by Alison Bliss
But seeing how Jake’s face lit up whenever Emily walked into a room made me smile. We may not have been right for each other, but I was happy he found his soul mate in Emily. And even happier that she and I were now great friends.
Still, my heart lurched and my stomach ached as I watched the two of them interact in such an intimate way. So badly, I wanted what they had. Yet my life had taken a drastically different turn in the form of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
Not that I regretted it. I loved my little boy with all my heart and couldn’t imagine my life without him in it. I wouldn’t even want to. Who cares if all the single guys I met viewed children as men repellent? My four-year-old son was the only male in my life who truly mattered. Even from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I’d wanted the little person growing inside of me. Actually, I had always wanted children. I just never expected to be raising one all by myself.
Jeremy may be Austin’s biological father, but he was no daddy. He’d made it clear from the beginning he didn’t want much, if anything, to do with our son. And no matter what I said to Jeremy, things were never going to change.
“All right,” Emily said. “Enough thinking about it. Go over there and talk to Zeus.”
I crinkled my nose. “His name is Zeus?”
“No, I made that up…but he should be called that. Because from where I’m sitting, the man looks like he’s got the body of a god. Now go tap that shit.”
We giggled, and I gave “Zeus” another fleeting glance over my shoulder. He gave me the sexiest grin I’d ever seen on a man. But I couldn’t shake the bad feeling gnawing its way out of me. I mean, the guy looked a little dangerous even from here. “But what if he’s not a stand-up guy?”
Emily’s face warped with confusion. “Bobbie, I think you’re missing the point entirely. It’s a one-night stand, remember? You’re not looking for a stand-up guy. You’re looking for a lay-down kind of guy.” She thought about it for a second. “Actually, if he’s a stand-up-and-screw-you-against-the-wall kind of guy, then that would be absolutely hot. Christ, you’re going to have to call me and give me all the dirty details afterward.”
I shook my head at the crazy girl, but I couldn’t help feeling she was onto something. It was only one night, right? It’s not like I was looking for marriage or daddy material. I just needed someone who knew how to please a woman. And God, this guy looked like he could get me off ten different ways until sundown without even trying.
Feeling brave and carefree, I stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in my shirt. “Okay, I’m going for it. I’ll text you later.” I winked at her as I started in his direction.
“With details,” Emily shouted out from behind me as I walked away.
I forced my way through the overpopulated area with my eye on the prize. “Zeus” was still staring straight at me, watching my forward motion and grinning wider with every step I took. His eyes raked over my body, and I mentally sighed, imagining exactly what his lips and hands were going to feel like on different parts of my anatomy.
But I barely made it fifteen feet when something crashed loudly in the distance across from the beer stand. My head—along with everyone else’s in my vicinity—jerked in the direction of the offending sound. I caught sight of a man righting a trash can he’d knocked over before he staggered drunkenly in a zigzag pattern toward the front exit.
Damn. Even with his back to me, I could tell who it was.
Actually, now that I thought about it, I specifically remembered seeing a black Ford F-350 in the parking lot when I’d arrived, one that very much resembled his. And that seemed to be the direction he was heading in. But he couldn’t even walk in a straight line, much less drive himself home. Shit.
I shifted my eyes back to “Zeus” still standing against the wall. The divine male raised one questioning brow, as if he wasn’t sure why I’d stopped moving toward him, and I sighed with frustration. What the hell am I doing? Obviously, this is a sign from God. Damn it, Jeremy. Why did you have to go and get shit-faced?
Afraid I wouldn’t make it to the parking lot before the drunken fool drove away, I bolted in the direction of the exit to catch up with him. I made it outside just in time to see him opening the door of his black pickup. “Jeremy! Hey, wait!” He didn’t seem to hear me, since he started to climb into the cab, so I ran faster and screeched, “JEEEREMY!”
He planted his ass in the driver’s seat, door still open, and plugged his ear with one finger. “Jesus H. Christ, woman. Do you have to yell at me like that?”
I stopped next to him, panting a little. Okay, maybe a lot. Though I used to participate in track back in high school, sprinting any amount of distance now was pure torture.
“Did you come out here to stare at my pretty face, or is there another reason you blew out my eardrum?” he said impatiently, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
“I was trying to catch you, to stop you from driving home drunk.”
He stretched out his long legs and laid his head back against the headrest. “Then you’re wasting your breath, darlin’.”
I cringed, remembering the last time he’d used that term of endearment on me. It was the night he knocked me up. “Damn it, Jeremy, your eyes are glazed over, you’re wobbling all over the place, and you’re slurring every other word. Don’t try to tell me you’re not drunk.”
“I’m not. I’m telling you I’m not driving anywhere.”
“Oh.” Well, that was something at least.
“Not yet, anyway. I only came out here to grab another pack of cigarettes out of my truck. We’re only halfway through the night’s events. I’ve got at least six more beers calling my name.”
I sighed. The last thing I needed right now was to burden myself with someone else’s problems. Especially when it came to him of all people. But I couldn’t in good conscious let the idiot kill himself on the way home. Or someone else for that matter. “Well, I can still drive you home. It’s no problem.”
“Good. My balls were aching for some release.”
I crossed my arms and gave him a yeah right look. “You so much as think about touching me, and I can guarantee your balls will be aching, all right.”
“Figures,” he said, his face turning somber. His glazed eyes clouded over with irritation. “When did you turn into such a prude?”
“The same moment you became a prick.”
Jeremy grinned at the insult. “Yeah? Then what the fuck are you doing here? Checking up on me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hardly. I have better things to do than worry about what you’re up to.”
He sucked on the front of his teeth. “Where’s the boy?”
“Since when do you care? You haven’t seen Austin in months. By the way, you still owe me three hundred dollars for the child support you conveniently forgot to pay last month.”
“Always got to throw the money issue in my face, don’t you, doll?”
God, I hated when he called me that. It was a term lots of men used, but in Jeremy’s case, it held a negative connotation. I gave him a stern look. “I wouldn’t throw it in your face if you didn’t habitually flake out on your payments. He’s your son, too. It wouldn’t hurt for you to help pay for his necessities.”
He stumbled out of the truck and slammed the door shut. “Necessities, my ass. You just want me to give you money so you can spend it on yourself. Ever since you bought that old house over on Ridge Lane, you think you’re so high and mighty. Well, I’m not going to pay to fix up that dump. You wanted it, sweetheart, then you pay for it yourself.”
Fire flashed through my veins. “You have some nerve. I bought that old, run-down chicken farm because it’s the only place I could afford as a single mother. Our son needs a stable home and a solid upbringing. And for your information, I’ve never used a dime of your money on myself or that house…not that you’ve ever given much to begin with.”
My words must’ve slammed straight into his gut because he winced, then stepped closer, to
wering over me in his usual attempt to intimidate me. His eyes narrowed. “You’re such a bitch. You think just because you guest starred in my bed one night and got a little more than you bargained for that you own me and everything in my wallet.”
Incredulously, I blinked at him. Got a little more than I bargained for? Seriously? I balled my hands into fists and thrust them onto my hips to keep from punching him in the throat. “You say whatever you want about me, asshole, but don’t you ever talk about my son that way again!”
Jeremy held his hands up in surrender. “Oh, calm down. Don’t go getting all worked up over nothing.” He chuckled drunkenly and then offered me a lopsided grin. “I was just about to take you up on your offer.” He tipped his black cowboy hat farther back on his head and allowed his gaze to linger on my cleavage as his tongue darted out and swept across his bottom lip. “That was an offer, wasn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You said you wanted to go home with me.” He leaned closer, as if to get a better view of my breasts.
The familiar scent of his cologne mixed with the stale alcohol on his breath gagged me, filling me with regret and shame. One night of bad judgment and poor decisions. That’s all it took to end up being a single mom to a four-year-old little boy.
I crossed my arms over my chest to block his lewd inspection. “I offered you a ride home to keep your sorry ass from killing yourself…nothing more.”
His face soured, and he rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, doll.”
I couldn’t believe I’d actually given in to the temptation of going home with him that one night so many years ago. But that was when I still thought he had a sliver of decency in him. Those days were long over. Nothing tempted me about the worthless shithead now. “Jeremy, you had your chance with me four years ago. You didn’t want it then, so you sure as hell aren’t getting another one now.”
He scoffed under his breath. “Chance with you, my ass. You just can’t get it through that pretty little head of yours, can you? It was a one-night stand, woman. My buddy hooked up with a friend of yours, and I was doing what any good wingman would do. I took one for the team.”
Our toxic relationship had grown so dysfunctional that I was actually used to his demeaning insults. But that didn’t mean I’d let him get away with them without some sort of retribution. “That’s funny,” I said with a smirk, “because I said the same thing about you.”
I spun on my heels to march away, but he latched on to my arm with a hard grip and spun me back around to face him. “Don’t you walk away from me when I’m talking to—”
Not letting him get another word in, I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and narrowed my eyes. Fuck Brad and fuck Jeremy, too. “If you want to keep your balls intact, I suggest you keep your goddamn hands off me.”
We stood there glowering at each other for what seemed like forever before his eyes flickered to something over my left shoulder and his gaze narrowed. I glanced back to see what had averted his attention and caught sight of a dark, masculine figure leaning casually against the fender of a late-model pickup on the opposite side of the parking lot.
Jeremy sized up the shadowed man from a distance and then nodded toward him. “Is he with you?”
“Nope. I came alone tonight.”
His glassy eyes shifted back to mine, and he smirked. “Sounds like a personal problem. I told you I can fix that for ya.”
I sighed in frustration. I couldn’t deal with this man anymore tonight. If anything, I’d just let the beer stand workers know that Jeremy was in no condition to drive, tell them to take his keys from him, and they could call him a cab. It would be my good deed for the day. “Good night, Jeremy.”
Shrugging nonchalantly, he staggered back toward the rodeo entrance, without as much as a backward glance. Sadly, he didn’t even care that he’d just left the mother of his only child standing in the middle of a dimly lit parking lot with a dark stranger watching her from ten yards away. The jerk.
I glanced back at the stranger who was moving in my direction. Oh great. Exactly what I need, to deal with another drunk asshole probably looking for a woman to wet his whistle.
But his deliberate, well-placed steps didn’t strike me as belonging to someone under the influence. If anything, it was just the opposite. His erect posture and broad shoulders suggested some serious physical strength, while his powerful, steady gait only hinted at the dense thigh muscles I imagined bunching beneath his jeans. No, this guy—whoever he was—was definitely in control of his agile movements. And he had an agenda…one that clearly involved me.
As he stalked toward me, his reflective eyes glowed brighter with interest, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. As if he was a lithe predator in pursuit of unsuspecting prey. An uneasy feeling sank into the pit of my stomach, and an overwhelming urge to run rippled through me.
Unnerved, I took a cowardly step backward, and his forward progression immediately slowed to a snail’s pace. The nonthreatening gesture comforted me a little, but I was still not sure it was wise to ignore my primary instincts. Especially since the last time I made that mistake, I ended up squeezing an eight-pound baby out of my vagina.
He advanced again, this time with more caution, as if I were a wild animal that he’d cornered, ready to defend my territory. And yeah, that was a pretty accurate description. I could’ve gone back inside, but I was worried that I’d have another run-in with Jeremy. So, warily, I stayed put. Considering there was an entire building of people one scream away, I didn’t think I really had too much to worry about. That was, if they could even hear a cry for help over the loud music. Otherwise, I’d be pretty much screwed. Damn you, Jeremy! Why’d you leave me out here alone?
But as the shadowy stranger approached, his face came into full view and my heart somersaulted in my chest. “Zeus” stopped a few feet in front of me with one eyebrow raised, as if he was asking an unknown question. My stomach butterflies prepared for flight mode and began fanning their wings lightly against my diaphragm.
Feeling a bit more relaxed, I smiled at him. “Couldn’t resist the need to rescue a damsel in distress?”
“You weren’t in distress,” he said simply, a slight grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
The deep timbre of his voice instantly transformed my stomach butterflies into lively pigeons. “You’re right. I wasn’t.” But had he not captured Jeremy’s attention when he did, things could’ve escalated rather quickly. He probably didn’t know it, but he had actually saved me whether he meant to or not. I wasn’t about to tell him that, though. “So why did you follow me out here, then?”
“Well, from the looks of things inside, we were about to get…acquainted with one another.” He gave me another devastating smile and then sauntered closer. “So I guess I was curious. I wanted to see what had you hightailing it out of the building so fast. Most women who cross my path don’t usually turn and run in the opposite direction.”
“Hmm. Cocky and arrogant,” I said, my gaze flitting over his broad shoulders and solid chest. Then I lifted my chin to see his golden eyes staring back at me.
“Darlin’, you don’t know the half of it,” he said brazenly. Closing the slight distance between us, he used one calloused finger to sweep a blond tendril of hair from my eyes, tucking it behind my right ear. A deeply intimate gesture that had my stomach pigeons cooing in delight. “So…you still game?” he asked, absently toying with my locks.
“For?”
His piercing, impolite eyes flickered over my body before rising to meet my gaze head-on. Wordlessly, he grinned again.
My face flushed and my inner muscles contracted at the highly erotic overtones his smile implied. My God, this guy is like a walking vibrator. Only better. He doesn’t require batteries to operate.
But after my unfortunate run-in with Jeremy, I wasn’t feeling particularly interested in doing anything too crazy—and probably totally hot—that I might later come to regret. God, why
not? Tamping down my inner resistance, I strengthened my resolve by forcing the firm, unmistakable words out of my mouth. “I’m not going to sleep with you.” Damn. I could almost feel my vagina pouting.
Amusement lit his face. “I don’t recall asking you to.”
Oh. All right. “Sorry. I guess I just thought—”
“Don’t get me wrong. Say the words and I’ll have your panties around your ankles and my dick buried in you so fast, you won’t know if you’re coming or…” His golden eyes glinted, heat smoldering just below the surface. “No, never mind. You’d definitely be coming.”
Holy shit! I think I just did.
His sexually charged words effectively disarmed me, inflaming parts of my body that hadn’t been intimately touched by a man in five long, celibate years. I clenched my thighs together to ease the no longer familiar ache building between them and mentally whimpered. Hot and bothered didn’t even begin to describe it.
He slid my long blond hair gently off my right shoulder and allowed his fingertips to trace lightly across my collarbone before coming to rest on my neck. With the way his eyes darkened with intensity, I had no doubt he detected my erratic pulse pounding beneath my skin. His eyes probed mine thoroughly, as if he was waiting for an invitation to take things one step further. “Struggling a bit with your decision? Why don’t I make it a little easier for you?”
“Easier?” I repeated.
“Just one kiss. What do you say?”
“One kiss?” I muttered, parroting him once again.
The amused expression he wore had me questioning his sanity. How the hell did his offer change from screwing me senseless to one simple kiss in the matter of a heartbeat? Not that I planned to accept his first official offer, but a girl does like to keep her options open.
Gentle hands cinched my waist, catching me off guard and causing me to stiffen. “Do you need a second to recap…or is it okay for me to kiss you now?”
His hot breath fanned across my face and, although I could smell a hint of strong whiskey on it, it didn’t repel me the way Jeremy’s had. Then his gaze dropped to my mouth and the corner of his twitched into a tiny smirk.