“You were right, darlin’, he is pretty but he does need to smile more. You two have a good night.”

Dixie laughed and pushed the door open and since her back was to me she didn’t see it but I almost very nearly did smile. It was impossible not to around her.

Dixie

The knock on my door came way too early the next morning. I tried to go to bed almost immediately after getting into the room and taking my long-awaited shower, but my body was far too used to being awake late into the night and sleeping when the sun was in the sky. Not to mention I couldn’t stop my mind from spinning pretty fairy tales around that taste of Church I had snuck on the side of the road. I was stupid to think a single kiss was enough to satisfy the way I had been craving him since the beginning. I wanted more. I wanted it all and the way his big body tightened and shivered against mine was a pretty big indication that he was willing to give me what I desired, but the look in his eyes warned that it was only physical on his end. He would give me every single thing I asked for except for a way into that heart he guarded with iron bars and bulletproof armor.

I also couldn’t stop thinking about what was waiting for us when we got to Mississippi. His story hurt to hear. I hated the idea of him feeling unwanted and I couldn’t believe anyone could ever look into those beautiful eyes and consider his mother’s choice to keep him and raise him a mistake. I knew there was more to why he hadn’t been home in so long than him needing a break once he got out of the service.

I watched Church with Rome and Asa. I watched him with the other guys that filtered in and out of the bar that made up the tightly knit family that had surrounded and supported Rome when he was going through his own adjustment period after coming home from the desert. Church might think he was a lone wolf but it was obvious to me that what he actually was, was an alpha in search of his own pack to lead. He missed the camaraderie of having a band of brothers, he missed being a part of a group of like-minded individuals that would watch out for each other come hell or high water. He still had that bond with Rome, but for reasons that I didn’t understand and was more determined than ever to figure out, he held himself aloof and apart from anyone else willing to welcome him into their fold, his family included.

I tossed the covers off the bed and made my way to the door blurry eyed and rumpled. When I pulled it open Church was on the other side looking like he had been awake for hours. He even had a white to-go cup of coffee in his hand and something in a paper bag that smelled heavenly.

“I sent you a text when I got up but obviously you didn’t get it.” He sounded amused and I realized his gaze wasn’t on my sleep-tangled hair or my practically naked lower half. No. He was focused on the words “Tequila Made Me Do It” where they stretched across my chest on the long tank top I’d worn to bed the night before.

I shoved my hands through my hair, not thinking that the motion would pull the hem of my shirt up well past my waist, giving Church an unobstructed view of my underwear. I blushed, but took solace in the fact that this time they were at least cute and lacy. I tugged the end of the shirt back down so that I was barely covered and took a step back into the room. “I need to get dressed and do something with my hair. Give me half an hour and I’ll be ready to go. My sister called me no less than twenty times last night, so I had to turn my phone to silent. That’s why I didn’t get your text.”

I fisted my hair in a hand and lifted the snarled mess up off my neck. I shouldn’t have gone to bed with it wet. There was little to no chance that I was going to be able to wrangle the curls into any kind of order. I thought he would take the hint and head back to his own room, instead he walked farther into mine and placed the coffee and paper bag on the dresser where the TV sat. He made himself comfortable on the edge of my unmade bed and crossed his long legs at the ankle while he watched me with amused eyes.

“Everything okay back home?” The genuine concern in his honeyed voice had more heat working its way through my body. I spun on my heel, snatched up my jeans from the day before, grabbed my bra from where it was dangling on the bathroom door handle, and slid inside the little room so I could put some layers on between me and the walking, talking seduction that was Dash Churchill.

“Wheeler told her the wedding is off. He also told her she has until I get back home to find somewhere else to live. Kallie hasn’t ever kept a full-time job and has never had to support herself, so she’s freaking out. Also my parents invested a lot of time and money into their wedding, and she’s panicking that Wheeler is going to tell them the reason he’s walking away is because she cheated on him. She’s always been the baby, the one they coddled, but they love Wheeler like a son, so it’s going to be bad.” I wiggled into the rest of my clothes and finger combed my hair. It was useless. The curls had taken over my head and they wouldn’t be stopped.

I stuck my toothbrush in my mouth and looked at him in the mirror. He was watching me with hooded eyes and there was tension in his shoulders and arms that wasn’t there when he walked in. He looked like he had been cast in bronze by a great artist that wanted to capture what true masculine beauty was all about. He was so strong and hard, but there was no denying that he was also all kinds of gorgeous and flat-out dazzling.

“Why do you think your sister stepped out on him?” I ran my tongue over my now clean teeth and wasn’t surprised one bit that instead of minty freshness I still tasted him. I was certain I was going to taste him forever and that it was going to slowly drive me insane.