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I want the well filled, she thought. Even if it was only for a short time.
That right there was the difference between now and sixteen. Between a girl and a woman. No longer was she young or naive—she knew the score. And it was up to her to decide if the consequence was worth it.
“Mills?” His voice was like crack. Like the deadliest drug on the planet and it had been too long since her last fix.
“I want you,” she said simply.
He looked surprised, and that made her smile. As if him walking through the door thirty minutes ago wasn’t leading to this.
“Are you sure?” He moved closer, his hands on either side of her face.
“No,” she whispered, leaning up for his mouth. “But that’s okay.”
Her hands splayed across his chest, and she felt his heart beating as fast and as hard as hers. When his lips skimmed her mouth, electric bolts slid across her skin and she groaned, immediately opening up for him. He tasted like whiskey and spice. His mouth was demanding as he gripped Millie tightly, kissing her until her head spun.
That was the thing about Cal Bridgestone. He’s always known how to kiss. How to touch. How to excite. This was no fumbling Joe looking to score a touchdown, but a man who knew how to take his time. Cal had always been a generous lover. Even that first time on the dock by the Founder’s Cabin, with nothing but the wilds of Montana to watch.
He cupped her ass and pulled her closer still, so there was no mistaking his desire. With a strangled noise, he pulled away, and she frowned, hating the loss of his touch. Cal rested his forehead against hers, breaths ragged as he tried to gain some kind of control.
“I didn’t come here for this,” he managed to say.
“I call bullshit.”
He smiled, and those blue eyes of his glistened. “I mean, I might have hoped, but I didn’t think this was where we were headed.” His grin widened. “Just yet.” He held her gaze, a forefinger tracing her lips, swollen from his own. “Tell me now. Say the words and I’ll stop. I’ll get in my truck and go home, and I won’t bother you again.”
This was it. The precipice she’d been so damn afraid of. She either jumped or stepped back. She moved closer and pressed her most intimate self against him and blew out a long breath.
“I want you to stay.”
“I don’t have anything on me.”
It took a bit for his words to penetrate. For their meaning to become clear.
“I’m on the pill and, well,” she said, “I’m clean, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“I’m good in that area.” His voice was rough, and she knew he was as close to the edge as she was.
Millie Sue couldn’t think about right or wrong or consequences and bad choices. All she knew was that in this moment, Cal felt right.Theyfelt right. She knew it wouldn’t last. Of course, it wouldn’t.
But damned if she was giving him up just yet.
CHAPTER14
In his lifetime,Cal had been 100% right about a few things. One, he’d known that if he left Big Bend and found a way to get his music out into the world, he would make something of himself. Two, he’d be half happy doing it. And three…Millie Sue Jenkins pulled every damn string he owned.
And then some.
In fourth grade when she’d punched Dale McGlintock in the face for pulling up Ivy’s dress in the church parking lot, he’d taken notice. After that, they’d been pals. She was almost a year younger, but more than able to keep up with all the rough-and-tumble boys he hung with—Mike Paul among them. They’d fish and ride in the summer, play ball and spend afternoons at the pond swimming and jumping from the rope. When his mother died, she’d been the ear he sought, the one who gave the hugs and comfort he’d needed.
When his father had used his alcohol-infused fists to express his feelings, his discontent and unhappiness with the world, she’d been the only one he’d confided in. They’d been close. So close that other than Mike Paul, he considered her to be his best friend.
The year she turned sixteen, Millie Sue had been packed off to California for four months visiting family and a mother she barely knew. He’d missed her, and though they’d shared weekly phone calls, Angel Saunders had helped pass the time. Within a couple of weeks, he’d made it past third base, and all he could think about was Angel, getting naked, and having sex.
The phone calls to Millie had grown sparse, and they didn’t speak the last month she was away. When she showed up for tenth grade, her sophomore year, she had breasts and a butt that didn’t quit, along with an anger toward him he didn’t quite understand.
Angel wasn’t his girlfriend, though that didn’t seem to matter to Millie. She ignored him completely, which was a problem because she was all he could think about. Him and every other rambunctious boy in school.
Without realizing it, he began to woo the young spitfire with hair the color of dark rust and eyes that matched the sky. Slowly, her artic frost thawed. The Bridgestone charm was legendary, and they settled into something like what they’d been before. Only this time, there was an undercurrent of feelings they didn’t quite know how to deal with.
