Betting the Bad Boy (16 page)

Damn.

He loved her. He had never stopped loving her and he wondered how that was possible after all they had been through, after what they were going through. After not seeing each other for what seemed like a lifetime.

“You’re doing everything right. Why do you think I want you so bad?”

“I don’t do this for anyone else,” she said. He believed her. He wondered about the men that had been there after him, who she had dated, if there was anyone she considered marrying.

“I know, baby.” He touched her cheek. “Don’t stop.” He had been with other women after he got out of prison. So many of them that first year when he was trying to fill up that empty space inside. But he barely felt anything with them even though many of them had been sexual women who could bring most men to their knees and leave them begging for more. The most he got from them was release. He always compared them with Grace, who wasn’t as skilled as those women, but he felt a hundred times more from her with just a simple touch.

She changed the pressure of her mouth, made her movements a little faster, and he shut his eyes, his brain filled with images of her. He wanted to be inside of her so bad, to see her bouncing on top of him, her face twisted in pleasure. He wanted to feel her squeeze around him as she came. It was taking everything inside him not to strip her bare and push himself inside her, but then it was too late. She had taken him to that point where he couldn’t control himself and he gave out a little shout of warning before he came.

He lay there breathless and spent for a while as she straightened them both up then came back into his arms and snuggled close. “Tonight I’m expecting multiple prolonged orgasms from you.”

He laughed, and reached for than hem of her dress. “Let me give you one now.”

“No.” She slapped his hand away. “Take a nap with me.” And he did. He wrapped his arms around her and fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 13

“How are things going over there?” Judy asked her from across the table in the little coffee shop that had opened up recently in town a couple of days later. “I’ve been wanting to call you, but I thought things might be a little dicey for a while.”

Dicey? She didn’t know how to describe what was going on between her and Duke these past few days. Maybe that was a good word for it. She’d gotten called in to work last night, leaving Duke alone overnight with Ryder for the first time. Duke had not been happy about it and she knew it had nothing to do with him having to look after Ryder or the fact that they wouldn’t share a bed. It was that she was working. Every time she went out the door to earn money, it was like a slap in the face to him. She wasn’t sure why.

She didn’t want his money. She had only ever wanted him.

“Things are…” She trailed off. “They are going as well as can be expected.”

Judy nodded and took a long sip of her coffee. “So you’re sleeping with him.”

“What?” Grace looked around the coffee shop to see if anyone had heard her.

“Oh, come on, Grace.” Judy rolled her eyes. “Don’t act like such a prude now. You’ve got that big hunk of willing-to-murder-for-you man living in your house and you want me to think you’re not sleeping with him. I’m your friend. Why are you holding out on me?”

“I’m not holding out on you. I just don’t think half of Destiny needs to know how I’m spending my evenings.”

Judy grinned at her. “Is it good?” She clutched her chest. “Tell me it’s good. I haven’t seen any action since Roosevelt was in office.”

“You were born forty years after Roosevelt was last in office.”

“I know! Now you know how drastic this dry spell has been. I need to live through you.”

“It’s just sex,” she said in a whisper. “Just really good, really amazing, really intense sex multiple-times-every-night sex.” She had missed him. Last night her body had ached to be with him while she spent those long hours at work. She wouldn’t get the chance to be with him tonight because after she left here she was heading to the hospital out of town for another overnight shift.

“Grace, it can’t be just sex. You don’t do sex without feelings. You don’t do sex at all. It’s like you’ve been saving yourself for him all these years. You can’t tell me you don’t feel anything.”

“Of course I do. But it’s not simple. We can’t just pick up where we left off even if we wanted to. Too much has happened. There has been too much hurt. At night is the only time we can seem to get things right. During the day … During the day … I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me. I’m not sure that he should.”

“Aw, honey.” She reached across the table and squeezed Grace’s hand. “Duke is the type to hold a grudge, isn’t he? He and Colt are buying up half the town.”

“Excuse me?” Grace wasn’t sure she’d heard Judy correctly. “Did you say they’re buying up the town?”

“Yes. They are. He didn’t tell you about it? Duke paid cash for the factory.”

“Patrick Andersen runs that factory.”

“There are rumors going around that he might close it down just for spite.”

“You think he would really do that?” Grace found herself asking. Patrick Andersen had ruined their lives. If Duke couldn’t kill him, the next best thing he could do is take away his livelihood.

*   *   *

Duke watched Lolly as she moved her red checker piece across the board. She was playing against Ryder, who was watching the old woman with a mixture of wonder and mistrust.

He was right not to trust her. The old woman was a notorious cheater when it came to games.

“You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you, convict junior?” She tapped one of her perfectly painted red nails against her chin.

“I’m smart enough not to take my eyes off you,” he countered as he moved his piece to an empty space.

“You shouldn’t take your eyes off me. I’m damn beautiful.”

Ryder just looked up at her, a slow grin spreading across his face.

“What the hell are you smiling at?” She looked over to Levi, who was standing with Shelly, his fingers entwined with hers. Duke didn’t know what was going on between him and their former neighbor but he was pretty sure his brother wasn’t going back to Vegas a single man. He could tell by the way Levi looked at Shelly. “Baby boy,” Lolly called to him. “What are you supposed to say when I tell you I’m beautiful?”

“That God has never made a more beautiful creature and he never ever will,” Levi said, sounding so sincere he deserved an award.

Lolly nodded approvingly and turned to look back at Ryder. “That boy there is full of crap, but you should take a few lessons from him. He’s better with women than your daddy. Ain’t that right, convict?”

“No, ma’am.” Duke shook his head. “Levi is just pretty like a new coat of paint on a rusty car. I’m like a rebuilt engine. And everyone knows that’s what makes things run.”

“Checkmate!” Lolly yelled out as she moved her piece across the board.

“We’re playing checkers.”

“Yeah, what is it I’m supposed to say?”

“King me.”

“Well, then king me, boy!”

Duke’s cell phone rang and he pulled it out to see that it was Jesse, his shop manager, calling him again. “I’ve got to take this.” He stepped out of the room and completely away from the ICU. “If you tell me something is wrong, I’m coming back there just to kick your ass.”

“Nothing is wrong. We just never had you out of the shop for so long. We’ve got a couple of customers who do not want anyone but you working on their cars.”

“Do they think I do every goddamn step of the restoration myself? Everybody in the shop puts their hands on the cars.”

“Yeah, but you’re Duke King. They want to talk to you. They pay extra for your designs. One guy said he didn’t come all the way to Vegas to have one of your underlings do it.”

“Underlings? Did you knock his teeth down his throat?”

“No. He said our two favorite words.”

“Unlimited budget.” Damn. It wasn’t because he needed the money—Duke could do a hell of a lot to a car when there were absolutely no restrictions placed on him. “Fuck.” He had been itching for a project like this for a long time.

“What do you want me to do?”

He thought about it for a long moment. A big part of him wanted to say no. But King’s Customs had been his entire life for so long, and he still got a rush whenever they revealed a gorgeous fully restored car to an elated owner. “Give me his number. But if he’s a prick we’re not doing shit. And I’ll knock his teeth down his throat myself.”

“What should I do about the others who want just you? I’m pretty sure one of them is a Saudi prince. And we’d be a bunch of dumb-asses if we pass up that kind of money.”

Duke felt conflicted. He felt that every time he was on the phone with his shop. Jesse had been there with him since the beginning. They had gone from teenagers wanting to pimp out their rides to celebrities and the über-rich being waitlisted for their services. He never thought he would be away from his shop this long. He missed it.

“They can wait till I get back. I have to be here with my family.” His family was more important.

“I know. But when are you going to be back? It ain’t really King’s Customs without the king.”

He thought about Ryder and Lolly playing checkers in that hospital room and how much he was enjoying being with his family. He’d never experienced this before. He had to make it thirty days here. He had to prove to Grace that he was a good father and he would be damned if he failed at that, but what would come after these thirty days?

Where would they live? Where would Ryder go to school? How would he adapt to his life changing again in such a short amount of time?

He disconnected from Jesse and walked back into Lolly’s room to find Levi and Shelly walking out with Ryder. “Where are you going?”

His boy looked up at him with a face that looked so much like his own, he felt gut-punched. He felt gut-punched every time he thought about being responsible for another human’s happiness and well-being. “Uncle Levi said the cafeteria has good chicken fingers. Can I go with him?”

Duke nodded. “Don’t tell your mother. She’ll have my ass if she knows you’re eating fried chicken before dinner.”

“She’s going to work in Dudley tonight,” he said, and there was a little bit of tightness in his voice. “She won’t even know.”

“I guess she won’t,” he said, feeling his gut burning like it did whenever he thought of her going off to work a twelve-hour shift. Apparently Ryder felt the same way. “Don’t eat too much. We’ll get pizza tonight.”

“Okay.” Ryder touched his arm on the way out and Duke felt a tiny bit of his tenseness ease. Grace was working so hard to provide for Ryder. He understood why she did it, but he didn’t know what it was going to take for her to realize that she didn’t have to anymore.

“What’s wrong with you, convict?” Lolly asked, holding out her hand to him.

He took it and eased himself into the chair at her bedside. “What do you think about my boy?”

“He’s you only a hell of a lot better.”

His lips curled slightly. “I know.”

“He’s got a good shot now with you back.”

Back? He wondered if she meant in Destiny? Or in Ryder’s life? Because she knew that he couldn’t see himself living in this town forever.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

“I only saw him from afar.” She shook her head sadly. “Grace got good at ducking and dodging me.”

“Well, she won’t be able to do that anymore. I want you to come live with us when you get out of here.”

“With us? You mean you and Grace are going to live together for the rest of your lives?”

Rest of their lives? That question knocked him on his ass. She came to him every night but they weren’t back together. They weren’t a couple. Grace had just agreed to move to Vegas if he could prove to her that he was good for them. Co-parenting had been the original agreement. Not living together. He wasn’t even sure how that would work, or if she even wanted to in the first place.

He just knew that whenever any thought turned to the future, that future involved Ryder. But it also involved Grace right alongside him.

“I’m mean I’m going to buy a big house in Vegas and I want your crotchety old behind to live in it with me.”

“Aw, convict.” She lifted his knuckles to her lips and kissed them. “You’d have to be out of your ever-loving mind to think that I would move in with you and a teenage boy. I did my time. I’d rather be bit by red fire ants.”

*   *   *

Grace left for work just as Ryder and Duke were getting back in the house. Ryder had been in the middle of a story. Something about Levi and racing. Grace could barely pay attention to what he was saying because she was more focused on the fact that Ryder had been stringing several sentences together unprompted. She usually had to pull teeth just to get him to tell her how his day was and she had to admit she was a little jealous. Even more than that, she was sad that she had to leave for work, leave Ryder and Duke at home while she spent the next twelve hours with other people’s loved ones.

You don’t have to work summers anymore.

That thought came into her mind but only for a split second. Duke was back, he would take care of Ryder’s needs, but she still needed to take care of herself. She didn’t want his money. She didn’t want to depend on him for anything.

She wasn’t sure how things were going to work out for them. It would be smart of her to take things one day at a time. To keep working and saving money. And keep living her life as if Duke wasn’t going to be in it forever.

It was nice to let her mind wander to that place. That place it went when she was alone at night and lonely. That place where she had him and they were a family and she took care of him like he took care of her. It was a fantasy she’d held on to for years. But the practical part of her brain knew not to wish for it, for things that might be impossible.

There was still so much resentment between them just boiling beneath the surface, but she tried not to think about it as she drove on that long, dark stretch of road toward the hospital. Her mind kept going back to what Judy had told her just a little while ago.