Sweet Dreams (Colorado Mountain #2)(117)

“Laurie, baby, wake up. You’re gonna fry out here.”

Tate’s lips moved along the lacy edge of my bra.

“You were sleepin’ in the sun, babe, not goin’ to the mall to get a phone. So I got you a phone.”

I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes tighter trying to focus on what his mouth was doing and block out his voice in my head.

“Yeah, Ace, f**ked you so hard you couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but sleep. Exhausted you. You were in my bed, couldn’t sleep, that’s what I’d do.”

I bit my lip and felt the tears sting my nose.

“I get back, Lauren, you’re on the back of my bike.”

My hands lifted and slid into his hair.

“Sucks, but f**k Laurie, it’s good to be home.”

My fingers curled into his hair.

“Then you shouldn’t have thrown her away when she was your wife. Now she ain’t. Now she’s somethin’ to me and I don’t let men I don’t like get close to her and I gotta tell you, man, I do not like you.”

Tate’s head came up.

“No way you can look like all the rest.”

“Laurie,” Tate called.

“Pure class.”

“Lauren,” he called again, his body moving up, his hand coming to my jaw.

“Two kinds of women get under your skin. The ones who do damage, they don’t feel good there but once you’re f**kin’ stupid enough to let them in you got no choice but to take the time it takes to work them out. Then there are the ones who don’t do damage, who feel good there, feed the muscle, the bone, the soul, not rip it or break it or burn it. The ones you don’t wanna work out.”

I righted my head, opened my eyes and looked in his handsome face.

It was then my mind filled with him, with Tate, all things Tate. It filled so full, it felt like my head would explode.

“Never had better.”

“That’s how I know you didn’t give it to that ass**le the way you give it me. You did, no way in hell he’d ever…”

“Three weeks, after f**kin’ you, knowin’ what you taste like, what you feel like, the sounds you make when you come, three weeks I’m on the road and all I got is a couple minutes of your voice on the phone every night. Fuckin’ you, that’s all I can think about, like a teenager, at night in the dark, it’s the only thing in my goddamned head. So I jack off, hopin’ to cut through it, but nothin’ compares to you. Then I know you can’t sleep so I can’t f**kin’ sleep wonderin’ if you’re sleepin’. That shit’s whacked and I come home, f**kin’ beside myself it’s over.

“But Neeta, she’s not like you. She isn’t smart. She doesn’t work hard.”

“So I find this woman, see. High-class, great f**kin’ hair, legs that go forever…”

“So we find out about each other and who we are together. I’m gonna piss you off ‘cause I can be a dick. That’s who I am. And you’re gonna piss me off ‘cause, babe, you got attitude. That’s who you are. And that’s who we’re comin’ out to be together. And I’m all right with that because, with what I had before, even when you’re a bitch, I like it. But when you’re not, it’s a sweetness the like I’ve never tasted.”

“You said you were waitin’ for something special and he took away your chance to figure out that you were carryin’ it with you all this time. You are special, Laurie.”

“… they did it because you go all out to protect beauty like that.”

And last, “Sweet dreams, baby.”

“Jesus, Lauren, baby, what the f**k?” Tate whispered and I realized tears had pooled in my eyes and were sliding down the sides into my hair.

“You like me,” I whispered back and his head gave a small jerk.

“What?” he asked.

“You were right.” I was still whispering, a sob moved up my throat, I swallowed it down but my voice was thick when I kept whispering. “You were right.” I gulped back another sob as I felt more wet trail from my eyes. “I… I’m lost.”

I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I burst into tears and tried to slide out from under him but he held strong.

“Baby,” he muttered.

Without any other way to escape him, I lifted my head and shoved my face into his neck as my arms wrapped around him and I held on tight.

“I’m l… l… lost,” I choked as my body bucked when a powerful sob tore through me.

Suddenly Tate rolled off and I was moving. He went up the bed, pulling me with him, arranging the pillows behind his back and he rested against them, settling me tight to his side. I wrapped an arm around his abs, pressed my forehead into his neck and held on as my body shook with my tears.

One of his arms was wrapped around my waist, the other came across his chest to sift through my hair and he was quiet while he held me as I wept.

This lasted awhile and when it subsided I tilted my head down so my temple was at his collarbone and I saw my bare, tanned legs tangled with his long, jeans-clad ones.

It came to me again. “You said you were waitin’ for something special and he took away your chance to figure out that you were carryin’ it with you all this time. You are special, Laurie.”