EIGHT
Fallon—Eleven Years Before
She cuddled up against me, the little polka-dot triangles of her bathing suit top fuller than they had been last summer. The summer I’d found her swan-diving into the Whiskey River like some fearless mermaid, hell-bent on rebellion and stealin’ my soul on the way. From the second I’d laid eyes on her, something had fascinated me. And now that’d we’d spent nearly every day together for almost the last year, I could say it was her fearless bravery that drove me to her. Watching her like a rare bird when every other person in this town was trying to be the same.
“Which bridge this time?” I turned my truck toward the river.
She cocked her head to the side, sun glinting in a halo around the crown as she tucked her leg under herself and grinned. “Pine Bluff.”
“But that one’s the highest,” I protested weakly, knowing she’d already made up her mind.
“Listen, Fallon Gentry, no use riding shotgun your whole life. Sometimes you just have to jump.” Her eyes twinkled before she launched herself into my lap and pressed her honey-sweet lips to mine in a kiss.
I pushed a hand in her hair, the soft rocking of her hips against mine driving my control to the very edge of my sanity. “We’re almost there.”
“Don’t stop kissing me,” she begged, something new, exciting, heavy with the scent of adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream. In all the nights we’d spent together, slept together, we’d never done more than just kiss. Not because I didn’t want to; I wanted to be with her in every way a guy wants to be with his girlfriend. But I wasn’t willing to take anything from her she wasn’t a thousand percent ready to give.
And no matter how many times she tried to convince me she was ready, she wasn’t.
“I can’t see, crazy girl.” I caught glimpses of the dirt road, tree-lined and all but vacant at the height of heat on a June afternoon.
“Just keep going straight. I can see the reflection in the back window. I’ll let you know when to turn.”
My growl of frustration deepened when she rocked her hips harder against my aching body, strung tight and praying for every last thread of control.
“Augusta Belle…” I pleaded, unable to keep my eyes from slamming closed when the seam of her damp denim cutoffs made contact with my aching erection.
“Do you trust me?” She nipped at my earlobe, dainty fingertips crawling up my neck as she pushed against me, digging the core of her hot little body against every square inch of mine.
“Always.” The word came out desperate.
“I’m ready, Fallon,” she whispered. “I’m ready for us.”
I swallowed, brain hopping violently to a dozen various conclusions as one of my hands gripped the wheel, the other tightening on her round ass cheek through her shorts. My heart thundered like a thousand wild horses as I thought about sliding between her legs for the first time, touching her warm body, making love to every square inch of the woman who kept me awake at night.
“Turn!” she shrieked, pulling herself off my lap just before an old dump truck laid on its horn, careening sideways to avoid my little truck and lodging my heart fully into my throat.
“Fuck.” I pulled to the side of the road, hands white-knuckling the wheel.
“See? You can trust me,” she chirped, pushing her door open and climbing out into the haze of dust left in the truck’s wake.
“Trust you? I almost killed us a second ago.” I switched off the engine of my truck and crawled out on shaky legs, coming around the side of the cab to find Pine Bluff Bridge stretching off into the distance.
“Woulda been a good way to go though, right?”
“Augusta Belle, no. No, it wouldn’t be a good way to go. Why do you always talk about death as if it doesn’t matter?”
One shoulder lifted haphazardly. “Want me to drive the rest of the way? I can see your nerves are a little rattled…”
I glared at her, at a legitimate loss for words.
“Or…I could just jump here? It’s not that high up, although I haven’t really scoped the boulder situation.”
“What if I don’t want you to jump at all? Can’t we just sit here and take in the view? Maybe give me a second to recover from my first near-death experience.”
“First?” She cast me a charming grin. “That’s your second. First was when you jumped off the Whiskey River Bridge to sorta, kinda, but not really save my life, right?”
I shook my head, pulling down the tailgate of my truck and throwing an old blanket I kept in back out over the rusted metal bed. “Come.”
Her eyes flared once before shifting across the little nest I’d made and back to me. “Okay.”
She crossed the dirt parking lot, and I threaded her fingers with mine when she was close enough. I lifted her into the back, making sure she was comfortable before following her in.
“Is that all it took to get you into bed? A near-death experience?” She pressed her bikini-clad body up against mine, trying to wiggle ever closer.
“Calm those hormones, sunshine. No one’s gettin’ in anyone’s bed.” I adjusted her under my arm.
The soft little pout that pulled down her lips made me want to kiss her.
The age gap between us never seemed greater than when she was pouting for something I wouldn’t give her.
Only lately, what she’d been wanting and I’d been withholding was sex.
“Told you I’m not taking your virginity until the time is right.”
“Well, when in the hell is that gonna be? I might as well start calling you Saint Fallon.” She pushed up on her forearms, legs swinging off the tailgate as she attempted to ignore me.
I laughed, sliding to the edge with her and grazing her shoulder. “Nothing saintly about me, I just want what’s right for you. Also, don’t want to give your mama and daddy an excuse to put me in jail. And if they found out how old I really was…”
“They won’t. Dad just spends his time watching old COPS episodes and reliving the glory days. And Mom hasn’t left the house since before we met.”
“Doesn’t change the law, Augusta Belle. And while you may be stubborn enough to lie about your age—”
“It’s not lying.” She screwed up her face at me.
“Lying by omission is lying.” I corrected her.
“Plus, I just had a birthday,” she defended.
“I know, and you made me celebrate with you without once telling me how old you were turning.”
She shrugged again, amber gaze turning back to the river that flowed down below us. “I operate on a need-to-know basis, and I’m still not convinced that’s something you need to know.”
I didn’t bother rolling my eyes; I was used to her wordplay by this point.
“Sure, telling your twenty-two-year-old boyfriend is of no consequence at all.”
She caught sight of me over her shoulder, flirty twinkle pulling me into her orbit a little further. “I’ll tell you if you have sex with me.”
I barked out a laugh. “The fact that you’re willing to negotiate your virginity proves my point about waiting.”
One delicate eyebrow arched up before she jumped off the tailgate, kicking off her flip-flops. She spun, nailing me with a radiant smile before looping her thumbs into her waistband and pushing the cutoffs down her thighs.
They landed in the dust at her feet a second later, and she kicked them off, then pushed her hands through her thick hair and wound it into a high bun. “Guess I’m going cliff-divin’, then.”
I pushed off the tailgate, closing the distance between us and pulling her into my arms, against my hard, imposing body. “How many times you gonna defy death before you realize what you’re lookin’ for is right here, Augusta Belle?”
She didn’t answer, just let me keep her in my embrace for long minutes.
“Stop running and let me hold you.”