“Howdy, ma’am,” I greeted her. She smiled at me across the table and then looked back at Lily.
“Vivian, this is Lee. Lee Haggard. Lee, this is my best friend, Vivian Green.”
“Oh! Lee Haggard, huh? Well, you don’t say!” she drawled, her thick accent one of the heaviest I’d ever heard. “I thought I recognized those eyes! I remember you from Sugar Hill High!”
“That’s me, alright,” I replied.
“Well, I’ll be!” she turned back to Lily and squinted her eyes at her. “Miss Lily, now, why don’t you tell me why you failed to inform your best friend in the whole wide world that you were hanging out with the likes of Lee Haggard?”
“I haven’t talked to you, Viv! And Lee just got to town. He’s helping out over at my dad’s place. We just stopped in here for a beer after work, is all.”
“Is that so?” she asked, turning her attention back to me. “Well, you sure did grow up nicely, didn’t you, Lee? You’ve always been a lanky one, but you’ve filled out, Lee. You look good,” she drawled. “Real good.”
For some reason, I felt like I was naked. She looked at me like I was a damned corny dog at the state fair that she couldn’t wait to cram in her mouth. It wasn’t the first time I’d been looked at like that, but I was quickly preferring the look in Lily’s eyes instead.
“Well, nice to meet you Vivian,” I said, hoping to rid the air of the tension. I wanted nothing more than to go back to my conversation with Lily.
“Nice to meet you, too, Lee,” she said, and I cringed when I saw her lick her lips.
“Well,” she said, turning back to Lily. “I guess I’ll leave you two alone. Lily - call me!” She slid out of the booth, did a little curtsy and sashayed away.
“Sorry about that,” Lily said, rolling her eyes.
“Nothin’ to be sorry about,” I replied. “It was a nice change of subject.”
“Okay, fair enough,” she said. “At least she left. I’ll get the Spanish Inquisition from her tomorrow, but that’s okay.”
“Hey, would you like to get out of here?” I asked, finishing my beer. It was getting a little too crowded and a huge part of me wanted to get Lily alone. Not even to get into those tight fitting jeans but just to have her all to myself without any more interruptions.
“I would!” she agreed. Her face lit up and I felt my heart swell at her eagerness.
A big part of me was worried she would hate me after she spent a little more time with me. But she was so warm and so open that it put me at ease in a way that I wasn’t used to, a way that let me show her a side of me that I rarely saw myself.
***
“I come out here sometimes when I want to be alone,” Lily said. She was sitting on the tailgate of my truck as we looked out over the horizon. We’d ridden a few miles deep down a dirt road into the woods and ended up at a huge lookout over a set of luscious, green rolling hills. We watched quietly as a huge bald eagle soared over the winding blue river below, until it disappeared into the pink sunset.
I passed Lily the bottle of whiskey I’d pulled out of the truck and watched as she took a huge swig off of it. The pink light danced across her face, leaving her apple cheeks even pinker than usual. She looked over at me, catching me watching her and smiled.
“You’re a beauty, Lily,” I whispered, the urge to kiss her now that I had her all alone had turned into a monster that I knew I couldn’t resist. I could think of a million reasons why I shouldn’t, but none of them were strong enough to overcome how much I needed to feel her lips against mine. “If I had a nickel for every girl I saw that was as pretty as you, I’d have a nickel.”
“Oh, Lee!” Playfully, she hit my arm and then burst out laughing. Her laughter rang out like a song, drifting up into the sky like tinkling bells over our heads. I watched her with hunger swelling up inside of me, until I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Can I kiss you, Lily?” I asked, realizing I’d never once asked to kiss a woman. I just did it, took whatever I assumed was offered. I didn’t want to assume anything with Lily.
The stars sparkled in her eyes as she nodded slowly.
It was nothing like what I was used to and everything I desperately needed.
Satiny softness. Gentle as a butterfly landing on my lips, her kiss was feathery, tender, healing.
I held her face in my hands, drinking in her goodness. I sighed against her lips, as I tangled my fingers in her soft curls, pulling her close to me. She pulled her lips away, causing me to muster up every bit of strength I had not to pull her closer. She nestled her head in my shoulder, leaning into me with a sigh of her own.
I swallowed hard, burying my face in her blonde locks, memorizing the smell of her. Peaches. Vanilla. Pure femininity.
She was so good. And she’d let me kiss her.
I felt like a fish out of water. Give me a naked, writhing, horny woman that wanted me to be anything but gentle with her, and I was an expert. Use my body to make you happy? I could do that, with ease. But use my heart? That was a whole different story.
And yet that kiss had me wondering - was that what I was feeling? Something more heartfelt, than cockfelt, so to speak? Or was I just transferring all this shit with my family onto an unsuspecting and unlucky Lily?
Whatever it was, it felt so foreign I couldn’t make any sense of it right now.
Hopefully, I’d find a way to wrangle it before it became the death of me.
Because while it was sure uncomfortable, there was something about this that put me on edge. Yeah, it was just a kiss. But it was something more than that. It was a yearning that was almost painful and I was afraid to fully let myself feel it.
Because suddenly, the thought of Lily not letting me kiss her again was something I didn’t want to imagine.
There was more, though. Something waiting, hiding, just around the corner. Another shoe waiting to drop. Something I wasn’t catching. Some lingering warning in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't shake.
I’d felt this before. Before helping Jesse Hope out of that burning barn, I’d felt it. Back when Ruby got mixed up with Lincoln LaCroix, I felt it then, too. It never turned out good when I felt this.
Whatever it was, I hoped like hell I’d be able to keep it at bay, at least for tonight, at least until I was finished kissing Lily.
I pulled her chin up, taking her lips again with mine, tasting her sugary pureness, and I knew that I’d probably never be finished.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LILY
His kiss was mind-numbingly hot. I’d fantasized about what it would be like to kiss Lee Haggard since I was in high school - just like every other underclassman - and it was everything I’d imagined. And more.
Fireworks. Electricity. Shooting sparks of fiery desire.
The thing I hadn’t imagined was the gentleness. He kissed me so gently, it was as if he was afraid to break me. The tenderness had shot right through my heart, digging in and burrowing into my soft spots, ripping through every wall I’d erected to protect myself from men like him.
Men like him. But who was Lee, really?
He was different than his reputation. He wasn’t self-centered at all. He wasn’t crude or overly sexual. My goodness, he’d barely flirted with me. And yet that kiss, even though incredibly gentle, had revealed just a glimmer of that fiery passion I’d heard so much about.
By the time he’d escorted me to my apartment door, I was beginning to think that perhaps Lee was a much bigger gentleman than people gave him credit for.
I liked him. I liked him a lot.
He kissed me again and again as we stood there, his warm lips so open and inviting, that it took all my strength not to pull him inside.
Somehow, I managed to pull away, closing the heavy wooden door between us. My cheeks hurt from smiling and my heart felt swollen in my chest.
Whatever this was, wherever this was going, if tonight was any indication, it was going to be one sweet ride.
I got into bed th
at night, my head swimming with thoughts of Lee. I didn’t realize until the next morning that I hadn’t thought of Brock once.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LEE
Jimmy Morgan’s old Chevy rumbled and shook as we made our way down the dirt road that lined his property. He’d asked me to come along and help him repair a fence that a stallion had put a hoof through the day before.
“You’re working out just great, Lee,” he said.
“Thank you, sir,” I replied. “I’m real grateful to you for the job.”
“You’re welcome. I’m always willing to help out a friend of Lily’s.”
I pushed away the small twinge of guilt I felt. I wondered how he would feel if he knew I’d kissed his daughter last night, and that I had every intention of doing it again tonight if she’d let me.
“Lily’s a great girl, Mr. Morgan,” I said.
“Call me Jimmy. She is, isn’t she? Her Ma and I are real proud of her. Gonna be real nice to have a veterinarian in the family.”
“I bet,” I replied.
I stopped myself before I rambled on about every one of the attractive qualities that I’d observed in his daughter. Jimmy was a smart guy, and I knew he’d pick up on it right away if I were a little too enthusiastic about his daughter’s amazing traits. It was way too soon for that.
“I’m real glad to learn she broke up with that kiss-ass Brock, too. I tell you, that boy would try to charm the skin off a snake. Damn shame, too. He used to be a nice boy, but fame took hold and turned him ugly. Now he’s just a rich asshole that thinks he doesn’t have to practice to win. The rodeo’s coming up real quick and he’s barely been in the pen at all. Too busy shooting commercials and magazine spreads like a goddamned French model or something.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t know him but he sounds like a real hoot,” I replied.
“Consider yourself lucky,” Jimmy replied, shaking his head. “I’m just glad Lily came to her senses before she got too wrapped up with him or saddled with a couple of his kids.”
“I hear ya,” I nodded.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with have youngin’s, mind ya. But it changes everything. Babies have a way of making you forget all the bullshit and focus on what matters.”
“I suppose so,” I said slowly.
“What about you, Lee? You got a mind to settle down yourself someday?”
“I don’t know, Jimmy,” I said, “I’m a bit of a wanderer. Have been my whole life, you know? Never really found a place I fit in.”
“Takes a special kind of person to fit in on Sugar Hill,” he said.
“That ain’t no lie,” I replied. “I don’t think I’m it, either.”
“Well, maybe you’ll have more luck here in Houston,” he said, as he rounded the truck around a curve. Dirt blew up beside us, turning into dust clouds that disappeared behind the truck.
“I hope so,” I said. “So far so good.”
“Good to hear, good to hear.”
We drove on in silence for a bit, before he pulled the clanking truck to a stop in front of the broken fence.
“This stallion was full of piss and vinegar yesterday. Shoved his foot clear through. He’s lucky he didn’t get cut. Old man Joe ‘bout had a fit when I told him. Ain’t nobody that wants their horse gettin’ hurt this close to the competition.”
“‘Course not,” I replied.
“Why’d you stop competing, Lee? We all thought you’d keep going after you won. Maybe go national.”
“That was my plan all my life, but I hurt my knee not long after I won. It never healed up right.”
“Damn shame,” he muttered. “You had real potential.”
“Thank you for sayin’ so, Jimmy. Means a lot.”
“Your folks got a farm out in Sugar Hill, right? Next to the Hope’s, ain’t it?”
“That’s right,” I said.
“So, why ain’t you out there workin’ with your Pa?” he asked.
There it was again. That innocent, poison-filled question. But I’d answered it once, so what was one more time?
“Like I said, I never really felt like I belonged. Turns out, there was a reason.”
“What’s that?”
“I went home last week for dinner. First, my parents told us that my father was dying of a brain tumor. And, honestly, when they told us that I was ready to buckle down and do whatever it took to help out.”
“That’s what a good man would do,” he said. I pushed away the guilt as I continued.
“Unfortunately, I learned something else that night. Turns out, my dad ain’t really my dad, Jimmy. Mama had an affair with Ward Hope, and I was the result.”
“Oh, shit, Lee,” he said, as he stopped what he was doing and stood up to look me in the eye. “I’m real sorry to hear that, son.”
His eyes were kind and full of concern, like Lily’s, and it felt comforting to know that he cared, even a little bit.
“Thanks, Jimmy.”
“So you left?” he asked.
“Yeah. I was upset. Drunk. Pissed. Thought it’d be best if I left town for a little while and got my head straight. Last thing they need is me raving around like a pissed-off bull.”
“I understand,” Jimmy nodded. “You stay as long as you like, Lee. You’re a good worker, and I need the help.”
“Thank you, Jimmy,” I said.
“Of course. But I gotta say, son. You’re gonna have to figure things out real soon. Sounds like your Pa don’t have a lot of time and you’re gonna regret it if you don’t make peace with him while you can.”
“Yeah, I know,” I mumbled.
“And, Lee - about that other thing. Listen - blood don’t matter. He raised you. He’s your dad. That’s what counts. Whatever mistakes or hard times your folks went through is between them. You gotta forgive them and move on, for their sake, but mostly for yours. Ward Hope is dead. Your Pa ain’t. Not yet, at least. Do the right thing, Lee. This kinda thing’ll eat you up inside if you let it.”
“I hear ya, Jimmy, thank you,” I replied, my heart sinking. I knew he was right. It already was eating at my heart like some bad bacteria or something. The whole fucking thing felt awful.
“You need anything from me, anything at all, you let me know, okay, Lee?”
“Will do, Jimmy. Will do.”
He turned back around and we set to fixin’ the fence in silence. My head wasn’t silent, though. By the time we were back in the truck and on the way back to the barn, I was exhausted from my head spinning.
I knew Jimmy was right. I didn’t have much time. In fact, the clock was ticker faster and faster every minute.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
LILY
“Spill it,” Vivian demanded. She sat across from me at breakfast the next morning. I’d barely made it through my front door last night before she was blowing up my phone and demanding information about Lee. I’d told her I was too tired to talk about it, when really I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. She’d let me off the hook, but only after I agreed to an early breakfast.
I’d fallen asleep on the couch again, Lu sleeping at my feet while I slept like a baby. And what a sleep it was.
I’d had the sweetest, and yet dirtiest, dreams about Lee all night. His steely blue eyes had haunted me, filled with wild, hungry desire that I’d only seen quick glimpses of last night
Lee, kissing every inch of my skin with those white hot kisses.
Lee’s rough hands gripping my ass while he sank himself into me. I’d woken up breathless and sweaty with a huge, satisfied smile on my face.
Last night had been one of the sweetest nights of my life. We spent hours lying on a blanket in the back of his truck, staring up at the stars and kissing under the moon. He’d actually asked before he kissed me.
Brock never did that. He just took whatever he wanted and most of the time lately he didn’t kiss me at all.
But that was over. Done and finished.<
br />
Maybe this was what it was supposed to be like and I’d just been missing out all along? I wasn’t sure, really. Brock was the only guy I’d ever been with and I’d spent so much of my time in my younger years with my head stuck up his ass like he could do no wrong. I’d believed everything he said, followed him around like a newborn colt following his mama.
I felt stupid about it all. But it was nice to be on the other side of it, and I was hoping like hell that he would soon be a distant memory.
In the meantime, Lee was an amazing kisser and I wanted to feel more of what he made me feel when he laid those hands on me. It’d taken all my strength not to rip those Wranglers off of him in that truck bed, and once more, I’d somehow managed to restrain myself.
I deserved a blue ribbon for that because by the time he took me home, my body was begging for more of him. All of him.
To be honest, now that I was staring the morning in the face, and a very curious Vivian, I wished we had gone further. I wasn’t concerned with my virtue, not at all. I certainly wasn’t a virgin.
But there was something special about my connection with Lee. Something tender that I wanted to protect. It almost felt like I was betraying him by telling Vivian anything.
“What do you want to know?” I asked her, after we’d ordered pancakes and coffee.
“I want to know how you went from asshole Brock to bad boy Lee in the span of not much more than twenty-four hours?” she teased. “I had no idea you could work so fast, Lily!”
“Oh, hush! It’s not like I was trying or anything.”
“Well, a rebound crush is always a good thing.”
“Rebound crush? What are you talking about? That’s not what this is. It’s not like that.”
“No? Then what’s it like?” she asked, arching a perfectly manicured eyebrow. That’s a good question, I thought.
“It was just a few beers.”
“Right…” she squished up her lips, her I-don’t-believe-a-word-you’re-saying lips. “Girl, he was looking at you like you were a rack of ribs just coming off the grill. You mean to tell me that Lee Haggard, of all people, didn’t do his damnedest to get in your pants?”
THE HOPE BROTHERS: The Bad Boys of Sugar Hill Page 34