Chapter Thirty
She’s still wrapped in my arms as I open my eyes with the sun.
We’re in her bed, tangled up in just a sheet, as naked as we were last night giving ourselves to each other during that thunderstorm.
I wasn’t searching for it… Hell, when Toby handed me her application, I never could’ve imagined this is where the summer would take me.
But I’m not mad about it. I’m damn satisfied.
I feel her nuzzle my chest with her cheek.
“Mmmm…” She breathes. “Now that I’ve seen every inch of you—I can say for certain, all of you, is my favorite part.
” A deep chuckle rumbles through my chest and it feels so damn good to have a woman laying on me again.
“Oh, really?” I ask looking down at her, using the crook of my finger to guide her chin upward so I can see her pretty face.
“Yes.” She smiles and points out every part of me, explaining the why of her reasoning.
She loves how my beard feels all over her skin, loves the wrinkles at the corners of my eyes and the way they glint when I’m thinking naughty things.
She loves my chest, shoulders and biceps—and demanded I never shave my torso.
She’s in luck because over my dead fuckin’ body will I ever shave what makes me a man.
As she traces her fingers over the feathers on my left forearm, I ask her about her mother. “How did your mom die?” Dixie pushes against my chest to sit herself up and when I see the melancholy expression on her face, I almost regret asking. But she nods, reassuring me it’s okay.
“See that pond out the window?” I sit up to look.
“Yeah…”
“She walked in and the angels took her home. That’s what my nanny told me.
They found her body though. I was only six years old.
Now I know how awful he was to her, and I can understand how someone could be missing their right mind after that.
He picked her up at a truck stop in Dixie Georgia, got her pregnant with me, and never looked at her again.
My nanny told me the story when I was a little older, before she passed away too.
I don’t know what my mom’s life looked like before he found her, but it must’ve been a sad one.
I don’t blame her, I just wish she would’ve stayed. .. for me.”
She falls back down on my chest, and I hold her for a little longer. “You’re a conqueror, Dixie, never question that.”