by Gemma Weir
When she’s done, I grab one of the larger portions and slide it in front of her dad, then go back and grab the other two bowls, nodding for her to go sit, as I slide one in front of her and take the seat next to her.
“You want another beer, Beau?” Mr. Williams asks.
“Sure,” I say, “You want me to grab them?”
He nods, obviously amused with the way I’m acting.
“Baby girl, you want a beer?” I ask.
“Yes please.”
Grabbing three bottles I hand one to Bonnie’s dad, then one to her, before I take my seat next to her again. The food is delicious, but we eat in silence until our bowls are empty and I can’t take it any longer. “Is there somewhere we can talk?” I ask her quietly.
Her sigh is audible and pained. “Beau—”
“Bonbon, why don’t you and Beau go visit in the den while I clear up,” Mr. Williams says, pushing up from the table and collecting the dishes.
Taking the opportunity, I reach for her hand and coax her toward me. “Come talk with me. Please.”
Reluctantly, she lets me pull her away from the kitchen and our audience. I pause, waiting for her to point me in the direction of the den, although I’d rather do this in her room with a bed. Rolling her eyes, she points to the door closest to the front door and I eagerly tow her towards it, pulling her into the room and closing the door fully behind us.
The moment we’re alone, she rips her hand from mine and takes a pointed step away from me, crossing her arms over her chest. “Look, Beau, today has been by far the weirdest day I’ve ever had. If it was April instead of October, I’d think you were playing an April fool’s prank on me.”
“How long have we known each other?” I ask.
“We’ve been neighbors my entire life,” she says with a shrug. “But we’re not friends, I don’t actually know you at all.”
Smiling, I take in her defensive posture, I’d lay money on the fact that she doesn’t realize crossing her arms like that makes her tits look even perkier. My mouth waters with the desire to pull up that stupid black t-shirt and explore her lush body beneath.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she questions, her voice a little shrill.
“How am I looking at you, baby girl?” I ask lowly.
“Like I’m a steak and you’re a carnivore.”
Ignoring the obvious response, I tilt my head to the side and look at her. “Are you attracted to me, Bonnie?”
“How is that relevant?” she snaps.
“Answer the question, honey, are you attracted to me?”
“Of course I am,” she says with a nonchalant shrug. “Name me a single woman in town who isn’t attracted to you. You know what you look like, Beau.”
“I think you’re the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen,” I admit.
“So you think I’m pretty, that’s sweet of you, but it doesn’t explain you going from silent and brooding yesterday, to insane today,” she cries.
“I told you that I want you, Bonnie,” I tell her, starting to feel a little exasperated.
“So this is about sex?” she questions, her cheeks staining a little red.
Taking a slow step toward her, I smile. “I want to fuck you, baby girl, I want to feel your plush beautiful body beneath mine, I want to watch as I make you come, and listen as you scream my name.” I pause, barely an inch from her. “But that’s not all I want.”
“Then what do you want?” she whispers breathily, her pupils dilated, her chest heaving up and down.
“I want to own you,” I say a second before I press my mouth to hers. Her lips part and she opens for me, her small hands tentatively reaching for me as she presses her palms to my chest. Nipping at her bottom lip, I suck on her tongue, then invade her mouth, kissing her like she’s mine. Because she is, even if she doesn’t understand it yet.
After a second, her body melts into mine and I lift her off the ground, my hands beneath her ass as I encourage her to wrap her legs around my waist. Her legs move instinctually, the she freezes and her hands that had been gripping me tightly start to push me away.
Reluctantly I let her slide back down my body, making her feel how hard my dick is as I hold her close, not letting her run away from my touch.
“What happened yesterday?” she asks, lust and confusion both clear in her voice.
“I pulled my head out of my ass long enough to see what my brothers realized nearly a year ago.”
“What does that mean?”
“I saw that douche flirting with you, and it drove me crazy. After you got in your car, I came home, so fucking angry and aggravated, and then I realized that the reason I was so pissed is because you’re mine and no other fucker gets to touch, or flirt, with my girl,” I confess, pulling her in to feel my hard dick press against her stomach.
Instead of grinding on me, like I was hoping she would, she freezes.
“So yesterday you saw Dan flirting with me and got jealous?” she asks slowly.
“I don’t need to be jealous, baby girl. You’re mine and we both know it.”
Her head tips to the side and she licks at her lips, her jaw tensing a little. “So, what you’re telling me is that you had no idea you had any interest in me until another guy showed interest, and then you realized that you wanted me. Because someone else does?”
Nodding, I lean in and press my lips against the pulse point at her neck. “I don’t want you because he does. I’ve always wanted you; it just took me seeing you with the dickhead to realize it.”
She leans back, pulling herself away from my touch. “So, if Dan hadn’t have been there last night, if he’d have asked me out at lunchtime instead of closing, we wouldn’t be having this conversation?”
“Does it matter? You’re mine, Bonnie.”
“Am I?” she asks a little shrilly. “Because honestly right now I feel like a toy that was just hanging around in the toy box overlooked, until someone else decided they wanted to play with it. Then you decided that I was the ultimate toy, and laid claim to it.”
“That’s not how it was,” I tell her.
“Well that’s sure as hell how it looks from here, and honestly, Beau, as hot as you might be and for as long as I’ve fantasized about you wanting me. If the only reason you discovered you liked me is because someone else showed some interest, then no thanks. I’d rather stay a single virgin for the rest of my life,” she shouts.
Her words take me by complete surprise, and when she shoves me as hard as she can I release her, not following when she throws open the door and darts from the room. She’s a virgin? How the hell did that happen? How does a girl who looks like Bonnie get to twenty-one without some guy claiming her virgin pussy?
The thought is so baffling that it takes me a full minute to realize I’m alone in the den, and Bonnie is gone. “Fuck,” I hiss from behind clenched teeth. Her being a virgin shouldn’t be such a turn on, but knowing that I fully plan to marry her, being the only guy who’ll even get to touch her, to feel her tight cunt clamp down around my dick, is a hell of a fucking turn on.
Inhaling sharply, I reach down and adjust my junk so my hard on isn’t quite as visible as I march back out of the den and toward the kitchen. “Bonnie,” I yell.
“She’s gone to bed,” Mr. Williams tells me when I reach the kitchen. He’s at the sink, swilling our bowls and loading them into the dishwasher. “If I were you, I’d leave her be tonight, she’s only going to get angrier if you go after her again.”
“She’s pissed at me, I don’t like leaving while we’re arguing,” I tell him.
Turning to look at me, his expression is earnest. “Me and Bonnie’s mama never went to sleep on an argument. But she also taught me to pick my battles. Give her tonight to calm down and come see her tomorrow.”
With a sigh, I nod, reaching up and rubbing at the back of my neck with my fingers. “Okay, maybe you’re right. This is so messed up, but can I have her cell number, at least then I can text her.”
Mr. Williams chuckles. “Sure, it’s there on the refrigerator, I keep losing that damn cell she got me, so she pasted her number up there for me,” he laughs.
“Thanks,” I say, quickly saving the number into my phone.
“Beau, I don’t know you that well, but your parents were good people and I think you and your brothers probably take after them. That’s why I’m warning you real nice with my words. Don’t hurt my daughter, don’t play with her heart, or mess her around, because if we have to have this conversation again, we’ll be doing it with my gun in your face, right before I get my boot in your ass,” he threatens, all hint of amusement gone from his expression.
Holding back my smirk, I nod as solemnly as I can muster. Mr. Williams and I both know I could kick his ass with both my hands tied behind my back, but Bonnie is his daughter and I totally get his need to warn me.
“See you later, Beau.”
“See you later, sir.”
“You can call me Hal,” he says.
“Night Hal,” I say, turning and making my way to the front door, pausing for a second at the stairs, before I open the door and leave.
7
Bonnie
“Asshole, asshole, asshole,” I hiss, pacing my room as I surreptitiously listen for the sound of footsteps on the stairs. “Stupid fucking, sexy asshole.”
How dare he tell me that he only realized he wanted me because he saw another guy showing me some interest. I’m nothing more than a toy to him. He only wants to lay claim because deep down he’s a toddler who doesn’t want to share something he perceives as his.
An angry tear rolls down my cheek and I bat it away. I’ve always hated that I cry when I’m angry, it makes me look weak, when really I’m just so frustrated that it’s cry or scream, and screaming feels counterproductive when I don’t want him to come up here after me.
The worst thing is that I’ve been crushing on Beau for so long, that not only has he annoyed the hell out of me for behaving like a moronic three-year-old, but he’s also shattered all my fantasies about what it would be like if he were to suddenly fall in love with me. Beau, to me, was a little like a celebrity crush, so far out of reach that it was okay to indulge in this image I’d created for him. Only now he’s actually real and in my house, eating dinner with me and my dad and just ruining everything.
Flopping down onto my bed, I clench my eyes tightly shut and try to think about anything but him and the way it felt when he kissed and touched me. Somehow from the moment he barreled into the shop this afternoon, scooped me off my feet and carried me into the back, I’ve been teetering between wanting to ride his dick like it’s my own personal playground, and wanting to rewind to the time before he realized I existed.
I hate him for shattering all my childish delusions of him, but I love how big and firm and just plain huge he is in real life. I felt how turned on he was when he lowered me to the floor. I swear he dragged me over his dick extra slow just so I’d feel him.
When my mom first got sick when I was a senior in high school, I’d just started dating Billy Danes, he was sweet, but shy, and a linebacker on the football team. We’d only been going out a few weeks when I got that call to say she was in the hospital, and then the rest of the year was a whirlwind of graduating while helping Mama with her rehab and caring for her. Billy was really nice when he told me he wanted to break up and I understood why; but losing that year of going to parties and dating really changed things for me. When everyone else my age was getting ready to go off to college to experiment and grow up, my mama was dying and my life was thrown into turmoil all over again.
Since she passed, I’ve been too busy to really think about boys, and I always had the fantasy of the oh-so-perfect Beau Barnett at the back of my head to fall back on.
Now Mr. Perfect is offering himself to me on a plate and suddenly I’m not interested. What the hell is wrong with me?
Slapping a hand over my eyes, I shuffle up my bed, grabbing the comforter and wrapping it around myself. Maybe if I go to sleep this will all have been a bad dream. My cell beeps from inside my shirt, where I shoved it in my bra when I drove back from Maggie and Caleb’s earlier. Pulling it free, I click into the message from an unknown number and read.
Unknown – Hi Bonnie, this is Dan from the coffee shop, if you’d still like to, I’d love to take you out tomorrow night. I never got my tour, so maybe I could pick you up at seven, and you could show me around a little before we try the cute looking French restaurant on the corner?
I read and reread the text, waiting to feel something, only all I feel is apathy for Dan. Sure he seems like a nice enough guy, but if I compare him to Beau he simply pales in comparison. “No,” I say aloud, reprimanding myself. I need to learn to stop doing this. I can’t compare every guy to the version of Beau I’ve created in my head, especially when he’s proved today that he’s nothing like my fantasy of him.
Dan is hot, he looks damn good in a suit, and he didn’t need to see me with someone else before he showed his interest in me. Saving his number in my cell, I quickly type out a reply.
Me – Hi Dan, I’d love to go to dinner with you. Seven is fine, but I’ll meet you down in town as I live a ways up the mountain and it’s not the easiest place to find if you don’t know your way around the roads.
His response is almost immediate.
Dan – Great, where shall we meet?
Me – How about outside Wake Up and Go Go, I’m not working tomorrow, but it’s right in the center of town and I can give you the tour of the highlights from there before we go to dinner. The restaurant on the corner is actually a steakhouse, but the food’s great unless you’re a vegetarian.
Dan – Perfect, I love a good steak, I’ll call and make reservations for us. I’m really looking forward to this Bonnie, see you tomorrow.
Me – Me too Dan, see you tomorrow.
Pressing send, I drop my cell to the bed and force a smile to my lips. Dan is sweet and he seems thoughtful, much more my type than he-who-shall-not-be-named is, and I’m actually almost looking forward to dinner tomorrow, it’s been ages since I ate anything I didn’t cook.
The sound of Beau’s truck’s engine roaring to life shatters the calm that was fighting to take control, and I hate that I glance out the window to watch him leave. His stupid, massive truck ambles off down the drive, no shower of gravel in his wake. He’s not stalking off; he’s just slowly leaving.
I’m angry that he’s driven me to hiding in my bedroom, but damn if I’m still sad to see him go. Apparently, it’s not as easy to let go of the fantasy as I want it to be.
Exhaustion weighs down on me and I crawl out of bed and head to my shower, dumping my clothes on the floor as I let the hot water wash away some of my stress. By the time I’m clean and dry I feel marginally better. Beau may have spoiled the persona I spent eight years creating for him, but on the bright side, who actually gets to make out with their first crush?
This is like Tom Cruise and the girl from Dawson’s Creek all over again, she had posters of him on her walls when she was growing up, but unlike her I won’t get dragged down by my unrealistic fantasies
No, all this crap with Beau has to stop, he decided to like me on a whim, and he can decide to forget me just as easily. In the meantime I’ll let Dan, sweet, normal Dan, take me out, and maybe I’ll fall head over heels in love with him.
Naked, I pad from my bathroom to my closet and grab a baggy nightshirt. I found this online store that sells these amazing plaid nightshirts made of the softest material. They’re snuggly and far too warm for the summer, but now that Fall is officially here, they’re perfect.
Lifting my comforter, I straighten the bed, then crawl back into it, sighing wearily as I lay my wet, tangled hair on the pillow. I know I should find a brush and tame it, but instead I lift my head just enough to finger comb it, then twist it into an easy braid before I let my head drop down again.
My cell beeps, and sighing I glance at it lit up on my
nightstand. If it’s Owen telling me he needs me to work tomorrow, I really am going to quit, it’s my only day off this week and I fully intend to take it.
Braced, I lift my cell up and swipe the screen to bring it to life. Instead of the text from Owen I’m expecting, there’s one from an unknown number. For a second I wonder if it’s from Dan, but I know I saved his number under his name. Clicking into it, I swallow thickly when I read the contents.
Unknown – Hey baby girl, I know I pissed you off pretty good, but my daddy always told me never to go to bed on an argument. If I thought it wouldn’t make you even more angry, I’d be there in your room with you right now, but I know you’re not ready for that, so a text is going to have to do. It might have taken me a year to accept how I feel about you, but I knew a long time ago that you were meant to be mine. The first time I drove past the shop and saw you there all alone, you called to me, drawing me in like I was a fish on a hook. I might not have known exactly why I kept coming back to watch over you every morning, and all the nights you closed up, but I did know that I wanted to keep you safe, to protect you. That guy was the catalyst that made me admit how much I want you baby girl. But you being mine, is nothing to do with him, it’s just about me and you. I know you need some time right now, so I don’t expect you to talk to me, but please Bonnie, please tell me you forgive me, at least for tonight. Don’t go to bed mad baby girl. Beau xoxo
Exhaling, my breath catches in my throat. It’s like he’s two different people, the alpha caveman, using his size to manhandle me, then the sweet guy who doesn’t want me to go to bed mad. I have no idea what to think, or feel. Physically, he’s everything I dreamt he’d be, he’s big, hard, and he kisses like it’s the last time he’ll ever get the chance.