Zeke(18)
“You’ve been bullied?”
“Who hasn’t been bullied?”
“I got over it,” I reason.
“Yeah, well, some people don’t. Like those trout, they’re not deep in the water because they’re that smart. They’re scared. They hide because their wounds remind them that they should be afraid. Fear is a dominant thing. Its main ingredient is pain. Some people can’t get over the hurt, can’t see past their wounds, and they become consumed by it.”
“But not you?”
“As I said, I like to fight and you,” he rests a palm on his thick thigh, “you educate. The strong ones do what they must to move on, and if we’re lucky, maybe we can help the weaker ones along the way.”
“What happened to you? What made you strong?”
He stares out into the water, eyes glistening from the reflection of the lights. “Life,” he says and turns to me. “You?”
“Five older brothers.” I laugh, attempting to lighten the conversation.
“Fucking brothers, they’ll do that to you.” His eyes glaze over a little. “But growing up, I don’t know what I would’ve done without mine.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” I sober. “Rayna also told me that you lost your parents at a young age.”
“I was seven. It was a long time ago.” He blinks away the glossy glaze and sits up straighter in the canoe.
“You moved here then to live with your grandmother?”
He nods. “She passed away a few years back.” He clears his throat. “Then the store she owned burnt down. We took the insurance money and opened JZS.”
“No college then?”
“No time. After Grams passed, I finished school and helped Jax run the store. Then the fire and Slate …” He shakes his head “I just never made it there.”
“But you wanted to?”
“Sure,” he says with a faint smile. “I wanted a lot of things, but ya know, shit fucking happens.”
“What about these rules you have,” I say.
“Damn.” He laughs. “I don’t know what the big deal is. They’re good rules. I’m honest with women. I’m not making any false promises like some fuckers do to get laid.”
“Yeah, but it makes me wonder … are the rules to protect the woman, or are they really there to protect you?”
“It’s all about the woman for me,” he says. “But it’s true. I’m not looking for any of them to fall in love with me. So, yeah, I guess it protects me too.”
“Why don’t you want to be in love?”
“If you’d listened to what I just said, you’d realize I didn’t say that.”
I stare at him and acknowledge he didn’t say that. He said he didn’t want anyone falling in love with him. Why wouldn’t he want to be loved? Maybe it has something with the fact that everyone he loves has died. First, his parents, and then his grandmother. He seems like a well-rounded guy, though. I don’t take him as someone who dwells on the past. There’s got to be more to his story than he’s letting on, and I plan on finding out what happened to him and why he believes he’s not worthy of being loved.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
While showing Lurlene the Bayou over the past five days, I realize that I live in a pretty fucking awesome place. We went bicycling and did some sightseeing, saw a few pelicans and herons. We went night fishing and, while we didn’t catch any fish, we did see a couple of speckled trout. And, man, with every new adventure, the look on her face was priceless. Like a little kid finding her nose for the first time, the bright and beautiful awe in her eyes was simply inspiring. We took a boat ride on the Galveston Bay and went for a swim in the canal. The woman has a slammin’ body—perfect curves and flawless skin. It took everything for me not to attack her in that skimpy bikini, but like the past few days, I restrained myself.
From the moment that I met her, I knew she was dangerous. The constant hard-on is killing me. I tried to jerk off, tried to jerk her out of my system; I even went as far as taking a chick home from JZS’s the other night but, fuck. My dick wouldn’t have it. After I gave the girl a few oral orgasms, I sent her happily on her way.
My cock just isn’t going to be happy until I give him what he wants. But what the fucker wants is off-limits. I knew it the first day I picked her up for our sightseeing excursion. If I’m with her, I know what’ll happen. Rusty’s right; I’m a romantic at heart. I won’t be able to stop myself. I will take her tender heart, beautiful body, and carefree soul. I will make her love me. When it comes to a woman like Lurlene, there’s nothing else to do but to make her yours. And if I fuck her, she will belong to me. She’d be forever mine.