Stay

by A. L. Jackson

  Slowly, he turned me to face him. No doubt, he recognized what was in my expression.

  Longing.

  That commanding stare chained me. Tied me in a way I didn’t understand.

  I felt trapped. Exposed. Vulnerable. As if every single wish I’d ever ushered into the heavens had just been laid at his feet.

  “Willow.” His voice was a raw scratch at the back of his throat. That beautiful body inched closer and closer. Stealing what little air was left in the room.

  His presence swirled through my head, the quiet yearning getting all mixed up with a bold shock of desire.

  My chest heaved.

  Tentatively, he reached out, that big hand resting on my cheek, coaxing my eyes to look up at the brilliance of his. This mesmerizing, intoxicating man.

  Exhaling hard, he edged in a fraction, so close I could feel the hammer of his heart.

  He brushed his thumb beneath the hollow of my eye.

  “Peaches.” This time when he said it, his voice fluttered with some kind of unknown grief. “So that’s really what you’ve been waitin’ for.” He said it without a hint of doubt. “The family part.”

  Moisture gathered in my eyes. I couldn’t stop it. This man saw straight through me, to all those places that were raw and aching. “I’ve been waiting on all of it. Love. A family. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.”

  “That dude was such an idiot.” Those dimples almost peeked out with his tender smile.

  I choked out a shot of laughter as I looked up at this man who was doing something to me he shouldn’t have the power to do. “Bates stole everything from me, Ash. My money. My mama’s house. All the things I was saving for. But most of all…what hurt me most? He stole the family we were supposed to share.”

  I angled my head as I studied this man. One who should have been nothing more than a stranger. I was sharing things with him that were intensely private. Yet somehow I knew he’d protect that knowledge in his big, capable hands. “All I ever wanted was to be a mama. Since I was a little girl…playing and dreaming, conjuring up stories with my sister of who we were going to be. Her dreams were wild. Big. Adventurous. And mine…they were simple and small.”

  Bringing her into the story almost felt like a dirty confession. Thoughts of her life brought me so much sorrow. So many regrets. But I was tired of keeping it all buried inside. Tired of going at it alone.

  “I’m twenty-eight, Ash.” It almost sounded like a plea. “Ten years ago? I would have sworn by now I’d have a house full of kids. Running wild. It’d have been hectic and messy and I would have cherished it with everything I had. Sometimes I stop and look around, and I wonder where did I go wrong? How did I end up in this place I never imagined I’d be? Instead of building a family? Every time I turn around, it seems like I just lose someone else. And I know I’m only twenty-eight, but there are days I wake up and wonder if I’m ever going to find someone who’ll truly love me. Someone who won’t leave me.”

  “Peaches.” It was a whisper. His own plea.

  My mouth trembled with the sad smile. I knew it made me sound a fool, but I knew this boy would somehow understand it all the same. “My high school reunion is in two weeks, and I can’t even bring myself to go. Part of it is knowing Bates will be there. But more than that? It’ll be a reminder of everything I’ve lost. A reminder of the things I was so sure I’d have achieved by now.”

  Not money or financial or material things.

  The precious things I wasn’t sure I’d ever have.

  I dropped my eyes. “God…I sound so pathetic. Weak.”

  His head slowly shook. “Not weak, darlin’. Just broken.”

  Choked laughter rolled out on a rush of sorrow, and I found the smallest smile.

  Because that’s what this boy did to me.

  He made me hope.

  Sparked something inside that’d been missing for so long.

  Maybe forever.

  Big hands framed my face. “Maybe it’s time someone returned the favor. Put your broken pieces back together.”

  Everything felt so tight, the air and his hold and the moment that seemed bound between us.

  Waiting to trip into the unseen.

  His heated gaze flashed.

  “Willow,” he murmured, eyes searching. Hesitating before something gave.

  And I wasn’t prepared.

  Not at all.

  But that dangerous mouth was suddenly on mine.

  Lips and warmth and blinding light.

  A needy gasp left me and my heart rate kicked.

  My hands clutched his wrists as he kept my face in his steady hold, refusing to let me go.

  He kissed me softly. Carefully. Like that single touch might restore something inside me.

  I melted against him. That powerful body pressed me harder against the counter, and I let him. He must have taken it as an invitation because the demand of his mouth became urgent.

  His teeth nipped at my lips, and his big hands slid into my hair. He gripped it tight, urging my head back.

  On a breathy sigh, my lips parted.

  His hot tongue slanted against mine.

  Flames.

  I felt them everywhere. Burning me up from the inside.

  My skin was alight.

  His hold possessive.

  Kiss merciless and claiming.

  Devastating.

  Mind-rending.

  He kissed me and kissed me until my spirit thrummed and my soul thrashed. His needy hands tangled in my hair while our bodies rocked and pitched and churned.

  The only thing I wanted was more.

  And more with this chaotic man was the very last thing I needed.

  He would wreck me.

  I knew it.

  I welcomed it all the same.

  He edged back a fraction. His hands slid across the slope of my cheeks. He gripped me there and let his forehead drop to mine as he panted for a breath. “Pretend with me, Peaches. Pretend with me.”

  Confusion distorted my already clouded judgment, and I clung tighter to his wrists to keep from falling to the floor. “What?”

  “Pretend with me. Pretend that everything that article said was true. Pretend that you’re mine and I’m yours. That you tamed the ultimate bad boy. Let’s show up at your reunion and show that bastard exactly what he lost. What he’s missing out on. Let him know he’s the loser at his own game.”

  He swept his tongue over his swollen lips. “And after two months, when you finish this job, when you leave your mark on my house with your amazing talent, you can publicly break up with the world’s most notorious rock star. Because you and me both know he doesn’t come close to bein’ good enough for you. Let’s go. Let’s show Bates and that bitch they can both go fuck themselves.”

  He squeezed his eyes closed and nearly begged it. “Pretend with me.”

  What if you hurt me?

  What if I fall in love with you?

  What if I want you to stay?

  All my reservations howled and roared.

  All I’d ever wanted was to be loved.

  Wholly.

  To amplify that love as I gave it in return.

  To take that love and form it into something brilliant. To feed it with life.

  This man was offering me a counterfeit version of that.

  “That won’t change the fact those pictures are a lie.” The words were tight when I forced them from between my lips.

  “So it’ll be our lie. Ours. I want to try. Let me try to put some of those broken pieces back together again. Make you remember who you are. Shake you out from that battered shell so you’ll be ready when that guy comes looking for you.”

  The last of those reservations screamed.

  What if I want him to be you?

  His lips touched mine.

  Soft. Sweet. Fire.

  “Please,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  I gave before my self-preservation could have a say.

  Because Go
d, if I were being honest, I wanted a little of what this boy was offering, too.

  Then he put that mouth back on mine.

  Marked me with the magnitude of his kiss.

  A spark of hope glowed bright.

  And I knew no matter how this ended, I would never be the same.

  fifteen

  Willow

  I sat back in the chair and closed the book on my lap.

  Sheila sent me a caring smile. “She loves when you read to her. The best sleep she ever gets are the nights after you’ve been here reading to her. She hears you, you know, whether if she’s answering you or not.”

  I gazed at my mama, her mouth wrenched open, jaw angled to the side. Grief constricted my heart. “I know.”

  Sheila gave a pat to my shoulder. “You’re a good daughter, Willow. Not a whole lot of people take the time to do this.”

  That was something I couldn’t fathom. Because sitting there? I felt helpless. Wishing I could change her world and there was absolutely nothing I could do.

  Mama stirred in her shallow sleep, moaned my sister’s name. “Summer.”

  Every cell in my body clenched. “Shh…” I murmured as I brushed back her hair. Giving her comfort the way Summer and I had always wished we could.

  Summer rocked Willow in her tiny twin bed. “Shh…” she said. “It was just a bad dream.”

  Willow gulped around her sobs, trying to keep them quiet, knowing her mama would want to come. That she’d worry and fret and try to pretend everything was okay.

  “I don’t like it when she’s sick.”

  Summer kissed her on the temple, brushed her fingers through Willow’s hair. “Mama doesn’t like it, either. She hates it. So that’s why we’ve got to be strong for her. Stick together.”

  “But you’re gone so much…I don’t like it here, bein’ alone. Especially when Mama’s sad.”

  Their mama had been sad so much since their daddy had left, since her hands had stopped working the way she needed them to. Even though their mama tried to hide it, Willow still heard her muttering, worrying she didn’t know how she was going to keep up with the shop.

  “I’m tryin’ to help every bit as I can,” Willow promised.

  “I know you are. You’re mama’s angel. You know that? Working in there beside her. She’s proud of you.”

  “She’s proud of you, too.”

  Silence hovered thick in the air, Summer’s disagreement held back yet still apparent. “I want to make her proud. I’m just not sure I know how to do that anymore.”

  Since she’d turned thirteen, Summer had been gone a lot. Leaving Willow alone. More and more. But Willow had always understood everyone’s dreams were different. It wasn’t her place to ask her big sister to change hers.

  “Mama just wants you happy,” Willow said.

  Summer linked her pinky finger with Willow’s, her voice going quiet like a secret. “I’m trying to be. I just don’t know why I feel like I’ve forgotten what that’s like.”

  sixteen

  Ash

  On all things holy.

  The woman was a sweet temple of temptation.

  I held my hand out to help her from the low seat of my car.

  So yeah, I’d pulled my favorite one out of the garage especially for this occasion. Because if we were showing a fucker up? We were showing a fucker up.

  But my Maserati didn’t have anything on the girl who glanced up at me with a shy smile as she swiveled and let those lust-inducing legs slide out, so damned long and toned and adorned in these super high, strappy heels that were a straight shot to my groin.

  I pulled her the rest of the way to standing with a little more force than necessary. Okay, maybe with just the right amount, because she fumbled a step into me.

  “Hi,” I teased, a smirk kicking up at the corner of my mouth.

  “Hi,” she whispered so low I could barely hear it.

  Or maybe I was too busy taking in a good whiff of peaches, loving the way her hair was pulled up high at the back of her head in some kind of sexy, messy twist, the length swishing down her back.

  Neck exposed.

  The girl was rocking some kind of black romper, the neckline plunging down the middle to land like a kiss right between her gorgeous tits.

  Oh yeah.

  I’d spent the entire ride over imagining the fastest way to peel it from her body.

  “You’ve got this,” I told her, pulling at her hand to edge her closer, our lips close to brushing.

  “I’ve got this,” she reiterated.

  I thought maybe I felt her promise all the way to my soul, because it jolted through me, this pride I couldn’t help but feel for this girl.

  I wound an arm around her slender waist, tugged her against me, and tried not to moan when I pressed my mouth against hers.

  Pretending.

  Seemed pretending wasn’t so hard to do when you had a girl like this by your side.

  So maybe I’d spent the last five days practicing for all this pretending we’d be doing tonight. Kissing her long and slow every chance I got. Stealing her breath. Wading a little further into the murky waters of her mind.

  Through her loss and the sorrow I was barely just beginning to understand.

  Wishing I had the power to eradicate it all.

  Knowing I didn’t stand a chance.

  I set my hand at the small of her back. “Come on, let’s go show these assholes who the real Willow Langston is.”

  “The real Willow Langston? I think we might be presenting the fake, souped-up version of Willow Langston. I’m not sure there’s a lot of real happening tonight.”

  Laughter rumbled in my chest. “Oh, darlin’, this is definitely the sexed-up version, but from where I’m standing, I don’t think there’s anything fake about it.”

  I let my gaze slide up and down the length of her mouthwatering body. Tonight was going to be a long night. I had to remind myself I was only pretending she belonged to me.

  Because this girl deserved more.

  She deserved everything.

  Problem was, my dick didn’t seem to know the difference.

  She gave one of those soft, mischievous swats to my chest before she snuggled closer. “Are you teasing me?” she asked, looking at me from where she had her head resting on my shoulder, those chocolate eyes so full of warmth and unexpected ease.

  Like my being there had a direct bearing on her mood.

  Like maybe I was actually giving her something back.

  Doing something good.

  That energy blazed.

  Awareness stretched between us.

  A tethered, charged high wire.

  Because here I was, toeing a dangerous line.

  But it was that familiarity that spun through my deepest senses, in that place that was dark and quiet and reserved, that incited me to take another step.

  “I do believe you have the whole teasing thing turned completely around. Did you look at yourself in the mirror before I picked you up? Do you not know you’re what fantasies are made of? One look, baby, and you bring me to my knees.”

  Redness touched her cheeks. Something sweet and tender and shy. Dizzying to my mind and overwhelming to my senses.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself there, rock star.”

  “Yeah? Thought you might like it.” I tugged at one of my suspenders.

  Of course I’d dressed up. I’d dug through my closet and found some kickass black slacks, rolled up the sleeves of my white button-up to show off my arms, just in case this asshole needed another reason to be jealous, threw on some suspenders, because—let’s be honest—I totally owned that shit.

  Didn’t think we had much to worry about with the way this girl looked tonight, anyway. Chances were the dude wouldn’t even look my direction except to wish he were me. Well, that and to hope I didn’t have a mind to kick his ass.

  Anger pulsed.

  God knew I did.

  Wasn’t sure how I was going to control myself
tonight. How I would rein in the rage that boiled hot in my blood every time I thought about what the bastard pulled. Betrayal was a bitch. Disgusting. Something I hated and one of the reasons I chose to play it solo. But the truth of the matter? Cheating scum were in no short supply.

  It was the other shit that made my mind spin.

  The fact he’d stolen.

  Destroyed.

  Desolated.

  Would be lying if I denied wanting to take the guy out. Permanently. Couldn’t believe he and that bitch had gotten away with that kind of stunt. Swindling her out of her savings. Scamming her out of her childhood home.

  Couldn’t fathom that kind of inhumanity.

  Made me want to show him just how brutal this world could be.

  Willow ran her fingers along the row of buttons on my shirt, toying with the one at the top.

  God, this girl was going to be the death of me.

  “I do like it,” she murmured all seductive like, pulling me from the lethal direction of my thoughts.

  I pressed her palm flat against my chest. “Good. Because you’re stuck with me. All. Night.”

  Wishful damned thinking.

  But hey. A guy could dream.

  She pulled in a deep breath as we approached the entrance. “Promise?” Nerves rolled down her spine. Palpable and real. She looked up at me, pleading with those soulful eyes. “Promise me you won’t leave my side. Okay?”

  I ran my nose along her jaw. Inhaled. Fought the fire that lit in my veins.

  Surely we had to look like the happiest damned couple on the face of the earth.

  Right?

  “Promise, darlin’. There’s no need for you to be nervous. Tonight, it’s just you and me.”

  See.

  Pretending was easy.

  And pretending never hurt a thing.

  seventeen

  Willow

  “Do you know when you just know? That’s the way it was for Willow and me. Second I opened my eyes and saw her? Bam. Love at first sight. Never believed in any of that shit before…but sometimes all it takes is one woman to turn your entire world upside down. Isn’t that right, darlin’?”