Page 17 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Carver

The Attention

I half-expected to see Jamie’s UTV beside the barn after I was done tending to the horses, but it wasn’t there.

Guess sometimes he could take a hint, as miraculous as that was.

I knew keeping him away from the house to get the rest of his stuff was out of the question—whether he waited thirty days to do so or not.

Truthfully, I planned on the fucker showing up.

Helen’s car pulled up, and I gave it a few minutes before heading inside. A strong breeze gusted as I opened the door, filling my nose with chemicals I never pictured having in my house.

“Mr. Roland.” Helen turned, spinning the barstool my wife was sitting in wearing one of my t-shirts. Only my t-shirt. “You didn’t tell your wife I was comin’? Poor thing’s underdressed.”

“Laundry day.” I couldn’t hide the grin as I took in the foils lining a portion of Ly’s hair and the scowl she gave. Her pouty lips protruded in a way that made my cock harden instantly. I took a seat on the couch and propped my feet up, hoping to hide it while getting a show.

Helen clicked her tongue as she glanced at my bare chest. “You young folk and never wearing clothes, I swear. Next time you have company, put on a shirt, and get your wife a pair of your boxers, at least. Something has to be clean in this beautiful house of yours.”

“It’s ’bout to be, Mrs. Helen.”

She nodded, pushing Lyra’s head down to add more foils. “It’s going to take at least an hour to wash all this out of your thick hair.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she gets it all out.” I tossed my arm over the back of the couch, tapping my fingers along the top. Lyra’s eyes darted to them, and if I hadn’t been in the heat for so long, I’d be sure her thighs pressed together.

Helen’s brow arched, then she tugged Lyra’s head back and her eyes flared. “Well, bless your heart, I thought I recognized you. Now this all makes sense.”

Lyra’s throat bobbed. “What makes sense?”

Helen pointed between us. “You two went to Alliston High together, didn’t you?” Helen laughed and pointed to me with her comb. “And you—you were set to enlist with the Marines. Was that an eagle I saw on your back?”

My jaw worked. “It is.”

Helen hadn’t noticed how thick the air had turned after the rainstorm subsided, but Lyra sure had.

“Well, glad to see your tour has ended, and you came back to this lovely little thing. I’m wrapping up now, but you have to let this sit for”—she checked her watch and peeled back the corner of a foil—“probably 45 minutes to an hour. And please, honey, don’t bleach your pretty hair anymore. It damages it more than you know.”

“She knows what damage she did,” I responded, earning myself another death glare from Ly.

“Well, good on you for having me come to her rescue. Your description of her hair color was spot on, so thank you for making the color match that much easier for me, Mr. Roland.” She patted Lyra’s head, making her look like a kid being scolded.

“That young man over there definitely ain’t colorblind and must pay an awful lot of attention to you. ”

“Too much attention,” Lyra agreed, folding her arms as Helen turned and started packing up.

A small flash of red between Lyra’s thighs became exposed as she shifted.

I cleared my throat, the air in the house becoming heavier as her hand fell to her thigh, those delicate fingers lifting the hem of her borrowed shirt.

I flipped the cap on my head around, then stroked the back of the couch with two fingers as I locked onto her center, picturing my cock taking back what never should have left.

Lyra’s hand slid lower, then suddenly pushed the shirt between her thighs, covering herself. The way she smiled at me would look sweet to Helen if she turned, but I knew what my wife was really conveying— not yours .

We’ll see about that, sweetheart.

“Call me back in six-to-eight weeks just to check the new growth matches—”

“It’ll match.” I stood and got the door for Helen.

She beamed between Lyra and me, then settled on Lyra. “If it isn’t as dark as you wanted, I can make time to come back next week.”

Setting up that appointment regardless was almost too tempting. “Thank you for stoppin’ by and helping my wife.” Helen waved as she left, then I laid back on the couch and checked my phone.

Lyra huffed. “Didn’t want to tell me Helen was dyeing my hair?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

I slid my phone back into my pocket and laced my fingers behind my neck, giving me the leverage I needed to take in every inch of her exposed skin. “Wanted to see what you’d wear to answer the door.”

Her lips parted. “So, that’s what you want to do for the next thirty days? Fuck with me as much as you can, get into my head and rewire everything until I’m exactly how you want me to be?”

“What’d you do to my truck, little Ly?” Her cheeks turned red, contrasting so heavily with the foils that I had to fight back a chuckle at how adorably angry yet alien she looked.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything. So, what did you do? ’Cause I know you didn’t crash it or light it on fire.” The black paint glinted in the sun through the window. “Not a single scratch on the outside, either. So, what am I gonna find when I open the door?”

She glared through the window, probably wishing she had lit it on fire instead of whatever revenge she went with.

“You wanna know, then grab your goddamn keys and open the door.”

I settled deeper into the couch. “Nah. Think I’ll wait.”

“For what?!”

“For you to open it up and show me. To admit all the shit you did was you, and it had always been you. All. You.”

“Because you share none of that blame.” She huffed and left the room, slamming the bedroom door enough to rattle the walls.

TEN YEARS AGO

“As much as I wish I could keep you here, my parents are going to start to worry about me bringing my meals up to my room. Do you need to go home for anything, or do you finally want to come out of hiding and go meet them?”

Lyra shook her head, her brown hair fanning around my chest as she drew lazy circles on my skin. I really wanted to keep her in my room forever, to lock out the rest of the world, and only go outside to watch her watch the butterflies. She seemed to do that through my windows just fine, though.

“You sure?” I shifted beneath her, using my hand to guide down the hard-on that was going nowhere these past two days.

“I’m sure, Car. I like being here. Unless, you want me to—” She started lifting from my chest and I locked my arm around her back, keeping her close to me. “Or not.” She giggled as I kissed her forehead.

“I’d stay here forever if I could. But school starts up again tomorrow, and you can’t wear my clothes to school. Don’t you need to tell your mom or dad about you being here?”

“I can throw on one of your hoodies, no one would know the difference. No one looks my way at school, anyhow. Well, ’cept you.” I waited for her to answer my question, but when she didn’t, I figured maybe she didn’t feel like explaining her family dynamic.

I swallowed as I stared up at the ceiling. “That’s not true, Ly.”

“Yeah, it is. Don’t act like I don’t hear what everyone says about me—calling me the weird girl. I’m no stranger to it. I just don’t care what they think.”

I smiled as I shifted my hold on her. “You’re better than I am in that department.”

“Nah, you don’t care, either. Saw that when you tossed Noah against the wall in front of half the school.”

“Noah can go to Hell.”

She snickered. “Yeah, that’s what I think about everyone that isn’t you.”

“Why is that?”

She paused, her finger tapping rhythmically on my chest. “Well, for one, you didn’t bat an eye at my house or my bedroom.”

I internally winced, thinking back to that day a few weeks ago when I had, in fact, hesitated upon seeing where she lived. Where she called home . I was ready to call it off then but for an entirely different reason than I would now.

“That’s all?”

“You see my weird and make me feel normal. I’ve never felt normal before.”

I chuckled. “Just what every guy wants to hear, ‘You make me feel normal’—doesn’t really have a good ring to it, now, does it?”

She smiled, and I had to shift once again at the flood of heat going straight to my groin.

“I meant it in a good way. You don’t look at my room and think I’m a freak for collecting butterflies, for having them pinned and framed on my walls that have more chunks of paint missing than not.

You don’t judge me for my clothes or for sitting alone at lunch. ”

“Well, you don’t sit alone anymore.”

She shuffled closer and kissed my cheek.

“No, I don’t sit alone anymore.” I played with her fingers, sliding my thumb over the tips of each one while staring at her eyes.

I’d never seen a prettier pair of brown eyes than hers before.

They were warm like the shade of honeycombs submerged in a jar of honey, yet darker in the center like the earth turned when you dug too deep.

And I didn’t want to stop digging. “Are you okay? You keep wiggling like—”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I slid my hand to cup her cheek. “Just keep kissin’ me before I have to take you home.”

She pouted, then gave in, sealing her soft lips to mine. If I thought I’d dug too deep before, now I was falling through some hole in the ground, unable to stop.