Chapter 18

~~ MICHAEL ~~

Lily was asleep.  Sitting back in the car, I held her real close, which had me hard as hell.  She belonged in my arms and in my life.  She was mine.  All I wanted was for her to realize that.  George in the front seat kept passing quick glances at us through the mirror. He was curious and I couldn’t blame him. It was the first time in six years that he’d seen me with a woman.

I was falling into something with Lily, I just wasn’t sure what.  I felt too damn protective of her, which was why I was dreading Ruben and Ramon being at the ranch today.  More so Ruben, who would flirt with her just to annoy me. He knew it would get my back up.  In fact, he may end up with a black eye before the day was over. I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with Ramon, for some reason I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about him flirting with her.  He would be friendly, but he didn’t flirt or actually date, from what I’d seen and been told by my brothers.  Something was odd, and when I had more time, I was going to find out just what.

George pulled through the entrance to the ranch, which gave me five more minutes to hold Lily in my arms.  I wasn’t ready to let her go just yet.

I looked down and noticed she had her long curls tied up in a ponytail, making her look younger.  She was also dressed as casual as I was with faded low-cut jeans with a lilac t-shirt underneath her tan leather jacket that was soft to the touch.  I lifted my hand from on top of hers and moved it up to cup the back of Lily’s head and just held her, not wanting to wake her up yet.

We came to a stop to the right of the house where my father made us park, so that our mother could see the wildlife that wandered onto the front lawn from the forest beyond.

“Give us a few minutes, George,” I whispered.

I couldn’t take my eyes from the woman in my arms.  I heard George exit and close the door behind him. He walked over to way-lay my mother, to give me more time with Lily.

For a few minutes I just sat back and caressed her face, then ran my fingers through her ponytail, which felt so soft.  “Lily, we’re here.  You need to wake up.”  I continued to caress her face with one hand and rubbed against her hip with my other.  “Lily, love.  Wake up.”

She started to move out of my arms as she gradually woke and I let her go, somewhat, reluctantly.

“I can’t believe I fell asleep.”  She looked at me and started to blush.  I moved closer and took her face into my hands. “You make me feel safe,” she admitted.

“You can sleep in my arms anytime.  I enjoyed having you there. If my mother wasn’t hovering on the porch, I would have let you sleep all afternoon, if it meant I got to hold you.”

“Michael,” she said. Tears had started to slip down her cheeks, so I quickly wiped them away with my thumbs.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”  I had to hold her.  I removed my hands from her face and took hold of her waist, lifting her on to my lap.  She turned to me and wrapped her arms around my neck while mine went around her waist. She buried her face into my neck, causing me to tighten my hold on her.

She felt damn good wrapped around me.  The only problem was the erection I was unable to hide.  There was no way she could miss how aroused I was with it pressed up between the apex of her thighs.

“You didn’t make me cry.”  She pulled slightly away and wiped her eyes with the tissue I passed to her.  “I can’t hide my attraction to you. It kills me knowing you want me too, but that we can’t be together – yet.”

I grinned at her.  “I guess it’s kind of obvious that I want you. I can’t hide my arousal as well as you can,” I told her, and watched her blush even more.

She smiled and moved from my lap with a quick dab at her eyes.  She collected her purse from the floor.  “Do you feel ready to move?  Because I think we would be safer out there than in here.”  She quickly glanced into my lap and then looked back up to my face, and I actually felt myself blush.  Shit – that was a first.

I cleared my throat and climbed out of the car, then held my hand out to Lily.  She took my hand and I wrapped it around hers, pulling her out just in time to see my mother rush towards us.  Lily leaned briefly into me.  “You can’t see my arousal, but my panties are soaked,” she whispered and left me standing speechless beside the car as she walked forward to greet my mother.

What the hell was that?  Where the hell had sexy-tease-Lily come from?  Never in a million years would I have thought she would come out with something like that.  The erection I was trying to get to deflate had shot back up and was pressed against my zipper. I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up with zipper marks imprinted along my cock.  Thank god my t-shirt covered the evidence.

If it hadn’t been for my mother’s presence, I would have grabbed her and shoved her back into the car to find out just how wet she was for me.  What a fuckin’ turn on, knowing she had soaked panties because of me.  Christ, my cock did a jump for joy.  I really needed to get control of my body.  I was thirty-six for god’s sake, not twenty.

I took a deep breath and walked towards my mom and Lily.