Page 58 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

FORTY-SEVEN

BECKETT

“I’m supposed to be at the bookstore,” Kira said, her head on my shoulder as she lazily traced fingertips over my chest. Her clothes were currently in my dryer, and I hoped it took all damn day for them to dry.

“The only place you need to be is right here, naked in my bed.”

I kissed her forehead, mostly because I could.

She draped a leg over mine and nestled closer. She was so fucking wet, and I loved how it felt against my thigh.

“Did you know my keys don’t work?”

“What?”

“My keys. For the bookstore. The ones I’ve had since Mom died. They just stopped working.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“I’ve been using them since I came back,” she said, tracing her finger over the outline of a panther tattoo on my chest. “My keys worked yesterday. ”

“Maybe you have both sets?” I guessed.

Kira hesitated, and I glanced down to see her biting her bottom lip.

“What is it?”

“If I tell you something, will you promise not to think I’m crazy?”

“You’re a redhead. Crazy kind of comes with the territory.”

Except, her blonde roots were growing out enough to bolster her claim about not being a natural redhead. But it didn’t matter if she allowed her natural color to grow out fully. She’d always be Red to me.

“Beck, I mean it.”

“Tell me,” I said, caressing her arm.

“I think my mom let me in.”

“Your mom?”

“I know it sounds crazy.”

“No, not really.” I wasn’t superstitious, and I didn’t have a strong belief in ghosts.

If I did, I wouldn’t have bought a cabin I planned to gut which could summon the wrath of a ghost. From the stories I’d been told, Grandma Pebble didn’t sound like the kind of spirit I wanted to tangle with. “How else can you explain it?”

“The first night I was in town, I unlocked the back door and the apartment door. With my key. It was just after midnight. Luke showed up just before five that morning, claiming the silent alarm was recently tripped. Do you know of any alarms that trip five hours later?”

“No.”

“I tried to go upstairs.”

“When?”

“Today.”

I tensed, relieved that she hadn’t been able to get inside.

Otherwise, she’d see the boxes and stacks of materials I acquired over the past few days.

I wanted the final reveal to be a surprise.

Something she couldn’t try to talk me out of doing.

But if she got a sneak peek, my plans might be thwarted.

I’d have to find a reason to keep her out of the apartment.

“That’s why I left. I was just so . . . overwhelmed. I mean, how could Mom . . .”

“You could have drowned, Kira. If I hadn’t seen you fall in?—”

“I know,” she said, sounding regretful. “Sometimes I don’t think. I just—I just wanted to talk to my mom and she wasn’t at the bookstore. Not today.”

She’d told me about a dream she had. One that caused her to pack her things and drive straight to Bluebell Springs, now more than a month ago, without even warning anyone she was coming.

“The last time I ignored Mom in a dream, it was bad.”

“What happened?”

“She warned me to leave Travis,” Kira said, tracing the outlines of my tattoos as she spoke.

“Like, in this crazy, dreamlike way, she showed me how to escape. She showed me the way out. But I thought he’d changed.

I thought I could help him change. I didn’t listen to her, and .

. .” She took a deep breath, and I waited.

“He was drunk. Very drunk. It was his birthday. I never should’ve gotten in the car, but I did.

He was in one of those weird moods, like he wanted to push all his limits. Like he wanted to challenge death. ”

Anger burned inside my chest. I could already see where this story was headed. I was all too familiar with the disregard someone like that, drunk off his ass, had for other human life. Especially someone he cared about.

“He almost wrecked, right into the back of a big truck. I don’t know how he missed it. I swear, he has this way of cheating death that just seems so unfair.”

“Were you hurt?”

“No. I still don’t understand how we didn’t— But anyway, a cop saw him and he got arrested.

I should have left then, when he was in jail.

But I wanted so damn badly to tell him off to his face.

To let him know how much he hurt me. So, I waited for him to get released—his mom always bailed him out.

And then, he was so remorseful. Promised things would be different.

Talked about buying me a ring. And I fell for it. ”

“My dad was good at manipulating my mom, especially when he was hungover. She called it his sweet phase. But all it ever amounted to was a bunch of empty promises so she wouldn’t yell at him. A few days later, he was back to doing the same thing.”

“Do you still talk to them?

“No, I’ve been no contact for years. But my sister . . .”

“She still has hope?”

“Yeah.” I stroked her shoulder, eager to shift the conversation away from my family. “You know what I think it all means?”

“What?”

“That you’re in the right place.”

“Then, why would my mom lock me out of the apartment? I just wanted to see how the new paint and flooring turned out.”

“Maybe she knew I wasn’t done.” It was a half truth. “So be patient.”

Kira let out a soft giggle. “Maybe.”

“How is everything else coming along?” I asked of the bookstore.

“It would be a whole lot better if the bookshelves weren’t delayed.” She let out a sigh. “But they’re still supposed to show up before the soft opening. Did you know the book club wanted me to ask you to build new ones?”

“I could have.”

“Your grandma already has it out for me. I don’t need to take more of your time than I already have.”

“I like it when you take my time.”

Kira looked up at me, as though searching for the truth.

It irritated me that she struggled to take me at my word, but it wasn’t her fault.

Her trust had been fractured. I traced her jaw with my thumb, silently vowing in that moment to do everything I could to help her rebuild it.

I drew her in for a kiss that lingered. She shimmied up my leg, her wetness smearing my hip.

Blood rushed south, awakening my cock for another round.

“What’s this tattoo about?” she asked of the panther on my chest.

“It’s in honor of a buddy I lost.”

“Lost?”

“To war.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. ”

“Me, too.”

She straddled my hips, sitting back as she studied my ink.

Fuck, she was beautiful.

Her curvy body was a wonderland I wanted to memorize. I yearned to yank her down to me, so I could get one of those tits in my mouth. But I restrained the urge, and allowed her to ask about each and every tattoo, relishing in her fascination.

“The unit crest?” she asked.

“It’s the unit I deployed with. The one your brothers and Thoren were in.”

“Do you miss it?”

“The Army?”

“Yeah.”

My cock stood at attention, pressed against her ass. It was getting harder to think straight, because all I could focus on was how fucking good it felt to be inside her. How badly I wanted to be there again.

“Sometimes,” I admitted. “But I was ready to move on.”

Kira leaned back, reaching a hand behind her and gripping my shaft. “You have another condom?”

“In the drawer.”

She leaned forward, dangling those tits in my face as she fished a rubber from my nightstand. I watched in rapt interest as she lifted her hips, placing my cock in front of her parted legs, and rolled on the condom.

“How did you become a contractor?” she asked, lifting her hips and sinking slowly onto me .

“I’ve been helping build and renovate houses off and on since high school.”

She slowly gyrated her hips, nothing hurried about the way she was enjoying me inside her. Fuck, I could watch this all day.

“Since high school?”

“My dad worked a deal with our neighbor to get me a job young. Neighbor was a builder.” It was getting harder to concentrate on what I was saying.

The only thing I could seem to focus on was the way Kira kept sinking her pussy onto my shaft one slow roll at a time.

Her wetness. Her heat. Her perfection. “My dad—and I use . . . the term loosely—just wanted the . . . the extra money.”

“You didn’t get to keep your own money?”

“Not at first.”

“But?” Kira pressed a finger to her clit, and I watched in rapt interest as she slowly played with herself, as though we had all the time in the world to enjoy one another. I reached my hands to her hips.

“But the builder caught on and gave me a raise—one he never . . . never told my dad about. So, I at least got to . . . got to keep the difference.”

“Is that why you joined the Army?” Kira asked, leaning forward and stealing a kiss as she sank down all the way, burying me deep inside her channel and holding me there. Fuck was there any better feeling than this ? What I wouldn’t give to just get fucking lost in this sensation and live here.

“I joined after college—” I cradled her dangling tits in my hands.

“—to get away from my parents, once I knew my sister was taken care of. Kept helping build . . . builders on the side, on weekends.” I groaned at the feel of her wet heat wrapped around my length, finding it harder to concentrate by the second.

“You love it?”

“Yeah, I guess I do.” I firmly massaged her tits, drawing one nipple into my mouth.

Kira let out one of those soft, sexy whimpers, grinding herself against me with my cock still fully seated inside her.

I took the other nipple into my mouth and scraped my teeth against it.

She cried out, grinding harder.

I gripped her hips and held her against me. Guiding her in just the right way. I wanted to feel her climax with my cock buried inside her.

“Fuck me, Beckett,” she cried out as she exploded on top of me.

“With pleasure.” I rolled her over, sinking right back inside that sweet channel as her orgasm held on, pummeling into her until I was coming too. The intensity of my climax nearly blinded me. My entire body jerked above her. Fuck, this was unreal.

I’d had good sex before. Great sex.

But this?

This was levels beyond any of it.

I stared into those deep blue eyes, relishing in her sated smile and tangled, freshly fucked hair. I dropped my lips to hers, savoring a kiss that threatened to bring on round three. I wasn’t sure I had the stamina for it, but fuck, I wanted to find out.

Except my damn phone chose that moment to ring. As much as I wanted to ignore it, I didn’t want to risk Luke or Connor showing up and finding their sister naked in my bed. Sooner or later, I’d have to tell them, but not like this.

“Sorry,” I apologized, turning over my phone on the nightstand to see who was calling. “It’s my sister.”

“Madeline?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t usually call without sending a dozen texts first.”

A twisting feeling in my gut warned me I should answer, despite how badly I wanted to ignore the whole world and give Kira another orgasm that would leave her unable to walk straight.

“Answer it,” she said.

“Hey, Madeline.”

“Hey Beck. Busy?” The nervous tremor in her voice was unlike her, and it raised my Spidey senses. Something was definitely up.

“Everything okay?”

“Um, yeah. I’m actually in town.”