Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

A Night To Remember

Ulyssess

She's on her third line dance. This one is a Spanish hip hop song. She's been on the floor for nearly half an hour, not stopping to grab a drink. She's fucking beautiful. A butterfly flitting around the dance floor, never missing a beat. Her curves being caressed by the gazes of every man from eight to eighty who dares to take a turn around the floor with her.

The low simmering rage is like nothing I've ever felt since the first days since I lost my father.

"You're braying like a bull, cuz." Turning to meet the liquid mercury of my cousin's knowing gaze, I can't help but crack a smile at his assessment and seeing his face.

"Hey, Thi. What are you doing here? This isn't your normal country club setting," I tease, though he fits in just fine with his Wranglers, a large cowboy buckle, plaid shirt, and boots.

"I know," he sighs, nodding over to his girlfriend of the last several years, Natalie. "Nat wanted to put in an appearance."

"Already trying to reach hearts and minds?" I query with a jaundice eye.

"Exactly. I can't wait to see his fucking face when I switch parties after I graduate." Giving me a dry, mirthless laugh, I recognize the ruthless determination in my cousin's eyes. He's had a plan from the moment he lost his mother to bring his father down. Our relationship may have been his first act of defiance when he sought me out at Shelby Academy, but it wasn't his last.

"Same. I think that's her signal for a dance," I say when Nat looks our way just as an old song, "Just to Be Close to You," comes on.

I see some overeager cowboy striding over to Kandie. Of their own volition, my feet start moving. Maybe it's because I saw my mom and dad dancing to this song so many times. I don't know. All I know in that moment is I don't want any other man touching her.

"This one's mine, partner," I say to the guy, not bothering to even look at him. I can't. She is the only thing I was to see right now in those tiny shorts and way too little shirt barely covering her tits. The boots she's wearing are doing the Lord's work, making her smooth calves stand out. Her skin gleams under the lights like it has been kissed by the sun and dusted with fairy dust so that it shimmers.

I stand waiting for her to tell me to go to hell. The way my heart soars when her hands slide up in an attempt to curl around my neck is the stuff of legends.

I look down, allowing myself to drown in her soft pools of mahogany. Her dimples sit deep into her cheeks, giving her a look of innocence.

"Um," I start, then stop when she shakes her head.

"Don't ruin it," she whispers, tilting her head back just gazing at me.

For the longest time, she just looks seeming to take every one of my features in with the slowest drag of her eyes over my face.

I swallow. Her eyes track the movement of my Adam's apple. I wet my lips. She mimics me, and I don't even think she realizes it.

My hand splays across her back. I can feel the softness of her beneath my calluses, and I'm almost ashamed to touch her. She's so pliant. Our bodies rock in the slow rhythm of the song. We slow drag the same way I'm sure we've seen older couples do, just as they do around us now. No one is here but she and I at last. That's what it feels like as I drown in her.

Kandie Love could end me right now and I wouldn't care as long as she held me while she did it.

All too soon, the song ends and we step apart with the all awkwardness of pre-teens at a school dance. I watch her drift away melting into the crowd. Knowing she doesn't miss the look of longing on my face just as I can't ignore the one she bears.

"Would you like to join us at the club? I know Mother and Daddy would love to see you." Natalie beams at me as I take a sip of the spring water.

"Um," I hedge, thinking of the sheer hell that would be.

"Nah, babe. He has other plans," my cousin cuts in, his gaze following mine as we watch Kandie dancing in a circle with a bunch of little girls to "Who Rules the World."

"Well, boys will be boys," Natalie says good-naturedly. "At least you won't be wasting your time. Word is she's a sure thing."

"Catty much?" Mathias narrows a hard look on her for good measure.

"I'll be over to see you before you go back," Mathias says, all but dragging Natalie with him. It's not uncommon for women to show their claws when they are intimidated, but Natalie has everything that Kandie doesn't — a solid family, wealth, is in college.

To say her words bother me would be an understatement. I spend way more time than I like watching a woman I should want absolutely nothing to do with — not only for the part she played in my father's death, but the mess she's made of her life since then. There wasn't one day that went by before I left that I wasn't made aware of some antic she'd been up to. Stealing bikes back for immigrant kids when city kids would take them. Stealing books from the library because of the county policy forbade them from getting them because they didn't have a permanent address. This one caused such a fuss that her grandparents stepped in and made them change the policy. The town was split. Some people calling her a Robin Hood type heroine and others, a criminal.

The DJ calls the last dance. Surprisingly, she steps away, casting a look over her shoulder at me right before she dips out.

Skirting around the tent, it takes me no time to catch up with her.

"Where are you headed?" I ask, looking down at her head as she keeps walking toward the woods.

"To get my bike and then home." She slides a look to me. "You?"

"Wherever you're going." I wait for her to rebuff me. Instead, she shrugs like she hasn't just taken all comers on the dance floor and didn't have a line of guys pouring shots down her pretty little throat. Fuck, why did I let my mind go in that direction? This walk, however long, is going to be long as hell if I don't get my dick under control.

"Come on." She turns away from Big Love Park, heading to a nearby residential area.

"Let me get that," I say, taking the ten-speed Schwinn over my shoulder.

"Oh, now you're just showing off," she huffs but is still unable to hide her admiration at my carrying the bike like it's nothing — it isn't.

"Day one of Seal training, we have to carry our body weight, not a regular weight regular Marines carry. I'm two-twenty-five. I had to hump that load the whole training then actual guys. This ain't nothing," I inform her with surety of my strength.

"Oh, so you'd have no problem picking me up?" She waves a delicate hand at her luscious curves.

"It's gonna be my pleasure picking you up, darling." My voice takes on a roughness that has her eyes blooming right before she ducks her head with a shyness that defies everything I thought I knew about her.

Cars zoom by. Some wave by honking while others call out our names with various invitations.

"Ayyyye," calls Callie-Jane, leaning halfway out of her brother, Percy's car. "What y'all about to get into? We making a barn fire if y'all want to get in."

"Nothing, I'm just walking her home," I toss over my shoulder.

"Uh-huh." Then, "I see what you about to get into. Treat him right Kandie, don't leave him hanging." With that, the car speeds off, but not before Kandie double birds her.

"Heffa," she mutters just as we come up to the yellow cottage. "You can set it down right here."

Turning to look at Mama and Pa-Pete's house, I keep the bike on my shoulder before heading up to the walkway. "I'll sit it on the porch."

"No," she says so forcefully she has me pausing to turn back to her.

"It goes back here." She nods to the back of the house. Walking like she's headed to death row, she trudges to the side of the house. Skirting the patio, she goes farther into the dark expanse of the huge yard.

We walk several more yards past the vast garden that's been known to feed the community in good times and bad until it opens up to a small, almost doll-like pink house.

"You can sit it on the porch." Not bothering to look at me, she goes up the short path lined with buttercups, daffodils, and poesies. Each side of the house has a big rose bush. The Love Rose adorns every Love residence. The story is they once planted them at every home that would give refuge to those seeking freedom. Held secret for centuries, that tale never made the official history books, but it's common knowledge among the denizens of Shelby-Love. Many would be surprised to know we even have a bush on Shelby property, though how it got there has been lost to our side of the county. The Loves for sure ain't telling us Shelbys which of our ancestors were on their side.

"Nice place," I say, taking in how personalized the design is. "I didn't think pink was your color."

"It's not." She turns the knob, opening the door that wasn't locked. "It's Kerania's."

I say nothing about her using the present tense. Hell, I still do it at times when I speak about Dad. Putting the bike in the corner of the porch, I lean back against the porch railing, looking down at her small curvy form.

She leans against the door, looking everywhere but at me. Finally, her shoulders slump as she turns those pools of deep molasses on me. "You coming in?"

"Are you going to let me in?" I counter, letting her know I'm not talking just about her house.

Without a word, she turns into the dark house. Flipping on a light, the space fills with a flood of pink luminescence. Leaving the door open is her invitation. One I gladly take.

Pushing off the railing, I follow.

Stepping into the one room little house, I see it's what my ex called dark princess core or a dark coquette core themed room. All the delicate furnishings are edged with black, pink, gunmetal, and dove gray.

"Lovely," I say, with an eyebrow arched in her direction just as a pillow in the shape of a unicorn hits me in the face.

"Shut it," she says with hands on her hips, standing before a sleigh bed situated against the wall so that it can double as a sofa.

"You want something to eat?" Tangling her fingers in front of her, she tilts her head to the side like she doesn't know what to do.

You , my mind sings in a way that has me reaching behind me to lock the door.

Her eyes round in a way that has me assuring her. "Nothing happens that you don't want. I promise."

Visibly swallowing, she nods, her eyes losing none of their trepidation prompting me to growl. "What's going on here, wildcat?"

"Um," she hedges in a way I don't like. "I just wanted to—to say, I'm sorry for what happened."

Now it's my turn for my eyes to round. "For what?" I'm puzzled.

"For making you lose your dad. He was good. I never said it. I should've said it. I know better now." Every word, and I mean every fucking word, hits me square in my solar plexus.

"No." Swiping the air with a forceful sweep, I shake my head. "That wasn't on you. It's not even on Kerania," I say, knowing after reading the incident report that Kandie was locked in the basement with the other kids and Kerania set the fire as a distraction to set them all free. She freed her sister first, then went back to get the other kids out.

We found out later the county building inspector at the time had taken a bribe to help the home pass inspection. "The foundation was shit. Everyone knows that. That place was coming down with the first F3 tornado we had. If anything, she and her sister saved lives that night.

"Both of y'all are heroes in my book." My voice sounds husky with the awe I have always felt for the two young girls who fought to save so many others when all they had to do was run away. They'd already lost so much.

"No." Shaking her head, she takes a step back until she's pressed against the bed. "No. I have to take respon-"

I'm on her in seconds. Cupping her face, I tilt her face up to meet my hard gaze. "You don't have to do anything, wildcat. Hell, we should be thanking you. We should have a statue of you and your sister in the town square." I kiss her brow, smiling when I hear her little gasp.

"Let me show you my appreciation, princess." Moving to her eyelids, I press soft kisses to her closed lids. Then her soft, round cheeks.

Pulling back, watching the slow lift of her lids, I prepare to lose myself in those sultry depths.

"Will you let me kiss you?"

A slow smile spreads across her beautiful face. The deep set of her dimples makes me want those to be the first holes of hers I dip my tongue in.

"You're so fucking beautiful, wildcat," I whisper at her nod.

My mouth claims hers. I make myself be gentle as I slide my tongue over the seam of her lips. She readily opens for me. She tastes like a hint of whiskey and caramel. Delicious. I want to drown in her.

She gasps when I draw her closer, her lush curves pressing against me. Trying not to crush her, I press her closer and closer still. She melts against me like a popsicle in the hot Alabama sun. I love that shit.

When I slip down to her neck, I inhale vanilla-rose and the delectable musk that is all Kandie Love. Damn if some of my nut doesn't spill free. I haven't spilled my seed like that since before I got pussy for the first time, but my little wildcat has a motherfucker about to come all over myself.

Stepping back, I have to catch my breath. "I need a second. It's been awhile." I grip my dick to keep from coming, taking mild satisfaction in not being the only one affected by a mere kiss. My mouth kicks up at the little whimper she can't suppress.

Kandie's breasts rise and fall with a rapidity of someone running a marathon. I can't help but admire the way the heavy globes press against the material like they are beckoning me.

"You good?" I ask her, checking in, needing to know if she still wants this as much as I need her.

She nods.

"Nah, wildcat. I need to hear you say you want me. I need to hear you say you want me buried deep inside you until you don't know where you end and I begin." It takes everything in me to stand still and wait for her answer.

"I want you, U." She steps closer getting on her tiptoes. "Always have."

Getting up on her tiptoes as far as she can reach, which is just to my neck, she pulls the flesh of my neck into her mouth and bites down hard, then sucks on the flesh in a sinful way. My dick is primed, but I stand there and let her do her thing. With agonizing slowness, she moves her mouth across my neck, biting and sucking, devouring me methodically, like she wants to savor me. And damn if I don't want her to. She's a biter, but I wonder if she can take as good as she gives.

This little motherfucker is a shepherd of the devil with the way she's teasing me. In this moment, she could ask me to level this whole town and I wouldn't hesitate. I should be bothered by her power — wonder what kind of hoodoo she embodies, if the stories about these Love women are true, but I can't bring myself to give a damn. Not when Kandie is loving on me the way she is. Twisting me in knots, a shibari master would be proud of.

Small fingers reach low and in seconds I'm pulling my T-shirt over my head, tossing it to the foot of the bed.

"I like your belt." Smiling up at me, she unhooks my big cowboy belt buckle. "You know we girls always think y'all are trying to overcompensate with these big ass buckles, but something tells me you ain't got to compensate for that or your truck."

Smirking, she pulls it free dropping it with a thunk on the wood floorboards.

The evidence of her words is trying its best to burst out of my pants. I bite back a groan capturing the hand brushing against me.

"Hold up." Tugging her forward, I take her lips again. Spearing my tongue into the wet depths, I make her take me, suck me as I do the same. The kiss is all-consuming. I inhale her, knowing in that moment she's imprinted on me in a way that nothing, not time, not death, would ever erase. Mine. In that moment I know that there is nothing truer. Kandie Love is mine.

Her taste, her touch cements that sentiment. Her soft little moans have me pulling the ties of the plaid shirt apart exposing the pretty lace purple bra over her gorgeous titties.

With our height difference, I have to get on my knees to worship her. I'm not a man who begs but I would do that sick shit to taste these pretty motherfuckers. Thankfully, she doesn't require that tax. In fact, she exhales in thanks when I unsnap them pulling the straps down, allowing them to swing free.

Mesmerized, I watch them bounce a little bit before pressing them together, sucking the hard nipples into my mouth. Vanilla- rose engulfs me. I groan, burying my head between the soft mounds. "Fuuuuck." I drag the word out. My dick has its own heartbeat at this point. Laving the center, I move to the right, then left kissing, sucking. Overcome with sensation, I even bite, making her gasp. She's squeezing those thick ass thighs in a way, letting me know she needs me.

"Get on the bed," I order, my voice sounding almost demonic.

Good thing she doesn't hesitate. She climbs back until her back is pressed against the pillows. The way she stares at me like she can't wait to taste every inch of me as I make quick work of my clothes has my heart and dick jumping.

Shucking off my boots and jeans, I stand before her naked, letting her get a full look at my body. I'm not the type to give a fuck about diet and exercise, but the way she takes in my form has me thanking the Most High for my Seal training. I almost preen like one of those thirst trap guys.

"Like what you see, darling?" I can't help grinning down at her.

She screws her lips in a cute little pout. "You wish," but the way she curls her legs into her body shows her for the little liar she is.

"Oh, yeah?" I growl, snatching one of her ankles, dragging her forward.

"Stop it." Her protest falls from her lips to no response when she does nothing further to stop me from dragging her forward.

"Uh-uh, wildcat," I say, dropping to my knees again. I unsnap the first button of her jean shorts. "We are going to test the theory of my wish. I wonder how many you will grant me?" Murmuring, I unbutton the rest, then grip the top edge. Working the material down over her curves is a divine labor.

"No panties, huh?" I quiz watching her plump mound emerge.

"I sweat a lot. They only get sticky and uncomfortable." She tries to squirm away a little.

"Umhmm," I muse, thinking of how she walked around all day in these tiny shorts with her plump little pussy on display.

"Ow," she cries, hitting my arm in response to smacking her pussy. She tries to pull away.

"Stop or you'll get worse." I growl. "Let me see." Pushing her thighs apart I feast my eyes on her lovely flesh, brown and glistening with a wet ribbon of pink creasing the center beckoning me.

Helpless to do anything less, I kiss the spot I tagged. "Better?" Unable to drag my eyes away from the pretty sight, I wait for the soft ‘yes' before I dive back in.

Her pussy is a drug. Her mound, a soft, plump invitation I can't deny. Kissing every inch of it does not seem sufficient, so I lick every inch, making it shine just for me, also not sufficient. I suck her flesh into my mouth, tugging the soft skin. I feel her hand in my hair then as she arches against me.

Slipping lower, I claim my prize. "I want to taste every inch of you," I whisper against her flesh, wanting to drown myself in the heat and musk of her that mixes so sweetly with the vanilla-rose she's glossed over every inch of her plush body.

"Ah," she cries when I dip my tongue into her hot slit. Using my finger, I open her more. "Your lips act like they want to keep your man out, wildcat." My dick jumps at her words. "There's no keeping me out. I'm where I belong."

Spearing my tongue into her drenched pussyhole, I lick deep, tasting her cream. "Ulysses," she gasps. Taking that as encouragement, I pull her thighs over my shoulder and tongue fuck her like she's an ops mission — with dedication and honor. Relentless. Her fat lips are juicy as I attend to them licking up and high until I meet her hard clit protruding between them like it wants to salute me for my hard work. I take my time lavishing it with the attention it deserves. She squirms, arching closer, only to retreat like she's scared of this orgasm I'm about to give her.

Tired of the stress on my back, I pull her up with me as I bury my head in her pussy. Now she can't retreat. She has no choice but to take every lash of my tongue, and I fuck her in and out with it. Gripping the sheets, her hips undulate, taking every bit of my delicious torment. When she starts fucking my mouth back, I grin wildly, giving her every bit of the attention she deserves.

"U," my nickname melts on her lips as her essence spills across my tongue. Her taste is an aphrodisiac. She shakes, shuddering as she comes.

Easing her back down on the bed, I climb on top of her, pushing a pillow under her hips, spreading her legs high and wide so I can settle between them.

Taking her lips, I position the head of my dick between her pussy lips, splitting them wide. "Mine," I growl, thrusting deep into her wet pussy. I almost miss the barrier I breached.

I freeze. Looking down at her, my heart racing like a chased rabbit, I stare down into her eyes now tinged with pain.

"What the fuck?" I gasp. The tightness of her pussy strangling my dick is rivaled by the way my heart seems like it's about to seize in my chest from the pressure of what I've just done.

"Don't be mad." Trembling fingers clutch my neck. Her breasts rise and fall between us. I make a move to get it up.

"I wanted it to be you, Ulysses." She sounds scared of me. I can imagine how savage I'm looking. She may be a fearless little wildcat, but that's nothing compared to a six-foot-seven, two-hundred- and twenty-five-pound man mad as fuck with his dick inside you.

"Wildcat." I close my eyes against the way her muscles squeeze me when I call her that. I close them against those big luminous eyes of hers, looking at me with doe-eyed hope and more, so much fucking more that I can barely dare to gaze at her for fear it will have me promising her everything.

"This isn't some misguided attempt to apologize, is it?" I manage to get out between teeth gritted against the pleasure my body is demanding that I seek in her arms.

"Hell no," she gasps a little, drawing her thighs up and around my back. Sinking deeper into her soft wetness, I don't intend to, but I thrust. She welcomes me like an old friend when I was pretty sure she couldn't stand my ass.

"I've liked you since I started liking boys." Her voice is muffled and has a little hitch in it because my hips start a slow swerve, grinding against her in unhurried, ruthless drags, making sure I graze her clit every time I work my body against hers.

"You been saving this sweet thang for me, wildcat?" I growl against her pliant lips, drinking her in, making her taste herself on my lips.

She squeezes me, forcing me deep until I bottom out. My eyes roll and I see stars. It takes all my Seal training not to come in her tight little pussy then, but I'll be damned if I chump out when it's her first time. She deserves better.

"Have you?" I demand, pushing her thigh higher. The gasp on my next drive lets me know I've hit her spot. "Did you save this pussy for me?" Teeth clenched, I fuck into her welcoming heat. I feel like I'm fighting for my life in an ambush.

"Y-yeah." Her response drags out as she arches into me, giving me more of her, giving me everything. She welcomes me with all that she has. Kissing every inch of me she can reach, my chest, my neck, my mouth when I bend low to take her lips. Her breasts brush against me, her hard nipples like little points of titillation making my dick tighten. Feeling too close, I reach between us as I work her spot.

She arches away from the intensity.

"No, trust me," I say, making her hold still, making her take me.

Sensing her panic, I fuck her harder, driving her past her limits.

"U—" she cries when my thrusts and fingers work her over the edge, making her climax.

Her sob crashes into me the same time my orgasm sends me plummeting into bliss.

Pulling her over me, I collapse back on the bed, knowing if I fall on top of her, I may crush her.

"How we doing, wildcat?" I ask, looking at the crown of her head.

"Good." She shifts and I can still feel her muscles clenching around me.

"You should have told me." Slipping my hand lower, I grab a fistful of her supple bottom flesh, squeezing and releasing.

"What? So your hero complex could kick in and you could give me a polite ‘no'?" Her eyes flutter in an eye roll I always found irritating until just now.

"I wasn't going to tell you ‘no' tonight." Squeezing again, I can't help but like the way her mouth forms a little O as she shivers from the aftershock of my loving.

"Oh? Why is that?" Resting her chin on her hands, she asks with a lift of her brow.

"You're a grown woman now. You were a kid when I left," I tell her.

"So I grew up good, huh?" A cocky grin spreads across her face.

My dick rises to answer and her eyes flood with new passion.

"Fuck yeah." I'm thrusting up into her soft heat as I prepare to show her just how well.