At this point, I was fairly sure I would do just about anything to have her in my bed—and not just to sleep. I didn’t care what moral boundaries it crossed.
“We’ve known each other for months,” Royal suddenly said. “We’re new, but we’re not that new, if you know what I mean.”
“We’ve been broken up for six months,” Natalie said. “I wouldn’t think that you would’ve moved on so fast if you’d actually cared for me like you’d said.”
That was when Lock decided he’d had enough.
“As interesting as this is,” Lock drawled. “I’m thinking you need to head out. This is incredibly uncomfortable, and I’m not even involved directly.”
Natalie turned a sneer to him, and I knew in that moment that she stopped with the nice act.
“I don’t know who you are,” she said. “But…”
“And that’s the problem,” Lock countered. “You don’t know who I am. But I know who you are. I guess I didn’t put Justice’s ex, Natalie, together with the Natalie I’d heard about all over the station. But I’m putting two and two together now, and I’m coming up with badge bunny.”
That was news to me.
“You…what?” Natalie asked.
Royal snickered into my shoulder blades.
“You have a thing for cops,” Lock said. “I heard from a few of my dad’s friends about you. How you’re always coming into the main station and filing police reports and reporting crimes, just so you can get into the station. My dad said they take bets on which rookie will and won’t sleep with you.”
Shit.
That was news to me, too.
“I…what?” Natalie was flustered.
That was when I knew that he was right.
She was exactly like that.
What in the absolute hell had I been thinking?
“Time to go, sweet cheeks.” Lock shooed her with his hand.
Royal started to giggle behind me, her small body shaking so hard in suppressed laughter that it was making my chest rattle.
Natalie, unperturbed, turned back to me.
“You’re just going to let him talk to me like this?” she asked. “That’s not the Justice I know.”
I turned my hard eyes on her. “Natalie,” I sighed. “I obviously didn’t know you at all. And you obviously didn’t take the time to get to know me, or you’d realize that what we have is really over. Has been since I walked in on you talking to your ex about breaking up with me and making your old relationship new again. Trust me when I say, I’m no longer interested. I’ve moved on with my life.”
That was when Natalie sighed. “You’ll miss me and come back.”
“No,” I disagreed. “I won’t.”
She opened her mouth to say something when Royal finally had enough.
“Here, talk to your mother,” Royal said. “I have to deal with a varmint.”
I was so surprised by her abruptness that I took the phone and put it to my ear.
My mother was laughing.
“Ma,” I said. “What are you laughing about?”
“Your Royal.” She snickered, sounding like she was wheezing. “I like her.”
I liked her, too.
“Me, too,” I admitted. “A lot.”
“If you don’t marry this one, I’ll be severely disappointed in you,” she declared.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Mom, we’re not even dating yet.”
Lock started laughing.
Natalie, who’d gone down the stairs and rushed to her car, hadn’t heard.
But Royal had.
“Yet?” she asked, turning to me fully.
“Yet,” I confirmed.
“All right, baby,” she said. “I have Royal’s allergies. I’ll make sure to not cook anything with shellfish. So we’re good there. See you tomorrow. Drive safe. Don’t forget your daddy’s beer. I love you!”
Then she was gone, leaving me staring at Royal with the phone pressed to my ear.
I dropped the phone and shoved it into my pocket, all the while Royal’s eyes were full of expression.
“I’m just going to go,” Lock said. “I’ll be here in the morning to ride with you.”
“Bye,” Royal said. “Drive safely.”
“Ride safely,” Lock corrected. Then he was on his bike and heading out.
“Riding with Lock wasn’t anywhere near as fun as riding with you,” she said the moment his bike started.
I took a step toward her and she bolted, heading into the house.
When I entered on her heels, it was to find her walking to the counter in the kitchen and turning before hitching herself upward.
When her ass hit the counter, she quickly crossed her legs and her arms and glared.
“Are you still in love with her?” she asked bluntly.
She was sitting and staring at me with what amounted to hurt in her eyes.
“No,” I admitted, taking a step forward until she was close enough to touch. “Not anymore.”
“How recently not anymore?” she asked. “There looked and sounded like there was a lot of history there. And she had quite a bit to say before you got there. She overshared, actually.”
“I admit that she’s the reason I came down here,” I admitted. “I was originally going to look for a job closer to my parents, but Natalie urged me to move here, and since we’d been dating for a year, I’d thought that was the logical next step.”
“And what happened then?” she wondered.
I leaned forward until my hands were on either side of her, leaning into her body.
“I came to town a few days early,” I answered. “She made me download this app. I didn’t really give a shit if she knew where I was, therefore, I agreed. It’s this app that can find your phone for whoever you share an account with. I’m not sure she knew that I’d use it on her, though. But I did. And found her at a coffee shop in town eating scones with her ex-boyfriend.”
“That’s…funny.” She shook her head. “You using the app on her that she likely wanted to use on you to make sure you weren’t cheating.”
“She never admitted that she was cheating, and I never really cared enough to ask,” I admitted. “I just knew that if she was discussing getting back with him, that she wasn’t all-in with me. And I wanted someone that was all-in.”
Her gaze went to my mouth, and I couldn’t stop the next words that came out of my mouth.
“I wasn’t over her until I saw some girl in greasy overalls welding,” I said. “The first time I saw you, everything that I thought I felt for Natalie went out the window.”
She snorted. “You’re telling me that I made you forget Natalie? Natalie’s beautiful. I mean, I’m no slouch, but when I’m dressed for work, I’m definitely not the prettiest crayon in the box.”
I leaned back and started to undo my utility belt.
Once I had it off, I set it carefully on the counter next to her hips, then moved until I was pressed between her thighs.
Giving a short jerk, I pulled her until she was pressed fully against me. Until she could feel the length of my erection pressing against my uniform pants.
“The first fantasy I had when it came to you was a vision of you in those overalls on my shop floor,” I admitted, my eyes never leaving hers. “And I didn’t have to worry about you getting dirty because you were already dirty.”
She swallowed hard.
“I’m…I…I don’t know what to say,” she finally settled on. “But…are you sure?”
“Am I sure that I want to kiss you?” I asked.
Her eyes widened.
“Y-yeah.”
I pressed more fully against her, then dropped my mouth to hers in a slow, sensual kiss that was just a press of the lips.
It was short. Sweet. And everything.
Her breath rushed out of her in a swift exhale, and her eyes went wide.
When I pulled back, it was to find her staring at me l
ike I’d just pulled the rug out from under her.
“I thought that you thought I was trouble,” she whispered.
“You are.”
Chapter 13
You never have to worry about me cheating on you. I may eat something that was yours, but that’s about it.
-Text from Justice to Royal
Justice
Going to my parents’ with Royal in the seat behind me was an experience.
Lock was sitting shotgun, and he was sitting there, looking bored, as he listened to Royal chatter away about her day at work. Saylor had ditched us, citing nausea, or a headache, or something like that. Which had bummed Royal out. Not that you could tell with all the chattering she was doing.
All the while, I thought about the kisses that I’d shared with her in my kitchen the night before.
I’d wanted to go further, but I didn’t want Royal to think I was doing it just because my ex showed up, so I’d waited.
And boy was I paying for it now.
My dick was hard, and it had been for going on sixteen hours now.
Was there a length of time where it became dangerous to have a hard dick? Because if there was, I was approaching it.
“There was a call about a man with a hangnail today, too,” Royal said. “He said his thumb had been throbbing for going on a week. He said it got to the point where he couldn’t roll his blunts today and could we please call an ambulance to take him to the hospital.”
There was a long moment of silence before I burst out laughing.
“Let me guess,” I said, amusement lacing my voice. “They called the cops instead.”
“Tanika suggested we call the closest one, which happened to be Baby Lock’s dad.” She pointed at Lock in the seat in front of her.
“Why must everyone call me that?” Lock groaned.
“Because that’s what everyone calls you?” She shrugged. “Apparently your father had to do some creative talking with them. He really did have a hangnail, too. But the guy’s spending some time at the jail because he was caught smoking a joint outside when your father pulled up.”
Lock groaned.
I started to laugh.
“People are so stupid,” I said, flipping my blinker on to pull into the gas station that had the beer my dad wanted.
When I was the only one to get out, I gestured with my head for them both to follow.
“Need y’all’s help,” I said. “Please.”
They were confused at first, but quickly became unconfused when I loaded them all up with beer. Even Royal had to carry two cases.
“This is a lot of beer,” she said, staring at the four cases that Lock had and the four that I had.
I sat it all onto the counter, then said, “I need about eight more cases.”
The clerk didn’t even blink.
“Okay,” he said, sizing me up. “I guess I can do that. I’m only supposed to be selling a max of six, though.”
I left and came back with four more cases.
Lock left and did the same while the clerk rang up the beer.
When I paid and started loading the cases into the truck, I didn’t miss the conversation between Royal and the clerk.
“He’s a big guy,” the clerk said.
“He’s big, but a softy,” she agreed.
“He a cop?” the guy asked.
I loaded up the other four cases that Lock brought out just as I heard Royal say, “No. He’s a mechanic and a thug. I met him when he was soliciting a prostitute.”
I rolled my eyes when the clerk, an obviously gay man who was highly attracted to ‘bad boys,’ gasped. “He did not!”
“He allowed a handicapped man to get beat up, too,” she continued. “Saved his motorized wheelchair from being stolen, though.”
That time I could hear the anger in her voice.
Apparently, she was still pretty pissed about that.
I turned around and stared at her to find her glaring at me.
That was when the clerk paled. “He can hear you.”
Royal crossed her arms.
“I know.”
I loaded the last case of beer into the bed of my truck just as Lock said, “You’re in trouble.”
I snorted. “I know.”
Royal waved goodbye at the clerk and got into the back seat once again.
It wasn’t until we were about twenty minutes into the drive when I said, “I didn’t leave your brother out there to get beat up. I called the cops. And I called out Marcus, reminding him of where he was. He stopped.”
Royal’s shoulders slumped. “My brother’s called me fifty-seven times since I told my father that I wouldn’t talk to him anymore.”
I felt a wave of sadness roll off of her.
“Marcus won’t be around much longer,” I promised. “He’ll slip up, then you can go back to your normal life.”
She was already shaking her head. “My father wasn’t kidding about buying out Stratton’s business. It’ll be gone before I get back, no matter how long it takes to get Marcus out of the picture.”
“Then open your own business,” I suggested. “You don’t need to work for someone.”
“I can,” she agreed. “It just takes a lot of money. Money that I don’t really have on hand. I mean, I do have a trust fund, but I’d rather slit my own wrists than tap into that.”
“Why?” Lock asked. “It’s yours.”
My sentiments exactly.
“When my mom died, my dad turned into an asshole,” she admitted. “I was sent to boarding school in New Hampshire as soon as I was old enough. My father had married Marta by then, but she wasn’t assertive enough to insist that I stay with them. I didn’t come home even for holidays until Marta finally demanded that I stay with the family after my brother was born and she realized how much she was missing in my life. My dad’s and my relationship didn’t get much better over the years. In fact, the older I got, the more he hated me. I’m still not sure what I did to deserve the hate, but whatever.” she sighed. “Every time that I ask him to do something, he makes a big deal of it. One time when I was in high school, I asked him to buy me a car in order to drive my brother around. At the time, I had a two-seater hatchback that I bought off of a man for five hundred bucks. My brother couldn’t fit into it. My dad did, but then he made sure to tell me, multiple times a week, that I was indebted to him.”
I growled low underneath my breath.
The man sounded like a piece of shit.
“He blames Marta and me for getting into that wreck,” she said. “I was throwing up at the time that she pulled out in front of that car.”
There was silence after that admission.
“Your father sounds like a piece of shit,” Lock said, repeating my words verbatim.
“I once got a ticket,” she said. “For jaywalking. When I contested the ticket, my father talked to the other judge that was the one to get my case.”
I didn’t know that I wanted to hear what had happened there.
“I’d been trying to save a stray dog from getting ran over by a car, and in turn almost got ran over myself,” she said. “He made the other judge throw the book at me. Gave me the maximum fine that someone can get for jaywalking in Texas.”
“What a dick,” I found myself saying as I made the last turn that would take me to my parents’ house. “My dad got me out of quite a few tickets. I can’t even begin to count.”
“Mine, too,” Lock agreed.
“He didn’t go to my high school graduation.” She paused. “But I saw him out at a restaurant having dinner with some of my friends that same night. He went to their graduation celebrations. I ate dinner by myself.”
I clenched my hand onto the steering wheel so hard that I felt my muscles strain.
“My graduation gift was him kicking me out of the house,” she continued, unaware of the tension in the front seat. “Oh, and there was this one time that he threw a
way all the clothes that I bought because they were too ‘trashy for a girl of my station.’ Then I had no clothes for like two weeks. Had to wear the same thing over and over and over again until I made enough at my part-time job to go shopping. That’s where Stratton came in. He took me under his wing. Helped me by giving me a place to live—the mother-in-law suite at his house—and work.”
My jaw clenched next.
I made a mental note to call Stratton later and make him an offer he couldn’t refuse on the business.
Even if it would put me into debt, and Royal didn’t stay as mine, I knew one thing for sure.
She deserved to have that place all to herself. And her asshole father deserved a special place in hell.
Chapter 14
Don’t ever judge a run by the first mile.
-Text from Royal to Justice as she walks half a mile.
Royal
I wasn’t really sure what I expected when I agreed—or was forced, depending on how you looked at it—to come to Justice’s parents’ house.
What I hadn’t expected was for them to welcome me in with open arms.
“You can carry more than that, can’t you?” Justice teased.
He’d been quiet since I’d admitted that I’d been kicked out after graduation.
Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have told them as much as I did.
But it’d been almost cathartic to admit some of the shit my father had put me through over the years.
Everyone thought he was this perfect judge. Perfect citizen. This hero of Kilgore, Texas.
But he wasn’t.
He was an asshole, and the more people that knew it, the better.
At least for me, it was.
It was hard seeing him be so loved and appreciated when he deserved anything but that to me.
Which was why I never beat around the bush when it came to my father. Everybody needed to know that he was a sneaky bastard, and if you fucked him over, he’d fuck you back harder.
“Here, take another one,” Lock teased, holding out another case.
Teasingly, I allowed him to give me one more, making that three. One in each hand, and one underneath my arm.
It was hard but doable. If I walked fast. And didn’t have to do anything but walk.
Putting them down might get tricky, though.
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