Draw (Gentry Boys #1)(46)
Once we reached the parking lot, Creed tore off his shirt and leaned heavily against the hood of the old Chevy truck. I noticed the words scripted in Latin across the front of his chest, in the same place Cord’s were. I couldn’t make out what they said in the dim light but they didn’t appear to be the same words as Cord’s tattoo. I’d already seen that Chase had ink of his own as well.
Creed took a couple of deep breaths while his brothers stood quietly nearby. He raised his head and noticed me standing there, then broke into a slightly sheepish grin. “Guess you’ve witnessed my weakness, Saylor.”
I tried to return the smile. “No big deal, Creed. You’ve had the privilege of observing a few of my flaws, too.”
Cord stepped over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I reached up and squeezed his hand.
“Hey,” Chase yawned, fishing a set of keys out of his pocket. “I’ll get the big fella home. You guys can take off if you want.”
Cord rubbed my shoulder absently as Chase hustled Creed into the truck. “You sure?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Chase shrugged. “He’ll be all right. Just give him an hour or two for the shadows to fade.”
“I’m all right,” Creed confirmed, already in the passenger seat with his eyes closed.
Cord stared at Chase for a few silent seconds. Chase gave him a barely perceptible nod and then climbed behind the wheel.
“We’ll be home soon,” Cord called and held up an arm in farewell. He watched the tail lights of the truck disappear around the corner and then pulled me to him.
I rubbed his back. “Cord? What was that about?”
He sighed. “Creed drinks too much and he gets a little lost, thinks we’re still at the mercy of the old man, fighting for our lives. Most of the time he’s fine but when he’s had a few, shit starts to run together in his mind, that’s all.”
“Oh,” I said meekly. “You ever feel that way? Lost?”
His gaze was far away. “Not lately.” Suddenly he looked down at me. “Listen Saylor, don’t mention this to him later, okay?”
I nodded, squeezing him lightly around the middle. “I understand. It’s kind of excruciating to let the world see your scars, you know?”
He put his hands gently around my face and tipped his head forward to meet mine. “Yeah,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I know.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CORD
I didn’t want to follow my brothers right away. Saylor gave me the keys and I raised my eyebrows as the engine in her crappy car shuddered to life.
“Two hundred and ten thousand miles, huh?”
“And still ticking,” she smiled.
“Ha! Barely.”
When Saylor pulled her seatbelt on, her skirt rode up a little. My hand went straight to her thigh, holding on firmly.
Her big green eyes blinked at me. “Where are we going?”
I massaged her leg, smiling at the rush of heat as my fingers dared to venture a little higher. She squirmed a little but didn’t scold me. “There’s a place I want to show you. It’s on campus. I go running down there sometimes.”
Saylor ran her fingers up and down my arm. “Okay,” she said softly.
I drove with one hand on the wheel and the other on her. She didn’t object. All day I’d thought about what she’d said. How she was mine, both in heart and body. Christ, I couldn’t even begin to describe what that did to me. Me, the guy who could never zip himself up and hop out of bed quick enough, was gutted just like that.
We had to park about a block away, closer to Mill Ave. I jumped out of the car and over to the other side before she even got the door open. When I grabbed Saylor underneath her arms and lifted her, she wrapped her limbs around me and breathed a little sigh.
I held her like that for a few minutes, just enjoying the feel of her body covering mine. Eventually she slid her legs down and stood.
“It’s a nice parking lot,” she said sarcastically, looking around.
“Quiet,” I told her, pulling her along and pointing. “We’re going to see that.”
“It looks like a building.”
“It is a building. It’s the university art museum. See those stairs there? They lead up to the roof.”
I pushed her in front of me, mostly so I could watch her cute ass jog up the stairs as I followed.
“Hey,” I prodded her teasingly, “can’t you go any faster? We ought to do something to get you in shape.”
“Screw you,” she answered, turning slightly, but I could tell she was smiling.
“You have,” I reminded her smoothly. “You will again, honey. Real soon.”
“Maybe,” she said, giving a little hop to the top step which ended in a wide stone platform.
“Maybe?” I snarled, seizing her and then backing off when she flinched a little. I saw red for a second, remembering the face of that shithead in California and knowing this was his fault.
“Sorry,” she muttered, crossing her arms and looking down.
“Hey,” I tilted her chin up, “nothin’ to be sorry for, babe. Just know that when I touch you, every goddamn time I touch you, it’ll never end badly.”
Her expression was soft and tender. “I know.” She kissed me and wrapped her arms around my neck and I cursed all the time I’d wasted on nameless f*cks which meant nothing when I could have had this. I breathed her in, stroking her gently and then lowering her to the ground. I rolled to my back beside her and we spent a few minutes quietly looking at the sky. It reminded me of the night she came back into my life, when I’d lazed on the roof of Brayden’s apartment with my knuckles still singed from the latest fight, thinking about the shitty years my brothers and I had somehow managed to endure.