I looked up at him from under my lashes and gave him a grin. “Don’t worry about me, I’m good.”

And I was. There was none of the tingling terror from yesterday under my skin. The only thing I could feel was the desire to know what his coming undone tasted like. I had a feeling it was going to be flavored with victory and triumph. Putting the tip of my tongue on the slit that was already leaking pearly fluid, and circling it around, I found that he tasted like man and musk with a tiny bit of me thrown in just to keep things interesting. He said my name as his hips lifted off the bed, his hand fisting my hair at the back of my head.

“I need you to suck it, honey.” If he was asking I knew it meant he really needed me to do it, so I opened my mouth and took him in. The thick vein that ran underneath the shaft throbbed against my tongue as I took the swollen length in as deep as I could.

He swore, long and loud, as he wrapped his heavy hand around my much smaller one and squeezed it tighter than I would have dared. He showed me what he needed and told me that he wasn’t going to blink as long as I had his dick in my mouth. He shifted restlessly beneath me and I heard my name barked in warning a split second before his release hit my tongue in a salty, furious rush.

When I lifted my head, his eyes were locked on mine. His dimples flashed and he reached out to rub his thumb across my bottom lip. I chased the touch with my tongue and blinked at him when he asked me quietly, “Are you ever going to stop surprising me?”

I sure as hell hoped not because every time I surprised him it was me figuring out the person I was supposed to be, the woman I was always meant to be. It was my heart speaking for itself after far too long.

Wheeler

The last time I had felt this nervous and uncertain walking up to the Carmichaels’ front door was when I picked Kallie up for our first date. We’d already been seeing each other pretty regularly on the down low, but she wasn’t sure how my drastic appearance and orphan status was going to go over with her fairly conservative parents. She was also the baby, the pampered princess, and she didn’t want the fact that she had fallen for an outcast and a wild card to take the shine off how everyone in her family treated her. The Carmichaels were good people but I knew it was one thing to feel sorry for the kid without a family, but it was another thing to welcome him into yours when all the evidence pointed to the fact he was doing his best to get into your teenage daughter’s pants.

The reality of the situation was that I’d been the one to hold Kallie off until we were officially official, which included me being able to take her on dates. She was more than willing to go the distance as soon as I kissed her, but I wanted more than teenage infatuation and unleashed lust. I was more than willing to suffer through the grilling that I knew was going to come from her father because I was convinced Kallie and I were going to be a forever thing. I arrogantly believed my loyalty and devotion to their daughter would win them over even if my appearance and lack of a loving home gave them pause. Little did I know the battle to win them over was won before I even knocked on the door.

I knew Kallie’s dad was in a wheelchair and had been ever since he was involved in a bad motorcycle accident when Kallie was much younger, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. She never once mentioned that he was rocking just as much, if not more, ink than I had, or the fact that he had a seriously badass mustache that framed his mouth, or that he was going to answer the door in a leather cut and leather gloves as he looked at me like he could eviscerate me with little to no effort. The guy oozed biker cool and didn’t blink an eye at my tattoos or dirty hands. He didn’t give a second look to my torn jeans and faded T-shirt and my battered boots didn’t seem to bother him at all. He stared at me until I gave in and looked away, his tone deadly serious as he told me, “Kallie is a handful and I respect anyone that takes that on, but if you hurt her, if you let her down or disappoint her, it won’t matter how much of a pain in the ass she is, I will end you. Do you understand me, son?”

I was so startled to hear the word “son” that I’d blurted out without thinking, “I’m going to marry her one day, sir.”

His expression shifted from stone to sunshine. “Thank Jesus someone is going to take that girl off my hands.” He chuckled and rolled away from the door so I could walk inside. From that second on he and his wife went out of their way to make sure I knew I was welcome in their home. As long as their daughter was happy, they were happy to have me as one of their own. It was the first time in my life I thought I knew what family felt like and I couldn’t get enough of it. I thought it would last forever because Kallie and I were going to be together until the end of time. It still hurt to know that when she left she took that sense of finally belonging somewhere with her.

Now, as I dragged myself up to that same door, I again felt like that kid that had been ousted from home after home. I was never good enough and it was always far too easy for everyone that was supposed to love me to tell me good-bye. It made my heart twist and left a bitter taste across my tongue. I knew Kallie’s parents didn’t have the whole picture as to why I’d had to call the wedding off, but I thought I’d more than proven that I would do right by their youngest daughter regardless of what the circumstances were. I foolishly believed I’d earned a spot in the family; it sucked when I figured out I was only a temporary guest.

As soon as my now new and expensive boots hit the top step, I wanted to turn around and go back to the Caddy. I was lifting my hand to knock on the door I used to be able to walk through without any hesitation when my phone rang. I couldn’t stop the smile that played around my mouth when the picture I snapped, without either of them realizing, of Poppy and Happy playing flashed across my screen. She was smiling that soft smile that only came out of hiding on rare occasions and the puppy had his tongue hanging out in a ridiculously excited expression. It was a good reminder that while I might have lost something important and special, I had also been lucky enough to find something that was more than everything, something that you had to look really hard to find because it was buried so deep underneath bad memories and wounds that would never fully heal.

“What’s up, honey?” I knew now that she didn’t just look like the sweet treat from head to toe, she also tasted rich and honeyed wherever my lips happened to land on her pretty, golden skin.