Caroline reached out her hand and covered Trudy’s. “Don’t even think that. It’s not the same thing at all. Growing up and moving on is a lot different than abandoning your kids.” She raised her voice. “And people who waste their time talking trash have tiny minds and need to get a life.”
Trudy smiled but she knew what she knew. Her mother had been the town trollop, and she’d run away and made every possible mistake, destroying her life and leaving her family in the process.
Was Trudy really that much better? Sure, she hadn’t made choices so bad she couldn’t come back from them, but she’d made her share of mistakes, run away—and now she was about to dive in head first into an affair that already had an expiration date. Not exactly the actions of a good, wholesome girl from La Grange.
“Listen to me.” Caroline was using her napkin after taking a bite of her BLT. “I’ve known you for years and it has always amazed me how you have never allowed yourself to let go.” Trudy opened her mouth to argue but Caroline shook her head. “No. You’ve dated. You’ve come to the club and played. But you’ve never really let go. Not when you were a demo bottom for the rope workshops. Not when you dated that yummy bass player whose proposal you turned down. Twice. You never let your guard down. I always thought you were waiting to find the right person. The right chemistry. The guy who’d remind you how much fun being Trouble can be.”
She smiled and Trudy chuckled. “I haven’t been that girl for years.”
Caroline picked up her sandwich and winked. “I think there’s more of her in you than you know. Obviously John sees something he likes.”
They ate in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. Caroline spoke first. “I’ll take your brother to the doctor and keep an eye on him for a few days so you won’t have so much on your plate.”
“No way,” Trudy protested. “You didn’t come here to be groped by Jefferson. He’s my responsibility. All you have to do is get ready for next week’s interview. I have to make sure my brother’s okay and that he doesn’t ruin his life doing something too reckless.”
“The show you were telling me about?” When Trudy nodded Caroline sighed. “In my experience when you tell a man like that he can’t do something, it makes him that much more determined.” She shrugged. “It might be good for him. Most people tell me once their fifteen minutes are up, the fall is spectacularly instructive.”
Trudy leaned her head into her hands and sighed as well. “I don’t understand why he’s doing this. He’s successful. He’s handsome.”
“He’s bored.”
“What?”
Caroline’s cheeks flushed enough to be noticeable. “I’m just guessing, Trudy, but from everything you told me about this place, it isn’t exactly action central. Why do you get to be the only one in the family to have an adventure? And look what you’ve done with it. All your hard work is finally paying off. Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
She didn’t understand, no one did, not even John. Jefferson always got everything he wanted…everything but the thing he wanted most—to have their mother back. Losing her had been hard on him, almost as painful as it had been for their father—and it had broken Matt Adams and left his pieces at the bottom of every bottle he could get his hands on.
For a long time Jefferson had been angry, yearning for her. While Trudy had—at least for a while—been proud of her mother for escaping what she’d always seen as a prison of a town, and sought to emulate her, Jefferson had pretended not to care. Trudy was the only one he’d confided in, and only when he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He’d blamed his father, he’d blamed himself. Never the woman who left. But he’d never given any indication that he wanted to follow her. He was too proud.
He didn’t know the truth. And if he went off on his own to learn it, it might break him too.
“He can have all the adventures he wants. But I think this one is a mistake.” Trudy studied Caroline, wondering at her support of the harebrained scheme. “So, you believe setting my brother loose on the female population of Los Angeles in front of cameras is a good idea? What won you over? His lack of inhibition or his willingness to break his leg for the cause?”
Caroline was avoiding eye contact. “I’m trying to ease your mind, Tru. He’s your brother. You know him better than I do.”
Oh hell. Trudy knew her friend, too, and after nearly a decade, she also knew that look. Jefferson wasn’t in trouble…Caroline was. She liked him. What the heck had happened in that bedroom? “Caroline?”
Caroline pushed her plate aside and reached for the check, beating Trudy to it as she pulled a neatly folded wad of cash out of her purse and set it on the table. “Let’s focus on you for the moment, shall we?” she dodged artfully. “Specifically, your clothing issue.”
“Clothing issue?”
She stood and slipped her purse over her shoulder, grabbing Trudy’s hand and practically dragging her out the door. The bell jingled loudly as they left. “As in, I know you didn’t pack for this particular reunion. Personally, I always come prepared, but you’re more a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-everyday-jeans kind of gal. What is your panty situation? And does this town have a salon? I think a manicure is in order.”
Trudy didn’t think John was going to be paying a lot of attention to her nails, but if being friends with Caroline had taught her anything—and it had taught her so much—it was a woman had to treat herself the way she expected to be treated.
“Yes, though nothing like the salons in Hollywood, I’m afraid,” she said. “And don’t talk about anything that you don’t want spread across nine counties. Nothing is sacred here. You’re not in Kansas anymore.”
“I am the queen of gossip, Trudy. I can handle my people and have a little fun while I’m at it.” Caroline laughed. “But speaking of Oz, my dear Dorothy, it’s time to slip on those ruby slippers and remember there’s no place like home. Especially when the Big Bad has been right here waiting for you the whole time.”
This was really going to happen. With John. What would he do to her? What wouldn’t she let him do? She wanted to race home and wait for him. To go to him and beg him to begin the sweet torture. To finally have him.
“I think I know where we can get those manicures.” She needed more time to calm her jittery nerves. And he’d waited this long…it wouldn’t do to seem too eager.
Caroline’s smile was knowing. “I have nothing left to teach you, Grasshopper.”
If she only knew.
***
Where the hell was she? He was losing his mind.
John had stayed away for as long as he could. In addition to his usual chores, he’d done Jefferson’s as well. He’d mucked out the stalls that held the small stable of family horses, overseen Diego and Manly’s cleaning and oiling of the machinery, hell, he’d even mended a hole in the fence that he’d been avoiding because it was so insignificant.
It was nearly dusk now. She’d told her brother she was going to show Caroline the town, but it wasn’t that big. He wondered—not for the first time today—if she’d changed her mind and gotten on a plane back to California. But it was too late for her to escape without a word. She’d said yes. He would follow her now, make her tell him no to his face.
Fuck.
The phone rang and John answered with an unthinking bark of frustration. “What, goddammit?”
“I’ve been watching you pace the driveway for the last hour, man.” Jefferson sounded concerned, and he knew it wasn’t just about him. “Are you sure about this?”
John growled and started walking again, this time toward the work truck. “We’re not going down this road, Junior. This isn’t like the last time.”
“I know. I’m not interfering. Never again, I promise. You are two consenting adults and I have my own fish to fry. I, well I’m thinking about what happens when she leaves. And after her news last night, you have to know she will.”
“She might already be gone,” John mumbled, hating the damn ache in his chest t
hat came with the words.
Jefferson laughed. “No such luck, my friend. Sandy from Just Curl Up gave me a call to find out if I knew my sister was back in town with her female lover from Hollywood.” John’s lips twitched. That sounded like Sandy. Jefferson chuckled again. “I told her to give me a heads up when they left and she’s called again so they should be home in five.”
Relief shuddered through his large frame. She’d stayed. She was coming home. To him. “Get Diego to bring you a pizza for dinner. We’ll be out.”
Jefferson sighed through the line. “It’s a hardship I’ll suffer through. Especially if it means I’ll be left in Ms. Aaron’s sensual and recently manicured hands.”
“So you’re not inviting Diego in then?”
“Hell no.”
“Smart man.” John paused. “Jefferson? Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me, Big. Not yet anyway.” Jefferson’s voice still held a note of caution, but John wasn’t listening. The rental car was pulling up the drive, a cloud of dust trailing in its wake.
“They’re here.” John snapped the cell phone shut and pushed it into his pocket, the keys jingling in his other hand as he forced his fingers to relax their death grip on them.
He saw her face through the windshield, laughing at something her friend had said, taking his breath away an instant before she saw him standing beside the truck. Waiting for her.
John couldn’t deny the satisfaction that coursed through him as he watched her reaction. Her expression sobered and she swallowed hard enough that he could see it, her wide eyes focused on him. As the car came to a stop, her friend had laid a hand on her arm, talking quietly, and when Trudy nodded, Caroline let her go and opened the passenger door.
John tipped the brim of the old Stetson he’d pulled out of the closet on a whim, the one Trudy used to like to see him in, and the woman smiled in understanding before walking past him without a word.
“Pizza’s on its way,” he called over his shoulder. “Don’t feed Junior if he gives you any trouble.”
The woman responded with laughter that faded as she closed the door behind her. John grimaced ruefully. So much for keeping this under wraps. It was obvious she knew as well as Jefferson what he had planned. Probably better, the way women talked.
Trudy was still in her car, her hands still clutching the steering wheel. He knew exactly what she was going through. The roller coaster. Excitement and impatience, but also hesitation. Would this work? Would their chemistry survive a thorough testing? He was willing to bet everything it would.
She was made for him. She just didn’t know it yet.
He walked up to the car and waited for her to roll down the window, bending down and leaning on his folded arms, his face close to hers. “Gonna stay in there all night?”
“I’m thinking about it.” Her voice sounded breathless, and his cock hardened almost painfully against his jeans in reaction. “The a/c is out of this world.”
He lowered his gaze to her luscious breasts, noticing her body’s reaction against her thin Kiss T-shirt. “I don’t want you to cool down too much, Trouble,” he murmured. “If you do, you won’t enjoy the water as much.”
“Wa-water?”
He met her startled glance and grinned. “I built my place beside the old pond. I know how much you enjoyed sneaking in a swim.”
She looked away and turned off the car, staring at the steering wheel for a long beat of silence. “Is that where we’re going?”
Don’t change your mind, Trudy. Don’t run away. He needed to tread carefully. “I thought we’d solidify our negotiations in private. Maybe have some dinner while we come to terms.”
And once she was there, he would make sure she begged to stay, that she was as ready as he was for what he had planned—or die trying. “Are you ready, Trudy?”
“Yes,” she answered swiftly, huffing out a breath. “Should we take my car?”
“No.” This he was sure of. He’d dreamt of her beside him in that old hunk of a truck for years. Of reaching over and dragging her closer, of her head ducking down and her fingertips undoing his jeans for a taste…
He stifled a groan. “We’re taking Loco.”
She smiled helplessly at the old truck’s moniker and nodded, allowing him to open the door and reaching for his hand as she stepped out of the small rental. “Is she still as stubborn as ever?”
“As a mule,” he responded out of habit. “But she’s still one of the only trucks that has enough space to fit me inside.”
Fuck. Inside her. Trudy. He wanted to find out how he fit inside her more than he wanted his next lungful of air, but he already knew. It would be tight. Tight and hot and fucking blissful.
He opened the passenger door so forcefully it creaked its displeasure, and Trudy glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
“I’m hungry,” he answered her unspoken question. And that was the God’s honest truth.
Trudy climbed up into the cab and he clenched his jaw so tightly it ached, watching the generous curve of her ass lift toward him as if inviting him to touch. To take a bite.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
He laughed under his breath at the double meaning as he closed her door and strode around to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. He was going to have to call on all his reserves of patience to give her what she wanted. What they both wanted.
But first he had to get them the few miles to his place in one piece.
Trudy. He could smell her all around him. Her soap-and-honey scent. No heavy perfume, just her. He watched his knuckles go white as he turned down the tire tread path that led to the old pond and his home.
Get home. Just get home.
“John?”
Fuck. He needed to answer her. “Mmhmm?”
“We haven’t officially begun yet, right?”
That got his attention. He glanced over at her and was surprised to find she’d turned her body against her door to stare at him, a mysterious smile on her lips. “What?”
“We don’t have any definite rules or boundaries or safe words or anything. Just a general I-have-to-do-whatever-you-want-me-to sort of agreement.”
He didn’t answer, wondering in his lust addled brain how he would deal with her asking for more time, or stopping altogether.
“John…” She’d moved closer. “John, stop the truck.”
“Oh hell.” He stopped and put Loco in neutral, stomping on the parking break and nearly pushing the pedal through the floorboard in the process. “What are you trying to say, Trudy? Say it.” And put me out of my misery.
He placed his arm on the back of the seat, facing her as much as he could in the narrow space. Trudy glanced down, taking a breath as if steeling her nerves, then met his gaze again.
“You want me.” She sounded as if she still didn’t believe it completely.
“Yes.”
He saw her shiver slightly in reaction and bit back a groan.
“And I have to give you what you want unless I say no.” She lowered her voice and slid closer to him, close enough that he could feel the heat of her skin. His body was wound so tight he could snap at any moment. Her next words were the final blow to his control. “I won’t say no if you tell me to suck your cock.”
“Fuck, Trudy.” The words exploded out of his chest and he pressed the back of his head hard against the rear window. He couldn’t decide whether to laugh or throw something.
This wasn’t him. This was a teenage boy who’d gotten a hold of his father’s whiskey and a bottle of Viagra.
All he could think about was coming. All he could see was a haze of Trudy-scented need and the image of her succulent ass swaying in front of his face.
Where was his patience now? Where was his control?
Trudy’s hands were at his waistband, unbuttoning his jeans. “Tell me,” she whispered. “Tell me to do it, John.”
He hoped he didn’t look as desperate as he felt. He slid them both over until
his legs were on either side of the gearshift, giving her room to work. Had he thought this cab was big enough for him?
“Do it, Trouble,” he rasped. “Wrap those pretty lips around my cock again. It’s been a while, but I know you can take me. Make me come, baby. I need it.”
A growling garbled shout cut off any more words he might have said when she lowered her head and took him in her mouth. Half blind with desire, he watched her move to her knees, her curls bouncing as her head bobbed in his lap.
It was the sexiest fucking thing he’d ever seen.
She hummed against his skin and he rocked his hips up, pushing into her mouth. One hand moved to tangle in her hair, his other unable to resist the temptation of her ass, lifted in the air once again by her position.
“That’s it,” he moaned, smacking one jean-covered cheek lightly when he realized she was still clothed. “With your tongue…yes. Damn, unbutton your pants for me, baby. I have to touch you.”
She moaned and the sound shot up his shaft like a live wire connected to his spine. She was going to kill him. Her body moved and he heard the snap and zip he’d been waiting for. Using one hand to push her jeans and underwear down to her thighs, he bared her ass to his gaze.
“Yes. Oh baby, the things I’m going to do to this sweet ass.” He pinched her flesh when she froze. “Don’t stop.” The hand in her hair tightened in a desperate warning. She licked his shaft. “Don’t stop.”
He gripped and rubbed the silken flesh, spreading her cheeks, caressing her. He could feel the tremor beneath her skin. She wanted him too. Needed as much as he did. He straightened his long arm and slid his hand past her tempting ass until he was cupping her wet sex. So wet and hot. He licked his lips, remembering, even after so many years, how sweet she’d tasted.
His fingers squeezed her clit and pressed, loving the noises she made against his skin. “You like that?” he asked. She nodded, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked his flesh hard into her mouth. “Yeah, you love it, don’t you? You’ll love this too.”
Big Bad John (Bigger in Texas Series) Page 6