Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Apologies, my good bitch. But what seems to be the fuck?
—Text from Hux to Creed
Creed
Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
I sat there with her in my arms for a solid four hours, sweating my ass off but unwilling to move.
Thank goodness that I turned the heat down before I left, or I would’ve had to move to shuck the jacket and possibly woken her up.
I’d watched, totally content to have her in my arms, as the day had slowly slipped away.
Before it’d gotten dark about an hour ago, the snow had really started to pick up, and everything was covered in a solid layer of white as the sun slipped below the mountains behind the house.
I silenced all the calls she’d been getting, and had used her password—I’d learned that in the last few days of taking care of her—to send out texts to everyone that she was sleeping and would call back when she woke up.
That worked for the first hour with Shade.
It didn’t work for the second hour.
Eventually, he got impatient enough that I chose to answer the phone call instead of risking him calling out a search party.
“Shade,” I said quietly.
“Why are you answering her phone?” Shade snarled.
I sighed. “She’s sleeping. Which I’ve already told you.”
“You said that two hours ago. She doesn’t ever take naps,” he pointed out.
“I know that, but these are extenuating circumstances. She’s literally asleep, or I would’ve told her to call you back.”
He sighed. “Send me proof.”
I snapped a picture of her face, which was buried in my neck, and sent it to him.
He sounded far away for a second as he said, “Okay. I’ll call back later. Don’t let her forget to call me back, though, or I’ll follow her location to where you’re at and find out myself. Then she’ll get mad at you because you let me drive in this storm.”
“I’ll tell her to call…”
“I’m awake.” Birdee sat up and reached for the phone.
I handed it to her, and she brought it up to her face before saying, “I’m fine.”
She had an imprint mark of two buttons on her face, and the seam of my jacket connecting the two.
“Okay,” Shade said. “Just checking.” He paused. “Um, also, I didn’t know if you wanted to be told this or not, but your sister’s missing.”
“What?”
“Cody went off hunting earlier. I heard it from your dad when I walked into the diner,” he said. “She left, and didn’t come back before it got dark.”
“That’s not unusual for her, though,” I pointed out.
“I know,” Shade grumbled. “So freakin’ selfish, if you ask me. Now they’re talking about getting the SAR team out. I suggested they leave her ass out in it.”
“Shade,” Birdee quietly reprimanded.
That might be the cause of the calls that I was getting, but had refused to answer.
I was on the search and rescue team for the county, and often got call-outs for this type of thing. However, I had other, more important people to take care of tonight.
Cody could find her own way home…
“Keep me updated if you hear anything,” Birdee said quietly. “It’s not like they’re going to call me and let me know that she’s okay.”
“One other thing,” Shade said before Birdee could say goodbye, which only irritated me slightly.
I’d come to know Shade trial by fire style in the last forty-eight hours, and I found that I really liked his protectiveness when it came to Birdee. I also liked that he had her back no matter what.
It was hard to be mad at someone who only wanted what was best for the woman you were in love with.
When he’d purposefully given lime to Mable knowing she was allergic to it, I couldn’t stand him. But now, seeing both sides of the story, I could relate.
Shade’s methods were wrong, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t agree with protecting Birdee at all costs.
“What is it?”
“I saw your stepdad leaving today. He stopped by the diner to get food. He was headed out of town, apparently for good. I overheard him talking to Ovina.”
“Whoa,” she said. “Where was he going?”
“He got a job in Florida,” Shade said. “I heard him telling Ovina all about the job, and his plans. He got like eight grand for moving fees, and bugged out. He said he’d never be back. Told Ovina to have a nice life.”
“Whoa,” she breathed.
“Anyway, thought you’d want to know. Go back to sleep. Also, call me so I know you’re alive. You know I hate driving in the snow.”
I chuckled as Shade hung up without a goodbye.
“Shade means well, I promise,” she said quietly.
I tucked a loose lock of curly hair behind Birdee’s ear and said, “You ready to talk to me?”
She flushed. “Yeah.”
I pressed both of my palms down onto her hips before saying, “I love you.”
Her mouth fell open in an O as she stared at me.
“I’ve known for a while, really. I wasn’t upset with you, really, once I understood about my sister,” I said.
“After putting the puzzle pieces together, I knew you meant well. I knew that you only wanted what you didn’t have.
And again, you’ll never know how sorry I am for how I acted.
It was out of fear, really. But like my sister said, I need to start letting her make her own decisions.
She’s an adult. I shouldn’t have kept the news of my being alive from her and I definitely shouldn’t have reacted the way I did with you.
I just…I’m stupid, okay? I’m totally stupid.
I know we’ve already gone over this but…
I can only say that I wasn’t expecting you to mean that much to me.
I wasn’t expecting you to go above and beyond. ”
“I love you, too, you know,” she whispered. “I don’t know when I realized it. Probably the day that you came breaking into my home. Your words were like a shot to the heart, and it wasn’t until Charleigh asked me the next day if I was in love with you that I realized why your words hurt so much.”
Again, the shame hit me like a brick to the face.
“I’ll never act like that again,” I promised her. “From now on, I’ll be even-tempered and I’ll never take it out on you.”
“I kind of like you being wild,” she pointed out. “I don’t want you hiding who you are from me. If I piss you off, tell me. Because I have no relationships to work off of here. I’m a virgin, for Christ’s sake. I’m going to mess up.”
“I’m not any better relationship-wise,” I pointed out. “I was in jail for the better part of my adult life. I had no chance to experience anything relationship-wise. Loving my sister doesn’t compare to how I feel about you.”
“You make me want things,” she said as she leaned forward, making her intent known.
Her lips were an inch from mine when nerves started to swarm my stomach.
Our first kiss.
Gentle.
Be fucking gentle!
I breathed a shaky breath as her lips met my own.
The hint of surprise was short-lived, and then I took control, cupping the back of her head with both of my hands so she couldn’t pull away.
Then I was leaning hard into the kiss, my tongue slipping past her lips as I tasted her.
“Jesus Christ,” I growled, pulling away with a rumble of incoherent words. “You make me want things…”
“Take them.”
“Birdee…
“Please,” she begged. “I’m okay.”
“But you weren’t okay just a few days ago,” I pointed out. “And the doctor explicitly said no sex.”
Because that was exactly where this was going, we both knew it.
“You’re fully capable of taking care of me,” she challenged me.
She had a point.
“I can be oh, so gentle,” I breathed.
Birdee shivered at my words. “How gentle?”
“So. Gentle.”
She leaned backward. “Take your shirt off.”
I did her one better.
I took my shirt and my jacket off, leaving me bare chested on the couch.
Her eyes took in every inch of me, from the breadth of my shoulders to the smattering of hair that led down to my cock.
“Oh,” she breathed, her hand attached to her good arm sifting through the hair on my chest. “You’re very…well defined.”
I snorted. “I had plenty of time to work out while in prison.”
She smirked. “Well, I can’t say that it isn’t appreciated.”
She slowly started to undo the buttons of her shirt with one hand, and I stayed there, frozen, as I watched her struggle.
“You could help,” she pointed out.
I licked my lips. “I can.”
She giggled as she reached for my hand and guided it to her shirt.
I struggled with the tiny ass buttons, slipping them out of their holes one exaggeratedly slow minute at a time.
“Stupid fucking buttons,” I muttered. “Why are they so small?”
She started to giggle uncontrollably, which only made the tiny enclosures even harder to work with.
I got the fourth one and her shirt gaped open, baring her naked chest.
“You’re not wearing a bra,” I pointed out lamely.
So smooth, dumbass.
“I, uh, don’t really have big breasts, Creed. What would be the point of wearing a bra, especially when I’m supposed to be limiting movement, when the bra itself won’t even be doing anything?” she questioned.
The reminder of her ailment had me freezing with my hands on the fifth button.
“Come on,” she urged. “You said you could be gentle, remember?”
I had said that.
But…
She pushed my hand away and did the rest herself, one-handed, in half the time it’d taken me to do four.
I watched, my mouth dry as the Sahara, as she slipped every button free and allowed the shirt to fall off her shoulders.
She was right.
She was on the smaller side.
But they were the perfect handful…
She leaned into my touch as I cupped both of her breasts in my hands.
My thumb automatically went to her nipple.
She shivered as the pad grazed over her.
“Creed,” she whispered.
“Justin,” I begged. “Call me Justin. Just for tonight.”
Her eyes were on fire as she leaned into me, her mouth only inches from my own, and whispered, “Justin.”
I shuddered at the words. At hearing my name leave those perfect, luscious lips.
I smoothed her shirt off her shoulders, being careful to take my time as I helped the sleeves over her bandaged arm. When it was all the way off and lying discarded on the floor, I leaned forward and caught one nipple between my teeth and flicked it with the tip of my tongue.
She hissed, jerking.
“Ah-ah-ah,” I scolded her, my teeth letting her go. “You can’t move like that.”
She let out a shuddering breath, but the jerking calmed, and she leaned into the touch. “I need to remove those pants. You look hot.”
“You are teasing me, yes,” I agreed as I moved to do just that, being careful not to jerk her around too much on my lap. “But you have no idea how hot I am. If I wasn’t wearing deodorant right now, I’d smell like a pre-pubescent boy that doesn’t know the meaning of hygiene.”
“You should’ve woken me. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” she murmured quietly as I shoved my pants down and off.
When I was sitting in nothing but my bare skin, she leaned forward and placed both of her hands on my chest.
My entire body locked at having her bare skin touching mine.
I’d wanted this for a while.
Now that she was finally giving it to me, I felt like I was in a dream.
Like I was having an out-of-body experience.
“You’re pretty sweaty,” she teased as she smoothed her hands up the length of my chest. “I don’t think I have any way to cool you down, though.” She leaned forward and blew on my chest and face. “Does this help?”
“I think that might be heating me up,” I said as I caught her around the waist and stood.
She squeaked at the sudden change in positions, but didn’t protest when I divested her of her socks, jeans, and underwear.
I didn’t give her too much time to freak out, though, and shoved my underwear to the floor.
When we were both fully naked, I pulled her back down into my lap, oh, so gently. Then caught the blanket off the back of the couch and covered the both of us up.
She shivered in delight at the feel of my bare body against hers.
“I’ve thought about this. With you. For a long time,” she admitted as she pressed a kiss to my throat.
I smoothed my hands up her bare back and tried really hard not to think about how hot and wet she was between those pretty thighs.
“Justin,” she whispered. “Touch me.”