Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(13)
Tanner stood back watching her fall to pieces and then pick herself right back up again. She was absolutely amazing. Not only had her mother betrayed her and stolen from her, but she had left her to clean up the shambles that were left behind. Somehow, Zoey was managing to hold herself together when Tanner wasn’t sure he would have been able to do the same. For being so young, she certainly had a strong backbone. Another clue that she was not the submissive woman he needed for his lifemate.
He knew that he should probably ask her about her mother, but the strain on her face had him backing off, and instead he gave her a smile to break the tension. “Are you any good at mucking stalls?”
She snorted out a laugh in an unladylike way, and he chuckled. “No, and I’m not an expert at riding a horse either, but you know that I can cook, and I can clean. You’re a bachelor, so surely that means something to you?”
He groaned, “Sweet Jesus, if you’ll cook for me you can live here forever.”
Realizing what he said, he grimaced, but Zoey only smiled brighter. “It’s only for a few weeks. I’ll either find another place, or move in with Rachel as soon as her mom leaves. Thank you, Tanner!”
He forced himself to shrug nonchalantly. “Do you need a hand moving? Like I said, Dalton will be back sometime Friday night. I’m sure we can come over to your place to help move boxes Saturday.”
She looked surprised but pleased, and he felt a funny warmth in his chest at her happiness. “That would be amazing! I’m going to have to cook my ass off to repay you.”
“That’s not necessary, just a home cooked dinner every now and then will suffice.” She reached out and gave him a quick hug, her breasts pressing against his ribcage, and her hair brushing his chin. His cock was instantly trying to burst out of his jeans, and he barely resisted wrapping his arms around her and drawing her closer. What would it be like to reach around and grab that perfect ass, pulling her off her feet so she had to wrap her legs around his hips…a rush of heat shot from his brain to his balls and he cleared his throat again, stepping back. She released him, and her teary eyes looked up at him as if he had just rescued her from a nightmarish dragon.
“Well I better get home. I have to be up early for work, and I haven’t packed yet. Thank you again, Tanner. I don’t know what I would have done…well, just thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Zoey. That’s what friends are for.” He shifted his stance, trying to give his throbbing cock room in his jeans, and held the front door open as she stepped into the doorway. She paused and glanced back.
“Friends? Is that what we are?”
“Well I hope so, it would be mighty awkward to have an enemy living in my own house.”
He relished her husky laughter as she made her way to her car. There was a bounce in her steps that hadn’t been there before, and he was ridiculously pleased to have helped her obtain it.
Once she had disappeared down the road, Tanner realized what he had just agreed to. The one woman who seemed to be his Kryptonite was not only going to be sharing his house but, would also be sleeping on the other side of a thin wall, and sharing his bathroom. Yeah, sure, there was no way this could go wrong.
He slammed the door shut, and immediately popped the buttons on his jeans open allowing his cock to jut out. The dark purple head stared back at him with a pearly drop oozing out of it. Leaning his back against the door, he fisted it while the smell of Zoey hung heavy in the air, and he could still feel her full breasts against his body.
It took only a half dozen strokes before he filled his own fist with cum, and let out a loud groan that echoed through the empty house. He had no doubt it would be the first of many lonely encounters over the next month or so.
If he’d had a choice, he would have pushed her to her knees and asked her to thank him in a more intimate way, but it would have started an avalanche of problems that Tanner didn’t need right now. Instead, he would most likely spend the next couple of weeks walking and working with a hard-on from hell.
Only a fool would agree to live with a woman who boiled his blood, and was completely and utterly off limits to him. A quick glance in the hallway mirror as he headed for the bathroom to clean up proved the fool was present and accounted for and was asking for trouble.
Chapter Four
Dalton Keegan was home. He was on US soil. Good old Texas dirt. It felt wonderful and terrible all at once.
The first time he walked through the Austin-Bergstrom Airport he believed he was leaving Texas behind for good. He was on his way to medical school, and had no intention of coming back, even though he had made promises to his parents to visit every holiday he could. He held his ground for four years, only breaking down and visiting the summer after graduation. The look on his mother’s face when he announced his plans to leave for Africa was a unique juxtaposition of pride and disappointment. He knew she wanted him to stay close, but at the time he couldn’t handle the open floodgates to his memories that living in Texas would mean.
One emergency visit back home was all he allowed himself in the nearly ten years he had been overseas. But after seeing that pops was recovered from his heart attack, and that his mother was making plans to retire in Arizona, Dalton’s heart was in pieces, and he was ready to escape again at any cost. He left with a lighter heart because with his parents in Arizona, he would have the ability to visit them there and never again have to face his past in the Lone Star state.