Текст книги "Under Locke"

Автор книги: Mariana Zapata

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Текущая страница: 27 (всего у книги 30 страниц)

“That was really nice of him.”

“He’s the best man I’ve ever known. Most people don’t see all the good in him because he’s so serious, you know. But Lu’s got his shit together and most of the time, he knows what he’s talkin’ about. Can’t help but listen to him when he says somethin’. Keep your shop separate from the club. Keep your nose clean. Lock that sweet girl down before you regret that shit. So I pay attention. ”

I couldn’t help but grin to myself when he touched the side of my thigh with his last statement. I reached out to touch the side of his thigh in return. The corner of his mouth tipped up at the contact.

"As long as he’s in, I’m in. I like mindin' my own business and he gets that. I'm there when I'm there, and they got enough members to do whatever else I don't wanna. Works out all right every way around."

Even imagining someone trying to get him to do something that he didn't want to, seemed ridiculous. Preposterous. And that thought made me smile. He was who he was and you either accepted it or not.

And then I dropped the smile as soon as I thought of how much of a dick he'd been when we'd first met, any thought of loving him temporarily slipped away.

Well, I guess it wasn't always so cute, but we'd gotten past that and I wouldn't bring it up.

Knowing he'd lose his mind if I unbuckled my seatbelt, I kissed my fingertips and reached over to press them to his cheek, grinning like a moron because Dex would be amused with the gesture. He didn't let me down, a goofy half grin covered his mouth. "You're one of the best people I know."

He didn't say anything in return, but each time I looked over at him afterward, the pensive look on his face was stained with pure smugness.

We passed by the hospital my mom used to work at, and I was suddenly slammed with the reminder that I'd hopefully be seeing my dad in a few hours. I wondered what he looked like for some reason. Would he still have the same beard? Would he recognize me immediately? Would he think that I looked like my mom?

"Babe, what the hell is that sigh for?" Dex asked.

I groaned low enough that he might have not heard. "I think I'm nervous about seeing my dad for the first time in forever." I sighed. "It feels like the first day of school or something. It might be almost as bad as my first day at Pins."

He flicked both dark eyebrows up. "Nothin' to be worried about," he assured me.

Nothing at all.

Not if he didn't have the money.

Not if he'd skipped town.

If, if, if, if, and more friggin' if.

Had I mentioned before how much I hated relying on another people?

Especially when that person was the least reliable individual I'd possibly ever met.

"Charlie..."

He chuckled, flicking those bright blue eyes in my direction. "Don't worry about it."

I mashed my lips together and kept my worries to myself. There wasn't a point in stressing until we knew for sure if he really was in town. Sure Luther wouldn't have a reason to lie, and I'd hope his friend wouldn't either, but I wasn't going to put all my eggs into one basket. I'd worry when I knew for sure Curt Taylor was around.

I spotted a few more places I'd seen a hundred times before. The family owned hardware store, the grocery store, the salons that had been around since mullets had been in style.

And it was all way too deja-vu like.

Reminders of some of the best times of my life and the worst.

The hotel we pulled into was a member of a big chain, something I'd found for cheap on my phone when we'd entered Florida. I'd paid for it before telling Dex anything because he'd try to talk me into grabbing his credit card. I sleepwalked through check-in, filling out paperwork with the worst handwriting ever.

"Here you go," the hotel employee said as she handed me two key cards, her eyes straying from the tattoo on Dex's neck, and then back over to the nasty bruise on my cheek.

Oh hell. Whatever.

I wrapped my arm around Dex's and leaned into him, the side of my face pressed to his bicep like it was the most natural thing in the world. Those blue eyes glanced down at me, lined and circled in purplish blue, and one side of his mouth tipped up. His free hand went up to smooth over the top of my head. "C'mon, lazy bones."

There's no doubt in my mind I resembled an adoring puppy on the walk to our room.

"Shower first, honey, I gotta call Son and Lu to check up with 'em," Dex said as we dropped our bags just inside the door.

I nodded at him before fishing through the duffel bag, eyeing the king sized bed that took up the majority of the room. I poked him in the arm as I passed by, rushing through my shower, and getting dressed in an old threadbare sweatshirt and plain bikini panties before I somehow managed to fall asleep standing.

Just as I was about to open the door, I heard Dex on the other side.

"—better than that. Quit bein' a dumb fuck about it," he bit off.

Well. I don't think he'd be talking to Luther like that, and if it was Sonny he was talking to...then, I'd like to hear that conversation.

"She told me everything." He paused. "Yeah, that too. Look, Son—"

Five guesses as to what my traitor-ass brother could be finally spilling.

"I want this shit over with...Yeah...I wanna go back home, and she's comin' with me. How fuckin' hard is that for you to understand? She's mine, my brother, and I don't give a single fuck if you're mad about it or not. It is what it is and you gotta remember how well you know me....You think I'd be here if I didn't?"

Crap. At that moment, I would've given my first born to know what Sonny was saying on the other line instead of settling for guesses. Sometimes I hated how curious I was. I should have just gone into the bedroom like a normal person. Oh, who am I kidding? Anybody would be standing on the other side of the door eavesdropping.

Dex made a noise that sounded like a snarl. "This isn't gonna be a goddamn waste of her time or mine. I’m a grown ass man, Son. You’re not gonna tell me what I can and can’t do. I know exactly what I’m doin’. You wanna try to beat the shit out of me when we get back? 'Kay. I don't give a shit. You're not changin' my mind. Piss your little pants—"

Sonny must have cut him off because the next thing he did was laugh bitterly. "Not a single fuck. Not half of one. Not a quarter of one. Nothin'. You can kiss my fuckin' ass and so can Trip. I'll call you when I find your pa, ya stubborn fuck."

Then there was nothing.

I waited a few minutes on the other side of the door, waiting to see if Dex said anything else but that was a negative. There was only some rustling and creaking as he moved around the room.

Well. Okay. Wiping off my what-the-hell expression, I opened the door casually. Dex was sitting on the edge of the bed when I came out, stripped down to his boxers and yawning with his mouth wide open. Totally comfortable. Completely relaxed like he hadn't just gotten into an argument with my brother.

Once again, Charles Dexter Locke, with his solid, bulging six pack, full ink sleeves, pierced nipples, and the darn cutest tattooed red octopus, was sitting there nearly naked.

My mouth fluttered wordlessly.

Would this ever get old? I sure as heck hoped not.

"You're so hot." The statement was out of my mouth before I could withhold it.

Now, the smile that crept over his tired, still yawning features, was absolutely not withheld. He leaned back on his hands, watching me with those tired eyes. "Come here," he murmured.

Like I was going to hesitate when I had the chance to stand so close to him and all that glorious warm skin. I stopped between his widespread legs.

Dex sat up, gripping the back of my thighs loosely before starting a trail up over the curve of my ass, beneath the thin and stretched out material of my sweater. It was second nature to still wear long-sleeved stuff, regardless of whether he knew about my arm or not. Luckily, he didn't point it out as his hot hands circled most of my waist, his thumbs making these tiny circles just above my belly button ring. My shirt bunched over his arms.

"Seen a lot of things in my life—"

Don't vomit, Iris.

By a lot of things, he didn't necessarily mean people.

Okay, who am I kidding, he probably did.

I wasn't going to puke. I wasn't.

"But you," his nostrils flared, "my sweet, sweet baby, have gotta be my favorite by far. I think you win first through one-hundredth place." His head dipped forward to bite at the loose cotton draped over his forearms. He slowly edged the material up with his teeth and tongue until he finagled his head beneath my sweatshirt, a solid lump above my tummy.

The tip of his tongue tapped the stud of my belly button ring briefly. His breath warmed the skin above it before he pressed his lips to the same spot, damp and gentle.  Dex touched his tongue to the same place, more of a wet kiss than a lick.

"Smell so good," he murmured as his hands kneaded my hips, making me arch into him.

Looking down at him, with his face up my shirt, kissing and licking at me, I didn't think there was anything hotter in the world.

Dex kissed each side of my ribs with slow, chaste pecks. "Wish I wasn't so tired," he said, tongue tracing a line up my stomach.

Oh boy.

That wet, raspy tip stopped right between my breasts. I could see his head turn to the right, brushing a small line on the underside of my breast. His lips latched on to that inside swell, sucking it gently. Holy friggin' crap. He switched his mouth over to the other little globe and did the same.

I made noises that weren't entirely human as heat bloomed at my core.

And that's when he pulled his head out from under my shirt, planting one last quick kiss on my piercing. "Gotta shower, babe."

I choked. Was he serious?

My expression must have conveyed the what-the-friggin'-hell look on my face because he smothered a laugh by pressing his lips to my now-clothed hip. "I'm so damn tired. You don't need to stay up if you don't wanna," he said, coming to stand with his hands still beneath my shirt.

Dex flashed me another tired grin, kissing the top of my head right before he side-stepped me with a smack to my ass.

"Get some sleep," he said as if that was even an option when it felt like Niagara Falls was between my legs.

By the time I realized that he wasn't kidding, leaving me there standing like a complete moron, he'd already turned on the shower.

That dick.

I climbed into bed trying my best not to think about Dex's pleasured face the night before—all loose and relaxed with happiness mixed in there. Which then got me not thinking of how he'd looked days before that with his mouth...

Stop it.

The bed was surprisingly a lot more comfortable than my bed at Sonny's, and definitely way more than Dex's couch. I wasn't surprised when I fell asleep almost immediately after putting my head on the pillow.

And it felt like I'd barely done that when I was rolled onto my stomach, my cheek against the sheets. Warm lips and cool air tickled my spine. Two sets of fingers swept over my shoulder blades, down the twin sections of my back.

I was still half asleep as his forearm slipped between my belly and the mattress. His mouth traced over the notches of my spine. Warmth curled from the nape of my neck down to my tail bone, and instinctively, I arched my back like a cat into his touch.

Blinking sleepily, I noticed it was pitch black in the room. We must have only been asleep for a few hours at the most. The only noise came from the low hum of the air conditioner against the wall and the creaking of the bed under Dex's shifting weight as he inched his way down the mattress, arm still locked around me.

"Not tired anymore?" I whispered the question in a hoarse voice.

His low chuckle filled the room, tongue swirling a circle at the lowest point of my back. "All I needed was a little nap," he breathed right before nipping my butt cheek.

Oh man.

I may have stretched into a deeper arch, which earned me another nip on the other cheek.

Dex's free hand cupped my bottom, his long fingers spanning from the crease to nearly my hip. "This ass..." he groaned, kissing each cheek simultaneously. "Do I gotta thank all that time you spend swimmin' for it or your ma, that you got blessed with it?"

I wiggled my butt a little. "I don't know."

There was no warning for the hard crush of his arm hiking my hips up high before the tip of his tongue streaked its way down my cleft, slipping into my slit with a wet thrust.

Holy crap. Holy times a million craps.

Dex's flat tongue licked over my seam, once, twice—not enough—careful and controlled when he'd make a quick detour to dip his pointed tongue inside.

Dead, dead, dead. He was going to kill me with his mouth. And his lips.

Oh lord, especially his lips when he started sucking gently on the each soft fold.

Mother. Blooming. Heavenonearth.

I probably should have been embarrassed by the cries and the moans that wormed their way out of my throat as I tried to push my hips back against him. My cheek was still flat on the mattress, fingers curled into the hotel room's bed sheets, and it must have been the lack of vision that heightened every wet touch, every low little groan he made of approval when he'd slip his tongue where I wanted—needed—something bigger.

Almost as if he'd read my mind, his hand gave my ass a little squeeze before I choked out a cry in time with the deep press of long fingers inching into my channel, replacing that brutal, raspy tongue. Dex's mouth kissed my cheeks, fingers sinking deep in me. Curling. Moving in and out as I whined into the bed.

"Perfect, baby. So fuckin' perfect..." I barely heard him pant into the skin of my bottom.

I was so wet I could feel it. Hear it. The sloppy sounds of his fingers going in and out of me, making me desperate for that tingle that had blossomed in my lower stomach the moment he'd rolled me onto my stomach.

The speed of his movements doubled then tripled. That burn grew and grew as he kissed and nipped at my cheeks, biting harder and harder the more wet I got. Between the frenzy of his fingers, and that blessed heat radiating off of his body, it was paradise.

Until he suddenly pulled away.

I turned to look over my shoulder, not caring at all that I could barely see the outline of his frame in the darkness, but the hot presence of his arm around my waist confirmed he was still there.

Then, he was there. The fat tip of his cock was suddenly between my lower lips as he dropped his weight down to cover me. Thighs on the outside of mine. Groin over my back. Chest on my back. Dex was a human blanket that slowly pushed his broad, beefy shaft into me inch by delicious inch.

Even now, after barely twenty-four hours, it was the tightest fit. Not painful exactly but there was no way in hell I could ever forget, even after just having that bulbous head in me, that he was there. Filling me. Stretching me. Grinding himself into my cleft once he'd worked that long length in me.

And holy shit. Holy. Shit.

I pulsed around him before he even had the chance to withdraw for the first time.

Dex's mouth came down on the curve of my shoulder and neck, biting down hard, we both groaned for completely different reasons. "Fuck, Ritz," he whispered but there was no power behind it. No real need or desire for me to stop.

So I squeezed my inner muscles again, and got a circling of his hips in response along with another deep, guttural groan. It felt like I was filled to the max. One more inch, one more millimeter in girth and there's no way in hell I could have taken him without being in pain, I figured.

But this... this was perfect.

I arched my back even deeper, appreciating the years I'd spent practicing yoga and stretching after swimming, and that settled the ridge of his cock even deeper. "Oh!"

Dex groaned, long and low against my back. "Goddamn it, baby," he hissed. Damp lips moved across the line of my shoulder. Never withdrawing an inch, he slipped his knees between my legs, spreading my thighs so wide if I had on clothes, it would've looked like I was crawling under barbed wire in the military.

The arm around my waist tightened when he finally withdrew the barest inch, and then thrust forward. Hard. He withdrew two inches the second time, and then slammed home. Slow and steady, Dex built up the push and pull, one inch on top of another inch until just the very tip of his engorged head stretched home.

Then, he thrust.

And I choked sounds and wild gasps as his warm balls slapped against me on splitting pushes in. The sounds of Dex panting on each measured slide broke the steady panting out of my mouth, the sound of flesh meeting flesh. His hard cock burying itself into me with powerful thrusts that made me push back for more.

I groaned into the bed when he tipped his hips a certain way that hit something magical in me.

He growled his agreement before biting my shoulder again. "Good." He nipped the other side. "Fuckin'...good."

Oh hell.

With a quick shift of our bodies, he gripped me hard to him and flipped us over, keeping the wet, filled connection between us until he was on his back with my back and hips settled perfectly on top of him. Dex planted his feet on the bed and spread my legs so that they went over his, knee to knee, leaving me open and vulnerable.

At least until he bucked his hips.

I cried out his name and got another pump of his pelvis.

It was instinct that had me reaching both arms up on either side of his face to brace myself on the headboard. Dex's face was right next to mine when I tipped it to the side. I couldn't see more than just the easy shape of his features, so hard and strong even in the dark that I knew where his mouth was, finding it where I shouldn't have been able to.

His tongue searched mine out, clashing with it completely off rhythm from the way he thrust that long shaft in and out. His arm snaked around my upper chest and the other directly beneath my breasts like steel bands. The position made his thrusts more shallow but the angle...

"Please don't stop," I gasped, curling my feet around his calves to anchor me down as his hips pumped harder each second.

"Not happenin'," he said hoarsely, slipping a hand down to press his fingers to the top of my cleft. Dex jerked his hips, spearing me hard. I tipped my head back, locking my elbows to keep me in place when his thrusts got rougher and quicker.

I'm not sure whether it was him or me that started to sweat first but my back was damp. My inner thighs trembled as they stretched wide over Dex's bent knees. "Dex, Dex, Dex," I chanted his name.

Gently, he drew circles over my clit as I squirmed on top of him, desperate for more of his cock, more of his fingers. More, more, more.

His teeth nipped at my jaw. "Love you like this," he murmured. "All soft and wet for me, baby." Dex thrust hard, making me cry out. "My own sweet little pussy… all mine… isn't that right, honey?"

What? What the heck was he talking about?

"Say it," he insisted when all I did was moan in response to a circling of fingertips over my clit. "Say it."

Oh boy.

I squirmed my hips over him, squeezing my core around his thick erection. "It’s yours, Charlie."

"Always," he made clear with a sharp thrust.

Oh friggin' hell. I could feel it. Feel that magical explosion of fireworks and rainbows in my toes. "Always."

The way he pistoned his hips at my confirmation said that he was a pleased man. Thrusting clear off the surface of the mattress, the arm around my chest clamped down.

Dex was like a man possessed, ripping an orgasm straight out of a pot of gold from me. I could have screamed, cried tears of joy, or started speaking in tongues as my release came over me, and I wouldn't have remembered. Fireworks zipped up my spine for so long I thought I'd melt into him, or at least melt around his girth.

In the quickest movement ever, he pulled out of me, closing my thighs around his cock as he thrust into them. One time, two times, sprouting out a rough shout as he came, splashing hot streams over my stomach and chest with languid pumps in the aftermath.

I panted in time with Dex's own harsh breathing filling my ear, making me deaf and dumb to everything else.

It was only the hot sweep of his hands over the swells of my breasts, shoulders, and up my arms that pulled me back to reality. His thumb brushed over the scarring of my arm. Lazily, slowly, Dex lowered our legs flat to the bed before rolling us to our sides.

Looking over my shoulder, I flashed him a tired smile and tipped my face up for a kiss. And what a kiss it was. Silky, gentle, more lips than tongue. More affection than possession.

Well, almost.

"Wake me up like that any time you want."

A smile broke out over Dex's face. All he did was palm the side of my face and kiss the corner of my mouth with a soft murmur, "Plannin’ on it."

Chapter Thirty-Five

I had the terrible urge to throw up when I woke up the next morning.

The first thought in my head, before I accepted that I was laying in bed naked with Dex, involved my dad. My friggin' dad. The man I was probably—hopefully—seeing today for the first time in eight years.

Shit.

Not crap, shit.

Whether it was nerves, anger, or a sickening sense of anticipation that filled my belly, I wasn't sure and it made me uneasy.

So uneasy that Dex caught onto it before we'd even left the hotel room. He was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, buttoning his jeans, when he frowned at me. "What's wrong?"

I wanted to say “Nothing” but I didn't. No more lies and all, right? I had to settle for giving him a sheepish smile at the same time I stole a glance at Uriel. Who am I kidding? I was looking at his nipple piercings, remembering briefly how they'd felt on my back hours before.

Snap out of it!

I tried to hide my awkward cough. "I think I'm a little nervous."

"Why?" he asked like my admission was absolutely stupid.

"I don't know. I think I'm nervous to see my dad since it's been so long, but I also kind of feel like we should be on a bounty hunter show or something. Does that make sense?" I scratched at my throat.

Dex narrowed his eyes, pulling his toothbrush out of his mouth slowly. "No."

Well.

"Don't be nervous, babe. What you got to be nervous about? We're gonna find your pa, and then we're gonna figure out a way to get this shit handled before I get sent to jail for murder," he said so nonchalantly, I almost could have dismissed the fact that he even brought up the possibility of going back to jail.

For murder. Because of me.

Oh lord.

I'd shank him before he did something that stupid, so I chose to ignore that part of his comment. "I don't think it's that easy."

He gave me a hard look, shoving his toothbrush back into his mouth. "It is."

I left it at that because in reality, how the heck could I explain to Dex why I was so nervous to see my dad? It wasn't like I didn't already accept the way things were.

He'd left me and my family. Check.

He'd left me at sixteen in the middle of radiation with a dead mother. Check.

And then he'd left me again to deal with his mess at twenty-four, obviously knowing what kind of people he was dealing with. Check.

It hit me right smack in the face. A hard smack that might have knocked a few teeth loose.

He sucked. Plain and simple.

He was no Sonny. He wasn't even a Will because I knew that if I told my brother people had been showing up to my job threatening my life, he’d do whatever he could to fix it. Literally, he would have done anything. I just hadn't wanted to drag him into this mess.

Curt Taylor was no Luther even. Lu had gone as far as to let Dex and I borrow his car to come look for my dad. He'd helped me look for his crappy ass. And he barely knew me.

Curt Taylor was absolutely no Dex either. No Charlie. There was no fierce possessiveness or loyalty. Nothing. Besides both being males and members of the Widowmakers MC, that was it. There was no other trace of similarity between the man standing in front of me and the one who had walked out on me.

This was a man that had left people who needed him hanging a million and a half times. What in the friggin' hell did I have to be nervous about? If anything, he needed to be nervous about meeting me. There wasn't a single thing that I owed him. This wasn't about reconnecting with him or seeking the love and guidance he'd ripped from me when I was too young to understand it.

He should be scared of me.

At least his organs needed to be. Because I swore to myself right then, sitting on the edge of the hotel bed, that I'd make sure he paid the damn Croatians back somehow.

The old bastard owed me that much.

~ * ~ *

“He’s a sneaky son of a bitch,” Sonny sighed on his end of the line.

Bracing my feet on the bottom rung of the stool, I glanced around the diner like my dad could be hiding in a booth. That friggin’ asswipe. “The guy at the front desk told me he checked out yesterday. Yesterday, Sonny. It was like he knew what happened or something.”

“Maybe he did, Ris. Wouldn’t hold it past the old bastard.”

“It’s bull crap.” I cast another glance around the diner, this time looking for Dex. He’d left for the bathroom a few minutes before but he hadn’t come back yet. “We’re going to try to go to a few different motels around the area and see if we can find him.”

Yeah, the chances were slim, and Dex and I had both acknowledged that my dad would have to be a complete moron to move hotels within a few miles distance but...I’d never said he wasn’t a total moron. I could hope for the best, it was all I had.

Sonny hummed in response, the tension awkward between us still. I almost hadn’t called him, but after the phone conversation I’d overheard the night before between him and my tattooed behemoth, I figured it was the best option. The truth was, it pained me that Sonny was still mad at me. Even after I’d told him all about the incident at Pins, he’d sounded angry but still so distant. It wasn’t the way I felt he would have responded if things had been fine between us.

And it was my fault, which was the hardest thing to swallow but probably the most important. Actions always have consequences, right?

I looked over my shoulder while I waited to hear if Sonny said anything else, to see Dex standing just outside the bathroom with a waitress crowding his space. Not our waitress, just a cute one that had smiled at us when we walked in. Whore.

Okay, that was rude.

“Keep me posted on whether you guys need me to drive down there or not, I should be getting to Austin in a day or two depending on how many times Trip wants to stop,” my brother said.

Still looking at Dex as he shook his head at whatever the waitress was saying to him, I swallowed back the weird feeling in my throat and focused on my conversation with Sonny. There was no way I wanted to spend minutes of my life worried about whether or not Dex was doing something suspicious behind my back. I mean, he was right there. He’d never given me a reason not to trust him.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the many, many times Sonny had eaten something he didn’t like all because I wouldn’t eat meat. Or the hundreds of times he’d worried about my health and well-being. Sonny mattered to me. And I needed to try and fix what was wrong with us. That mattered.

“Son, I love you. A lot. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a lying shit and I know that my promises probably don’t mean anything to you anymore but I swear I won’t lie to you again. At least not over anything so stupid. I mean, if you ask me if I finished the last PopTart, I might lie but that’s it. Nothing else important.”

And then I waited. And waited. And waited.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he really was that pissed off at me. Holy crap. I’d finally done it.

“Kid,” he finally spoke after what felt like a year. “You pissed me the hell off but I love you anyway. Nothing will ever change that. Not even that dumb monkey you got playing bodyguard.”

“I like my dumb monkey.” Like hell was I going to bring up him being mad at me again. I was going to focus on something other than that.

Sonny sighed again, this long, suffering sigh. “That’s unfortunate.”

“He’s really nice to me,” I whispered into the phone, turning around in the stool to look for said dumb monkey. He was still standing by the bathrooms with the waitress talking to him. “I’d like to keep him, so I hope you aren’t planning on murdering him.”

“Kinda ruining my plans there, kid,” he said, and I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not. More than likely, he wasn’t. “He didn’t exactly keep to the truce between the Club, of leaving family alone. He knows that’s not cool.”

“Eh.” I glanced around to see the tall, black-haired jerk making his way around the booths toward where he’d left me. “At least leave his face alone.” I paused before adding, “And his hands.”

My half-brother groaned. “Getting off the phone now.”

I was torn between laughing and being ridiculously embarrassed by the way I’d made the comment sound. “That wasn’t what I meant!”

“Don’t care, kid. The damage is done.”

Warm fingers drew a line from my bare shoulder down to my wrist before Dex sat down next to me, his chest a solid wall of muscle and heat on my side. I glanced at his face, seeing it calm and passive. So handsome. Yet, I still cringed when I thought about the mental picture Sonny was probably having. “Yeah, okay.”

“Call me later?” he asked.

I kept my eyes on Dex as his own gaze dragged its way from the low cut half of my shirt, and then up over my face. The corner of his mouth went up in a soft smile. “Sure will. Drive safe.” Then, I added for good measure, watching Charlie as I said, “Love you.”

Sonny must have mumbled the response to me but I missed it. The only thing I captured was the dial tone after he hung up. Because the man sitting next to me was watching me with those curious blue eyes.

As soon as I set the phone flat on the counter, I nudged my shoulder into his arm. “Just checking in with Son.”

That hot gaze ran over my face, my mouth, my cheeks, before making its way to stare straight into my eyes. “Got all y’alls shit straightened out?” he asked in a lower voice.

“Mmmhmm. I had to let him call you a dumb monkey to get his forgiveness but I doubt you care.”