Lily stared at him for so long that he started to fidget, looking down at his pant leg and smoothing an imaginary crease.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have—"
She cut him off.
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
He looked back up, his gaze jumping from her face to some point over her shoulder, back to her face again. "Yes," he said. He sounded more nervous than she would have expected someone who looked like him to sound, asking someone who looked like her out. She wasn't ugly, certainly, but her hair was her best feature, and the rest of her was just pretty... average.
It was a long time since she had been on a date. Lily found a smile somewhere. "You know, I would actually really like that."
Corbin's grin was back, lighting his dark eyes. "Sunday, then," he said. "I'll be looking forward to it."
Lily hit play again. She would be looking forward to it too, actually, she admitted to herself as the room filled with the sound of the television. And, she decided as she took a bite, the brownies were delicious. She made sure to tell Corbin so before she finished hers off.
Chapter Three
She hadn't meant for him to stay long, but she didn't bother to chase him out. It was comfortable having him around. The TV seemed to amuse and baffle him by turns, and his commentary kept her laughing. It was so enjoyable that Lily entirely forgot she'd meant to send him home before her dad got back.
True to form, he announced his presence loudly, the door slamming against the wall with the force of its opening, and Lily and Corbin both jumped, Lily scrambling into a more upright position and hitting the mute button. She could hear his heavy footsteps in the hall, stumbling and uneven.
“Lily!"
The word was slurred, his voice sliding on the drink, and Lily cursed under her breath.
"I'm sorry, Corbin," she said, rising. "I'll be see you on Sunday, okay?"
He stood with her, and she could see the disappointment clear in his expression, but he nodded. Her father appeared in the living room doorway, leaning against the frame in a way that suggested he was about to fall down at any moment.
"Who's this?"
"The next-door neighbor, Dad," Lily said, trying to keep her tone even. "Why don't you go up to bed? You look pretty tired.”
He shook his head. In his hand was a half-full bottle, sloshing with his motions.
"Not tired. Was going watch some TV. But since you're getting busy with the neighbor boy, guess I'll have to find something else to do."
She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “That sounds like a good idea. Maybe in your own room?”
Lily was not looking at Corbin. She didn't want to see the expression on his face. Didn't want to see him giving up on her, the way everyone else had. They'd all told her that she shouldn't let her father stay, that she was only enabling him, but she couldn't just throw him out on the street, and if he wouldn't stay in rehab, she couldn't force him to. What was she supposed to do?
Her father hadn't moved. He was still standing there, squinting at Corbin.
"Probably don't want to sit on that couch anyway now," he muttered, turning.
"I'm sorry?" Corbin didn't sound offended. He sounded confused.
"Dad!" The word came out sharp.
Her father turned to look at her, swaying with the momentum of the motion.
"Don't talk to me like that, young lady."
"May I remind you," Lily said, "that this is my house."
"And I'm your father, no matter how old you are. This is the first friend of yours I’ve seen in a while. Guess you don't like him much, do you?"
"I think, sir," Corbin said, his voice calm, but with an edge of ice that made Lily look up at him in surprise, "that you should go lie down before you say something to your daughter you'll regret."
Her father's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline.
"Are you tellin' me what to do, boy?"
Now was really not the time for this. Lily laid a hand on Corbin's shoulder as he took a step forward, and he went still under her touch, shoulders slumping.
"He doesn't know what he's saying," she said, softly enough that her father wouldn't be able to hear.
Corbin didn't look convinced, but he also didn't attempt to take another step forward. For that Lily was grateful. Her father turned away and they heard him stomping up the stairs, stumbling occasionally, and then the sound of a door slamming shut.
"I'm so sorry about that," Lily said, turning to look at him. Her cheeks were still hot with embarrassment. "I didn't realize he would be home yet or I wouldn't have kept you so long."
"You don't need to be sorry," he said quietly. "I'm sorry that you have to deal with that every night."
It was a nice thing to say. Lily tried to find a smile for him. It came up a little wobbly at its edges, but there.
"He's usually not that bad," she said. "He usually just comes home and staggers upstairs to pass out."
"You know you don't have to live like this," Corbin says. "There are places you can go, organizations that can help you care for him."
Not if he rejected everything she tried. Lily shook her head.
"I tried to send him to rehab. It didn't go well. And without a court order from a judge—which I'm not going to try to get—I can't force him to stay there. He's a grown man. I did what I could, but I don't know what to do anymore."
Corbin looked down at her as tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, and then he reached out and settled a careful hand on her shoulder. Lily leaned into it without meaning to.
"I wish sometimes that he had other places to go," she admitted. "But he doesn't, and putting him out isn't an option."
Corbin's hand tightened a little. "No. I'm not suggesting that," he assured her. "I don't think you should either. But I don't like seeing you hurt so much.”
He talked like he actually cared. Lily supposed it shouldn't have surprised her. He had always been kind to her.
"I'm handling it," she tried.
The look he gave her said that her attempt had not at all succeeded. She didn't sound like someone who was handling it, she knew. Probably didn't look like someone who was handling it, either. She hadn’t quite managed to blink back all the tears.
“You don’t have to handle it alone,” Corbin said. “Let me help you.”
A sound that might have been a sob if she’d let it escape caught in Lily’s throat. He knew already, and the prospect of having someone she could talk to, of not having to carry it all on her own, was so tempting. A moment passed. Lily nodded.
“Okay,” she said, hardly above a whisper. “I… Yeah.”
Moving slowly, giving her time to back out, he wrapped his arms around her. After a moment of hesitant indecision, Lily let herself sink into it, wrapping her arms around him in return and resting her head against his shoulder. Her arms shook, though she didn’t let herself cry. It was the safest she had felt in nearly a year.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
His arms tightened around her, and they stood there together in silence.
Chapter Four
Sunday night came quickly. Lily slid the last jeweled pin into the twist of her hair and stood regarding herself in the mirror for a moment, looking back at the blue eyes that met her own in the glass. She looked good, she decided, offering her reflection a smile. Corbin would like the sleek black dress she'd chosen, she was sure.
He knocked on the door at exactly 6:00 PM. When she opened it, he was standing on the front step with a bouquet of brightly colored flowers in one hand. His eyes widened when he saw her, and Lily hid a smile. She had thought he would like the dress.
“The flowers are beautiful. Please come in.”
She led him into the house and took the flowers from him to settle them into a vase, pleased with the vivid splash of color.
"I'm so glad," she said as they walked from the kitchen toward his car, "that you didn't get me lilies."
He looked at her, a question in the tilt of h
is head.
"Everyone gets me lilies. Boys in high school thought it was so clever. A lily for Lily.” She rolled her eyes.
Corbin laughed.
"No lilies for you, then. I'll remember that."
In the car, Lily closed her eyes for a moment, leaning her head back. It was nice here. Peaceful, after the weekend with her father. He'd been even more belligerent since the night he'd walked in on her and Corbin, and they'd had a shouting match that morning in the kitchen that hadn't been any more productive than any of the arguments they'd had since his drinking started. When Lily had stalked out onto the porch in the wake of it, she'd found a black cat sitting on the front step. It must have been one of the neighbors’, though she hadn't seen it before. He had wound himself around her ankles until she gathered him up into her arms. Surely the neighbors wouldn't mind someone petting their cat. He had purred loudly enough to drown out the spinning of her thoughts, and if she buried her face against his soft fur for a moment and let a few tears fall, well, no one else had to know. The cat certainly wasn't going to tell.
"Are you okay?"
Lily opened her eyes and turned to look at Corbin, who was giving her a somewhat worried sideways glance.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "I'm fine. Just the same old stuff."
His jaw tightened, she saw, but he nodded.
"Well, tonight, we’ll get you away from it.”
"That would be fantastic. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, Corbin."
He smiled that wide grin she remembered from the night he'd brought the brownies over.
"No need. I’m the lucky one here.”
Lily flushed, and then looked down at her hands, but she couldn't help the smile that settled onto her face.
They pulled up to the restaurant a short while later, and Corbin got out and came around to open her door.
"And they say chivalry is dead," she said as he opened the door to the restaurant too.
"They say a lot of things. I find that most of them are wrong," he replied.
Lily smiled at him as the hostess led them to their table. They were good together, she discovered as they talked more. She found herself forgetting the earlier events of the day, laughing along with stories Corbin told about the people at his office. He coaxed her into sharing a few work stories of her own.
"Tell me something," he said when their most recent bout of laughter had died down. "If you could do anything, what would it be?"
She sat in silence for a long moment, looking down at the table. If she could do anything...
"I'd travel," she said finally. "I know it's kind of a cliché. Everyone says they'd travel. But I'd love to see more places. Do more things.”
He was nodding.
"I like to travel," he said. "Very much, in fact."
“What do you like about it?”
“Spending so much time so far from home,” he said carefully. “It changes your perspectives. You find yourself considering possibilities you never would have before. Doing things you wouldn’t have dreamed of.” He looked up, pulling his thoughts back from some faraway place, and smiled at her, reaching across the table to carefully take her hand in his. “You find that truths you once took for granted aren’t truths at all.”
Chapter Five
The orchestra was amazing. Corbin had wrapped his arm around Lily and let her lean into him as they listened, and she'd rested her head on his shoulder, watching the musicians move with the music. When it had ended, she wished it hadn't.
She wished none of this night had to end. But they were pulling into his driveway, and it would be over a few minutes. She would have to go back to her house and her father and her life, and she sat quietly as he turned the car off and came to open her door, setting her hand in his and allowing him to help her out.
"Lily."
She raised her eyes to meet Corbin's.
"Why don't you come inside with me? We could have a drink."
She knew very well that she shouldn't. Her father would be home. Someone needed to check on him. But she glanced from her own house to his, and she nodded.
"I would like that."
His smile was bright even in the dim light of the streetlamps, and he led her up to the door, opening it for her and inviting her in with a sweep of his hand. The home was very similar to her own—entry with a living room to the side of it, the kitchen straight ahead, stairs leading up to the bedrooms on the upper floor. His furniture looked almost new, and his carpet was pristinely white, unlike her own. Lily almost felt guilty for walking on it when she moved over to the couch and sat down.
"I'll be right back."
She took the opportunity of Corbin ducking into the kitchen to look around a little further. There were no little knick-knacks sitting on the shelves or the mantle over the gas fireplace. There were a few frames. One held an image of Corbin and a man and woman who must have been his parents. The other was him posing with a guy a little younger than himself, same dark eyes and hair. A brother, maybe. The third was just a picture of a rocky seashore, maybe somewhere on the northwest coast. She wondered when it had been taken.
Corbin reappeared with drinks in hand, and held one out to her. She took it with a smile and a thank you, then sipped at the liquor. It had been a while since she'd had a drink. She hadn't wanted to, after her father. For a long time she'd been afraid that she would end up the way he had. But here, with Corbin, she felt safe enough to have one. It burned on the way down, warming her. Carefully, she set the glass on the coffee table, and turned to face him.
"I had a good time tonight. Thank you for taking me."
He smiled.
"I did too."
They were sitting close enough that she could feel the warmth of his leg against her own. She looked up and found herself caught in his gaze, moving in closer. His hand lifted, his fingertips brushing along her cheek as his palm settled into place against her jaw, and Lily leaned into it, eyelids dropping shut as they drew near enough that she could feel his breath on her lips.
"May I?"
She almost laughed.
"Yes," she answered without opening her eyes. "Please do."
His lips were warmer than she had expected, gentle. For a moment, the kiss was almost chaste. Then his tongue traced the seam of her lips, careful and tender. She opened under the silent coaxing, allowing him in.
They shifted closer together, his arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her nearly into his lap, her arms sliding around his neck.
When the kiss broke, it was only for a moment, long enough to catch their breath before they were wrapped up in each other again. The hand that had been on her face moved back, deftly freeing pins from her hair. Lily didn't have breath enough to complain. Her hair fell loose around her shoulders and his fingers tangled in it, a quiet sigh catching in the kiss. That was something to remember, then, Lily thought a little distantly. He liked her hair.
This time, when the kiss broke, they drew back far enough to look each other in the eye. Both of them were smiling, a little breathless.
"Tell me what you're comfortable with?" he asked gently. "I don't want to push you anywhere you don't want to go."
God, he was sweet.
"There's nowhere I don't want to go with you," she said, knowing as she spoke them that the words were true.
He leaned in again and kissed her hard, his hand tightening in her hair.
"If you want me to stop, ever, tell me. I promise I will," he said against her mouth when he pulled back to let them breathe.
She smiled against his lips, and promised she would tell him. But she didn't want to stop. She wanted closer, wanted more.
The arm around her waist pulled her into Corbin's lap, and she pressed against him until there wasn't space for even air between them, her fingers sliding up to run through his hair, making him moan softly. She really liked that sound. His fingers found the zipper of her dress, drawing it down.
Part of Lily knew they were moving fast, that
maybe they should slow it down, but it wasn't like he was a stranger. She trusted Corbin. And it had been so long since she'd been allowed to just enjoy herself. She wanted him, and she wanted him tonight. So she pulled back enough to reach for the buttons of his shirt, undoing them with an urgency that matched his as he slid her dress off her shoulders. She had to pause to let it fall down her arms and pull her wrists from the sleeves, and then she went back to the shirt, pulling it off of him as the last button was undone, and yanking his undershirt over his head. He laughed, muffled, from inside it, and Lily grinned.
"I guess I don't have to worry about you making your desires clear," he said when she could see his face again. His hair was in disarray, falling loose around his face. He was grinning.
"Not a bit," Lily agreed.
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to her neck, pulling a gasp from her as he kissed along the arch of her throat and down to her collarbone, tracing the same line back up with gentle little bites. His hands slid up her sides to cup her breasts through the black lace of her bra, and she was glad she'd worn the nice lingerie.
"I've wanted you for so long," he breathed against her skin. "God, Lily. You don't even know."
"Really?"
Her hands were still in his hair, a silent request for more of the kisses.
"Since the day you moved in," he admitted. He lifted his head to look up at her. "I saw you carrying that enormous box you insisted on taking in yourself, refusing to let anyone else lift it for you, and I just... wanted you."
Lily's cheeks flushed.
"I looked awful that day. My hair was a mess."
"No." He smiled at her, reached back to unfasten her bra. "You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. And you can laugh all you want. I know it’s overdone. But it’s true.”
His fingers fumbled a little with the catch, but he got it before she felt the need to reach back and help him, and then he tossed it to the side, his eyes sliding over her skin, lingering like a touch on her breasts. Lily's blush deepened; she wanted to reach up and cover herself. She wasn't used to men looking at her like that, like they had all the time in the world to just explore her with their eyes.
MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) Page 51
