“You were probably a good kid.”
“I was and I wasn’t. Like all boys I guess.”
“My parents wished I was a boy. They never said that, but I knew. They had my sisters and they tried one more time for a boy since my dad always wanted one. I felt like I was a disappointment right from the start. And then, my personality really made itself clear.”
Hearing Bella say those things was like a punch in the gut. It was pretty damn clear that her rebellious streak might have a lot more to it than just wanting to defy her parents and piss them off at every turn. Her walls might be thick to protect more than just her principles and her sense of style.
“Oh. I’m sure that’s not true. I’m sure they loved you.”
“Of course.” Bella shrugged. “They’re my parents. I think they have to.”
“I wish that was true. I think there are a lot of people out there that don’t love their kids like they’re supposed to.”
“I know they love me but I also know that my dad was disappointed. I think you can still love your kid and wish they were something else or acted in a different way. My parents don’t get me at all. They never did. My dad wished I was a boy and my mom wished I was more of a girly girl, like my sisters. I just felt trapped somewhere in between in this no man’s land for so long. I guess I still do, but now it’s so out of control and I’m so far gone with this,” she looked down at her tattooed arms, “that they’ve probably given up completely.”
“If you were my daughter, I’d be proud of you. Just like you said, it’s badass to be able to take all that pain.”
“Hell yes, it is. And thinking of you as my dad is kind of disgusting. That kind of ruins the mood.”
Rhett grinned to lighten the serious somber air that hung over the car. He didn’t like seeing Bella’s smile so forced and sad. “And here I was going to ask you to call me daddy when you went down on me.”
“Went down on you? That’s pretty confident. What if your dick is ugly and I don’t want to put my mouth anywhere near it?”
“Is it ugly? This is technically round two, so unless you had your eyes closed the entire time, which I’m actually sure you didn’t, then you already know what it looks like.”
Bella’s lips pursed. Her eyes glistened. “Maybe it’s not ugly. Or crooked. Or weird or anything like that. Maybe it’s a perfectly passable dick.”
“Just passable?”
“I said perfectly passable.”
“What you should have said was-”
“That it’s huge, the biggest I’ve ever seen or had, flawless, amazing, incredibly hard, ultimately astounding, so awesome it could rule the world and singlehandedly impregnate women with a single glance.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Okay, sorry. Your dick is actually just mediocre, and I faked the orgasms. All three times.” Rhett started a protest, but Bella winked at him. “Okay, that’s no better. I like how you assume I’m just dying to go down on you here though.”
“Aren’t you? Haven’t you been thinking about my cock all day, ever since I walked into your shop and got you all hot and bothered at work?”
Bella’s lips thinned out, but her eyes were still laughing at him. “Hot and bothered? People actually say that now?”
“I say it.”
“I wasn’t hot and bothered. I don’t get hot and bothered and if I did, it would never be at work.”
“Are you hot and bothered now?”
She glanced around. “Well, we are in the middle of nowhere. We both know this is wrong and that it’s not going to go a single place after tonight. There’s this illicit, casual, stolen aspect of this that makes it all a little more exciting if I’m going to be honest. And the fact that this is a rental and even though the seats are leather they’re still going to need a good wipe down after this, or a hose out at the nearest carwash, I guess that’s kind of a little bit hot.”
“Just a little?” Rhett’s entire body was telling him that it was way more than just a little. He literally felt like he was drowning in a lake of fiery desire. The interior of the car was so hot that the windows were practically fogging up and all they were doing was talking.
“Yeah. Just a little.” Bella glanced at the backseat. “Maybe it’s you who should go down on me. We kind of skipped the whole foreplay part the first time around.”
“We kind of did.”
“So…”
“Who says this isn’t going anywhere? After tonight?”
“Out of all the things I said, you’re really going to dwell on that?”
“Just wondering. I could always keep flying down. You could come to Phoenix. We could have hot internet and phone sex.”