Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell #1)(76)

When he stopped laughing, he smiled down at me and muttered, “Strike that. Your Mom obviously is serious about her command of the fridge and, we’re with your parents, I f**k you, you can’t moan the way I like to make you moan.”

That was when I felt my mouth drop open as well as my eyes get wide again.

“We’re not ha**ng s*x in my parents’ house.”

He started chuckling and through his chuckles he said, “Baby, again, you’re twenty-eight.”

“And honey, you grew up in LA where things are fast and loose. This is Indiana. This is in the Bible belt. LA and all the rest of the world may have hit the new millennium a good while ago but Indiana is firmly stuck in the 50’s and they… are… never… coming… out. And my parents are happy as clams right there until… they… die. You do not sleep with your boyfriend in the same bed in your parents’ house and even if we were married for twenty years we would not stay at my parents’ house and have sex. If we did, the house would explode and then everyone in Heartmeadow would know we tried to have sex at my parents’ house!”

Sam burst out laughing again but this time he rolled into me while he did it.

When he was done, his torso on mine, smiling down at me, he murmured, “Right, so, I find a way to make you safe and get you home to your Mom, your dog and your friend who has a cutout of me in her bedroom, you close on your house, we’re staying in a hotel.”

“We can’t stay in a hotel. The only hotel in town is a motel and that was where Cooter was murdered so that’s out. I like the people who own it, they go to my church. Still, it’s the principle of the thing. It wouldn’t do for me to stay at the motel my husband used to cheat on me then got half his head blown off in. I’d have to ask Celeste about how appropriate amongst the jet-set that is but I’m thinking her answer will be a big, fat no.”

Sam was grinning when he murmured, “Probably.”

“Definitely.”

“Then it’s North Carolina.”

My body tensed and I whispered, “Sam –”

I stopped talking when his face got to within an inch of mine and all humor fled from it.

“Right, I like you, baby, I’m hopin’ you’re gettin’ that I like you a lot. A big part of being able to keep doin’ that is you need to be breathing,” he stated, I bit my lip at the scary veracity of his words and he kept talking. “And I like f**kin’ you and I’m hopin’ you’re gettin’ that I like that a lot too so I wanna keep doin’ it and if you’re in the bedroom you grew up in and I’m on the couch and your Dad feels like wrestlin’ me out the door if he hears a floorboard creak, that is not gonna make me happy. The motel that piece of shit bought it in is out. So, what we gotta do is, we gotta get you home, connect you with your people for a few days, get your f**kin’ dog and get your ass to my place in North Carolina which is big, it’s got a security system, I have guns and I feel more positive about the fact I can keep you safe there. Is this a plan?”

“You’d take Memphis?” I whispered.

“Does the dog come with you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Then yeah.”

My body relaxed and I said softly, “Then yeah, we have a plan.”

He closed his eyes and I saw relief in his face for the briefest moment but I saw it, I definitely did and it rocked me because I knew he liked me but it wasn’t until I saw that that I had an indication of just how much.

And it was then I understood his earlier anger.

It wasn’t so much he was mad at me.

He was angry because he had feelings for me, he’d found out I was in danger and he was hot guy, ex-commando worried.

“Sam,” I whispered, his eyes opened and his mouth came to mine.

“We got an hour before you call home and at least that until I get some callbacks. Your tests came back clean; I don’t have to wear a condom so all I get to feel is you so I know what we’re gonna do with that hour.”

“Sa –” I started his name but didn’t finish.

His head slanted and he kissed me, hard, wet and long.

And then we did what Sam knew we were going to do.

And it was over an hour before I was again clothed, sitting cross-legged on the bed certain my hair was beyond wild and raised by apes, Sam was murmuring on the phone in the lounge and I had my cell in my hand.

Mom first.

I hadn’t spoken to her since Florence and, obviously, a lot had happened and, further, Mom was not big on not being in the know with what was up with her kids. She’d had seven years of me keeping secrets, living in denial and thus shutting her out and, from that, I’d bought nearly five months of Mom being more up in my business then Luci was in Sam’s.

This could go in a variety of ways, not all of them good.

Shit.

I sucked it up, scrolled to her contact and hit go.

It rang twice then, “Sweetie! You’re home in three days!”

I smiled. “Hey, Mom.”

“Oh Kia, honey, are you having a good time?”

“Yeah, Mom, it’s been great.”

“Good, I’m so happy. And you’ve lit a fire; I’ve been talking to your Dad for ages about taking me to Europe and just the other day I saw him on the internet looking at tourist sites for London. I think I’m going to have a good Christmas present this year!” she declared gleefully.