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My eyes roll back into my head as my inner walls contracted. My orgasm washed over me in wave after wave as I screamed his name. I felt him stiffen and then shake behind me with a long groan. Then he rested his front against my back as he placed kisses on the back of my neck.
“I’ve been thinking about fucking you on the hood of my car since the morning I pinned you against it.” My body shivered as I recalled the incident he was referring to.
“The tough girl with a smart mouth act doesn’t do it for me but the girl underneath who hums in the shower, likes the feel of the rain on her face and cares about other people’s feelings, now she makes me hard.”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but those words would start my transformation. The person I’d forced myself to become in order to gain acceptance was impressive to everyone else but Fox. He saw the girl underneath the armor and that’s who he wanted. Slowly, I was letting him have her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Fox and I were lying in his bed, tangled together and staring off into space. After having sex on the hood of his car, we showered together and got under the covers to recuperate. I was listening to Fox’s heartbeat mixed with the crashing of waves from outside.
“Can I ask you a question?” he said into the darkness.
“Mmmhmm.”
“That sparrow on your wrist. I see you rub it a lot. What does it mean?”
“I got it to remind me of Gram. I rub it every time I think of her. Most of the time, I’m not even aware that I’m doing it.”
“So, if Georgia was your grandmother then...” He hesitated. “That means Curt and Lizzie Wyatt are your parents. Aren’t they?”
I took a deep breath and let it out before I nodded.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“Thanks,” I croaked, unprepared for the way the soft sympathy in his voice made me feel.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I stayed quiet for several minutes as I contemplated his question. Did I want to talk about it? I wanted to open up to Fox. I wanted to trust him with my heart and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I decided to try just a little and before I knew it I was telling him how my parents ruined mine and Gram’s lives.
****
I remembered being ten years old when I walked into the kitchen to the smell of homemade banana nut bread and how my mouth watered to have a piece. Gram was on the phone, her face frozen in shock as she listened to the voice on the other end. I recalled how the curtains behind her were white with little cherries and for some reason the pattern distracted me momentarily until she started speaking.
“I don’t have that kind of money, Curt. What am I supposed to do? I don’t even understand. How could you?” she cried out as tears streamed down her face. “I just. I just don’t know what to do. I wish your father was here. He...he would know.” My grandfather had passed away two years ago so I knew he couldn’t be any help to Gram. I realized that the tiny television in the kitchen was on and I was shocked to see footage of my parents being hauled away in handcuffs followed by their mug shots. The same clip was playing over and over in the background in a loop. I stepped closer to the TV to listen to what was being said.
“Lizzie and Curt Wyatt, the couple also known as the Lovebird Bandits, were finally captured today after a twelve-year crime spree...”
My young mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening. My parents were criminals? My mama who would snuggle on the couch with me and watch movies. My daddy who would always tell me yes, no matter what it was that I asked for. As I got older, I was better able to understand that my parents were con artists. They made their living traveling up and down the east coast looking for targets. Sometimes a con didn’t take long to complete and other times the set up took weeks, which was why I would spend weeks at a time with Gram or with Aunt Jackie. They were caught finally as my mother tried to steal jewelry from a wealthy heiress they’d befriended with the intention of conning. It turned out that the heiress was an undercover agent. What made the situation even worse was that my stupid parents took hostages and created a standoff that lasted fifteen hours before they were finally captured. Gram had to sell the house on Sea Whisper Island to pay for their defense. My father, being a seasoned con artist and her only child, was successful at convincing Gram of his innocence and since it was a high-profile case, they had to pay an expensive high-profile lawyer. In the end, my parents both got twenty years in prison, but their story was made into an unauthorized TV movie of the week. In fact, the little girl who played me was a big movie star now. It was hard growing up after that. Everyone in school knew what happened and I was teased relentlessly. I got in a lot of fights defending my parents. I pretended to be like them. I told people that they had taught me how to be a con artist and a criminal. I caused a lot of trouble; I got caught stealing and lying. I became such a handful for Gram that she’d asked Aunt Jackie to take me for a while because she thought that she was my mother’s sister, except they weren’t biologically related. Plus, Aunt Jackie’s rap sheet was just as long as the one my parents had. It was a wonder she wasn’t in jail, too. My parents tried to reach out to me from prison, but I refused to have anything to do with them. Gram spent tons of money taking me to counselors and trying to correct all my mistakes. She spent so much money that she went through all her retirement and money from my grandfather’s life insurance. She had to take a job in a grocery store bakery to pay the bills. Looking back, I hate myself for being such a little shit to her. She gave up a lot for me and all I did was make her life difficult.
“Ah. I get it now.”
“Get what?” I asked as I looked up at Fox.
“Where all this anger comes from.” He rolled us so that he was lying on top of me and cradled between my legs. “I’m not going to pretend to understand what it was like but I do know that it’s time to let people in.”
I turned my face away from him, unable to look into his eyes. The sympathy there would break me. I’d managed to tell that entire story and not cry so I didn’t want to start now.
“I can’t.” I shook my head, feeling angry that tears were forcing themselves to the surface.
“Yes, you can.”
“Don’t you understand? Every single person in my life has let me down, even Gram. She died. She left me alone.” I felt the tears fall and I couldn’t stop them.
“You have me. I won’t let you down, just let me in,” Fox said as he placed kisses on my wet cheeks. “Let me love you,” he whispered as he laced his fingers with mine and I closed my eyes. This man had the power to destroy me if I opened my heart to him. I was falling in love with him, I knew it deep in my soul, but it just seemed too difficult to give him the words. Instead, I tried to show him.
