His hand is warm. His fingers are thick. His grip on my hip is possessive. I nod, too turned on to speak.
“Did I leave you speechless, baby?”
I swallow and do this nodding, head-shaking thing. Bobby smiles. I open my mouth to tell him I love his dimpled smile. Except he takes advantage. Smirking, he captures my mouth in his in a blissful kiss that’ll keep me awake at night.
What will replace the memory of his mouth moving over mine is Bobby moving in and out of me.
It’s happening soon.
My memory of Carlos fades, turning into a flicker of blue light, like the time I watched the sun disappear into the ocean. Yellow and orange one moment, then the sun was gone, and there was a flash of blue.
Is love worth losing my first love again?
My chest aches.
I’m not one hundred percent sure.
I hang on tightly to Bobby. He wraps me up in his arms. Desperation claws my insides. I can’t lose him.
Please, please, please, Carlos, please watch over my Bobby.
31
EVER
I pace inside my small living room. After we dropped off the signed paperwork at the community center, Bobby made me promise not to go to that part of town without him.
There’s a knock at the door. I hurry over and peek through the peephole. It’s Bobby, and he has a bouquet of sunflowers and white roses in his hands. So that’s where he went after dropping me off and saying he’ll be back soon.
I let him inside and lock the door behind him. Seeing him again has my nerves on edge. Time is against us. He walks over to the kitchen and puts the bouquet in a vase of water. I stare at the cords of muscles of his broad shoulders and back.
Gage returns to Dumas in six days. Braxton’s release date is around the corner. The house behind mine isn’t nearly done.
On the drive home, Bobby said he’d hired Arie’s brothers to do the work. He is paying triple their cost to get it done in eight weeks. I was surprised he shared that with me and told him so. He said transparency is important in a relationship, and there’s no harm, no foul in telling me the house will be ready in time for Halloween decorations and a party, if I want one.
The first thought that crossed my mind was how nice it would be to have a couple’s theme for our Halloween costumes, followed by Crimson must be doing well if Bobby has that kind of money to spend.
Which then led to me thinking about his trip to the Bay Area, and Bobby’s connection to my friend Blaise Lexington, the famous recluse who was kidnapped and held for ransom when she was thirteen. People who don’t know Blaise think she’s a wealthy and self-absorbed socialite who wears satin gloves and avoids physical touch because she believes she’s better than us mere mortals.
They’re wrong.
Blaise is the nicest, sweetest person I know. People don’t understand the gloves, and avoiding physical touch is Blaise’s way of dealing with the trauma of being buried underground by her kidnapper. Who wouldn’t be messed up after something like that?
I was delightfully surprised when Blaise texted out of the blue that she met an acquaintance of mine, a Bobby Bliss.
It was wrong of me to ask for more information. I should’ve gone straight to the source. But what I know about Bobby is biased by my feelings for him, and I had to ask my questions.
What was he like? I’d texted. Who’s on the guest list? “Mad” Maddox Stassi was there. He’s wanted Blaise’s limited sports car for a year now.
When she last visited, we all met at Dare’s house, and Blaise had gone on and on about this annoying billionaire who keeps pestering her and her bodyguards about selling the car to him. She looked annoyed. Personally, I think she likes him.
Blaise said Bobby hadn’t kissed her gloved hand like he usually does when they meet at these business meetings and parties. That’s what clued her in that there was a woman in his life. Bobby is faithful to his core, she said. Then she dropped news about him that I would’ve never guessed.
Bobby’s mom was a distant cousin of Sir Arthur Lexington. Holy fuck, Bobby is related to English royalty and Blaise. I was so excited I squealed with happiness and video-called her.
She answered right away. “I’m so happy for the two of you.” Her one blue eye and one green eye shone. Before we ended our call, we caught up on my college classes and work, and she told me about the parties she’d attended. Happy that she was doing well, I clasped my cell to my chest and stared at my bedroom ceiling.
Bobby hung up some of my plushies on the ceiling fan blades to get them off the floor. The cars and trucks stared down at me. Cars. Carlos’s cars. Where were they? Who killed him? My excitement at seeing Bobby wanes, replaced by this twinge in my chest.
