“The other night when I realized why you were familiar,” I said the kissed the temple on the side of her head. “I called Granny,” I said with a shake of my head. “Ann, and when she confirmed who you were, I panicked. I didn’t give her time to tell me anything else. I threw my phone.”
Annie raised up and looked over at me. “You threw your phone.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it’s out on route 41 somewhere.”
“At least, I know why you never text me back.” She smiled. Oh, I loved that smile.
“Pay attention and quit being a girl.”
“Being a girl?”
“Yeah, getting pissy because some guy didn’t text back ASAP. Now listen.” I pulled her over against me. “I thought I’d lost this. It never dawned on me that Wes wasn’t my father. I was dying inside. The only girl I ever wanted turning out to be my sister was nauseating.” I traced over the word precious on my wrist. “I might not have been able to hold you anymore but I wanted a reminder that once I got to hold precious in my arms.”
Annie dragged her thumb from my ear to the base of my chin, forcing me to look at her. A simple touch shouldn’t silence my demons. Annie’s did, though.
She came into my life when I thought there was nothing worth living for. I’d given up on life ... hell, myself. I thought I didn’t have the strength to live any longer She showed me the strength I had inside of me to fight. She showed me I wasn’t the only person who had lost something. She had also given me a reason to fight for the one thing I never wanted to lose ... her.
“I’m here. You’re here. That’s all that matters. I want to learn more about the past, but I want to be in your arms more,” Annie whispered.
My arms would always be open for her. I would move heaven or hell to have her in them. I would do whatever she needed.
Chapter 33
Annie Prieto
Lucas’s eyes were more guarded than anyone I’d ever come across. No matter how much you study them your expectations were left unmet. There was a veil covering every emotion. He let the veil drop for me. He no longer hid his feelings. He finally allowed every wink, stare, widening, narrowing, scrunch, and eyebrow raise finally tell a story. He let me in. It was a strange connection, and one I’d never had with anyone else before.
“I’m probably overstepping my bounds, but will you take a short trip with me?”
“Where?” I pushed some hair behind my ear and smiled.
“To a house I purchased at the river. The foreman needs me to check out a few things ... Annie, no one’s there, we can talk.”
“Talk?” I let out a breath, causing my bangs to feather along my forehead. He kept watching me. If he was waiting for me to flip out, the only thing he would achieve was disappointment. I’d gone long passed reactionary into numbness again. “That’s actually a good idea. I need a break from all of this. I need a break from everything but you.”
“How are you feeling? Honestly?”
“I have no idea how I feel. I’m racing through the entire gamut of emotions right now. It is full-steam ahead. I just want it to stop. I just want to go back to being the girl who is praying you want more than a friendship.”
Lucas placed the car in park, and turned to lay his arm on the headrest behind me. “It’s just me and you today. No family drama, no who we really are. Just Annie and Lucas. Let’s just pretend that this is not our story. Let’s write a new one.” He picked up a strand of my hair. “We can go back to the drama tomorrow.”
I plastered on a frown and did my damnedest to look concerned. I would’ve sucked at poker because I couldn’t keep the face splinting grin from ripping my cheeks apart.
“Kind of like a re-do of night one?” I teased.
Lucas slid closer and placed his lips against my forehead. “Better, that night it was just a lot of lust. Now it’s love.”
I opened the car door and leaned away from him. “Whoever said I lusted after you?”
I hopped out and rushed to the cabin door with Lucas only one step behind me. Before we got to the porch, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and leaned his chin against the side of my face. “Lucas, do you see us having a future? Can we make this work?”
“Our future is the only thing keeping me sane. What about you?”
“We’ll have a lot of tales to tell our grandchildren one day.”
“This moment can be one of them. One we’ll tell our grandkids; it was when their grandfather whispered to you that he loved you.” He took a small nip of my earlobe. “I love you.”
Having heard those words come out of his mouth, my heart swelled in my chest again. If Lucas wasn’t careful, he might be the cause of me having a premature heart attack.
I turned and twisted the end of his hair around my hand then pulled his mouth to mine to kiss him. I kissed him to show him I loved him too.
I ran my tongue over his lip before reluctantly separating my mouth from his, and on one of the hardest and strangest days of my life, I smiled and said the three words that had been on the tip of my tongue for weeks, “I love you.”
“You have no idea, precious.” He slipped his hand down my arm and placed my hand in his. “Welcome to jobsite number four,” he said in what I was sure was another awkward but deliberate change of subjects.
He walked me up a sit of steps onto a deck leading into a small, alluring cabin. It looked like it had come straight out of a fairy tale. The entire right side was covered in wisteria. The warm, summer breeze brushed through the trees around us. The smell of pine tickled my nose. I could almost taste the freshness of the crisp summer air. Through the glass picture-window, I could view the large family room. It was obviously unfinished, but the charm was still present. It already felt homey.
He wiggled the key into the lock and pushed opened the door with his shoulder. “Number one on the list, get a new door.” He cocked his head to the side. “Come on, I came here to do a little work. I got this place for a steal. I only paid $136,000 and the comps in the area are as high as $300,000. With only a $90,000 estimate, I could make $50,000 in and out in less than six weeks.”
The only part of that statement I understood was that it was more money than I could wrap my mind around, and it made Lucas extremely happy. He took my hand and led me around the cabin. Our first stop was in the family room. The entire left wall was made of glass and overlooked a private canal in the river. On the wall to my right, a fireplace was stripped back to the studs. Lucas pointed to the far wall where six samples of stone lean against the drywall.
“Which is your favorite?”
I twisted my mouth. I had no idea what look he was going for, or what would even sale. “Lucas, I’m not the one you need to be asking.”
“You’re exactly the one I need to be asking,” he said and I let out a breath. “Relax, it’s just an opinion. I’m not asking you to operate or actually build it.”
I kneeled to inspect the samples closer. I pointed to a gray-tone stacked stone. “That one.”
Lucas grew happier as we moved from room to room. He wrote down each choice I made from paint colors to countertops like he actually considered my opinion valid.
We had spent well over an hour selecting every small detail of the place when we came to the last door in the long hallway. Lucas threw open the door to expose a room empty and unfinished, except for a king-size bed sitting center stage in the room.
“Lucas,” I whispered and walked over to run my fingers over the softness of the white downy comforter.
“I arranged for my decorator to sit this up.” He shrugged his shoulder, but did not look the least bit sorry.
“Wasn’t it a waste of time having me pick out finishes if you have a decorator?” I asked and tried to laugh, but the seriousness of his stare stopped me.
“No,” he said and shook his head. “I’m actually thinking of making this my home, your opinion means a lot to the process.” His eyes got big and he held up one finger. “Hold on.”
He raced out
the door and down the hall. I heard the screen door on the porch swing close as I plopped down on the bed.
Taking in the bed, I knew exactly what was about to happen. This had been prearranged and planned. I involuntarily shook my head. He didn’t plan this in a few hours.
Had he always meant to bring me here, even before he realized who I really was?
He jogged back through the bedroom door and held up a gift bag. I quickly ripped it open to find four books; Flowers in the Attic, The Scarlet Pimpernel, White Oleander, and The Perks of being a Wallflower.
“You wanted flowers,” he said and pulled out the bag he was hiding behind his back. “And the stars.”
Inside the bag were the books; The Fault in Our Stars, The City and the Stars, and Number the Stars.
“Why?”
He winked then laughed before saying, “I’m really hoping to get into your pants today.”
You could’ve gotten in my pants without working half this hard. But my stubbornness would never let him know that.
“I’ve written a vow of celibacy. I can’t break a vow now, can I?” I asked, and toppled back down on the bed.
“Maybe, I can talk you into a new vow.”
“I might be compelled to see things your way.”
His eyes drifted from my face and scrolled over my body. Everywhere his eyes wandered, I could physically feel it. I like the way he studied me as if I was the most interesting thing in the entire world — I was the test he was determine to ace.
“Why you? Why you, Annie? I’ve never wanted to be close to anyone before. Only you. Something about you has gotten to me since the first time I ever laid eyes on you.”
Holy Hell! The oxygen had been sucked from the room. Lucas was so close our breath had synced into one single breath.
He took the books from my hand and placed them back in the bag before tossing them across the floor.
“I want to kiss you,” he said and pulled me up to stand. His fingers spread mine apart, his grip was tight. “I want to kiss you really bad.”
“Then kiss me.”
His hand slipped from mine and moved to the side of my face to hold me still.
His warm, wet lips moved over mine. He tasted like peppermint and Listerine. I made a mental note to pick up a bottle of Listerine on my next grocery store run.
He groaned against my mouth bringing my full attention back to Lucas and those lips. His kiss was slow and calming, a complete contrast to the pounding of my heart.
I love this man more than I should.
Lucas twisted his body until his legs backed up to the bed and he sat on the edge of it. He cupped the back of my thighs with one hand, then used the other hand to slightly raise my shirt. He placed a line of kisses over my stomach. My hands kneaded into his shoulder, and he looked up at me with a lust in his eyes that was completely contagious. I moaned as the blood rushed to my groin.
His hand slid up over my hip and around to the front of my jeans were he effortlessly unsnapped the button and slowly pulled down the zipper.
“I’ve never felt like this,” he said as he worked my jeans down. When they were finally around my ankles I stepped out of them. He pressed his lips to my lower stomach. “Only you, precious.”
I clamped my eyes shut as he went to lift my shirt, and grabbed his hand to remove it from my body. I panicked. My shirt was the only barrier I had between my scars and the world. Removing it would be giving him a part of me I wasn’t ready for.
He leaned back, his eyes leveled with mine. He was hurt. “This is different for me too. I’ve never made love to anyone. Sex, yes, but I’ve never wanted to worship someone before. Let me worship you.”
He had seen my scars before. I nodded. I could give him what he needed. I lifted my arms for him and he swiftly removed the last of my covering. My hands moved to my chest to hide my scars. He tossed the unwanted garment across the room and looked up at me with a smile. “Let me love you.”
I bit my lip to keep from grimacing as I dropped my hands to expose the scars. He stood and leaned his head against mine then sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, causing me to forget my scars all together.
Damn, it felt good.
While feasting on my lip, he slid his fingers in me, first one then two then three, and I suddenly found it hard to focus only on his lips. I clasped my eyes shut and fell against him. The rhythm of his fingers as he moved against me was as trance inducing as the moist, intoxicating air his sensual body emitted. This wasn’t merely breathing; it was communicating with a warmness deep within each of our bodies.
The fireworks went off and he wasn’t even naked yet.
I squinted my eyes as the light poured into the room via a large picture-window.
A boat drifted by in the distance but the most alluring sight was Annie snuggling her head onto my shoulder. She was so damn beautiful.
Her morning breath warmed the pillow. I never intended on spending the night here, but I didn’t know I was capable of making love for hours.
I’d always been selfish in the bed, but I relished in loving her and watching her explode in ecstasy. Almost afraid if I stopped I would wake up alone and realize it was all a dream.
Her body was a work of perfection only marred by those fucking scars.
I traced over the curve of her breast, paying special attention not to focus on her scars. She squirmed in her sleep. I thought I was going to have to beg her to expose herself to me. But she did it because she wanted to share herself with me in a way she had never shared it before.
I brought her arm to my mouth and kissed her wrist, her palm, each individual tip of her fingers before kissing a line down her arm to her elbow. I hated waking her up and facing the problems in our life. As long as she was sleeping in my arms, I could pretend that this was forever, but we both knew the world would have a say in that.
I kissed over each of her eyelids, never being more afraid to see the green of her eyes.
She stretched. “Good morning, sunshine,” she said against my mouth as I moved my lips over hers. I could get used to morning kisses. A statement I never thought I would utter.
I continued kissing various spots on her body, hoping to convince her to stay as she learned all the lies of her past.
“What’s wrong? You’re panicking,” she asked, flipping until she was over me, mounting a leg on each side of my hips.
“Thinking of what we are having to do today.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
I stopped kissing her body, and focused on my response. “Facing the family drama. Learning all the lies.”
She bent down to lightly kiss my lips. “Not here, here I’m the good girl from the wrong side of the track who fell in love with the bad boy.”
I put both hands on each side of her face and kissed her back. “So I’m the bad boy and you’re the good girl?”
She smiled against my lips. “You want to disagree?”
No, I didn’t.
I never believed being with a girl could be like this, she was everything I ever wanted. But once again life taught me that I didn’t get to have what I wanted. However, I would give her the answers she needed, including answering her questions about the past.
And would love her unconditionally.
Chapter 34
Annie Prieto or was it Annie Carter
The best sex of my life was the only way to describe the night I shared with Lucas. But nothing I said or did took the doom and gloom from his eyes.
My breath faltered, and I wiped back a tear as he packed the last of the samples in his trunk.
“Where is our first stop on our trip down memory lane?” I asked as Lucas glided into the driver seat.
He didn’t respond, simply put the car in drive and slowly pulled back onto the road. He had put back up his constant veil of armor between his emotions and me. I had no idea what he was even thinking. I hated it. He remained silent until we were almost in the center of town. He picked up his phone and started t
o scroll his thumb over it.
“Dad, Wes, whoever the hell he is, told me once that this was his and the love of his life’s song. I thought he was talking about my mom, but I guess I was wrong, and it was your mom. But anyway, I thought you might want to hear it. It describes how I feel about you, and if Wes loves your mom like this, he worships her.”
The sounds of Bryan Adam’s “(Everything I do) I do it for you” drifted out of the car speakers and fill the interior of the Jeep. The song came to an end as we pulled into Granny Ann’s drive. There was still a lot of mystery surrounding Lucas ... us, but I had figured one thing out, Lucas left clues in the form of music. He chose his songs carefully and let them speak when he couldn’t find the words to say.
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