Page 88 of A Reckless Memory

It didn’t matter. I’d dabbled with millions before, and nothing came of it but regrets. “Like I said, my account is as empty as it was yesterday, and I’m sure Cody and your brothers are going to work with Lorenzo to fight it.”

“Daddy always said people thought he looked like a dumb cowboy, and he made millions off their arrogant assumptions. There’ll be very few if any, legal loopholes my brothers can maneuver through.”

“Your brothers are all Barnaby Knight’s kids. If there’s a way, they’ll find it.”

Her breathing was steady. I was content to hold her, yet I wouldn’t fault her if she told me to leave. Somehow, the blame was at home on my shoulders.

“You’re going to leave,” she said. “You don’t like it in Crocus Valley.”

I was in Crocus Valley for her. “I’m not going anywhere yet.”

“There it is. You said it again.”

Weary of this whole fucking argument, I shook my head. “What again?”

She rolled to face me. “Whatever you might think, you speak like it’s temporary. You’re not leaving right now. You’re not going anywhere yet.”

“I’ve never known where I was going to be a year from any moment since I left home. I haven’t had a place that felt like a home since my mama died.” The trailer, Aggie’s house, they weren’t filled with my things. They weren’t mine. Just like the money wasn’t mine yet. I wasn’t planning my future with words said by a lawyer I’d only met when Barns made me sign the contract to take payments with the final and biggest installment after I married Aggie. “I’m talking like I always talk.”

“You’ll have so many options when that money goes through—and it will. Daddy would’ve made sure of it.”

In her words, she was saying she was afraid I would leave her. Her vulnerability was an arrow straight through my heart. She wasn’t asking for me to stay. She wouldn’t beg. Not Agatha Knight. But she assumed I wouldn’t choose her.

“Aggie. I’m right here. With you. I don’t have to be, but I am because you are where I want to be.” I drifted my hands up her shirt, finally touching warm satin skin. I didn’t have anything to offer her—and when I did, it’d be her family’s money. A windfall that should’ve gone to her and her brothers. For now, I didn’t have anything to give her but myself.

Laying my lips on hers, I tested her responsiveness. I’d back off if she wasn’t into it, but she melted against me like she needed reassurance that I wasn’t going anywhere.

I didn’t know until this moment how much I meant what I said. I was with her because I wanted to be. No other reason. There’d always been reasons for my relationships in the past. They’d been more like strategy, no matter how much I told myself differently.

“I’d like to be inside you,” I said against her lips, giving her the time to tell me no, this was inappropriate. But I had to show her I was choosing her. I could’ve left that day I arrived at her house on Crocus Lane, but I didn’t. Because of her.

I felt her nod at the same time she tugged my shirt from my pants. We were a frenzy of movement, stripping each other under the blankets. I didn’t toss the covers off. They added to the sense of privacy. Only us, in the dark, together.

Finally, we were both naked, and I was positioned between her legs, my erection prodding against her wet pussy. Undressing was enough to get her ready for me, and that was heady knowledge. I pushed inside of her slowly.

She groaned, then muffled her mouth against my shoulder. I didn’t care if she was loud, but she did. I didn’t need her family to know I was banging their sister after she was distraught.

This was straight fucking. No, there was no foreplay, we were doing plain old missionary, but nothing was between us. We were together, and that was what I wanted to tell her.

I rocked my hips slowly, loving the way she gripped me, the building demand in the answering roll of her body.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, placing a kiss next to her mouth. “Okay?”

“Okay,” she echoed, lacking conviction.

“This means something.” I punched my pelvis forward. “You mean something to me. You haven’t been a way to pass time while I’m down on my luck.”

I hitched one of her legs up to hit the place guaranteed to make her feel good. She moaned and stuffed her hands into my hair, bringing my head down to smash her mouth against mine. She swept her tongue inside, meeting mine in a frenzy. I picked up the pace to match, catching her needy pants in my mouth.

I kicked a knee to the side, widening her legs even more, knowing the friction of her clit against my body would help her hit her peak. Her mouth dropped open, and I nibbled on her lower lip.

“You’re mine, Agatha Knight. This pussy is mine, and I’m not going anywhere.”

With a gasp, she hit her climax. I swallowed all the sound I could as she shook through her orgasm.

“Fuck, Aggie,” I hissed. My strokes grew erratic, lightning building in my cock until I blew. I curled around her, smothering my groans and grunts with her hair. Her heels were planted into my hips as she ground against me.

The need to be quiet only amped up the intensity, like something inside me got off on trying not to be caught, while at the same time, I wished her brothers trusted how much their sister meant to me.

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