Twelve #3
Another grunt before he shoved me away and left the room. I looked back at the two women and found them both staring openmouthed at me.
“What?”
“Jory,” Regina breathed out. “Sam—he—oh. How long are you staying with Sam?”
“Just until the end of the court case, like I told you. Why?”
She nodded slowly, and her mouth made a slow O as she dragged in a breath.
“What case?” Rachel asked her mother.
“I’ll tell you later. Jory, honey, we all just love you,” Regina said quickly, and I smiled at her.
“Thank you.”
Her eyes were absorbing me.
“I promise you it’s usually not so eventful around here.” Rachel gave me a big fake smile, lying through her teeth.
I shrugged. “It’s okay. Sometimes families fight, right? No big. But hey, I’m sorry I can’t finish up the dishes, but Sam’s ready to jet.”
“Honey, you helped enough already,” Regina said quietly. “I was going to tell you to go sit down and watch some football with the men anyway.”
“Like I didn’t enjoy every minute of it.” I grinned lazily. “I had a great time.”
“Well, you fit in just perfect,” she assured me. “So don’t be a stranger.”
I darted across the kitchen and hugged first Regina and then her daughter. “Thank you so much.”
Sam came back into the room, and they both stared at him.
“What?” he asked irritably.
His mother just shook her head.
“Okay then,” he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek and then Rachel’s. “I’ll see ya.”
I took my coat as he held it out for me and reminded him that we needed to stop at the store on the way home because we needed cereal for the morning and Tide so I could finish the laundry.
“Whatever.” He yawned, the exasperation not lost on me.
I glared at him, and the smile I got back was huge.
“Jesus, you’re a pain in the ass,” he grumbled, shoving me out the back door in front of him.
As we walked around the side of the house, he draped an arm around my neck and pulled me tight against him.
“What’re you doing?” I snapped at him, trying to push him off me.
“You were so jealous.”
“What?”
“What?” he repeated. “You’re so fulla shit. I saw the way you were lookin’ at me and Nora.”
“If I was looking at you in any way, I can assure you it was entirely—”
His laughter cut me off, rumbling and deep.
“Screw you,” I groused at him, trying to move away.
He wrapped both arms around my chest and leaned down to talk in my ear, his breath warm and his voice husky before he bit my earlobe gently. “J, it’s so hot to see you all worked up. I promise to fuck all this worry right out of you as soon as we get home.”
I shivered hard, leaning in against him, letting his hands run all over me.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said, kissing the side of my neck as I tipped my head to give him better access. “Come with me.”
We both heard the call from the open front door as we got to the sidewalk.
“Sam!” his father called from the porch. “Nora needs a ride home. She’s close to you.”
“Like hell she is,” I said under my breath, which made Sam smile wide. “Let her parents take her.”
“Actually, I’ve got a lot of stops to make,” Sam yelled back as Nora joined his dad outside.
“I can go along.” Nora smiled at him. “Come on, Sammy!”
“You know what—” I began, but Sam suddenly grabbed me as he had the night before, throwing me over his shoulder and slapping my ass hard. The indignant gasp came out before I could stop it. “Put me down. You’re gonna freak out your dad.”
“Sorry,” he yelled back. “Gotta go!”
When he turned, I saw his dad laughing, and the wave of relief nearly undid me. The man was clueless, and that was good for me. Nora’s expression was dark.
We were both silent in the car until I reached over and put my hand on his thigh. I felt the muscles tense under my hand and looked at his profile.
“It was harder than I thought, being there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t wanna go places where I can’t touch ya if I want.”
“You can do whatever you want, Sam. You just gotta tell people first so they expect it.”
“Tell my folks I’m gonna be all over you. Yeah, that’ll be the day.”
“It might not be as bad as you think.”
“No, it’ll be worse.”
“You’ll hafta do it someday.”
“Do what someday?”
“Tell your family you’re bi.”
“Why would I do that?”
The warning light went off in my head, but I ignored it and plowed on. “Because when I’m still around in, like, two, three years, they’re gonna start to get suspicious.”
He chuckled. “Who says you will be?”
I went to move my hand, but he covered it with his, holding it in place, his fingers sliding between mine.
“Don’t get all defensive, just hear me out.
I’m a cop, for starters. If I’m bi, I might as well quit right now.
It’s not even possible for any of the guys I know to ever get past it.
And my folks, my family—are you kidding?
There’s no way. Did you see how excited my mom got when Nora came over?
She wants me married with kids, not screwing around with you. ”
“So that’s it. Just like I said before.” I yanked free of his grip and plastered myself against my door. “Once the case is over, I’m outta your house and your life.”
“Well, yeah…what’d you think?”
I had thought all kinds of ridiculous things. I had been thinking forever because I had fallen for him so hard, so fast. I was ready to wrap my life around his.
“J?”
I could stick around and try to win him over, try to make him love me so much that he could never let me go.
He would get a new and better job, his parents would completely change their perspective and want me for their son, and all his friends would be crazy about me.
We would live happily ever after. As soon as I thought it, I realized how insane it was.
I was the idiot, not him. He couldn’t change; I was the only one who could.
“Hey,” he said softly, and I looked at him. “You weren’t thinking I was gonna—”
“No.” I cleared my throat, looking at the dashboard through swimming eyes. “I was just being stupid.”
“’Cause I never told you this was gonna be a forever thing, J.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I want to have kids. I want exactly what my folks have. I just gotta find the right girl.”
A girl with a dick, I thought, but I didn’t say it. “Sure.”
He laughed at me. “But you don’t care. You’re not serious here either. I’ve seen your phone—there are more guys calling than my sisters ever had all put together.”
“Right.”
“You just wanna have fun.”
“Sure.”
“Like I said, though—while you’re in my house, I’m the only one, you understand?”
I heard him loud and clear.
When the experiment was over, I would go on my way and he would go back to sleeping with women, auditioning the mother of his children.
I was an interlude, an intermission—all the I words applied here.
Even if I made myself seemingly indispensable, even if I thought he couldn’t live without me—in the end he would because it wasn’t what he wanted.
His heart was not connected to his dick.
He could sleep with me from now until he died and still not love me because he wasn’t wired that way.
Men loved women, not other men. This was a truth like any other for him.
Rain fell, the sun shone, men loved women.
Period. I was wasting my time thinking it could ever be anything more…
His phone rang and he was on it all the way to the grocery store, so he let me go in alone.
I didn’t even care, I just got what we needed and came out.
He told me how sorry he was but he had to go to work.
There were some things he had to do, no way out of it.
He’d drop me at home and be back as soon as he could.
“I’ll put you up against the wall when I get home, J.” He smiled at me, his hand on my throat.
And I shivered because it was suddenly just sex with nothing attached.
I felt hollow inside, and I watched the SUV for as long as I could as he drove away, letting it get smaller and smaller until he turned the corner and disappeared.
When I was ready, I took a deep breath and went upstairs to pack. I called my boss on the way.