“What are you doing?”
“Stealing money.”
Propped up on my pillows against my headboard, I had a perfect view of her perfect ass as she dug through my cash. “I see that. Mind telling me why you’re robbing me?”
She pulled out two hundred-dollar bills. “Your sister needs it.” She pocketed the money as she walked toward me.
I sat up, alarmed for my sister. “What do you mean? Why—”
“Relax! And don’t ask questions.” She kissed my cheek but didn’t pull away completely.
Our eyes met. “V.”
She glanced at my lips. “Yeah?”
My heart started to thunder in my chest. “I—”
“Can’t. I know.” Then she backed away. “Your sister is fine. Trust me.”
As she walked out my door, I asked, “Are you putting her on birth control?”
Her voice echoed down the hall. “No questions, remember?”
Before my dad and I knew it, a huge elephant was in the room as Delilah explained her plans for college. Delilah wanted to live with Maverick. If it had been me, my dad would have patted me on the back, congratulated me, and told me to enjoy life.
Lilah? Not so much. That was his little girl. All five feet ten inches of her.
“But…” Dad was exasperated. “You wanted cooking school.”
Maverick looked away, a guilty look on his face.
Lilah peered at her hands in her lap. “I want him more.”
Fuck.
“I want to major in business and—and—work with you, Daddy.”
Dad’s shoulders melted till they almost slipped off his body. “Of course you can work with me, baby.”
After convincing Delilah to try the dorm lifestyle for a year, we were moving both Maverick and Lilah to DC. Damn, it sucked. It felt too far away. The drive home was a quiet one.
“Son, you may be getting a black eye.”
Lilah had looked so sad when we left her at her dorm room that Mavy Boy threatened to give me a black eye if this plan didn’t work. He must have decided it would be disrespectful to hit my dad.
“That shit’s gonna hurt,” I told my dad.
He inhaled deeply. “’Fraid so.”
I thought of Cole’s words in the McDonald’s parking lot. “When are we gonna start listening to her?”
He slammed his hand on his truck’s stirring wheel. “When we stop being dumbasses, I suppose. If your sister and Mav were married—”
“Dad, tell me you don’t believe they’re abstaining.”
A growl escaped my father. “Tucker, do you want to walk home?”
Since we were across the country, walking would’ve sucked. “How bad do you think a well-trained fighter can punch? Will my eye ever be the same?”
Dad shrugged. “You have good health insurance.”
Delilah wasn’t doing great at college, but that was to be expected, being from such a small town. Over time, my worry grew greater and greater. With Maverick doing so well with boxing and having more and more training, Lilah was seeing him less and less. I drove up one weekend to be with her. That helped. She became grounded for a short time, but once I left, she began to spiral down quickly.
“Hello?” Maverick finally returned my call. I’d left a message days earlier.
“Hey, fucker.”
“Sorry it took me so long. I’ve been swamped.”
“I know. Lilah told me. Maverick, I’m just going to throw it out there… you cheatin’?”
“What? Fuck no! I swear it… damn, have I become that bad of a boyfriend?”
“She’s sad, man.”
Maverick sounded tired. “All right. A couple more fights, and I’ll change it all somehow.”
“Mav, my sister… I need you to—”
“Tuck, I love her with all I have. I swear to you, I will do right by her. I’m caught up in this boxing world, but I will see my way out if I have to. I’ll solve this. I’ll find a way.”
“We were wrong,” I finally said.
“Yep.”
“Still gonna bless me with a black eye?”
“Yep.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“About sums it up. I owe you one anyways.”
Thinking of the barn Maverick set on fire when he surprised Lilah with romantic candle lighting, I said, “You tried to seduce my sister then kill her!”
“Gonna be pissed forever?”
“Are you?”
“Is this whole conversation going to be in question form?” he asked.
“Gonna rethink that black eye?”
“Gonna keep your pops off my back while I move your sister in with me?”
“Yeah, but if you knock her up, you’re on your own, fucker.”
“Not happening,” he said. “Apparently, V robbed your wallet and took Lilah to a clinic for the pill.”
“I knew it!” I said.
“When you gonna finally make Vixen yours?”
“Bite me, boxer boy.”
“Nah, I prefer your sister to your burly ass.”
“Come on, Mavy boy! You know you want some of this.”
“That ass is stamped with a big old V,” he said. “I’m a fighter, and I still won’t tangle with that bitch.”
“Know-it-all.”
“Asshole.”
After hanging up with Maverick, I had even more drinks at the dive bar I had found and dove into. I just wanted to relax, but I ended up back on the same hamster wheel that went round and round in my head. V was off on her own, wandering the campus in Gainesville. Bryce had been accepted to another college, and they were attempting the long-distance relationship. I secretly hoped they would fail. I guess I looked as lonely as I felt because a girl approached me. As she sat on the stool next to mine, I didn’t even have to look at her to know she was game. I didn’t have to be lonely that night.
“I’ve been watching you,” the young stranger told me.
“Not much to see.”
“Oh, I don’t agree with that.” Her flirty ways were not what I wanted.
Too tired to play games, I came clean. “I’m only looking for a night. My heart is owned by another. Only one night.”
Her heavily made-up eyes softened. “Maybe I can convince you for more?”
I shook my head as I spun my glass in its condensation. “Ain’t gonna happen. You should know this up front.”
I didn’t ask her to leave when we were done. With a condom in the trash, I lay in my bed, in the dark, with a stranger sleeping on my chest, thinking of Viola. When my phone rang, I numbly reached for it. “Hello?”
“I’m sorry it’s so late.”
My heart started to pound. I hadn’t talked to her in months. “V.”
“Hi. I, uh, I know you’re avoiding me, but… I just wanted to hear your voice.”
I need you. “I’m here.”
She sounded torn. “Bryce, he—I think he’s falling for someone else but doesn’t know I’m onto him.”
“Has he cheated?” I hoped she couldn’t hear my desperation.
“That’s beneath him.”
I whispered more to myself than her, “Soon.” With some nameless girl resting on me, I suddenly felt like scum.
“Why so quiet?” When I said nothing, she uttered, “Oh.”
My eyes closed. “I’m so sorry.”
I could hear her lifting that chin. “Hey, I should be honored you still answered the phone, right?”
“V—”
“Don’t apologize. You’re free to do whatever… it is you want.”
“What I want is for you to want me.”
“I do, Tuck.” She was struggling to talk. “I want to have you between my legs like I’ve imagined a million times. I—I know what it feels like to be in your arms. He—Bryce can’t… This may sound crazy, but… I want an equal.” She whispered, “I want someone who can own me, handle me. I don’t want to be the only strong one in a relationship. Tuck, it’s lonely.”
I
knew exactly how she felt, and her desperation was killing me. “Fuck. Baby—”
“Tucker, I’m not mad. I swear. I think it’s more of an envy thing… for whoever it is that is getting to have your arms around them tonight.”
The arm that rested around the one sleeping on my chest fell because I wasn’t holding the one on the phone. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“That’s the thing. There’s nothing to say. I allowed myself to be trapped. I chose not to leave him and waste years when you could’ve been mine. Now, I have to pay the price for those decisions.”
I wanted to say something, but what? She was right. But I was paying, too. “I feel like I’m being tortured, V.”
She whispered, “Torture… good night, Tucker John Ward.” The phone went dead.
My heart ripped in too many pieces to count. V had just said good night and never even let me do the same.
“Was that her?” The stranger didn’t move.
I stared at the ceiling. “Yes.”
After an exhalation of defeat, she said, “She’s a lucky girl.”
“I apologize if that conversation made you uncomfortable.”
Quietly, she said, “No. In fact, it reminded me that I want that, and I won’t find it following strangers home.” She sounded sad but honest. “Tucker John Ward, you are my last one-night stand, my last walk of shame.”
“There’s no shame in a decision to change your life for the better.”
I meant that for both girls in my night.
Good night, Viola.
Chapter Twenty-Six
There was no word from Viola after that. There was nothing else to say, not until we could be together, so I kept focusing on school. June’s court days had ended, and her stepfather was in prison, where he belonged. Bittersweet. May sound a bit Forest Gumpy, but that’s all I could say about that.
My dad sounded a little lonely having two kids off to college, so I headed home to visit. It was around eight at night. The two-hour drive was enough time for my thoughts to run rampant. Unfortunately, they kept running straight to—I couldn’t even say her name anymore because I missed her so fucking bad. I gripped the steering wheel in frustration. “God, please help me.”
I got no reply from God, just lonely headlights in the night.
Another hour passed, and I was almost home when my cell rang. “Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“V?”
“Tucker! Where are you?”
“Almost home. Fu—crazy. What happened?”
Viola started laughing. “Don’t spare your cuss words with me. He broke up with me. I was headed home to Diesel’s when the cowardly fucker dumped me over the phone! Can you believe that shit?”
My heart was set free. “Oh God, good fucking God that you are!”
“Damn good God! Tuck, where the fuck are you?”
Now my heart pounded as I heard her tone and what she was wanting. My voice lowered as my hunger kicked in. “On Route 69. Headed home.”
“Me too. But I passed home, coming straight for you. Look for me.”
“My eyes are peeled.” My car began to race to where I knew she would be coming from.
Her voice changed again. This time she sounded emotional. “Tucker… I—I need you.”
I began to shake. “Jesus, baby. I’m coming.” I was on fire. Never had I physically ached for someone before. Never had I wanted someone as much as I wanted Viola.
I could hear her fighting tears from our long, torturous, emotional affair. “I’ve waited so long to be with you.”
My car couldn’t drive me fast enough; my gas pedal was to the floor. I was dying to hold her. “Shhh, moments. We’re moments away. Wait! I think you just passed me!” My jaw dropped when the headlights I’d just recognized whipped around like a stunt driver and did a U-turn in the middle of Route 69. I heard her tires screeching over her phone and through my window. “Holy shit, V!”
She giggled through a sniffle. “Are ya hard for me yet?”
I could barely get air in my lungs, I was so rock hard. “Yeah, damn, Viola. What you do to me is beyond words.”
“And I’m just getting started.”
“Sweet Jesus.”
“Jesus might blush, baby.”
She pulled her car up next to mine as we drove down the highway. I almost threw myself over the passenger seat to get to her on my right. Driving beside her, I actually reached out to V with the hand holding my phone as if I could get one touch of the girl I was dying to be with. Too long. I’d waited far too long to make her mine.
Her eyes looked agonized as emotional tears exploded from her. Viola’s hands slammed to her window, trying to reach me, too. I couldn’t hear her, but I saw her mouth my name. I quickly pulled my phone back to my ear and yelled, “V! Hands on the wheel!”
One hand went back to her steering wheel, but she kept looking at me, crying. Then she cried out the words that changed my world. “Tucker, I love you.”
Time fucking stood still. Our future, everything, was spelled out for me. My throat tightened as I felt emotions being freed and released through my heart. I hadn’t realized how restrained I actually had been till that restraint was lifted. “Oh, girl, I’ve loved you from day one. I think I’ve loved you since the day you took my hand at my mom’s funeral.”
My words were pushing her over the edge again. “You needed me that day, and now, I need you!”
“Baby, umm, the field! Get to the field!” Her car veered to the right and over a curb. I was sure she would have flat tires as I watched her taillights race to the night of our lives. The field was just abandoned farmland where we could be alone in the dark. I followed her so closely we were reckless. Viola’s car bounced as she raced across the field. When she slammed on the brakes, I whipped my car around hers. Headlights ended up shining at each other, lighting the way for our needs to be met.
Viola’s door swung open, as did mine. I leapt from my car and headed around to the front of my hood. She was crying. My baby was crying as she ran to me. Needing her for my survival, I tore across the grass to finally touch her the way I had always wanted to.
“Tucker,” was the last thing she cried out before our bodies collided. My mouth smashed to hers, teeth colliding, and I finally got to taste my V. I felt such need in my stomach it almost hurt. A delicious kind of pain. Her succulent lips were begging for mine. I delivered. I could never be rough like that with June, but Viola? Tough Viola was made for me, and all the aggression I had pent up was now letting loose. I kept telling her, “I love you. I love you.” My hands couldn’t decide where they wanted to be or stay as they landed all over her body. Viola almost fought me as her hands pushed through my octopus arms to touch me.
“I love you,” Viola whispered then possessively shoved her tongue down my throat as she ripped my shirt off.
Fuck! I was so turned on that I wasn’t sure we would get to have sex before I exploded. I matched her possessiveness as I picked her up and fastened her legs around my hips, pulling her to me. I growled as her skirt rose and exposed her ass to my palms. Only a G-string and my jeans were between us. I told her, “Own me. Don’t let me go.”
“Never. Never.” She was gasping for air as her legs tightened around me, her hands clutching my face. Not gently. Then this fireball in my arms bit my bottom lip. “You’re mine. Hear me?”
That revved us up even more. “Take off your shirt,” I said.
She did in a hurry, not needing her arms ’cause I had her wrapped up tight. I wanted to sit her on my car and take her, but my hand touched the hood. “Too hot.”
She kept kissing me. “I. Don’t. Care.”
I licked her neck, trying to taste every part of her skin I could get to. “I won’t burn you.”
“You already are, from the inside out.” She ripped off her bra.
Her head leaned back in my embrace as she moaned and offered me her breast. I stared in awe. Fucking beautiful.
I held he
r off the ground, and my mouth ravaged her body as she pulled on my hair. “Tucker! More, damn it!”
“Fuck!” As incredible as her breasts were, I was beside myself as I sucked on them viciously, desperate to have more of her. V was right with me. Her hands went between us and yanked hard on my belt buckle, trying to rip it off me.
Once she succeeded, she doubled the damn belt and fucking whipped the back of my thigh, once. Enjoying the slight sting, and her balls for going there with me, I asked, “Trying to tell me something, V?”
She ground her mound against me, daring me to move us forward.
Love this bitch. “Hold on to me.” Her arms tightened around my neck as I pulled my jeans down to my thighs, allowing my yearning organ to spring free. I wanted to make love slowly the first time I was with Viola, but neither our bodies nor our hearts were being very patient at the moment.
About to cross the barrier that we’d never dared go near, I looked into her eyes. Her expression showed how much she adored me, and she nodded. “Please.” That was all I needed to hear before I slid inside her. We both froze. Standing with her in my embrace, we held still and looked at each other. Another tear rolled down her cheek as she whispered, “Did you feel that?”
I didn’t know if it was the wait that had caused it or if it was just because we were meant to be, but the sensation flowing through my body was so foreign and inviting I was instantly addicted. “Viola, you feel like… I—I don’t know what, but I can’t ever be without it again.” I stroked my dick in, then out, to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind.
Viola gasped and held onto my neck. “Do it again.” I pulled my hips back and then pushed inside her again, groaning and shuddering. Her head fell to my shoulder as her body went almost limp. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know it could be like this.”
I sucked on her shoulder as I started moving inside her freely. “Viola.”
Her face came to mine. “Lay me down.” Soft, precious lips pressed to mine.
“V, there’s only the ground. Let me carry you to my backseat.”
Her eyes looked deep into mine as her mood went from sexy to beautiful. “Lay me on the ground and take me, Tucker John Ward.”
Steal Me (Haunted Roads Book 1) Page 28