“Perhaps.” Her smile dissolved though. “You really want to know?”
“I do,” he was quick to answer. “Please.”
“And if it involves another guy?” Her nose wrinkled adorably.
“Go for it, sweetheart. I can handle it.”
“Keep in mind that you have a teenage daughter, so this story might strike a nerve.” She raised a palm in warning between them, and he playfully glared at her before reaching beneath the sheet to set a palm on her hip. Not satisfied with just that simple touch, he reached around and gripped her ass, drawing her body closer to him.
“Stop stalling and just rip off the Band-Aid already,” he told her while squeezing her firm ass cheek a bit harder. The memory of pounding her like an animal last night cut through his mind, and his morning wood was harder than hard.
“Okay.” She slid her tongue between her lips, clearly trying to distract him, the little temptress. “A week after my eighteenth birthday, my bodyguard’s son took my virginity.”
She bit into her lip as his hand slid between her legs, hidden still by the sheet. His finger played over the lips of her pussy, fighting the ridiculous urge to demand Mine. “And then what?” He lazily smoothed the pad of his thumb along the seam of her sex, and the sheet dropped a little from a heavy breath, exposing her tits.
“You’re distracting me,” she whispered. “You’ve been doing that since last night, but I needed it.” She moaned when he applied a little more pressure. “I really, really needed it.”
He had a feeling her need had more to do with the phone call from her ex than their “jaunt” in the jungle, but he didn’t want to think about that asshole. Or the fact he’d ever shared a bed with this beautiful woman and had been stupid enough to lose her.
My gain, he supposed, then internally winced. Her ex hurt her, and he’d rather Sydney have never been hurt, even if it meant last night wouldn’t have happened.
“So, continue,” he requested, his tone a bit deeper than normal. “Continue making me jealous.”
“Jealous? This story is from twenty years ago.” She planted her lip between her teeth and sucked her bottom lip when he cupped her sex with his palm.
“You’re in bed with me right now. Naked. Soaking wet.” He plunged two fingers inside her, and she arched her back, her nipples pebbling. “So, thoughts of any other man going near you, now, then, tomorrow . . . drives me a bit crazy. I can’t help it.” Or explain it. But he also didn’t seem to have a mute button to hide his feelings. To stop himself from oversharing. “So, continue.”
“I’ll try my best with you touching me like that.”
“The bodyguard’s son,” he prompted. “How old was he?”
“Twenty-two.” She paused and looked at him, waiting for a reaction.
His hand went still. “Your dad kill him? How well did he hide the body?”
“You’re funny.”
He cocked his head. “I’m serious.”
She rolled her eyes and playfully swatted his chest, but he captured her wrist with his free hand. “The point of this story is my belly button ring.”
“I have yet to hear a connection between this too-old-for-you guy and your belly button ring.” If his daughter had been in the same situation . . . no, he couldn’t wrap his head around that idea.
“Ah, is this the sheriff or the father talking?”
“No distinction at the moment.” He tipped his head, a request to continue.
“My dad walked in on us. He fired my bodyguard, and he gave me the silent treatment for a month. So, I rebelled. Got my belly button pierced to piss him off. To try and get him to talk to me.”
Silent treatment? Fired the guy’s dad? That was her father’s reaction to his daughter losing her virginity to her bodyguard’s son? Yeah, I’m nothing like him. “Did it work? Did he talk to you?”
“Eventually. The damn thing got infected and left a scar after I removed it.” She shrugged. “I guess I was always a bit of a rebel. But I still feel guilty I got someone fired because of my stupid need for my father’s attention.”
The downside of being rich, he supposed. Busier parents? Was that the issue? He’d always done his best to be present in McKenna’s life as much as possible, but he wished she had a mother there too. Sure, his mom and sister had stepped in, but no one could truly replace a mother’s love, could they?
Beckett moved his hand up to Sydney’s abdomen, feeling wrong about touching her after what she’d shared.
“How else were you rebellious? Jesse’s dad forced him to join the Army to quote, unquote, straighten him out. Was that the case with you?” Of course, back then, Beckett hadn’t known that Jesse’s dad, not Jesse, needed straightening out. That news had only recently been revealed.
Sydney smiled. “Ha. No. I joined the Army because my dad didn’t want me to.”
“Surprised he didn’t find a way to stop you.”
“Oh, he tried, but I was stubborn. Although, I did give in to his request that I attend West Point first.” She smoothed her hand over the dusting of hair on his pecs as if lost in thought. “And then I pissed him off by breaking a school rule the first semester.”
“Which was?”
She lifted her gaze to meet his eyes. “I dated Gray. He was a Firstie, a senior, and it’s forbidden for Firsties and freshmen to date.”
The news Sydney and Gray had not only dated but Gray had also proposed was still a hard pill for Beckett to swallow. But it went down a little easier knowing she turned him down.
“I don’t regret my act of rebellion in joining the Army because it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. I wouldn’t have Levi if I hadn’t, um . . .”
Hadn’t what? He wasn’t sure if she planned to finish her sentence, but based on the forlorn look in her eyes, he knew she was recalling painful memories this time.
“Anyways.” She shrugged as if relieving herself of an emotional burden that’d momentarily pressed down on her shoulders. “My father offered to fund a new weapons program for half the usual fee and got me honorably discharged after serving four years instead of the five I owed the Army after West Point. I was so pissed, but . . . money talks. And the next thing I knew, I was working for him. He won.”
He knew there was more to her story she was choosing to leave out, and those parts were hurting her now. Sensing she needed a hug but wouldn’t ask, he urged her to shift, and he pinned her back to his chest and held her.
He couldn’t help but calculate the difference between her age and her son’s, assuming that was the part she was choosing not to share right now—Levi’s father.
She’d said Levi wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for her serving in the military, so who was his dad? Had he been in the Army? What happened to him?
Sydney turned in his arms, and when she faced him, there were tears in her eyes. “All you did was ask me about my belly button scar, and somehow the conversation got so . . . deep.”
Her body tensed, and he smoothed his thumb along the contour of her cheek, catching a tear there.
“See.” She frowned. “My, um, book cover doesn’t match the inside. Not now, at least. I’m not as strong as everyone thinks.”