At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(64)
I walked up two of the four steps before he moved, leaning down to grab my hand then he dragged me up the two remaining steps so fast I almost tripped again. Then he swung me into his house and let me go, turning to slide the glass door shut then turning back to me.
“Joe –”
“You play that game often, buddy?”
“What?”
“On your stool, drunk and cute, suckin’ on your straw?”
“You have the wrong idea.”
“Yeah? You played me the same, exact, f**kin’ way.”
I felt some of my fear sliding away as anger replaced it.
“I played you?”
“Felt like I was watchin’ a movie after a rewind.”
I leaned forward and hissed, “You dick!”
He moved and Mike was right, he was fast. I was backed up against a wall before I knew what was happening.
My anger died an early death and I was back to scared.
“Joe –”
His hands were sliding around my back and down to my ass as he said, “I play you tonight.”
“No!” I cried. “Joe, listen to me, I’ve never flirted.”
“Baby, you’re the best f**kin’ flirt I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, I know, I found out tonight,” I told him, putting my hands to his chest and getting up on my toes. “Listen, Mike told me about the cherry thing and the straw thing. With you, I was just drunk. With him, I was just sipping my drink.”
“You did the cherry thing with him?” he growled.
“No!” I cried again. “He just told me about it, that, um… men even at a hundred and two, would… um, like that.”
“You know men like that.”
“I’ve been with the same guy since I was fifteen. Tim liked it. I just thought he never grew out of it since he’d been with me since he was sixteen. I mean, it’s not hard, doing that with a cherry stem. It isn’t like pole dancing or something.”
Joe was silent.
“Anyway, I’ve never had to flirt,” I continued. “Tim asked me out in the lunch line in the cafeteria in high school. I was buying bad pizza and chocolate milk. Do you get what I’m tellin’ you?”
Joe remained silent.
“Joe,” I whispered, my hands sliding up to his neck, “I didn’t play you. I don’t know how to play anyone.”
“He ask you out?”
Oh shit.
I closed my eyes.
“He asked you out,” Joe said softly.
I opened my eyes and whispered, “Joe –”
“And you’re goin’.”
“Joe –”
“When?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“I leave Sunday.”
“For how long?”
“A week, maybe two, meetings are pilin’ up.”
“Oh.”
His hands slid down my ass to my thighs as he bent slightly then I was going up, he pulled my legs apart and I wrapped them around his h*ps as his hands slid back to my ass and my arms went around his shoulders. Carrying me, he started walking down the hall.
“I’m not leavin’ for two weeks not gettin’ my fill of you.”
“Joe –”
“You come to me after he’s done with you.”
Oh God, why was this so f**ked up?
“Joe, I don’t –”
He put a knee to his bed and then my back was to it and he was on me.
“You come to me or I come to you. Buddy, you want me f**kin’ you with your girls in the house then you stay home. You don’t, I hear your feet on the steps of my deck.”
His hand pulled my blouse from my jeans as I asked, “You’re not askin’ are you?”
His fingers pulled down the cup of my bra when he answered, “Nope.”
“Joe –” I whispered when his thumb swept over my nipple and I felt only that and forgot what we were talking about.
“Vi,” he called and I realized I’d closed my eyes so I opened them and focused on him. “There’s five hundred dollars on my nightstand, when you go home in the mornin’, you take it.”
My body stilled under his.
“What?”
“It’s for Keira’s dog and food.”
“The dog only costs two hundred dollars.”
“Then you can buy a lot of food.”
“Joe, you can’t do that.”
“You don’t buy her the dog, I talk to her tomorrow, find out where the dog is, I buy it and the food.”
“You can’t do that.”
His thumb did another swipe and I bit my lip.
“She wants a dog,” he stated.
“But –”
“Baby, she lost her Dad, she should get a f**kin’ dog.”
I swallowed and my body relaxed under his.
“I know,” I whispered and I did know, I’d known since the minute she brought it up.
“So take the money, buy her the f**kin’ dog.”
I put my hand to his scarred cheek and ran my thumb along his cheekbone.
“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.
“That’s for Keira, there’s no payback for Keira. You need somethin’ from me, we’ll discuss payback.”