Page 84 of Whips and Chains
Our gazes met in the dim light, and I was sure mine were begging him for more.
My entire body was on fire. From my toes to my scalp, and all because he was too close, right there, so damn beautiful and funny and sweet and sexy and I wanted him.
He groaned and dragged me against him by my throat, pushing his mouth down on mine. He kissed me deep and slow, even though I wanted it fast and hard.
But I had wanted to give him that control, and now he was taking it in the way he wanted, so I didn’t get a say in the matter.
He led, and I followed.
His tongue demanded entrance to my mouth, stroking my lips. He tasted of salt and sweetness, and I sucked in deep breaths through my nose, each one imprinting his scent on my brain until I knew I could never forget it, even if I lived to be Grandma Ruth’s age.
God, I hoped he was still kissing me like this when I was in my eighties. I hoped he was kissing me like this until the day I died. My head spun, my body all feeling and no thought. Light and breezy and so blissed-out I wanted to stand like this, kissing in his arms forever.
Somebody cleared their throat nearby, and we both jumped apart like we were high school kids who’d been caught making out behind the bleachers.
Heat rushed to my throat, and I wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment at being caught by his mom or if it was because he’d been squeezing it while we’d kissed.
I rubbed my hand over the spot absentmindedly, and X’s gaze narrowed in on the movement, his teeth clenching.
I quickly dropped my hand and smiled at his mother. “Your garden is beautiful.”
She chuckled. “Not sure the two of you have seen much of anything but close-ups of each other’s faces, but thank you. It’s a lot nicer in the sun. I hope you’ll come over one day for lunch, maybe? I can show you all my plant babies.”
X chuckled. “We just had a regular old plain backyard when we were kids. Nothing but grass and a pool. Then we all grew up, and Mom replaced us kids with her plants.”
He grinned at her, letting her know he was just teasing, but clearly she had already heard this mock complaint from him or his siblings before.
She smacked his arm. “I didn’t replace you. I just…landscaped. I no longer had five little boys running around, needing a backyard football field.” She turned to me. “Can you imagine if I’d tried to have nice gardens when they were kids? They would have been digging in them to find caterpillars and making forts beneath bushes or trampling the flowers when they kicked the ball into them…”
X squinted at her. “How is that any different than when we play football out here now?”
She gave him a dirty look. “That’s not an everyday occurrence anymore, so I can live with the odd occasion one of you dropkicks a pigskin into my rose bushes.”
A fond affection passed between them, one that told me everything I needed to know about their relationship. She loved her son with her whole heart. And he loved her right back.
This was not the dynamic I’d been expecting from X’s family. Not even a little bit.
I gazed around the darkened yard and then frowned at X. “You said you had a pool when you were kids. Did you get rid of it?”
An awkward silence settled over us. Jeanie glanced at X, biting her bottom lip. He was staring off into the darkness again, his entire body locked up tight.
I instantly knew I’d said something wrong. I just didn’t know what. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”
I couldn’t continue because I didn’t really know what I was apologizing for. Only that I’d made the two of them uncomfortable and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Jeanie caught my arm and squeezed it. “No, it’s okay. You didn’t know. Knox brought it up. It was an innocent question.”
She glanced at her son; her teeth pressed into her bottom lip. She was clearly concerned by his reaction, and I was too. When he didn’t say anything, she glanced at me.
“We had it removed about a decade ago. It just…it held some not very nice memories, and none of us had used it in a very long time before we decided to pull it out.”
X snaked an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest again.
I wrapped my arms around his middle, hugging him back, wishing I hadn’t brought up the topic at all. It had killed the mood completely.
His mom walked away without any fanfare, leaving the two of us alone again.
X rested his head on top of mine. “It’s my fault they had to get rid of the pool. I can’t swim. Not well anyway. They tried to teach me every summer, but I would just sink like a stone until someone yanked me back up. They never gave up, but I remember my father always being so baffled as to why I was so bad. My brothers all picked it up and were swimminglaps around me while I was the eldest and forever stuck in the shallow end.”
