Gagging and my eyes watering, I pivot toward the door and run into Slate. He’s choking on the stench. My stomach roils. Bile creeps up my throat. I’m going to lose my lunch, and those motherfuckers Dare and Midnight will have a field day and never let me live it down.
I run out of the house and step in dog shit. The smell hits me before my feet in my shoes send signals to my brain.
A buried memory surfaces.
It’s old as fuck but still has the power to mindfuck me.
My mom was driving me to the house of one of the kids from school, talking excitedly about how this day would change our lives. I’d make a new friend, and she would finally be accepted into the friend group of mothers she’d wanted to be a part of since we moved from McMillan to Alexandria.
She dropped me off without checking whether the parents were home. Mom was already running late for work. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle. She said everything would be fine. I wasn’t feeling it.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and the knot in my stomach had tightened since my mom told me of the unexpected, short-notice invite before she ushered me out of our house and into the car.
For her, I got out of the car and waved from the front door.
The parents weren’t home. It was the kid and his older brothers. They thought it’d be fun times to lock me outside in the backyard with their large dogs. They didn’t let me back in until I’d picked up and put in a metal bucket, by hand, every pile of dog shit.
I gagged and my eyes watered.
When Mom picked me up, she asked why my shoes were wet and I smelled like dog shit. No matter how many times I washed my hands with their garden hose, the smell didn’t go away. I gave Mom the lame answer that we were outside playing with their dogs, and I stepped on crap, slipped in it, and had to wash off my shoes.
Mom didn’t need to know the truth. The circumstances of how I came to be was punishment enough for her without rubbing the mistake of her affair with a married man in her face.
The parents talked about her behind her back while their precious kids bullied and swung at me. I took the beatings like a champ. Coming home with a black eye or stomach cramps for the hard punches and kicks hadn’t clued her in that all wasn’t right in my world. And I let her think all was good up to when she took her last breath.
Deep in thought, going by instinct, I run next door and help myself to the garden hose. After hosing off dog crap from my shoes, I turn to leave, thinking I’m in the clear. Slate did reconnaissance earlier, and Ever’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Except she came home early from wherever she’d been.
I run into her, and her body lurches back from the impact. My arm shoots out and curves around the small of her back while my other hand slides under long, luscious hair that reminds me of my favorite ale. I cup Ever’s nape and bring her flush against my body. Her gasp hits me from my chest to my cock. My cock stiffens, and I drop my face into her hair. Lilac, honey, and her signature sweetness. After inhaling a deeper breath, I groan.
Is it wrong to covet my friend’s girl?
Nothing wrong at all, buddy. Carlos’s voice in my head gives me permission. I was meant to be at Crimson rather than drinking away my guilt inside a sparsely decorated house on the anniversary of his death.
I glance up at the heavens before lowering my gaze and staring at Ever’s mouth, a soft mouth that yielded to me and molded to mine when we kissed over and fucking over again. I stroked myself to completion in the shower to my memories of our kisses. I woke up with a hard-on to dreams of her small mouth taking the girth and length of my cock.
Fuck. Fuck.
“Baby.” I pick her up by the waist. Thank fuck she wraps her legs around my hips, though she’s shooting daggers at me with her beautiful eyes.
“I’m not your baby.”
“The last I checked, you’re still my girl.”
She smacks her palms on my chest. It doesn’t hurt, but I wince just because I’m a jerk. Concern flashes across her face before she scowls. “Bobby Bliss, I will never be yours.”
Cursing, I grasp her chin and jerk her face to mine. “What did I tell you about never saying never?” My nostrils flare.
She glares. “That it’ll come back to bite me in the ass and steal my heart and soul. Bring it.”
Were she a dragon, she’d be spewing fire and burning me alive.
I jostle her. Her hands come off my chest and interlace around my neck. I smirk. That’s better.
“I intend to,” I murmur on her mouth. “You are mine whether you like it or not, sweetness.” I grasp her bottom lip with my teeth. “You blocked my number. Why?”
“You misled me. You slept at the nightclub because you own Crimson. You, Bobby. You knew the moment I gave you my name that I’m Ty’s sister. You two played football. He was your rival.”
I plow past her accusations. “We have a deal, Ever. An honorable person doesn’t go back on a deal.”
