November’s Ride with Viper (Mustang Mountain Riders #11)

5. Viper

CHAPTER 5

VIPER

Her grandma’s cabin was just as I remembered. I’d cruised by several times over the years, but I hadn’t been inside since our high school graduation. I followed Marlowe as she pulled around the circle drive and stopped by the front door.

The same two rocking chairs sat on the front porch, and a fall wreath hung from the door. No telling how many hours we’d spent rocking back and forth in those chairs and talking about the future. In all that time, I bet neither one of us ever considered the possibility we’d be celebrating her thirtieth birthday here.

“Come in.” Marlowe pushed the front door open and led the way inside.

“Don’t you lock the door?” My chest tightened at the thought of her being all alone out here without a fucking deadbolt.

She let out a laugh. “No one around here locks their doors.”

“They do now.” I didn’t want to scare her, but she needed to know what we’d been up against over the past year. Even though we’d crushed most of the Savage Bones, there were still enough of them around to cause trouble if they wanted to. And based on the shit they’d put us through, they weren’t going to stop until we’d put an end to every single one of them.

“The flip lock on the door isn’t going to stop someone who wants to get in here. Besides, I don’t have anything to steal.” She turned around in the front room, gesturing to the same furniture her grandmother had in here the last time I’d been inside.

I shook my head, willing her to understand. “Shit can be replaced. I’m talking about keeping you safe, Lo Lo.”

“What could possibly happen to me?” She moved into the kitchen and started pulling spices out of the cabinet. “There’s nothing here to take, and no one in their right mind would want anything to do with me.”

Hearing her talk about herself like that broke something inside me. My jaw clenched, and I walked toward her. “I don’t know what happened with that prick in Chicago, but a lot of men would want you.”

Her eyes turned shiny. Fuck, I’d lose it if she started to cry. “Like who? You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

I couldn’t stand letting her think that I was only telling her what she wanted to hear. In a few long strides, I covered the distance between us and backed her up against the counter. My fingers skimmed her cheek before I slid my hand behind her head and cradled the back of her skull in my hand.

“ I want you.” Staring deep into her eyes, I waited for a sign that I was about to cross a line. We hadn’t even talked about that kiss from before, but I was ready to pull myself up and out of the friend zone.

She brushed her palms up my chest and rose up on her tiptoes. “Prove it.”

My mouth captured hers so quickly that I swallowed the gasp coming from her lips. Heat swept through my veins until my entire body was engulfed in flames. Marlowe opened her mouth for me, and I took full advantage. As my tongue slid along hers, I knew we were exactly where we were supposed to be. This moment was destined to happen.

I shifted my hands under her ass and lifted her up. Her butt rested on the counter, allowing her to spread her legs. My hips nudged them further apart as my cock pressed against her core. Fuck, I was hungry for her… like a starving man who’d never be able to get his fill.

It could have been minutes, but it felt like we stood there for hours, our tongues tangling, my fingers exploring, my head trying to make sense of the feelings flooding my system.

Marlowe pulled back first. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to catch her breath. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

Her eyes drifted closed, and she tucked her chin. “You don’t have to kiss me to try to make me feel better.”

A lightning bolt of anger struck the center of my chest. “You think that’s why I kissed you? Because I feel sorry for you?”

She didn’t look at me.

“Answer me, Lo Lo.” I nudged her chin up, forcing her to meet my gaze.

“Don’t you?” Her voice came out soft and quiet.

I put my palms on the counter on either side of her ass, trapping her in place. “You have no idea, do you?”

Her forehead creased for a quick moment, then smoothed out again. “No idea about what?”

“Look at me. I want your eyes on mine when I tell you this.” I waited as she bit down on her bottom lip and slowly lifted her gaze to lock onto mine.

“I’ve always wanted you, Lo Lo. From the first day of ninth grade when you sat down in front of me in homeroom. You were the only one who didn’t look at me like a piece of trash. The only one who treated me like I was somebody. Hell,”—I shifted my gaze to a spot on the wall behind her before my emotions got the best of me—“you were everything to me.”

She squished my cheeks together and directed my gaze back to hers. “Why didn’t you say something back then?”

“And risk losing you as a friend?” She didn’t get it. The stars were aligned the day Marlowe was born. She grew up in a loving family with both of her parents, surrounded by friends who only wanted the best for her.

We couldn’t be more different if we tried. While she was learning how to ride a bike on her grandma’s drive, I was trying to stay invisible, so I didn’t draw the attention of whichever loser my mom was living with at the time.

“You’d never lose me.” She let her hand fall away from my face.

“But I did.” Even though it had been years, the pain was still just as fresh, like having a knife carve through my chest. “You headed off to college and never looked back.” I was so fucking proud of her for getting into a big college like Northwestern. She was meant for greater things than hanging around Mustang Mountain and trying to figure out what the hell to do with the rest of her life.

She glanced down, her bottom lip quivering like she was about to cry. “I’m sorry. I got caught up in college life, and it seemed like we grew apart. Then, when my parents and grandma moved to Florida, I didn’t have a reason to come back.”

“I understood. Why would you want to hang onto a guy like me who would hold you back when you had so much going for you?” The truth stung, but there it was. My whole life, everyone told me I wouldn’t amount to anything. I’d always felt like my future was predetermined. Until Marlowe made me think I could do anything.

Anger flashed in her eyes. “I never thought you would hold me back. In fact, I actually remember inviting you to come with me.”

“And do what?” I spread my arms open. “Live on the street and meet up with you for lunch every once in a while? I was making about ten bucks an hour. How was I supposed to be able to move to Chicago and support myself with just a high school diploma? I don’t want to fight, Lo. The past is gone. All that matters now is what we do with the future. Why did you come back to Mustang Mountain?”

She took in a deep breath and faced me, her blue eyes bright. “I came back because of you.”

“Me?” I expected her to say she missed the mountains or came to her senses and realized she belonged in a small town instead of the big city. The last thing I expected was for her to say she came back for me.

“Things were going well. I loved my job and had been seeing someone pretty seriously. He even proposed in front of his entire family, so I felt like I had to say yes.”

My chest squeezed at the mention of her fiance. But she was here with me now, and there was no ring on her finger, so I wanted to know how that had come to pass. “Go on.”

“I was starting to get everything I’d always wanted.” One shoulder lifted in a slight shrug. “Only it didn’t feel how I thought it would, you know?”

“Why not?”

She put her hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Because he wasn’t you.”