Page 25 of Bound by Vengeance
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO COME,” Austyn says from the door, a large bag hanging off her shoulder.
“Nothing more I’d like to do than hang out at a fuckin’ hair place.”
She laughs. I love the damn sound of it. It was missed for so long. I’d do whatever is needed to keep it.
“Sure. Maybe you can get in the chair and I’ll give you some highlights.”
“Hell no.”
She laughs harder, and I suck it in, inhaling it like a drug. Like a concoction I never want to go away. It’s heady and intoxicating.
She reaches up high and runs her fingers through my hair, sending a shock from my scalp to my fucking boots. “It could use a trim.”
My breathing comes quicker. This holding back shit is harder than I ever thought it would be. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t just pull her to me and take what I want.
She removes her hand, taking the sensations with her. “Come on; I don’t want to be late.”
“JUST THINK, we get to do that all again tomorrow.” Austyn throws her head back to the passenger side headrest, happiness radiating off her in waves.
She loves her job. Full-out loves it. She talks with the people there like she’s known them for years. It may all be superficial shit that doesn’t get to the core of who she is, but that doesn’t matter. How she deals with so many people all the time is admirable. There’s no way in hell I’d be able to do that shit.
“That blue-haired bitty needed to get laid.”
Her laugh fills the car. “Yeah, she’s been widowed for years and always has something to say. When she told you all that ink made you look like a road map, I died. Then you told her it was a window to your soul.” Tears stream from her eyes as she continues to laugh loudly.
“They are.”
She brings her hand to her chest, holding it there. “You’re too much.”
“Nah, just the right enough of much.”
She shakes her head. “You have any plans tonight?”
On a shrug, I answer, “Depends on what you’re doin’.”
“Emery has something with her mom, so do you want to pick up some food and just hang out?”
“Let me guess, you want Chinese.”
Her head whips toward me. “How did you know that?”
“You want Hawaiian chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls.”
She gapes at me. It brings me satisfaction that she doesn’t think I know her. How wrong she is.
My attention has been on her for years. I remember everything, and some things she probably doesn’t want me to know. I don’t give a shit.
“Holy shit,” she breathes out in this sexy way that has my cock reacting. “How do you know that?”
Turning toward her, I tip my lip up in a smirk. “I know what’s important.”
She moves, focusing her attention out the windshield.
I’ll make her see … eventually.
We get the Chinese. We eat the Chinese. She’s quiet during dinner, and when I suggest we watch a movie and pick one with The Rock in it, her eyes widen in shock once more. She’s loved his movies forever, it seems.
That leads us to me on one side of the couch, lying down, and her on the other side, both watching the movie. In the same space, together, but not.
