“No, I do, but we’ll be doing it in your apartment, the apartment you’ve cleaned, while we eat the meal you cooked. Do you understand what I’m asking of you?”
“To show you how I live?”
“There it is. I’m so excited to come and meet you. I’m especially excited to see how my uptight daughter handles dating someone like you.”
“And someone like me is…?”
“Unpredictable,” she answers easily. “Uncontainable. Allyson likes to be in control of her world, she likes neat lines, and no deviations to her routine. She especially doesn’t like commitment. But now you’ve got her falling in love with a guy in a town she never intended to like—”
I don’t know, Miranda. She hasn’t told me she loves me back!
“—and word on the street is you and your brother come with your own pre-packaged reputation.”
“I want it on record I wasn’t actually the one who blew up the pet food factory.” I toss my family under the bus without remorse. “I was there, but it wasn’t my fault. In fact, I was the one trying to smother the fuse, if you understand my meaning.”
“Was there C4 involved in this explosion?”
“No, ma’am. Just a whole bunch of stupidity and a few felonies thrown in. The real culprit is still walking free, no charges on their rap sheet, no beady eyes following them while they walk Main Street.”
“The perfect crime,” Miranda laughs. “Alright, I’m in traffic right now, and there’s a bus in front of me farting its toxic fumes into the atmosphere and refusing to move into its own damn lane. Move!”
She shouts it so loud, Ally laughs, and I jump.
“Sorry, honey. I really have to go. Tell my daughter I love her dearly, and to call me tonight so we can plan this dinner party. I want to come there soon.”
“What do you eat? What don’t you eat?”
“I don’t like mushrooms. I do like red meat. I like green beans, and I love mashed potatoes.”
“Alrighty.” Laughing, I plan this menu in my mind, and listen to a bus chug along on Miranda’s side of the call. “I’ll let you go so you can drive safely. And I’ll tell Ally you said hey and that you love her.”
“I heard her,” Ally snuggles into my side and purrs. “Love you, Mom.”
“Thank you, handsome. Also, please take your hand off her naked booty right now.”
I glance down and grin. My hand isn’t on her ass, but my cock is. And from my point of view, that’s way better.
But for the sake of maintaining relations with this woman, I tell her none of that. Instead, I clear my throat, and try to hide the lust swirling in my blood. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Have a good day at work,” Miranda calls out. “Love you both.”
Then she hangs up, and Ally’s bright red blush makes itself apparent when I look down at her.
“She threatened you.”
I toss the phone aside and roll so Ally flops to her back, and I see all of her. “It’s a mom’s job to make sure her baby is being taken care of.” I press a kiss to her lips. To her jaw. “She’s sweet.”
“Miranda Laramie is not sweet. She’s a viper, she’s dangerous, and she’s mean.” But then Ally’s eyes change. “She also told you she loves you. Which is like…” Her eyes widen. “That’s a big deal. She doesn’t even know you.”
“She was joking.”
I glance across the bed to the clock on the table, and when I see we’re already essentially late for work, I crawl between her legs anyway, groan when the tip of my cock touches her fiery heat, and when she says nothing, but nods, I slide on in and sigh. “So fucking perfect.”
I bury my face against her neck and fall deeper in love. Deeper, harder, headier, so I’m not sure I’ll ever find my way out again. But that’s fine, because this one time, love doesn’t scare the shit out of me. Not when it feels this good. And not even if Ally refuses to say it back.
She will eventually, I’m certain of it. But until that day, I’ll work on convincing her.
Ally
Updates
Dressed, showered, makeup on, hair brushed – again – I slide my feet into a pair of sensible pumps, and smooth my hands over the fabric of my skirt. And while I do all that, Luke sits on the end of my bed, dressed in the clothes he wore last night – he’s fully clothed, but somehow, he still manages to make it look erotic.
If he wanted to switch his pants out for just boxer shorts, if he wanted to undo the buttons on his shirt, and open the fabric a little to show off his chest, if he’d just sit back and open his legs, he could make this look like a professional photoshoot for hot guys with arrogant smirks.
His hair is messy, his stubble that much more grown-out since yesterday, but his eyes are bright and playful.
“I’m heading to the lake this afternoon.” He grins the grin that gets him laid. “I have to keep going on that damn pier before I land my ass in jail for violating court orders.”
I press my hands to my chest and sigh. “My Prince Charming. You’re the catch of the county, Luke Hart.”
“Shut up,” he snorts and pushes to his feet.
I stand by the coffee table, by the vase of roses that make me smile each time they catch my eye, but they lose all my interest as I watch Luke walk toward me. He has this swagger, this stride that fizzles my brain cells and sets me up for a painful fall. But I like it anyway. I like looking at him, and feeling those zings of power pulse in my blood.
“If, after all these years,” he rumbles and comes closer, “after all of that bad behavior, it’s certain I’m going to prison, then it can’t be because I didn’t finish my community service.”
“You’d rather go down in a blaze of glory?”
“Of course.” He leans in and plops a kiss to my cheek. “Come down after work and hang with me? We can have a picnic dinner or something. Make a night of it. Then we’ll share a bed again, because no way am I ever gonna sleep alone now that I’ve found you.”
“You just jump right in, huh?” My heart flutters the way a hummingbird’s wings do. I should run with it, enjoy it. But the pain is too real, too terrifying to risk. “You just go from ‘Hey there, legs’, to sex, to ‘Let’s never sleep apart again’?”
“What can I say? I don’t believe in wasting time. We have so little of it already.” He wraps his arms around my hips and squeezes so tight that I buckle, but he catches me, holds me up, and buries his lips against my neck. “Don’t pull back, Ally. We’re only just getting started.”
“I’ll bring a picnic to the lake this afternoon,” I relent on a sigh. “But I have work to do too, so you do the pier, I’ll work on my stuff, and nobody talk to me. I have to concentrate.”
“Wow.” Chuckling, he uses my insult, and squeezes me just a little tighter. “What work will you be doing?”
“I’ve been here a while now, and I’ve met enough patients that it’s time I get started on my final paper.”