Page 42 of Roads Behind Us
“Athena will see,” I said.
He shook his head. “Nope. She already ate. She’s gone to help Rye in the barn.”
That little… fixer-upper. My hands gripped his biceps. “Does she know? She can’t know!”
“She doesn’t know anything. I didn’t come home last night and sit her down to tell her how you fucked my face and came in my mouth.”
“Bax!”
“It’s just us here, Beatrice Baker. Just you and me.”
He stole a quick kiss, and the smile dawning on his face as he pulled back was like the sun coming out to shine after a brutal thunderstorm. It was like he’d just realized he’d given himself permission to kiss me, and that realization freed him somehow.
“Sit and I’ll make you a plate,” he said, but he looked to the right, where a big Mexican spread sat waiting beneath his dated, dark-walnut cupboards, complete with plantains, rice, and sour cream, and his smile faded into perplexion. “Or how ’bout I sit and you make our plates? I don’t think I can carry all that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sit your ass down.”
Chapter Fourteen
Bax
Bea got to work, loading up two plates with both chicken and pork tamales still wrapped in their steaming cornhusk casings with all the delicious fixings that Athena had prepared and set out for us, and I sat at the table and listened to the calming sound of Bea’s voice as she talked.
“I love tamales. I’ve never tried to make them on my own, but I ate them a lot as a kid ’cause our neighbor made them all the time, and she knew how much my dad loved ’em. We traded with her. My mama wasn’t as good a cook as Mrs. Ortiz, but she made really good greens and fried mushrooms, and she could whip up a mean Tater-Tot casserole when she wanted to. And soup.”
She smirked, reminding me of the night we’d shared, and set a plate in front of me, slid into the chair next to mine with her own plate, and then asked, “Why would Athena invite me to lunch but then not eat with me?”
Raising an eyebrow, I unwrapped my first tamale and dug into it with my fork. “I think you may have fallen victim to Rye and Athena’s matchmakin’ services.”
“But… Really? I didn’t think she’d want that. I mean, the other day when I said I didn’t like my nickname, she jumped down my throat a little about her mom’s name.”
“I haven’t said anything to her about you. I’m not sure what I’d even say. She can be protective of Candy, but she also worries about me. Maybe she saw you and thought one plus one could equal two.”
“It can’t,” she said. “I work for your brother.”
I nodded, all too aware of that fact.
“And I live seven hours away.”
“Athena’s just a kid,” I said. “She doesn’t get it.” I tried not to let the disappointment I was feeling show in my eyes hearing her say it, but I had my own reasons Bax and Bea sitting in a tree wasn’t a good idea.
But maybe Athena wasn’t the only one guilty of doing a little first-grade math. It seemed I’d gotten the answer wrong, too, because I found myself wishing Bea could stay after the cabins were done.
Maybe we could… What? She’d only been here a few days. What exactly did I want from her?
Sex for one thing. Good God, tasting her wasn’t enough. I wanted to fuck her.
Hard.
It was like that one little taste and the smooth rolling of her body over my mouth had awoken the man I used to be. Before life happened and broke me down.
“Where’d you go?” she asked, and I looked at her before I realized what I was doing.
“Huh?”
“You got quiet all of a sudden.”
“Nowhere. I’m here.”
