Because of Lila

  “Oh God,” she cried then bit my shoulder. She was trembling in my arms. “AH!” Her orgasm squeezed my cock and I let go with her.

  “Fuck! That’s it, baby. Come all over my dick.”

  “Ahhhh! Cruz! I can’t,” she was clinging to me now. Her arms wrapped around me. Her head in the crook of my neck.

  I exploded inside her jerking free a little too late.

  “Shit,” I groaned as the rest of my release coated the inside of her thigh.

  We stood there in the corner sweaty, wrapped together, panting. This was what I’d never done with anyone. I’d always been careful. But my insanity when it came to Lila Kate had taken over and it had been the last thing on my mind.

  “It’s okay,” she finally whispered. “Remember I’m on the pill.”

  I nodded and kept holding her. Wishing I was still inside. Pulsing my release until it ran freely out of her. Making her mine.

  I was scaring myself.

  Lila Kate

  I HAD INTENDED to get a lot done this weekend. But Cruz had changed that plan. After the wild sex we’d had downstairs, he’d taken me to the shower where he was now bathing me slowly. He wasn’t talking much. The haunted look in his eyes like he was running from something and needed me to protect him was hard to miss. It was as if he was safe as long as we were touching.

  He was more important than the studio. All that could wait. For now, I enjoyed him. Being with him. He needed reassurance. This was new. I would say I needed reassurance too, but the way he was hovering over me I was getting plenty.

  Sunday we slept in, ate breakfast that we cooked together and watched movies all day.

  When Monday morning came, so did Ophelia. I had just gotten out of the shower and was looking forward to the coffee I smelled in the kitchen when I heard her say “Holy shit. This is not happening.”

  I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me and hurried in there. Ophelia was standing in the kitchen with a suitcase staring open mouthed at Cruz who was wearing nothing but boxers while he held a tin of muffins I had left in the oven.

  “Morning, Ophelia. Can’t say I’m happy you’re back,” Cruz said as he turned to look at me and winked.

  Ophelia swung her gaze toward me. “Ohmygod,” was all she could get out. Her eyes were wide, and she dropped the bag on her left shoulder to the floor with a loud thump. “What happened?”

  “It’s rude to ask for details, O. You should know better,” Cruz was taunting her.

  She glared at him. “I don’t want details! I want to know that there is an explanation that doesn’t include the two of you,” she wagged a finger between us and said, “doing it.”

  Cruz laughed loudly. “Did you just say ‘doing it?’” he asked then laughed some more.

  She gave up on him and turned completely to me. I was still standing there silently unprepared. “Lila Kate?” she prompted.

  “I, well, uh,” I glanced at Cruz who was eating a muffin and grinning enjoying this a little too much. “Yes, we did it,” I blurted out.

  Cruz began to laugh some more.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she asked pointing back at him. “He’s a whore!”

  “Hey, I’ve got feelings. You’re crushing them,” he didn’t sound crushed at all.

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “No, I’m, uh, we are, you see,” I was fumbling.

  “We’re exclusive. I’ve given up my man whore ways because Lila Kate gave me a taste and I got addicted. There’s also the small very important detail that I am in love with her.”

  His explanation wasn’t as sweet and romantic as the things he’d said to me, but my chest swelled anyway. That was as sweet as Cruz let the world see him. He’d been open and just made himself vulnerable by admitting that.

  “In love?” Ophelia repeated it like it was a foreign word she’d never heard before. She looked back at me.

  “Yes. I love him, too.”

  Defeated, she sat down on her suitcase and shook her head. “I need a moment. This . . . just wow.”

  “Muffin?” Cruz asked holding the pan out to her and then me. “They’re fucking delicious. Grab one now because I’m gonna eat them all.”

  I walked past Ophelia, and she watched me like I was about to grow wings and fly off. As she sat down at the bar, I took the muffin pan and picked a muffin out, then went to pour myself some coffee.

  “Are you going to,” she waved at Cruz. “Walk around in your underwear a lot?”

  He smirked. “No. You’re not that lucky. I wasn’t aware you’d be barging in so early.”

  “It’s ten,” she replied.

  “Exactly—the crack of dawn.”

  “Lila Kate, you can’t be serious about this. He’s . . . he’s Cruz!”

  I smiled into my coffee cup. This was our first encounter with a friend or family member. I imagined this was going to happen a lot.

  “What about Eli? I thought you liked him.”

  Cruz’s smile vanished, and he scowled. “She doesn’t,” he replied. His teasing tone now gone.

  I put my cup down. “Eli is a great guy. But I’ve been in love with Cruz a long time.”

  “Why?”

  Cruz laughed again. “Damn, Ophelia. I didn’t know your opinion of me was so high.”

  She cocked her head and stared at him with a “get real” expression. “You have screwed most of my friends. And when I say most, that includes all of them. And now you’re sleeping with Lila Kate.”

  He winced. “Could we not discuss my past? That’s behind me. I’d like to leave it there.”

  Ophelia stood up and let out a heavy sigh. “This is going to end badly. Then Grant Carter will murder you. Mark my words,” she said as she carried her suitcase and bag to the bedroom that was to be hers.

  I slipped an arm around Cruz’s waist and leaned into him. “She’ll be more positive soon.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “That’s what I expect we will get from everyone in our life.”

  He was probably right. So I just kept my mouth shut and hugged him to me. “I’m happy. I’ve never been happier,” I assure him.

  “Me too. And honestly that scares the hell out of me.”

  “Why?” I asked tilting my head back to look up at him.

  “Because I know what this feels like and I can’t live without it or you.”

  “You’ll never have to so that’s not a problem. I’m not going anywhere.”

  That desperate, haunted look shadowed his eyes again. I wished I could soothe him and his concerns. I was the one who should be worried. Not him.

  “Can y’all put on clothes at least while I get one of the boxes out of my car?” Ophelia reminded us of her presence.

  Cruz jerked the towel around me off and I scrambled to get it from him. “You are taking all the fun away,” he told Ophelia. “I like her in a towel. Easier to get her naked.”

  “God! You are a pig,” she replied and went back down the stairs.

  I slapped at his chest and grabbed the towel from him. “Stop that!”

  He pulled me to his chest. “Think she’d care if we went up to your room and went another round?”

  As tempting as that was, I wasn’t doing that to Ophelia. “Get dressed Cruz,” I told him, then grinned and left my towel off as I walked up the stairs to my room.

  “Damn, you are asking for it,” he threatened.

  I glanced back and winked at him. “Save it for later.”

  “I take it back,” he said staring up at me.

  “What?”

  “You’re not a china doll, and nothing about you is cold.”

  I smiled and bit my lip to keep from grinning too big.

  “You are incredibly tough, and that body is so fucking hot I won’t ever get enough.”

  They weren’t words you’d ever hear in a sonnet but coming from Cruz Kerrington it was poetry.

  Cruz Kerrington

  OPHELIA MOVING IN with Lila Kate wasn’t ideal, but over
the next week we made it work. I even started getting along with my dad better, but that was mostly due to my showing up on time to work. Being at the meetings he required and all the other shit I had been ignoring.

  Thinking about August when I had to go back to school sucked. Lila Kate was finished. She’d be here, and I would leave. I didn’t like it. Worrying about it right now just gave me more to stress over. Avoiding Kelsey had been my biggest hurdle at work. She hadn’t said anything to my dad, or I would know. I was hoping that she had been bluffing to scare me.

  Regardless, the kid wasn’t mine. I was willing to do a paternity test to prove it. That was if there even was a baby. I doubted that too. When I was sixteen, she’d been the sexy, exciting older woman. However, over the past year I had started noticing the crazy boiling under the surface.

  The summer crowd was already up and in full swing when I walked out of Lila Kate’s studio at eight in the morning. I had planned on walking to the coffee shop across the parking lot and getting Lila Kate one of those fancy teas she liked and a muffin. I definitely hadn’t been expecting Grant Carter to be standing against his truck with his arms crossed over his chest glaring at me like he wanted to take the life from my body with his bare hands.

  Shit.

  “Grant,” I said trying to not look guilty of staying the night with his daughter

  “Not here for bullshit, boy.”

  I didn’t assume he was. “No, sir. Don’t imagine you are.”

  He dropped his hands to his sides and looked up at the windows to Lila Kate’s loft. “That girl in there is the other half of my world. She and her momma have been every dream, every wish, every damn thing that means anything to me from the moment I held her in my arms.”

  “I understand that,” I began and he took a step toward me his scowl deepening. “No. you don’t. You don’t understand a goddamn thing boy. You’ve never had a woman you loved more than life itself nor have you held a precious baby girl in your arms that is a miracle and knew that your life would be to protect her. You do not know what that is.”

  He was right there. I nodded afraid if I said anything until he was ready for me to he’d break one of the bones in my face. I liked my face the way it was.

  “She is just like her mother. Kind, sweet, smart, and when she loves, she loves with everything she has. That’s a lot for a man to handle. A lot for him to cherish. I didn’t realize it with her momma right away and nearly lost the only thing I had worth living for. Her dad wanted me dead. I don’t blame him.”

  I nodded, still not speaking.

  Grant got in my face his shoulders wider and his arms thicker than my own. “If you fuck with my baby girl’s heart I won’t give one rat’s ass who your parents are. All I’ve seen you do is fuck around. Play games. Enjoy women. But that girl up there,” he said pointing for emphasis. “She’s not the kind you do that with. Because I will tell you right now,” he then pointed his finger in my face. “She has to love you, or you wouldn’t be here. She would have never climbed on your bike and rode off like she did. That was not Lila Kate. She was acting on feelings for you. So either you have the same feelings for her, or you make a clean break and get the hell out of town before I can find you. Do I make myself clear?”

  This was my turn to speak. “Yes sir,” I said. “I know all those things about her. It’s why I kept my distance for so long. But when she left, I knew I was going to lose her or any chance with her. I had to make a decision and I went after her. I told myself it was to protect her, but I knew deep down what I was doing. I love Lila Kate. I don’t need anyone else.”

  Grant’s scowl eased some but he still didn’t look convinced. “I like you. I like your family. But I can’t just trust anyone with my baby girl. Don’t know if I ever will. I won’t stop watching. I won’t back off. You hurt her, expect me to come after you.”

  Jesus. It was a wonder Lila Kate had ever had a date in high school. I was expecting him to get his gun out of the truck and start waving it around any minute. “I will never hurt her.”

  He didn’t look like he believed that. “Your past ain’t pretty boy. It could come back to haunt you. If it were up to me, she’d leave you alone. Find a guy who didn’t make it his goal to fuck the entire female population in this town. But it’s not up to me. She’s a woman. It’s her choice. But I’m her daddy, and if you fuck this up there will be no place safe for you. I’ll find you.”

  “Daddy!” Lila Kate’s voice called out, and I glanced over my shoulder to see her standing at the front door in her pink fluffy heart robe with a very unhappy frown on her face. Luckily, it was directed at her father. Not me.

  “Hey, baby,” he replied.

  She took long strides toward us. “This had better not be what I think it is,” she said.

  He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m your father. I was just coming to visit and found Cruz leaving your apartment. Making sure he was clear on some things.”

  Like the fact he was going to murder me if I hurt his daughter. I didn’t mention that though.

  “I don’t need you to threaten the men in my life daddy,” she told him.

  “Men?” Grant and I both said in unison. There were no other men.

  She rolled her eyes at both of us. “Oh, good grief. The ‘man’ in my life. I am an adult. I can have whoever I want sleep over. I can date whoever I want. And I can love whoever I want. You have to trust me to take care of myself.”

  “I do,” he said giving her a charming smile that I sure as hell hadn’t been given. “Just making sure Cruz was on the same page as you. That’s all.”

  Lila Kate put her hands on her hips. “And what page is that?”

  “That he was as serious about this as you are.”

  “And that is what I am saying. It isn’t your business.”

  “You’re my daughter, and that will never change. I’ll make shit my business when it comes to protecting you for as long as I am alive.”

  Lila Kate sighed and gave me an apologetic look. “Are you having a change of heart now?” she asked me.

  I smirked. As if Grant Carter could make me stop wanting her. “No. Not even close.”

  Her eyes went soft, and for a moment I forgot her father was even out there with us ruining a perfectly good morning. Our quiet breakfast was not going as planned.

  “Jesus,” Grant muttered. Then he walked over and hugged Lila Kate. “I can’t help it you know,” he whispered.

  “I love him,” she said her gaze shifting to me.

  “And that makes him the luckiest man other than myself that I know.”

  Lila Kate grinned up at her father then.

  I had been expecting this. I was glad it was over. Now I just had to make sure the Kelsey shit was done. That was one time bomb that threatened everything. If I lost Lila Kate over her, I would gladly let Grant put me out of my misery.

  Lila Kate

  MOM HAD CALLED me to meet her for lunch at the club today. I’d been so busy I hadn’t seen much of her. Between getting the studio ready and spending time with Cruz, my days were packed. I was just about to walk inside the main building at the club when my phone vibrated. When I checked, it was a text from Eli.

  He was good about checking on me once a week if not more. Cruz wasn’t crazy about our friendship, but he allowed it. If he knew I’d had drunken sex with Eli, I doubted he’d be okay with it. That was before us so I figured it wasn’t important to discuss.

  I didn’t ask about all the girls he’d slept with before me.

  Studio almost ready? Eli’s text asked.

  I stopped walking and replied. Another two weeks and it will be open for business. About to have lunch with my mom. Text back later. I dropped my phone back into my purse and looked up to see Kelsey standing a few feet in front of me.

  Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. It was so unlike her. She was always so businesslike, I couldn’t imagine her as emotional. Her gaze was locked on me. Almost as if I were the source of her p
ain. I glanced around me to see if there was anyone else around but it was just me.

  “I need to speak with you,” she said her voice hoarse with emotion.

  She was upset so it wasn’t like I could say, “No thanks. I have a lunch date with my mom.”