More Than Lies (40 page)

“I.” She pauses chewing on her lip as if searching for the right words. There isn’t a right or wrong answer. She just needs to say how she felt watching it. She doesn’t keep me in suspense too long. “I might have liked it.”

“I got that already because you want to watch it again. Tell me how you saw the woman in the video, Tara. How did you see yourself?”

“Sexy.” And so much more, baby, you just have no idea.

“What else?” Her eyes sparkle. This is good.

“I think I’d do her.” A laugh bursts out of my lips. Tara smiles and I bring her toward my lips to kiss her.

“I guarantee you, I’d do her.” I kiss her again. “Want a shower?”

“No, but it beats taking one in the morning so yeah.”

My eyes peak open. Light filters in through the white shimmering curtains a few feet away from the bed. From the bright sun, I can tell I’ve slept later than usual. When I glance up, looking at the small digital clock on the bedside table, I see it’s a quarter till eight in the morning. Not too bad for all we did last night.

My mind recounts, remembering it all, especially the recording Shawn took on his phone. Oh my God, I can’t believe I let him do that. Why do I not feel ashamed? Shouldn’t I? Maybe even just a little bit. I don’t though. Not after watching it. It was hot and the way it made me feel about myself, I can’t even explain. I don’t know what to say. Do I thank him? Shouldn’t I have always seen myself that way?

The way I easily let how other people saw me affect how I viewed myself is a little jacked up now that I think about it. On the bright side, those feelings are gone. Vanished. I no longer care what my mother or Preston think, or anyone else for that matter, but me. Shawn did that. He opened my eyes. So now instead of focusing on the imperfections, and I do have them, we all have them, I see the pretty first.

Throwing the covers off of my naked body, I sit up and then swing my legs off of the bed and stand. Walking around the foot of the bed, I start to scan the floor for my panties. My eyes widen at the mess. Would it have been so hard to toss clothes in one direction? No, I don’t think so. Our clothes are everywhere and screaming at me to pick them up.

Seeing my panties near the end of the bed on Shawn’s side, I bend and scoop them up fast and pull them up my legs as I stand again. I would rather have put on a clean pair, but my bags are in another room. I’ll have to dress in what I was wearing yesterday so I can go get them. 

“I think I might rather have that sexy body between my thighs today than my four-wheeler.”

I look up to a set of brown eyes glued to my chest.

“My thighs are a bit lower.” His eyes glance up to mine as his smile widens. “You’re cheery this morning for someone that is not a morning person.”

“You rode my dick so hard last night that I slept like a baby and now I’m well rested.”

“Me?” I question. “I’m pretty sure I’m the one that was getting pounded. Between our amateur porno hour and when you decided to do me in the shower...I was the one that was getting ridden hard.”

“Get back in bed, baby, and I’ll do it again.” His lips turn up even more.

“This shop.” I grab my panty covered crotch. “Is closed for the day. I’m sore.” Unbelievable. The mother effer’s eyes sparkle.

“So you’ll be feeling me all day then.” I will not reply to that. I turn my back to him and continue searching for my clothes. 

“The trails open in ten minutes. Let’s get dressed, wake the others, and get going.”

I’m so ready to get into my machine and drive for a few hours. I’m hoping I can clear my head enough that I’ll be able to make some headway with my current work in progress. I haven’t written in a while. My mind is such a jumbled mess. I need silence and freedom inside my brain.

“All right.” I hear the tussling of covers. Seconds later hands are wrapping around my waist and my bare back connects with the hard plains of Shawn’s chest and abdomen. My eyes close for a brief moment to savor the feel. 

His face is parallel to mine. I can feel his jaw open and close a few times like he wants to speak but then doesn’t. After a beat, he kisses me on the cheek and lets me go. I turn around but he’s done the same and grabs his duffle bag. I finish dressing and exit the room to go put clean undies and my riding gear on.

The house is quiet when I make my way through. Everyone must have gone home last night.

As I’m passing through the living room, a mop of dark hair attached to man’s body catches my attention. It’s Shane and he’s lying face down on the couch. I can’t see his face, but I know this because of the ink work all over his back and side. Most people don’t know Shane has this many tattoos. It’s rare that you see him with his shirt off anymore. His back and shoulders are covered in ink with varied designs. There is an angel, she’s the biggest and most beautiful of all the tattoos and she hovers below his neckline between his shoulder blades and there are lyrics that surround her in script writing. They’re hard to read. Mainly because the angel is positioned as if she is in front, covering some of the words.

The one that always catches my attention first is the tattoo of the girls name written in a slanted design across his ribs and wrapping around his side. It spells, Whitney, in big letters. I never remember her until I see his tattoos, then my heart breaks for Shane.

I continue, not wanting to wake him up yet. He sent us a group text late yesterday evening telling us it would be late last night or even this morning before he and Kylie arrived. A pediatric case he was involved in ran into complications so he wasn’t able to leave the hospital when he originally thought he would. Like his dad, Shane is following in Bill’s footsteps and plans to do a fellowship in Cardiology when he finishes up his residency. The only difference is Shane wants to work with children and become a Pediatric physician.

When I reach the bedroom that my clothes are in, I open the door softly and walk in. Mason is sprawled out on his stomach on one of the top bunks. Matt, he is buried under the covers. The only thing you can see from the top bunk above my bed is a lump forming a body.

I look to Shawn’s bed. It’s been slept in, but no one is in it now. I assume it was Preston. His stuff is lying on the floor next to the bunk.

Remembering why I came in here, I walk to my bed and duck underneath, pulling my stuff to the edge. From my bag I grab a clean pair of panties, sports bra, and socks. Next, I turn and head toward the closet. When I open the door I take my riding pants off of the hanger. Next I pull one of my riding jerseys off another hanger and close the door back.

“Mase. Matt.” I call my friend’s names. “Come on guys, get up. We leave in five minutes.” We won’t be leaving that soon, but if I tell the guys to be ready in thirty minutes, they won’t get out of bed before that time and then it’ll be an hour before we get out of the house.

I hear them grumble as I leave the room.

The light in the hall bathroom is on, that’s probably where Preston is so I go into the laundry room to change.

After I strip down, I toss my dirty clothes in the baskets then pull on a clean pair of panties and my dark riding pants. Once I have the strips fastened, I put on my sports bra. As I’m pulling the zipper up, closing up my girls, I hear a voice behind me.

“Where have you been?” It’s Preston. I twist at the waist, turning to eye him critically and wondering how long he’s been standing there as I’ve been dressing. Yesterday, the way he is looking me up and down would have made me uncomfortable in my own skin. This is an uncomfortable situation, but not because I care how he’s viewing me. I’d rather him not view me at all. Quickly, I grab my jersey and pull it over my head covering the top half of my body.

“I just woke up.” It’s none of his business where I was. “We’ll be leaving soon. Do you want to come riding with us or stick around here?” Please say, stay here.

“I’ll come, I guess.” He doesn’t sound excited. “What’s the plan? Putt around on an ATV for a few hours.” Not even close, dude. I clamp down on my bottom lip to suppress a laugh. He’s in for a treat if he thinks all we do is putt around as he calls it.

“The only time we’re going less the twenty miles an hour is when going through a high traffic zone that has speed limits or when stopping.” I grab my socks from off the top of the dryer and start to walk past him. I won’t put on my boots and other gear until everyone is ready to leave. “You’ll have fun. It’s a blast being out on the trails.”

“Guess I’ll find out soon enough.” Yes he will.

“You should probably change though. The Georgia clay here will ruin those jeans and that shirt.” I know designer jeans and those came straight out of The Buckle. I turn, facing him, but still walking backwards. “Did you by chance bring anything that you don’t mind getting messed up and extremely dirty?”

“No. Why would a little dirt ruin my clothes?” He can either take my word for it or find out for himself. Either way, I really don’t give a rat’s behind.

“It’s not just a little dirt. Look, I’m not telling you what to do. Wear what you want. It was just a suggestion.” After what I heard him say about me last night, I should let him ruin his stuff.

I turn back around, running smack into a hard chest, a bare chest. I look up to find a set of blue-green eyes looking down at me.

“Sorry, precious.” Shane laughs. That tells me he was going to let me run into him on purpose.

“No, you’re not.” I smile. “Shane, this is Preston.” I throw my thumb over my shoulder in the direction behind me. With that, I walk around Shane and head toward the kitchen.

When I walk in, Shawn’s back is to me. He’s packing drinks into a cooler. He’s dressed in a pair of black riding pants, but lacks the jersey. His beautiful inked back is on display for me to admire. So I do. I prop up against the door frame and watch him.

Man he is freakin’ fine. Too fine.

“I can feel your eyes on me.” Busted. He peaks over his shoulder. A smile forms on his lips then falls away seconds later as his eyes move past me. I look over as Preston walks up next to me.

Remembering Shawn’s promise from last night, I’m on alert. It’s not that I care if Shawn beats the crap out of him, but I don’t want to deal with my parents over it. Pushing myself off, I walk toward him and slowly shake my head. When he doesn’t look like he’s going to mellow anytime soon, I mouth, “Play nice.” That only causes him to breathe hard.

“Why don’t you finish getting dressed and go kick Mase and Matt out of bed while you’re at it? I’ll take care of this.” I place my hand on the cooler. He looks at me for a moment and then nods. Seconds later, he exits the kitchen.

“What’s that guy’s problem? He doesn’t seem to like me.” Preston nears me, but doesn’t bother to help me place any of the water or Gatorades into the cooler.

Lazy bastard!

“Nothing. He’s like that with everyone.” Oh, please let today end without any fights.

I don’t say anything else. Instead, I finish packing the drinks and load snacks and pre-made sandwiches into another cooler. We’ll eat lunch somewhere on the trail and come in at dusk for dinner.

It’s been three hours. Three mother effin’ hours of being bombarded by everyone with non-stop complaining from Preston.
Taralynn, slow down. You almost hit that tree. You’re going to get us killed
. Why did he have to come and ruin my fun? I know what I’m doing. No one is going to die. Then there are the guys. Shawn especially has been yelling constantly and demanding that I pull over and stop.

My helmet, and my friend’s helmets are equipped with radio devices that allow us to communicate with each other. Preston is using one of the old spare helmets that don’t have that feature. I can hear Preston and I can hear my friends, but he cannot. He doesn’t know they can hear him and they’re all pretty pissed off that he’s constantly yelling at me for no reason.

“Pull the fuck over, Tara.” That was Shawn. I’ve lost count how many times he’s said that exact phrase.

I’m in front of everyone, leading the way, so I’ve chosen not to stop. Stopping will get Preston in a whole world of hurt. I can’t let that happen on my watch.

“Can you please send that asshole packing? He’s affecting my fun.” Mason’s voice comes out labored. Whereas I’m in a side-by-side and Shawn is on a four-wheeler, Mase and Matt are on dirt bikes. Shane and Kylie didn’t come out riding with us when we left earlier this morning. They had only arrived a few hours before we woke up, so he went to his room and crashed back out.