He should have never come. What was he thinking? But then, he never would have met Becks. Never would have seen her smile or felt her weight on top of him, watched the arousal on her face and the sweet tang of excitement at his nearness.
And now, what? He was going to watch her get married to some other guy tomorrow?
Bending, he picked up his pants. There was nothing he could do about his cum sprayed across the fence, so he left it. Not like he was going to get a hose to rinse it away with. That would really wake the neighbors then.
He pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. He felt more exhausted now than when he was running around doing fifty gazillion things for the club. Once he was buckled and zipped up, Ghost entered the Fremont house the same way Becks had. Thankfully, she was not in the kitchen, nor had she been watching him jerk off from the refuge of her home. There weren’t many lights on in the house, but he was still able to locate the dustpan and broom from the pantry.
From the smell, Becks had been drinking a tea of some sort. The porch and his pants had an earthy tone to them. Why was she up? And why had she fallen from the bed? It was a queen, giving both her and Libby ample room.
In the dim lighting, he hadn’t gotten a real good look at it. Clearly, she’d done some damage if she needed a bandage on her temple.
Ghost locked the back door and verified the front was secure too before walking through the house turning off lights. The pillow and blanket he’d used the night before had been returned to Ranger’s bedroom earlier in the day. He hadn’t wanted it to get in Loretta’s way. At present, all the groom’s party rental tuxes were in the living room anyway.
Ranger was on the phone when Ghost entered the bedroom, but thankfully, it looked like he was just scrolling reels instead of porn. He put the phone on the nightstand between the two beds as Ghost closed the door. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Went for a ride.” He couldn’t actually recall if he’d told Ranger that. “What happened to your sister?”
Ranger lifted an eyebrow, staying supine on the bed. “How did you know about that?”
“She was downstairs when I came in. I saw the bandage.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either. Ghost sat on the edge of the bed to take his boots off.
Ranger shrugged. “No clue. She says she fell out of bed. Looked like the lamp had fallen on her head.” His offhanded, flippant way he talked of his sister’s injury raised Ghost’s hackles. “Get this,” Ranger added with a snort. “She insists that she can clean up her own head, and then on her way to do it, trips and fallsagain.” He shakes his head with a chuckle. “No clue how she walks in those stupid-ass heels. Woman has no sense of balance.”
Ghost loved her heels. He’d been surprised by them, sure, but damn did they make her ass look fantastic. Not that it didn’t already, but they gave her hips that extra sway, like a maestro instructing his dick to crescendo. He’d seen at least four boxes in her room marked ‘Shoes’. What if he stole those and laid a trailof them like breadcrumbs all the way up to Mount Grove? Would she come to him then?
He wasn’t crazy, right? Hehadnoticed arousal on her face in her room before and just now on the back porch. Right? Maybe hewasgoing insane. The woman was getting marriedtomorrow. He was so fucking sick of reminding himself of that.
And yet… He knew nothing about her fiancé. He was ‘working’ right now and would be coming to the Fremont house in the afternoon today, but then would be going straight to his bachelor party, which Ranger had graciously gotten Ghost an invite to.
Ghost hadn’t been with Becks all day, but he’d been around her. She never talked about her fiancé, not like the other ol’ ladies talked about their men or vice versa. Did Becks even like the guy? Miss him?Lovehim? If Ghost didn’t know any better, he’d think this was a Wedding of One. He only knew the guy’s name because she’d mentioned it once at breakfast.Ritchie. Ghost scoffed, could the guy have a douchier name?
“You okay, man?”
Ghost looked up to see Ranger was now sitting up in bed on his elbows staring at Ghost with a frown.
In that moment, Ghost hated his best friend. Because if he didn’t love and respect the guy so fucking much, Becks would already be on the back of his bike and they would be riding off together instead of her getting married to some douchebag named Ritchie.
Launching himself across the room, Ghost punched his fist right into Ranger’s nose.
“Holy fuck, dude! What the hell?” Ranger pushed Ghost off him before covering his face with his hands.
Ghost had no idea if he was bleeding. He’d just barely pulled back the force of his punch at the last second. He didn’t thinkhe’d broken Ranger’s nose. At least, he couldn’t recall feeling or hearing the crack of cartilage.
Grabbing the pillow and blanket from the bed again, Ghost headed towards the door. “That’s for Becks. She was under your care, and she got hurt!”
“What the fuck, man! She fell out of her bed!” Ranger’s voice was muffled by his hands on his nose. Neither of them were even trying to keep their voices down now.
“And that is the only reason you’re not outside digging your own grave. She got hurt under your watch!” Ghost pointed an accusatory finger at him.
Ranger fought to stand up. Ghost paused by the closed door, his anger so high that he could taste it. When Ranger dropped a hand, Ghost saw a bit of red on it, but not too much.
“What the fuck has gotten into you? You’ve been acting weird since we arrived. Is this about making you leave home? If you want to go back so much, just go, asshole!” Ranger dabbed at his face with the heel of his hand. “Just fucking go!”
Fucking hell, he would if he could. He felt like he was stuck in a vat of quicksand between an oncoming train and a speeding bus. Having no response, though, Ghost turned to leave. He opened the door—and froze.
Becks was standing in her doorway, clearly coming to investigate the noises coming from her brother’s room across the hall. Her voice was low, shaky, as she asked, “Are you leaving?”
Ghost stared at her from across the hall, but it felt like barely a piece of paper separated them. How did she do it? How did she make him feel so warm and free while feeling the worst pain and torment he’d ever known?
