I sip my beer and shake my head. “She sort of got dragged into it, but no. Someone else made the report.”
“So…” He glances over his shoulder toward the kitchen door as Carol comes through with several plates. “If she’s that good, what the hell’s she doing in Mom’s kitchen?”
“Let’s just say that Bruce hasn’t been a great provider. She needs cash for some bills.”
I stopped by the hospital this morning and made another payment. Considering everything, it was probably almost as stupid as sitting here staring at her through the porthole. They still won’t tell me the total due, but I got the impression the payments I’m making are a drop in the bucket. Still, I feel like I have to do what I can. Especially with Addie giving up water polo to get it paid off.
Carol drops a plate in front of me. “Pace yourself.” She brings the rest of the plates balanced on her arm to the table behind me.
I devour my burger as Bran serves a large group of guys who just came in, and I’m finishing when I see Addie head down the back hall toward the delivery door in the alley.
I push off my stool. “Thanks, man,” I say to Bran, tossing a twenty on the bar.
He shoots me a shit-eating grin as I stride up the hallway on Addie’s heels.
I slam through the doorway just behind her and she gasps and spins at the noise. In a single bound, I’m on her. I back her up against the cinderblock wall and plant a hand on either side of her head. “Your team misses you.”
“So this is an official visit?” Her eyes are wide with shock, but there’s just enough sass in her tone to make certain parts of my anatomy take notice.
I crush her body between mine and the wall and kiss her with everything I have. After a second, her surprise passes and I feel her melt into me. She grasps my shoulders and I twist my hand into her hair, pulling her closer and deepening our kiss. And when I finally draw away, her breathing is shaky and she’s got a fuck me look in her eyes that has my dick standing on end in one second flat.
“I need more from you than just a few stolen moments,” I whisper against her lips. “Let me take you home.”
If I’m going to fucking jail, I may as well do something to deserve it.
She blinks up at me and nods. I take her hand and head across the street to my truck.
Chapter 20
Addie
Despite the cool evening air, I’m sure the scorch in Marcus’s gaze is going to cause me to spontaneously combust.
I do my best to ignore the charge in the air as he negotiates us through town. I feel like a fugitive, looking out the windows for any sign of someone following us.
“Pull into the garage,” I say when he rolls to a stop in front of my house.
He cranks the wheel into my driveway and I jump out and run inside. I hit the button for the garage door and he pulls inside. He hasn’t even stopped when I push the button again to lower it.
He’s barely out of the truck when I go to him. We stand staring at each other for what feels like an eternity before I press up onto my toes and loop my hands over his shoulders.
He tugs me to him and crushes my body against his, kissing me hard. This is the most unleashed I’ve ever seen Marcus, and I know it’s because of the beer I taste on his tongue. But if this is my only chance, I’m going to take it.
I climb up his body like a monkey and he scoops me up by the ass as I hook my knees over his hips. He walks us through the house but hesitates when he gets to the hallway to the bedrooms.
I take my mouth off his long enough to tell him, “At the end.”
He carries me down the hall and kicks open the door at the end. But then he hesitates.
He sets me down and looks around the room, and I suddenly hate Aunt Becky for her decorating choices. Everything is white lace, which makes it feel very girlish. Not how I want Marcus to be thinking of me right now.
“I can’t do this,” he says, backing away from me.
I have to make him understand that I need this from him. He’s the only person I’ve ever felt this way about and I want to show him everything he means to me.
So I lift my hands to his face, hold his jaw, rough with three day’s growth, gently between my palms. I pull him down to kiss me…tip my head to the side, open my mouth wider for him, and pull him deeper into me.
He groans as his last shred of inhibition falls away and he takes my invitation, threading his fingers through my hair to the nape of my neck. His tongue finds mine, and what starts out a slow dance rapidly becomes a desperate tumble as they roll through each other’s mouths.