“Define play.”
The corners of her mouth rose into a sexy grin. “Let’s see. You sit on that sofa right there, and I crawl on top of you.”
Her fingers unbuttoned and unzipped my pants. I kicked my dress shoes off and let her pull my pants and boxers down.
“Hmm, I’m liking the sound of this. Keep going. What are the rest of the rules?”
After she finished stripping me, she placed her hands on my chest. The warmth from her touch spread across my body. Pushing me backwards, she spoke softly.
“After I crawl on top of you, I’m going to do dirty things to you.”
“I like it when you do dirty things to me.”
Her teeth sank down into her lip. “Is that why you want to marry me, Mr. Turner? Because I’m good in bed?”
When I looked up as if I was thinking and pondering the reasons, she laughed and pushed me onto the sofa.
“I want to marry you because I want you to be able to crawl on top of me anytime you damn well please.”
“Is that the only reason?” she asked as she straddled me, putting her weight down on my rock hard dick.
Moaning, I dropped my head back onto the cushion. She still had her panties on, but I could feel the heat from her pussy.
“Wait. What was the question again?” I asked, taking a hold of her hips and lifting up into her.
“Oh God,” she mumbled as she moved her hips in a circular motion. “I am addicted to you.”
Burying my face in her neck, I kissed her soft skin. “I feel the same way.”
She lifted to slide her panties out of the way when the doorbell rang and we froze.
“Who in the world could that be? We just left everyone!” Waylynn exclaimed.
“Ignore it,” I whispered, pulling her back onto me.
“What if it’s important?”
“They are cockblocking me. There is nothing that important. Answering that door could endanger the life of whoever is on the other side!”
She giggled and kissed me. “Hold on. Let me pull up the security camera.”
The doorbell rang again as Waylynn jumped off me and turned on the TV, changing it to the channel that had all of the ranch’s security cameras.
“It’s my dad!”
“What?” I yelled as I jumped up and grabbed my clothes and ran to the bathroom as fast as I could.
Waylynn followed and said, “Turn on the shower! Quick.”
The doorbell rang again.
“You want to take a shower while your father is standing outside? Do you want a death wish on my head?”
Rolling her eyes, she pushed me into the bathroom and ran to her bedroom. I shut the bathroom door, turned on the shower and crawled into the corner, waiting for him to bust through the door and shoot my ass.
I could barely hear the muffled voices so I moved to the door and cracked it open.
“It doesn’t need to be taken care of now, Daddy. Honestly.”
“So, has Jonathon moved in?”
I swallowed hard.
“Well, he stays here and I stay at his place sometimes.”
“So, does that mean y’all are living together?”
A loud bang from the kitchen caused Waylynn to let out a yelp and me to jump.
“I guess so. Do you have a problem with that? I know this is your house.”
“You pay rent each month, Waylynn. Stop saying this is my house.”
“You brought it up, so I’m assuming it bothers you.”
“No. It doesn’t bother me in the least. What bothers me is not knowing if you’re going to be living here or back near the city.”
Needing to hear her response, I pushed the door open farther. Then it happened. I started to slip. In water. That was now covering the floor.
“What in the fuck?” I spun around to see the showerhead had been spraying outside of the tub the whole time.
I tried to get back to the shower and started slipping on the marble.
“For fuck’s sake! Who puts marble in a bathroom?!” I yelled while my feet went out from under me, and I went down. Reaching for the shower curtain, I grabbed it to save me from an untimely death…or a trip to the hospital for a concussion. It didn’t work.
The noise of that damn rod hitting the tub was like a bomb going off.
“Jonathon, are you al…shit!” Waylynn shouted as she ran into the room, slipped on the wet floor, and landed on top of me. Her face landing right in my junk.
“As a father, there are some things you never want to see. This. This is one of them. The garbage disposal is fixed. Next time I’ll call before I come over. Merry Christmas, you two.”
It took me half a second to realize John Parker had just seen me naked. On the floor in his daughter’s bathroom. With her face in my no-go zone. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why she didn’t jump up. She laid there, face pressed against the boys.
“Shit!” I said, helping to lift Waylynn off of me. “Are you okay?”
“Is he gone?”
I laughed. “Yes, he’s gone. Why didn’t you try to get up?”
Rolling onto her side, her entire body was soaking wet, and the shower was still running.
“If I had moved and looked him in the face, I would have combusted into flames and died from embarrassment.” Her hands covered her face, and she started laughing hysterically. I couldn’t help but join in as I crawled to the shower and turned it off. We must have laughed for ten minutes before we came to our senses.
Reaching for two towels, I wrapped one around me and handed the other to Waylynn. We sat up against opposite walls in the bathroom.
I chuckled and said, “This is something to tell the kids someday.”
Her smile grew bigger. “Do you think we’re moving too fast? I mean, we’re living together. We’ve told each other I love you. You asked me to marry you, and we’re sitting in a soaked bathroom after my father just saw you naked and me face planted into your twig and berries…and now we are talking kids. Are you sure about this?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life. I knew the moment I first saw you I wanted to make you my forever. I’m unapologetically in love with you, Waylynn, and I don’t care who thinks it’s too fast or it’s wrong. I know it’s right.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “I’ve never felt this way before.”
“Not with Jack?” I asked, knowing I needed to hear her response for my own peace of mind.
“Not even with him. This feels much deeper. More meaningful, if that makes any sense. Jack swept me off my feet and promised me the moon and stars. You’ve captured my heart with your touch, your kiss, and the sweet words you whisper in my ear when you make love to me. I realize now that the lifestyle in New York was just for show, his ‘love’ for me never compared to what you and I have. It’s so much more and I know now that it was meant to be.”
“What was meant to be?”
“Us. My dream of starting a family, but not with Jack. I can only imagine doing that with you, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that sort of blows my mind, because we’ve only just started dating!”
“Well, if you think about it, we’ve been flirting for a lot longer, so the attraction was certainly there.”
She grinned. “So, is this sort of a love at first sight type of thing?”
“Before my father passed, he told me the moment he saw my mother he knew she was the one. It was at a football game, and he looked up into the stands of the opposing team and saw an angel sitting there. He went over to the sidelines and started asking the football players who she was. After the game, instead of running into the lockers, he ran into the bleachers and begged for her number.”
Waylynn tucked her knees into her chest and rested her chin. “Did she give it to him?”
“Yes. They went out on a date to the drive-in movies in Uvalde the next night. That’s where my mom was from, originally. He’d always told us that she was his forever love from that f
irst smile. They got married the day after they graduated. Two months after they met.”
“Wow! How romantic.”
I nodded. “My father loved my mother so much. You saw it in the way he looked at her when she walked into a room. Or when he was leaving to work the fields, the way he would kiss her goodbye. It was magical. That’s why Mom told Rip that he was sharing her heart, because a love like that doesn’t disappear. I know that sounds corny.”
“I don’t think it does at all. I love that you noticed their love like that.”
“That’s the way I feel about you. I can’t imagine my life without you, and to hell with anyone who thinks we’re moving too fast or that our age gap makes a difference. I love you, Waylynn, and I don’t plan on stopping.”
Standing, she reached down for my hand, pulling me up. “We better get ready to head on over to your folks’ place. It was too nice of them to do dinner this year instead of lunch so that we could be at my folks’ place this morning.”
I wrapped her up in my arms. “Mom didn’t mind at all. She adores you.” I kissed Waylynn gently on the lips before leading her into her bedroom.
With a wink, I added, “I think we’ve got a few minutes to spare.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Waylynn
“Are you nervous?”
Glancing up from my desk, I smiled at Aunt Vi standing there with a large basket.
“About?”
“Tomorrow! The dance studio officially opens, and you’ll have little girls running all over here in adorable pink and black dance outfits!”
I leaned back in my chair and chuckled. “Why, Aunt Vi, are you going soft on me?”
“Just because I never had kids doesn’t mean I don’t like them. After all, I used to like y’all when you were little.” She looked up in thought. “Although, I was forced into having to like you because you were my brother’s kids, so there is always that.”
Rolling my eyes, I pointed to the basket. “Did you bring lunch?”
She glanced at the basket and laughed. “Hell no. Do you think I’m that domesticated?”
“What did you bring then?”
“Booze.”
“Why?”
With a loud thump, she set the basket on my desk. “Because we’re going to get drunk and dance around your studio naked. Now we’re just waiting on Joyce and Carol and a couple others to join in.”
I nearly choked. “Come again?”
“We need to baptize this place with some good juju.”
“Good juju? And getting drunk and dancing around the studio naked with your friends will do that?”
She stared like I was asking a stupid question. “Yes. It’s been proven time and time again. When Joyce was about to marry her husband, we got ourselves a few cheap bottles of wine and drank them around her daddy’s fire pit and chanted that we needed good juju for the marriage. That night we snuck into the reception hall of the church and danced naked. It worked. She’s been married almost forty years.”
Standing, I looked around. “Where’s Sandra Bullock? I feel like this is Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood! You’re shitting me, right?”
Again, she stared like I was the one who was acting insane. “I don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about, Waylynn Parker. Asking for good juju is not a joking matter.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re serious, Aunt Vi?”
She lifted her chin. “Of course I am.”
“You and your friends dance around naked?”
“Not always, Waylynn. Only when we need to.”
“Are you like sisters of the ya-ya hood or something?”
“For fuck’s sake, child, what in the hell are you talking about?”
I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. “Aunt Vi, you’ve never seen that movie with Sandra Bullock and all the older women who had a secret ya-ya sisterhood?”
“I said juju, you nit, not ya-ya. I don’t know what in the hell a ya-ya sisterhood is.”
“You know, y’all cut your hands and press them together and swear to protect each other over a fire out in the woods.”
“Holy fuck, Waylynn, what kind of weird shit do you and your friends do?”
“I didn’t say I did it! In the movie they did it and the friends were always there for one another.”
She stared with a blank expression. Why do I get the feeling Aunt Vi, Joyce, and Carol somewhere along the way pricked their fingers and said some sort of vow?
Forcing myself not to laugh, I waved it off with my hand “Never mind. We are for sure going to watch that movie, though.”
“This isn’t a movie. This is spreading good vibes so that your dance studio is successful and thriving!”
With a heavy sigh, I ran my hands down my face. “Aunt Vi! Why can’t we just drink a toast and be done with it? Why the dancing around naked?”
“We’ll have sheer robes on. Mother Earth needs to see us in our raw.”
“Because that visual makes me feel so much better.”
“Don’t be bitchy. You aren’t appreciating the sacrifices we are making for your future.”
Paxton, Amelia, and Corina appeared at the door. Amelia walked in and kissed our aunt on the cheek. “You asked, and we’re here.”
I laughed. “Holy shit, y’all agreed to do this? Have you hit your damn heads on a brick wall?”
Paxton sat on the small loveseat. “What do you mean? Aunt Vi said she wanted to celebrate the dance studio opening tomorrow.”
I stood. “By getting drunk with her friends Joyce and Carol.”
“Oh, I love Joyce!” Amelia piped. “She is a hoot!”
Aunt Vi smiled big.
Putting my hands on my hips, I continued. “And she wants us to get drunk and dance around the studio to give it good juju.”
“I love this idea!” Corina said.
“Does that mean good vibes?” Paxton asked.
Aunt Vi pointed to Paxton and said, “I knew you were my favorite.”
“I wasn’t finished, there’s an important detail she didn’t mention. She wants us to be naked, wearing nothing but sheer robes so that Mother Earth connects with us.”
“The fuck?” Amelia said with a laugh. “You can’t be serious, Aunt Vi. Is that what you and your friends do at night around the fire pit?”
With a half shrug, Aunt Vi replied. “Maybe. Maybe we’re just getting ready to have an orgy.”
Paxton and Corina lost it laughing.
“Okay, while tweedle dee and tweedle dum laugh on the sofa, I’m being serious. This is insane.”
“Depends on what type of alcohol you brought, Aunt Vi,” Amelia said.
My mouth fell open as I stared at my sister. “You can’t be serious?”
“What? I think it will be fun. Besides, Corina drove, so we have a ride home. Jonathon can come pick you up.”
“And what about Aunt Vi and her ya-ya sisterhood friends?”
“Her what?” Amelia asked with her head tilted to the side.
Aunt Vi chuckled. “We have plans to get back to my house, Waylynn darling. The boys will be by later to pick us up.”
“What boys?” I asked.
She winked. “Just some friends. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
Joyce and Carol came barreling into the office. “We are here! Let the drinking start!”
Aunt Vi opened the basket and pulled out a root beer. “Corina, this was the closest thing we could think of for you.”
Jumping off the sofa, Corina rushed for the root beer like she hadn’t seen one in years.
The next thing I knew, wine, whiskey, tequila, and beer were lined up on my desk.
“Take your pick, ladies. Let’s get hammered, and then let’s get naked!”
Lifting my hands up, I said, “Wait! Why do you have to get drunk?”
Joyce placed her hand on the side of my face. “Oh, Waylynn, honey. I know you aren’t afraid of getting a little… How shall we say th
is? Getting a little daring, but if I’m going to dance around naked in my mid-fifties, then I’m gonna need to be wasted.”
I had nothing to say to that. It didn’t take long for Paxton, Amelia, Joyce, and Carol to get toasted. Aunt Vi could certainly hold her liquor. Even Corina seemed to be two sheets to the wind, and she was only drinking root beer!
“Aren’t you going to have another drink?” Corina asked as I watched my sister and sister-in-law start stripping out of their clothes.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, Waylynn! Don’t you want to do something crazy for once in your life?”
I turned to face Corina. “Dancing around naked in my studio that is opening tomorrow is not how I want to start this journey!”
Reaching for the tequila, I took a long drink. “I’m nervous enough as it is.”
Corina lifted her brows. “That’s all the more reason to do it!”
I took another drink and shook my head. Thirty minutes later, I put down the empty bottle and stripped out of my clothes. Corina was attempting to put the sheer robe on me, but we were laughing so hard, she had to rush to the bathroom to pee.
“Ladies! It is time to give our thanks to Mother Earth!” Carol shouted.
Amelia, Paxton, and I all started giggling as Aunt Vi pointed to us.
“Now, we have to bring in our new flock. Girls, approach your elders.”
I stumbled forward and turned to Amelia. “They’re going to prick our fingers and make us touch blood! Watch!”
Laughing, Amelia replied, “Gross!”
“I’m not doing that!” Paxton declared.
“Shut up, girls,” Aunt Vi snapped.
“Wait! Wait for me!” Corina shouted as she ran up to stand next to us. “What did I miss?”
“Aunt Vi wants our blood!” Amelia cried.
“Umm, I think I’ll sit this part out.”
“Corina! I do not want your blood,” Aunt Vi said as she swayed on her feet.
Leaning over to Paxton, I whispered, “Is she swaying or is that me?”
“I think…it’s all of us.”
I nodded. “Thought so.”
“Now, girls. Spit on your palms and stand in a circle holding hands.”