Under Locke(152)

He sighed, his hold becoming more possessive. "You were there that mornin', babe. I had too much to drink the night before."



I had been there the day afterward. The words just kind of flowed out before I could catch them. "Yeah, and you slapped her ass like it wasn't that big of a mistake."



Dex had the decency to wince. "Can't say I don't wish I could take it back. What's done is done, Ritz. I don't get shit-faced often for that reason, babe. Learned my lesson with my pa."



Uh huh. I knew he had a point though. In all the time that I'd known him, and all the nights we'd spent together, he rarely drank more than a few beers. It was definitely never enough that I thought for a second he wasn't completely in total control. The guy was usually more sober than me.



And he was right about his dad. From what I figured, the older Locke was an alcoholic and if Dex knew that... well, he wouldn't want to go down that same road. At all. For a man that seemed to value his control, falling for that stuff must have been hard to swallow.



"And that redhead? Sky?"



He groaned, bouncing his legs beneath me. Dex nipped at my earlobe. “Nothin’ happened with her that night you’re thinkin’ about, babe. Or any other night since you walked into my shop with your sorority girl clothes.”



The question that came out of my mouth wasn’t intentional. I swear, but all these fears that lurked in the recesses of my brain hadn’t gone off to die overnight. A part of me still needed their protection, I guess. “So why did she bring your cut to the shop and say you left it with her?”



“Who the hell knows. My best guess, she was just tryin’ to be a bitch and wanted an excuse to check you out since you were stayin’ with me.”



This sneaky, creepy sensation flooded my stomach with some form of dread…



“You’re the only girl I’ve ever taken home, Ritz. Guess she was jealous I shot her down the times she brought it up.”



I was going to throw up and Dex’s face was my target.



That's it? That's what I was going to get? A stinking confirmation of the times in his past that she’d wanted him to take her to his place but he hadn’t?



I guess that's all I genuinely needed and wanted. Did I want details? Hell no.



Hell. No.



Okay, maybe a tiny, sadistic part of me wanted something but that was stupid. Whatever I learned could not be unlearned. No thanks.



I was strong enough to accept the role Dex had carved out for me. He'd told me more than enough times his feelings in a vague but powerful way. I needed to quit being a baby and embrace that. Accept that I knew him better than any other person. Could that be enough for me?



It had to be.



He squeezed me to him, tight. “But you don’t gotta worry about anything. There’s only a few things I’ve ever given a shit about. Everything else...is seasonal, as Ma would say.” He pressed his mouth to my temple, whispering, “Then there’s you.”



Swallow, Iris. Breathe, Iris.



I was swallowed whole by emotion. By this terrifying thing that had to be love because it hurt as much as it soothed.



Lifting my knees up higher, I shifted on his lap until I could look him in the face better. His expression was tight. Wary. Maybe even a little worried? So, he wasn't a virgin. Not anywhere close to it, but that was a fact. Dex was who he was and I got a small part of him just for me. I wasn’t going to ruin this by hanging on to the past. I didn’t want it to win.



I bet no one else got to see his spare bedroom of comic stuff. Iris 1, Hookers Pre-Iris 0.



I bopped the tip of his nose with my finger. "Okay."



He blinked those dark gem colored eyes. "Yeah?"



"Yeah."



The grin that crept up over his mouth was better than Christmas morning, and the kiss he gave me afterward somehow topped that.



“I guess I should be grateful you don’t have three ex-wives running around trying to take you back, huh?”



He rolled his eyes, the creases in the corners of his eyes getting more pronounced as he smiled wider. “Ya think?”



“Yeah, I don’t know how to fight. If it came down to it, I’d have to use my keys on their faces or bite off a chunk of somebody’s ear,” I told him with a grimace.



The laugh that erupted out of him had the remaining Widows turning around to look at us like the sight of Dex laughing so loud was a UFO sighting. I swear one of the younger ones, a prospect, looked a strange mixture of scared and baffled. But I was so amused by Dex’s response, I just sat there watching him with a huge, stupid smile on my face. What else would I want to look at?