Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Tannen

“You’re sure I’m not going to be bothering her, mom?”

“Not at all. I told you; Ruby says she’s home and you can go on in to say hi and catch up with one another. We’re going to be there as soon as we get through the line in the grocery store.”

I knock again but get no reply. I hear Marley’s mom through my mom’s phone.

“Tell him she might have her ear thingies in her ears and won’t be able to hear him. She’s bad about that.”

“So…I should go on in if the door is unlocked.”

“Yes,” both moms say at the same time, “Ruby says she’s probably in the kitchen. Oh, got to go. Love you. Bye.”

Before I can say anything else, mom hangs up on me which is weird as hell. They’re up to something. Maybe Marley will be able to tell me what’s going on with them. I check the door fully expecting it to be locked but the knob turns in my hand, and I can easily go in.

“Marley. You here, Marley.” I make my way to the kitchen where her mom thought she might be but find it empty, although I remember how much she likes to bake so I can understand why her mom would think that.

I come back through the house and start taking the stairs two at a time. Maybe she’s in her room with her music up so loud she can’t hear if someone comes in on her. Not going to lie, the thought of that makes me a little angry.

Marley’s young - too young for me to be thinking about her the way I have even before I shouldn’t have- and drop-dead gorgeous. She’s the fucking reason I didn’t come home last year. She turned eighteen and I knew if I came home and caught her with someone else, I would spend my holidays in jail for beating the shit out of him. Not to mention stealing her away and keeping her handcuffed to my bed. Pretty sure Ruby would have my head if that happened.

Marley has always been…mine. In my head at least. It didn’t start as a sexual thing. It started as wanting to protect her and take care of her but over time things changed. Any time there was even the slightest chance she might be with some boy I made myself scarce. Spending both her junior and senior prom at my cousins. I spent my proms there as well. No way was I taking some other girl.

I realize if I see her with someone… the monster Marley makes me will come raging out and destroy the kid for being around what is mine! And that isn’t going to help anything.

I go to her room. I know exactly which room it is, having been in it enough. I crack the door open and spot Marley. Asleep on the bed.

The first thing that hits me is how beautiful she looks laying on the dark sheets, her hair fanning out around her. She’s not wearing anything but an oversized sweater that skims the tops of her thighs and wool socks giving me an excellent view of her legs. They seem long but I know they aren’t. She only comes up to just under my armpit…if that.

Even in the sweater, I can tell her breasts are generously round, the same breasts that have haunted me no matter how far away from them I go. My palms itch to reach out and cup the weight of them in both hands. And don’t even get me started on that ass. Marley looks great walking to me but she drags my heart out of my throat when she walks away and that ass sways side to side in the most tempting way. All I can think about is peaches when I see it. In fact, I used to call her Peach and she never understood the reason why.

Yeah, looking at Marley laid out in front of me, I realize what a good decision it was to not come home last year. She was barely legal, and I would have fucked her six ways to Sunday after slaughtering whatever little shit she had as a boyfriend. She would have already been a mother by this time if I had come back last year.

“Marley,” I say her name softy, not really trying to wake her. “Marley? You alright, sweetheart?”

I come closer and spot the earbud in her ear and feel my temper rise. This beautiful, sexy woman fell asleep in nothing but a sweater with earbuds in…and the damned door open so that anyone could walk in on her! And she can’t pretend ignorance since I am more than well aware of the fact she watches all those true crime documentaries like they’re Saturday morning cartoons or the most relaxing soundtrack to drift off to sleep to. She doesn’t have a good excuse.

I should back out of the room and turn around, walk down the stairs, and wait for her mom and mine to come home. But the more I stare at those sexy legs and that hot ass and those tempting breasts and the soft, sweet face so innocent in sleep, the more I lose my mind until I am acting without thinking.