Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(70)

“Bullshit,” Chase snorted. “You never seem to learn a thing in school. He’s over there. Look, don’t you see the shape of the hunter? Those three stars in the middle, that’s his belt, dickhead.”

From there they started arguing about the girls in our class and which of them was willing to mess around the most. Chase made some wild claims and Cord clocked him across the head for being the bullshit artist that he was. I listened to my brothers’ playful battles while something blacker than sleep began to take hold of me. It was nice, at first. It was like falling into a barrel filled with thick cotton and not minding when someone pulled the lid closed. But the further I sank into its depths the more I realized what else was in there with me.

“Worthless little shits, all three of you. Should have forced your mama to get rid of you the minute I found out you were in her belly.”

When that voice found me in the blackness, I had lashed out and nearly toppled straight into the campfire. Cord and Chase pulled me back. Over the years they would do it again and again.

“No,” I said out loud to myself in my empty living room. “No.”

Hell no, I wouldn’t spend tonight that way. I wouldn’t make my brothers lift me and clean up my f*cking vomit and let that be the last of their memories.

At a quarter to five I remembered that I needed to go pick up Cord at work. I’d gotten the use of the truck to pick up Truly’s sewing machine, although I didn’t tell the boys that was why I needed it. I didn’t know if Saylor had told Cord. He hadn’t asked me.

Cord was waiting for me in front of the tattoo shop. He was smoking a cigarette, which was all but unheard of for him. When I honked the horn he shot me a bashful grin and hopped into the passenger seat. I thought about razzing him a little, asking what a father-to-be was doing pumping garbage into his lungs but I knew he was just trying to get through the day.

“You do what you needed to do?” he asked me.

“Yup.”

Cord shifted and let out a sigh. He shifted again and opened the window.

“You gotta piss?” I asked him.

“No.” He closed the window and jacked up the air conditioning. “Truly came by today.”

I couldn’t control the sudden lurch in my heart. “What for? To see you?”

“Not really. She wanted a tattoo. I think she’d clean forgotten that I worked there.”

“What did she need a tattoo for?”

Cord snickered. “I don’t ask my customers for detailed explanations. I just ink what they want me to ink.” He was watching me. “Girl’s heartbroken if you ask me.”

“I didn’t break her heart.”

My brother’s voice was unusually gentle. “You didn’t mean to.”

I drove the rest of the way home in silence. When we reached the apartment I didn’t shut off the engine. Cord stepped out of the truck and leaned inside.

“You plan on sitting in there and sweltering all evening?”

“No,” I replied. “I’m just waiting for you to shut the door.”

Cord lowered his head. “Creedence.”

“Cordero,” I snapped. Then I sighed. “If it came down to it, wouldn’t you want to be with Say?”

At least that was something he understood. “As long as I could,” he said, giving me a crooked grin.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t slam the door like an animal.”

I watched Cord walk to the apartment door alone before I drove off.

Truly’s ravaged Escape was sitting in the parking lot outside her apartment. I was ridiculously nervous walking up to the door. I felt like some adolescent prick on his first date. As I knocked I hoped that Stephanie chick didn’t greet me with her bat again.

I didn’t need to worry. Truly Lee flung the door open with a cry and jumped into my arms.

“Baby,” I whispered as her mouth went all over my neck and her legs wrapped around my waist. We kissed as if we’d been separated for years, tongues intertwined, hands everywhere. I carried her straight into her bedroom like that, not knowing or caring if her damn roommate was standing there gaping at us.

Once we were behind a closed door I had our clothes off and my dick inside her within seconds. We did it like that against the wall beside her closet, humping furiously and climaxing together. The next time was slow. It was on her bed. I bent her legs at the knee and pushed them on either side of her. She arched her back to meet my thrust and I slid into her as she let out a soft moan like she always did. I watched her face as I moved in and out of her body. I was trying to remember everything about the way she felt. I also wanted her to remember everything about me. For the first time in my life I wasn’t just f*cking a woman; I was loving her.

“Creedence,” she gasped when the heat between us reached a crescendo. I kissed her as she came, shuddering and calling out my name again and again. Then I gathered her soft body as close as I could, trying to reach as deep as possible. Truly shuddered with another wild orgasm just as I got to the point where I couldn’t stand it and came with such raging force that a growl ripped right out of my throat.

As I fell into her breasts, panting and winded, I felt her cool arms around me, exploring the hard ridges of my muscles. The sound of her heartbeat was right next to my ear and it vaguely occurred to me that I’d never been in a warmer place than this.