Chapter 31

Jackson

What the hell was I doing? I mean, this wasn’t the way I operated. I know how to deal with women. At least, I used to know. It had been so long since I’d gotten my dick wet it was like I’d lost my touch.

I’d been back in the Socorro Valley a week.

A week!

And I was still pussyfooting around Faith like a boy too scared to ask her to the prom.

Faith didn’t need a guy to show her manners. She’d been waiting for me for twelve years. She needed me to fuck her so hard she had to beg me to stop. She needed an orgasm in her pussy. An orgasm in her mouth. An orgasm in her ass. She needed my jizz flowing out of every hole.

I don’t mean to be crass. I loved this woman and I’d have taken a bullet to see her happy. But shit. I had to get my act together.

Women are the most complicated creatures on God’s green earth, but they’re simple too. You charm them. You challenge them. You flatter them. And then you fuck them. And then you fuck them again. And a third time. And they love you for it. They thank you for it. They beg you for more and then they beg you to stop. They know exactly what they want and if you can’t give it to them, you’re not really a man. At least in my book.

That’s the way it’s always been, since the beginning of time.

So why did this feel different?

Why was Faith making my dick pound with desire, while at the same time terrifying me?

I’ll tell you why. Love. Love was the complicating factor.

I looked into Faith’s eyes. God, she was pretty.

I took her by the hand and led her across the bar.

“Jackson,” she gasped. “Where are you taking me?”

“Have fun, you two,” Grant said, as we left.

Lacey was laughing.

“I’m taking you where I should have taken you a long time ago, Faith.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I hadn’t gotten mixed up with Los Lobos, this is the place I’d have taken you twelve years ago.”

“If it wasn’t for Los Lobos, we’d never have met at all,” she said.

I looked at her and smiled. She was being kind. She was letting me know she wasn’t holding what had happened against me. Was she really forgiving me?

Outside, the air was refreshing. It was a relief to get out of the bar. In the moonlight, Faith looked even more attractive. All I wanted was a chance to talk to her alone.

I led her to the pickup truck and opened the passenger door for her.

“Where are you taking me?” she said.

“You’ll see.”

She climbed up into her seat and I hurried around and got in next to her. I took the truck down into the valley, past the spot where she’d almost killed me a week earlier.

“I can’t believe you said nothing when you were in my car,” she said.

I looked across at her. Fuck, she was beautiful. She was an angel. My angel.

“The time wasn’t right,” I said.

She smiled and nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “This feels better.”

We were driving away from the town, toward the bottom of the valley, where the peaks of the mountains rose sharply from the river. We passed the Brotherhood mansion and Faith looked down the driveway toward it.

“Grant took me there after you left,” she said.

“I know. Did you like it there?”

“Yes, I did. And I’ve liked knowing the Brotherhood was there for me if I needed them. Lacey and the brothers helped me get established. Lacey’s still my best friend.”

I nodded.

“I thought you were taking me there now,” she said. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

We drove on a couple more miles and then I pulled down the driveway of my father’s vineyard.

“Where is this place?” she said.

“My father’s old place.”

“Oh.”

I pulled up outside the house and killed the engine. I looked at Faith. There were tears in her eyes when she looked back at me.

“I’ve never been here,” she said.

“Well, you’re here with me, now.”

“I’m glad to be.”

“This is where I grew up.”

“And what are you going to do with me here?” she said, a sparkle in her eye.

“Come on,” I said.

I got out of the truck and helped her out of her side.

“Are we going into the house?”

“Not yet. I’m still working on the house. I don’t want you to see it until it’s ready.”

“Ready for what?”

I didn’t answer.

“What did you think of that wine?” I said.

“I liked it. I really did. And I know wine. I think I could find some restaurants in the city that would be interested.”

I opened the tailgate and hopped up onto the back of the truck.

“You want to see what else we’ve got?” I said. “There’s a case here with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Grenache.”

“You had me at Merlot,” she said, laughing.

I reached down to her and she seemed to hesitate a second before giving me her hand and letting me pull her up into the back of the truck.

“Would it be out of line if I were to pay you a compliment?” I said.

She laughed but she was listening. “That depends.”

I could tell she was blushing. She was probably glad it was dark.

“On what?”

“On whether or not you mean it.”

I couldn’t lie to her. I could never lie to her. She was a part of my soul.

“You are an angel, Faith. You are an absolute angel.”

She looked away.

We sat at the back of the truck, our backs against the cab. I’d brought our wineglasses from the bar and set them in front of us.

“What do you want to try first?” I said.

“You choose?”

I looked at her for a second. It was a surreal moment. The moon was shining above us. We were outside the house I’d grown up in. We had a child together, and yet it was as if we were two strangers. We were soulmates who’d been forced apart for over a decade. It reminded me of those stories of twins separated at birth. Somehow, they maintain a deep connection, despite the fact they’ve been kept apart their whole lives.

There was heat in the air but it wasn’t oppressive. Crickets were chirping for twenty miles in every direction and they created a comforting din, like the sound of the ocean.

“It’s a beautiful night,” she said.

“You’re beautiful, Faith.”

Her lips were like the blush on a ripe cherry. Her eyes looked into mine and the connection between us was like that between two people who’d known each other their entire lives. We weren’t strangers. We were lovers. We always had been, and we always would be. At that moment, the only thing that existed in the entire universe was her.

Nothing mattered, except that we were both there, under the stars, drinking wine and looking into each other’s eyes.

I opened a bottle of Merlot and poured two glasses.

She raised the glass to her lips and took a sip.

“What do you think?” I said.

“What do I think?” she repeated thoughtfully. “Jackson, what are we doing out here? What are you going to do to me?”