Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
R owdy
The longer I held her, the more I was convinced this was the best damn night of my entire life.
It’d definitely been the best sex I’d ever had. And I couldn’t wait to see if we could top it.
But I knew I couldn’t ask her to stay tonight. I wanted to, but she’d want to go back to my parents’ house so she could be there when Krista woke up in the morning. And yeah, I knew that could be awkward as hell for her with my mom. I knew my dad was probably oblivious to the situation unless my mom said something. And I didn’t think she would. Because my mom liked Tressy. And she really liked Krista.
If my mom could adopt them, she would, because… well, that was my mom’s M.O.
With every passing second, Tressy relaxed against me even more, until she released a long breath that made goosebumps rise all over my body. And my cock stir .
Down, boy.
“I really should think about getting back to your parents’.” A few seconds passed. “And wow, that sounded really weird. Not as weird as it’s going to be facing your mom tomorrow morning, but still…”
I tightened my arms around her. “Mom won’t say a word. She’s not going to be waiting up for you in a chair by the door. She’s not going to make you feel like you did anything wrong. Or that she’s entitled to know what you’re doing. And, contrary to popular opinion, she can’t read minds. You’re allowed to be an adult, Princess. I mean, she manages to stay out of her kids’ sex lives, so she’s definitely not going to stick her nose in yours.”
She stilled, like she was thinking really hard about something. I didn’t push, knew it wouldn’t work with her. Tressy didn’t give up anything easily or willingly. I’d learned in the two days I’d known her that, if she didn’t want to tell you something, she wouldn’t. She had walls.
And that was okay. I was pretty decent at tearing down walls. You didn’t always have to use brute force. Sometimes, they just needed a little encouragement to fall on their own.
So I waited. Tightened my arm around her and made sure she knew I wasn’t one of those guys who shoved a girl out of bed after sex. Hell, I actually liked to snuggle.
“My mom’s not like that.”
Is that who she was running from? Not everyone was lucky enough to have the family I did. What had her mom done?
“So, what’s she like?”
A deep breath then a long exhale, cool against my chest. She was debating what to tell me, how much to tell me. Damn it, I wanted to know everything about her, but I’d rein myself in because I sensed she needed to get this off her chest. Or at least, get some of it out.
“Demanding. Driven. Tough. Always working an angle.”
“Your dad in the picture? ”
Another pause, thinking through her response. “No. My mom left him when she was pregnant with my younger sister. He was…abusive. Mainly to my mom, but when he gave me a black eye when I was five, she packed up and left. She had three hundred dollars in cash and pawned her wedding and engagement rings for another couple hundred. We drove from Tampa to L.A. and crashed on an old friend’s couch. The old friend turned out to be a sound technician for a television production company, and he got my mom a job in craft services. Gerry was a good guy. Had a good heart. My mom broke it, of course, but that’s my mom. I cried for days when we got our own apartment.”
“Your mom didn’t stay in craft services for long, did she?”
She shook her head. “She wanted more. And she wanted to do it on her own. Luckily, she had two really photogenic daughters. My sister started doing print ads almost from birth. I booked a few, but mostly I did tv spots.”
“And what’d your mom do?”
I had a clue where this was going, but I wanted her to keep talking. Wanted her to know I was listening.
“She managed. Our careers, our lives. Everything.”
“Did you like it?”
“At first. Yeah. Then it became a job.”
“How old were you then?”
She shrugged, and I felt every inch of her skin pressed against me like a hot iron.
“Eleven. I started to realize how much I was missing. I wanted to go to school with other kids my age. I wanted to do normal things like skateboard, but I couldn’t because, what if I fell? What if I broke an arm or skinned my knees and I had to shoot that week?”
“So what’d you do?”
“Nothing. I did nothing. Because my mom and sister relied on my income.”
“You were a kid. That shouldn’t have been on you. ”
She rose up on an elbow and looked down at me, her smile twisted. “I know that now. But I felt guilty that my mom had to leave my dad because he hit me.”
My mouth dropped open. “What the fuck?—”
She shook her head. “I was a kid, Rowdy. Sometimes, that’s how kid’s brains work. At least, that’s what one of my many therapists told me. My mom never made it my fault. She isn’t a monster. She’s just…driven. She wants us to succeed, probably because she thinks she never did. She’s never had a successful relationship with a man because she could never trust them enough. Especially around her kids. And honestly, she has the worst taste in men. We used to be able to laugh about it. Then she just stopped looking, and it became all about us. Me and Tiff.”
“That’s your sister?”
She nodded, biting her lip as if trying to keep herself from saying more.
“Yeah. She’s a singer.”
She said that like maybe I was supposed to know her, but the only Tiffany singer I knew was older than forty, and her sister couldn’t be.
“A good one?”
Her nose crinkled in a way that made me want to kiss her and roll her back to the floor and start loving her again. Fucking adorable.
“Not good enough. I mean, yes, she can sing, but she’ll never be great.”
“Do you sing?”
Another face. “Yes. But again, not good enough to be more than…okay. If you know what I mean.”
I nodded. “Story of my life, Princess.”
Her brow creased. “What do you mean?”
Shit, I didn’t want to make this about me, but she’d asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I love hockey, but if my dad didn’t own the team, I wouldn’t be playing. ”
Her mouth twisted. “No way. I saw you tonight. You were one of the best players out there.”
Yeah, the compliment sounded great coming from her, but I was a realist. “There’s a reason I haven’t moved up another level.”
“Have you tried?”
Tricky question with a tricky answer, but I didn’t want to shut her down.
“Once. Went to an open tryout for an ECHL team.” My turn to shrug. “Didn’t make it. And the Devils actually had a winning season that year.”
“And you never tried again?”
“No. Why would I? I’ve got my team here.”
“And you’re happy.”
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway.
“Yeah. I’m happy.” And if I wasn’t ecstatic every day… Hell, no one was. Didn’t mean I was going to abandon my team and run off to chase a pipe dream. “Aren’t you?”
“Most days. I mean, no one’s happy all the time, right?”
When she said it like that… I wanted to tell her she deserved to be happy all the time. That, if she let me, I’d try to make her happy every damn day.
But I couldn’t just blurt that out. She’d run so far and so fast, I’d never see her again. Hell, we’d only met yesterday. I’m not stupid, but I can be too much sometimes. I know that. I also know she’ll think it’s too soon. Which is why I keep my damn mouth shut.
For, like, a second.
“You can try, though.”
She looked like she wanted to say something, something I probably wouldn’t like, then she must have thought better of it.
“Sure, you can try.”
Sighing, she looked away, toward our clothing lying in a haphazard pile on the floor.
“I think it’s time for me to go. ”
She said it so matter-of-fact that, for a second, I thought she’d shut down on me completely. Which would suck.
Then she turned back, released a sharp exhale and bent down to kiss me again. And, oh hell, this was not a goodbye kiss. This was definitely an “I will see you later and we will be naked” kiss.
“Thank you,” she said before she pulled away completely, “for making tonight so much…fun.”
“Glad I could help.” Damn it, I really wanted her to stay, but I knew she couldn’t. “Bathroom’s that door over there.”
Her smile widened, and she pressed another sweet kiss to my lips before she got to her feet, grabbed her clothing and headed for the bathroom.
While I lay there and watched her perfect naked ass as she walked away, I had to stop myself from waiting outside the bathroom door and taking her to my bed. But, when I looked at the clock on the side table, I knew she’d want to be back to the house before one a.m., because she could reason that she hadn’t stayed out all night. And that maybe my mom would be asleep and wouldn’t notice when she came in. Which she wouldn’t because Tressy would enter through the door directly into her bedroom.
Hell, she could slip in before dawn and my parents wouldn’t know a damn thing, but, yeah, I got it. Appearances mattered to her. And she was a good mom who wouldn’t want her kid to know she’d been out all night.
But I’d be damned if this was the only time I got to spend with Tressy naked and horizontal.
This called for a plan.