by C. A. Harms
She hid behind Duke; like that was going to stop me from hosing her ass.
A bath, to clean Duke from his mud dip, had quickly changed to a water fight between Olivia and me. But in my defense, she started it. She pretended it was a mistake, but spraying someone full blown in the face with a garden hose, when you’re laughing as you do it, sort of gives away the secret. She enjoyed it all entirely too much.
“Keeton,” I could barely make out her words as she covered her face and started backing away from me. “Uncle,” she squealed turning her back to me. “I give.”
She was completely soaked from head to toe, her hair plastered to her face. Duke sat between us watching as if he was bored and wondering when the hell we were planning to finish with his bath.
The sound of a car door caught my attention, and I turned around just in time to see two little boys barreling their way directly for us. The excitement on their faces showed they were up for a water fight.
I wasn’t sure which one ran for me, but once he reached my side I picked him up and gave him the hose, helping him point it at his sister. The other little guy stood in front of Olivia as a guard and held up his hands, pretending to block her.
I heard laughter as Amber ran right into the line of fire and snatched up the little boy.
Olivia, Amber, and the boy I now knew was Rogan, huddled in a circle while Rory and I showed no mercy.
What surprised me most of all was Ryan standing on the deck laughing the entire time he watched us. The girls convinced Rogan to tackle me, and when he did I pretended to fall back in defeat, allowing him control of the hose. He stood guard in front of the girls as he hosed me, and even Rory moved to their side.
The happiness that radiated from the four of them as they took control and plastered me made the ice cold chill of the water worth it.
I hadn’t remembered a time when I felt more relaxed. Even when the guys were giving me shit, I still felt better than I had in all the years prior to Olivia.
Tammy joined Ryan on the porch as they both laughed and egged the boys on, telling them to get Keeton. Amber took one of my arms as Olivia held the other, while Rory and Rogan shared the hose, shooting me right in the face.
Duke joined in as he bounced around next to the boys. He was a little traitor, always choosing his new best friends over me.
Today had been perfect, from the trip to the lake to the current water fight. Times like this made me never want to return back to Texas. I knew there I would only be forced to face my father and brother, and they never once made me feel the joy I felt now.
I just wished we could stay like this forever.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Olivia
I carried the baby monitor with me as I exited out on to the back deck. I didn’t even look in Keeton’s direction as I passed, just hoping he got the hint that I wanted him to follow.
I had been recruited to babysit Nora at Uncle Noah’s when he and Alena took a weekend trip to New York for some meeting Alena had scheduled. She not only had Sassy Ladies here in Livingston, but a few other locations as well. This meeting was to discuss a new designer who was hoping to get her line into Alena’s stores.
I was given strict orders from Alena that Keeton was more than welcome to stay with me as well, but she made me promise that if I was asked, she knew nothing about it. All the women in my family have grown to love Keeton, but the men still treated me like I was sixteen years old. It was completely ridiculous.
I leaned against the railing of the deck waiting for the sound of the sliding doors behind me before I moved on with my plans.
Nora had been asleep for close to an hour now. It had been pretty much impossible for Keeton and I to get some alone time since we’d been in town, so tonight I planned to take full advantage of the situation.
When the sounds of his boots clucked against the wooden deck, I felt my heart race just a little. The excitement running through me made this feel like the first time all over again.
I had already planned out the way I would make tonight happen. Waiting for the right moment to enforce the plan was the key. Now it was that moment.
I sat the baby monitor on the railing of the deck and grabbed the hem of my shirt, lifting it up and over my head. I had already removed my bra in the bathroom before I came outside, so when I turned to face him I watched his eyes go wide.
“What are you doing?” his voice sounded hoarse, and I tried not to laugh. Did I feel evil? Maybe a little, but it was a necessary task. He was treating me like I was infectious since the moment he was introduced to my family. Desperate times called for seductive Olivia measures. I was about to lay it on thick.
Keeton’s gaze scanned over my chest appreciatively before his eyes met mine once again.
“The pool is heated,” I said in return as I lifted my hands to the buckle of my shorts and popped the button loose. “I didn’t bring a suit so I’m improvising.”
He narrowed his eyes and I shrugged innocently. “It was this or swim in my clothes; I chose this.”
As I shimmied my hips from side to side and lowered my panties along with my pants, his breath picked up and he swallowed hard.
To hide my smile I had to turn my back to him. He was seriously beginning to appear as if he was in pain.
Reaching out for the railing I made sure to bend over just enough to arch my ass out as I began to lower myself into a pool that felt more like bath water.
I took a moment to completely submerge myself in the water, taking in the luxurious feeling of it before I twisted around to face Keeton once again.
He still sat in the same place, looking at me through narrowed eyes. His jaw was set tight and I could sense his control was slipping.
More teasing was apparently needed.
“What’s wrong, Keeton? You scared?” I asked as I came up out of the water just enough to expose my bare chest.
It took him a moment to answer as he become a little distracted. “Hell yeah, I’m scared, darlin’,” he confessed.
His gaze met mine once again and he cleared his throat. “I’ve spent hours with three men who have made it perfectly clear I’m on probation. Every move I make is being evaluated. The last thing I need is for one of them to find me in a pool, naked, with you.”
Probation? Are you kidding me? Those men were even more ridiculous than I thought they were.
But I refused to let them intimidate me. I was a grown woman. And I have caught Uncle Jackson and Aunt Bailey in compromising positions more than once, so he shouldn’t be threatening anyone. I would deal with them later.
“I never took you for the type of guy who scared easily, Keeton Pearce.” I taunted him a little more by running my hands over my breast. His eyes immediately shifted toward my movements. I could see his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard. Then he shifted in the chair and I almost laughed.
No matter how hard he tried to hide it, it was taking everything he had not to jump in after me.
“I think I gave you a little more credit than you’ve earned. You may not be as confident and dedicated as I thought you were.” I turned in the water going back under for a few seconds before emerging once again. “Maybe I had it all wrong.”
I kept my back to him, because something told me I was getting beneath his restraint. I could hear him rustling around. But just to be sure I had to go in for the kill. “I’m thinking that I may have missed out on the adventurous type when I turned down Landon Murphy. He seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t let anyone keep him from doing something he wanted to do.”
The moment I heard a loud splash I could no longer hold back the laughter that had been bubbling inside of me.
My laughter only grew louder when Keeton’s arms wrapped around me from behind and he pulled my body back against his. He, too, had stripped and his massive erection was pressing firmly against my ass. I wiggled slightly, feeling the excitement within me grow.
“You are mine, Olivia Sawyer,” Keeton whispered agains
t my ear, his hands possessively roaming over my body. “You need to remember that. Because there is no way I would ever allow another guy to get within five feet of this.” He cupped me between the legs and slipped a finger inside of me. All the laughter and fun from earlier faded as my body heated from his touch.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Keeton
If I died tonight it would be worth it.
So many thoughts raced through my mind as I spun Olivia around to face me and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around my waist. Positioning my cock at her entrance I thrust forward and my legs grew weak from the sheer bliss I felt once I was fully seated inside of her.
Olivia made me feel so damn alive. She took me out of my comfort zone, but I loved it. She tested me and made my life so much more than it had ever been before. But now I welcomed that challenge. I craved it.
And if at any moment someone caught us in the position we were in, well, I would die a happy man.
Her moans of pleasure echoed throughout the backyard as I continued to move my hips, giving her what she needed.
It had felt like forever since she and I had sex. We had honestly been given very little time alone since we arrived in Livingston. Plus, I was living with Grandma Sawyer while Liv was held captive by the daddy toting a gun.
Guns, I should say. I heard about each one in detail during our day of fishing. Or should I call it the interrogation?
They had it all planned out; that was obvious.
“Stop worrying,” Olivia whispered as she hooked her legs tighter around my waist and began moving her hips against me. I leaned back, using the side of the pool for balance as I allowed her to take over.
She tipped her head back and bit down on her lower lip, her nostrils flaring as her breathing picked up.
I could feel she was getting closer to her release as she began tightening around me. She was fucking gorgeous when she was lost the heat of passion.
“Oh yes,” she panted as her hips jerked.
Not allowing her to pause, I gripped her hips and continued to thrust mine upward as she pulsated around my cock and screamed out my name. Within seconds I exploded; not wanting to bring any further attention to us, I ground my teeth together as I came.
We remained in our current position for a few minutes before she giggled. All I could do was shake my head because she fully knew what a deviant little ass she had been. “You are, without a doubt, the evilest little shit.”
“But you love me,” she insisted.
“That I do sweetheart,” I agreed.
***
I knew it was my imagination, but I swore every one of the Sawyer men knew just what I had done to their sweet Olivia last night. I was a fucking ball of nerves as I sat across from them at the dinner table in Tammy’s dining room.
I was terrified to make eye contact.
And if I sweat anymore, they were all going to think I had come down with some illness.
“What the hell are you so fidgety for?” Jackson asked, and I jumped at the sharpness of his tone.
I looked up at him and cursed myself for making eye contact. “When a man acts like that, it’s because he did something he shouldn’t have done,” he added as he looked from me to Ryan, then Noah and finally back to me. “What the hell did you do?”
The women just looked around in confusion and I suddenly lost all hope that any of them would save me.
“Leave it alone, gorilla man,” Olivia said as she reached across and pulled a piece of bacon off his plate. “If all of you would just give up on all this idiotic behavior and bullcrap, maybe he could relax a little and enjoy his time here.”
“No, that ain’t it,” her father added, as he now looked at me, also with a quizzical stare.
About that time Alena broke through the tension of the room and tried a diversion.
“Liv, I was changing the bedding at home and found your shirt tucked down under the sheet in the guestroom.” She reached into her bag and the moment she pulled it out my stomach dropped. “I’m not sure how it got tucked down so far but there it was.” Alena added, as she held the red shirt out to Liv.
I was counting on my girl to save me from the situation I could see unfolding before me but she failed miserably.
“That’s not mine,” she mumbled around a mouth full of bacon.
All eyes shifted to Noah and he shrugged. “Ain’t mine,” he assured them and suddenly I was once again on display.
“Didn’t I see you wearing a shirt like that just last week?” Ryan asked me with a set jaw. I saw a flash of regret in Alena’s eyes as she pulled the shirt back and tucked it in her lap. “Keeton?”
My gaze shifted back to Ryan and his face now was a little redder than it had been before.
“I asked you a question?” His jaw ticked, and fuck, I suddenly felt like a young child being scolded for stealing.
I couldn’t lie to the man, though. So I squared my shoulders and nodded my head. “It’s mine.”
His nostrils flared yet he remained seated.
Jackson chuckled, and Olivia placed her hand on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“Let it go, Dad,” she said in warning, but Ryan still watched me closely from across the table.
I didn’t know if I should run or apologize. Even though I felt like this entire thing was being blown out of proportion, I still refused to challenge the man.
So I said the first thing that popped in my head. “I love your daughter, and I would never do anything to hurt her.”
The women seemed pleased; even Noah gave me a reassuring nod. But Jackson and Ryan still weren’t satisfied.
And suddenly I felt like any progress I had made over the last few weeks had just been set back.
Olivia and I were technically adults, yet in the eyes of her father we were kids. This entire damn thing was so fucking confusing, and I honestly had no idea which way to go.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Olivia
“Maybe I should head back to Texas,” Keeton said, breaking the silence.
I turned to face him as a rush of panic ran through me. “Do you wanna leave?” Just the thought of him packing up and driving away made me feel like crying.
I had the urge to suddenly beat some sense into my father.
“No…yeah…” He let out a deep breath. “Hell, Liv, I don’t know. I feel like a gain a little bit of headway and then bam, something happens and I’m right back at the beginning with them. I just don’t know how else to prove to them that I’m in this with you, and not just some horny-ass guy looking for a good time.”
I’d had enough. Just the thought of Keeton being ready to give up made me feel sick to my stomach.
I stood up and brushed off my pants as I walked away leaving Keeton sitting on the back deck of Gran’s house hollering after me. But I chose to ignore him.
I stormed into my grandmother’s house and stopped in the doorway of the living room, pointing at first my father and then Uncle Jackson. “You and you,” I said through gritted teeth. “Kitchen, now.”
They looked like two scolded teenagers as they stood up and walked in my direction. Just as I followed behind them, I heard the back door shut and looked up to find Keeton standing there with a panicked look on his face.
“What did you start now?” my dad said as he shot Keeton a disapproving glare, and I laughed at his childish antics. Only it was not a laugh of amusement. I had reached my breaking point with these two men, and it was time they understood I was no longer a god-damn kid.
“He didn’t do nothing,” I assured him. “This is all on you.” My father and uncle turned to look at me. Uncle Jackson looked smug and it only irritated me more. “Oh, it’s on you too.”
“Me?” he threw his hands up in the air. “What did I do?”
“Sit down, all of you,” I demanded and they followed suit.
“What about Noah?” Jackson asked.
“He’s the only one out of you who has finally accepted th
e fact that Keeton and I are together. You two still seem to have an issue with it, and that shit ends right here and right now.” I was no longer sugar coating a thing.
“Liv,” my dad said, in that tone I knew well, yet chose to ignore.
“No,” I said. “You’ve had your chance to accept this and be the adults. But apparently neither of you have that ability, so it’s my turn. You two just need to sit back and listen.”
“Olivia, you don’t have to do this. It’s fine, really.” Keeton attempted to smooth things over but I wasn’t about to pretend he didn’t just confess that he was ready to hang his hat.
“It’s not okay,” I told him. “It hasn’t been okay, but it better be after I say what I need to say.”
I now had the attention of all three men.
“Keeton came here to meet the family I have spent months bragging about. He’s heard about the love and support we have for one another, and how no matter what we always have each other’s backs.” Uncle Jackson nodded and my father just watched me close as I continued. “But so far since we’ve gotten here, the only thing y’all have managed to do was show him that the two of you have the ability to be complete asses.”
My father narrowed his eyes but remained silent.
“I wanted to share my family with him, because he’s never had that kind of love. I wanted to show him my world, the things I hold dearest to my heart. But not only that, I wanted my family to meet the guy I’ve fallen head over heels in love with, and in turn allow them to fall in love with him as well.”
My hands were now shaking as the adrenaline pumped through me, a rush of frustration I could no longer tame.
“He has been nothing but kind to me. He’s shown me the love I’ve only ever seen being shared between the people I look up to.” I looked at my dad. “The same kind of love you show Amber.” I then turned to Uncle Jackson. “Or the love you have for Bailey. And Uncle Noah for Alena. But instead of being happy for me and giving Keeton a chance, the only thing you all want to do is continue on with these childish games of intimidation.”