Burn in Hail(32)

"I think we need to forget," she murmured. "Tomorrow we'll pretend that  this didn't happen. That I don't know what I know, and that my dad's not  an even bigger douche bag than I always knew he was. Today? Today,  we'll forget."

I liked the way she thought, but one thing wasn't going to happen.

"We're not forgetting that this all would've been solved if your father  wasn't a douchebag," I told her. "He's ruined a lot of lives, and  continues to try to ruin yours. We're not forgetting that he'd do  anything to make your life miserable."

She breathed out, then stood up, her body so close to mine that we touched from chest to thighs.

"I know," she admitted. "But it's hard to think about. I mean, who the  hell has relations with a woman the same age as their daughter, and then  doesn't follow up with that, even when they're supposed to be a man of  God?"

I had no answer to that, so I brought my mouth down on hers.

The kiss was short and sweet, but enough to convey what I was feeling for her.

"Get naked," I ordered.

She laughed.

"I'm still mad at you," she pushed herself away and walked around the  chair, and then even further until she was on the other side of the  table.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because yesterday at Bord's you ignored me," she said. "You saw me, I know you did."

I snorted.

"It was either wave at you, or send Ariya into another round of  questions that only has to do with you, or not piss her off." I  explained. "She thinks I've always had the hots for you."

She didn't need to know that Ariya was right.

"Have you?"

I paused, contemplating how much to tell her.

"I've always found you intriguing," I finally settled on.

Her brows went up. "You've always ‘intrigued' me, too."

I chuckled and started to round the table.

She shuffled to keep the table in between her and me.

I paused, my head tilting to the side. "You don't want me to touch you?"

She pursed her cute little lips. "I want to have my head about me. It  seems when you get too close, I can't remember what I should and  shouldn't be doing. Plus, your answer of ‘I've always found you  intriguing' isn't good enough. I want the hard, dirty details."

I snorted.

And before she could do much more than squeak, I vaulted over the table and snatched her up in my arms.

She gasped and froze as I pressed my hard length against her hip.

"You want to know that I'm a dirty boy and had the hots for a girl that was way too fucking young for me?" I questioned.

She bit her lip and nodded.

"Fine," I said. "I wanted to fuck you from the time you grew those  breasts. I made myself join the military so I'd forget about you."

"Did it work?" she whispered.

I nodded. "It did. Without you under my nose around every turn, I was  able to focus on other things. The minute I got back, all bets were  off."

Her brows rose as she tried to squirm out of my hold.

"Let me go, you big galoot." She squirmed harder.

I held her so tightly against me that all that she was doing was moving  against the length of my cock, making me want to rip the jeans straight  off her legs and throw them out the fucking window.

I grunted when one particular wiggle had her breaking free of my hold.         

     



 

Though, she wouldn't have done it if I wasn't afraid that she was going  to hurt herself by twisting so hard that I had no choice but to let her  go or hurt her by holding on.

She took the newfound freedom and dashed out of the room.

I followed her much slower, coming to a stop outside of her room and pausing to lean up against the doorframe.

She was folding laundry of all things.

"You're telling me you'd rather do chores?" I asked incredulously.

"You really did piss me off today," she added as she tucked a towel  underneath her chin, pinched it between her chin and her chest, and then  proceeded to fold it.

"I know," I said. "If it makes you feel better, I pissed myself off, too."

She shook her head. "No, not really."

My eyes watched her every movement. The way she easily folded clothes  into perfectly pressed presentation. Something that would've literally  taken me five minutes and a freakin' headache to accomplish.

Then she started in on a sheet, and I moved in to help her, taking the  edges from her without a word. The minute the sheet was finished, I took  it from her and laid it on the bed next to her other clothes, then  stared in fascination as she finished it up by doing the  impossible-folding a fitted sheet.

Hell, by the time she was done with it, I was convinced she wasn't human.

It looked like she'd taken it straight out of the package that she'd bought it in.

"That's impressive as hell," I finally told her, eying the fitted sheet like it was an alien from outer space.

Seriously, I could only fold it in half, and then in half again before I  decided that it'd never be perfect. Then I followed it up by rolling it  up into a ball and shoving it onto the shelf with the other items that  seemed to accumulate when you had a house.

"I learned it from my suite mate in college," she said. "Mine used to be  big blobs, but one day she walked in while I was ‘folding' my fitted  sheet, showed me how it was done, and I've never done it the old way  since."

Once she freed up the chair of the laundry, all the folded clothes now on the end of the bed, my eyes landed on a t-shirt.

One that was one I'd been looking for this morning, but hadn't been able to find.

"Seems like you have some klepto in you," I told her, nodding my head in the direction of the shirt.

She blushed.

"I … " She paused. "I don't want to talk about it."

Of course she didn't.

I took a seat in the chair and stared at her as she tried to make herself busy by putting up the clothes.

The t-shirt she tried to hand back, but I just shook my head. "Keep it."

She bit her lip, then walked to the bed and very carefully laid it on her pillow before turning to me.

"I've got a little bit of a problem when it comes to men," she said  suddenly. "I know that you probably wouldn't do anything that I accused  you of today, but I can't just turn off that part of my brain."

I leaned forward and let my arms rest on my elbows. "Your father damaged  something inside of you, and it's going to take more than me saying  that I wouldn't do something like that to you to fix it. It's going to  take courage on your part, but if you're willing to give what we have  here a try, then I am, too."

Her eyes went wide.

"What if I wanted to be exclusive?" she tested.

"What if I wanted to have you and no one else?"

She growled. "What if you decide that this is too much and leave when  I'm head over heels in love with you with no way to breathe without  you?"

I crossed my arms. "What makes you think that I'm not in the exact same position?"

She gritted her teeth.

"I know next to nothing about you," she blurted.

"I'm an open book," I said. "I have no secrets."

Now she was just bringing shit up to throw at me because she was scared.

My belly was rolling, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to talk her out of not wanting anything to do with me.

I wasn't the best catch on Earth, but I knew one thing for certain.

The woman standing there, the woman that stole my shirt … she was the one.  She was it for me. There was no one else that would ever be good  enough, and I'd always known it.





Chapter 20


No man is worth losing a friend over. Unless she touched his beard, then it's game on.

-Hennessy to Krisney

Hennessy

"Tell me something … "

His brows rose to his hairline, and he sat back and opened his arms. "Whatever you want to know."

Seriously, it was like this man wasn't willing to give me anything. He  may act all nonchalant right now, but the minute I started digging too  deep was the minute he'd take a step back.         

     



 

"What was your home life like?"

He gave me a droll look.

"You know about my home life."

I did, but I didn't.

Everyone thought they knew, yet there wasn't a single person in this town, I didn't believe, that had the entire story.

"I don't … "

"There's nothing to know, Henn. You have the basics. My mother was gone  most of the time. She was more of a roommate than a mother. I guess she  loved me in her own way, but at this point in my life I haven't figured  out how that was."

I sighed.

"What interests you?"

His mouth quirked.

"Pretty women that have daddy issues."

I flushed from the roots of my hair to the tops of my knees.

"And what kind of woman is that?"

I was playing with fire.

This had gotten out of hand very quickly. Why did this man have the ability to do this to me? He always had.

"You," he said. "Only ever you."

Something warm started to fill my belly.

He'd been slowly filling it all night, but now I was filled to the brim, and it was about to spill over.