given her the time of day, but you know Allison, bitch won’t clue in.”

  “That’s all right,” I told him with a sugar-sweet smile. Luke was too busy holding Emmy back to be able to grab on to me fast enough. “I’ll just make sure she gets the message.”

  “Shit!” Luke shouted as I pushed my way up to the bar, coming to stand on the other side of Trevor.

  “I’m sorry,” I started politely, Trevor’s body growing stiff as he turned to look at me, but I only had eyes for Allison. “You seem to have your fake tits pressed against my husband.” My voice came out calm, but that was far from how I was feeling. I could barely hear the din of the bar over the blood rushing through my ears.

  “Excuse me,” Allison snapped, her nose scrunched up in disgust as she trailed her eyes up and down my frame, sizing me up. “But we’re having a conversation. It’s rude to interrupt.”

  “Oh, please, by all means, continue.” I smiled as I propped one elbow on the bar, my body facing toward Trevor.

  “No conversation here, baby,” Trevor said as he turned to look at me. His expression was completely neutral and I knew just from looking in his eyes that Allison never stood a chance. “She was just leaving.”

  I leaned down and planted a kiss firmly on his lips, letting the she-bitch on his other side know exactly who he belonged to. When I lifted back up, Trevor was smiling happily.

  Allison went from staring like she wanted to melt the skin off my face to morphing her plastic features into a hateful smirk. “We were just talking about my new tattoo.” She stepped back and lifted her shirt up higher than was required to show me the butterfly near her hip. “Doesn’t Trev do such fantastic work? I swear, when his hands were on me it felt more pleasurable than anything.”

  Trevor let out a huff before saying, “It was strictly work, cher,” but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying over the murderous rage pumping through me.

  “Oh, Trev, honey, you must have dropped this when I gave it to you earlier today,” she said, handing him a card. “I put my cell number on the back for you.”

  Before I had a chance to respond to this slut hitting on my man right in front of me, someone came to stand right behind me and spoke.

  “You know damn good and well he didn’t drop your card,” Mickey spoke. “You tried to give it to him and he wouldn’t take it. Do you get off on trying to be a home-wrecking bitch?”

  Allison cocked her hip, causing her microscopic skirt to ride up to an almost-cringe-inducing level. “It’s not my fault your men can’t help but look at me. If y’all weren’t so frigid, maybe you could keep them happy and they wouldn’t have to come to me looking for a little fun.”

  Mickey went to lunge for her, but Ben wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back. “Easy there, honey. I don’t have my money on you tonight. And I can’t lose another week.”

  I turned my attention back to Trevor and tugged on his collar, saying, “I really liked this shirt; it’s a shame we’re gonna have to burn it now. It’s got syphilis and stuff on it,” I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust. Trevor was mid-drink when he laughed, causing him to choke on his beer.

  I saw the rage bubbling in Allison’s eyes just seconds before she spit out, “How’d you get him to marry you? You get knocked up like your little slut friend back there?” she said, staring Emmy down.

  Trevor shot to his feet and I saw Luke bristle from the corner of my eye as Emmy fought against his hold. I could tell he wanted to let her go so she could pound her into the ground for that remark, but he was right; she was pregnant and couldn’t fight. I, on the other hand, was not.

  “Trevor,” I stated calmly as I stepped in front of him.

  “Yeah, cher?”

  “You’re winning that bet tonight.”

  Then I lunged.

  “Did you really have to break her nose?” Trevor scolded as we made our way in the house later that night.

  “You heard the witnesses. She must have fallen.” I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped as I remembered the look on Allison’s tear-streaked, bloodied face when no one corroborated her story that I’d thrown the first punch. As soon as the sirens sounded from the parking lot, Luke took off like a bat out of Hell so he didn’t have to give a statement.

  “I mean, I’m all for a good cat fight, but damn, baby. It takes all the sexy out when blood gets involved. We like to imagine that women fight with pillows…in lingerie. You’re never supposed to go full fight club.”

  Ignoring Trevor’s ramblings, I look down at my hand. “I think I got some of her blood on my ring,” I said more to myself than to him.

  “Well, I’ m not surprised. You cut her cheek open with that left hook.”

  “Hey!” I defended. “She called Emmy a slut and was rubbing her plastic boobs all over you. What the hell did you expect me to do?”

  “Well, for starters, I’d have preferred no charges were pressed—”

  “They didn’t stick! It was her word against mine. Which means it was her word against that of every other damn person in Cloverleaf.” He just shook his head and headed to the kitchen as I followed behind him, still on an adrenaline high from the fight. “And what about you, huh? You had to just sit there and let Tits McGee rub all up on you? If you’d have just put her in her place to begin with none of that would have happened!”

  “Sit down and give me your hand,” Trevor ordered, closing the freezer door and turning back to face me.

  “Why?”

  “Because your hand is swelling, and you need to ice it. Now sit.”

  I contemplated arguing with him but decided against it when I saw his mouth pulled tight in a serious frown. I kept my mouth shut and plopped my butt down on the stool.

  He studied my hand and told me, “Doesn’t look too bad,” before pressing the icepack to it.

  We both remained quiet as he made sure I hadn’t broken anything. Finally, Trevor broke the silence. “So, you were jealous tonight? Is that what that was, cher?”

  “No!” I scoffed, trying to cover the rapid beat of my heart from being in such close proximity. Trevor’s masculine scent filled my lungs with every inhale. It was more intoxicating than anything I drank at the bar earlier.

  “You sure about that?” he asked with a laugh, his blue gaze landing on mine.

  “N-no. I mean yes!” I had no idea what I was saying. I was too busy staring at his perfectly-shaped lips, imagining if they’d feel as good pressed against mine as they did the first time to pay attention to what he was actually saying.

  “Really? Because I specifically recall you telling her to get her tits off your husband.”

  “Huh?” I asked, the word ‘husband’ somewhat pulling me from my stupor.

  “And I’m pretty sure that you’re staring at me like you want me to kiss you,” he whispered, leaning in closer so our mouths were only an inch or two apart. “Is that what you want, cher? You want me to kiss you?”

  Swallowing loudly, I nodded, unable to form words.

  “Admit you were jealous. Just say it, and I’ll give you want what you want.”

  I could feel his breath against me cheek. The only thought running through my brain was how badly I wanted his lips on me, his body pressed up against mine. I wanted him in every imaginable way.

  “I was jealous,” I whispered, watching as the startling blue in his eyes was nearly swallowed up by the black of his pupils.

  I swear I heard him growl under his breath just a second before he smashed his mouth to
mine in a brutal, mind-numbing kiss. The instant I felt the softness of his lips, instinct kicked in and I opened for him. I craved his taste. There was no suppressing the moan that rose from my chest as his tongue pressed against mine. Grabbing my hair, he pulled my head to the side, giving him better access to take our kiss even deeper.

  We were both out of breath, gasping for air by the time we pulled away, Trevor’s forehead pressed against mine, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to get a hold of himself.

  “This changes things,” he finally said, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes. “If we do this, you’re with me. We can’t go back. You get that?”

  “I get that,” I said with a determined nod. I wanted this. Oh, God, I wanted it so badly.

  “You’ll try this between us? I mean, you’ll really be with me? No more talking about an annulment or anything like that?”

  I reached up and cupped his face in my hands, trying to get him to listen. “Trevor, I want to try this. I really do. I want to be with you, but we don’t have to be married to do that. We can just date, like normal people.”

  His eyes slammed shut as he shook his head against mine. “Just try. Please, Lizzy. That’s all I’m asking.”

  I didn’t understand why it was so important to him that we stay married, but I found I couldn’t fight him on it. I wanted to do everything I could to make him happy.

  “Okay,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his lips as his eyes flew open.

  “Okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll try. But you have to promise not to just walk away from me. I can’t be like all those other women, Trevor. It would hurt too much. I don’t know if I could come back from that.” I dropped my gaze to the ground, embarrassed that I’d just exposed myself so much.

  “Hey, don’t do that. Don’t look away.” He grabbed my chin and lifted my face back up to his, gracing me with his beautiful smile. “No one else, Liz. Only you.” I didn’t know what to think of what he said, but then he kissed me again with such ferocity it scrambled my brain. “I’ll never treat you like that, baby. I swear.”