Lead Me Home: A Fight for Me Stand-Alone Novel

by A. L. Jackson

  The girl’s breaths came shorter just from that simple touch.

  And that’s what this felt like.

  Simple.

  Simple and complicated and perfect.

  Like it’d been coming all along.

  Or maybe it’d just been set to pause, and we had to pick up where we’d left off, even though I knew it couldn’t be as simple as forgetting all those hurtful years stuck in the middle of us.

  Only thing I could do now was make up for them.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, eyes glinting with a thrill.

  “You’ll see,” I told her, moving to straddle my bike and taking her with me.

  “Ah, come on, Ollie. That’s totally not fair. I want to know.” Her voice was filled with laughter.

  She slid in behind me, the insides of her thighs pressing to the outsides of mine.

  Electricity.

  It zinged and shook.

  A chuckle rumbled free as she wrapped those arms around me. I patted her hands that locked to my stomach. “Don’t you trust me?”

  I could feel the draw of her breath, the way she snuggled as close as she could get, holding on tight.

  Her words dropped so low I could barely hear them. “Yes, Ollie. I trust you. I trust you more than anyone else.”

  Trust.

  It was the first time I wanted her to give me hers.

  Swallowing any heaviness down, I kicked over the engine, rolled my bike back, my feet guiding us, before I hit the street.

  I kept our speed low.

  Controlled.

  Careful of my girl who was hugging me from behind. Her heart beating into my back. Hard and wild and drumming with passion.

  Washing me in that warmth.

  We headed through town, taking a couple of turns, before I hit the road that led out toward the river and lakes. The air shifted as we left the traffic behind, full, lush trees growing up at the sides of the two-lane road and closing us in.

  It felt like an embrace.

  A welcome back to the place where we always should have been. I passed by the turn-off to the lake.

  We’d go there one day. To our sacred place. But this felt too raw and new to dive so deeply into the past.

  I’d give us time. Time to adjust.

  My bike glided around a swooping curve in the road.

  Swore, it felt like we were flying.

  Nothing but the feel of the wind and the sound of my bike and the aura of us to fill our senses.

  Suspended.

  Taken.

  Funny because I’d never felt so close to home.

  I slowed when the dirt road approached, and I could feel her shiver of excitement that zipped through her body when I began to wind down toward the river.

  We curved and wound, rounding a corner, and that same endless expanse of purple blazing stars came into view where they grew along the riverbank.

  Instead of continuing on to the old buildings were Rex and Broderick would be developing—where I’d be opening up a second bar, which still blew my mind—I took a right on what was nothing more than an overgrown, bumpy trail down toward the river. It rippled a glittering blue.

  I eased to a stop beneath the big tree where we used to play.

  Its thick branches were stretched out like protection.

  A canopy of security.

  The old rope swing we’d swung from a thousand times as kids was now frayed where it hung from one of the branches that reached over the river, swaying in the light breeze, in time with the spikey blazing stars that poked up through the high grasses.

  I cut the engine.

  Peace covered us.

  The only sounds were the gurgling river and the thunder of our hearts.

  For a few minutes, we just sat there. Taking it in.

  Finally, I took her hand, and a shiver of nervous anticipation rolled through her. Like she wasn’t quite sure why we were there or what my intentions were.

  I started to walk backward, tugging her along. “Come here, I want to show you something.”

  A giggle slipped from between those flirty lips.

  So easy and sweet.

  Carrying on the wind. “You do, huh?” she teased. “What exactly do you want to show me? I know your style of show and tell, Oliver Preston.”

  Laughter rumbled in my chest. “I’ll show you plenty of that later, sweet girl, but right now, I had something else in mind.”

  Her brows rose. “Really? You have something else in mind? Tell me why I don’t believe you. I don’t even know how I’m walkin’ right now. You might as well keep me tied to your bed.”

  Lust twisted through me.

  Hard.

  Fast.

  Couldn’t even come close to stopping the visions that assaulted me with just the thought of getting inside this girl again.

  Over the last week, I’d taken her over and over. Every second I could get her.

  “That sounds like a great idea. I knew you were a smart one.”

  Another giggle. “Smart? I call it needy.”

  “I like you needy and begging my name.”

  “Is that so?” She was stumbling along as I hauled her toward the tree, a smile written on every inch of her face.

  Hell.

  I could see it written all over her body.

  That rail-thin body I’d had to pretend wasn’t close to my taste so I could try to rid her from my mind for all those years. Going after girls who were exactly her opposite. Praying when I closed my eyes, I wouldn’t see her face.

  Impossible.

  She was the only thing I’d ever seen.

  “That’s so. I promise to make you beg it a little bit later, but right now, I want you to sit right here.”

  I took her by the outside of her shoulders and led her to the exact spot, urging her to sit down.

  “What are you doing?” she laughed through the words, shaking her head by following along.

  She settled on the small incline under the shade of the tree.

  I took a step back, my attention rapt.

  “Perfect,” I said.

  She rocked her knees that were bent, tucking her bottom lip between her teeth like she was both shy and relishing the way I was looking at her.

  Without a doubt, I looked like a starving man. All I wanted was to eat her all over again.

  Consume and devour.

  I backed up a few more steps so I could better take her in.

  “What are you looking at?” she finally asked, her voice breathy from that connection that sizzled through the heated air.

  Two of us alive in the other.

  How the hell had I lived without this?

  Without her?

  “You.”

  “I know you’re looking at me, but why?”

  A grin pulled at one side of my mouth.

  “That’s exactly where you were. Right there.”

  I could never forget it.

  She frowned. “Ollie, what in the world are you talking about?”

  I pointed at her. “That’s where you were the day I finally admitted it.”

  Her brows drew closer, and she minimally shook her head in question.

  I took a slow step back her direction. “When I admitted to myself that you were something more than my best friend. When I realized you made me feel different.”

  I turned my gaze away, lifting it toward the wind as I let some of the memories pummel me. Hit me and slam me.

  Instead of hating them, I welcomed them.

  Finally, I looked back at her. “You were whispering with Sydney. She said something about a guy, and I just knew it. Knew it. That you had a boyfriend or someone had kissed you.”

  I took another step forward, and she sucked in a shivered breath.

  Energy pulsed.

  “I’ll never forget the way that felt, Nikki. The way my stomach balled up in a fist and it felt like my heart was gonna bust right out of my chest. I played it off that I was just looking out for you, but it was more
.”

  One step closer, and I dropped to my knees in front of her, my hands going to her knees. I palmed them, dipped my head in closer, my mouth an inch from hers “You were more.”

  She reached out and cupped the side of my face, tenderness moving through her expression as she studied me. Her thumb traced along the hollow of my eye, and her head tipped in emphasis. “I think you were always more. I just didn’t know what that meant yet.”

  I lunged at her, tackling her to the soft earth. She gasped and yelped and then laughed.

  That sweet, sweet sound floated on the wind.

  Twisted through me.

  I pushed up onto my hands and stared down at her. The girl who’d always been my forever.

  There she was, all laid out on a bed of blazing stars.

  Purple a halo around her head.

  I reached out and plucked one, twirled the stem between my thumb and index finger. I brushed the tip down her cheek.

  Softly.

  Her lips parted on a sigh.

  “Did you know the first time I saw you, what I noticed was your eyes? I thought they were the exact same color as these flowers, but like they were floatin’ through the air. Transparent. Like I could see right inside of you. I won’t ever forget that moment, either.”

  Her fingertips scratched through my beard. “I don’t think I could ever forget a moment with you, Oliver Preston.”

  I kissed at the tips of her fingers, wanting to take in every bit of her.

  The movement was almost playful, but my words were somber. “We’ve got a lot of bad memories, Nikki.”

  She nodded slow. “Yeah. But we have a lot of good ones, too. That’s what makes up life. The good and the bad. We couldn’t have one without the other. We couldn’t share a life without experiencing both sides of it.”

  “That what you want? To share a life with me?” My voice was gruff.

  “I always wanted that.”

  “Good,” I said, making her squeal when I suddenly reached around her and flipped our positions. She straddled me at the waist, her hands on my chest, all that hair blowing around her, whipped by the wind.

  Stirring our spirits.

  I tightened my hold. “Don’t think you could get rid of me if you tried.”

  She grinned. “And why would I want to go and do something like that? Not when all my matchmaking skills have finally started to work in my favor.”

  “Oh, you think you’re responsible for this, too, huh?”

  She widened her eyes. “Um, hello, I am the Orgasm Fairy.”

  “And who’s the one giving them?” I teased. “Guess I’ll have to stop handing them out like they’re candy and then we can decide who’s really responsible.”

  Nikki dipped down, pressing her mouth to mine.

  All kinds of possessive.

  Just the way I wanted her.

  Then I could feel the weight of her grin. “Don’t you dare. You owe me all the orgasms. All. Of. Them. Forever.”

  “Greedy girl.”

  “Accept it. You created a monster.”

  “I thought you said I was the monster. Ogre, to be correct.”

  “I told you . . . you’re my beast. Get used to it.”

  I laughed.

  A laugh that came from my belly, but I was pretty sure it originated in the depths of me. In that dark place that was somehow feeling a fraction lighter.

  Like maybe I was finally letting a little of me go.

  Didn’t mean I wouldn’t still battle demons.

  But what Nikki and I had going?

  Maybe it was stronger.

  That’s what I wanted to be.

  Strong for her.

  Right for her.

  I brushed my knuckles down the defined curve of her face, and she leaned into my touch. “Everything I have, I want to give to you. I belong to you, Nikki.”

  And I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.

  An hour later, I weaved back into town, Nikki clinging to me where she sat on the back of my bike.

  Wasn’t sure anything had ever felt so right.

  I rumbled to a stop in front of the old market that we used to come to all the time as kids, saving up coins so we could go in to buy ice cream or candy or sodas.

  The second I stopped, Nikki was climbing off and going through the buckle of the helmet, grinning back at me as she headed for the entrance since she’d said she would just run in really quick to grab something to make for us for dinner tonight.

  I hopped off, stalking right behind her.

  She’d barely made it onto the sidewalk when I snagged her wrist, spun her around, and pinned her to the wall.

  Plastered myself against that sweet body.

  I kissed her hard.

  Tongue gliding against hers.

  My hands wrapped up in that honeyed hair.

  She released a tiny moan, and I rubbed myself against her, and she was moaning again before she was laughing and pushing me back. “What are you doing, Ollie? You’re gonna get us arrested for indecency.”

  “The only thing indecent around here is how hot you look.”

  “Ollie,” she admonished, a flush lighting up those cheeks.

  Sunshine.

  “What? My girlfriend is smoking hot.”

  Her eyes went wide.

  So yeah, it was the first time I’d said it in what felt like a hundred years.

  I’d said it before.

  But I’d never gotten to claim it.

  I grabbed her hand and started leading her toward the entrance, my voice lifting a little louder than it probably needed to be.

  Strike that.

  It was completely, one hundred percent necessary.

  “My girlfriend is hot!” I shouted.

  “Ollie.”

  Nikki’s head whipped around, wondering what attention we’d gathered, but she was giggling under her breath. She struggled to keep up as I hauled her inside and grabbed a cart.

  I started pushing it down the first aisle.

  “I thought I was just running in by myself?” she asked.

  “What, I just wanted to be near my girlfriend.”

  Yep, the words were elevated again.

  A woman who was probably only a handful of years older than us cut us a glance.

  I totally ignored it. “What are we having for dinner? I’m going to need to hang down in the bar for a few hours to make sure things are running smoothly, but I won’t stay too long.”

  “Chicken and potatoes. And you don’t have to take off more time, Ollie. You’ve barely been down there all week.”

  “What? I just want to be with my girlfriend.” The last I all but shouted.

  An old lady blushed, peeking our way, her husband grinning wide.

  “My girlfriend is gorgeous, isn’t she?” I asked them as they ambled by. I swept an arm at Nikki like she was a prize.

  That’s exactly what she was.

  “Sure is,” the old guy agreed, “almost as pretty as mine.”

  His wife shushed him with a blush, and I was grinning so fucking hard I thought I was gonna break my face.

  Nikki’s smile was just about as big, but she was shaking her head, tugging at my hand like she needed to get me out of there before I caused any more of a scene. “Are you insane? You’re going to get us kicked out of here.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time,” I told her.

  “Uh, yeah, and the last time I had to have my mama come pick me up at the station because you and Rex had knocked that whole display over playing chase. Whole wall of glass mayonnaise jars smashed on the ground. It wasn’t pretty.”

  “But you’re pretty,” I shot at her.

  “Ollie.” She was smiling as she searched my eyes, clearly wondering what had gotten into me.

  She had.

  She so absolutely had.

  I yanked her close to me. “I want everyone to know it, Nikki. That you’re mine. No more hiding.”

  She set both of those hands on my
face and hiked up on her tiptoes. She pressed the gentlest kiss to my lips. “No more hiding.”

  “C’mere,” I told her, voice going soft as I wound her in front of me, wrapping my arms around her and taking the cart again.

  She giggled and sank against my chest, my mouth planting kisses along the side of her jaw as we wandered down the aisle. “Mine,” I whispered against her temple.

  “Nikki?”

  The voice stopped both of us in our tracks, and our attention jerked to the source.

  There was Sammie coming the other direction, a baby sleeping in her arms and her husband pushing a cart beside her.

  Bottled rage rumbled in that ugly, dark space inside me. I knew it wasn’t gone. There were some things that didn’t just go away.

  Like the fury I felt that some asshole had hurt her in some way.

  Nikki had confessed to me a few days ago that she was having trouble sleeping because she was so worried about her sister. That her sister hadn’t called her or come to her, and Nikki was fearing she wouldn’t be able to sit idle for much longer.

  Worried her sister might be in trouble.

  Surprise streaked across Sammie’s face as she took in the two of us.

  Nikki was still caged between the cart and me, my head barely angling toward them, two of us about as close as we could get in a public place.

  I could feel the strain return to Nikki, and she unwound herself from my hold and cleared her throat.

  Sammie actually grinned.

  Wry and knowing.

  Eyes so close to the same as Nikki’s were locked on me for a beat before she turned her attention to Nikki. “Looks like we have some catching up to do.”

  A nervous giggle escaped from Nikki, and she fidgeted with her hair, trying to straighten it which was impossible after the ride on the bike. She peeked back at me. “Yeah, we definitely have some catching up to do.”

  Nikki seemed to shake the surprise off and stepped toward her sister, lowering her voice. “How have you been?”

  Awareness moved through Sammie’s expression, and my eyes were locked on her husband.

  Studying.

  Searching.

  Watching for any sort of reaction that might be off.

  Sammie glanced over at her husband.

  There was no warning for her to keep quiet. No hardness. Just a soft understanding in his eyes.

  The anger that threatened to boil inside me eased back into a simmer. I was pretty sure this guy wasn’t the one responsible for whatever Sammie was going through.