Because of Low (15 page)

“But you were abandoned. By a man who was too stupid to know what an awesome daughter he had and even though your mom was there she wasn’t, not really.”

Larissa’s little face today as she cried because I was leaving her came back to me and a tear rolled down my face.

“Hey,” he reached out and caught my tear, “What’s this? I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

I shook my head and grabbed his wrist. “No, you didn’t. It’s Larissa,” I stopped myself. I needed to tell someone. I needed to talk about this. And Cage knew. He knew what I’d lived through. He’d understand.

“I met her father today.”

Cage’s eyes opened wider.

“Really?”

“Yep, and he’s married and old. Says he’s leaving his wife and going to come take Larissa and Tawny away from it all.”

Cage didn’t ask me what was wrong with this. He didn’t have to. He’d held me when I’d found out my father had skipped town with his real family.

“Aw, damn,” he whispered.

I nodded.

“Maybe he will Low. Maybe he won’t do to her what your dad did to you.”

I shook my head, “No, don’t you see. If he leaves his wife then Tawny has broken up a marriage. Someone else is heartbroken. He’ll hurt someone either way. He’s married. He’s already promised God he’d cherish his wife. Now he has not one but two families. One of those families will suffer.”

Cage blew out a long breath.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I looked past him toward the door and thought of Marcus sleeping out on the couch. I didn’t want him to catch Cage in here. He still didn’t understand the relationship Cage and I had. This would upset him.

“Thanks for listening to me. But,” I nodded toward the door hating to tell him to leave.

He gave me a sad smile and stood up.

“But I need to get out of here before lover boy catches me.”

“Something like that,” I replied.

He nodded and blew me a kiss before leaving the room.

I lay back down and closed my eyes this time. Saying my fears out loud had helped. Sleep slowly found me.

Fluttery kisses trailed down my face and I turned to the warmth beside me. When Marcus’s clean scent reached my nose I opened my eyes. He wasn’t under the covers with me. That was my first observation. He had on a t-shirt. That was my second observation. His breath smelled minty fresh and with that observation I tucked my head against his shoulder so he couldn’t smell my morning breath.

His chuckle sent shivers through me.

“Why’re you hiding,” his fresh breath tickled my ear.

“I haven’t brushed my teeth,” I mumbled

He laughed out loud this time.

“I’m sure your morning breath is just as sweet as you are.”

“Um, no, trust me it stinks like the rest of the world’s,” I assured him refusing to tilt my face back and look up at him.

“Okay fine hide your face from me but I’ll tell you I don’t like missing out on your sleepy look.”

“My sleepy look?”

“Yes, your sleepy look. When you first open your eyes in the morning you have the sexiest expression. Your eyelids don’t open all the way and those long eyelashes of yours brush your cheeks and your bottom lip is all swollen from nibbling on it in your sleep.”

Wow. Okay I was completely turned on. And I had stinky breath. Fabulous.

I groaned against his chest. “That just makes me want to flip you over and climb on top of you and kiss you senseless.”

“Please by all means be my guest. I won’t stop you.”

Laughing I slapped his chest and sat up.

“You stay put and let me go do a little morning freshen up. Don’t move,” I pointed at him to emphasize my demand before sprinting toward the bathroom and brushing my teeth. Then my hair.

Running back into the bedroom I had to stop and sigh from happiness at the sight he made leaning against the head board. He had on a t-shirt but he was in boxers and his long tanned legs were crossed. And Marcus Hardy’s bare feet were downright sexy.

I lifted my gaze back up to his face and he was smirking.

“Do I meet your approval?”

Laughing I continued over to the bed but my early threat to jump on top of him seemed a little too extreme. Instead, I curled up beside him and tilted my head up at him this time.

“What? No crawling on top of me and having your wild wicked way with me?” The teasing in his voice made my stomach flutter. Feeling slightly brave now he’d brought it up, I threw a leg over his lap and straddled him. His smile disappeared and his eyes flashed with interest.

“Let’s see I believe the next step is this,” I whispered taking his face in my hands and then leaning down and kissing him with small quick pecks all over his lips. Both corners and even the tip of his nose. His hands slid up my outer thighs and underneath my t-shirt to grab my waist. Finding my way back down to his lips I took a small lap at his bottom lip then pulled it into my mouth and sucked. A groan erupted from his chest and his mouth opened and immediately he took over. His tongue tangled with mine while we explored each other. He sucked on my tongue surprising me and I leaned in closer pressing down on him.

We gasped at the same time as the heat that had been pooling between my legs made contact with his obvious arousal. As if my body knew what to do on instinct I rocked against the pressure that was causing wild jolts of pleasure to course through me.

Marcus began breathing hard and his kissing became more intense. His mouth left mine and I cried out as he began kissing down my neck and stopping to nibble and lick at sensitive skin along the way. Something was happening inside of me that scared me but was so exciting I couldn’t stop. I continued rocking and Marcus grip on my waist tightened as he pressed me down even closer to the wonderful pressure.

“AGH, God baby,” his head fell back against the headboard and I paused panting and achy but worried I’d hurt him.

“What,” I managed to ask in a strangled whisper.

He opened his eyes and both his hands left my waist and grabbed my face.

“You. Are. Driving. Me. Crazy.” He took short breaths after each word before claiming my mouth again. I took that as a good thing and rocked against him one more time and then my world fell apart. It was as if someone had lit a bottle rocket between my legs. The scream I knew was mine sounded like it belonged to someone else as I held onto Marcus afraid I’d fall if I let go. What had I done? And could I do it again?

When my heart began to slow down and breathing was once again possible I realized I was wrapped tightly in Marcus’s arms and my head was tucked into the curve of his neck and shoulder. Holy. Cow.

I still had a death grip on Marcus’s arms and I slowly peeled my hands away hoping I hadn’t left fingernail cuts on his skin although I don’t see how I could have kept from it.

What had I done? How could I look at him? What was I supposed to say? Did he think I was insane? I was pretty sure I’d just screamed like a banshee. It was a miracle Cage hadn’t come bursting in. Marcus stroked my hair as if comforting me.

“Low,” his voice was husky.

“Yes,” I replied keeping my face safely buried in his neck.”

“Look at me.”

Aw crap. Slowly I pulled back immediately missing the warmth of my little safe haven.

I lifted my eyes to meet his and a slow sexy smile instantly eased my mind. His eyes were hooded as if he’d just woken up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked holding my gaze.

I felt heat rush to my face.

“Um... I uh,” what did I say? I’m sorry for going crazy in your lap.

“Low,” he reached out and ran his hand through my hair then rested it on my neck.

“Was that your first orgasm?”

Oh.

Well no freaking wonder. I completely understood the fascination with those things now.

Nodding I knew my face flushed even brighter. His grin grew to a full one hundred watt smile. He was obviously very pleased with this. Well, that was good.

“Did you enjoy it?”

I let out a small burst of laughter. He did not just ask me that.

“I’d say the fact I completely acted like a crazy person tells you that I did.”

He chuckled and leaned forward and kissed me once on the lips then leaned back. The friction made me gasp. Oh. He was still... hard. Weren’t they supposed to not be hard anymore once a guy got off... which meant he hadn’t. Oh.

“You uh,” I glanced down praying he didn’t move again because for some reason I was really sensitive.

“I’m okay. Really, really okay,” he said with an amused tone, “I promise.”

My gaze went to his arms and the little red indentions where my nails had bit into him were bright red. I jerked my gaze back to him, “I’m so sorry.”

He raised his eyebrows, “Low, those marks are really sexy. What’re you sorry for? Trust me I’ll wear them with pride.”

Oh.

He cleared his throat and grabbed my waist and moved me off of him.

“I uh, need to go get a shower and if we continue to sit here like this things are going to get a lot more intense,” he explained and leaned over and kissed me one more time before standing up.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. We’ve got somewhere to go today. A friend I’d like you to meet invited us to a thing.”

A thing?

I watched as he walked away. His backside was rather impressive. The boxers he had on hung on his hips and I sighed happily before jumping up to get ready.

Chapter Fifteen

Marcus

Watching Low step out of the bathroom dressed in a red sundress that stopped right above her knee with a pair of cowboy boots on caused me to momentarily forget to breathe. The image of her in my lap, her eyes glazed over with pleasure as she cried out my name was going to make it so hard to move slow. I deserved some sort of award. I could’ve so easily made love to her. She’d have let me. Wait. Did I just say “love”... when had I ever thought of it as making love? It was sex. It’d always been sex. Sometimes really good sex. But just sex. My eyes traveled up to her face. Her hair was parted down the middle and clasped in two low pig tails and draped over each shoulder. Who the hell knew pig tails could be so sexy? Finding her eyes watching me warily I smiled. She was mine.

“Is this okay?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Ah
hell
when did I go and fall in love with her.

“Yeah, you look amazing.”

She beamed at me and I walked over to her and took her hand in mine.

“Where are we going exactly?”

I wanted to surprise her but looking down at her I fought the urge to take her back to my bedroom and lock her in there with me. I’d be able to keep her forever that way.

“You don’t by chance have a thing for rock stars do you?”

She frowned and shook her head slowly.

“No, why?”

I felt a little better but the need to keep her safely tucked away still tugged at me.

“Okay, good. No reason. Come on let’s go do this.”

She laughed and followed me.

The place was packed. Not exactly surprising. I pulled up to the security gate. A guard stepped out of his station and approached my truck. I rolled down my window and waited.

“Can I help you?” he asked frowning down at me.

“Marcus Hardy and guest. My name’s on the list.”

The guard nodded and spoke into his headset, “Got a Marcus Hardy and guest.”

“Let me see some ID,” the guard said somewhat more friendly. I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and handed it to him. He checked it out and handed it back.

“Alright Mr. Hardy when the gate opens take the road around to the right. Park over in the small parking lot. Then the second entrance door will have another guard. He’ll need to see ID again before he lets you inside.”

“Got it, thanks.”

He nodded and stepped back as the gate opened. I started to pull through and glanced over at Willow. She was taking everything in. Her eyes met mine and she grinned.

“We’re about to go back stage for the Jax Stone concert aren’t we?”

I laughed. I guess that was an easy one to guess after all that security stuff in order to enter a private entrance to a civic center crawling with people.

“Lucky guess,” I replied.

She clapped her hands together once and squealed.

“Oh wow! I’ve never been to a concert before and my first one I get to go back stage.”

I pulled into an empty parking spot and turned off the truck before looking at her.

“You have all kinds of vintage rock concert t-shirts,” I pointed out.

She shrugged, “I like them. I figured I’d never actually go to a real concert so I buy them whenever I find one at a thrift store.”

Interesting. I filed that piece of information away for later.

“So your excitement is because it’s a rock concert not because you’re about to meet Jax Stone?” I needed to clarify this for my own peace of mind.

She giggled then raised her eyebrows teasingly, “Wel-l-l-l-l that is kind of cool. I’ve never met anyone famous before.”

Why was I jealous? This was stupid. Jax loved Sadie. He wasn’t going to swoop down and take Low from me. I nodded.

“Okay, fair enough.”

I went around and got Willow out of the truck then we headed for the door. The security guy checked us both out this time. He actually checked Willow out a little too much for my taste. I should have made her change. That get up she had on was damn distracting.

As soon as the door opened Sadie greeted us.

“You made it,” she beamed at me then Willow.

“Yep,” I replied smiling at the excitement in Willow’s eyes as she took in everything around her.

“I’m so glad. Follow me, I want Jax to meet Willow before he goes out. He’s had a little girl and her mother in there the past thirty minutes. It’s a long story but we met her at Sea Breeze Foods this summer and she recognized him even though he was incognito. He gave her his personal card and a promise to get her backstage passes for his concert here. Then he ended up canceling that concert due to some things with me and my family. Anyway, this is his makeup concert and he wanted to make it extra special for her since she has had to wait so long.”