Chapter Fifteen Bishop
There are moments in life when you have the rug unceremoniously jerked out from under you, sending you crashing down onto your fucking ass.
This moment felt like that feeling except hyped up on steroids.
Dumbfounded, I just stood there, frozen in disbelief like a fucking statue or something.
I guess Samantha realized the level of shock I was in, because she once again said, “Marley was gay.”
I blinked as I tried processing what she had just repeated.
“You’re fucking with me, right?”
“No, Bishop. I’m not.”
Throwing my hands up wildly, I said, “Then you’re just telling me Marley was gay so I’ll keep dating you.”
Samantha rolled her eyes at me before she snatched her T-shirt off the ground and jerked it over her head. “Wow, you have one hell of an inflated ego if you think I would do that, not to mention that I would have to be pretty fucking psychotic to make something like that up just to keep you.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. That was stupid of me to think, least of all say out loud.”
“Damn straight,” she snapped as she slid into her jeans.
Needing to say the words aloud, I said, “Marley was gay.”
Samantha’s reply of “Yes” came as an angry hiss.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered as I began pacing around the clear- ing. Speaking those three little words was life- altering. If what Samantha said was true, it changed everything between the two of us. It erased everything I had been beating myself up over, except the guilt of Marley’s death.
Holy shit.
Marley and Samantha had never been a real couple. All this time that guilt had been eating me alive, it had been for nothing.
Thinking aloud, I muttered, “But . . . but how is it is possible Marley was gay? He was a man’s man— he rode a motorcycle and worked as a mechanic, for fuck’s sake.”
“Don’t tell me you’re ignorant enough to believe in stereotypes,”
Samantha said. When I looked at her, she had crossed her arms over her chest and her expression had darkened.
“Look, I’m sorry. My mind is overloaded right now as I’m trying to process the fact that not only was my good buddy gay, but he lied to me about it.” I stopped pacing for a second. “And just why in the hell did he lie to me?”
“He knew to fit in with you guys and truly be accepted that he couldn’t be out.”
“That’s crazy. We wouldn’t have given two shits if he was gay,” I argued.
Samantha’s eyebrows rose accusingly. “Oh really? You yourself just spouted a stereotype.”
“I’m in shock, okay? I’m going to say bullshit I don’t mean.”
“Yeah, well, just how many openly gay members do you have in the Raiders?” When I didn’t immediately respond, she huffed out a breath. “Exactly.”
Closing the gap between us, I put my hands on Sam’s shoulders. “You’re right that we don’t have a lot of openly gay guys, and it probably would have been hard on him to make it if he was out. Butgay or straight, he was still someone I cared about— a lot.”
“He would’ve appreciated that.”
“As his friend, you just decided to go along with his lies?”
“I would call it self- preservation more than lying. And yeah, because I loved him, I wanted to do whatever I could to help him out.
If it was pretending to be his girlfriend, then I was happy to do that.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “This is all so crazy, and it changes everything.”
“It does?”
“It sure as hell does. I’ve been beating myself up for months now because I thought I had been wanting a brother’s girlfriend when all along there was nothing romantic between you two.”
Tilting her head at me, Samantha asked, “You wanted me before Marley died?”
I snorted. “Don’t act like you didn’t know I was interested.”
Her signature catlike smile curved her lips. “Okay, so I did. Of course, I didn’t help matters by flirting with you. I guess you could say I wanted you, too.”
“I thought you were just teasing with me— like you were the
older woman playing at being a cougar, and I was your little cub.”
With a roll of her dark eyes, Samantha said, “You’ve really got to work on how you handle the age difference between us.” She jabbed her finger into my bare chest. “While a woman may be able to handle being a cougar, she is never going to enjoy hearing the words ‘older woman.’”
I winced. “Okay, okay. I’ll work on that.”
“You sure as hell better.”
After brushing a strand of long, dark hair out of Samantha’s face, I said, “I promise I’ll make it up to you the next time we’re alone together.”
The frown on her face disappeared and was replaced with a smile. “I’ll make sure that you do.” She brought her lips to mine for a gentle kiss. When she pulled away, she stared intently at me. “Since you know the truth, are you willing to give us a chance?”
Now that I knew I hadn’t been dishonorable to Marley, there was not a single reason why I shouldn’t date Samantha. Pulling her flush against me, I smiled. “Hell yeah.”
“Good.” She jerked her chin at the ATV. “Are you ready to head back? I’m starving and in desperate need of a shower.”
“Yep. Just let me turn the generator off.” Once I completed that chore, I returned to find Samantha already seated on the back of the ATV. “Listen. I need to ask you something else.”
“Okay.”
“Is there anything else you need to tell me? Like you’re really a man or something?”
Samantha snorted. “I would think after last night you wouldn’t have any doubts about that one.”
I waggled my eyebrows at her. “I don’t. I just didn’t want there to be any more secrets between us.”
Her face fell slightly. “There’s not.”
“And the only thing Marley lied about to me was his sexuality, right?”
With a nod, Sam said, “The rest was all true . . . at least as far as I know.”
“I guess we’ll never know all of Marley’s secrets, huh?”
“Guess not.”
“Sometimes it’s okay to be a little mysterious,” I said, leaning over to kiss Samantha’s full lips. Just as I thrust my tongue into her mouth, her stomach growled loudly. I pulled away to grin at her.
“Guess you weren’t kidding when you said you were hungry.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I need to remember to feed my woman if I’m going to keep her out all night working up an appetite.”
Samantha snorted contemptuously. “My woman? You sound like a caveman.”
I slid onto the seat in front of her before throwing a look at her over my shoulder. “Just remember you are my woman.”
“Is that a fact, Caveman?” she asked teasingly.
“It sure as hell is.”
She brought her arms around my waist. “I guess there are worse
things I could be than a caveman’s woman.”
“I want to hear you say that you’re my woman.”
“Honestly, Bishop.”
“Say it,” I instructed as I revved the ATV’s motor.
Samantha turned up her chin and stared at the sky. When she didn’t respond, I said, “I’ll stay right here until you say it— your growling stomach be damned.”
“I don’t take orders,” she said as she continued eying the clouds.
Whirling around, I grabbed her by the waist and dragged her around to sit on my lap.
“Bishop, what are you—”
I silenced her by crushing my mouth against hers. At the same
time, I brought my hand between her legs. She gasped when I began
to stroke her over her jeans. “Say it, Samantha.”
“Mmm,” she whimpered, her hips rising and falling in time with
my hand.
“Say that you’re my woman, or I won’t let you come.”
“You don’t play fair,” she panted.
“No, babe, I don’t. And I always get what I want.” I brought my hand to the button of her jeans. Once I popped it open, I slid my hand inside. As my fingers grazed against her stomach, she sucked in a breath, which she wheezed out the moment I slipped two fingers inside her.
“Are you going to say it now?”
Staring me straight in the eye, Sam said, “I’m your woman, you fucking Neanderthal asshole.”
I threw my head back with a laugh. “I guess that’s one way to say it.”
She ground her hips against my hand. “Now make me come.”
“I’m the one to give the orders around here.”
Samantha grabbed the hair at the nape of my neck and tugged it hard. “If you don’t make me come now, I won’t let you fuck me for at least a week. If not longer.”
I groaned. “Man, you drive a hard bargain.”
She grinned. “And you let your dick make all your decisions.”
“I am a man, aren’t I?”
“True. Very true.”
I began to pump my fingers harder and faster inside Samantha.
She pulled my head to hers, and we started kissing madly. Our tongues battled with the same intensity as my hand and her hips. As
she started over the edge, she moaned into my mouth. I pulled back
to watch as her eyes pinched shut with pleasure, and she bit down on
her lip. Damn, she was fucking hot when she came.
When her walls stopped clenching around my finger, I with-
drew my hand. As I buttoned and zipped her jeans, Samantha gave
me a lazy smile. “Part of me wants to forgo breakfast and a shower
to just stay out here and fuck all day.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
She placed her palm on my chest and pushed me back. “Feed
me first and we’ll talk about fucking the rest of the day.”
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“What if you ate some of the food off me?”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“But you love me anyway.”
Her expression turned serious. “Not yet, but I have a feeling
you’re going to make me fall in love with you.”
My heart beat thundered loudly in my chest at her response.
While I had jokingly mentioned love to Samantha, I had felt so
drawn to her over the last few weeks. She was the first thing I thought
of in the morning as well as when I went to sleep. Did that mean I
loved her? I’d never been in love before, and now I couldn’t imagine being with any other woman but her. With the smell of her on my fingers and on my tongue, along with her supremely gorgeous body tucked close against me, I turned on the ATV and revved the motor.
Thankfully, Samantha was behind me, because I knew there was a ridiculous smile on my face the entire way home. Playing the part of a gentleman, I drove Samantha all the way out of the woods, rather than stopping where we’d found the ATV.