by Tia Louise
“Did you hear me?”
I force my attention to Ralph. “I’m sorry?”
“Mother said her ladies group is having a special luncheon for Daniel after church on Sunday. I’m supposed to invite you.” Ralph’s brown eyes cast to the side. “She said to bring your dad, but I figured—”
“Danny leaves Sunday afternoon.” As I say the words, my heart sinks, because Gray will leave with him.
“It’ll be right after church in the fellowship hall. To say goodbye. She said your grandmother would’ve wanted it.”
“I’ll mention it to him.” Everyone in St. Stephen does things for the sake of my grandparents, the Oakville Harrises. You’d think we were royalty…
Except the Harris fortune has been disappearing since I was a child. My dad doesn’t work, he drinks all the time, which means we’re nearly broke. Pretty much all we have now is an old name, this lake house, the old house in town, and a few “priceless” antiques.
“In other news.” Ralph straightens, tugging on his waistband. “I took a job with pest control, so I’ll be visiting the clinic pretty regularly. Maybe we can go out to lunch sometime.”
I see Gray drift to the back hall. My stomach is tight, and I clock the amount of time it’ll take me to meet him without drawing unwanted attention.
“Wait, you remove pests?” Ruby’s loud voice cuts in. “How ironic.”
“It’s mostly raccoons, but I had two ladies call with snakes in their swimming pools last week.”
“Metaphorically speaking?” She’s teasing, but I’m too distracted to play along.
“I don’t understand.” Ralph frowns at her. “They were water moccasins.”
I give Ruby’s arm a squeeze. “I have to use the restroom.”
“I’ll be here!” Ralph calls after me.
“I’ll be at the keg.” Ruby heads to the kitchen.
I plunge into the crowd of familiar faces, following him like a starving kitten. I smile and say hello to people I’ve known my whole life. It takes forever to pick my way through without seeming suspicious, and thanks to Ralph’s water moccasin story, my mind has gone to the first time I ever saw Grayson Cole.
It’s not a clear memory, only shadows and feelings…
I was four years old, standing barefoot on the path leading behind our old neighborhood.
Brown grasses taller than my head separated it from the wide canal that ran like a river all the way to Lake Mary. A shiny black snake with bright yellow spots had zipped across my feet, its thick body slippery and fast and forever long, and I screamed as loud as I could.
I screamed and screamed. I stood there screaming until Grayson appeared.
“What was it? A snake?”
I nodded rapidly, and he leaned down, inspecting my small feet and legs. He was only eight, but he seemed like a grown-up, so serious making sure I wasn’t hurt.
The reptile was long gone, and I was just standing there, crying in my yellow-checkered romper, my white-blonde hair in two plaits on each side of my head.
Gray hesitated only a moment before wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me off the ground. He carried me up the path, jogging to the opening in the chain-link fence behind the big hydrangea bush at the back of Mr. Halley’s garden.
I bounced wildly in his arms, and I held onto his skinny shoulders for dear life until I heard my mamma’s panicked cries.
“Andrea!” Her hysterical voice made me cry more.
“She’s not hurt, ma’am.” Gray put me on my feet, and I flew into my mother’s arms. “It was just a snake.”
More panic ensued, and I was carried straight into the house and fussed at for leaving the yard, wandering off by myself. Everyone forgot my savior.
Everyone but me…
Eight years passed before he saved me again.
Ovarian cancer stole my mother’s life, and I’d sneaked out of her funeral, hoping I could outrun the pain.
I ran and ran until I dropped to my hands and knees on that same dirt path. Grass stains ruined my fancy church dress, and I dug my nails into the damp earth, letting out another scream.
This time my screams were the pain of loss. My ribs cinched like a vise over my lungs. My body doubled with the pressure of my sobs, and I held onto that ground for dear life, convinced I’d never stop screaming, until a warm body appeared beside me.
Those same arms wrapped around me, and he held me on his lap, rocking me, rubbing my back, and saying quiet words of comfort. I don’t remember what he said. I only remember holding on to him for dear life as grief ripped me apart.
Stormy eyes reflected my anguish back at me. Gray had come to our town to live with his uncle after his mother died. He knew my pain.
We didn’t say much afterward. He went back to being Danny’s best friend, and I went back to being Danny’s little sister. Occasionally I’d catch his eyes on me, which meant my eyes were on him, but it wasn’t until last summer our relationship changed in a major way.
Danny and Gray were home from college, and we were all here at the lake house, hanging out. Ruby and I walked down to the pier where the boys were splashing and dunking each other in the brown water.
I took off my white cover-up to reveal a matching string bikini. My body had changed a lot in five years.
When I met Gray’s eyes, they weren’t frightened or sad. They were fire and lust, and every part of me lit up in response. He swam away from the guys to where we were sitting, and when he pushed out of the water, I learned a new kind of hunger.
The skinny shoulders from his past were now broad and strong. Lines cut across his torso, and his stomach rippled where his muscles flexed. His gaze was possessive, and my body answered with feelings I’d never had before.
When I was younger, he’d saved me from dangers I understood.
This was new and intoxicating.
It drew me to him like the ocean to the moon.
We kissed for the first time that night. We shared all my firsts that summer, and when he tried to slow us down, I learned my power over him.
Gray might have told me I was too young to decide, but I’ve been his since the day he carried me out of that brush…
The game room is cooler than the crowded upstairs. It’s dim, and the only light is from the neon-blue Pabst Blue Ribbon sign over the pool table and the lamp post outside on the pier.
He sits on a barstool, reclining with his elbows on the leather edge. A casual grin is on his lips, but his steel-blue eyes are so intense, so heated as I walk through the door. “Hey, Drew-poo. How’s high school?”
His manner, using my brother’s silly nickname, it should put me at ease, but his eyes contradict all of it.
“I hate that nickname.” I try to be sassy, but my voice comes out soft and high. “Anyway, I graduated.”
“That’s right.” He sits up and smiles, but no dimple appears. “You’re headed to State with Ruby.”
“How did you know?” I walk slowly toward him.
He shrugs. “Word gets around.”
My fingers play with the hem of my skirt. “How’s your uncle?”
“Same as always. Ornery. Complaining that he’s tired all the time. Wanting to know when I’m coming back to work.”
“But you got your degree.” I don’t want to disparage his uncle, at the same time...
“Yeah.” He looks down, inspecting his palm. “Guess I’m too smart to be a mechanic now.”
“I just meant you’re good at so many things.” Like saving me, comforting me, touching me, kissing me…
He straightens on the stool, sliding his palms down the tops of his thighs. “Got any new freckles for me?” The teasing is back, but the hurricane is still brewing in his eyes.
“I didn’t think you cared.”
“Why would you think that?”
“You didn’t come to the house.”
“Danny said to meet him here.” His eyes flicker to my fingers, toying with my skirt, up my arm to my bare shoulders
. My nipples tighten, tingling for his mouth. Last summer he would kiss them, suck on them. I would come so fast. “I figured you’d be busy.”
“I’m not busy.” I take another hesitant step forward.
“As pretty as you are?” Another fake smile. “You’re not dating somebody?”
“I never wanted to date anybody.” But you…
“Well, college is different. You’ll have more options.”
Did he have options? The thought makes my head hurt.
As pathetic as I sound, I can’t help asking. “How many options did you have in college?”
Whatever the answer, I will not cry. Oh, God, don’t let me cry…
He shifts on the stool again. “I was more… focused on my classes.”
Nodding, I close the distance between us. “Danny said you graduated cum laude. So you didn’t date?”
He shrugs. “Dating costs money.”
He’s not looking at me now. Where did Mr. Cocky go?
“Were you lonely?” Did you miss me as much as I missed you?
His hands tighten on the tops of his thighs. Strong hands. Strong arms. Broad shoulders and full lips. Dark hair that touches the top of his collar. I know how soft his hair is. I know how it feels to fall asleep in his arms.
I know so much I can’t let go.
“Maybe.” His blue eyes are focused.
Gray can be so focused.
The space between my thighs is hot and slippery. I can’t wait any longer. I reach out and put my purse on the bar beside him. Then I place my hand on his.
He flinches as if shocked by the electricity humming through my skin. He turns his hand over and our fingers thread, pulling me closer, between his knees.
I step all the way into his chest, and my eyes close at the scent of warm cedar, fresh soap, leather, and Gray.
His voice is thick and rough when he speaks again. “I told you to find somebody closer to your age.”
“No, thank you.” I move my hands to his waist, slipping my fingers under his tee so I can touch his hot skin.
His breath quickens, and I’m buzzing with the heat surging between us. Lifting my chin, I place my lips against his muscled neck. The ice is melting. He’s coming home to me, and when he speaks, it’s a husky whisper.
“You need to find someone who deserves you, Drew-baby.”
My chest squeezes. That’s the nickname I love.
“I found him.”
Gray has been my hero since I was four. Now he’s going away so everyone else will see him as a hero. I just want him to stay here and be my man.
Large hands trace my waist, sliding along my hips. I lean back so our eyes can meet. “Kiss me, Gray.”
Blinking slowly, I’m drunk on his presence, on being exactly where I’ve dreamed of being all those nights. The muscle in his jaw moves, and the struggle in his eyes is clear.
But I know something else. He won’t tell me no.
Leaning into his chest, I ask one last time. “Kiss me.”
And my wish is granted…
Get MAKE YOU MINE (link) and fall in love with this brother’s best friend, military romance today—free in Kindle Unlimited!
When We Kiss
Special Sneak Peek
“Kiss me…
You’re too law-abiding for me.
What makes you say that?
That uniform. Those handcuffs.
Maybe I should put you in handcuffs.
Maybe I’d like to see you try…”
Tabby Green:
Preacher’s niece.
Website designer.
Bad Girl.
Chad Tucker:
Retired military.
Deputy sheriff.
Hero.
He’s a hot cop with a square jaw, a sexy grin, and a tight end.
I’m a bad girl, a “Jezebel”—just ask all the old biddies in town.
We’re oil and vinegar. We don’t mix.
But when we kiss…
She’s got flashing green eyes, red-velvet lips, and luscious curves in all the right places.
She’s a bad girl all right, and after what I’ve lost, I’m not looking for trouble.
But when we kiss…
Oil and vinegar DO mix,
And when they do, it’s electric.
A full-length, STAND-ALONE, opposites-attract romance about heroes, bad girls, and what happens when you stop fighting and surrender to love.
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1
Tabby
August, last year…
The air is electric when you’re being bad.
Little currents zip through your veins like lightning bugs grazing the tips of tall grass, and your stomach is tight. You’re right on the edge, holding your breath…
Or maybe it’s just me.
“Climb through.” Blade squints up at me, the devil in his blue eyes.
He’s holding the corner of a chain-length fence, and it makes a metallic screech as he lifts it higher.
Eleven thirty, and the night air is hot and humid—a warm washcloth on my bare skin. I duck through the opening, putting my hands up to protect my hair, my ears.
The space is just big enough for me to fit, hidden behind the tool shed. A rustling and a BANG! lets me know we’re both through the breach. My naughty escort stands grinning in the moonlight. His hair is dark, his skin pale, and shadows deepen his eyes, nose, and mouth. He’s like one of those scary-sexy vampires.
Or maybe I’m a little high.
“Let’s do this!” He lets out a whoop and jerks off his black leather jacket.
His white tee is next, revealing a coiled serpent tattooed on his upper back. Jeans off, I catch a glimpse of his tight ass as he runs straight to the pool and breaks the glassy surface with a loud splash.
I shimmy out of my calf-length jeans and unbutton my short-sleeved shirt. I’m buzzing from the pot we just smoked at my small house, the old parsonage in town near the church, before we got the idea to break into the Plucky Duck Motel pool.
The Plucky Duck is off the Interstate, too far from the beach to be a tourist attraction. It’s a million years old and completely deserted.
“Nobody ever stays here.” I walk slowly down the steps into the shallow end.
The water is warm as it rises up my calves, to my knees, to my panties, to my waist. Blade is under the diving board watching me, his mouth submerged like a shark or a crocodile. His eyebrows rise as the water reaches my waist.
Through a blue haze of pot smoke, he demanded we do something I’ve never done before. I said there isn’t much in Oceanside I haven’t done. Until I thought of this old place.
Skinny dipping with Mayor Rhodes’s tattooed bad-boy nephew is the perfectly spontaneous, irresponsible way to kick the last memories of Travis Walker from my heart.
Acid burns in my stomach. Tattooed Travis blew into town three months ago on a Harley, kissed me, and said I was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. We screwed around for six weeks, until I caught him sneaking out of Daisy Sales’s bedroom window.
He didn’t even deny sleeping with her. He said Oceanside was getting “too restrictive,” then he hopped on that Harley, lit up a cigarette, and drove away.
Asshole.
Serves me right for letting my guard down.
Pushing off the bottom, I keep my head above water as I glide to where Blade waits at the deep end. It’s darker under the diving board.
“How long you planning to stay in Oceanside?” I don’t really care. Blade’s a fling I’m going into with my eyes wide open.
“Not sure.” He reaches for my waist, his palms hot against my bare skin. “Ma said Uncle John needs to straighten me out.”
He grins, and a dimple pierces his cheek. That bit of information makes me laugh, and I rest my elbows on his shoulders.
“I’ve been tol
d something like that before.” I give the field where we came in a longing glance. I wish we had more pot or at least a six-pack.
“Who’s trying to straighten you out?” he asks, running his fingers up and down my sides.
My eyes return to his, and I do a little shrug. “My uncle’s Pastor Green.”
“No shit!”
The way he says it with a laugh makes him seem young, like a kid. I don’t like the way it makes me feel, especially with the iron rod of his erection pressing against my stomach.
Twisting my lips, I reach up to hold the sides of the diving board, moving out of his arms. “I lived under his roof, his rules, until I was old enough to get out.”
“I hear that.” Blade reaches up to hold the diving board, mirroring my behavior.
We’re facing each other, and I admire the lines of his lean muscles. Another snake is tattooed around his upper arm, but it looks amateurish, almost like he did it himself.
“So you’re staying?” My red velvet lips purse, and he winks.
“That’s what they tell me.”
His muscles flex as he walks his hands forward, bringing our bodies closer together.
“Future’s a lot brighter now that you’re here.”
I don’t know if I’m sobering up or if his enthusiasm is killing the mood.
Blade had waltzed into the bakery where I work earlier this afternoon looking for trouble. The memory of Cheater Travis was looming large, and I decided I needed to do something reckless to blow off steam.
“You’re new in town,” I had said, cocking my hip to the side.
“My uncle’s the mayor,” he’d replied with a swaggering shrug.
“Good enough for me.” I’d trotted out the door behind him, down the steps, and into the beat-up old Buick he’d parked out front.
We started on the strip at Oceanside Beach, where the high-rise condos line the shore like a wall and the tourists block up the sand. Then we had a few beers at the Tuna Tiki, the local beach bar-hangout, before he pulled out a dime bag of weed and we went back to my place to smoke it.