Bayou Bishops Box Set: Books 1-12

CHAPTER 7

Felix hated the suspicion that came with every nice thing Nitro said and did. She didn’t want to think about if he meant it or if he had an ulterior motive because that would be more heartbreak than she could handle. Her little games were entering dangerous waters even for her. She already had very little experience with anything male related, other than the one very bad experience with the ex. And this one was becoming so big to her, bigger than anything she’d ever experienced. She wanted so much to believe it was all sincere without feeling that huge rock in her gut. And there was no other way to know how real he was being than to wait and see. During which she’d slowly fall so madly in love it would kill her if it turned out she was all wrong.

What if she was reading too far into things? What if she was ascribing the wrong conclusions to everything he said and did? Maybe saying she was beautiful was just a statement of fact. Didn’t have to mean he liked her.

The tour she’d given him had been very brief. Her last boyfriend made it clear she was obsessed with her birds and that was a turn-off. It was a painful lesson she took careful note of and from then on kept tucked in close. She was already an introvert around people, but her birds were the one passion she could not control her mouth with. Nitro asked a lot of questions and she forced herself to be generic and not elaborate for an hour on each answer. Oddly enough, he really seemed to want to know about the bats. She smiled at remembering the look on his face when talking about them. He hated bats. And she’d thought it was cute given his position in the Hatch.

She almost regretted the swimming date which was now. He was probably wondering where she was. Going out in a bathing suit and him in…whatever he might wear felt like a door she wouldn’t be able to shut once she went through it.

There was no getting out of it now. She didn’t want to. She wanted this too much even with the risk. And the bathing suit she dared to wear proved her desperation. She put cut off shorts over the bottom. The top was one of those types with a strapless bra design and sheer material hanging over the midsection. She’d gotten black because it was mature and then she had an eye roll session with herself in the mirror when she remembered there was nobody to show it off to. Geeze bella-louise.

But today there was. And she was gonna puke her guts up because of it.

After ditching her wide brimmed hat, she slid a hair tie on her wrist in case she decided having her hair down wasn’t working.

Go, quit lollygagging!

She wrapped a towel around her waist and headed to the pond. She tried to put her mind in a familiar place to hide her nerves. She was doing great till Nitro came into view, standing on the platform in only…dear God was that underwear? Holy glorious batshit. She wouldn’t be able to hide what that did to her. With his back to her, she lust-drooled at that god-like body. He turned a little, causing the huge tattoo on his back to glisten in the sun. It reminded her of the seal she’d seen throughout her life on various signs in the swamps. Lord, look at all that muscle. And he was so white. Nearly blinding in the sun. It would’ve been funny if it didn’t make him look like her favorite ice cream flavor. Scandalous visions of her licking every inch of him brought heat flooding in.

He turned maybe sensing her as she stepped onto the pier leading to the floating dock.

“I was thinking you stood me up.”

Oh God his smile. She’d never seen him give one like it before and it stole her breath. Just a smile, stop making it all precious.

The willpower it took not to look down and see his privates was outrageous. “Sorry, I…had to do something with the birds.” Crap, she wasn’t a liar!

His gaze lowered over her and the walk to him suddenly felt fatalistic. God, she was thinking too much. When she got to the platform part it took an insane amount of willpower not to use her arms as a shield over her chest.

“Nice swimsuit,” he said.

“Oh, you know…nothing fancy,” she gushed, feeling lightheaded.

He lowered his gaze, his sexy grin still intact. “Is that my towel? I forgot to get one.”

Her chest filled with heart palpitations. “Oh. Sure.” She removed it and held it up between, temporarily blocking her view of him and him of her.

He took it and dried his arms while her gaze sucked him in. She took quick notes, intending to return later to drool over them. She wanted to touch him and feel everything that seemed impossible. She’d heard of washboard abs and always thought it was a funny way to describe muscles. But seeing the ripples that close up wasn’t funny at all. The rows of hard flesh were fascinating and in need of measuring and exploring. Her gaze caught on the dark hair at his lower stomach.

“You’re going to make me blush,” he chuckled.

Her gaze snapped up. Oh God, he’d been watching her stare. Panic seized the moment, and she turned her flaming face away. “Really is a pretty day,” she said in a weak voice.

“It’s beautiful,” he agreed, her mind imagining he’d meant her.

“How’s the water?” she asked, turning when the platform rocked. He’d sat.

“Not too bad, actually,” he said quietly.

She sat too, putting a friendly amount of space between them. “After the first frost, it begins to cool a lot.” She felt his eyes on her as she put her feet in the water. “Oh,” she muttered. “Chillier than I expected.”

“You swim in the winter?”

She nodded, daring a look toward him. “It’s invigorating. I like it.” God, she sounded like a child. “I usually fish more than I swim. I stocked the pond with Tilapia. It’s my favorite. They multiply really fast and are hard to kill. Least that’s what I was told and… so far so good.”

“You build docks, you repair things, and stock ponds. You sure you need a partner?”

The topic made her stomach dance. The marriage topic. It used to repulse her so much that she’d started referring to a male counterpart as a partner. But now with him in the picture… “Would be nice to have somebody to share it all with.”

“Whoever the lucky man is will be inheriting a paradise.”

She didn’t know how to take that or answer it. “Glad you like it. I love it.”

“You okay?”

She regarded his curious angled look, his sexiest yet. “I’m fine,” she lied again.

“And you train birds to be soldiers. When do I get to see a demonstration?”

She laughed at that. “I don’t know. I never really show people.”

“But you’ll make an exception for me?”

God yes. He got every exception in the book. She answered him with a nod.

“You swimming in that?”

She felt his eyes on her shorts. “I…no,” she muttered at hearing the humor in his voice.

He stood and dropped the towel and dove in. He surfaced and turned in the water, catching her staring again. “You coming?” he asked, swimming his way back to the dock, stopping at her legs. He took hold of her ankles and she gasped. “You need help?”

“Don’t!” she warned when he tugged a little.

He released them only to send a splash of water on her.

“Nitro!” She hurried to stand while his laughter brought goosebumps to her flesh.

“What?” he returned with a challenge, sending another splash of water.

She turned with a squeal then bit the bullet, undoing her shorts. As fast as she could, she removed them and dove off the side of the platform.

****

Nitro’s cock lurched when her jean shorts dropped. He was already hard from how sweet she was being with him. Night and day. She didn’t mean to give him a perfect ass show but her inability to face him while she undressed seemed to require it. She was utter perfection. He never recalled a finer ass and already his mind envisioned his hands locked on both perfectly rounded cheeks.

She came up halfway across the pond and he laughed. “That’s how it’s gonna be?” he teased, loving what his flirting did to her.

“I’m gonna get you back for that,” she threatened, swimming toward him.

He waited till she reached him, making his way toward the platform. “Promises,” he said, out of breath as he stared at this new look on her. There wasn’t any angle she wasn’t beautiful in he concluded. But with her hair wet and back, she was fucking ethereal. Except for the black running down her face.

“What?” she wondered as he grinned.

She wiped her mouth and nose and he laughed more. “You look like you’ve been in a nasty fight and got two shiners.”

She gasped, wiping her face. “Crap,” she cried, making her way toward the dock while wiping at the inky smears.

With only five feet between them now, he was having a time remembering where he was on his bird mission. He had all night to get to it and decided to focus on other things he wanted. Like flirting with her and watching the cock-aching show that came with it. “I’m still waiting on the name of that boyfriend,” he muttered getting her surprised face.

“Why?”

He eyed her, debating that answer. “To kick his ass,” he settled for.

Her jaw dropped a little. “Why?” she sputtered out again.

“For a lot of things.”

She gave half a smile. “Like?”

“I can’t really say,” he muttered, holding her blue gaze. “In front of a lady.”

She made sputtering noises of indifference that made him chuckle. She was fun to compliment. “I’m not a child,” she finally got out, a hint of anger in her voice.

Yeah, that mess. He definitely needed to clean it. And yet… “For one, he turned you against things you should love.”

She wiped her face again, seeming to need something to do besides look at him. It made him want exactly that from her. “I’m fine,” she assured, in a frail voice. “I’m sure it was just…him.” She nodded a little

“I’m sure it was too,” he said, while hearing she believed the opposite. “So how long did you date him?” He really needed to lighten the mood and pull her out of her shell, but this was definitely not the way.

“Maybe…six months.”

“That was fast.”

She nodded with a pop of her brows, casting a brief look his way. “I don’t know much about…dating. Probably all the birds drove him away.”

“I hope you sicked Falcore on him.”

She laughed and he smiled at the sound. “If I had known he was breaking up, I might have.”

That fucker. “So, he just never came back?”

She shook her head slow and big. “Or answered my calls. Or texts. Turns out I have three days’ worth of non-stop calling and texting before I have to rescue my pride and accept the obvious.”

“And what did you say his name was again?”

She laughed real big, peeking at him. “I didn’t. But I might be tempted to after hearing myself say all of it. Ugh.”

“One day you’ll forget everything he did and didn’t do.”

“You think?” she asked, barely touching him with her gaze.

“I know,” he said positively. “One day a man will show you everything he stupidly failed to.”

She grew extra quiet and shy and somehow he got fucking harder over it. “You mean…the pleasure stuff?”

The pleasure stuff. He fucking loved her shy. “Definitely the pleasure stuff.”

Her brows pulled together while staring at the water between them. Even in the direct afternoon sun her skin flushed. “I thought…maybe it was me. I’m not…I mean I don’t…”

“It’s not you,” he assured, carefully moving a foot closer to her. “It was definitely all him. The little nameless bastard.”

She barely smiled and he realized she was getting too nervous. He put his hands on the dock and hopped out and sat. He grabbed the towel and draped it around his shoulders then glanced down, finding her staring up at him. He held his hand out to her. “Need a lift?” he asked.

She looked at the offer and reached up after deliberating something. Likely him seeing her almost naked. She put her other hand on the pier, and he pulled her up so she landed right next to him. He decided not to move and instead smiled at her before shoving her with his shoulder. “What is Petite Pwah thinking?”

She gave a shy smile and looked around while he snuck a look of everything she exposed to him. “How nervous I am,” she gasped out.

“What are you nervous about?”

She gripped the edge of the dock, looking down. “I don’t have a lot of experience around…men, I guess. Probably why I don’t have one.”

“You’re only twenty. There’s not a time limit on that. I’m sure if you were swamp hopping, you’d have a husband by now.”

She shrugged. “I don’t think I’m the kind of girl most men are attracted to.”

He had to laugh at that. At seeing her worry, he shook his head and looked at her. “You really don’t know how beautiful you are?” At seeing the slight break in her broken self-esteem, he added, “How fucking fine you are?”

She gave a blast of flustered breaths before turning her face away.

“Not that I was staring, but you have the finest ass I have ever seen in my life.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped-laughed, daring a glance at him as he laughed too. “Why are you saying all this?”

He gradually sobered. “Because that lie in your pretty head needs to be cast out.” He looked right at her then. “You need to know how amazing you are and never doubt that. No matter what any man says or does or doesn’t do.” He handed her the towel, seeing she was ready to hide now.

They sat in silence as he wondered how much he fucked up again.

“You’re beautiful,” she suddenly gushed. “I just…want you to know the truth too. You’re cute I mean. Or handsome,” she added, breathless while looking down. “I don’t know which words are appropriate. Except the beautiful one. I know that one’s right.”

Christ. He needed the towel back to hide his raging hard on. “I’ve never been told that,” he said, honestly at a loss for words.

“Probably stupid thing to say.”

“Not stupid at all.” His cock wasn’t all her words touched though. What she touched. And it made him need to give her what the nameless bastard failed to. To show her she wasn’t broken. And seeing how bad she needed him to show her made it as good as gospel. But he needed her to decide that. Which meant he needed to ask. Maybe he needed to prime her a little more for that. Find an indirect way to melt that frigid layer life put around her. “Can I cook for you tonight?”

Her shy look burned his cock. “You still apologizing? Cause I forgave you like…way back.”

He smiled at how fucking sweet that was. “I just want to,” he said, as fire formed in his thoughts for her.

“Okay,” she said, letting a real smile slip. “I’d like that.”