Page 27 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Dee Dee.”

Her hips swiveled over my erection, her eyes went hazier, and lastly, she arched, pressing her tits harder against my chest.

This had to stop.

“Baby.”

Before I could stop her, she rocked again. My cock was so onboard with the rocking I had to clench my teeth to stop myself from jacking my hips to meet hers, or worse—tear her jeans off and fuck her in a mud hole.

With no other choice, I dropped my hand from her face and used both arms to hold her still. This meant her tits were crushed against my chest, her pussy was tight against my crotch, and her lips were once again within kissing distance.

“Derrika.”

The hazy, lazy, cat’s-got-her-cream look vanished before my eyes.

I instantly hated that it was gone.

“Don’t you dare tell me that was a mistake.”

I wasn’t going to but the vehemence in her tone surprised me.

“Even if you think it, don’t say it,” she went on.

“Dee Dee?—”

“I couldn’t…that would…I don’t think it was and I can’t handle you thinking it was,” she finished.

“It wasn’t a mistake,” I affirmed. “How it happened, maybe. But the kiss wasn’t.”

“That’s you telling me?—”

“Quiet.”

She did as told but the way her eyes narrowed was a clear indication she wasn’t a fan of being silenced. The flash of annoyance was cute. So cute, once again , I was fighting the urge to flip her and fuck her in the mud.

“The location, Dee Dee,” I clarified. “Though, maybe not seeing as that’s the only thing stopping me from taking this further than I suspect you’re ready for.”

Even with my arms banded around her, she managed to wiggle on my lap.

Torture.

Pure fucking torture.

“I don’t know what gave you the impression I’m not ready for more, but you’re wrong.”

Christ .

Those eyes told no lies.

I needed to get up and get control of my dick before I stopped caring we were drenched with filthy, stagnant pond water that didn’t smell all that great. Mud was already drying on her neck and in her hair and I was sure I had similar stains.

“Derrika—”

I didn’t get the rest of that out before, without warning, Derrika started scrambling off my lap. Actually, she wasn’t scrambling as much as she was attempting to jump over me.

“Snake!” she screamed.

Fucking shit .

I was on my feet with Derrika over my shoulder, struggling to keep my feet in the slippery mud while Derrika screeched, “It touched me.”

If I didn’t need all of my concentration to get us to dry land without taking a header, I would’ve laughed at the very obvious disgust in her tone.

Once I had us a good distance away from the bank of the pond, I dipped my shoulder far enough forward that she could slide down to her feet, but not enough that when she made that move I’d lose purchase.

I wanted her close and not just because I wanted to make sure she was steady on her wet, muddy sneakers before I let go.

The bottom line truth of it was, I wasn’t ready to lose the connection.

I wasn’t ready for the outside world to intrude, or for the moment we’d shared to end.

Not yet.

“I take you’re afraid of snakes.”

She looked comically offended I would suggest such a thing even though moments ago she was screaming.

“I’m not afraid of snakes,” she lied. “I’m just not a fan of them slithering their wet, scaly skin on me.”

“Right.”

“You don’t believe me?”

When her right eye narrowed, I crushed her tits to my chest and buried my face in her neck and laughed.

“What?” she snapped as my laughter waned to a chuckle.

“I’m not afraid of snakes,” she reiterated.

“I believe you,” I fibbed.

“Then why are you laughing at me?”

Laughing at her.

Hell no.

Reluctantly, I pulled my face out of her neck and caught her eyes.

“I would never laugh at you, baby.”

“Then what are you laughing at?”

I had never heard so much vulnerability packed into one question. Her tone, coupled with the somber look in her eyes, made my gut clench.

“I was laughing at the one-eyed pirate squint you had going on,” I told her.

At my honesty, her body turned to stone.

“So, you were laughing at me.”

Yeah, that was vulnerability I’d heard. But I’d missed the fear lacing the rejection she’d been preparing for.

With another squeeze—this one not loosening—I kept her as close as I could.

“Mark this, Dee Dee; the pirate squint was cute as fuck—that’s what I was laughing at.

” When she started to pull away, I tightened my hold.

“I do not lie. I do not bullshit. I do not play games. I do not make promises I cannot keep. I do not say shit I don’t mean.

So you can take it as the God’s honest truth when I tell you, I would never laugh at you.

Not ever, Derrika, and you can take that as the promise it’s meant to be.

That doesn’t mean I won’t laugh when you do something cute, something out of character, something I find endearing or sweet or when we’re sharing a moment after I carry you out of a pond—this after the best first kiss of my life—and you’re trying to convince me you didn’t climb me like a pole because you’re not afraid of snakes. ”

I didn’t miss her eyes going lazy when I admitted our kiss was phenomenal. That also meant I didn’t miss it when the laziness evaporated and the twitchy right eye squint came back. I managed to hold back my laughter that time, but just barely.

“I didn’t climb you like a pole.”

“You’re right. My bad. You must’ve been trying out for the Olympic hurdle team. Either that or you were angling to ride my face the way you were attempting to get your legs over my shoulders.”

“Maybe I wanted a piggyback ride?”

Christ, she was being cute again.

“A piggyback ride, with your crotch in my face?”

She lifted a brow and continued to fight her losing corner.

“I was trying to climb over you to get to your back.”

“Right,” I muttered my disbelief.

“I was.”

“I believe you,” I lied.

She glanced back over at the water.

“We have poisonous snakes in Utah, mostly rattlers.”

So she was afraid of snakes, she just didn’t want to admit it.

“I was bitten when I was a kid. It wasn’t bad.

I mean it hurt, I was scared, but I didn’t need antivenom.

Or at least the doctor my dad called to look at it said I didn’t.

But Doc wasn’t a real doctor, he was a ranch hand and he was a medic in the army when he was in his twenties.

I didn’t die or lose use of a limb so he must’ve been right. ”

Wasn’t a real doctor.

The effort it took for me to lock down my hatred for her father was Herculean.

I didn’t ask what happened after she’d been treated, because if she told me—like I suspected—that her father had punished her for the snake bite, I’d be taking a trip to Utah and fucking off my current assignment, leaving Zane a man down.

Not that he wouldn’t understand. Hell, if I told him where I was going and why, he’d join me.

There were a great many things Zane Lewis found morally incomprehensible, but near the top of that list, if not at the very top, were fathers who harmed their children.

“I’m scared of leeches,” I told her. “Well, not so much scared of them as they freak me out to the point of panic. And I’ve been known to puke when one gets on me. Just the thought of one sucking my blood.” I stopped to fight back the shiver. “Makes me want to hurl.”

The fight went out of her body and she melted into me. It wasn’t surprising she’d understood I’d leveled the playing field.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“No reason to thank me, Dee Dee.”

It took a few seconds but she finally admitted, “I hate snakes.”

“Understandable.”

“I mean, I hate them in general, but right now I really hate them.” She paused then added, “I really liked where I was and what we were doing.”

Christ .

The erection I’d managed to lose was making a comeback.

“Do me a favor, yeah?” Before I could ask, she lifted her cheek off my chest and peered up at me.

The innocence in those eyes was a punch to the solar plexus.

No, after the abuse she’d endured, the trauma she’d lived through, the rejection, the mere fact there was anything but wariness or distrust was a goddamn miracle.

“Favor?” she prompted.

I forgot all about asking her to stop talking about sitting on my lap.

Instead, I did the opposite of what I should’ve done.

I tipped my chin and took her mouth. At the taste of her, I deepened the kiss.

When she moaned, my hands dropped to her ass.

She caught my play and helped me lift her with a hop.

Her legs went around my waist, her arms over my shoulders, and now it was she who was tipping her head down to kiss me.

I did not lie, our first kiss was the best I’d ever had.

The second one topped the first by a mile.

Not only did she know how to give as good as she got, she was all-in to take what she wanted—no hang-ups, no reservations.

That wasn’t hot.

That was hot as fuck .

The need to take it further hummed in my blood.

My phone vibrating in my back pocket saved me from doing something regrettable.

I broke the kiss, sucked in a much-needed breath, and explained, “There are cameras, baby. Don’t know exactly where they are but I know they cover every inch of the property.”

Her eyes got wide. Then, to my shock, she grinned.

“Think I can get a copy of the recording? You know, for…a keepsake.”

With a brush of my mouth over hers, I whispered there, “You’re full of shit, baby. I know why you want the recording.”

I felt her smile against my lips.

“Nothing wrong with a girl collecting?—”

“Cameras,” I grunted my reminder.

Her smile turned into a smirk but that wasn’t what had me biting back a groan, though I did take a moment to file that smirk away so I could recall it at a later date. No, what had me swallowing a moan was the way her hands felt sliding into my hair.

“You’re all muddy.”

So was she, and that mud was quickly drying.

“Hop down, baby. We need to shower and I need to check my phone.”