Chapter 24
EVER
Let him. You’re mine, sweetness, and no one, I mean no one, will come between us. You are mine to protect.
If my brother doesn’t hurt him, my father’s men will. My stomach knots. “Put me down.”
“Not yet, sweetness. Two weeks is too long not to hold you.”
He jostles me higher with both arms under my butt like a giant muscled sling, and I find myself staring into gorgeous sea-glass eyes that had shone like jewels before my head blocked his face from the sunshine.
There are beads of sweat along his forehead, and leaning into him, I catch a whiff of his masculine scent tinged by an odor I can’t put my finger on, but it’s unpleasant.
I wrinkle my nose.
His eyes crinkle in the corners.
I edge away from the odor that clings to his clothes, but the smell doesn’t stop me from taking in how his short-sleeved black compression shirt outlines his broad shoulders, pecs, and six-pack abs. Or the way his black denim hugs his hips and clings to his long legs.
The black on black would draw any hot-blooded woman’s eyes to Bobby’s jet-ink hair, gorgeous blue-green eyes, and inked neck and full sleeves.
I’m angry with him for deceiving me and suspicious of his interest in me—he knows Ty, and Ty is seeing José, who is Carlos’s younger brother—but I admit Bobby didn’t lie about who he was.
And it wasn’t Bobby’s lies that led to our deal of five grand in overdue tuition for one day and one night.
It was my lie that spurred him on to make the bargain in the first place.
I’m the bad person for lying to him, for manipulating him with the lie that had him giving me a solution. The only bad thing he did was come along for the ride. In fact, he agreed to living out my fantasy when he could’ve said hell no.
It doesn’t matter what shape or size they are. He likes them all. Joey’s words from the day I found out who Bobby was hit me like frigid water to the face. The pictures Joey showed me were as recent as the week before Bobby put his arms around me from behind and asked me to have a drink with him.
I let go of Bobby’s neck and cross my arms. “You lied. I’m not the only woman you propositioned inside your nightclub. I saw the pictures. A different woman. A different car.”
“My life before you. You’re the only woman I’ve approached. The others propositioned me. I didn’t take them home. Slate cockblocked me and drove the women back to the club or dropped them off at their places.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” It does. “I heard you sold all your cars except for the motorcycle and the pickup truck we made out in.”
“I want to make new memories, and with you.”
“So, you sold your cars because . . .” I trail off and wait for him to say the words I’m hearing in my heart.
“The memories inside those cars aren’t from us, and fuck if I have you sitting where another woman’s sat. Us”—he points to him, then to me—“that’s it for me, Ever. From now on, you are it.”
He jostles me higher and dips me back toward the ground. Panic hits me in the chest. My arms circle his neck. Bobby locks his gaze on mine and winks. That butt! I swat his shoulder. “You did that on purpose.”
“Everything I do has a purpose.” He straightens.
Cocky some?
I release my hold around his neck and cross my arms. He does the same jerk move, and my arms are around his neck again.
“I can go all day like this, sweetness.” He looks deep into my eyes. His eyes shine and crinkle at the corners. My anger disappears, replaced with curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat. I told Bobby I have nine lives. How many lives do I have left?
“What was the purpose of your using my hose?” I return us to the reason he’s in my backyard.
He doesn’t answer right away. Bobby is purposely letting the silence stretch on. I’m already imagining his thick hose going in and out of my throbbing, pulsing core as he and I take in how well we fit.
My legs would be wrapped around his thick waist. He’d slide his palms under my ass cheeks.
We’d look down between our bodies and watch him move in and out of my slick, tight core.
Or I’d rest my heels on Bobby’s shoulders while he interlaced our fingers and held my hands above my head. His thrusts would start off slowly.
I’d take his slow thrusts before I begged him to take me fast and hard. He’d listen. Oh God, would he. Skin would slap skin, the noise echoing off the bedroom walls. The headboard would hit the wall, and sweat would glisten along his forehead, upper lip, and chest.
Needing him to be inside me to the hilt, I’d bring my knees to my chest and he’d pound into me, crushing my petite frame with his large, muscular one until we came in a quiet explosion of need.
Then spent and satisfied, Bobby and I would hold one another and share tender kisses until the innocent kisses heightened into a fervor that only another round of lovemaking could quench.
Bobby finally answers me, first with a smirk that can only be described as too sexy for his face, before he uses words. “You watched me handle that hose and got all hot and bothered, didn’t you?”
He’s spot on. I swallow down my desire. “That’s not an answer to my question.”
“Answer mine first, and I’ll answer yours.”
My desire slicks my panties. “Bobby.”
“Sweetness,” he murmurs on my lips with his eyes on me. “Give it to me.”
I close my eyes and replay what happened.
Bingo at the community center ended sooner than we all thought.
After seeing everyone off, I headed home.
It was another successful outing with the charity that helps the disabled connect with their families and others like them in their community in a fun, low-stress social environment.
I was in the kitchen, getting a glass of water, when I heard the side gate slam shut. Freaked out because there’d been a murder at a rental near campus, I went to check the backyard with a baseball bat in my hand and a can of mace in the other. I recognized instantly who was using my garden hose.
Before I could make my presence known, Bobby turned and ran into me, knocking me off my feet.
I dropped the bat and the mace. He had the nerve to grab me by the waist. My brain demanded I tell him off for misleading me, but my body had a mind of its own, and I found myself with my legs wrapped around his thick waist, and my fingers playing with his soft hair.
Now here we are with me wrapped in his hold, hot from my hairline to my toes, on the verge of confessing how hot and bothered I became when I saw his hand fisted around the hose like he must hold his cock when he’s getting himself off.
“Ever. Speak.”
My eyes flare open from the commanding tone of his voice.
“I watched and was turned on. Happy?” I glare.
“More than you’ll ever know.” He nips on my bottom lip. Pain and pleasure shoots from my lip to my aching pussy.
It should be a crime for Bobby to defuse my anger with a simple but pleasurable nip of a part of me I hadn’t realized could drive me crazy with need.
“What are you doing here?” I’m beyond wondering why he was playing with my garden hose in my backyard.
I’m worried about his safety.
My brother will hurt him for not walking away the instant he realized who I was. My father will send his men to do worse than what Ty will do. My father will make sure Bobby never walks again. He’ll destroy Bobby’s nightclub.
My heated body from his nearness goes cold. “Put me down.”
“No.” He tightens his hold. “To answer your question, I’m checking on an investment. It’s why I’m here in your backyard.”
“Wait, my landlord isn’t you, is it?” Gage and Ty signed the rental papers.
“Nah. That would be Midnight. I bought the house behind yours.”
The sexy but hotheaded and crazy Midnight Sterling is my landlord, and my brother’s rival—and my best friend’s brother—is my new neighbor. Great. Not.
“Two hours from where you live and work?”
“Distance doesn’t matter in this instance. It’s a long-term investment.”
“Where will you stay? That place is a cesspool of germs and toxic waste.”
“With you.” He had the nerve to lower his voice to a gravelly timbre, as though I’ll give in to wanting to listen to his voice all day long inside my place.
I ignore him.
“Why buy an investment property in Dumas when there are plenty in Alexandria?” I don’t know that, but any house is better than the one across from my rental.
“The proximity helps you keep your promise to me.”
I promised him more than one day and one night in exchange for five grand? I rack my brain for what that promise could be but come up empty.
I furrow my brow. “I don’t remember asking you to make another promise, other than our bargain.”
“You did.”
“When?” Panic and fear grip my stomach, twisting it.
“When we acted out your fantasy. I came up to you on the dance floor. Your eyes were closed. I leaned in and whispered, ‘Live for me, Ever.’ You said back, ‘Always.’ Or did I hear incorrectly?”
He’s not wrong. Oh God, I thought I heard Carlos’s voice in my head, but it was Bobby.
“Your earlier words—”
“‘You’re mine, sweetness, and no one, I mean no one, will come between us. You are mine to protect.’ Those words?”
“Yes.”
“It’s my promise to you.” He rubs our noses. “Live for me, Ever?”
I open my mouth, but the word no doesn’t come out. Seconds tick by.
“Did I leave you speechless? My apologies.” With his hand under my hair and firmly on my nape, he brings me close. “I love listening to you talk, baby.” His gaze dips to my mouth.
“I’m not—”
His mouth clamps onto mine, and I suck in a surprised breath. Bobby takes advantage, sinking his tongue inside my mouth. I whimper with need and grip the front of his shirt, kissing him back. I’m swimming in desire so hot and deep that I give in to the waves crashing over me.
“More. Please, Bobby.”