Chapter Nine
Raff
I knew traveling with Lula would come with some… complications for me.
I hadn’t been prepared for how often my cock would get half (or fully) hard around her.
And that swimsuit? That might have been a miscalculation on my part. Was it the exact kind she would like? Absolutely. But it was semi see-through when it was wet. And did very little to hide her curves when she passed out and climbed me like a damn tree.
I didn’t dare move an inch the whole time I lay awake, afraid that one brush of my fucking pants against my cock would cause the embarrassing situation I’d warned Lula about when I’d wrapped her up in a towel.
Eventually, though, with the quiet of the desert and the soft curve of a woman around me, I passed out too.
Only to wake up just as she was stirring… and realizing what she’d done in her sleep.
Her whole body went stiff as she tried to slowly inch away from me.
My arm was already around her, so I just tightened it down.
“I was thinking French toast for breakfast, you?”
Her body jolted at the sound of my voice, but she said nothing.
“Or are you more of an eggs and avocado kind of person?” When she still didn’t say anything, I went on, “Please don’t tell me you’re a smoothie or overnight chia pudding person. Because that’s simply not going to work for me.”
That got a little chuckle out of her.
“At my heart, I’m a pancakes-slathered-in -butter-and-syrup-with-a-side-of-hash-browns person who forces myself to eat eggs and avocado on whole wheat toast.”
“Pancakes and hash browns it is.”
I released her, and she was quick to whip around and sit off the edge of the bed, her hands busy—likely shoving her tits back into the bathing suit cups.
I folded up, trying to reason with my cock that was at full mast already.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said, getting to her feet.
Unfortunately for me, that just gave me the perfect view of her round ass as she walked away.
“Fuck,” I groaned, hanging my head.
I waited until I heard the bathroom door close and the water turn on before I got up and made my way to my own room, taking my own shower and the matter into my own hands.
It was no use.
Being around Lula in such close quarters was like a constant dose of desire. But when I cleaned up my room and met her in the common room, at least I wasn’t walking funny anymore.
“I cleaned everything up in my room and the common spaces,” Lula told me.
She was dressed for the heat in one of those one-pieces that looked like a dress but had built-in shorts hidden underneath, in a bright yellow color that did some amazing things to contrast her skin.
Her hair, for once, was not slicked back or put into a protective style but left natural around her shoulders in dense, springy ringlets.
“Why the fuck have you been doing the slick-back when you could be looking like this?”
Her smile was soft at that.
“This takes more effort and time than I have a lot of days. The protective styles make getting ready easier. Without those, the slicked-back bun is really the only logical option most days. But I had a little time today,” she said.
“Well fucking worth it,” I said, reaching to grab her bag. “Now, let’s go secure some pancakes before we hit the road.”
For most of the first leg of the trip, Lula was quiet company, only occasionally pointing out animals or singing along with the radio as she sat with her laptop on her thighs, working away at the books for The Bog.
Still, somehow, it was better than the last few trips I’d made alone.
I knew she’d liked the first place we’d stayed, but I had big plans for her when we hit Tucson.
Luxury hotel room. Room service. A massive pool. A full spa package. That I had already paid for so she couldn’t refuse it without costing me money for no reason.
The whole trip was full of luxury. With little side quests to check out some fun local attractions or great restaurants along the way.
I knew this was, for all intents and purposes, a work-type trip for the both of us.
But there was no reason it couldn’t feel more like a vacation.
Especially for a woman who’d been busting her ass since she was a literal child, whose previous idea of a vacation was likely taking a trip two towns over to get the ‘good’ coffee.
With a sigh, Lula closed her laptop lid.
“Everything is starting to swim,” she admitted, looking over at me. “Turtle,” she said, nodding out my window.
“That, my dear sweet girl, would be a tortoise, since there isn’t any water around here.”
“How are you so up on your wildlife?”
“Used to look ‘em all up when Riff was the one driving. Got good at knowing which animals lived where.”
“Okay. So, we’re in Arizona. What’s here? Aside from tortoises?”
“Rattlesnakes.” A full-body shiver moved through Lula at that. “Not a snake fan, huh?”
“They’re fine. When they’re behind a wall of glass with a locked lid. And, you know, not in the same vicinity as me.”
“Well, for the less slithery, there are desert bighorn sheep, bison, coyotes, black bears, mountain lions, jaguars…”
“What? Mountain lions and jaguars?”
“I mean, we’re not likely to see them. But they’re… around.”
“Well, we’ll be staying indoors in Arizona, I guess. Next is Texas, right? Anything that is going to give me nightmares there?”
“Diamondback and coral snakes. Maybe a salamander or tarantula. But the armadillos are cute and everywhere, which makes up for the creepy crawlers.”
“My brother had one of those.”
“One of what?”
“Those Creepy Crawlers oven things? With the plastic goop you put in molds and baked. He used to make all kinds of bugs and set them around the house to freak me out.”
“Wouldn’t he have been a little young for those?”
“My grandmother found it secondhand at a thrift store. He went nuts with it.”
“What about you? What was your favorite toy?” She shot me a look. “Oh, come on. You had to have had toys.”
“I did. I guess I wasn’t really the imaginative play kind of kid. I did craft kits here and there. But my patience was short with them, so I always gave up before I finished anything.”
“What did you do instead of play then?”
“Well, at home, I did a lot of housework. Or practicing with makeup. When I was with my grandmother, we did a lot of walking and gardening.”
“Flowers or vegetables?”
“Both. But I preferred flowers. There’s pretty much no problem that won’t feel a little bit better after pulling weeds for an hour.”
“Hard to weed in a condo.”
“Yeah. I’ve been tempted to weed some other people’s gardens on occasion when I’m taking my walk. But it’s a real toss-up if they’ll thank me or call the cops on me.”
“So your future house is going to have garden beds.”
“Lots of them.”
“Do you see having a dog?”
“Maybe. If it’s a small one.”
“With matching pajamas on Christmas?”
“It’s almost like you’ve been creeping on my Pinterest board.”
“I haven’t been lucky enough to find that yet. What about a man? Kids?”
“Hopefully.”
“How many?”
“Men?” she asked, eyes twinkling.
“If you need more than one to keep you happy, I think you might be dating the wrong kind of men,” I shot back.
“I don’t know. Two sounds like a manageable number.”
“It’s never a good thing to be outnumbered.”
“That’s my thinking too. Plus, you can devote more time to each of them.”
“You have a lot of experience with babies?”
“God, no. Nope. I’ve never even held a baby. You?”
“Tons. The club is teeming with them. You take a nap in the living room, and you wake up to a handful of them using you like a trampoline.”
Her smile went soft at that.
“Babies too?”
“Babies are the shit. Those belly laughs you get outta ‘em. Best sound in the world. Well, top two.” That moan I heard Lula make had to be at the top of my list.
“I can see you with kids,” Lula said.
“Because I’m like a big one myself?”
“That’s probably part of it, yeah. But you’re, I don’t know, patient. And observant. Which I imagine are good qualities for a father to have.”
“Might be the first time anyone has called me patient.”
“But you are. Relentlessly so.”
About her, maybe. Despite her showing not a single sign of reciprocation. Which might make me more dog-headed than patient.
“And nothing seems to get a rise out of you.”
Well, that just simply wasn’t true. I was good at hiding it. Because I was itching to bash my fists into the fuck’s face who made her cry and give up everything she’d worked so hard for to live in a cheap motel while she scrimped and saved to try to rebuild the money he stole from her.
“Some shit does,” I admitted. “But I can usually keep a cool surface. Something you know a thing or two about.”
“You maybe get cool. I get frigid. I can be a real bitch when I’m angry.”
“Eh, I think when women are accused of being ‘bitches,’ what they actually are is hurt and guarded and setting boundaries so it doesn’t happen again. Who got on your bad side most recently? Obvious person excluded.”
“I got pretty icy with Rian a few weeks back.”
“What’d he do?”
“Had sex in my office.”
“No way,” I said, a smile tugging upward, even if I knew she didn’t find it amusing. “I didn’t know his game. Should invite him over to the clubhouse to party.”
“Don’t encourage his debauchery. I can’t look at my desk the same way anymore. I think I used a whole container of bleach wipes on it.”
“You know what would help?”
“What’s that?”
“Fucking on it yourself. That’d erase that other memory clear from your mind.”
“Only you would suggest sex on the desk to fix sex on the desk.”
“It cancels itself out. Like recording over a VHS.”
“I think replacing the desk might be a more sensible solution.”
“Sure. More sensible. But a lot less fun.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“That is my brand. You should order the most expensive desk you can buy and charge it to Rian.”
“Now that’s not a bad idea.”
“For the record,” I said, glancing over at her to watch her reaction, “sex is always a good idea too.”
She rolled her eyes at that, but there was a heavy-lidded look in her eyes that made me start hoping for something I knew was probably never in the cards for me.
If there was even a spark of interest in me outside of a friend or even an annoying brother sort of way, she would have given into it a long time ago. Lord knew I’d been dogged about it.
It would be better not to read into heavy lids or the way she curled into me in her sleep.
Not getting my hopes up too high was probably the only reason I’d managed to continue to go to The Bog, even when I knew she’d be there… and would laugh off my advances for the umpteenth time.
As I pulled into the sprawling hotel in Tucson and watched Lula’s eyes light up in delight, I had a sinking feeling that there wasn’t going to be anything I could do to prevent my hopes from climbing sky-high during this road trip.
Or to stop me from being crushed by the fall when she inevitably turned me down.
Lula climbed out of the car as I slammed my head back against the rest and sighed hard.
There was a knock at my window, making me jolt.
“You coming, or not?” she asked, waving toward the hotel.
Oh, I was coming.
I’d follow her into the damn depths of hell if she asked. No matter how hot the flames. No matter how much it burned.
“Yep,” I said, climbing out.
And I’d swear the fading Tucson sun felt a little bit like those flames I’d been worried about.