Sam’s upper body knifed up, I slid down to straddling his lap and one of his arms curled around me.
Then a woman’s velvety but hesitant voice came at me through the phone.
“Uh… hello. Is Sam there? This is his mother.”
I froze solid.
Shit!
His mother!
I’d answered the phone flippantly and it was his mother!
I was in bed in the morning with Sam and I interrupted the blowjob I was giving Sam in order to answer the phone flippantly and it was his mother!
“Baby, who is it?”
I unfroze, gave Sam big eyes and waved my hand at him to shut up.
Then I forced myself to stammer, “Uh, yes. He’s here, uh…”
Sam pulled the phone out of my hand and put it to his ear.
Oh God! Now she was going to know he was in bed with me!
“Cooper,” he said into it, listened for a nanosecond then his eyes cut to me and he smiled huge. “Hey, Ma.”
I tensed to launch myself off him but his arm around me clamped tight.
Then Sam spoke again.
“Yeah, that was Kia, the one I told you about.”
He told her about me? When? Why? What did he say? And, again, when?
Sam kept talking.
“We got here yesterday.” Pause. “Right.” Pause then his arm spasmed around me, his eyes slid away, his amusement faded and his brows drew together. “No, don’t do that.”
Uh-oh.
He kept going.
“No, Ma, seriously, we just got here and now’s not the time for company.”
Uh-oh!
“Ma –” he began, was obviously cut off then, “Not a good idea.” Pause then, “Ma –” Another cut off, this one lasted longer and ended with a clipped, “Shit. Fine.”
No!
My hands lifted, fingers curling tight on his shoulders where they met his neck and his eyes came to me.
“Right, we’ll pick you up in Raleigh on Thursday,” he said.
No. No. No!
My fingers tightened on his shoulders, his eyes moved over my face then they started twinkling.
Twinkling!
Was he crazy?
I couldn’t meet his mother! It was way too soon for one. Sure, he’d met my whole family but someone was trying to kill me and Sam was my self-appointed protector. There was no way to avoid that. For another, I couldn’t sleep in the same bed with Sam if his mother was in the house. I was from Indiana. I was the daughter of Essie and Ford Rigsby. My mother and father could look the other way and pretend Sam and I didn’t have a sexual relationship outside of marriage if we were staying at my house and it wasn’t in their face. And they did so contentedly considering Sam was my self-appointed protector who’d wrangled up a crew of badasses to make sure I kept breathing. This bought you a lot of leeway, even with church going folk in the Bible belt. I could not sleep with Sam or sleep with Sam when his mother was in the house. And Sam wouldn’t allow it to be any other way. I knew it. Furthermore, his bedroom, walk-in closet and master bath took one whole side of the upstairs. The other side was another bathroom, a guest room and his office. His mother would be in the guest room and there was nowhere else for me to sleep except one of the couches downstairs.
Eek!
Sam again spoke, taking me out of my fevered thoughts, “All right, Ma, call me or text the details and we’ll meet you outside the terminal.” Pause. “Yeah.” Pause. “Lookin’ forward to it.” Pause. “No, that’ll be fine, considering I’ve been forced to eat Kia’s Mom’s cooking, I’m sure she’ll be good with eating yours.”
Forced? What would Mrs. Cooper think, Sam saying he was “forced” to eat Mom’s cooking?
Eek again!
Sam went on, grinning into the phone and muttering, “I’ll explain it later, Ma. Need to see to Memphis.” Pause. “Kia’s dog.” Another pause. “Yeah, she’s cute. You’ll love her.”
Oh God. I hoped so. It would suck if Sam’s Mom turned out to be the only human on the planet (outside Hap and, kind of, Teri) who hated Memphis.
It would suck more if Sam’s Mom turned out to be the only human I knew on the planet (outside Vanessa) who hated me.
Sam kept speaking. “Right. See you soon.” Pause. “Love you too, Ma. Later.”
He beeped off the phone, twisted, taking me with him, put it on the cradle then twisted back and his eyes locked on mine.
“What chance I got that you’ll use your mouth to get me hard again so I can fuck you?” he asked through a shit eating grin.
“Zero,” I answered while trying not to hyperventilate.
“Figured,” he muttered, still grinning.
“This isn’t good,” I told him and Sam’s other arm curved around me, both of them giving me a warm squeeze.
“She’ll love you, baby,” he whispered.
“Okay, well, maybe so but you won’t love me sleeping on the couch.”
The grin disappeared and his brows drew together. “Come again?”
“Hello? Sam? Again, I’m from Indiana.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not and neither is Ma.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do it. It’s impossible. I’ll break into hives or something.”
“Baby, you’re overreacting. Your parents know I’m fucking you.”