Chapter Two Hundred Forty
ROSE
Tad Bartlett let me go if I tell him I want to go home?
Footsteps sound behind me and somehow I just know it’s Bartlett. My face heats and for a moment I wonder if he’s going
going to hold my hand or something. The thought is more than a little exhilarating. Grow up Rose. Really? Hold hands?
Rolling my
my eyes at myself, I take a couple deep breaths and try to look cool. I don’t even get to turn around before I’m being whisked back into his arms,
Okay. So I go back later. I want to spend a little time getting to know Bartlett.
He’s cradling me again – bridal style – but this time there is something different in his eyes. Something is off about him. He looks disappointed as he stares down at me. Almost… angry.
I immediately retreat into my shell. All my earlier excitement fizzling out with the glacial cold of his eyes.
He studies me quietly while walking us toward the end of the docks where a mini yacht and a speedboat bob side by side. He says nothing to me as he places me on my feet and makes his way toward the yacht.
My eyes widen when I realize this is the one that we’ll be riding. “Are we taking this?” I ask, my voice full of wonder.
He doesn’t answer me for some reason and I instantly feel a little less excited. Now this makes more sense. This is the kind of treatment that I’m used to. But even so, I can’t stop the burn that fires across my chest, nor the tears that fill my eyes.
I did hope things might be different this time around.
“Hey B, are you heading out?” A voice sounds at my back. I’m still standing on the wharf, but Barlett is inside of the yacht lowering the ladder.
Bartlett’s eyes rove over me. Worry taking over his features as he spies whomever it is that must be behind me. When I spin around, I understand why and my entire body goes cold.
It’s one of the Sheriff’s Deputies. Oh my fucken goodness.
The man’s cinnamon brown eyes lock on me for a cool minute, the spiral curls of his ash brown hair wavering in the breeze coming off the ocean. A slow smile curves his lips upward as he appraises me from head to toe. “Well, hello there gorgeous. Who might you be?”
“She’s my girl,” Bartlett says, leaping over the side of the yacht and bypassing the stairs altogether. The wood planks beneath my feet shudder and quake when he lands next to me and I tumble into his side, my face already red hot just from what he told the deputy.
His lie should please but it doesn’t. Because, as good as it is to hear something like that come out of his mouth – it will never be the truth and suddenly it is all that I want. To be his.
My head is suddenly swimming, my vision dizzy with desire as my eyes fall on him. Tilting my head upward, I meet his eyes. My lips purse in disappointment, my chest heaving erratically at the boldness of his. He’s just fixed us with that statement.
Grabbing me by both of my shoulders, Bartlett says, “Head on up, Princess. I’ll just be a moment.”
I nod gratefully, spinning around without giving the cop even a second glance. Okay, so maybe I’m not ready to bite the bullet quite yet.
Once I’m up the stairs and on the yacht, I’m feeling like a girl that just rely managed to escape the fire. Walking gingerly toward the helm, I peek down at the wharf to watch the pair of them talking. They seem to know each other quite well, laughing and whispering as I
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look over the railing. At first, I could swear that they don’t notice me. That they are oblivious to my standing here spying on them, but when the Deputy steps back to leave, he shoots a quick smile my way, then tosses me a wink.
My eyebrows furrow in apprehension, but he doesn’t wait for me to respond before turning back toward the parking lot in what seems to be no particular hurry. I watch him until he is in his squad car and backing toward the road beyond the docks. I don’t even notice Bartlett has boarded until he speaks to me.
“You see something you like down there? he asks, his tone clipped.
My body jerks backward in surprise, his sudden presence snapping me to attention and causing me to yelp with fear. Turning around to face him, I find that he is already directly behind me and I shove backward futilely, not gaining even an inch of distance with the railing at my back.
“You scared me, I admit shakily.
“Yeah? I’ll just bet I did,” he snarls, stepping back as his handsome face twists up in a sneer. He shakes his head, his eyes lowering toward the deck. “His name is Timmons. Just in case you were wondering.”
Cocking an eyebrow I wander toward him, watching the drag of his eyes as they stroke up my body with something like reluctant heat. “Did he ask about me?? 1 inquire softly, biting my bottom lip nervously.
Bartlett suddenly scowls, raising his gaze
gaze from my breasts to my face. You damn fucking well know he did. You were standing
“Oh! No… I meant, afterward. When I came up here, I saw you both talking like old friends and I was just curious-”
right there.”
“Yes, we are old friends and yes, unfortunately, he is single,” Bartlett shops, turning away to pull the lever that controls the steps th barreling away from me toward what I can only assume is the engine room.
I snort in disbelief is be angry with me? Is he… jealous? No… no way. You have got to be kidding me. “I don’t care if he’s single,” Ihiss, following him. “That is not what I was asking! I care about whether or not he recognized me. Your said there was a warrant out for my arrest. I just wanted to know if I should worry about him coming after me.”
Bartlett freezes with one hand on the controls and the other on the keys. “Right,” he sighs. “I forgot about that part for a second.”
Forgot about that part? But that’s the entire reason you snatched me from the hospital! Isn’t it?
“Okay…” I say softly. “So then, since you forgot, I’m going to assume the answer is no. He didn’t recognize me.”
Bartlett pushes a button next to the key to start the engines and then jerks a lover toward him so roughly that I go careening backward and toward the ground with my eyes closed and a scream of surprise on my lips. Once again – before my ass can even touch the ground- he manages to snatch me to safety. Locking his hand over one arm of mine, Bartlett snaps my body forward, releasing me just in time for my body to go stumbling into his chest.
Oh…my…yummy.
My hands shoot out to steady myself and I end up grabbing his enormous biceps, dropping my hands downward my nails go into the hard marble of his deliciously flexed forearms and my breasts press roughly against his solid torso.
“S–sorry,” I stutter, as I begin to pull away.
Closing his hands over my backside before I can garner so much as an inch of space between us, he stops me. I can feel his fingers tighten on my ass cheeks like a brand and I can’t stop the rush of liquid that pools at my core, nor do I want to. What I want… is for him to touch me again.. the way he touched me in the back of his truck, Just the memory of it heats my body so intensely that I release a breathy
moan.
The moment he hears it, his sapphire eyes sparkle, the pupils expanding impossibly as his gaze wanders over my face. “So that’s why you
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watched him walk all the way to his car? That’s why you waited for him to leave? Because you were afraid?”
I nod and his eyes flare bright with approval, his hands on my ass now growing holder as they grope and massage beneath the clefts.
Pushing past my insecurities has never been an easy thing for me to do, so this time I remind myself of how good it feels when he touches me. This time, I tell myself that he wouldn’t be touching me if he didn’t want to, and I force my hands to glide up the skin of his forearms, lowering my lashes just enough to shield me from the intimidation of his gaze.
“Why did you tell him, your old friend, that I was your girl?” I ask carefully. This is the type of question that has the potential to shatter my confidence completely and 1 probably should have started a bit lighter, but I truly want to know.
ms to travel over his rock hard pectorals, “Because… that’s what I want
He shudders against me as my hands leave his arms to whispers, looking almost embarrassed.
you to be,” he
My body trembles against his as his hands raise to stroke up and down my back, sealing me against him as the sun completely disappears from the sky. I would hear him say those words over and over again if I could, but just now I’m realizing just how much trouble I’m about
to be in.
Because I want this man. Sooo much and when I return home I won’t be allowed to have him. The Elder Few won’t let me..
Once upon a time I would have settled for being anyone’s girl, but now that I’ve met Bartlett, I understand the wisdom behind asking young ladies to wait until marriage. Not because they will be considered loose or will be branded as whores… but because every female should have that something special to share with the man they desire most. The one thing that might set them apart, portraying them as a cut above the rest.
Then again, men these days often prefer women with more experience, hope Bartlett isn’t one of them… because I want to give myself to
him.
And I know it’s immature and lame. I realize any possibility of a relationship between us is unrealistic and that he is way out of my league, but ever since the first time his lips touched mine out at the
He is my hero.
campsite when he gave me CPR – I have only dreamt of him.
He is everything
And I want him to know that before I have to go.
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