When I left Texas, I had just graduated and taken off to New York fueled on dreams of making it big, and I never looked back. Not that I was running from anything, but I waited my whole life for the chance to get out of there. I had chased dreams long enough. I was optimistic that a new start was exactly what I needed.
I blow dry my long blond hair and let it fall down my back. I throw on a little bit of powder, eye liner, and lip gloss. I pluck the red sundress from the tiny closet and slide it on. I decide on the cute red and white wedges I had just picked up on sale at Nordstrom's last week. The cab arrived just in time to meet me down stairs and I hopped in with no intention of looking back.
The moment I board the plane, I shut the door to the Big Apple for good. I close my eyes and manage to sleep for most of the flight. By the time I wake, I can see the massive Dallas Fort Worth airport beneath me. Sprawling out like its own little city, it is cluttered with the buzzing of people everywhere. Texas never looked so good. I wait for almost an hour to claim my luggage at baggage claim and by the time I step out into the pickup area, it is an overpopulated mass of drivers holding up signs for their riders. After a few minutes of searching through the crowd, I locate the sign for Montgomery. Holy Shit!! I start to turn around and sprint back into the airport lobby before he can see me but I am not quite fast enough. I turn back around when I hear him call out my name.
“Summer!! Hey! Over here, baby girl!” I was going to kill my mother the moment I saw her. There stood Damien Cole. Sexy Dallas playboy and ultimate bad boy. Shit! He is even sexier than I remember. He is wearing a tight black shirt that outlines his muscled biceps. His tattoos cover his arms like beautiful lines on a canvas. His body is its own masterpiece. His reddish brown hair is cut short and his newly unshaven stubble only adds to his massive sex appeal. His piercing green eyes are just as mesmerizing as I remember. Standing at a little over six feet tall, everything about him is fucking drool worthy. If I ever thought he couldn't get any sexier, the past eight years had proven me wrong. This man is absolutely fuck worthy gorgeous.
Damien and I attended high school together. I was a cheerleader my senior year when we sort of had a thing, if that is what you would call it. Damien was everything you did not want your seventeen year old daughter around. He dropped out of school that year and started working at my father's tattoo shop. He was well known in town for his skills with an ink gun. Our history went back to childhood but let's just say things had not ended on good terms.
Damien wasn't the kind of guy to stick around to leave love letters on your pillow and flowers at your door. His reputation spread almost as fast as the legs of the girls he slept with. The one thing about Damien Cole is that he didn't sugar coat anything, so he was always up front about what to expect. Any girl who ever rode that ride knew it was one time only. Damien did not stick around and he did not get attached. It was purely no strings, no long term anything. One night only. Even knowing that, girls never turned him down for the night. That was, except for me. I knew him all too well and there were some things that weren't worth losing even for hot sex. Although, in the end I should've just fucked him because in the end I got fucked anyway. Only it wasn't the fucking that left you feeling good.
Right before he started working for pops, he changed. Without a reason he started avoiding me like the black plague except for the occasional times I visited my dad at the shop. I would look up and catch him staring at me and he would quickly look away. I gave up trying to understand what went on in that head of his. There was never a guy more frustrating and unnerving as Damien. He brought out the best and the worst in me. He made me weak and I couldn't afford to be weak, not around him. The day after graduation, I took off. I let out a deep breath. I had missed him and seeing him made me feel seventeen all over again.
“My God! How long has it been? I see that fine ass has gotten even sexier.” He grabbed me into a hug and stepped back, holding me at arms-length. He licked his lips slowly as his eyes seemed to ravish my body from head to toe. Fuck me, my thighs quivered when he did that.
“Oh, not quite long enough I assure you.” I rolled my eyes. I opened the door of his old blue 4x4 truck and had to literally hop inside of the damn thing thanks to the huge ass tires and lack of a step bar. The method to my madness was to stay on my toes, always one step ahead of him. When he got under my skin, I played it off so he couldn't see the effect he had on me.
“Are you just going to stand there staring at me or are we going to get going sometime today. I have shit to fucking do,” I barked out of the window at him to get his ass in gear. If there was one thing he brought out in me, it was my sassy ass attitude. I chuckled to myself. This felt good. I think I am going to enjoy being back home.
“Well look at you, quite the little mouth on you. Who knew a mouth that beautiful could talk so dirty. I could definitely show you how to use it properly if you'd like,” he laughed as he tossed my suitcase into the back of the truck.
“You wish, Damien. Keep dreaming. That's the only way you will ever have this mouth.” Even just bantering back and forth with him still had an effect on me. It was hard as hell to resist Damien Cole on any level. One would think eight years would be long enough to cool the inferno his smile stirred between my aching thighs. I was hoping he at least didn't see the flush in my cheeks.
Damien hopped up into the truck. After buckling his seat belt he leaned across me. His face right there next to mine. Those eyes, ugh... Those dimples... Those sexy juicy pink lips. His breath, hot and rich, the scent of fresh cinnamon mixed with a little bourbon. I could lose my shit with him being this close to me.
“What the hell, Damien? What do you think you are doing?” I stuttered, kicking myself for allowing him to see that he had an effect on me. Great move Summer! That's all his freaking ego needs.
“Well Summer, I was just helping you buckle up. You seem to have forgotten what seat belts are for, so I thought I would help you out. What did you think I was doing?” his hand ran up the length of my thigh lightly brushing my side as he reached for the seat belt. I think I must have been holding my breath because he chuckled and clicked the seat belt into place. He so did that on purpose. And the tiny little goose bumps that covered my body betrayed me.
“You can breathe now, Summer. It is nice to know I still have an effect on you,” he laughed.
“Screw you, Damien!” I blew a stray hair out of my face and sat back and stared out of the passenger side window. After I composed myself I glanced back at Damien. “So you still at the shop?” I tried to make idle conversation as we headed out to the rental house. The air within the truck was too thick and I felt like it was getting heavier by the moment.
“Yeah. Actually, right before your Pops passed, he promoted me to manager. I brought a few of the guys in from the neighborhood and scouted some from across the state. You would be surprised. The Boneyard is one of the largest tattoo shops in all of the DFW Metroplex area now. Your mom expanded last year and we have over twenty full time artists now.” I could hear the pride in Damien's voice as he talked about the shop.
He and my father had formed a unique bond while my father was still alive. He took Damien under his wing and taught him everything he knew. He loved Damien like a son and had secretly hoped I would someday tame his wild ways. Damien's own parents divorced when he was six. His dad took off and never looked back. His mother was a drunk and she used to rough him up when she'd been on a bender. Damien walked out at seventeen. Had it not been for my father, he would have been on the streets. Pops put him up in a back room at the shop and he'd been there for almost six months before he got an apartment just outside of the city in Richardson.
“Pops would be proud of you. I have to admit, when he passed away and mom told me she was keeping the shop, I had my doubts. You know she never had much to do with it when he was alive. I think she kind of thought he bought it during a mid-life crisis and would grow bored quickly. When he took you in, he felt he had the son my mom never ga
ve him. He loved you, you know. He was so proud of you. There was never a phone call where he wasn't bragging about you.”
I smiled to myself remembering a conversation that I had with my dad last year. It was the last time we had talked before he passed. He was going on and on about Damien and how players from the Dallas Cowboys were walking in off the streets asking for Damien by name. Everyone who was anyone was talking about Damien and his skill with a tattoo gun.
Pop told me all that was left to complete Damien was a good woman. He said it would take the right gal with the right amount of sass and grit to settle a man like Damien down. He thought I would be the one to do just that. My father finally admitted it was him that made Damien break it off. He said his princess deserved the type of man who was going to sweep her off her feet and show her how a real lady should be treated. Until Damien was ready to make an honest woman out of me, he better not lay a single finger on me or he would cut them off one by one.
I figured Damien knew my pops well enough to know he was serious. After all, what kind of career could he have in tattooing without any fingers? I always felt like there was more to the story than Pops had let on, but I just let old dogs lie. What neither of them knew is that Damien was my first love. My father passed away the next day. He had been on his way to work when he suffered a massive heart attack.
“I miss him you know. He was the closest thing to a father I had. I had so much respect and appreciation for the amount of time he put into me. He never gave up on me even when everyone else had. I think about him every day. I don't know where I would have ended up if it hadn't been for him. Probably in jail or dead.”
“Yeah, I miss him too. I wish he were here now. What I wouldn't give to just have one last conversation.” My pops would know the right things to say. He would give me the pep talk I needed to hold my head up and move on from the pain and disappointment. He just had this way of making everything in the world better.
“All joking aside. I'm really sorry things didn't work out for you in New York. I know how much modeling meant to you,” he says as we pull up in front of the house and park.
“Thank you. That really means a lot.” I gaze out the window to my new home. The beautiful light stone house has an immaculately kept yard. The flower beds lining both sides of the little front porch are jam packed with an assortment of colorful flowers in full bloom. The exterior of the house holds the traditional southern Texas charm. It is boasting rustic trim, finishes and is adorned with beautiful wrought iron Texas Stars. I step out of the truck as Damien follows behind me with my suitcase. Walking into the house, I feel a certain calm come over me and my nerves start to settle. Healing has begun but it would take some time to figure out where I go from here.
The walls of the house are all a beige color with white trim molding. There are no pictures hanging on the bare walls. The dark hard wood floors had recently been polished. The house boasts neutral micro fiber furniture in the wide open living room. The open kitchen is massive with its modern features and huge chef stove. A stunningly beautiful island spans the entire length of the room. The white bar stools with dark backs are a welcome addition to compliment the Carrara marble counter tops.
I am so absorbed in the stunning beauty and potential that this place has, that I do not hear Damien set the suitcase down and come to stand behind me. I turn to thank him and tell him goodbye when I am caught off guard by how close he is standing to me. I stumble and nearly fall, but Damien is quick as he grabs me and holds me against him. Being there in his arms, feeling the warmth of his muscles embracing me, inhaling the same familiar scent that I knew all those years ago, stirs something inside of me. I can feel the tension leave my body as I allow myself to be held. God it feels so good. Too Damn Good. The same electricity that ran through me the first time we ever touched came rushing back in an instant. I feel the jolt in my stomach. My eyes shoot up just as he catches my stare. He felt it too and I quickly take a step back out of his arms before he can say anything. It was definitely a moment. One I wasn't ready to acknowledge.
“Umm. Thanks for the ride. I guess I will see you around,” I stammer, so flustered by his touch.
“Summer? Can we talk about what happened with us right before graduation? I really want a chance to explain...”I cut him off before he could say anything more. I am too vulnerable right here in this moment and I immediately avert my eyes from his so that he can't see the emotional storm brewing in them. Not to mention, I am extremely turned on and my body would betray me with any sign of reaction to his touch. The only thing I need right now is to distance myself from him.
“Don't. Please. I can't. I have to go call my mom to let her know I made it in. I'll see you at the shop tomorrow.” Damien's lip curls as he starts to speak but stops himself. He holds my gaze a little too long before he turns and shows himself out without another word.
After Damien is gone, I look around the empty house that is now my home, trying my best to not think about him. It would be so easy to let him wrap his arms around me and kiss away the pain. I need to protect my heart. I can't let him in no matter how much I want to. I have been through enough heartache. Love just isn't part of the plan for me. I have to accept that.
I settle into the wrought iron canopy bed for the night and call my mom. My mom answers the phone on the second ring.
“Hey, honey. Did you make it in alright?” she says through a yawn.
“Yes, mom. Although, I do have to ask what in the hell were you thinking sending Damien to pick me up from the airport?” My frustration comes across a little too sharply. I can't decide if I am more irritated with her or the fact that being near Damien made me feel too much. All the love that I once felt for him stood right there at the door of my heart wildly knocking. All this time I thought I was over him, but now I wasn't so sure that I ever really closed the door on the first guy I ever loved.
“Well...I...um...I got caught up with a client and I had no one else to ask. I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. Summer, you and Damien haven't been together for years and it was just a ride. It's not like I set you two up on a date,” she sighs into the phone. My mother is so full of it. She knew exactly what she was doing. She just thinks I'm that damn clueless. Well it is not going to work.
“Okay, mom. It's fine. I was just taken by surprise. Next time, could you maybe give me a heads up?” The last thing I want to do is make her feel that I am ungrateful after all the trouble she has gone through to get this place ready for me and, on top of that, give me a job. She really did have good intentions.
“Okay, okay. I was just on my way to bed. I am glad you are home honey. I will talk to you on Monday sweetie. I left the keys to your car at the shop for you. Just a heads up, Damien works tomorrow,” She smarts jokingly to lighten the tone of the conversation. I could almost hear her giggle on the other end of the phone.
“See, that wasn't hard, was it? I will see you on Monday. Oh hey, I love you mom and thanks again for all of this.” I hang up the phone and crawl into bed. I run through a mental checklist of all the things I need to get done before I start work on Monday. I am a little nervous. Damien and my mother are the only people I know from the shop. I secretly hoped that I would be able to make it in and out of the shop tomorrow before Damien got there. After picking up the car, I would need to get some groceries and do a little shopping for the house. I planned to take the weekend to get everything organized in the house and do some decorating. I need to make this place feel like home. I dozed off as I was going over my mental checklist a second time. I didn't know what the future held but it felt so good to be home.
Chapter Four
Damien
I creep out of the bed quietly, careful not to wake her. I grab my clothes and shoes from the floor and head to the bathroom to get dressed. My headache is kicking my ass.
“Where are you off to sugar? You aren't trying to sneak out on me are you?” she drawls as she pats the mattress beside her where I had been.
>
“I've got an appointment in an hour. Gotta head out.” I had picked up Crystal at the bar last night. One too many bourbons couldn't drown out the image of Summer. Crystal just happened to be one of the many cute waitresses. She is a nice little brunette with a curvy ass body. She is just my type but my mind was instantly comparing her to Summer. I was so damn drunk by the time we made it to her house I passed out as soon as she sucked me off.
“Mmm.. Are you sure you don't want to come back to bed? I bet I could make it worth your while,” she purrs as she tosses the covers to the side to fully expose her naked body. Her hand makes its way down between her thighs. She begins to move her fingers up and down against her already wet and ready sex. I will give the girl credit, she does know how to elicit a response from my cock. However, I have shit to do and I have already stayed for way too long.
“I think I'll pass. It was fun though.” Her smile fades as her lips turn down into a pouty frown. The disappointment is etched across her face. Sometimes I feel like a dick. Those fleeting moments when my brain thinks that it wants to have a conscience. I always found a way to push those moments as far back in my mind as possible. These women know who I am and what I am all about. No strings. No exceptions.
I have not found a woman yet who could keep my attention past the minute I found myself buried inside of them. I love a good tight piece of ass. There's nothing wrong with that. I certainly don't feel the need to wrap my hand around a cock that is worthy of some nice ass and a good mouth. I guess if that makes me a self-absorbed asshole then so be it. I finish getting dressed and grab my cell phone and keys from the bedside table.
“Well, can I at least get your phone number?” she pouts, “Maybe we can make it all the way next time. If what I have heard is true, I have to know what it feels like to have you inside of me.”
Dared (Boneyard Bad Boy #1) Page 3