Tempt Me: A First Class Romance Collection

by Jessica Hawkins

  He told his mom about me?

  “Guess I do, Frankie Leigh.” His voice was gruff when he inclined his mouth to my ear. “Daddy gots it so bad.”

  Shivers rolled.

  Wave after wave.

  “Come here,” he said. He guided me down to sit on the rocks and situated me between his legs so we could still keep an eye on Frankie. Then his arms were back around me, his nose in my hair. Frankie and Milo played, running around, darting from each other, tumbling on the soft earth beneath the trees.

  “Thank you for asking me to come with you two. It means a lot to me.”

  I chanced peeking back at him, my head rocking against the thunder beating from his chest.

  “Don’t think you have the first idea what it means to me that you’re here, Rynna.”

  He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

  Tender.

  So tender it sent a tumble of emotion spiraling through my body. They crashed through me like the river that rushed just in the distance.

  “I’ve never done this before,” he admitted.

  “Bring someone out here with you and Frankie?”

  One small nod, but it seemed a lifetime’s admission. “Yeah. Not even my mom.”

  “Because it’s your secret.” It was almost a tease. All except for the affection packed in it.

  Those eyes slid to Frankie, who tossed a stick for Milo, before he returned his attention to me. “Yeah, it’s our secret. Something shared just between Frankie and me. Because she’s my life.” He hesitated. “Want you to be a part of that now, Rynna.”

  My life.

  Everything pressed down. So much joy. “I want that, too,” I barely forced out around the emotion that clogged my lungs.

  He threaded our fingers together on both hands, hugging me closer, our fists solid where my heart hammered at the confines of my chest. I could feel him gulp for air, the heavy bob of his thick, strong throat. His words were gravel. “Did you ever dream of it? Want it? Being a mother? Because it’s a lot, Rynna, what I’m asking of you. I understand that, and I don’t want to push you into something you’re not ready for.”

  I slowly shifted, the hard rocks cutting into my knees, his piercing eyes spearing the rest of the way into me.

  Hope and fear radiated back.

  “Always, Rex. I always wanted to be a mother. To have a family. And it might have looked different in my mind. But this . . .” I glanced back at Frankie. “You and Frankie are the most wonderful things to ever come into my life. No. I didn’t expect you. Not at all. But now that I have you? I’m not letting either of you go.”

  Almost frantic, Rex pulled me into his arms, his face pressed to my neck. “Fuck, Rynna. How’s it possible you make me feel this way?”

  A scream jolted us out of our bubble. Our heads whipped around to see the last second of Frankie tripping, her toe caught on an exposed root. She flew forward, her little body tumbling down a rocky incline that sloped down on the far side of where she’d been playing.

  Dust flew. Before it’d even settled, Rex was on his feet, sprinting that direction, and I was right on his heels.

  “Frankie,” he shouted, voice panicked.

  Anxious energy stirred the air.

  He bolted for her, taking the fastest route, straight over a slippery ridge of wet rocks. Water splashed beneath his shoes as he jumped from one large boulder to another then down to the dirt trail, at her side faster than I could process the entire scene.

  “Frankie,” he shouted.

  Two seconds later, I was there. My heart pitched and churned. Terrified, I peered over his shoulder where he dropped to his knees at her side.

  Frankie was sprawled face down in the dirt, head just barely missing a sharp rock where she skidded to a stop.

  “Oh God,” I whimpered.

  And Rex.

  Rex was shaking everywhere. Shock slammed his body. These visible, palpable ripples of horror that seized his body. He kept screaming, “Frankie!”

  Agony.

  It blistered from him, impaling me with each harsh breath he heaved from his lungs.

  Uncontrollably, he shook, his hands a mess when he cautiously set them on her back. “Frankie Leigh, Oh God. Baby girl, are you okay? Tell me you’re okay.”

  Frankie moaned, and my breath caught when she flopped over to stare up at the sky. My eyes rushed over her, searching for injuries, while Rex sat up on his knees with his hands rushing over her without touching, as if he were searching her for those same wounds but scared he might make it worse.

  Frankie blinked toward the heavens, her voice raspy when she spoke. “Whoa. You see that, Daddy? That was the biggest fwip I ever did.”

  Relief heaved from my lungs in an audible gush, adrenaline draining fast. I dropped to my knees just as Rex was gathering her in his arms.

  Where I felt relief, Rex seemed to be in . . . shock.

  Frenzied, he pulled her against him, hugging her tight, refusing to let her go.

  I inched closer to them. Dread sank into my spirit when I glanced at Rex again. When I glimpsed his eyes.

  Turmoil and fear and desperation.

  I wanted to reach out and touch him. Tell him it was okay. Promise him that Frankie was fine. Erase whatever had condemned him to this kind of torture. But he was hugging her to his chest, his jaw clenched so tightly I was sure he was fighting tears. Fighting whatever chaos raged inside him.

  So instead, I turned my attention on Frankie. Gently, I reached out and brushed back the tangle of hair that had fallen across her eyes. A slick of mud covered her from her chin up the side of her face, but I didn’t see any blood.

  “Are you hurt anywhere, Frankie?” My words were scratchy.

  Frankie crooked her arm, showing off the flaming-red scrape on her elbow. The shallow wound was quickly filling with blood. “I fink a need a Band-Aid.”

  Rex winced.

  I looked back up the trail, realizing she couldn’t have rolled more than four feet. That she’d just tripped. Something little kids did all the time.

  Taking a chance, I set a hand on Rex’s arm, hoping it would break through the terror that tremored through his body. Muscles twitching. Jaw clenching. “Hey . . . she’s okay. She’s okay. She didn’t fall far. It was just an accident. She’s okay. It’s okay.”

  He didn’t respond. He just shifted and climbed to standing, keeping her cradled in his arms. His cautious movements seemed at complete odds with the intimidating power of his stance, with the almost vicious steps he took when he headed straight for the trail.

  Unsure of what to do, I rushed and grabbed Milo’s leash where he’d scampered just off the trail. I followed close behind, surprised when Rex headed directly for his truck instead of going back to the picnic spot.

  He loaded Frankie in her booster seat, peppering a bunch of kisses on her forehead and murmuring, “We’re going to get you checked out, baby girl. You’re fine. I promise, you’re fine.”

  He said it as if he were trying to convince himself.

  Still, he said absolutely nothing to me when I slid into the cab.

  He turned over the engine. It roared to life. We rode in silence back in to town, tension wound tight as the truck jostled back over the crude path. He drove straight to the emergency room where we’d taken Frankie that night weeks ago.

  Somehow, it felt as if years had passed since that night.

  So much had changed in such a short amount of time.

  Rex killed the engine. Silence descended, so thick it stole the air. I could almost feel the magnitude of the breath Rex inhaled as he stared through the windshield at the ER sliding doors. His gaze remained trained on that spot when he finally spoke. “Told you before I don’t take chances.”

  I reached out, hand trembling as I set it on his forearm. Corded, sinewy muscle flexed, bunching and straining beneath the tanned skin and tattoos that wound down his arm.

  “It’s about taking the right ones, Rex.”

  He swallowed. My eyes trac
ed the tremor of his throat, my gaze going soft when he looked over at me.

  There was something there.

  A plea.

  The man begging me for understanding.

  To get it.

  I thought maybe he was waiting on me to run. To spook. To leave him like the woman who was supposed to be Frankie’s mother.

  In that second, I hated her a little more.

  I nuzzled the top of Milo’s head. “Take her inside. I’m going to call Nikki and see if she can pick up Milo, then I’ll be in.”

  I’m not going anywhere.

  A reluctant, disbelieving smile pull to one side of his mouth. The man so brilliant and good it wasn’t fair that all that life was hidden behind whatever had beaten him down.

  “Okay,” he said.

  He hopped out and unbuckled Frankie, and when I looked back at them from over my shoulder, Rex was pulling his daughter into his arms, her head on his shoulder.

  She stretched her little fingers toward me.

  I did the same.

  Our fingertips met.

  A flash of energy.

  That connection profound.

  “I’ll be right in, Sweet Pea,” I promised through a murmur.

  “Hurry . . . I needs you.”

  “I need you, too,” I whispered.

  I’d never been playing games.

  But now I was playing for keeps.

  Rynna – Seventeen Years Old

  “You bitch,” Janel whispered her hatred from behind me, and I jerked to look over my shoulder. Janel stood in the doorway, seething mad with tears in her eyes. Janel’s momma had just rushed out, pressing a hand over her mouth, as if she were either trying to accept what I had just told her or was wanting to reject it.

  “I’m sorry, Janel. But I . . . I can’t continue keeping these secrets for you. Lying for you. You need help.”

  “I need help? You don’t know anything.”

  “I know you’ve been stealing from my gramma, I know you stole from the dance fund at the school, and I know I’ve been covering for you, and I’m not willing to do it anymore. Your momma needed to know.”

  Janel scoffed out a hard laugh. “You just want to make yourself look good, same way as you always do.” Her voice sing-songed with bitterness. “Rynna Dayne, angel of Gingham Lakes. Holier than thou when she’s nothing but a self-righteous bitch.” She sank back, shaking her head. “You’re gonna pay for this, Rynna Dayne.”

  28

  Rex

  Dusk hovered in the atmosphere, and the sky had dimmed from pink to gray. I sat on my front porch on the rocker watching this clusterfuck of a day slip away. Bugs droned from the stilled trees, the air calm while my heart still banged around, lashing with unstable beats.

  I looked up when the front door slowly creaked open. Rynna’s footsteps were quiet as she stepped outside into the encroaching night. “I just checked in on Frankie. She’s asleep.”

  I nodded at her, and she stepped all the way out, Milo trotting out beside her. She drew the door closed, all but an inch so we could hear if Frankie needed us.

  She’d been fine. Of course, she was fine. My freak out uncalled for, which was something Kale had been all too eager to tease me about. I’d demanded he check her for any unseen injuries that we could have missed just by looking at her. He’d shot off some statistic on the average number of falls a kid Frankie’s age had a day, pointing out that it wasn’t like she’d taken a tumble over the cliff.

  I didn’t care. When it came to Frankie, I didn’t take chances.

  Rynna handed me a fresh beer. “Thought you could use this.”

  My laughter was soft. Incredulous. Disbelief that this girl could come battering into my life and the only thing it took for her to knock down my walls was all that kindness and faith. “Thanks,” I muttered.

  After twisting off the cap, I took a long pull.

  Ice-cold amber glided down my throat.

  Rynna eased out onto the porch and sat on the steps. Her back was to me, her arms wrapped around her knees as she stared out at the peace that hummed around us.

  Lost in thought.

  Contemplation.

  The girl was so damned gorgeous I was having a hard time differentiating the emotions that thrummed and danced and glowed. It was a war against the ones that screamed and warned and howled. The chaos in my heart and mind made me want to rip the hair from my head.

  Crazy how everything I’d lived my life on suddenly felt like a lie.

  With Rynna, I knew it was all or nothing. I couldn’t keep shutting her down and shutting her out. Couldn’t keep giving her these warnings without giving her a reason.

  It was time I gave her all of me.

  I needed to fess up the bullshit that haunted my life. Tell her everything. I just didn’t fucking know how to drag it all out into the open. If she would run. Hate me like I deserved for her to.

  Agony cinched down on my chest, and my mouth flopped open and closed. The words too thick on my tongue. Finally, I forced them out into the stilled, deepening night. “Warned you that you don’t want my mess.” It came out hoarse. Choked.

  Rynna didn’t look back at me. She just sent all that belief floating out to the stars that were beginning to blink in the sky. “And I told you I wasn’t afraid.”

  I sat forward on the rocker, elbows on my thighs as I rolled the beer bottle between my palms. “Lost the first girl I loved when I was seventeen.”

  Fuck.

  A lid had been ripped off, and all the torment that’d boiled inside, contained and hidden, escaped.

  Bubbling out and spilling over the sides.

  Overflowing.

  Burning and singeing and scalding.

  Pain shocked through me. As shocked as the breath that left Rynna on a gush of air.

  Waiting patiently. So goddamned kind and understanding.

  A soft puff of laughter rippled out. Dubious and low. “I loved her, Rynna. I fucking did. Can still feel exactly the way my stomach would feel any time I thought of her. The way I felt when I touched her.”

  She glanced back at me. I worried I was giving her too much. Being too honest. Maybe I couldn’t burden her with everything. Not yet. But she needed to know this.

  Of course, because it was Rynna, sympathy lined her striking features, her mouth and those eyes that always seemed to see so much deeper than I wanted them to.

  My chin fucking trembled. “Ollie’s younger sister, Sydney.” It left me like the whisper of a confession. “She was a year younger than us.”

  Surprise flashed before she tamped it down. She just sat there. Twisting her fingers. Listening.

  “He would have killed me if he knew.” My voice drew tight. “That I’d been living in his little sister for the past six months. Sneaking off with her every chance I got. Two of us lying through our teeth about where we’d been when we’d been in each other.”

  Pain slithered up and down my throat.

  Constricting.

  Suffocating.

  Could almost feel the ghost of her. The faint brush of her hand. Couldn’t tell if I welcomed it or hated it.

  “We were all out at the lake. We were drinking, sitting in the bed and on the tail of my truck. Kale was off doing God knows what with his girlfriend, and Ollie had invited a few other girls out. One of them was coming onto me. Sydney—”

  Her name hitched on my tongue.

  My stomach coiled in knots.

  White-hot agony.

  “Sydney was there. Watching. Hating it. Hating that I couldn’t say a damned thing and that girl was straddling my waist. I laughed it off like it wasn’t a big deal while Ollie goaded me. Telling me I was nothing but a pussy and it was about time I saw some action. About time that I got my dick wet.”

  “Rex,” Rynna whispered. Pain radiating from her. Or maybe it was just mine echoing back.

  I blinked against the memory.

  “She jumped out of the bed and stood next to my truck, demanding I take her home.
She was so mad, Rynna. So fucking hurt. And I laughed at her and kissed that girl because that was what I thought Ollie expected me to do.”

  My eyes squeezed closed.

  It didn’t matter.

  That same fucking vision flashed.

  The last time I saw her.

  The words dripped. Soured. Old decayed wounds. “I won’t ever forget her face, Rynna. I’d broken her right there, and I didn’t even mean it. Ollie shouted at her to just go home, telling her she didn’t belong there, anyway. She looked at me one last time . . . torment in her eyes. Then she turned and started down the dirt road. And I let her go.”

  I let her go.

  Fuck.

  I let her go.

  “No one ever saw her again.” Guilt stampeded through me. Over me. Trampling me into the ground.

  Rynna gasped. “Oh God, Rex,”

  “I just watched her storm off into the night, Rynna. I fucking watched her go. I didn’t chase after her. Had no fucking clue she was even missing until the next day.”

  She shifted onto her hands and knees and crawled the short distance across the boards of the porch until she was at my feet.

  Tears shined in her eyes.

  “What happened?”

  A tremor rolled my throat. Horror. Hate. Fear. I’d carried it for twelve fucking years. That girl chasing me through the days and haunting me in the night.

  “We searched. Searched and searched and searched for what felt like forever. I hunted through that forest every day. Months. A year. Maybe more. Screaming her name. Begging her to come back. She was gone, Rynna. Fucking gone. No trace. No suspects. No clues.”

  In agony, I looked at her, fighting the moisture that had gathered in my eyes. “Now I do it in my dreams. I hunt for her. Scream her name. Desperate to find her when I know with every part of me she’s gone.” My teeth ground. “Buried in some shallow grave.”

  Tears streaked her cheeks. “Oh God, Rex. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I can’t . . .”

  She gulped around the tragedy. Like maybe the magnitude of it was slowly sinking in. Her arms wound around her stomach like she might be sick. “Oh God. Oh My God . . . Ollie. Oh God,” she whimpered. Looking up at me, she set one of those tender hands on my jaw, her face pinched in anguish.