Chapter 16
BOBBY
The next day, I drive back to Dumas and pick up Ever. She opens the door, and I’m not ready for what’s in front of me.
She is stunning in a blue floral dress. I run my gaze over her from her head to her feet. Her rich dark-chocolate hair is long and full, spilling over her shoulders and her chest, drawing my eye to the scooped bodice.
There’s cleavage, and my mouth waters. Her breasts are small but perfect for my palms. I can imagine it now: me cupping her full breasts in my palms, then tweaking and tasting one little wanton berry before lavishing attention on the other.
Ever would writhe beneath me, demanding she put her hands on my shoulders, trace her fingers down my back, and knead my ass cheeks before one hand flits to my head. She’d beg to put her palm on the back of my head and help guide and keep my mouth on the tip of her hardened nipple.
I’d refuse her.
I’m in control in the bedroom, not the other way around. It’s what made things right again between me and Jules after her betrayals. She wanted to give up all control.
“You’re gorgeous.” I extend my hand to her. Forget Jules. I live in the here and now, and now is Ever. “Ready?”
She glances up at me past long dark lashes.
“Did you bring the sunshine with you from Alexandria?” She places her hand in mine, and I lead her to my truck parked alongside the sidewalk.
“It was supposed to be cloudy. I almost changed out of the dress you had delivered, but the sun broke through the clouds fifteen minutes before you showed up.”
Ever’s interest in the weather stokes my curiosity. What in her past leads her to schedule her life around the weather?
“We’re not staying in Dumas, sweetness. Where I’m taking you, it’ll be sunny until nightfall.”
“Wait, we’re leaving Dumas?” She stops and frees her hand from my clasp. “You never said anything about going beyond Dumas when we said our goodbyes.”
After we talked more about my mom, her mom, and her best friend, I reluctantly dropped Ever off at her car in Sweet Creations’ back lot and followed her home. Once she was safely inside her place, I drove back to Alexandria. It killed me to leave her, but I had business to take care of.
“My brother tracks me, remember?”
I haven’t forgotten. I deal a shitty hand, knowing full well it’s a jerk move. “Did you forget you gave up your happiness in exchange for me changing my flight to tomorrow?”
Her brows furrow, and she bites down on her bottom lip before releasing it. “I didn’t.”
I set one hand on her shoulder and grasp her chin with the other, forcing her to look at me. Ever is so small my palm takes up a sizable space on her shoulder.
“You gave up your happiness, willingly, for more time with me. I didn’t ask or demand it of you. Let me take the reins, Ever. Relax and let me do the steering, yeah?”
She heaves a sigh. I back off from slamming my mouth over hers and using my tongue to convince her to give over the control to me.
I also back off from filling in the silence.
I’m learning that silence is Ever’s friend.
A friend she counts on when she needs time to think, work through her emotions, and formulate her feelings into words.
“What would happen if I gave up my unhappiness for another day with you?”
The uncertainty in her voice guts me. I give her my truth. “Your happiness is enough for my time, Ever. You won’t need to give up something else for time with me.”
“But you’re leaving tomorrow.”
I cup her face in my palms and strum my fingers over her freckles. “I have to, baby. Believe me, I’d rather be with you, but these meetings and parties are important.”
“Because whatever deals you make will deepen your pockets?”
“It’ll do more than that, sweetness. It’ll give hope to a hopeless and decrepit part of Alexandria that I’ve been eyeing to revive since a friend of mine lost his life for it.”
She lowers her eyes but not her head. “So much loss.”
“Hope will be a beacon of light shining through the darkness.”
“You want this for your friend.”
“He deserves to have his wish come true.”
“What was that wish?”
I look over Ever’s head at the sky. Blue and clear, except for clouds that move and become shapes I remember my mom pointing at and having me name.
A spaceship. A rabbit. A face. I sigh. The carefree days before everyone in town found out my mother’s business.
The twins, Bram and Benedict, made it their business to make me miserable for their father’s mistake.
Except that their opening their big mouths extended the misery to my mom.
Pissed off over a past I can’t change, I pull Ever into my arms, rest my chin on top of her head, and tell her something I’ve only told Slate. “He wished for a place filled with life, day and night. Somewhere people could gather and feel safe and alive.”
“Like inside Crimson? Like when we walked the long way to the lot where I parked? I felt safe and alive. People were laughing, having a great time. They waved and nodded at us like we were their good friends.”
I felt the same energy. “Yes, baby.” All because of her. Ever is beautiful inside and out, and people take notice.
“I see.” She looks up at me. “Thank you for sharing.”
Ever understands. A weight I hadn’t known I carried lifted off my shoulders. Sharing Carlos’s dream with Ever was the right thing to do.
It’s been two years since his death. He’s never come to me in my dreams. In my nightmares, yes. Then, on the night before the anniversary of his death, he showed up in my dreams. Tell her something for me, he said.
His eyes weren’t lifeless like the last time. His eyes shone with an emotion I saw on my mother’s face before the truth of her affair with a married man caught up to her, and they shone instead with sadness.
Unconditional love.
Whatever Carlos would say next, he loved this person unconditionally.
Tell her to live for me, always.
Just like it felt right to tell Ever Carlos’s dream, it felt right to say to her, Live for me, Ever, when her eyes were closed, waiting for me, her bad boy and secret lover, to live out her fantasy.
“We’d better move along, sweetness. We have a long drive ahead of us.” I slide my arm across her small shoulders, guide her to my truck, and open the passenger-side door. She gets inside. I buckle her in and trail my fingers down her thigh and tap her shoe. “Teal Chucks. Cute.”
“A gift from my best friend for learning the bachata.”
I chuckle. “You’re serious about your dancing, aren’t you? I mean, that username . . . What was it again?” I wink.
Her beautiful eyes twinkle. “That one awesome dancer.”
“Not just awesome, but the way you moved, you had every hot-blooded male’s attention and the women’s, too, when you stepped onto the dance floor.”
“Only your attention matters.”
“Is that so?” My voice drops to a rumble of need.
“So.” She stares at my mouth.
I want to kiss her until she’s out of breath with need and her small fingers are trenched in my hair, but if I do so, we won’t make it to our destination.
She lifts her feet and taps the air with her shoes. “You didn’t send me something suitable for the dress.”
“For a reason.”
Her face softens. “You like the Chucks.”
“I don’t like them, I love them. Suits you.”
“The dress—”
I straighten to my full height and grasp her chin between my thick fingers. “Is for us.”
“For us?” Her words come out in a breathy whisper.
I reach over, cup her hip, and lean in until I’m crowding her space. “For us.” I squeeze her hip.
She visibly swallows. Her pulse under her jawline jumps.
I swipe my thumb over her bottom lip. “Is that okay with you? Or would you like me to keep my hands off you? Ask for what you want but know you’ll have to follow my rules and give up something in return.”
“First, I gave up happiness for time with you. Then you tell me I have your time, and so I don’t have to give up anything else. Now, you want to touch me. That’s why I’m wearing this dress. It makes my body more accessible than wearing pants.”
“Spot on, sweetness.”
“You want my body. I want yours,” she admits with color high on her cheeks. “When it’s mutual, I don’t have to give up something. Is that right?”
“Yes.” This woman is smart, and my cock is at full mast.
“Then what are we waiting for?” She grabs me by the collar and tugs me to her. “Get in already and drive.”