Next August (10 page)

“Hi.” He says tepidly.

“What are you doing here?”

“You wouldn’t answer your phone and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“When people don’t answer their phones, it's because they don’t want to speak to you, much less see you.”

He starts to stand up.” I would sit back down if I were you,” I say. His chair scrapes on the hardwood floor as he sits.

“What did I do that has made you so angry with me?”

“Do you want the list?”

The bastard grins at me. “There’s a list?”

“Yes.” I see movement on the stairs.” We should take this conversation outside.” I tilt my head in the direction of the stairs.

We both get up in silence and I direct him into the barn. Beads of sweat are forming on his brow. It’s hot here this time of year, and this city boy doesn’t know how to dress. I like that he’s sweating. It gives me the upper hand. At least that’s what my head is saying. My body, however, has a mind of its own and I feel a low burn in my belly.

He steps up close to me and tries to take my hand.” Don’t touch me,” I say. I see the hurt in his eyes and I feel bad. He drops his hand and steps back.

“Can you just tell me what I did wrong?”

He really has no clue.” First of all, you paid off my parent’s mortgage after I specifically told you not to.” My hands are on my hips.

“How I choose to spend my money is none of your business.” He has the balls to look angry at me.

“It is my business when it comes to my family and you are solely persuaded when you are fucking me!”

“We were not just fucking!” He yells.” And I have told you repeatedly to watch your mouth.”

I ignore his rage.” If we weren’t just fucking, then why do you run off to your private sex club on Fridays instead of working like you told me!?” I’m in his face.

He takes a step back.” What the hell are you talking about?”

“I called your office yesterday to tell you some news about Tom, and guess what? You haven’t worked on Fridays in years. You leave the house pretending to go to your office and don’t come home until Friday night!”

He clinches his jaw again and rakes his hands through his hair.” So you assume I am out fucking someone?”

“You don’t confide in me. What do you want me to think? !”

He takes a deep breath and visually tries to calm himself.” I’ve never had to answer to anyone.” His eyes have softened.” I’ll tell you about my Fridays, but can you just quit yelling at me?” He unbuttons his top two buttons. The heat is starting to get to him. I walk over and turn on a couple of fans. He stands in front of one of them for a few minutes. I grab one of the smaller hay bales and place it in front of the fan and sit down. After a moment, he joins me. He is so quiet.

I place my hand on his.” Talk to me, August. Please.” All my anger is gone.

“The car accident that dad caused, that killed my mother, hurt someone else very badly.” He pauses.” Sam was just an infant.”

“Sam? The guy you were mountain climbing with when we met?”

“Yes. He had severe spinal damage and was in the hospital for a long time. They didn’t think he would live, much less walk again. His mother Claire, was a single parent. His dad left him when he found out Claire was pregnant. She lost everything in that crash.”

“You were just a kid yourself.”

“Claire sued my dad and the bastard hid all the money so it looked like he had nothing. His lawyers kept him out of jail. I didn’t find out until I was in college and I heard him bragging about it. I confronted him and he denied it. So, I did my own digging and found where he hid the money. I told him I found it and that I was going to expose him. That’s the night he went out and got drunk and someone hit him while he was parked, and the young man driving was killed. Dad had his stroke after that, and I covered it up to make it look like he died because the family of the man from the second accident came after his money. The money that belonged to Sam and Claire.”

He stands up and paces the dirt floor. “I will never forget the day that I met the two of them. I took the money out of my dad’s offshore accounts. I invested a chunk back into what is now Rylan Designs. The other half, I took with me and showed up on Claire’s doorstep. She was living in a rundown trailer and barely surviving. She was thin as a rail. It took every penny she had to get help for Sam.” He swallows hard. I take his hand and pull him back down to sit by me.

“I had to make up for the years of pain my dad caused them. I knew the pain of my mother dying, so I had to help them. I built them a house, which is right down the road from me. I paid off all their medical bills. I hired a therapist for Sam. I paid for Claire to go to college so she could get a good job.” He chokes on his words.

“These are all good things, August. Why would you hide it?”

“At first, Claire was skeptical of my intentions. Slowly, she let me in their lives. Claire and Sam have become my family. I spend my entire Friday with them. For years, that’s been my happiness. I didn’t want anyone to take that away from me. I thought I was going there to make up for what my dad did to them, but I gained so much more. They gave me forgiveness and love.”

I get down on my knees in front of him.” August, look at me.” He does and there are tears in his eyes.” You were just a child. None of what happened that night was your fault. I know your dad blamed you and took it out on you, but it wasn’t your fault. What you did for them was amazing.”

He won’t meet my eyes.

“Look at me. I want you to really hear what I’m saying.” I touch his cheek and wipe the lone tear that has fallen.” I would never take them away from you. All you had to do was tell me. I need your honesty. You have so many secrets in your life. I don’t know how to deal with them. The one thing I do know is that you have to stop seeing yourself as a bad person. You do not have to pay for your father’s sins.” I laugh to myself.” My dad is right. I couldn’t love someone who wasn’t a good man.”

“You love me,” he whispers.

“Yes, August. I love you.” He draws me into his lap and kisses me deeply.

I.

Love.

You.

Too.
He says between kisses. Our tears mingle together. We stop kissing and we hold each other for the longest time. His shirt is drenched in sweat.

“How about we go inside and get you into some different clothes?” I ask.

“Naked. Could we just be naked?”

I laugh. “I always like naked with you, but this is my parent’s house. You will not be fucking me here.”

He flips me over and my ass is suddenly in the air. I feel the slap of his hand.” I told you to watch your mouth.” He says as he rubs the spot.

I should be angry with him, but instead, I find myself completely turned on by that little sting. He pulls me on his lap again, and I delve into his mouth. My wayward hands pull at his shirt until the buttons pop off. I see the storm in his eyes again. He removes my boots one at a time.

“Take those sexy as hell shorts off,” he commands.

I quickly do as he asks as he unbuckles his pants. I lick my lips and reach for him.” Oh, no you don’t.” He grabs my wrists.” I’ll be taking what I want.” He pulls me up to him and walks backward to a stall door. He takes my hands and extends them above my head. He wraps a rope around them.

I have never been so turned on in all my life. He stands back and admires me.” You are so beautiful.” He places one of his hands under my t-shirt and caresses my breast. My nipples are so hard I think they are going to burst. He kisses my other breast, and at the same time, he inserts two fingers inside of me. I gasp.

“You are so damn wet.” He speaks into my ear. I pull myself up on the ropes and wrap my legs around his waist, encouraging him inside me. He slaps my ass again and I yelp. He digs his fingers into my bottom as he enters me. His angle is so deep that I come immediately. His thrusts are so powerful, I have one orgasm right after another until he finds his release.

When our breathing finally calms, he reaches up and unties my wrists. He tugs at my hands and rubs my wrists, and he suddenly looks sad.

“I’m sorry. I got carried away.” He kisses the redness on my wrists.

“Hey. You didn’t hurt me. I loved it.” I say as I kiss him.” If you were doing something I didn’t like, I would stop you. You have nothing to be sorry for. I have to admit, I thought you spanking me would bother me, but it didn’t. This kind of sex is all new to me, but trust me, I’ll tell you when to stop.”

He smiles.” You bring out the animal in me. I can’t get enough of you. I want to devour every inch of you all the time. I almost came in my pants like a teenage boy when I saw you in those cutoff shorts and boots.”

“Really?” I laugh. “I felt so uncomfortable wearing that in front of you. I thought you would be totally turned off. You with your suits, and button-down shirts.”

He pouts.” You don’t like my suits?”

“You make suits look good. I just love you out of them more.” I kiss his cheek quickly with a smacking sound.” But, I think we should put some clothes on before my parents come searching for us.”

We both scramble for our clothes.” You ripped the buttons off my shirt, woman.” He shows me.

“Sorry. I got a little carried away, too.”

“You can get carried away anytime you want. I will just have to buy more shirts.”

“How about I take you shopping. I recently got paid and I can afford a t-shirt or two.” I smile at him.

☀

We both change clothes. I put on a sundress with my boots and a cowboy hat, but August is dressed in his city slicker clothes.

“God, woman. You are killing me in that dress and hat.”

I twirl around for him.” You like it?”

“I love what’s in it.”

“I love you too, August,” I grin at him as I say it. It seems so natural.

We head outside, and he opens the limo door for me.” We are so not riding in that beast.” I laugh. I shut the door and grab his hand. I take him to my dad’s beat up, faded red Ford pickup. I open the passenger side door for him.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“Climb in, city boy.”

He hesitates but gets inside. I reach around him and buckle him in like he does me.” I wouldn’t want you to get injured riding on the back roads.”

His eyes get big and I laugh at him.

I purposely hit every hole I can on the way into town just to watch him hold on. The town is small, and the only place to buy clothes is at the old general store. I park out front, get out, and wait for August to join me. He doesn’t move.

I walk over to his side of the truck and he rolls down the window.” Where is the mall?” He asks. He looks terrified.

“This is it. This is our version of the mall.”

“I’m not getting out.”

I open his door.” Come on. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

He reluctantly puts his feet on the ground. I have to drag him into the store like a child.

“Hey, Nash.” I hear a familiar voice from behind the cash register.

“Hey, Mrs. Tilley. It’s good to see you.”

She comes from behind the counter and looks up and down August with a smile.” Who do we have here?”

“This is my friend August.”

“Boyfriend.” He adds and pulls me close to him.

“He had an um…. shirt accident and I need to buy him a new one.”

She laughs.” Have fun with that,” and walks away.

August gets close to my ear.” She looked like she would eat me alive.”

I laugh at him.” She’s harmless.” The clothes are back here. Let’s go see what we can find.

I watch him as he looks at the plaid shirts and scrunches his nose. He holds up a pair of wrangler jeans and shows them to me and I laugh out loud at his facial expression. After watching him for endless moments, “Here just let me pick something out for you.” I walk over to the t-shirt rack and flip through a couple of them before I see the perfect one for him. It is a faded red color shirt with Ford written across the front. How appropriate. I don’t bother showing it to him. I check out with Mrs. Tilley and pull August out of the store before she really does eat him alive.

Once outside, I hand him the bag.” Open it.”

He pulls it out and starts laughing. To my complete surprise, he takes his button down off and pulls the t-shirt over his head. My heart skips a beat as it stretches over his muscular chest. The band around the arms are also tight, due to his bulging biceps. As I drool over him, I see Mrs. Tilley watching him from the store window. I turn August toward her and point. He smiles at her and waves, then he mutters, “let’s get the hell out of here.”

He starts for the pickup truck and I grab his hand.” I want to take you to my favorite place to eat.”

He looks around at the four blocks that make up our rundown downtown.” Here?”

“Trust me. They have the best meatloaf and mashed potatoes in town.”

“That wouldn’t take much.” He says under his breath as I tug him across the road.

“You look hot in that t-shirt by the way. I should dress you more often.”