I put my arm around her shoulders and lowered my head so I could growl into her ear, “I think I liked it better when you were hiding from the world. I didn’t feel like throat-punching every guy that looked at you back then.”
It wasn’t that she’d done anything really drastic with her appearance or her mannerisms, but the subtle changes were enough that most couldn’t help but do a double take when she walked by. She was still thin, built delicately and dainty, but now that she was eating more regularly she looked less like a broken bird. She was curved in all the right places and her flawless, golden skin glowed instead of being chalky and stretched too tightly across her bones. Her amazing eyes still flashed with the occasional spark of fear and uncertainty but more often than not they gleamed with amber heat and quiet contentment. More than any of that, though, she wasn’t jumping out of the path of strangers anymore. She didn’t automatically look away and she no longer seemed to shrink inside herself when out in public. She still wasn’t overly touchy-feely. The people she put her hands on willingly were me and her family, but she didn’t quake and crumble when it was time to shake hands like she used to and she didn’t cower away from the suggestive looks from strangers even though I wished she would.
She wound her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. “No throat-punching. It doesn’t matter who might look at me or might look at you because we’ve only had our eyes on each other since the beginning.”
It was true. I couldn’t see anyone but her, and I had to say: the view was spectacular. “You mind letting me crash at your place for a couple of days until I get all this new stuff situated?”
She shook her head no and her arm tightened around my waist. “No, it will give me the chance to ask you for a favor I’ve been putting off since Christmas.”
She looked up at me from under the inky veil of her long lashes and I knew there was no way I would ever deny her anything. “Since Christmas? That was weeks ago, why didn’t you bring it up before now?”
She sighed and waited while I handed over my credit card to the jackass with the roving eyes. Filling out the paperwork took longer than I would have liked and the sales guy’s eyes lingered on the fit of Poppy’s sweater way longer than was appropriate. Once I scrawled my signature on the last form, I handed the guy his pen and leaned in close so that our noses were practically touching. I narrowed my eyes at him and poked him right in the center of his ugly, cheap tie. “A word of advice, friend.” I bit the word out through gritted teeth and an angry snarl. “The way you leer at women suggestively the entire time they are trying to go about their business, and not showing any signs of interest in what you’re laying down, makes them uncomfortable. They are not here for you. They’re here for furniture.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and a fine sheen of sweat broke out across his forehead. “I think you got the wrong impression, sir. I was just trying to be attentive. We work on commission.”
I growled at him, which made him take a step back. “Right, you work on commission, so you creep on women, make them so uncomfortable they’ll buy anything just to get away from you. Not cool, and it’s really not cool when you try it with a woman that happens to be with her overly possessive and extremely protective boyfriend. That also makes them even more uncomfortable and it pisses the boyfriend right the fuck off. You got me?”
The guy blinked rapidly and I felt Poppy place a calming hand on my arm. The muscle twitched against her touch. I stepped away from the guy and pointed at the stack of papers that equaled a hefty commission for him. “You can keep your cut of the sale but you bet your ass I’ll be getting in touch with whoever your manager is and letting them know your sales tactics leave a lot to be desired.”
I grabbed Poppy’s hand and pulled her around in front of me so that we could walk out of the store with me at her back. Guys like that rarely acted on the ugly intent that shined out of their eyes, but with my girl, I wasn’t taking any chances and I never would. We got to the massive 1973 Dodge Power Wagon that I drove when the roads were too bad for the Caddy to navigate and I helped boost her into the seat. The truck was a behemoth, lifted to the sky and painted black with silver flakes. The thing looked like it would survive the end of the world and drive over anything that tried to stop it. It got crap gas mileage, was a bitch to park in the city, but when the weather got cold and the snow piled up, it was my favorite toy to play with.
When I climbed up behind the steering wheel, I expected her to gently scold me for taking the lecherous salesman to task but instead she turned to look out the window and told me quietly, “I asked my sister to try and get in touch with our mom over Christmas. She told me no, but I asked again, and again, until she finally gave in and reached out. Mom knows Salem is pregnant, and when she called me the first time, she mentioned how she couldn’t imagine not knowing her grandchild, so I thought for sure if she knew Salem was reaching out she would respond. My dad answered, called Salem a whore, and hung up. She called back and there was no answer. She asked Rowdy to call, and again, nothing. I don’t know what’s going on in that house but I do know it can’t be anything good. I’m worried about my mom, not because she’s my mother, but because I know firsthand how bad it can get living with someone that sees you as a thing. I don’t want my father to kill my mother, Wheeler. I have to do something.” She craned her head in my direction and blinked wide, innocent eyes at me. “I didn’t say anything before now because I wasn’t sure I could actually do it.”
I frowned and shifted my attention from the road over to her for a split second. “Do what?”
She sucked in an audible breath and let it out slowly. “Go back home. I wasn’t sure I could face my father and deal with whatever it is he’s done to my mother and I realized I couldn’t, at least not alone. I need you to come with me, Wheeler.” She reached out and put her hand on my thigh as I steered the massive truck through the snow. “Salem said she would go and Rowdy lost his mind. He offered to take me after he forbade her from getting on a plane, and Sayer and Zeb also offered to go, but the only way I can do it is if I know I’ll be safe and the only time I feel safe is when I’m with you.”
I hated it.
The last place on earth I wanted her was anywhere near the man that had given her over to her tormentor without a backward glance, and as far as I was concerned, her mother was just as bad. She should have taken those girls and run as far and as fast as she could away from the man that did nothing but try and destroy them. But I knew Poppy needed this. To her, it wasn’t about rescuing her mother, it was about saving another abuse victim. No one should have to live like that even if the person was the one behind her horrible upbringing.
I wanted to pull a Rowdy and flatly forbid her from going but she needed this and I needed to be there to keep her safe when all the skeletons came falling out of the closet. They could bury her. “Give me some dates and I’ll get things squared away at work so I can be gone for a few days.”
She made a noise and leaned across the seat so that she could plant a kiss on my cheek. I turned my head at the last minute so that our lips brushed and she sighed at the contact. I put my hand over hers where it was still sitting on my leg and gave it a squeeze.
“If I’m going to do this for you, I want you to do something for me.” I lifted an eyebrow at her and turned the truck toward downtown instead of Capitol Hill, where her apartment was located. I’d been waiting for a way to work this into a conversation and was grateful she’d unknowingly given me the perfect opening.
“I’d do anything for you, Hudson.”
She smiled at me sweetly and I had to fight the urge to move our joined hands up a few inches higher to where my jeans were getting tight because my cock really liked hearing those words.
“Right … well, that’s good to know because something tells me you’re going to freak out.”
Her mouth fell open and her shoulders tensed at my words. “Why am I going to freak out?”
“Becaus
e I’m going to give you something that’s bigger than a bread box.” It had been a knock-down, drag-out fight to get her to take the pretty, delicate poppy earring and necklace set that I bought her for Christmas. She told me it was too much, that she didn’t want our relationship to be about the material things we could give to each other. I knew she was trying to protect me from falling into the trap I’d just escaped of giving the woman I loved literally everything. However, I knew she wasn’t greedy and materialistic like Kallie had been and I wanted to be able to give her things that reminded me of her, things that made me smile when I saw how much she liked them.
She stiffened next to me as I used my phone to unlock the gate to my garage and pushed in the code that made it roll open.
“What are we doing here?” Her fingers spasmed in mine and her voice was higher and thinner than normal.
Without answering, I turned her hands over and kissed the back of one of them. I slid off the bench seat and walked around to her side of the truck so I could help her down. The snow she was standing in went all the way up to her ankles and the stuff falling from the sky caught in her honey-colored hair. I bent so I could kiss the tip of her nose and asked her, “You trust me, right?”
She stared at me silently before slowly nodding. “I trust you.”
With that, I tugged her hand until she followed me up the steps and into the vast, chilly darkness of the garage. I took a minute to hit the lights and to crank up the heat. I guided her through the different bays until we reached the back of the garage, where the Hudson was sitting on a lowered rack. The car had just come back from painting, so it was now a perfect pale blue, the convertible top a rich cream color that matched the pinstriping that swirled over the curves of the hood and along the rounded fenders. It was hands down one of the prettiest and most memorable cars I had ever worked on. It was a true classic and I knew in my gut that the closer I got to finishing the restoration, the harder it was going to be for me to let it go.
“The paint is the same color as your eyes.” She trailed the tips of her fingers over the rise in the hood and looked at me with a wide smile. “It turned out beautiful.” I’d been unable to keep my excitement about this car to myself. She now knew more about struts and shocks, torque and transmissions, than she probably ever wanted to know.
“I’m glad you like it … because it’s yours. At least it will be as soon as I get the rest of the motor reworked. So by the time the snow melts, it will be yours.” I crossed my arms over my chest as she whirled around and gaped at me with wide eyes. She snatched her hand away from the cool metal of the hood and jumped away from the car like it had suddenly shocked her.
“No. I can’t take this car, Wheeler. Thank you for offering, but no.” She shook her head and her words were firm.
I sighed because I knew that was what she was going to say and I really wanted to get to the part where I bent her over the hood and sank into her sweet heat from behind without having an argument first.
“Poppy, that Camry is a fine car but it isn’t you. It’s boring and basic. You should be driving something that is unforgettable and special, just like you are.” I walked over to her, put my hands on her shoulders, and waited until she tilted her back to look at me. “I bought the car and started building it knowing I wasn’t going to let it go. I built it for you. I want to give you unforgettable and special.”
She lifted her hands and curled her fingers around my wrists. “You gave me unforgettable and special the first time you kissed me.”
I blew out a breath and moved in so I could lower my forehead until it touched hers. “Poppy, this is my dream car, my one in a million. It was the one I would do anything to get my hands on, the one I would spare no expense to repair and return to its rightful glory. This car has every single piece of me in it—my heart, my soul, my greatest passion, every iota of skill and knowledge I’ve learned over the years. This car is me, do you understand?”
Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, making her look like an adorable fish. Her eyes blinked a couple of times and finally she drew in a shuddering breath. “You’re giving me you.”
I nodded slowly and shifted my hands so that I was cupping her jaw. “I love you, honey, but more than that I love the way you love me. I’ve never had that, never understood what it truly means to be cared for, so I’m giving you me because I know you will take care of me, treasure me, and that you will never, ever let me fall apart. Both Hudsons need someone like that to keep them running.” I touched my lips to hers and whispered against her lips, “Give me a good home, honey, please.”
She wavered for half a second before quietly acquiescing. She smiled against my mouth and her hands ran up the outside of my arms so that she could wind them around my neck. “It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever given me, Wheeler.” I knew she didn’t mean the car. “I’ll make sure you are both well loved and properly cared for until my last breath.” She kissed me long and slow, her tongue twisting with mine until it was hard to breathe and even harder to think straight since there was no longer any blood circulating in my brain. All of it had rushed below my belt and was making my cock dig painfully into the teeth of my zipper. “I love you too, Hudson. Real love, the kind that feels right, the kind that is healthy and strong, the kind that is scary in a good way.”
Hearing her tell me that she loved me had that lonely wolf that was always feasting on my insides finally howling in victory that it had found its mate. There would be no more loneliness, no more sense of being unwanted and invisible. Everyone else had thrown me away; she picked me up and promised to always have a place for me. It had every animalistic, primal instinct inside of me roaring to life with the need to mate, claim, mark. She was mine for the taking from here until forever and that’s what I wanted to do … take and take and take some more.
I walked her backward into the front end of the car. She gasped when her backside hit the metal and I took full advantage of her open mouth. I dipped my tongue into the wet heat and slicked it across her teeth. I stroked it against her tongue and used the tip to trace the perfect bow that shaped her top lip. I used my teeth on her bottom lip and swallowed every breathy sigh she let escape. She yelped when I lifted her up by her waist and set her on the hood. Typically, I would have an aneurysm if anyone got that close to a new paint job with rough denim, snaps, and zippers, but I knew she wasn’t going to be dressed for very long and her skin was velvety smooth.
I worked my hands to the front of her tight-fitted flannel shirt and started popping annoying little buttons through the holes. She watched me with patient eyes as she reached out and ran her finger over the candle that inked across my throat. “It’s a light so you can always find your way home, isn’t it?”
I started on her jeans, cautioning her not to slide across the paint as she lifted herself up with her hands on my shoulders so I could work the denim off her hips and down her legs. I liked her naked. I liked her naked and spread out on the hood of the car that I’d built just for her even more. It was like every dirty dream I’d had about those girls in hot-rod magazines when I was younger come to life.
“It worked. Took longer than I would have liked and there were some wrong turns that were a real fucking headache, but I found home and it is definitely where my heart is.” I put my hand flat on the center of her chest and gave her a gentle push backward so that she would lie down on the blue metal. Her hair spread out all around her head like spilled honey and her eyes went liquid and warm like spiced cider. I smoothed my hand along her breastbone, down over her stomach, and stopped to tickle her belly button. She let out a giggle that sounded so carefree and unburdened that I knew if I screwed up everything else in my life, I would always have that giggle as something I got really, really right. I slipped my thumb along the top of her pussy, feeling her quiver and watching as her legs stiffened. I put a hand on her knee and roughly ordered, “Put your foot up on the bumper.” It was chrome and I was going to have to buff the shit out of it before the guys
showed up for work tomorrow, but again I didn’t care.
She obeyed and I had to suck in a breath as all that pretty pink flesh was exposed. She was already slick and soft, her body telling me that it was good with whatever I had planned for it and for her. I skimmed my fingers up the inside of her thigh and lightly tapped her clit with the tip of one. It made her shoulders lift off the hood of the car and had her giving me a pointed look through narrowed eyes. I smiled at her and leaned over her so I could kiss her pursed mouth. She kissed me back but there was a bite to it as I dipped my fingers into her wetness and scissored them open. She groaned and I growled as I started to move my digits in and out of her while circling her clit with my thumb. She went from wet to soaked in seconds and I had to lean my chest against hers to keep her from writhing wildly across the surface of the car.
I pulled one of her pointed nipples into my mouth and sucked, hard, cheeks hollowing out and my tongue lapping at it unrelentingly. She curled her fingers around my biceps and begged me to stop and to keep going all in the same breath. I could feel her body quickening, her heart thundering, and it made my cock twitch. I was still fully dressed and that was the only thing that kept me from ramming myself into her like a rutting bull, but I’d had visions of her bent over the hood, her golden hair cascading over her back and tangled in my hands, her incredible heart-shaped ass bouncing and pushing back into me as I pounded into her from behind for months. She was good at making my dreams come true, even when they were dirty and erotic.
I lifted my head, leaving her nipples far closer to red than rosy from all the blood that rushed into them. She had dark fingerprints on her curved hips from rolling across the floor with me and I’d left marks on the side of her neck and the upper swells of her breasts with my mouth. I should feel bad that I’d been so rough with her, but I didn’t. The marks made me hot, made me want to add even more where only she and I could see them. I’d sucked at the foreplay yesterday, so I was determined to make it up to her this go-around.