Slide (Boosted Hearts Book 3)

by Sherilee Gray

  “You’re scaring me here, Luce. Please, baby, please talk to me.” Watching her like this was destroying him.

  She blew out a shaky breath. “Not long before I learned he was married, I…I found out I was pregnant.”

  Everything inside him seized to a halt. It felt like his fucking heart stopped. Taking a breath felt impossible. She was pregnant…with another man’s baby. His Lucy. His fucking woman was going to grow round and soft with some other man’s child. Something tore wide open inside him. God, it was selfish, and he hated that his first reaction was to think about himself, but he was jealous, so fucking jealous it felt like someone had sliced him from throat to gut and everything spilled to his feet.

  Lucy had her hands over her face and she wasn’t just crying now, she was fucking sobbing. Every protective instinct inside him roared to the surface. He realized in that second that he wanted to be the one to take care of her. To be there for her. Shit, he wanted to be the father to her babies.

  Those thoughts, feelings, set like cement. In minutes, everything had changed for him.

  Moving to the side, he sat against the headboard and dragged her into his lap, gently pulling her hands away from her face. “I’ll take care of you, Lucy, you and the baby. I promise you that.”

  She blinked up at him. “What?”

  “I’ll talk to your brothers. You can move in with me. We can say the baby’s mine if you want. Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

  She sat up a little straighter and her face softened. Her hand lifted to his cheek. “You don’t need to do that.”

  “I’m not arguing with you about this. I’m going to take care of you and the baby.”

  She slid her thumb over his lips, silencing him. “I lost the baby. I was nearly three months along…that’s how I found out Daniel was married. When I told him I was pregnant, he freaked out and confessed. He said he’d leave her for me, but I didn’t want that. He’d lied to me. He already had a family. And I…I wasn’t in love with him.”

  Her eyes lifted and locked with Adam’s, and his heart nearly banged out of his chest. There she was, the shutters were up and he couldn’t mistake what he saw. She loved him. Fucking hell, she loved him, as much as he loved her.

  “What happened?” he rasped past his suddenly tight throat.

  “I told him he was off the hook, that I’d lost the baby, that there was no reason for him to leave his family.” Her thumb brushed his lower lip again. “He didn’t believe me. Still doesn’t believe me. I tried to carry on with my classes, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. Then he told his wife he was leaving her for me, that we were having a baby, and everything…fell apart. She started calling, sending those awful texts. I told her I wasn’t pregnant and she accused me of lying to take her husband away. It all got out of hand and I had no choice but to leave.”

  Adam felt like he’d been put through a fucking emotional mincer. Jealous that some other man got her pregnant, resigned, relieved…fucking ecstatic that he had an excuse to keep her for himself. Now he didn’t know what he was. She wasn’t pregnant anymore, but he didn’t think he could give up on the idea of making her his, of telling Hugh and Joe that he loved their sister and they’d just have to get over it.

  But how could he do that to her, promise her a life with him, when he would end up hurting her in the end? The apple didn’t fall far from the tree—he’d proved that already. He was good at leaving people, at being a selfish asshole, exactly like his old man. But the thought of leaving Lucy was unimaginable. Maybe, just maybe, he could be what she needed.

  He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head under his chin. He couldn’t think, couldn’t process any of it then. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew he couldn’t walk away either, not yet.

  He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so sorry, Luce, about the baby.”

  Her fingers sunk into his bicep. “Thank you.” She turned more into him and he felt her body start to tremble. “You’re the only person that’s said that to me. I couldn’t tell anyone else. I…it was only early days, and it wasn’t something I planned, but I…I loved it. I already loved it.”

  Adam held her while she quietly cried in his arms.

  ~ * ~

  Lucy followed Adam to the door. God, she didn’t want him to go. They’d spent most of the previous day in bed. They hadn’t fooled around after she’d told him the truth of her situation. Instead he’d held her, talked with her, even managed to make her laugh a time or two. It felt good to finally tell someone about what happened, about the miscarriage, and how badly it had hurt.

  He pulled the door open and took a step backward down the first step. He was still a lot taller than her like this, but close enough he’d only have to dip his head if he wanted to kiss her.

  Would he kiss her?

  He’d been all ready to move her into his house, claim the baby as his…now what? Was he going to walk away and they’d pretend that none of this happened, like they’d first agreed, or would he act on the way he felt about her? He could try and hide it all he wanted, deny it, but it was becoming clearer every moment they spent together. After the way he’d come to her, the way he’d been with her yesterday…

  His hand went to her waist and gently fisted the fabric of her sundress, tugging her forward. Her hands went to his shoulders and her belly quivered, even after her emotional weekend, heating and fluttering with anticipation.

  “Will you come to my place tonight, after you’ve finished work?” he murmured.

  Relief coursed through her. Thank God. “Sure.”

  He stared at her for what felt like forever before he leaned in slow, head tilting to the side as he came in for a sweet, heartbreaking kiss. God, her knees went weak.

  “Love these lips,” he muttered against them. “They make me fucking crazy—”

  A door banged beside them and Adam muttered a curse before pulling back.

  Edna stood just inside her trailer, a wide grin on her face. “Come up for air, have you?”

  Lucy felt her cheeks heat. “We weren’t, ah…I’m sorry if we—”

  Edna waved a hand in the air. “Save it. There’s no point denying it, not with all the moaning and groaning I heard coming through my trailer wall.”

  Edna cackled when Lucy’s mouth dropped open. Adam started laughing under his breath.

  “Besides, I’m used to it, what with Shay and that giant husband of hers occupying that bedroom before you.” She pointed toward Harold’s trailer across the park. “Anyway, putting up with the noise was worth it to see that old coot blush like a schoolgirl. Never seen a man go red like that. He shoveled down his supper and ran out of my trailer so fast I’m surprised he didn’t dislocate a hip.” She shook her head. “He knows he has to eat slow. He gets indigestion,” she added. “The idiot will be full of gas now. If he thinks I’m letting him in when he comes to take Rocky out for her walkies, he’s got another think coming. Not having him farting up a storm in my living room.”

  Adam didn’t even try and hide his amusement. He tipped his head back and laughed his ass off. It was a sight to see.

  Lucy couldn’t take her eyes off him. It’d been a long time since she’d seen him let loose like that. It suited him. Like a lot.

  Edna gave her a grin. “I can see now why you let him put his boots under your bed, girl. I’m gonna have to change your name,” she said to Adam.

  Adam cocked a brow. “My name?”

  “I had you three boys as Happy, Grumpy, and Surly.”

  He made a choking sound. “Which one am I?”

  “Surly.”

  Lucy clapped a hand over her mouth to hide her giggles, but there was no containing them. Not hard to guess which of her brothers was Grumpy.

  “I’ll have to have a think on that,” she said and backed up a step. “Maybe Dirty.” She winked. “Catch ya on the flip side.” Then her door slammed shut and she was gone.

  “Surly?” Adam said after a few seconds, lips lifted on one
side. “Surely not.”

  Lucy pressed closer. “I think she had it right the second time. Dirty sounds about right.”

  “You love it.” His hands slid down to her butt and squeezed.

  “I’m not even going to try and deny it,” she said, ready to tug him back into the trailer and have her wicked way with him.

  Going by the look on his face he was thinking the same thing.

  His phone beeped in his pocket and he groaned, resting his forehead against hers as he pulled it out to check it. “Joe,” he murmured. “Wants me to pick up some parts on my way to the garage this morning.”

  “You better go.”

  “Yeah.” He shoved it back in his pocket, gaze sliding up and latching onto hers. “Tonight?”

  “Yep.”

  He pressed his lips to hers briefly and when he pulled back his breath was unsteady. “Catch ya later, Luce.”

  Lucy stood there and watched him get into his car and drive away.

  Hope, that faithless cow, sat up and did the polka behind her ribs. She wanted to ignore it, but it was too late now. This weekend together had changed everything for her.

  She just hoped Adam felt the same way.

  Chapter Twenty

  Adam lay in Lucy’s bed, his arm around her waist, her smaller body tucked in close. She was pressed against him from chest to feet, skin warm against his, her dark hair tickling his chin. She’d shoved her feet between his sometime in the night as well. She did that a lot. Two weeks had passed since the night he came to her with her phone and she’d told him the real reason she quit college and what she’d been through.

  She’d changed her number and had been extremely picky about who she gave it out to. So far, so good. No messages from Daniel, or his wife, since.

  The worry lines that had been there since she came home were gone, and she smiled more. She was changing, becoming more and more like the old Lucy every day. Adam didn’t know if the change in her since she’d opened up to him that night was because of him, or the fact she wasn’t constantly being harassed by her ex and his jealous wife, but he loved it.

  Shit, he couldn’t get enough of her.

  Neither one had tried to define what was happening between them. He just knew he didn’t like being without her, didn’t like going to bed without her by his side. Dangerous. Who was the reckless one now? But what could he do? The idea of being without her made him physically ache.

  She wriggled her butt against his groin and he groaned. She slid her hand over his, twining their fingers together, and, shit, he felt it in the center of his chest.

  “You’re awake early,” she mumbled, voice husky and sleepy.

  “Yeah.” He had to clear his throat to get the rest out. “You were snoring like a trucker.” A complete lie. Lucy made these cute little breathy noises. This morning she’d even started mumbling in her sleep, something about a kitten, for fuck’s sake. How the hell could he go back to sleep after that? She was fucking adorable and so damn sexy he had to remind himself to breathe when he was in the same room as her.

  She shrieked and spun in his arms. “I do not snore!”

  “It was like someone was using a chainsaw next to me.” He grinned at her narrowed eyes. “I prefer the snoring over the farts, though.”

  Her eyes widened, mouth dropping open.

  At the horrified expression on her face, he couldn’t hold in his laughter.

  She slapped his chest. “Tell me you’re lying or I’ll…I’ll shave your pubic hair off next time you’re asleep, balls and all, then stick it to your face with superglue.”

  He barked out another laugh. “That’s very…specific, almost like you’ve thought about it before.”

  Her lips curled into a wicked grin. “Oh, I have. You have no idea the horrors I have up my sleeve.” She gave his chest another light slap. “Now tell me the truth.”

  God, he loved this. Playing with her when they woke up. Lucy still naked, pressed up against him. Seeing her laugh. Fuck, she was beautiful. He shook his head. “Fine. You don’t snore.”

  “Thank you.” She looked satisfied for a few seconds then jerked in his arms, cheeks turning red. “I do not fart in my sleep.”

  He slid his hand over her hip. “Okay, baby. If you say so.”

  She poked him in the ribs, scowling. “You better guard the jewels, buster, or you’ll be waking up with a new beard tomorrow.”

  “You wouldn’t.” He rolled her to her back, trying not to overanalyze the way his heart damn near fluttered at the mention of them spending tonight together. Like it was a given. Like she couldn’t bear to be apart from him either. She threw her head back and burst out laughing when he started tickling her.

  “Stop, oh God. I surrender,” she said between shrieks and panted breaths.

  She wriggled like mad, rubbing the heat between her smooth thighs against his aching cock. “Look what you’ve gone and done,” he said against her ear. “Now you’ve made me hard. What are you going to do about that? Hmm?”

  He stopped tickling and she stared up at him, still breathing heavy. Awareness drifted through her stunning eyes and he got harder.

  “What do you want me to do?” she rasped.

  He rolled off her onto his back and gripped his erection in his fist. “I want your mouth stretched around me, sucking me until I can’t take it anymore, then I want you to climb on and ride me until we forget our own names.”

  A shiver visibly rocked through her, sending his own need higher. Climbing to her hands and knees, she crawled between his legs. “You always have the best ideas.”

  He brushed her hair back from her face, fisting it so he wouldn’t miss one second of the show she was about to give him.

  Licking her lips, she lifted her eyes to his. “You ready for this?”

  Adam still held his dick in his hand and pumped it, grip tight. He wasn’t going to last long with her mouth on him, and if she kept on looking at him like that, it would be over before she even wrapped her lips around him.

  “Now, Lucy,” he growled.

  Her tongue darted out, lapping at the pre-come already leaking. “So impatient.”

  So good. His hips rocked up and he cursed. “Please, baby.”

  The small grin on her face turned to a smirk as she slid the head into her mouth and sucked nice and hard. But then she pulled back again, and a shout of protest burst past his lips. She did it again and again until he was sweating and panting, growling like a wild fucking animal.

  He tightened his fist around her hair, forcing her to look at him. “Are you torturing me on purpose, devil woman?”

  “Maybe,” she said.

  “Have you finished fucking with me? Or do you really want to see a grown man cry?” He was only halfway joking.

  “Fine. I think you’ve suffered enough.”

  She leaned in, perfect breasts grazing his thigh, and before he had a chance to groan at the sensation of her soft warm flesh against him, she opened her mouth and fucking swallowed him down. Another shout fired past his lips.

  “Fuck.” His legs spread wider, giving her more room, and she took advantage, cupping his drawn-up balls and massaging. “Jesus. Baby, shit, I’m already close.”

  She didn’t let up, fist tight around his dick as she sucked it deep over and over again. He tightened his hold on her hair and she looked up at him. “You’re sucking me so good, Luce. Climb on my cock, she-devil, before I blow down your throat.”

  Lucy being Lucy, she ignored him, and digging her nails into his thighs, upped her efforts. He didn’t have the willpower to drag her off his already pulsing cock and up his body. Then he was coming so hard he was sure he blacked out for several seconds.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  “Get your ass out here, motherfucker. Now!” Hugh bellowed through the thin trailer door.

  Lucy shot up, hair all over the place, lips puffy from sucking him. She looked exactly what she was, a woman who’d been recently fucked…or who had just finished giving a phen
omenal blowjob.

  “Shit. It’s Hugh,” she mouthed.

  Adam rubbed a hand over his face. It was time to face the music. This confrontation was long overdue. This wasn’t how he would have like it to go down. But it couldn’t be helped. His car was parked outside at five in the morning, and the lights were out. There was no use denying what was going on. And he realized in that moment, he didn’t want to.

  Hugh continued to pound on the door.

  Adam gently moved Lucy back and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I better go talk to him.”

  Lucy flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Don’t go out there. You’ll just end up fighting.”

  “Probably.” He shrugged. “A busted nose isn’t going to kill me, Luce. And that’s the least I deserve.”

  “Get out here you filthy, sister-seducing fuck-knuckle!”

  Great. Joe was there as well.

  “Please, don’t go out there,” Lucy said again, looking panicked. “You can’t fight both of them.” She scrambled off the bed. “Stay here, let me go out and calm them down.”

  Adam shook his head. “Like fuck.” He caught her around the waist and dragged her back. “You’re staying here. Your brothers and I need to have this out. I—”

  The trailer started moving, rocking back and forth, and both men outside started yelling like a couple of insane asylum escapees. Joe’s insults were getting particularly creative.

  “Please, just stay here,” Lucy tried again.

  “It’ll be okay.” He was lying, of course. It wouldn’t be okay. How could it? He’d betrayed his two closest friends, sleeping with their sister behind their backs like she was some dirty secret. He’d fucked up badly, and whatever happened out there he deserved, that and more.

  Gently moving her to the side, he walked to the door. “Stay inside, Lucy.”

  He opened the door and walked out. Hugh turned to face him as soon as he cleared the steps. His friend pushed away from the trailer and strode toward him, face twisted in rage.