Chapter 9: Nobody Touches Me

I put the phone face down on the porch rail.

"It's a backup," I said. "It can wait."

"Good," Waylon said.

He stood and took my face in both hands, and this time he kissed me steady and unhurried and sure.

"Nobody touches you," he said against my mouth.

"Shut up."

"That's what you said."

"I know what I said."

I fisted my hands in his jacket and pulled him in the door.

We didn't make it upstairs.

The kitchen was dark, and the cold off the creek came through the window glass, and he lifted me onto the counter where we had eaten the cake.

He pushed my hoodie up over my head and dropped it on the floor.

I tugged at his jacket until it came off his shoulders.

His shirt followed.

He was solid under my hands, warm, with a long scar down one rib and a scatter of dark hair that I wanted to put my mouth on, so I did.

He made a low sound in his chest.

"Samantha."

"Don't talk."

"I want to hear you say it first."

"Say what?"

"That you want this. Not because of the lawn. Not because you're angry."

I slid my hands down his stomach and found his belt.

"I wanted this when you wrapped my hand," I said. "I wanted it in the truck. I want it now. Waylon."

He breathed out once, hard, and took my mouth again.

His hands went to the button of my jeans.

He worked them down over my hips, slowly, and lifted me so they slid off.

I sat on his counter in my underwear with the light of the stove clock on my skin.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing. You."

His hands spread over my thighs and moved up.

He kissed my throat, my collarbone, the swell of my breast above the bra.

He undid the clasp one-handed.

When his mouth closed over my nipple I arched off the counter and said his name loudly enough to startle us both.

"There," he said. "Again."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Forgot Me at a Rest Stop, I Forgot Them Forever from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.