Bo (9 page)

“I can come up next weekend.”

“Then you make sure you do that, Bo.”

A few minutes later, with the call disconnected, I braced my arms on the countertop and cleared my head. Hell, I had to take a moment to clear my eyes. My folks hadn’t placed blame, but I felt guilty all the same.

Entering the bedroom after I’d composed myself, I found V adjusting her dress from the night before while she slipped on her shoes.

“C’mere,” I said.

She walked toward me and let me tuck her in my arms. “You’re a stubborn pain in the ass. You know that, Bo?”

“Yeah. I get that. I’m sorry,” I mumbled against her hair. “Still need more work on that
bein’ a hothead
thing. I get defensive, and then it’s either fight or flight. And I’m trained to fight.”

“What are you fighting against?”

I released a long sigh. “I’m scared. Scared I don’t fit anywhere anymore, maybe not even with my family. Scared my mom and dad will be disappointed in me.”

She rubbed a hand up and down my chest. “You talked to them?”

“Well, you didn’t give me much choice, babe.”

“You’re a grown man. You make your own choices.”

I chuckled as she tried to break free of my hold, cinching my arms tighter. “I see that.” Tipping up her chin, I kissed her temple, her cheeks, her slowly lowering eyelids. “What aren’t you telling me about yourself, V?”

She managed to worm her way from my embrace and backed away from me. “It’s not as if I wouldn’t tell you if I could.”

My instincts on high alert, I stalked toward her. I stopped when she put up her hands to ward me off. “You can tell me anything. I’ll protect you.”

“Not that easy.” A sad smile barely lifted the corners of her lips.

“How do you know if you haven’t tried?”

“Now you’re beginning to sound like me.”

“God forbid.” I frowned at her.

“Bo, if I let you all the way in, I don’t know if there’s any way out for either of us.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means leave it alone.” She broke the distance between us to stroke my face. “But don’t leave me alone.”

“Dammit, V. I want all of you.” My arms wrapped around her waist, I drew her to me. “I want all of you.”

A small frown burrowed between her eyebrows. “I’ll give you everything I can. I hope it’s enough.”

I pressed her face against my neck. “I’ll take anything you give me. Damn, woman, I don’t know what kind of spell you put on me.”

“I think that’s called sex.”

Scooping her against me with my hands around her bottom, I grumbled, “More than sex. You know it.”

We stood in the middle of my bedroom, holding each other. Her warmth raised my temperature, but something about this intimacy put a stopper on my hungry howling need.

“I’m going home to Cheraw next weekend.”

“You are?” She drew back, peering up at me.

“My ma twisted my arm. My dad threatened me. He’s a hardass.”

“Guess I know where you get that from then.” She winked at me as she began gathering her purse.

Rubbing a hand over the back of my neck, I asked, “Do you think you’d want to come with me?”

Veronica halted, her back turned to me. “Do you want me to?”

“Not to go all therapist on my late reunion, but as my lover. Yeah, I do.”

She shrugged, peeking at me over her shoulder. “Sure.”

“Sure?” I swooped her up into my arms, growling. “Sure? Woman. I just asked you to walk through fire and meet my parents.”

She kicked her legs, laughing as her head fell back. “I said okay, didn’t I?”

“No nooky at my folks’ house though.”

“We’ll see about that.” Her foxy hair slithered over my forearms.

“You gonna get me in trouble?” I bit her earlobe and she shuddered.

“No, sir.”

Immediate trouble in my sweats.
Imminent explosion.

“Okay. First of all, don’t say that to me in front of them.”

She curtly saluted me as I set her on her feet. “Roger that.”

I grabbed her ass when she bent to retrieve her purse. “I’d like to roger this.”

“I . . . I have to get home. I have appointments!” She ended in a squeal.

“I thought you said day of rest.”

“I . . .” She backed away, giggling. “I have to clean and stuff.”

“That doesn’t sound very important.” I advanced on her.

“Bo!” she yelped when I almost grabbed her.

“Don’t test me if you wanna get out of my house with your panties intact.”

“What panties?”

I chased V outside, laughing—
laughing
—when I unlocked and opened her car door. I kissed her against it until she clung to me.

Pulling her head back with a final bite on my lower lip, she gasped. “Neighbors are watching.”

“I still have my sniper rifle.”

“You are wicked.”

“You know it.”

With V safely ensconced in her Jag, I strafed the staring neighbors with a glare.

I knocked on her window, and she rolled it down as she amped up the A/C. “Call me when you get home?”

“Yes, sir.” She smirked.

****

The week filed past. I called my parents again to make sure they were okay with me bringing V home. As expected, Ma immediately started talking wedding plans. The last time I’d brought a girl home had been senior prom ten years ago. Certainly never a twenty-nine-year-old woman.

I tried to talk Ma down.

Dad tried to talk her down.

It was
life as normal
, as I hadn’t experienced for too many years.

Saturday morning I collected V after going an entire week without her.

She stepped outside into the mid-May sun and my body instantly reacted to the sight of her in a pair of tight black jeans, her hair flowing loose.

How the hell has she gotten hotter?

It was going to be a damn long weekend if I had to keep my hands off her.

The kiss on her steps set my skin on fire and rocked me to the soles of my feet.

When I forced myself to draw back, she followed with nips of her lips along my jawline.

“I’ve been saving that up for a whole week,” she whispered.

“Fuck, babe. You better keep that idea for a couple more days.”

I wanted nothing more than to tow her through the door of her house and pin her right up against it with our clothes thrown off, but I made my way down her steps, her hand in mine.

Stowing her bag on the Triumph, I mentioned, “You pack light.”

Her fingers grazed my all too obvious erection. “You don’t.”

I placed a helmet on her head, skimming her hair over her shoulders. “I promise you, the only thing you’ll be straddling this weekend is my bike.”

The three-hour ride almost straight north flew by as fast as the changing scenery beside the road. Nerves tightened my stomach at the prospect of seeing my family again, but every time Veronica laughed or shouted something in my ear, those gut-clenching nerves eased a little more. She made me feel like . . . me again. Even lighthearted. By the time we pulled up at my folks’, a grin stretched my mouth, and I couldn’t wait to show V off to them.

I’d just helped her off the bike when the screen door on the rustic red farm style house slapped shut with a bang.

“Beauregard? Is that you, son?”

“WELL, DON’T JUST STAND there, boy. Come give me some sugar!” My mom stood with her arms open in the shade of the porch.

I leaped up the steps and stopped right in front of her. Before I could hug her, she smacked me upside the head with a ringing blow.

“That’s for keepin’ out of touch for so long.” She grabbed me to her, and I held on tight. “And that’s for comin’ home in one piece. You damn fool.”

“I missed you too, Ma.” Missed her so much just the feel of her hug made my throat close in and tears ping to my eyes. I’d dreaded this moment, pined for it just as much.

“Oh, shoot. Don’t make me cry in front of company.” She sniffled against my shirt before peeking around at V.

Stepping back, she squeezed my arms, looking me up and down. “When did you get to be such a bear of a man?”

“I prefer to think of myself as a panther.” I winked at her.

I supposed I did look like a bear next to my mom. She wasn’t exactly dainty, but she certainly wasn’t big either. She had the same dark auburn hair as me, and it glinted blackish red in the sun, a few white strands shooting through the thick heavy bun piled on top of her head. She had a generous smile, an even more generous heart, and one hell of a walloping hand she’d already demonstrated on my head. At least she didn’t hit me on my behind anymore.

“Well, you’re certainly not an old billy goat like your father,” she shouted back through the screen door. “I s’pect he’ll be out in a minute. Probably wants to make you sweat it a little bit more.”

Great. Because I’m not anxious enough already.

“Are you gonna stand there like a lump on a log or introduce me to your lady? I know I raised you with more manners than this.” She thwacked me on the arm to go with the smack on the head.

Good thing I was used to taking all kinds of abuse.

I guided her down the steps and to Veronica, who’d observed the whole downhome reunion from beside my bike. She’d taken off her helmet and shaken out her hair, and it gleamed a sparkling red in the hot spring sunlight.

She looked good enough to eat.

Ma thwacked my other arm. “You just gonna drool all day, or does that tongue still work well enough to talk too?”

V pressed her lips together, obviously hiding a smile. She was gonna get hers later.

“Doctor Veronica Hartley—”

My mom’s eyes brightened and her mouth ovaled when I said
doctor
.

“I’d like you to meet my ma, Hollyn Belle Maverick.”

“I’m gonna hug on ya now that the formalities are over, Doctor Veronica.” With that warning tossed out, Ma pulled V into her embrace and held her close for a moment.

V handled the touchy-feelies well, her eyes shining when they met mine above my mom’s chokehold. “You can just call me Veronica or Ronnie, Mrs. Maverick.”

Ma wrenched back. “Well, the
hell
if you look like a Ronnie—”

I couldn’t agree more.

“So Veronica it is.” Then my mom scowled at my bike, tendrils of hair flopping over her forehead. “You mean to tell me you made your gal ride all the way up here on the back of that death trap, Beauregard?”

I winced with her second use of my full first name. “I’m very careful on it, and it’s not a death trap, it’s a Triumph Blackbird. Besides, V likes it.”

Ma rolled her eyes and snorted.

Leaning down, I kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. I’ll take you out for a spin later.”

“I am
not
gettin’ on the back of that monster.” She batted me away, intent once more on V. Taking both my woman’s hands in hers, she gushed, “Aren’t you just stunning? What you doing with my boy here?”

“I’m a twenty-eight-year-old man, Ma, not a boy.”

She planted double kisses on both my cheeks and squished them, too. “Oh I know it. A big, fine handsome Marine, and I know you’ve had women crawling in and out of your cubbyhole, but no one’s begged you to marry them yet.”

“Jesus. And no one’s talkin’ about marriage now,
Ma.
”

Crack number four landed on my rump, so I guessed I wasn’t too old for that after all. “That’s for takin’ the Lord’s name in vain.”

Where the hell is Dad?

Veronica fucking giggled. Yeah,
giggled.

Saved by the screen door slamming a second time, I turned to watch my father descend the steps. At six foot three, he was as tall as me, his shoulders just as broad. He kept his hair in a brush cut, and the thick dark silver shined. Much like mine, his face was made of firm unforgiving lines, only time and a life well lived had added a few wrinkles that didn’t diminish his straight-edged appeal.

Military was in my family’s bloodline from the time my great-granddaddy enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1918. Being a Devil Dog showed in my dad’s stature.

“Well, how-do, New Miss.” He sent a half bow and a big smile at Veronica, all the while never sparing a glance at me.

“Dad, this is Veronica Hartley—” I started.

Ma cut in. “She’s a doctor!”

“And V, my dad, Renny.”

“A doctor in the family. Well, how about that then?” He boomed a big laugh as he shook her hand.

“
Uhh,
we’re not married or anything.” I interjected.

“We know that, Bo. What was I just sayin’?” Ma crossed her arms over her bosom and scowled at me.

“Oh well, he’s had more women than a tomcat but none of them stick, you see?” Dad continued to help Ma rip my already questionable reputation to shreds all to V’s visible amusement.

I silently fumed as I watched the proceedings. Veronica’s lips quirked.

“Welcome, Miss Veronica, at any rate. I won’t subject you to a hug, I’m sure the wife has handled you enough already.”

“And Imma take a broomstick
handle
to your backside, Renny, next time you call me
the wife
.”

With a huff and her nose in the air, Ma took Veronica’s hand in hers. “You come on inside with me. Men don’t have enough sense to know when to stop from makin’ fools of themselves, and they
nevah
figured out when a woman has had too much of the sun and just needs a quiet cool off with a nice little drink of somethin’ strong.”

My dad and I planted ourselves side by side as we watched our women retreat into the coolness of the house.

As soon as the front door closed, Dad pulled me to him with a hard hug that hit me right in the heart.

“I opted out, Pop.” My voice strained, muffled against his shoulder.

“You think that’s a good enough reason to stay away?” Thrusting me an arm’s length away, he squinted at me. “I reckon you had a damn good reason for it. Only thing I care about is you don’t opt out of this life.”

I’d been close to that too, a time or two. Some things my parents didn’t need to know.

His rough hard hands clasped the sides of my face. “Don’t know why you thought you couldn’t come home, but I sure as hell hope you aren’t ashamed. I understand you got in some squirrely situations. You may have killed people you didn’t want to.”

My gaze locked on his, I didn’t flinch from the truth of his words.

“You watched good men die. Your men.”

A watery skein of tears immediately clouded my vision. I blinked them back.

His big hand reached around, and he took me against his shoulder as he patted my back. “You’re not the first. You won’t be the last. Doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to hurt. But you always come home to us, hear me?”

I finally let a few tears leak out, my shoulders shaking.

He didn’t let me go. He just held me until I composed myself. “It’s the fucking war, son, and you survived it. Damn glad you did, Bo. Damn glad.”

When we parted, we both knuckled beneath our eyes. I took my first deep breath in ages—accepted, welcomed by my family, with V by my side.

Dad slung an arm around my shoulders. “What say we head in and put a stop to them drinking through the all the bottles in the sideboard before they cackle the house down around our ears?”

Just then a burst of feminine laughter rolled out through the open windows.

“Sounds like we’re too late.”

“I got a good bottle of whiskey. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

We found them in the kitchen with the bottle of fanc
y
rosé
wine V had brought. It was about two-thirds diminished already. I dropped my and V’s bags on the floor and accepted a tumbler of whiskey from my dad. The four of us clinked glasses, and as evening rolled in with the rumble of thick thunder and a flash of summer heat lightning, Ma moved from the stove to the fridge, laying out homemade southern nibbles: pickled green beans from her garden and pimento cheese spread on fresh baked bread.

The conversation flowed like the drinks: on tap. Dad got up to help Ma prepare dinner and V offered her assistance but was quickly shooed away to the living room with me bum-rushed after her.

The Cracker Barrel house was virtually the same as when I’d grown up. Gingham curtains, shelves lined with knick-knacks, dark wood paneling, and thick carpets that caused shocks from static electricity.

Ma hung her head outside the kitchen. “Y’all just go on and freshen up now. But don’t you get fresh with each other. I put Doctor Hartley in Lacy’s old room, and you’re in yours, Beauregard.”

“Told you no hanky-panky here,” I grumbled, leading the way upstairs.

“I can’t believe I just heard you say hanky-panky.”

“Wiseass.” I squeezed a helping of Veronica’s ass as soon as my mom’s head disappeared back inside the kitchen.

****

Ma gave us all of half an hour to
freshen up
before she called us down from the bottom of the stairs. Thirty minutes was plenty of time to get up to no good in her estimation. She was right. No sooner did I show V to Lacy’s bedroom than I had the door shut and her backed against it.

Her soft moan had caressed my lips, and I burrowed a hand underneath her hair to hold her head at the angle I wanted. With my tongue tasting along the side of hers, I pressed her legs open until her hips cradled my groin.

The kiss became feverish. I only broke away when I was in danger of groaning too loudly. My pelvis continued to kick against her as my gaze locked on her low-hooded eyes.

We hadn’t fucked since the wild kitchen sex last week and the strain of not being with V showed on my face and definitely inside my jeans. The damn zipper dug into my cock.

I’d groped down to her ass. “Wanna fuck you so hard right now.”

“Oh yeah? How would you take me?” She’d reached low, brushing the back of her hand against the bulging fly of my pants.

I’d licked my way between her lips again.

“Would you rip my jeans down to my thighs?” She kissed the side of my neck where the tendons were taut. “Open my legs and lift me up onto your hot cock?”

I swallowed roughly.

“Slam me against the door and hold me up as you thrust that delicious dick deep inside me?” Arching her back, she drew my attention to the large mounds of her tits as she undulated against the door.

Dragging her leg over my hip, I’d grinded into her. “I’d fuck your hot little pussy up and down my cock until you screamed my name, then I’d carry you to the bed, turn you over, lift up your hips, and screw you doggy-style until you climbed the walls. I’d pull out and come all over your ass and back.” I thrust against her hard, my cock on the edge of explosion.

She slipped sideways from under me with a naughty grin. “Too bad you can’t.”

A raw laugh chugging from me, I’d rubbed a hand across my mouth. “What am I supposed to do with this now?” I glanced down at the thickness stretching my jeans.

Shoving me toward the door, she’d smirked. “Ever heard of a cold shower?”

After Ma called for us, I collected V from my sis’s old bedroom. She stopped me at the threshold with a hand braced against my chest and a smile on her lips.

“Not so fast, hot stuff. You’re not getting back into this bedroom with me. I’m not risking you trying to get into my pants again. We don’t want to get in trouble with your parents, remember?”

I let out a frustrated groan, one that dragged on when I saw she’d fluffed out her hair and changed into a simple sundress that accentuated all her curves.

Downstairs in the large kitchen, Ma reigned over the stove while Dad manned the knife, chopping vegetables on command. I started mixing and pouring drinks, and Ma put V to work setting the table that sat in the middle of the room, long bench style seats on either side of it.

A horn sounded in the driveway, and I rushed outside to see my older brother Shane get out of his truck.

“Bo!”

We sprinted toward each other. I’d just reached out to grab him to me when he drew back his fist and planted it in the pit of my stomach.