Off Base(32)

“I can. I will.”

Just like their last morning together, he saw the bomb about to go off. Saw her frantically scanning the contents of her mind for something to distance him. Too bad it wouldn’t work this time. He knew her now, knew her faults and insecurities and treasured each one individually. She could say any damn thing she chose and he would stand firm.

Beck saw the moment she realized it, too, because her features transformed with panic. “Maybe the only reason I hooked up with you was because it was temporary. Don’t you think you’re taking the whole morning afterglow thing a little too far?”

“No.”

A beat of silence passed. “No? That’s it?”

“Yeah.” He advanced on her, catching her before she could trip over the sheet. “Here’s what we’re going to do now. We’re going to knock off the bullshit. You understand?”

Kenna scoffed. “Yes, Daddy.”

She’d meant it to sound flippant, but his dick didn’t think it was funny. Not after she’d been screaming the title just hours ago as he ate her *. Before he could explore his own mind, she was pinned to the wall, his jeans the only barrier between her heat and his erection. It relieved him to a startling degree when some of the fight left her, a small moan passing her lips. “You want daddy, you’ll get me, but you’ll hear me out and give me an answer first.”

Her stubborn mouth snapped shut, eyes firing bullets at him.

“My body reacted to you first. I won’t lie. But my heart followed a minute later and I was yours. Yours to keep. There is something good and strong between us, and I’m not giving it up.” Her eyes softened slightly, forcing him to beat back the urge to kiss her and forget the argument. “I will take you to Georgia and give you a home. I’ll make a place for you to build your statues. I will f*ck you every night and love you as much as you can stand, Kenna Sutton.”

When he finished his speech, her eyes were full of tears, but he knew with absolute certainty she wouldn’t let a single one fall. It didn’t bother him one bit, though. Her pride was one of the reasons he’d fallen for her.

“Beck.” Her voice wavered. “I don’t know how to belong to someone. I don’t know how to have someone belong to me.”

Her words flayed him alive, but he forced himself to step back, letting her slide down the wall. “I know what I’m asking. It’s a leap of faith, and I won’t force a decision out of you right now.” Hating the distance he had to put between them, Beck backed toward the door. “I need you at the ceremony tonight. Can you give me that?”

She nodded vigorously, but her gaze was on the floor. “I’ll be there.”

Before he left the room, he stopped in the doorframe and waited for her attention. “Two choices, Kenna. Let me know which one it’ll be. Tonight.”

He left the apartment, praying like hell his gamble would pay off.





Chapter Eleven




Kenna paced outside the packed auditorium. She had to be out of her damn mind coming here, dressed like some kind of teenage debutante. Her feet were light without combat boots to anchor them down, her body felt somehow more exposed than usual in the knee-length white lace dress. She tugged the secret flask from her purse and took a belt of whiskey, hoping it would calm her cartwheeling nerves, to no avail. Georgia. She was going to Georgia.

After Beck had left this morning, she sank into a hot bath and sat there until it went cold. Then she’d made spaghetti for breakfast and brought it in a bowl down to her workshop. About an hour had passed before she realized she hadn’t picked up a single tool. Or taken a bite of the spaghetti. She’d been in shock. She could count on one hand the times she’d felt wanted or important in her life. Most of them had come in the last few years via Darla. Once or twice while her father had been recovering from the heart attack, he’d let her see his appreciation for her help. But being on the receiving end of Beck’s proposition this morning had thrown her like a paper airplane into a tornado.

Snippets of their night together had started to trickle in once the shock wore off. Beck had called her nurturing. At the time, she’d found it ridiculous. Now, though? She wondered. Why had she stuck around Black Rock so long when—at age twenty-two—she was free to go anywhere? When she could move her business wherever she decided to live?

Was she waiting around, hoping her parents would need her? Hoping they would forget the past and include her in their new lives? The time she’d spent aiding her father’s recovery had pulled her off the path of destruction she’d been intent on traveling, giving her a reason to shape up. But what if her apparent caretaker nature was doing more harm than good now? Every day that passed without word from her family felt like a physical blow, felt like being abandoned all over again for something better. Brighter.

It stopped now. What she felt for Beck was scary, especially after such a short space of time. It fluttered wildly in her stomach, begging her to climb over her mountain of fears and slide down the other side, right into his open arms. Yes, there was a part of her that wanted to heal Beck’s wounds, soothe his soul. That newly admitted facet of her personality asked to be fostered. Beck recognized that part of her and accepted it, so long as her need for him ran beneath it, true and straight. And it did. She needed to be with him so badly, it sang in her ears like whistling wind.