A Perfect Mistake (24 page)

“Can you
overcome it? I want to experience everything with you. And I am dyin’
to find out how this makes you feel.”

I groaned softly.
“Fantastic. It feel’s great.”

In response, she
cupped my ass again and slipped her mouth over me.

Sweet geezus. I
looked down, riveted by the sight of her wrapped around me. She ran
her tongue over the top, then closed her mouth and sucked, and my
hips surged forward as I hung on to the bar for all I was worth.

Okay, maybe I had
underestimated how fantastic this would feel. My heart pumping, my
dick throbbing with each movement of her mouth, this was going to end
pretty fast.

Letting go of the
bar, I threaded my fingers through her hair, holding her, and I moved
with her—just gave myself up to the soft, wet heat of her mouth
and the tight, knee-buckling stroking of her hand. Oh geezus, she
might be new at this, but she was sweet. “Good. So fucking
good,” I said, spreading my legs a little wider for her, and
she slid her hand farther back to rub my balls—and, oh fuck,
pleasure squeezed as vise-like as her mouth gloved me.

I was just barely a
week into Verity Fairchild and I could say without a doubt I wasn’t
letting her go after this, not for a long while, not until we’d
had a chance to do this a whole lot more times…or at least
until I had a chance to sort it all out.

And I sure as hell
wasn’t giving her up when she did that—a soft groan
escaped me, and I surged into her mouth, pushing deeper.

“Verity,”
I panted, not sure she wanted me to come. She met my eyes, hers full
of a stunning pleasure that only made me groan again. Her dreamy
eyes, her damp, curling hair, her wet mouth made my heart stutter and
beat hard in my chest. The urge to take her rushed over me and I
wanted to get her just as hot, just as turned on as she was making
me. Take her and have her take me.

But I wasn’t
the one calling the shots here. I tried to pull her up so I could
kiss her, so I could get between her legs. She let out a soft laugh,
slid her mouth down the length of me and I was beyond fighting her.

She toyed with me
until my thoughts fragmented from the intense pleasure. My focus
narrowed down to nothing but the next touch of her tongue, the next
sweep of her hand, the next pull of her mouth, and the next and next
and next, until she had her way with me as fully as she wanted to,
drawing me to the edge and pushing me over, till I was falling
without a net.

My body was taut, my
dick rock hard—and my release one long torrent of heat and
mind-bending pleasure slamming into me.

At the end, I pulled
free from her mouth and sank down to my knees, dragging her against
me. Geezus.

Holding her close, I
slid my hand around the back of her neck and buried my face in her
hair.

“Was that
good, Boone?” she whispered.

I wasn’t sure
I could speak. I pressed her back on the mat. “Verity, you’re
killing me.”

“In a good
way?”

I laughed. “Ah,
darlin’. In the best way possible.”

She smiled. I
reached out and ran the back of my fingers over the bruise on her
cheekbone and her jaw. Fucking Marcy.

I kissed the bruise
gently. “She really hit you hard. I guess she liked me more
than I thought.”

Verity shrugged.
“Too bad for her. I can only guess you told her you were seeing
me.”

I wanted to be
exclusive with Verity. I hadn’t even begun to explore her. “I
was dead honest with her, Verity. I owed her the truth.”

She captured my face
between her hands, her thumb moving over my lips. “I don’t
care who you tell. I want everyone to know I’m with you,
Boone.”

I met her look dead
on. “Are you with me?”

Her eyes fluttered
and she closed them for a moment. “I told you this would
happen. If I got involved with you.”

My heart jolted.
“What would happen?”

She wrapped her arms
around my neck, breathing into my ear. “That I wouldn’t
want to leave.”

Excellent. We were
on the same page.

#

Boone

By the time Verity
headed home to deal with her parents and their fight, I was late for
the meeting with my brothers to settle on what we we’d sing for
this coming Sunday’s service. I walked into Booker’s
house to find him making out with Aubree on the couch.

“Geez. You
two! Get a room,” I said, setting my guitar case next to them
and heading for the kitchen.

“Fuck! Boone,
don’t you ever knock?”

Aubree laughed and I
gave her a cheeky grin. “No, and I ain’t going to fucking
start now.
Tu
casa es mi casa
,”
Sweet. There was still coffee.

“Why is it
always my damn
casa
?”

“Hey, if I
remember correctly, you and Brax just recently found me very
dishabille
with
Verity. So, the
casas
are interchangeable.”

“You realize
you’re mixing Spanish and French, there, huckleberry.”

“Hey, I’m
a bilingual kinda guy.”

“Or is that
trilingual?” Aubree said with a giggle.

“Yeah, right,
I’m a fucking linguistic phenomenon.”

“You’re
a phenomenon, all right,” Brax said, breaking into our
conversation and also just walking into Booker’s house without
knocking. He set his fiddle case next to mine, glanced at Booker and
Aubree on the couch and said, “Why don’t you two get a
room?”

“Sweet
geezus,” Booker said, grabbing Aubree and kissing her
passionately. She was laughing too hard to keep up with Booker, who
just went to her neck.

Brax sidled up to
me, eyeing the coffee pot.

“I saw it
first,” I said.

Brax shoved me and
grabbed the pot.

“You
bastard
.”

“Make another
pot, phenomenon. You can sing in either French or Spanish while you
do it.”

After he poured out
the coffee, I grabbed the pot from him and went to the sink to fill
it with water while singing
Frère
Jacques
at
the top of my lungs.

I heard snorts and
laughter, then Brax joined in, then Booker. After that all I heard
was our three part harmony and Aubree muttering, “God save me
from brothers.”

Once I had the pot
brewing, Aubree walked into the kitchen with her Einstein bag like
she was leaving.

“Where you
headed?”

“To meet
Verity and River Pearl for some girl time,’ she stopped near me
“I am going to get the particulars from Verity about that bar
fight last night, but how are you doing, Boone?”

“I’m
fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m
sure, Breebree. Marcy didn’t punch
my
lights out. Although Verity got in a good jab. I didn’t like
being on her bad side, and now I’m doubly going to toe the
line. She’s got a mean right hook. But seems like we’re
always in the middle of something.”

“Yes,”
she turned to look at Booker and Brax arguing over what character
they were going to play in Kirby’s Epic Yarn, a video game that
we all loved. “You’re Outlaws and that’s the way it
is.” She kissed me on the cheek “And, I wouldn’t
want it any other way.” She dropped her eyes for a minute, then
looked at me pensively. “Just be careful with that heart of
yours, Boonie. Booker isn’t the only Outlaw I’ve quite
completely fallen in love with.”

Acting like a little
boy and making my voice juvenile, I said, “Stop with the mushy
stuff,” I nudged her.

She nudged me back.
“I’m serious. Verity is one of my best friends, but if
she hurts you, I might have to kick her ass.”

I wrapped my arms
around her and hugged her hard and whispered. “Word of advice.
Watch out for her mean right hook.”

“Hey, hands
off my gorgeous girlfriend, you poacher.”

I just bent her over
my arm and gave her a kiss full on the mouth, then I looked at Booker
with a grin.
"Tu
amiga es mi amiga, ¿verdad?"

“Are you
feeling that?” Booker said.

Brax took a sip of
his coffee and laughed. “Oh, I feel it.”

Playing dumb, I
said, “Feel what?” I let Aubree go.

“I think you
better check your tripdar, huckleberry, because it should be
vibrating.” Booker said, as Aubree walked over and tousled his
hair and kissed him goodbye.

“What? Those
kick-your-brother’s-ass tremors? Is that it?” I flexed my
arms in a He-Man impression and said, “Bring it on. I’ll
fight for Breebree.”

Aubree just shook
her head and gave me a smile as she left. Booker wasn’t smiling
at all. His narrowed gaze pinned me, and he pointed at his eyes, then
at me, with his first two fingers with I-have-my-eyes-on-you
pantomime.

My message back to
him only took one finger.

An hour later, I was
exhausted. Booker and Brax were still playing Kirby and we weren’t
any closer to getting this done. I still had things to do at the
church.

I walked up to the
TV and pulled the plug.

“Hey, you
jerk. I was just about to kill the adorable yarn dragon,” Brax
groused.

“Could we
focus? I’ve got shit to do,” I said, dropping the plug.

“Oh, well, you
have shit to do….You’re the one who roped us into this
rodeo,” Brax said, setting the controller down on the coffee
table.

“Really?”
I said, starting to get pissed. “I can’t count on you
guys to back me up? Even if it means stepping into church.” My
voice got more hushed as I spoke until I whispered the last word.

“Stop your
bitching, Brax and let’s act like brothers,” Booker said,
nudging him with his shoulder.

“Oh, all
right,” he said, giving me a pacifying look. “I thought
we’d cook out tonight and have some fun. I’m taking a
night off from the bar.”

“Can I invite
Verity?”

Brax gave me a look
and nodded.

“Why don’t
we just make it a threesome and invite River Pearl, too?” I
said, expecting him to disagree.

“Why the fuck
not?” Brax said, reaching for his fiddle. “Makes no
difference to me.”

He might have acted
all I-don’t-give-a-shit, but I suspected that Brax had it bad
for that girl. He screwed every girl in high school, except for
Aubree, Verity, and River Pearl.

“Okay, so what
did you guys come up with for hymns?” I said, reaching for my
guitar case.

Both of them looked
at me blankly. I sighed. It was going to be a long day.

#

Verity

Skyler Bransom, who
hailed from somewhere in the Midwest, had totally transformed the
local hair salon into something special. At one time the mood was set
by a sad, sorry, really tacky sign, clear white plastic chairs and a
shabby look. Suttontowne was no glamour mecca. That was for sure.

But Skyler’s
Blue Coyote Spa had become the place to get whatever needed to be
done, and done with style and flair. Skylar herself was pretty cool.
From her long dark hair to the offbeat way she dressed, with those
cowgirl touches, she made women in Suttontowne whisper behind their
hands, but they couldn’t deny the girl was one of a kind.

From her blue neon
coyote howling at a translucent moon, to the tasteful cowboy chic, to
the dark mahogany floors, it was no hardship to spend time there. I
stood at the counter waiting to pay after we’d just finished
with our pedicures. Pedicures and gossip went together here in
Suttontowne.

Once we got through
the line, which took a while because the Blue Coyote was always busy,
we stepped outside. We’d met at River Pearl’s house and
she’d driven us over. Now we were going to the country club to
hang out at the pool.

“So, deets
about your bar fight.” River Pearl said, while I was still
trying to get used to her hair.

“It wasn’t
a bar fight,” I replied, settling into the front seat of River
Pearl’s Mercedes.

“Your face
tells a different story,” River Pearl said. “Good use of
cover-up, but you can still see the bruises.”

“She attacked
me. I defended myself.”

“And this was
about Boone?” Aubree asked in that same tone she’d been
using since I told her about the baby.

“Apparently.”

“I see that
you haven’t told him yet,” Aubree said.

I turned around to
meet her green eyes. “I take it you’re not on my side in
this?”

Aubree shifted and
met my eyes head on. “This isn’t easy for me, Verity. I
love Booker more than anything, and his brothers are running a close
second. Boone is…well, he’s wonderful, and it kills me
to think that he might be hurt in all this.”

“You don’t
have to tell me how wonderful Boone is, Aubree. I already know that.
And…I’d rather die than hurt him. I didn’t even
plan to stay here. I thought I’d be in and out.”

“I’m
sorry, Verity. I do love and support you. This is just really hard to
keep inside.”

“You’re
telling me. I never planned on telling Boone anything. I didn’t
think back then that he would even give a shit. I still don’t
know…no, that’s not really true.”

“Why do you
say that?”

“Henry Ducet.”

“That little
boy at your parish day-care who lost his dad two months ago?”
River Pearl said, her voice subdued and sad.

“Yes. He
bonded with Boone. I got to see Boone with him, and I saw so many
good qualities that you need as a parent. His patience, his
willingness to communicate, and his amazing kindness. Now I think he
would care, and it scares me.”

“You won’t
know until you tell him,” Aubree said.

“Then what? My
daddy finds out.”

“You don’t
know how Boone will react,” River Pearl said.

“No, but it’s
not going to be good. You should have seen his face when I told him
we had sex and that I had been virgin, although that last part he
already knew. The first question he asked was, did he hurt me?”
I dropped my face into my hands. River Pearl patted my back and
Aubree squeezed my shoulder from the backseat. “I feel so
guilty about this. After last night, he really has a right to know.
But sometimes I think he’d be better off if I just left.”