Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
CHARLOTTE
The soft rays of early morning sunlight shone into the room through the big picture window across from Dalton’s insanely comfortable bed.
After working until closing at Whiskey Dolls the night before, I should have still been sleeping, getting a few much-needed hours. But when Dalton woke me with his face between my thighs a while ago, I’d been helpless to resist him.
Now we were done, both of us sated and run dry, enjoying a nice post-coital cuddle before we were forced to climb from beneath the cozy covers to start the day.
We’d been an official couple for about a week and a half now, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it seemed to be going.
During the days while he was working, I’d taken to hanging out with his family, showing them around town and introducing them to Dalton’s and my friends.
On the nights I wasn’t performing at the club, I split my time between private evenings with my man and fun, casual dinners with the Prescotts.
It had been a blast. There had only been one little bump in our blissful road that had happened a few days earlier.
I’d woken up with a start after another dream, only this time I’d thrashed around enough to wake Dalton up with me.
“What’s going on, Thumbelina,” he’d asked into the darkness, clutching me to him as I worked to regulate my heart rate. “What is it you dream about that prevents you from sleeping through the night all the damn time?”
That one hadn’t been about my sister, but instead, I’d been trapped in that desolate cabin with Greg Cormack, reliving the torture he’d spent hours sadistically doling out.
“I don’t remember,” I said quietly.
He’d shifted then, rolling away from me and flipping on the bedside lamp so light streamed across his granite features. “You’re lying.”
“Dalton, please. Can we just let this go? It’s late, and I’m tired—”
“You were beggin’ someone to stop, pleading with them not to hurt you. It was about Cormack, wasn’t it?”
I let out a sigh of defeat and shook my head. “I told you, I don’t remember.”
His gaze went flinty. “All right then. If you won’t tell me about the dreams, I’ll ask about something you do know the answer to.” I had a really bad feeling about what he was going to say. “Why’d you sneak out that day to meet Cormack?”
And I was right.
I felt my whole body lock up tight, and reading the sudden tension in my muscles, some of the aggravation sifted out of him. “Baby,” he started in a much calmer, much quieter voice, but I gave my head a sharp shake.
“I know you want answers. You deserve them. But all I want to do is forget that day ever happened. It’s not fair to you, and I understand why you’d get impatient, but it’s just not something I can talk about right now.
” I looked over to him, my eyes pleading as desperation clawed at my chest. “I’m sorry. ”
His shoulders sank, his frame physically deflating before my eyes.
The questions were coming more frequently now that we were getting deeper into our relationship, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my secrets forever, but I just couldn’t force the words out.
They were sitting there, right on the tip of my tongue, and still, I couldn’t say them.
“All right, baby,” he conceded, but I could see it was taking something from him. “I can wait. As long as I have you, I can wait for anything.”
We’d gone back to sleep, and when we woke the next morning, it was like that late-night conversation had never happened. We were back to us, back to happy and insatiable.
I couldn’t get enough of him, and judging from the way he was currently holding me glued to his side tight enough that I couldn’t move, I could only assume he felt the same way.
Man, I hoped he felt the same way.
“What’s goin’ through your mind, Charlotte?” he asked into the quiet that had filled the air around us after a good half hour of cries and moans and whimpers of pleasure.
At his husky question, I lifted my head off his chest, twisting my neck so I could see his face. I stacked my hands on his pecs and propped my chin on top of them. “Why do you call me that?”
His brows arched downward into a V. “Call you what?”
“Charlotte,” I answered. “I mean, why don’t you call me Charlie like everyone else?”
The confusion melted from his face, understanding taking its place.
He lifted a hand to brush a lock of hair off my forehead on a slow exhale.
“I do it for you. Everyone in town calls you Charlie, right?” He waited for my nod before explaining further.
“Everyone except the girls at the club. Why is that?”
He wasn’t asking why the girls at the club called me by my real name because he was confused. I could see from the slight smugness on his face that he already knew the answer and was watching me to see if I was going to give him the truth or deflect.
“Your intuitiveness is a pain in the ass,” I groused.
His arms tightened around me in response to my glare, and he hit me with a cocky grin. “And you’re avoiding the question.”
I rolled my eyes on a huff and finally gave him what he wanted.
“They call me Charlotte because that’s how I introduced myself.
When I started there, I told myself it was going to be a clean slate for me.
Charlie was the girl who made all those shitty choices.
I didn’t want to be her anymore. I wanted to be Charlotte. ”
“And that’s why I call you Charlotte,” he said softly. “I might not agree with your reasoning. I don’t think you need to be someone else or run from your past. I think you’re incredible no matter what. That said, I get your desire to do it all the same, so I gave you Charlotte.”
I didn’t bother trying to keep myself in check as I closed my eyes and face-planted into Dalton’s chest. Spanning my arms around his waist and holding tightly, I let everything I was feeling in that very moment wash over me, and damn did it feel nice.
I felt his fingers in my hair, dragging through the long, sleep-and-sex tangled strands. “Take it my woman liked that.”
Once I was sure I wasn’t going to burst into tears any second, I lifted my head and met his gaze. His eyes took on an instant warmth as soon as they locked with mine. “Yeah, honey. I really liked that.”
His arms got so tight it was hard for me to pull in a full breath as he yanked me farther up his chest so our mouths were only about an inch apart. That warmth turned to a smoldering heat that made my nipples stiff.
“You realize that’s the first time you ever called me honey?”
My chin jerked back in surprise. “It is?”
“Yeah. You gave me cowboy, and I love it, but that was my first honey.”
His erection pressed hard and insistent into my lower belly, and I had to squeeze my thighs together against that empty ache I felt whenever he wasn’t inside me. My voice went soft as my eyelids lowered to half-mast. “I take it my man liked that.”
“Fuck yeah, he did,” he growled. He fisted the back of my hair and forced my lips down on his in a hungry, demanding kiss.
“Uh-uh.” Pulling back and ending that kiss was harder and more painful than the first time I performed in heels at Whiskey Dolls.
And that night, I was certain my shoes were filling with blood as I moved across the stage.
“We don’t have time to start this up again.
You have to get to work, and I’m meeting up with your sister. ”
He rolled me to my back, wedging his hips between my thighs, speaking between kisses. “I have an hour, and you aren’t meeting Jolie until later today.”
Oh God, that was a sound argument. And his teeth scraping the cord at the side of my neck felt amazing.
“Yeah,” I panted. “But . . .”
His tongue lashed across my skin. “You were saying?”
He reached up to cup my breast, dragging his thumb across my nipple. “Hmm? I was?”
His head came out of my neck, his expression a combination of arrogant and wicked as he grinned down at me. “You were trying to tell me there wasn’t enough time to fuck you into the mattress again before we left.”
Reaching up, I tangled my fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and pulled his face close to mine. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”
Dalton’s chest rattled against mine on a deep chuckle. “So I take it we have time?”
If it meant he’d keep touching and kissing me, I’d make all the time in the world. “Dalton,” I said against his mouth, flicking my tongue out to trace his lower lip.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Fuck me into the mattress, honey.”
He didn’t have to be told twice.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into buying all of this,” I mumbled, looking down at the shopping bags littering the passenger floorboard at my feet.
“Hey, I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” Jolie chided from behind the wheel of her rental car. “I’m the one who just spent the past three hours helping you pick nighties and stuff to wear for my brother.” She twisted her face up in disgust. “Blech.”
What had started as lunch at El Toro, an incredible Mexican restaurant just outside of town, had turned into an impromptu shopping trip where I spent way too much money on lingerie.
I’d gone into the store with the intention of picking up a couple things, only to have my girly senses overwhelmed by all the pretty, frilly silks and lace in a rainbow of colors.
“I’ll be sure to keep your brother’s reaction to my new purchases to myself.”
She shot me a side-eye look as she turned the car into the parking lot of my apartment complex. “Much appreciated,” she deadpanned, making me laugh. She found a spot right in front of my building and put the car in park. “Need help carrying that stuff up?”
“Nah, I’ve got it. But thanks. Today was a lot of fun.”
She twisted in the driver’s seat, giving me a smile that looked a lot like her brother’s. “It really was. I’m bummed we’re leaving in a couple days.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, feeling a sudden wave of sadness wash over me.
I hadn’t realized my lips had pulled into a frown until she let out a little giggle and pointed at my face, sing-songing, “Aw, you’re gonna miss me.”
“I really am.” There was no point in denying it.
I was going to miss all of the Prescotts, but Jolie most of all.
Spending time with her the past few days, getting to know her, reminded me of what it felt like to have a sister.
I’d spent most of my life missing my own like I’d lost a part of my soul, and in some instances, I guess I had.
Getting to know Jolie, hanging out with her, I felt like I’d gotten a bit of that back, and I was going to be just the slightest bit heartbroken when she and their parents headed back to Pembrooke.
Leaning over the console, Jolie pulled me into a tight hug, squeezing until the air wheezed out of my lungs. “You’re too sweet, short stuff.”
I pulled back, playfully punching her shoulder. “I’m not short. You’re just freakishly tall.”
Ignoring my comment, she took my face in her hands and squished my cheeks together until my eyes squinted and my lips were in a permanent pucker. “I’m gonna miss you too, Charlie.”
I smiled as big as I could, scrunching my eyes closed the rest of the way as I lisped. “You better.”
She released my face, suddenly looking serious as she lowered her voice.
“You’re really good for him, you know. My folks and I were talking; you have no idea how glad we are that he met you.
It hasn’t been easy knowing he was in another part of the country by himself.
” Something a lot like hopefulness flashed in her eyes just then.
“Maybe you could get him to take a break once in a while, even get him to come visit us so we can see him more than once a year.”
She didn’t bother attempting to hide how much she missed her big brother. I wanted to do everything I could in that moment to put her mind at ease. I had no clue what the future held or what was going to happen between Dalton and me, but I could sure as hell do my best to give her this.
“You have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen.”
She smiled so wide I thought her face might actually crack in two. I grabbed my bags a second later and climbed out of the car, bending in half to wave before shutting the door.
“You and Dalt are still coming to the lake house for dinner tonight, right?”
“Yep. Wouldn’t miss it. Your dad promised me the best burger I’ll ever have.”
“Good deal, babe. See you then.”
With one last wave, I watched her drive off before heading into the building, riding the elevator up to my floor.
It had been a great day, with the promise of more to come thanks to Dalton and his family. I felt like I was riding a high I may never come down from as I stepped into the hall and started for my front door.
Things had been going so damn well lately that, without even realizing it, I’d lowered my guard. I should have known it was only a matter of time before something would happen to ruin the short burst of happiness I’d managed to find.