Vote Then Read: Volume III

by Aleatha Romig

  “Dawson can take me home,” I finally said between sniffles. I uncurled my hand from his shirt to swipe at the tears rolling down my cheeks.

  I wasn’t ready to talk, but no matter what came of it, I needed to be close to Dawson right now.

  26

  Dawson

  Evie was drunk. Messy drunk. After the scene in Lost Deer Bar, I managed to get her outside with just about all our friends following. I didn’t mind their presence so much, but I focused on getting her home. I’d relinquished any hope we were going to talk tonight because she was definitely too drunk.

  Trying to get her in my truck would’ve been difficult if it weren’t for her being so lightweight. After I opened the door, she tried twice to climb in, her foot slipping each time. She elbowed me away the third time, and I caught her the next time. Lifting her, I said, “Let’s just get you home. This is the quickest way.”

  I eased her in, leaning around her and ignoring her sweet, musky scent as I buckled her seat belt. When I met her gaze, her blue eyes were hazy. Her lips curled into one of her endearing, lopsided smiles.

  I couldn’t resist. Leaning forward, I brushed my lips over hers. I wanted our kiss to be so much more than that, but it wasn’t the time. When I drew back, she sighed. “I missed you.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

  Oh God. I didn’t really know how to do tears. I cupped her cheek, catching her tear with my thumb. “It’s going to be okay,” I said, feeling helpless and hating it.

  Evie shook her head as more tears rolled down her cheeks. She sniffled loudly as I stood there, internally fumbling with how the hell to respond to this. Tears all on their own were enough of a challenge, but throw in Evie being drunk and me only recently and quite painfully coming to terms with being in love with her, and I had no idea what to do.

  Quite obviously, we needed to talk. Hell, I was the one who wanted to talk tonight. But not like this, not when she was drunk enough she might not remember a thing I said.

  “Easy for you to say it’s going to be okay,” she said, her words soft and frayed.

  Although it was dark, the lights in the parking lot were bright. I didn’t think the illumination was meant to break my heart just a little more at seeing the pain held in Evie’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I know I screwed up. You’re right, it’s easy for me to say. I’m just trying to convince myself.”

  “Convince yourself of what?”

  “That maybe you’re in love with me too.”

  Evie’s eyes widened. She hiccupped and sniffled, smearing her palm across her damp cheeks. “What?”

  “Seeing as I’m in love with you, it’ll be okay if maybe you returned the feeling.”

  She stared at me, her mouth falling open with another hiccup and a loud sniffle. She tried to punch me in the shoulder. It was painless, and she barely made contact, but I didn’t miss the anger flashing in her eyes.

  “Why’d you blow me off?” she demanded.

  I didn’t have a good answer, but I had the answer. If necessary, we would just replay this conversation when she was sober.

  “Like I told you, shit with my dad messed with my head. I never thought I’d get serious with anyone. When I went home to see my mom, she said sometimes I remind her of my dad because I get depressed.” Pausing, I took a breath, trying to marshal my nerves to get through the rest of this. These were all things I had known so well, yet I never spoke out loud about them.

  Evie went still. She wasn’t quiet, not with the sniffles and the occasional hiccup, but I forged ahead. “So I just thought it was better if I kept my distance before I screwed things up, or before you saw that side of me.”

  I felt raw and exposed in a way I had never let myself be vulnerable before. Between sniffles, she reached out and grabbed my hand, almost missing. I caught her hand in mine. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke. “That’s crazy. I would never care about that. We all go through shit, Dawson.”

  Although her speech was a little slurred, her words were so earnest that my throat tightened as emotion barreled into me. Swallowing through it, I nodded. “I know. I didn’t say it was rational. Then I got bit by that snake, and it made me think.”

  Abruptly, she gasped, glancing down at our hands. “It’s okay. That’s the good one,” I offered with a chuckle.

  A car door slammed nearby, reminding me we were in the middle of a busy parking lot. The door to the bar opened with voices carrying out.

  “Let’s get you home, okay?”

  Evie’s eyes were glistening with tears as she searched my face. After a moment, she nodded. She had yet to release my hand, and I glanced down at it. “Going to need this,” I said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

  She hiccupped and uncurled her fingers from mine. Stepping back, I closed the door and rounded the front of the truck to climb into the driver’s seat. I drove us back to the lodge, my headlights illuminating the frost, a layer of glitter across the landscape hinting at the winter to come.

  We didn’t talk further on the drive home. I felt almost lightheaded, a rush of emotion coming in the aftermath at the reality of voicing my feelings out loud. As if that made them more real, almost like casting a spell. I couldn’t take it back now. I didn’t mind that Evie hadn’t repeated the same. Although I wondered if she did love me.

  When I parked and glanced over, I found her sound asleep, so I carried her inside. As I lifted her into my arms, she stayed asleep, letting out a hiccup followed by a soft sigh when she tucked her head into my shoulder. I carried her through the trees to my cabin.

  27

  Dawson

  It took a bit of wrangling, but I got Evie down to her underwear and dragged one of my T-shirts over her head. I didn’t think she would want to wake up in her jeans and cowboy boots. As she’d been doing since the day I first clapped eyes on her, she tested my will.

  She had on this ridiculous excuse for a bra—sheer cream silk and lace with her nipples peeking at me and panties to match. Ruthlessly, I yanked my T-shirt over her head. She sighed in response. After I tucked her under the covers, I took a quick shower, cold enough to take the edge off my inconvenient arousal.

  For the first time in weeks, I got to fall asleep with Evie warm and soft beside me. I would take it. Every fucking night if I could have it.

  Dawn crept into the room by degrees, a silvery light coming through the window because I’d forgotten to close the shades last night. I woke up with my palm cupping Evie’s sweet bottom and her breasts pressed against my side. My pulse kicked up the moment my consciousness flickered to life. Opening my eyes, I turned my head, taking in the sweet sight of her.

  Dark lashes brushed against her cheeks. Her breath came in steady, even gusts. Lifting a hand, I brushed her hair away from her face, savoring the way it slid soft and silky through my fingers. I could watch her sleep all day. Her face, usually mobile and slightly tense, relaxed in sleep. I let my thumb trace down the slope of her cheek to her crooked mouth.

  God, I wanted to kiss her so fiercely, I felt as if I were holding back a fire with my bare hands.

  Evie’s eyes opened. She was utterly still as she looked at me. “Oh.” Her voice had a rasp to it like it did whenever she woke up.

  For a moment, I simply basked in the knowledge of being with her. I felt like a cat luxuriating in the sun. In this case, Evie was the sun and just for me.

  “Good morning.”

  She swallowed, smiling sleepily before announcing, “I have to pee.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was let her climb out of this bed and remove her delectable curves from my immediate reach. But I was a practical man, if nothing else.

  “In that case, you should probably pee.”

  A tinge of pink washed over her cheeks, and she shifted against me as she rolled out from under the covers.

  On second thought, the sight of Evie walking into the bathroom where I had a nice view of her sweet bottom wasn’t such a bad plan after all. The door closed behind her, and
within a moment or two, I heard the toilet flush followed by the faucet running. Much to my satisfaction, she returned and crawled back under the covers with me.

  “It really is fall. It’s chilly,” she said.

  I could feel the pebbled peaks of her nipples against my side when she burrowed into me. “Fall is definitely here,” I murmured in reply, pulling her tight against me.

  I wanted to get busy. Right now. But I also knew she might not remember a single thing from our conversation in the truck last night. I shifted on the pillow slightly, adjusting an elbow behind my head and noticing my other wrist was only mildly sore. “So tell me, do you remember anything from last night?”

  She rolled slightly to the side, angling to look at my face. I was instantly disappointed because she wasn’t mashed against me anymore. The lines of her face tightened a bit. “I remember I was mad at you and kind of made a scene at the bar. I remember crying in your truck, and I think …” She paused, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.

  “I told you I love you. In case you forgot that part,” I offered, my voice coming out gruff.

  Her cheeks had more than a tinge of pink now. She stared at me, her eyes blinking wide. “You told me you love me? Last night?”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. She looked so adorable. I also knew the urge to laugh was a familiar defense. I wanted to tease because I was terrified of this moment.

  A tear spilled out and slipped down her cheek. “Hey, hey, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” I said, tightening my arm around her.

  She shook her head. “No, no. I’m not sad. That’s a happy tear.”

  My befuddlement must’ve been apparent because she smiled slowly. “You don’t cry when you’re really happy?”

  I shook my head. “Can’t say that’s ever happened.”

  She buried her face against my chest, her shoulders shaking with a few giggles. When she lifted her head, her eyes were still wet with tears, but I got one of her lopsided smiles. My heart drummed wildly in my chest.

  “I can’t believe I don’t remember the first time you told me. You kind of broke my heart,” she said, her gaze sobering.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I replied, wishing there was a way to show just how deeply I meant that.

  She moved closer, her fingers tracing a circle on my chest. “I know. Well, I didn’t really know.” When she shifted again, her knee brushed against my quite obvious arousal. When her eyes met mine, they darkened. “I think we should talk later.”

  “Ignore it. I’d rather talk first and clear the air,” I said, trying to sound firm.

  “I’d rather have make-up sex,” she said with a sly grin as she planted her lips on mine.

  I needed no further convincing. With her warm, plush lips teasing me and her sassy tongue flicking inside to tangle with mine, I forgot what I thought we needed to talk about.

  She shimmied over me, straddling my lap and letting out a soft hum. I fucking loved the sounds she made.

  With Evie, I was learning it was the little things that told the story of just what love was. I couldn’t remember the sounds any other woman made. I’d had my share of fun and had nothing to complain about. But with Evie, every single detail was seared into my memory on a visceral level—the little sounds she made, the way she bit her lip when she was cresting the wave of a climax, the way one of her eyes was a little wider than the other, the crook in her nose, and her lopsided smile.

  Evie was it. All of her was everything for me.

  I knew no matter what, if I could have her, no one else could ever claim my heart as thoroughly as she had. I shifted up on the pillows, curling my hands around her hips and holding her still. I was about to go off at any second.

  We weren’t even naked yet. She still had on those ridiculous panties, so tempting I didn’t want to ruin them but knew I would. I was sure that cream silk and lace had been made to drive me personally insane. Sweet heaven. Taking a breath, I gripped her hips when she rocked over the ridge of my cock.

  “Fuck, Evie. Hold still,” I bit out.

  She surprised me by obeying instantly. As I looked into her eyes, my heart set to drumming again. My pulse went off the charts in response to Evie’s mere existence—an elemental desire. There was that, and then what happened to my heart when I actually let myself believe she might feel the same way I did.

  Her eyes were wide and dark, a hint of that playfulness that was so her contained within.

  “I love you,” I murmured.

  For some reason, I needed to say it just now to make sure she knew how true it was. If my heart was a compass, Evie was my true north, south, east, and west. All directions pointed to her. It didn’t matter where I went, she was the homing device for my heart.

  The uncertainty I’d seen in her eyes last night in the bar when Sheila threw her barbs flickered again.

  “Don’t,” I said flatly.

  “Don’t what?”

  Her voice had a sleepy husk to it. I wanted to hug her, and fuck her, and sleep with her, and never forget the ray of sunshine she cast into my life.

  “That look.” I could feel the sweet heat of her pussy through the thin layers of silk and cotton between us. “The same one you got last night. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like when I see it.”

  Her lashes swept against her cheeks when her gaze dropped. Her breasts pushed against my chest as she took a deep breath. When her eyes met mine again, there was a tinge of sadness contained there.

  “I’m just not really the kind of girl it seems like you would fall in love with.”

  “Seeing as I’ve only been in love once, and it’s with you, I beg to differ.”

  Evie rolled her eyes. “Until I got to know you better, I just thought you were a player. You were never a jerk. I liked to joke around with you, but you didn’t know me. Not really. Remember how I told you my twin sister died?”

  My heart physically ached at the depth of pain that dashed through her eyes because I couldn’t even imagine that kind of loss. I knew how I felt about my brother, so I could only guess her connection to her twin sister was all that much more powerful.

  At my nod, she continued, “Well, that happened the summer before I started high school. I wasn’t really doing well at all then. High school was hard enough on its own, but I missed Krista, and Sheila was a bitch. She teased me and bullied me for a year before she moved on the next year. I guess her one saving grace was she didn’t stick with any one target for too long.”

  I suddenly wanted to kick Sheila’s ass. I’d never laid a hand on a woman—or man, for that matter—in my life, but to think someone would go after Evie like that hit me hard.

  I didn’t know what Evie saw in my eyes, but she cocked her head to the side, shaking it with a rueful smile. “It was years ago. I’m older and wiser, and mostly over that shitty period of my life. If I hadn’t been drunk last night, Sheila couldn’t have gotten to me. I’m kind of embarrassed she did. Anyway, my point is, I picture you as one of the popular guys in high school, the kind of guy who would have never looked twice at me.”

  Biting her lip, she shrugged, her eyes bouncing away from me. Releasing one of her hips, I lifted my hand to cup her chin. Her eyes swung back, holding mine.

  “I can see why you might think that. Because of the way my life was growing up, being the class clown was my escape. Don’t go thinking I wouldn’t have noticed you. I didn’t notice much of anyone. My dad was off his rocker on whatever the drug of the week was, and I was dodging his fists. Maybe what you saw the past few years could’ve given you the impression that I was somebody I wasn’t. I won’t pretend I was a saint, but I just tried to stay on the surface of everything. The first day I met you, I think I knew you were special, so I teased the hell out of you.”

  “Is that why I was usually the butt of your worst practical jokes?” she parried, her lips curling in a slow smile.

  I shrugged. “I won’t pretend I was mature about it. I just wasn’t ready for you yet
.”

  She lifted a hand, smoothing her thumb lightly across my brows. The look in her eyes and her sweet smile spun like silk around my heart, lassoing me and holding me tighter and tighter to her.

  “I wasn’t ready either,” she said, her voice catching. She took a shuddery breath. “I love you, you know?”

  I’d been prepared to wait, for however long I had to, but I wouldn’t lie, my heart nearly cracked a rib at her words. Swallowing through the emotion knotting in my throat, I shook my head. “Can’t say that I did. I thought maybe I’d completely screwed up.”

  “You’ll have to try a lot harder to screw up.” She tipped her head forward and pressed her lips to mine.

  We held still for a few beats, our breaths mingling as she drew back no more than a whisper away. When she rocked her hips slightly, that was it. I fit my mouth over hers and poured weeks of longing into our kiss.

  The feel of her silky skin against mine and her soft curves pressing into me lashed at me. I murmured, “I need you.”

  “I’m yours.”

  I kept thinking I needed to slow down and savor this, but I couldn’t. The fire burned too hot and too bright. I was lost, tossed asunder in this storm of emotion, desire, and fierce need.

  Somehow, I got her panties off and threw the T-shirt she’d been wearing to the floor while she dragged my briefs down my legs. Then she was rising up and sinking down over me, sheathing me in her silken core.

  The sun still wasn’t up when it was over, but I’d lost all sense of time. We lay there on the bed, our breath coming in heaves, and her pussy clenching around me. We eventually untangled ourselves, and I tugged the covers over us.

  When a ray of sun angled across the bed, Evie trailed her fingertips in a lazy path across my chest.

  28

  Evie

  Weeks passed, and I was in a haze of bliss. I still couldn’t quite believe Dawson loved me. Late one afternoon, I draped a cape over Valentina’s shoulders in the back of the staff kitchen. Valentina had begged me to cut her red curls. Her hair was so glorious it was almost not fair. I reluctantly agreed on the condition that I took no more than an inch.