Chapter 6
Fuck.
I flopped on my back with a heavy exhale, a rock digging into my spine. Dawn finally hinted on the horizon after a long tortuous night, sleep finally taking me for a few hours.
My head twisted to the side as I glared at the culprit, the light outlining her figure, the dog cuddling next to her, making me shift with annoyance.
A growl hummed in my throat, and my head darted back up to the sky as I tried to ignore the twitch in my cock, the memories of last night wove into a knot of disgust.
You are a sick bastard, I scolded my dick. She was like a little sister, my mate’s baby sister…
The last time I saw her she was all of thirteen, a moody teenager. Gawky, quiet, but with a sharp tongue and wit when it came to insulting me. I didn’t give her much thought except for annoying her when I could. Her dislike of me balanced out Kasey’s like of me. Kasey was gorgeous and popular, and even though her type A personality drove me insane, I still enjoyed the attention. I was a horny teenager, and she was persistent. Though her brother threatened my life, Kasey was hard to turn down, and she wanted nothing more than to do what no other had and claim me as her boyfriend. I was always honest with her, but it didn’t sway her. We had fun, but I hadn’t thought of her much since the day I walked away from town.
The Maxwell house had been my only sense of normalcy. No matter how much they bickered, you couldn’t hide the love, the affection, the stability. Something I craved.
And my sixteen- to eighteen-year-old self found their house always stocked full of food with a game room downstairs and a hot girl constantly prancing around me in tiny outfits, grabbing me to make out in her room. All of this was far more appealing than the hatred and violence in mine.
The Maxwell’s always welcomed me, but I knew the moment the final bell rang and I was officially done with school, I was gone. I wanted to leave everything behind. It was only a few weeks ago on social media Kyle and I reconnected, and he invited me to his wedding.
Yesterday, when Kyle told me Kinsley would come get me, my mind still pictured the girl wearing braces and oversized clothes, like she had been trying to disappear under them. Her dark hair was always in a braid, her deep chocolate eyes stabbing through me, a scowl on her face when she spotted me.
She had the same intense eyes that peeled away your skin, and the scowl was still there, but…
I was not expecting her.
Baby K was grown up and fucking hot as hell. Fit, long legs, stunning face, and enough curves to have to fight the desire to trace every inch of her with my eyes. I fought like hell to keep my gaze on hers when she walked in. She normally wasn’t my type. I liked them curvy, fake or not, but my dick didn’t get the memo.
Our dislike of each other stepped right back in as if not a day had passed, but her sharp tongue gave me depraved thoughts about what I wanted to do with it this time.
What the fuck is wrong with you? She is little Kinsley Maxwell. Stop being a creeper, asshole.
I adjusted the jeans I slept in that were straining against my dick, another long sigh pushing out of my lungs. I went to bed hard and annoyed and woke up hard and annoyed. The million missed phone calls and texts didn’t help either. I shut off my phone, trying to ignore the problems following me.
Hearing her scream last night, I moved without thought, panic ripping through me thinking she was being attacked by a wild animal, adrenaline controlling my actions, doing what I needed to. That was until I had her perfect bare ass in my face, my hand running over her tender skin. Seeing all of her when I picked her up off the desert floor, I couldn’t stop my dick from going hard. I tried to ignore it, repeating over and over she was like a sibling. Denying I had fooled around with her older sister. But when her back arched, a quiet moan escaping her lips…all that was forgotten.
I knew if I didn’t get the hell away from her, I would do something that would have ended with regret and a knee in my groin. She was tipsy enough her body was responding, but in no time her mind would have caught up and freaked out. She had an excuse; what was mine?
The rough ground dug into my back, finally getting me up, my bones popping from sleeping on the ground. I was twenty-seven but felt so much older. Not that I ever got to be a kid. When you had to grow up fast, one year could feel like ten. And the shit I had been through recently… doubled them, which made our age difference feel like decades instead of years.
She was still a kid and was so innocent to the betrayal, violence, and ugliness in the world compared to what I had seen and done.
Stretching, I reached up over my head, working the knots out of my muscles. It was still cool, and I had a desperate need to run, to shake off the agitation and clear my head. Quietly heading to the van, Goat’s head popped up at hearing me. He was a cute little guy with his floppy ears, and I could see he was very protective of Kinsley.
Opening the side door, I reached for my saddlebag, a pair of running shoes and shorts. As quiet as I tried to be, Kinsley stirred and rolled over.
“Holy fuck!” A loud cry whimpered from her lips, snapping my attention to her. She flopped back on her stomach, the blankets slipping off her, her teeth chomping her bottom lip, her fingers curling into fists.
“You okay?” My voice came out low and choppy, causing her to jerk with surprise. Pain dampened her forehead with sweat.
“Peachy.” She sucked in, her fingers tightening around her comforter. Abandoning my plan, I grabbed more painkillers and moved to the rear of the van.
“Hey! What are you doing?” She reached for the blanket, trying to place it better over her ass.
“Oh, now you’re getting shy?” I chuckled, handing her the pills and water while I relocated the first aid kit. “Little too late for that, Nettles. And nothing I haven’t seen before.” I sounded bored, trying to convince myself her bare bottom was nothing special. I had been with a lot of women, some models, actresses, and celebrity workout trainers with the tightest figures I’d ever seen. Hers should be nothing special…
Keep telling yourself that.
“Nettles?” Her nose wrinkled.
“Like it?”
“No.”
“That or Baby K. Take your pick.” I grabbed tubes of Neosporin and Cortisone cream. Mentally hanging up a picture of thirteen-year-old Kinsley with a mouth full of braces to keep my mind on the task.
“Lose the blanket.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“I need to put this on your wounds.” Annoyance trickled into my tone.
“Fuck no.” Her head waggled, her loose, long hair tumbling over her face, stubbornness pinching her lips. “I’ll do it.”
“Seriously?” I huffed. “You think seeing a bare ass gets me off? Please, Baby K, I’ve seen hundreds, and yours is nothing special.”
Her lids narrowed lower. “I never said mine was special, or you would be getting off on it…though I’d be surprised you could still get it up at your age.”
“Oooohhhh.” My head jerked back; a surprised guffaw puffed up my lungs. “It’s like that, huh?”
A proud grin played on her mouth, her dark eyes glinting with mischief. “What’s wrong, Grandpa, can dish it out, but can’t take it?”
“You really want to start this game, little girl?” I lifted an eyebrow, a hint of a smile on my face.
“Please, I’ll just be getting started when you need a nap.” She tapped her finger to her chin. “I’ll have to google when and where we can get deals for senior citizens and cheap dinners served at 4:30.”
I snorted, my head shaking. “All right.” I tossed the creams at her, sliding out of the van. “Have at it.”
She took them, the playfulness falling from her face as she stared at the tubes, but she didn’t say anything. Wandering back to the stove, I put on a kettle, pulling out two tin mugs for coffee, my eyes sliding more than I wanted back to her.
Twisting, her teeth digging into her lip, she barely touched cream on her right cheek, pain crackling through her expression as she sharply inhaled air.
“Got to actually rub it on for it to work.” I chuckled from my place, turning the flames up higher.
“Screw you.” She huffed through her gritted teeth.
“If that will help.” The words came out of my mouth before I could even filter them, causing my entire frame to freeze; my eyes stayed on the kettle.
What the hell? Stop perving on a kid.
Granted, five years were nothing now, but it was when you knew someone at a time when five years was between a child and an adult.
She didn’t respond, too distracted by the throbbing in her ass, which I was grateful for. Maybe she didn’t even hear me. The last thing I wanted was for her to think I was flirting or interested. Because I wasn’t.
I couldn’t deny if I didn’t know her, if she were some girl I met on the road—fuck—I wouldn’t have stopped last night. I would have tossed the washrag away, spread her legs, and made her cry out in a whole other way.
Fuck. Stop!An invisible hand slapped my head, shoving me off the inappropriate path I was heading down. Irritation wrinkled up my features, forcing out the flush of heat moving down my legs. I heard her descending from the back of the van, Goat trotting down next to her, padding over to me for a rub on his head.
Hearing a stir in the bushes, he took off running after a rabbit darting across the desert. The sun hinted on the horizon—violets, lavenders, and deep purples coating the landscape, the sun glowing like a lightbulb from the east. Barely a chill in the air, I could sense the heat of the day coming fast.
Busying myself with making the instant coffee, acting like NASA level attention was needed, I ignored her figure moving in next to mine, reaching for the cup I filled with hot water, melting the flakes into caffeine heaven.
“Coffee.” She sighed happily, bringing it to her lips to test, not putting anything in it. “What?” She peered up at me. I hadn’t even realized I’d been staring at her. Her skin was clear, shockingly pale for living in San Diego, with a few freckles over nose. Her features were very dark, like a lake of rich chocolate you could drown yourself in. “What?”
“Nothing.” I snapped my head back to the stove, pouring my water into the mug. “You just seemed the kind who would like milk or sugar.”
“Wow, that’s stereotyping.” She took another sip. “I like my coffee like my soul. Dark and bitter with no filter or bullshit.”
A laugh fell from my mouth. That actually perfectly described the Kinsley I remembered. Compared to her siblings, Kinsley had been blunt, skeptical, and could see through the crap. Especially mine.
While Kasey took whatever spewed from my mouth as gospel, her head nodding in agreement, Kinsley always huffed and snorted from the other side of the room, her eyes rolling at my nonsense.
I tapped my mug against hers. “I like mine strong, to the point, and bottomless.” Subconsciously, my eyes drifted to her legs, which were only covered in tiny sleep shorts now.
Her gaze met mine briefly, then we both looked away.
Fuck… was I flirting? I hadn’t meant it to be about her. Get it together, asshole. You can’t touch her. You shouldn’t even think of her as anything more than your buddy’s little sister.
“So,” I cleared my throat, “what was on your plans today?”
“I had planned on going to the Grand Canyon today, then driving through Monument Valley.”
“We can still do that, but I have another stop I think you’ll like.” I downed half my cup. “If you’re open to it.”
Her lids tapered. “I’m not that uptight.”
My eyebrows lifted.
“What is it?”
“You will see.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“No.”
“You hijack my vacation and then start calling the shots?”
“Take a leap.” I moved past her, needing to change my shirt, running no longer an option as the sun rose higher in the sky. “You might actually have some fun.”
“You don’t know me enough to peg me as some boring stick-in-the-mud. I have fun.”
“What was the last spontaneous, fun thing you did?”
A scowl furrowed her brows. “I’ve been in school for the last four years.”
“So?” My cell buzzed again with a familiar number. Frowning, I shoved it back in my jeans. “And my point is proven.”
“I don’t have to prove anything to you.” She slammed her empty cup on the stove. “You are the one who interrupted my plans.”
“Fair enough.” Yanking a fresh shirt from my bag, I held up my hands. “How about we make a deal. We each get to choose one activity each day the other has to do?”
“Has to do, huh?” An evil grin hinted on her lips. For someone just waking up, her hair knotted slightly, pasty and sweaty from pain, with no makeup, she was sexy as hell…
Stop.
“You up for it, Nettles?”
“Don’t.” She folded her arms.
“What?” I tugged off my dirty shirt, watching her gaze move over my torso, a puff of air expanding her lungs, her head darting to the side. “I think the nickname is gonna stick.”
She cringed at my corny joke, her head shaking. Her attention fluttered back to me, though she never let herself fully land.
I knew my body was fit. There was a time I had a lot of time to work out. But between construction, gym, and playing basketball on Venice Beach with my friend, Carter, my physique was pretty good, down to the deep V-line women went apeshit over. Tattoos covered my arm and chest, the design building over the years as I added more. Some covering scars external and internal.
“So… what do you say?”
She nudged her flip-flop into the dirt, her long hair falling forward, slightly above her elbow.
“Sure.” She finally nodded. “Why not. But it needs to be fair or within reason.”
“Within reason?” I scoffed, pulling on my clean shirt, then tugging on my ball cap. “You’re taking away the point of the whole thing.”
“I mean, my choice can’t be the pick of a restaurant, and for yours you make me dance in a strip club or something.”
“Oooh, sweetheart, you shouldn’t have given me that idea.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It was an example.”
“Not anymore.”
“Absolutely not. Never going to happen.”
“Guess we’ll see, won’t we?” I strolled up to her, holding out my hand. “Deal is a deal.”
She curled her hands away from my reach.
“I promise I’ll start off slow. No strip clubs… today.”
“Or tomorrow… or the next day… or…”
“Deal.” She hadn’t said anything about the day after that. Now she put it in my head, and against the logical part screaming at me, all I wanted was to see her up on stage, letting loose. This girl needed to be pushed out of her comfort bubble. Live a little. Her world seemed so tight and confined. “Come on, shake on it.”
“I’m making the biggest mistake of my life.” She exhaled but held out her palm.
“Yeah, but you’re gonna love it.” I winked at her, taking her hand in mine. Strong, warm, her grasp was anything but dainty and limp, sparking a pulse down my arm.
“We’ll see. But remember this is a two-way street.” She winked back, shaking my hand.
“Bring it, Nettles.”
“I will.”
“Deal.” I smirked, my hand not letting go.
She pulled her hand away, whistling for Goat. “I’m gonna go get dressed for the stripper pole.”
“Don’t trust me?”
“Not for one moment.” She brushed past me, her skin grazing my arm, shooting an immense need to touch her down my limbs. Instead, I rolled my hands into balls, keeping them firm against my thighs.
Smart girl.