Unstoppable (A Country Roads Novel) (16 page)

“Big talk for such a little girl.”

“You did not just call me a little girl,” she said, trying so hard to give him an intimidating glare. It was taking everything in her not to smile.

“I sure did.”

“You just wait, Bennett Hart.”

“You going to show me what you’re made of?” He leaned into her and pressed his lips to hers.

“Yes,” she said, against his mouth. “But maybe just a little bit later, when it doesn’t hurt so much to move.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He sat back and took a sip of his coffee, watching her over the rim as he did so.

Mel brought her cup up to her lips, too, blowing the steaming liquid before she took a tentative sip.

It was perfection.

“So, speaking of plans, what are you doing for the rest of the day?” Bennett asked.

“I’m going to lunch with Grace, Harper, and Paige at one.”

“So I only get you for three more hours?”

“Not even that. I have to go home and deal with this mess,” she said, pointing to her hair.

She didn’t even want to know the state that it was in after two more rounds of hot sex with Bennett
and
sleeping on it.

“What about tonight?” he asked.

“You mean you’re not tired of me yet?”

“God, no.”

The emphasis in his words made Mel a little giddy…okay,
a lot
giddy. But she couldn’t help it—she hadn’t had enough of him, either.

T
he Tylenol Mel took had little to no effect on her muscles. She was pretty sure she was walking funny.

She’d spent plenty of time in the shower that morning, letting the hot water work it’s healing powers on her body. The problem was her right shoulder was acting up a little bit more that usual which made the task of combing her hair a bitch and a half.

But whatever. Every single pain was
soooo
worth it.

Mel pulled into the LaBella parking lot to find Grace, Harper, and Paige all standing next to Mel’s yellow bug.

LaBella was the same resort that Harper worked at a couple days a week, and they had a rather expensive little restaurant called LaBouche. The only reason the girls ever ate there was because Harper got an employee discount.

Mel had more than a little trouble getting out of her car, and she was pretty sure that all three women caught her wincing.

“Had a good night, did we?” Grace smirked.

“Maybe.” Mel smiled. She couldn’t help it; that man was magic.

“Seriously?” Paige asked, more than a little surprised.

“Yeah? Seriously? I was just joking. Did you and Bennett…” Grace trailed off and raised her eyebrows.

Mel hummed in response. Or was it a purr? Too close to tell.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Harper threw her arms up in the air. “Am I the only one who isn’t getting hot sex?”

“Looks like it,” Paige said with a smirk.

“Hey, let’s not be so loud. One never knows who’s around,” Mel said, looking behind her. As far as she could tell, no one was in the parking lot.

“Come on,” Grace said as she headed toward the building. “Let’s get seated and then you, Ms. O’Bryan, need to spill.”

Bennett tried to work out at the gym on a regular basis. He went that afternoon because he needed to do something to distract himself. All he wanted was Mel, and he wasn’t going to get to see her for a couple of hours.

His mind was still completely blown by what had happened the night before as well as that morning. He’d never expected their first date to end in bed. Not in a thousand years. She’d shocked the hell out of him in the bathroom when she’d pressed her body up against his.

And the sex? There were no words for how incredible it had been. He still couldn’t believe she’d been with only one other person besides him. They’d found their rhythm pretty quickly, and she’d matched him in everything.

And now he couldn’t get her off his mind no matter how hard he tried.
Hard
being the operative word, because every time he thought about being inside her that was exactly what happened. No woman had
ever
had this kind of effect on him, thus the need for the gym.

When Bennett got there, he put his bag in a locker and grabbed his gloves. He went out into the main workout area, and as he made his way across the floor he spotted Shep and Tripp lifting weights. He nodded at them before he headed over to one of the punching bags and let loose.

After the accident, it had taken Bennett a while to work up to using a punching bag again. He still couldn’t do it for as long as he had before, but he was grateful for the fact that he could do it at all.

“You letting out some frustrations there, pal?”

Bennett stopped and turned to find both Shep and Tripp behind him. He’d been going at the bag for a good thirty minutes, and sweat was pouring down his face. He used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe at his forehead before he bent down to grab his water bottle.

“Something like that,” Bennett said before he shot a stream of cold water into his mouth.

“You seem tense,” Tripp said.

Sure, if
tense
meant “horny.”

“Hmm, I don’t know if
tense
is the word I’d use,” Shep said, studying Bennett. “But there is definitely something going on with you.”

“Did your date with Mel not go very well?” Tripp asked.

“No, it was good.”

More like perfect. He couldn’t have planned for it to go better.

“So you didn’t fuck it up?” Tripp asked, surprised.

“No, I didn’t,” Bennett said.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Shep said with a grin.

“You two are assholes, you know that?”

“We’re aware,” Tripp said. “So you up for a game of basketball? Preston is going to be here in about five minutes. He thinks he’s going to mop the floor with us.”

“So it will be the two of you against Preston and me?” Bennett asked.

“Yup,” Shep said, nodding.

“I’ll take those odds any day,” Bennett said. “You two are toast.”

“We’ll just see about that, Hart,” Tripp said, as the three men made their way to the basketball court.

As it turned out, Tripp and Shep were a pretty good team out on the court, and they gave Preston and Bennett a run for their money. But Preston and Bennett pulled it out in the end.

The four guys headed back to the locker room to grab their bags. Though Bennett was just going to get a shower at his place, he had to change his shirt because it was soaked with sweat. He peeled it off and grabbed a dry one from his bag.

When he turned around the three men were staring at him: Shep with a smirk, Tripp with raised eyebrows, and Preston with his mouth hanging open in complete shock.

“Well, shit. I didn’t think she had it in her,” Shep said.

“Her? I didn’t think
he
had it in
him
,” Tripp said.

“What are you talking about?” Bennett asked.

“Did Mel seriously do that to your back?” Preston asked.

Oh. Fuck.

“We aren’t talking about this,” Bennett said as he threw his nasty T-shirt in the bag and zipped it up. He was not turning Mel into locker room talk. Besides, Bennett didn’t brag about his conquests. Not that Mel was a conquest or anything. She was so much more than that.

Tripp grinned. “Message received.”

“Good.” Bennett grabbed his clean shirt and put it on.

“Though you’d think he’d be a little bit more relaxed given the circumstances,” Shep said.

“Nah,” Preston said. “Gentlemen, what we’re looking at here is a man who’s falling hard and doesn’t know what to do with himself.”

“We aren’t talking about that, either.” Bennett grabbed his bag and headed out of the locker room.

But damn if Preston hadn’t hit the nail on the head.

After lunch Mel went to the Piggly Wiggly to get groceries. She was making dinner for Bennett at her place. The menu was a whole roasted chicken, rice with gravy, and artichokes. Okay, so she was still trying to impress him with her cooking. Whatever—she felt no shame.

She was just pulling the chicken out of the oven when her cell phone rang.

“Hey, Mom,” she said as she leaned her head to the side. She used her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear while she went to the fridge and started pulling out ingredients.

“How was your date with Bennett?” Corinne asked, not even bothering with saying hello.

“It was good.” Mel couldn’t help but smile. It had been
way
beyond good, but Mel wasn’t going to go into those details with her mother.

“Where did he take you?”

“To lunch at the Floppy Flounder and then Jet Skiing. He made me dinner, too.”

“Oh did he now?” Corinne’s voice went up a few octaves. “He’s been making dinner for you a lot lately. So is there anything else going on? Is it getting serious?”

Well, they were sleeping together, but that was information her mother just didn’t need to know.

“I think it’s getting there.” Dear God, she hoped it was. The doorbell rang as Mel dropped butter into the pan.

“When are you seeing him again?” Corinne asked as Mel walked to the front door.

“He’s coming over for dinner now,” Mel whispered right before she opened the door.

Bennett grinned at Mel as she stepped aside to let him enter. She shut the door behind him and turned.

My mother
, she mouthed, and he leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to he lips.

“Oh, really!” Corinne said excitedly.

Bennett put his mouth close to the receiver. “Hi, Mrs. O’Bryan.”

“He’s there now?” Corinne asked, positively giddy. “Tell him I said hello and ask him what he’s doing tomorrow night. You should bring him to dinner with you.”

“She says hello,” Mel said. Then she grabbed Bennett’s hand and led him into the kitchen.

“You didn’t tell him what else I said. Invite him to dinner.”

“Mom, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up and put the phone down on the counter. “Hey,” she said to Bennett.

“Hi.” He put his hands on her waist and pushed her back against the counter. “Dinner smells good.” He pressed his mouth to hers and nibbled on her bottom lip. “You smell better.”

Mel’s phone buzzed on the counter. Instinctively both she and Bennett turned to look at it, and there prominently displayed on the screen was a message from Mel’s mother.

Invite him to dinner tomorrow!!!

“Crap,” Mel said, reaching over and flipping the phone over. She turned back to Bennett and looked up at him nervously.

“You don’t want me to come to dinner?” He tilted his head to the side as he reached up and ran his finger down the side of her face.

“You want to come? To dinner? With my parents? More importantly, with my mother?” she asked, unable to stop her eyebrows from going up. “She’s going to try to get as much information out of you as possible.”

“Is there something we should be hiding?”

“Well no, but…I didn’t know we were there.”

“Where?”

“At ‘dinner with the parents.’”

“It isn’t like we haven’t met each other’s parents before. Tell her I’ll be there.” He reached for her phone and handed it to her.

“O-okay.” Bennett didn’t move as she took the phone and texted a quick response to her mother:
We’ll be there at seven.
She hit Send and put her phone on silent before she set it back on the counter facedown.

“You need help with dinner?” He was acting so cool and collected. Like having dinner with her family wasn’t a big deal at all. Like it wasn’t a
huge
step. They’d only just started seeing each other. But fine, if he was going to be calm, she would be, too. No problem.

“No, you can just stand there and look pretty.” Mel reached up and patted his face.

“Look pretty?” he asked as his forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“Mmm-hmm.” She put her hands on his chest and pushed him back. She stepped around him and went to the stove. The butter was almost melted, so she scooped out some flour and added it to the pan.

Bennett casually leaned against the counter, one leg crossed over the other and his arms folded across his chest. He looked at her, grinning.

“What?” she asked as she stirred the flour in.

“Nothing. I’m just standing here and looking pretty.”

That he was. That he was.

Bennett was really beginning to appreciate the wonder that was a warm, soft, naked Mel in his arms. She was curled against his side, one of her legs thrown over his and her hand lazily moving around his chest.

They’d had another rather exciting go-round in Mel’s bed, and it was almost eleven. They both had to get up early the next day, but Bennett really didn’t want to go to sleep yet. He was enjoying this way too much to miss a moment of it.

“So what happened to the teddy bear?” he asked, moving his hand down her back.

“Hmm?” She looked up.

“The teddy bear I got you when you were in the hospital. I saw it on your bed a couple of weeks ago—”

“I knew that was why you freaked out.” She put her hands on his chest and pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“I didn’t freak out.”

Mel just raised her eyebrows at him.

“Okay, maybe I freaked out a little bit.”

Her eyebrows climbed up even higher.

“Fine. A lot. But I wasn’t prepared for that.”

“Prepared for what?” she asked.

“You.”

He grabbed one of her hands and pulled her back down to him. She was now splayed across his chest. She moved her legs so that she was straddling him. Her face hovered just inches above his, her hair spilling forward like a curtain on either side.

“I wasn’t prepared for how much I liked you. But I was able to distance myself from it a little bit. Or so I thought,” he told her. “And then I saw that bear and it made everything real.”

“And when exactly did you accept reality?”

“When I realized that not figuring out what was going on between us would be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Life’s too short.”

“It is.”

“So where’s the bear?” he asked again.

“In my closet.”

“You didn’t get rid of it?”

“No. I thought about it for a minute. But it meant a lot to me,” she said, kissing the tip of his nose.

“And why’s that?”

“Because you mean a lot to me.”

Bennett wasn’t sure how it was possible that Mel’s words could simultaneously leave him warm and satisfied, but also just a little bit unsettled. But he didn’t want to think about the latter. Not right now.

He rolled so that they were on their sides, then he tucked her in next to his body, wanting her to be as close to him as possible.

On Monday morning, Bennett headed home. He hadn’t brought a change of clothes so he needed to run back and get a quick shower. He left as a very sleepy Mel was getting in her shower. He would have liked to have joined her, but then they would have been late. Plus, she wasn’t exactly coherent. The girl really wasn’t a morning person, but she was pretty adorable in her tousled state.

It was six thirty when Bennett pulled up to the wood shop building. He noticed Dale Rigels right away. The kid was hanging out by the door, and he was staring down at his shoes.

“Hey,” Bennett said as he got out of his truck. “You’re a little early today.”

Dale just shrugged his shoulders, still not looking up at Bennett.

“Since you’re here, do you want to help me set up?”

Dale just shrugged again. Bennett went to the front door and put the key in the lock. He went inside and turned on the lights. When he turned around Dale was standing in the doorway, his hands shoved in his pockets. This time he was frowning at Bennett.