Hold on Tight (Sea Breeze #8)(34)

His voice sounded so pained that I had to fight the urge to comfort him. Maybe slapping a man his size with his temper from behind had been a bad idea. . . .

“It’s okay,” I told him, then tugged my hand free of his and put some space between us.

“No, it’s not. That isn’t okay,” he said, and his hands fisted up. “That will never happen again. I swear it. I’ll f**king stop drinking. That shit is not okay. Ever.”

Micah would be here soon, and after seeing Dewayne’s reaction to my arm, I needed to change into something with longer sleeves. Micah would be upset too. I didn’t want him scared of his uncle.

“Why are you here?” I asked, wanting him to get to the point before my son showed up.

“I came to talk about last night. To explain why I went to check out your date. But, shit, I can’t get past your arm. I was worried about Cam, and I was the one who f**king hurt you. Did he know I did that?”

I nodded.

Dewayne’s face darkened. “Fucker should have hit me. You need a man with some balls, and that dipshit knew I hurt you and didn’t even come after me.”

Was he kidding? Did he think everything should be handled with violence? And why was that so incredibly hot? I needed to seek mental help. Violence was not sexy. Even if Dewayne’s muscles flexed when he was just talking about a fight.

“You need to leave,” I told him before I could say something stupid.

Dewayne started to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him. “I know you didn’t hurt me on purpose. I know you checked out Cam because you were protecting me and Micah. I get it. Now please leave. I need coffee, and I didn’t sleep well last night, and I—”

I stopped talking as Dewayne took two steps toward me until he was towering over me. Then his larger-than-life hands cupped my face, and before anything could register, his lips were on mine.

I reached up and grabbed his arms to keep myself from melting into a puddle on the floor. Dewayne Falco’s mouth was very talented, and the second his tongue slipped along my bottom lip, I opened up for him and was lost. The minty taste of him consumed me as he nibbled and explored my mouth. I just held on. It was all I could do. My entire body was under his command. I couldn’t think coherently. Nothing had ever been like this. Ever.

But then, I had only kissed one other. And we had just been kids then.

Dewayne’s hands slipped down my back and cupped my bottom as he lifted me higher up against his body. His tongue danced along and teased mine, driving me crazy.

A moan came from somewhere, but I wasn’t sure whose it was. He heard it too, and it was like ice water over the fire that he’d wrapped us inside. Before I could steady myself, I was back on the ground and Dewayne was putting the length of my living room between us. I grabbed the chair behind me and hoped I didn’t sway on my feet.

Dewayne’s eyes were wild as he breathed heavily. At least he seemed as affected as I was. Because I was affected. No, I was marked. For life. I may not have been kissed by anyone other than Dustin before this, but I knew that no one was ever going to compare to what I’d just experienced.

“We can’t. I shouldn’t have,” Dewayne said, shaking his head. Then he all but ran out of my house. I stood there and listened to his truck door close and the engine start up. I stood there long after his truck had pulled out of my driveway.

He hadn’t been able to get away from me fast enough. It wasn’t like I had asked him to kiss me. Had he expected me to push him away? Was I a bad kisser? Had that moan been mine, and he had been turned off?

God! I hated being so damn clueless at this.

“Momma? Why is the door open?” Micah’s voice asked, and I snapped out of my daze and turned to see my little boy frowning at me.

“Because I was waiting on you,” I replied, not missing a beat.

He smiled and ran over to me, and I was careful to hide my bruised arm as I hugged him.

“Did you have fun?” I asked.

He nodded but pulled back and looked up at me. “I missed you this morning. Mama T offered to make me biscuits, but I wanted to come home and eat Pop-Tarts with you. I remembered you didn’t have work today.”

Hillary had given me one Saturday off a month, and I was very thankful for that this morning. After what had just happened, leaving Dewayne at my house to watch Micah would have been hard and distracting.

“I can do better than Pop-Tarts. How about pancakes?” I asked him.

He grinned. “How about chocolate chip pancakes?”

“Sounds perfect,” I said. “Let me go change shirts and we will get to work.”

I didn’t let him see me long enough to see my arm before I slipped out of the kitchen and into my bedroom, where I put on a long-sleeve T-shirt.

DEWAYNE

She was Dustin’s. She would always be Dustin’s.

Why the f**k had I kissed her? Goddamn, I wasn’t going to be able to forget that. She’d been so damn sweet and hot all at once. Almost like she was innocent, when I knew she wasn’t. She had a kid. She wasn’t innocent, and she’d melted into my arms so easily. I had wanted to get her as close to me as f**king possible.

Then she’d moaned, and my dick had gone so hard it had almost broken the damn zipper on my jeans. Fuck, but she was a sexy moaner. If I hadn’t gotten away from her, I would have ended up f**king her on the sofa. The image of Sienna naked and wrapped around me sprang to mind, and I hit the steering wheel and cursed. I needed a f**king cigarette. Why did that shit have to kill you? Giving up alcohol was going to be a hell of a lot easier.