“Have they told you why?”
Dalton had no respect for any parent who could make their child feel as unloved as T.A. obviously felt.
“They don’t have to tell me why. I know why.” She pressed a lone finger to his forehead. “Don’t frown, it’s okay, Hollywood. How they feel about me isn’t a big deal anymore.” Leaning forward, she moved her finger away to brush a gentle kiss in the same spot. Unable to stop himself, his hands went to her arms, tugging her closer.
“You’re driving me insane, you know that, don’t you?”
“I can’t just not try. You’re on my bucket list.”
He could feel the attraction growing stronger between them. In retrospect, he should never have asked her to come to Queen City. In his jaded world, women were easily attained and tossed away when their usefulness ended. He had stayed far away from that type of destructive behavior. Oceane and his children had kept him grounded. Any one of a dozen different women could have been used to accomplish his goal without him coming dangerously close to breaking his promise to Oceane.
He had picked the wrong woman. T.A. wasn’t someone you could peg in place. She was elusive when it came to her private life, never reacted the way you thought she would, and dammit, she kept him in a constant state of arousal that no other woman had ever done before, even Oceane.
“You make me want to be about twenty years younger.” He hated himself for admitting it out loud.
She used his shirt to bring herself closer to him as her mouth went to his neck. “Is this the same man who just kicked two men’s asses that were even younger than that?”
Her nibbling teeth on his skin had his hands tightening on her arms to push her away, while unwittingly pulling her closer. She was making mush out of his brain, and it was everything he could do not to lay her down on the car seat and explore the body pressed to his in front of his daughter’s house.
“We need to go inside.”
“Just one more minute. This is so nice. I don’t want to let you go.”
The feel of her lips moving against his neck sent shooting sparks to his dick, like a wildfire out of control.
“You’re killing me,” he groaned.
“I can make it all better in about sixty seconds.”
He laughed at her suggestive promise. When her hands started unbuttoning the collar of his shirt, he caught them.
“Behave.”
She raised her face from his neck. “Don’t be such a Grinch. Don’t you want to come inside and feel warm again? Baby, I can make you feel like you’re in a fucking heatwave.”
Her provocative promises weren’t anything he hadn’t heard before. In fact, when he had visited the Road Slayers, it had become a competition for the club sluts to lure him into fucking them. His dick hadn’t twitched at the offers that had been made to him.
In his younger days, before he had met Oceane, he would have had no compunction about taking them up on their offers. There wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before she had tamed the wildness inside of him. T.A. was the exact opposite; she was begging the wildness inside of him to come out and play, and God help him, he wanted to. So bad, he had to grit his teeth as he lifted her back to her seat.
The front door opening saved him from pulling her back after missing the warmth of her body next to his. “Dax is coming.”
“Darn.”
He fumbled to put his coat on before getting out, so Dax beat him to opening T.A.’s door.
“Grace was starting to get worried about what was taking so long.”
“The store was packed,” he explained, getting out of the car to button his coat as T.A. got out the other door. Going to the trunk, he opened it under the watchful gaze of his son.
“I bought some brownies. You want one?”
T.A’s inane chatter had Dax turning his focus on her.
“I love brownies.”
“Me too. I’ll give you one when we get inside.” Taking Dax’s arm, she was walking toward the house with him at her side.
Slamming the trunk down, he bit back the resentment of watching them together. Dax and T.A. were much closer in age, they looked great together, and it fucking sucked that he was becoming jealous of his son.
He carried the bag of groceries inside and went to the kitchen to lay it down on the counter as Grace took a roast out of the oven.
“I was starting to get worried.” Placing the roast on a trivet, she went back to close the oven door.
“I was recognized when I was checking out.”
Relief filled her face as she went to empty the grocery bag. Her smile slipped when she took out the Pop-Tarts.
“I should have bought these to have on hand. Mom always made sure you had them during the holidays; it’s the only time you splurge and eat whatever you want.”