TWENTY-SEVEN
Fallon
“Sasquatch could step out at any moment, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised.” I turned onto Old Biloxi road, more than three hours beyond Jackson, dense old-growth forest as far as the eye could see. Not creepy at all.
That’s what I kept repeating to myself anyway.
“This is exactly what it looked like at the school I was at. I bet we’re not far away,” she mused from beside me, thighs pressed side by side, just like we’d been since the moment we’d gotten into my truck to take this journey.
561 Lucedale Court
Landry, MS
I’d memorized the address on the back of that envelope miles ago, my mind conjuring what a eight-year-old boy one-part me, one-part Augusta Belle might look like.
Blond and freckled, if I had to guess.
“Would you ever wanna visit?”
“Sacred Heart?” she asked at my side with a shrug, “I looked it up ages ago. It closed. Not a single word about adoptions anywhere I could find, but they’d probably been hiding that aspect for years.” Two fingers absentmindedly worked at the seam of my jeans. “Can’t believe all this time he was right here. I should have come looking for him before now, but I think I…” She paused, glancing over at me, “I think I needed you first.”
I pushed a hand into the wild mess of her hair, pulling her to me for a soft kiss at the crown of her head. “I’m glad you waited. You rocked my world, but I wouldn’t change a second of it.”
“You drive me crazier than you ever did before, there’s no doubt about that.” She pinched my thigh, featherlight giggle filling up all four dark chambers of my heart. “I know I’m crazy for wanting to do this, I know it. I haven’t even thought about what we should do when we get to town. Try to track down a phone number? Just show up at that address and pray they still live there? Oh, and aren’t they going to kick us off their property the second after we arrive?”
I heaved a deep breath, pulling her in closer, tryin’ to squeeze out some of that anxiety that had her so worked up. “You’re cute as a button when you’re all wound up, Augusta Belle, but we can’t worry ’bout any of that till we get there. And to be honest, it’s comin’ up on dark, and I’m worried if there’s even gonna be a hotel in good ole Landry.”
Her eyes grew wide as hubcaps before she burst into laughter. “There is, worrywart. I’m already one step ahead of you. Checked my phone last night after you walked out. There’s a few good swimming holes too.” Her eyes crinkled as she laughed. “Thought ’bout drivin’ to Landry myself, but I didn’t have the heart to leave you all alone in Jackson.”
“Kind of you,” I quipped. “And glad to hear you did some recon on Landry.”
She shrugged, digging into her backpack and pulling out the envelope with the address for no less than the dozenth time, sliding out the old, worn picture, the little boy’s chubby cheeks rosy and round, so sweet I could almost hear the giggle in his voice.
She propped the picture up on the dashboard, head turning to the side as she smiled and rubbed at my knee through navy denim.
“Think you want more kids someday?” I ventured.
Her smile faded, and the fingers working back and forth at my leg paused. “I hope.”
“Can’t imagine a better mama,” I said, meaning it with every bone.
Maybe we weren’t meant to be parents again right now, but that could change in an instant.
I could buy us a place, any old place she wanted, and we could start a family.
I’d do that for her, without hesitation.
“I don’t have a great example, can’t imagine what it’s like to have a healthy parent-child relationship. I don’t know if it’s something I’d be good at at all, but yeah.” She twisted up her smile again. “I think I’d like to.”
I was still thinkin’ ’bout babies and Augusta Belle when an old rusted-up roadside sign declared Landry five miles ahead.
Her eyes cast across the space between us, my own smile cresting up as unspoken words slipped between us.
This was it.
I pulled into the first parking lot that displayed a vacancy sign, a roadside motel that looked out of another age but recently and cheaply remodeled.
“Gettin’ late. Figure we shouldn’t go surprisin’ anyone this time a’night. Get a good night’s rest, and then we can tackle our next step in the morning?”
She nodded, hopping out of the truck and straight into my arms. I cupped her round bottom in my hands as she kissed me like she’d been achin’ to do it ’bout as long as I had.
“I like this frisky side of you,” I whispered between kisses, shuttin’ the door of my truck with the back of my boot and walkin’ with her in my arms right through the tiny lobby of the hotel.
The night manager raised an eyebrow before uttering, “How many nights?”
“Not sure yet,” I said, finally lowering my girl and clutching her hand in mine. “We’ll start with a week, I guess.”
He huffed, punching a few things into the ancient desktop before sliding a keycard across the counter. “We’ll need a card to hold the room.”
“Right.” I nodded, digging into my wallet and sliding out a credit card for him. “Hey, any dive bars nearby?”
Augusta Belle stifled a giggle at my side.
“Down on the corner, past the 7-Eleven.” His voice was so monotone, I almost asked if he’d had that question before.
“Room 6, out the front doors, down to the right. Gave you a room with a view. You’re welcome.”
I nearly laughed, but instead, thanked him, grabbing on to Augusta and heading back out the way we’d come. Turning a sharp right, I headed down the concrete sidewalk until we reached the last room at the end.
“Guess he meant a view of the cornfield.” Augusta Belle dumped her backpack on the surprisingly clean king bed and kicked off her shoes.
She looked gorgeous, and while my stomach was rumbling for food, something was telling me a taste of her would satisfy me even more.
“The bathtub is huge!” she called from the corner bathroom. I heard the water then, steam filling the room moments later. I leaned against the doorframe, watching her for a moment as she tested the water with her hand before shedding the T-shirt over her head.
I stifled a groan before going to her, lips kissing along the soft shell of her ear, down the line of her neck, over the bare skin of her shoulders before slipping a finger under the strap of her black bra. “May I?”
She nodded, eyes falling closed as a soft little puff of air fell from her lips.
I pushed the bra straps off her shoulders, seeing a spray of goose bumps in my wake as her breathing kicked up.
“You’re the most gorgeous—” I murmured, unhooking the snaps of her bra “—stubborn—” the straps fell, only her hands cupping her breasts “—intoxicating woman I’ve ever met.”
I worked my hands around the front of her waist, unhooking the button and pulling down the zipper of her jeans, pushing them into a heap on the floor. She stepped out of them, and I trailed my nose back up the silk of her inner calf. I brushed my fingernails at the underside of her knee as I glided my lips up the outer curve of her succulent thighs, the hum of her arousal growing with each pass of my lips. I sucked in a breath, nose filled with the heady scent of her body, aching for the thing that’d been missing between us, that pulsing undercurrent we couldn’t seem to escape.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Augusta Belle?” I skated my fingers across the waistband of her panties.
She nodded fiercely, fingertips digging into my shoulder blades. “Please?”
I hugged her waist, nipping at the elastic with my teeth and snapping it against her sweet flesh, the soft jerk of her hips against my face enough to do me in alone. “Christ, I can smell how turned on you are.”
My mouth watered, palms moving passed the vee at her thighs and over the soft flesh of her belly, tongue dancing around the concave indentation of her navel before continuing up.
With her wrists in both of my hands, I worked them over with soft nips and kisses before darting my tongue out to trace the outline of her peaked nipple.
She sucked in a violent breath, moan breathing past her lips before one of her hands was in my hair and she was inching closer.
“More.”
I groaned, arousal dampening the front of my jeans as my cock bit into the hard metal of my zipper, alive and ready to be home for the first time in years.
“Augusta Belle…” My control wore thin, her whiskey-hued irises trained on mine. “Never thought we’d find ourselves here again.” I pushed one palm up the curve of her delicate neck and into the wild mass of waves. “Never thought I’d find home again.” I moved up her body, pressing her lips to mine in a kiss that conveyed so much more than I could put into words. “But home ain’t a place,” I whispered against her ear, “it’s inside you.
“I’ll keep asking you to marry me until I get the answer I want, Augusta Belle.” My other palm worked at her breast, sliding rough thumbs against her nipples and then caressing away the pain. “But I hope you’re prepared for a helluva lotta persuadin’ on my part.”
I pushed both her breasts together in my palms, coaxing the delicious flesh into my mouth and eliciting another groan, this one deeper, from somewhere primal, out of her mouth.
One of her palms pushed between us, working the buttonhole on my jeans before I grew impatient and slipped the button free and discarded them on the floor. The only thing separating us was thin undergarments. Hot, damp skin waiting to come together in a reunion of need before this thing between us imploded, causing greater destruction.
“You on any sorta birth control?” I braced myself for her answer, but I found the unexpected when she locked eyes with me and shook her head.
“Never had a reason to.”
“I figured you’d moved on…” I pushed a hand down into the waistband at the back of her panties, dusting at the round flesh of her behind.
“I wanted to.” Her fingertips worked across my pectorals, fingernails tracing ink I’d collected over my years on the road. Half the tattoos I had I’d be hard-pressed to remember the entirety of the night I’d gotten them, but maybe that was part of the experience.
“But I never could.” She pushed her lips against mine, my control spiraling until I pushed her panties and my boxers down and carried us both into the jetted tub that bubbled and boiled.
I sank down into the bubbles, and she cradled herself against my form, rocking in slow, sweet motion as I slid through the hot seam of her body. I pushed at the entrance before some sort of familiar puzzle piece locked into place, and suddenly I was sinking slowly inside her, our mouths connected as hands trailed up and down skin, gasps of breath the only thing separating us before we were sliding together and falling deeper.
My hands traced the curve of her spine, her hands in my hair as we kissed and rocked, my body rooting itself down deep in the only happiness I’d ever known.
With this woman, I could lose control.
With this woman, I could be me—right here, in the now.
“Fallon,” she hummed, body spasming as a slow shudder of arousal sent waves of ecstasy climbing up my spine.
“I’m here. I’ve always been right here.” I placed a hand over her hammering heart. “You took my heart with you when you left, Augusta Belle. Had it stashed safely away this whole time until we could come together again.”
Her eyes flared with overpowering emotion, cupping my face with her hands before our lips connected and she showed me she was feelin’ exactly the same sorta way I was. “I love you, Fallon.”
Working the pads of my fingers between us, I found the hot little bundle of nerves that sent her eyes rolling, neck arching, fingernails digging into my shoulders as spasm after spasm of decadent pleasure overtook her.
I watched riveted, hopeless when my own release pummeled through every nerve of my body. Our slick skin moving together was the soundtrack to our love before our hearts were the only bass line we heard, our bodies melding together as the water and the bubbles eased away the outside world, our own bubble growing as my hands traced her skin, her lips working against mine, our souls refusing to let go of the solace we’d finally found.
Drunk on each other.