“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.”