I don’t want her to have to do this shit alone. She needs help, and no one in her family is doing anything. So, I will.
Lacing my fingers behind my head, I settle deeper into the chair. The stars try to be seen through the canopy of trees overhead. But, like me, they just don’t shine bright enough to really get anyone’s attention here in the backwoods. They have to go somewhere else to be noticed and appreciated.
I sit up straight when there’s a creak on the steps leading up to the back deck. It’s only one in the morning on Saturday, so it can’t be Sadie. She’s not off work yet. Aunt Delores is already upstairs. I stand, still not putting my full weight on my left foot.
When Buck’s head clears the bottom step, I drop back into my seat. “Do you always lurk around your neighbors’ houses at night?”
He comes into my circle of light, a slight grin showing in his dimples. “Only yours.”
I expel a heavy breath. “What do you want? I had enough of you yesterday.”
He shakes his head. “I couldn’t help myself. Seeing you on that stage, it—surprised me. It was pure reaction. What the hell were you doing? You’ve never been the kind of girl who’d take her clothes off for a living.”
“You have no idea what kind of girl I am now, Buck. It’s been five fucking years. A lot can happen to change a person in that length of time. And it’s none of your damned business what I do. You gave up that right, remember?”
He runs a hand over his face and through his hair. It’s something I’ve seen him do a thousand times when he doesn’t know what to say.
Good. There’s nothing he can say.
He sits in the chair that I had my foot on. The tail of his shirt hangs out, the buttons undone. His muscular chest and abs are cast in odd shadows from the yellow glow of my lamp.
I avert my gaze. There’s no sense in letting my body betray me again. It’s as though it has a separate memory than I have of what happened between Buck and me. My body only recalls the touch, the heat, the adrenaline rush. It’s my heart that remembers the hurt—the rending of my soul from its moorings.
But man, oh man, the pleasure he brought. His touch took me to a different place and wiped away all the bad in my life. And that last time, which was really the first time…the only time…
Buck closed the door and locked it. “Just in case.”
I threw myself into his arms before he could even get to the bed. Excitement thrummed through me, right alongside the dread lurking behind my spine, waiting for its chance to make a move and steal my moment of happiness.
I shoved my hands under his shirt as he smiled down on me. I tried to memorize every contour, every dip and rise of the defined muscles of his back that played beneath my fingers.
He slid his hands up along either side of my jaw, pushing them into the hair at my temples, pulling me in as his mouth found mine. I’d only ever kissed Buck, but I knew he had to be something special. The way his tongue moved with mine, building pressure in all the secret places hidden from the world, places I only wanted to share with him.
Heat ripped through me as he walked me backward, not breaking our kiss. The backs of my calves hit the side of his bed, and I lowered myself to sit. He let go and stood back, staring at me.
I reached for the hem of my top, but the shake of his head halted me.
“Wait.” His dimples disappeared as he bit the corner of his bottom lip.
I paused, holding my breath. Every hope of changing his mind balanced on the tightrope stretched between me and him.
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this, Lou.”
I dropped my chin, looking up at him through my lashes. “You promised. You’ve been promising me for over a year, Buck.”
He scratched his forehead and ran his fingers through his blacker than black hair, leaving it disheveled and sexy as hell. “I know, but…maybe it’s not the best idea.”
“When has a bad idea ever stopped you?” I hooked my foot around his knee and pulled him closer.
His frown faded and his sly grin returned. He always smiled like that when he was about to do something that would get him, or both of us, into hot water.
“True dat.” He shed his shirt and reached for mine, pulling it over my head.
He laid me down, his bed springs squeaking.
As he rolled to his side, he took me with him. My bare breasts pressed against his chest, and his strong arms held me close. His hot mouth played havoc on my senses as he nipped and sucked at the sensitive spot where my pulse beat like mad at the side of my neck. His big hand slid under my skirt and cupped my ass cheek as he moved his attention to my lips.
His tongue teased as it darted in and out, sliding against my own. The throb in my panties insisted on more as he hooked his thumb into the elastic riding low on my hips.