After talking to North and Jed, I’d gone home. Cranky as fuck.
Stuck with Macon as a father and impatient for a woman to call me, both of which were out of my control. I’d spent a sleepless night angry Maisey was somewhere in the county, probably wearing something skimpy and sexy. Alone. I could have been in bed with her. In her.
Forgetting all about my tainted DNA.
My morning was spent in my studio working on my latest commission. Using my cutters and banging metal helped with my frustration, but it was lunchtime, and she still hadn’t called.
Had I come on too strong? No, I’d seen the way she’d flushed. How her nipples had hardened. How she’d smiled. Bit her lip. Called me hot cowboy. She’d given me her phone instead of running away screaming.
She wanted me as much as I wanted her. I’d felt it. Seen it.
I knew it.
Little dots on my screen showed she was typing and I leaned against my kitchen counter to wait. My dick punched against my jeans once again. Fuck, it was uncomfortable. I groaned in frustration, set the phone down as I slid down the zipper to give my dick some room. I sighed, but there wouldn’t be true relief yet.
I’d seen the eagerness to please in her eyes. Why was she only responding now that I texted her first? Why didn’t she call?
Fuck, I was growing a pussy.
Leaving Maisey behind in North’s kitchen had been hard. So had my dick. I’d gone straight home, hopped in the shower and rubbed one out. I’d barely gotten in a few good tugs before I spurted all over the tile, visions of her tight ass in my head. The idea of getting a good grip on it as I fucked her had finished me off with a rough groan.
It hadn’t helped much because a day later my dick was still hard and I had a feeling it would be until I got inside her and made her mine officially.
I learned from Macon—my fucking father—that so much time had been wasted. It had taken him to up and die to discover the truth. While my brothers, sister, and I knew he’d been an asshole, he’d also been a liar. A cruel fuck who liked to play with people. Especially North.
What she’d finally shared with us… what she’d done… fuck. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get over it. He hadn’t touched her, but he’d been ruthless with her. If he were still alive, I’d have killed him, buried him in the back forty where no one but the wildlife would ever find the body. Even now, just thinking about what he’d done, about the things North had yet to tell us...
He’d messed with me and my brothers, but North had sheltered us. Bargained for our freedom. I’d gone into art as I’d always wanted, regardless of the insults Macon had hurled at me as a kid. My long desire for art school and he’d made me feel less. Made my dreams seem worthless.
I’d made something of myself anyway. I’d rarely seen the man since I graduated high school, avoiding him just as East and West had. His heart attack while in bed with his lover—his male lover—had been our release from an invisible prison.
My artwork was well known. I had more commission requests than I could handle. Until Macon’s death, all I’d done was work. I barely saw my siblings. He’d been gone since July and now we saw each other often enough. The truth had been revealed about what Macon had done and we were making up for lost time.
Which meant I saw the woman I wanted and I didn’t want to waste a minute. I knew she was mine and a second apart was a second lost. She didn’t feel the same way, obviously. I had to change that, but that wouldn’t work unless she called me. Responded. The bubbles on the screen stopped and her message appeared.
Beautiful: I can’t.
Me: Working?
Beautiful: Yes, but I mean I won’t.
I frowned. Won’t? What the fuck?
Me: Why not?
Beautiful: It would never work.
It wouldn’t work? I glanced down at my dick, outlined by my boxers. Oh, it worked.
Me: Give me a chance. Give US a chance.
My thumbs were too big to type on such a small screen, but I had to get this right. I hit delete when I hit the wrong letter. Swore at the thing when it autocorrected.
Beautiful: I don’t even know your name.
I huffed, stared at my phone. I only knew hers because of Jed and I still knew I was going to marry her. What was on her birth certificate wasn’t going to make a difference because to me, she was Beautiful. However, when she found out I was South Wainright, her perspective of me might change. I wanted to solely be Hot Cowboy for as long as possible. To get her to fall for the guy, not the name. Not the bank account.
Me: You said you felt it too. That was from five minutes. No names. Just… chemistry.
Beautiful: Nothing good happens that fast. I have to go. I have three places to clean.
I groaned, ran a hand over the back of my neck. Typed out one word.
Me: Tomorrow.
Beautiful: Work tomorrow too. Always work.
I paced the room, ready to climb in my truck and track her down, toss her over my shoulder and bring her back here. Tie her to my bed if I had to. Strip her bare and show her how it would be between us. Only pleasure. That it wasn’t called love at first sight for nothing. One look and I knew. I stared at her last words. Always work.
That wasn’t going to happen. I wanted her to work if it fulfilled her. I’d gone to art school even after listening to Macon bitch and complain, shout and demean me for wanting to be a pansy-ass artist ever since the third grade and I’d won a President’s Day poster contest. I’d heard every one of the fucker’s words, but never let his insults stick. I’d done what I wanted, become what I wanted.
If her dream was to clean other people’s houses, then I’d support her. But if she was always working to make ends meet, that was different.
I had money I’d never touched. Enough where she wouldn’t have to work if she didn’t want to.
While I didn’t like our exchange one fucking bit, at least she hadn’t lied. She told me how she felt. I knew what the problem was. Obviously, she’d been hurt in the past. She’d rushed and it had gone to shit.
This wouldn’t. This was different.
It had gone to shit because whoever that guy was wasn’t the one for her. I was.
There was no other option for me but to be with her. It sure as fuck was fast. It didn’t scare me though. It made me more determined than ever to prove her wrong. Nothing was going to hold me back now.
Some things did happen fast.
First, I had to get her in front of me. Get her here and then I’d show her. If words didn’t do it, action would. I looked around my house. Grinned. I knew just the way.
5
MAISEY
The one thing I liked about my cleaning job was the independence. While I had to follow the owner Nancy’s strict cleaning methods that were expected by all of her employees, I wasn’t stuck in a cubicle all day. I drove to the various houses I was assigned, did the work, then moved on to the next one.
The Wainright house was huge, but it was only three times a week. For so many rooms, not all were used. Most of them only needed to be dusted on occasion. North and her boyfriend, Jed, were the only two who lived in the house now, and they stuck mostly to the kitchen, great room and their bedroom.