Vaguely.
“The fight?” I asked. “I know that there was supposed to be one… but yeah. I don’t remember there actually being one.”
Bourne had scheduled a fight with some rich prick college kid that fancied himself a badass. From what I understood, he’d put his pink slip to his car up, and so had Bourne.
Bourne, at the time, had a 1967 Camaro that was not very restored. But what it did have was a badass engine. An engine in a piece of shit that had beat that kid’s car, and he wanted a rematch, only Bourne hadn’t been willing to give it to him.
What Bourne had been willing to give him was a fight, because Bourne was a fuckin’ ninja, and knew that he could win against the college prick.
I’d known that he fought because the next morning when I’d finally dragged myself home from the party, I’d found the car in the driveway and Bourne had explained.
Only, I hadn’t been there to witness the fight.
“Kerrie knows that I don’t like watching fights,” she said. “I hate them. They’re boring. Yet, every time there’s a fight, he wants me there to watch it with him. As if that kind of thing is something I enjoy. When I pitched a fit, he’d begged me to stay because he didn’t know anybody.” She stopped directly in front of me and poked me in the chest with her finger. I didn’t bother to tell her that it hurt, because I didn’t want to interrupt her train of thought. And I didn’t want her to feel bad. “He did it for a reason. There’s no other explanation. He made sure that I wasn’t around you and Delanie. Because he knew that something was going to happen. The only thing is, how would he have managed it? He had to have help.”
I sighed.
As much as I didn’t like how it’d all gone down, there was nothing I could do about it now.
Except confront Kerrie about it, and for some reason, I almost felt that it was divine justice that in the end, despite his meddling and scheming, I’d still ended up with the girl.
Before she could take a full step away from me, I caught her by the finger and tugged her until I was pressed up against her.
“I’ll look into it,” I told her. “Or, actually, I’ll have Bourne look into it. He’s better at creeping in the shadows than I am. I’m more of a bull in a china shop. He’s that sleuthing panther that can get places that I can’t.”
She licked her lips, her eyes on mine, as she said, “It’s still my fault.”
I tilted her head up by placing my knuckle underneath her chin.
“The actions of others is not your fault,” I said. “Does it suck that your father made decisions for you? Yes. Does it suck that Kerrie was a piece of shit and likely did something that changed all of our lives? Doubly yes. For you. For me. For Delanie. For Bourne. He changed the course of four lives that day with his actions. But, since I can’t prove it, right now, we’re going to let it go.”
She narrowed her eyes. “We’re not letting this go.”
I snorted. “We are.”
“Why?” She all but threw her arms up in annoyance.
If she stomped her foot, I was going to kiss her.
There was no other way around it.
“Why?” she asked. “You want to know why I’m not letting this go?”
“Yes,” I said. “What’s it going to accomplish? He’s not going to tell you the truth. He doesn’t want to go to jail. And yes, you can go to jail, even all these years later. So no, he’s not going to tell you shit. And right now? Is there anything you can do other than push him?”
She ground her teeth together in annoyance.
But she did answer. “No.”
I moved so that both of my hands were cupping her face. “Then let me deal with it. You just sit there and look pretty.”
She blinked. Then blinked again.
“Did you… did you just tell me to sit there and look pretty?” she asked, outrage starting to fill her voice.
I blinked innocently at her. “Absolutely not.”
Her mouth just kept falling farther and farther open until I couldn’t help myself.
I had to dip my face down and capture her mouth with my own. And, since her mouth was open, I took advantage and swept my tongue inside, running mine over hers and causing her to gasp.
I tilted my face for better access, my tongue once again sweeping inside, and she inhaled.
Then… she kissed me back.
Her body moved in closer to mine.
Her hands clenched on the top of the towel, fisting the material tightly.
And my cock?
Yeah, it definitely loved having her hands so close to it.
I growled into her mouth, sucking her tongue, and our positions went awry when her legs nearly gave out from under her.