AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I drag a hand over her arm, kiss that little freckle on her lip. I never miss it. I could find it in the dark, blindfolded. “Who’s taking you to the airport tomorrow?”
“Stede,” she says, her expression flushing with guilt.
No one knows about us. Not her father. Not my brothers. Maybe Ford, my twin, has a clue, but wisely, he’s kept his fat fucking mouth shut.
For the last six months, we’ve been sneaking around, and I hate myself for it. Maybe because the girl in question is the dark-haired daughter of Stede McGraw. A man I consider a father to me and my brothers. Maybe because I should know better, and yet, she breaks every ounce of my self-control.
Don’t know how this woman slipped her way past my cold wall. Intelligent. Disarming. Beautiful. Somehow between the sex, the dreamless sleep, our conversations, she dragged it all out of me. We’ve only known each other a year, but it feels like I’ve known her for five lifetimes.
In those blissful hours we spent together, I forgot about my responsibilities. My brother wasn’t losing it. My mission hadn’t gone to shit. My team was still alive. I didn’t have to keep it together. All that exists is this bright force of a woman who’s breathed life back into my battered body. Has me feeling more like a man, less animal.
Dakota slips out of bed, and I watch her, my cock resuscitating itself at the gentle sway of her hips and ass as she takes a tube of lotion out of her purse.
I push myself up on my elbows and shake my head. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Shut up.” She slips in bed behind me, reclining me in her arms. “Enjoy it. It’s the last time I’ll do it.”
The singular thought has the power to destroy. My heart hammers, and I look to the window like I can stop the sun from rising. At dawn, she’ll be gone, and there’s not a thing I can do about it.
Slowly, methodically, like she’s done all summer, Dakota rubs the lotion on my bullet wound. I relax into her, wanting totattoo her touch onto my body. Her graceful hands knead the scar tissue as gently as she kneads one of her breads.
Even a year later, it hurts.
When she met me, I was one arm down. I was focused on Charlie, and she had none of my excuses as to why I wasn’t working on it. She bossed and bullied me into doing daily rehab. A year later, except for a numb tingling when it rains, it’s back to 90 percent motion.
But that’s Dakota. She cares, she gives, and I’m the bastard who takes.
“You take care of yourself, you hear me?” Her soft, soothing hands stroke over my bicep. “Put this on every night.”
Reaching up, I cup her face. “I don’t regret it.”
She smiles. “I wouldn’t expect you to. Not you, Hotshot.”
Hotshot.
Like I said. She has all my secrets.
When she’s finished, she caps the lotion. Her slender arms loop around my neck, and she nuzzles her face against my cheek. My chest burns. I comb her hair off her flushed cheek. Without thinking, I say unhappily, “I fucking hate that you have to leave.”
Her breath catches.
Shit.
It’s too much. Heat of the moment.
Heart of the moment.
Dakota stares at me. “Davis…is there,” she bites her lower lip, swallows, “something you want to tell me?” Her voice is breathy. Hope lights her expression.
Her question knocks me flat. Fucking Christ.
Stay.
I love you.
They’re the only words that have ever made any sense.
It’s on the tip of my lips and yet…
