I CAN’T FOCUS ON SHIT. My thoughts running wild with flawless bare skin and luscious curves. All I can think about is the sound of Kennedy’s gasps and moans and how she fell apart at my fingers and tongue.
And goddamn that woman, her hands and mouth ‘bout near killed me, too. I hadn’t been with anyone else since I first laid eyes on her a month ago. Hadn’t come with any help except from my right hand. So as soon as I gave in and she touched me, I almost exploded right then.
I can still feel her soft hand stroking me, her warm mouth wrapped around my dick.
The pencil I’m sketching with fumbles from my hand at the thought.
Jesus goddamn Christ.
“You alright over there, man?” Nash’s booming voice shakes me from my thoughts. But Kennedy isn’t far from my mind.
“Fine,” I grunt. picking up my pencil and keeping my head down, getting back to work. This design of a clock face I’m working on for a client not going to finish itself.
“Ah, I see.” I hear him mutter. “You’re all bent outta shape because you ain’t gettin’ what you’re used to from that girl of yours.”
My head snaps up. “The fuck have I told you about talking about her like that?” On high alert and about to jump from my seat to knock the motherfucker out.
“Chill, bro. Jeeze. Still touchy as shit when it comes to that angel of yours, huh?” The fucker smirks.
Standing, I point my finger at him. “Watch it. Friend or not, I will lay you out for disrespecting her.”
“Who’s disrespecting? Not me. I’m just pointing out that it’s been a month since you’ve been up to your old ways. Different lady every night. So one can only assume you’ve been going without since we all know the first time you laid your ugly ass on that beautiful woman that you’ve cut yourself off. Focusing all your time and attention on her. As she deserves. And she’s been making you work for it since day one. Something you ain’t used to.”
I grunt out a noise that even I can’t decipher. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that you’re grumpy as all hell, man. Muttering to yourself. Getting lost in dreamland. Fumbling about with normal shit you can handle in your sleep. Funny as hell to watch, but I’m worried about you, brother. Afraid you’re gonna combust if you don’t get down soon. If ya know what I mean?” He winks and smirks again. A chuckle rumbling under this breath.
“Not that it’s any of your damn business, asshole. But that woman gives me more with a touch alone than all of those one-nighters could combined. She’s a damn dream. A fucking vision. Worth all the time in the world and I’ll give it to her. She’s been through more than someone as fucking perfect as her should go through. Shit, I’d fucking kill over. So if I have to wait, I will. And you’ll keep your goddamn mouth shut about it because no one talks, let alone thinks, about Kennedy putting out but me.”
Nash sits there, a bit of shock etched on his face before a slow grin takes over. “Still can’t get over it. How shaken she has you. Blows my damn mind.”
“Yeah, well, get the fuck over it. And get back to work while you’re at it.”
“And I hate to break it to you, brother, but just by looks alone? Yeah, I’m not the first to be thinking that of her.”
I chuck the nearest object at him. the emoji stress ball Saylor got me. Delightful. “Shut the fuck up,” I grumble on a growl. Not needing the reminder.
As Nash’s chuckles die down, silence descends. The both of us focused on our tasks at hand. Nash on the books, me on my sketch, the clock face I’m working on for my client. A calf piece that almost spans from the back of his knee to his Achilles.
Nash’s last words try to filter back into my thoughts, but I push them away. Not needing to get pissed off over something I can’t change and knowing that’s all he was trying to do.
“Dude, we need a fucking receptionist,” Nash grunts and grumbles. Breaking the quiet.
“I know you hate doing this shit,” he goes on, making me look up. Tossing the notebook to the desk in front of me before running his tattooed hands down his face. “But since you refuse to join the twenty-first century and get a damn computer program for this shit, we need another brain and set of hands around here to help out. I can’t keep up with this, booking shit, keeping records, and inking customers.”
Thinking it over, I understand where he’s coming from. When I bought the space for Inked Souls from his pops, I could only have hoped for the success the shop has brought in. People from towns and, hell, states over booking us out months in advance just to get inked by myself and Nash. But I got comfortable with it being us two, hating change, but he’s right. We do need another set of hands to handle day-to-day operations around here. This may be my business, but my focus has and always will be on designing and inking skin. “Alright, set something up then.”
He gives me a solid nod, standing and pulling his pack of smokes from his pocket. “Glad you see it my way, but I was gonna do it regardless.”
I chuckle and shake my head at the fucker. “Don’t surprise me one bit.”
He shrugs a shoulder, smirking yet again on his way out the door. Cigarette hangin’ from his lips.
Motherfucker.
I belly up to the bar later that night. Well past last call, it’s nearing one a.m. and closing time. Kennedy and Saylor are cashing out registers while Gus wipes down freshly washed glasses and mugs.
We’re the only four people in the place. The last patrons having just left as Saylor shooed them out the door, ready to leave.
Kennedy’s eyes slide to me every so often as she finishes with closing time, offering me a small smile and that blush that drives me wild while I can’t even think of taking my eyes off of her. Catching every glance she tosses my way with a smirk in her direction. Admiring her fine as hell form and remembering what’s underneath every stitch of clothing. What all that bare skin looks like, feels like. How deep it flushes when she comes.
Goddamn. I shift on my stool, trying to alleviate the tightening in my jeans.
A raspy chuckle catches my attention and snags it off of Kennedy for a moment. I turn to see Gus wiping down the counter now.
“Got something to say, old man?”
His chuckle continues on a shake of his head. “You’ve got it real bad, son.”
I keep my mouth shut because it’s something I can’t deny. Kennedy’s got me all twisted up. Tongue-tied and tripping over myself. Falling deeper and deeper.
All lost and out of my mind, never wanting to be found.
“Used to look at my Evie the same way. Like I’d found the answer to it all in her eyes and that I’d be lost without her.”
“And you’d do anything to keep her.” My eyes move from Gus to Kennedy. Knowing I’d do absolutely anything for her, to keep her as mine.
“Wouldn’t ever let her go without a fight.” Gus confirms.
I look back at him and nod my head. Couldn’t agree more.
“Along with that sister of yours, don’t know anyone who deserves it more.” His tone raw and true. “You two kids…you’re my family. After Evie died I-I…” He starts to get choked up at the mention of the passing of his late wife, just like he always does, before taking a deep breath and reigning it in. “After Evie, all I ever had was this place. And then you walked yourself in here.”
Now it’s my turn to chuckle and shake my head. Nothing but a punk-ass kid with a chip on his shoulder. Bad attitude, expecting nothing but the rejection and bullshit I’d been handed the last year of my life. Losing both my parents. Living with the devil herself who only cared about her Miller Lites and Marlboro Reds. Trying to find a way at barely thirteen to support Say and me, keep us safe and fed until I could get us out of that hellhole of a situation.
“Changed my life that day.”
I sober quickly as my head shoots up. Gus is family, has been since I was barely thirteen years old and he took me in, took us in, and treated Saylor and myself like we’d always belonged, like we were his own flesh and blood. But despite that, and him being the father figure I lost and desperately needed, we don’t get deep and talk feelings. He’s taught me life lessons, he’s reigned me in when I needed it, put me in my place more times than I can count, but heart-to-hearts have never been our thing.
“Gus—”
“Let me finish, son.” Reluctantly, I nod for him to continue. “When you walked in that door, full of fake swagger and enough attitude to freeze hell over, none of that mattered. Because I saw a kid who needed guidance and support and a chance to do something. Even so young, I saw that drive, that protectiveness. Wanted more than anything to get you out of your aunt’s, move you in with me. But the courts didn’t want to take a second look at a single, middle-aged bar owner wanting to foster a couple’a kids. Especially when, on paper, that great-aunt of yours looked to be a good fit and was next of kin.”
Shock doesn’t even begin to cover what I’m feeling right now. For him to admit he tried to get Saylor and me out of that house sooner. That he wanted to be our guardian and support us.
“Gus…I never knew. I—” My voice gets rough, and I have to clear it. “What you’ve done for Saylor and me. Giving me that first job, then Saylor. Letting us live in that apartment dirt cheap when I was finally able to get us out at seventeen and fifteen. Being the father figure we lost. Being there for Saylor at every turn. Helping provide for us, the Christmases and birthdays celebrated together. You’ll never know what that’s all meant to me, to Saylor—to us—and still does.”
It feels good to purge it all, get things off my chest that Gus has never heard before but more than deserves to.
His eyes get glassy with emotion. “It may not all have worked out as I had hoped. But you and your sister, best damn chance I ever took.” He leans over the bar and places a firm hand to my shoulder. Mine raises to grasp his forearm.
A connection, an understanding.
“What’s got my two favorite guys lookin’ so glum?” Saylor’s husky voice shakes us from the moment.
“All good, sugar,” Gus replies, pulling his hand away. Giving me a look, one that I return while I nod in agreement.
“All set, little sister.”
She rolls her eyes, addressing Kennedy who comes up next to her. “These two. Always keeping shit from me, treating me like a little girl.”
“You are a little girl,” Gus replies. Tweaking her nose as he walks by her.
Kennedy giggles, the sound lighting up my entire fucking soul.
“Ain’t been a little girl in a long time, old man,” Saylor sasses, swatting Gus’s hand away from her face.
“Long as I’m living you’ll always be a little girl, sweetheart.” He sets her with a look.
She rolls her eyes again, but I see straight through to the soft she hides so well. Knowing she loves this banter, and Gus. “Whatever.”
Tuning out the rest of their back and forth, I bring my full attention back to where it wants to be. On Kennedy. “You ready to go, angel?”
“Ready?” she asks. Confused look on her gorgeous face.
“Thought we’d take our dance elsewhere tonight. You up for it?” I stand from the stool and reach out, hooking an arm around her small waist. Dragging her close. Kissing those soft, plump lips.
She blushes that blush that drives me wild. Light pink and so pretty. “Okay.” Her answer nothing but a whisper.
After Kennedy checks with Gus that she’s good to leave, we say our goodbyes, then walk out hand-in-hand.
“It’s late. Where are we going?”
Making it to my Charger parked behind the bar, I open the passenger door for my girl to slide in. “You’ll see,” I say with a smirk.
It’s quiet in the cab of Rhett’s car. His right hand clasps high up on my leg as he steers with his left. His fingers drumming along the inside of my thigh to the beat of the song playing on the radio.
I can only see the passing scenery on the occasion we pass a streetlight. They’re few and far between, but I can tell we’re headed toward just outside of town. Toward where he took us for our first date.
It’s confirmed when he slows his car to a crawl and then pulls to a stop along the lake. Even at night, backlit by the moon and under a blanket of twinkling stars, the sight is breathtaking.
“Will we get in trouble for being here so late?” I ask, worried.
“Nah, baby. So long as we don’t get in the water and we stay away from the restaurant, we’ll be good. And since we don’t have bathing suits, we should be all set. Unless you had your heart set on some skinny dippin’?” His deep voice teasing. My favorite smile stretching his lips.
I can feel the heat crawl onto my cheeks as I shake my head no.
“Didn’t think so, angel. Come on.” Cutting the lights, he gets out from his side before rounding the hood to open my door and help me step out.
“Wow,” I breathe out, taking in the view before me.
When Rhett brought me here for our first date, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was with the trees surrounding the crystal clear lake. But at night, with the moon shining bright, hitting off the calm water, it’s like a whole other world. The reflection on the lake making the scene twice as mesmerizing.
“Soon as I saw the moon tonight, I knew I had to bring you out here. Get you dancing underneath the stars.” Grabbing my hand, he walks us down to the dock before twirling me around once until I’m pulled into his bulky chest.
It isn’t until his arms wrap around my waist and he starts to sway that I notice he left his car radio on. When I catch the beat, I realize it’s “Remedy” by Adele softly playing from the speakers. The song beyond perfect for this moment. Her beautiful voice singing words that pierce my heart and have me finally admitting to myself that this man is everything I’ve been looking for my entire life.
The love. The acceptance. The want and need.
He carries it all and more in his big, tattooed heart, and even though it hasn’t been all that long, I know I will love him forever.
As we move in steady circles on this perfect summer night, his hands dangerously low to my behind and holding me close, he starts humming then singing, shocking me that he even knows the words. His voice off tune and terrible. But I can’t help but think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, because it’s Rhett. My remedy.
I laugh out loud when he tries to match Adele’s high note, my forehead falling to his chest as my shoulders shake.
“What?” I hear him ask before I feel his lips touch the top of my head, breathing into my hair. The act natural and comforting as his arms hug me even closer in his warm embrace.
Looking up, staring into his deep brown eyes, I can’t help but finally feel like I belong somewhere…to someone. “You’re something else. You know that?” My tone full of reverence and sincerity.
My heart pounding a frantic rhythm in my chest, trying to beat free to get to him. Ready and willing to be all his.
“Somethin’ good I hope?” He leans down and runs his nose down my cheek to my throat, where he nuzzles into my neck, placing a wet kiss to my racing pulse.
I smile softly at the tender action. “Something better than good,” I admit quietly on a hum.
Lifting his head, he looks down at me, gaze piercing. “Yeah? Well, you’re more than I ever could’ve dreamed,” he whispers into the night.
I look up at him as he slowly moves us across the wooden deck, knowing that I’m more than ready to fully give myself to him. I’m ready to rip away the rest of the boundaries separating us and finally be with him.
Completely.