James heaved himself through the small space. “Sorry,” he panted. “I was hanging in the wind out there.”
She glared at him. “What are you doing?”
He gulped air. “I was afraid you were going to sneak out and look for me again. So I came by to check in on you. Make sure you were here.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Here I am. Safe and sound, except for the twenty years you just took off my life.”
He frowned at her in confusion. “Why are you so mad?”
“Because I almost screamed bloody murder! What if my dad comes in?”
James contemplated that possibility with a shrug, quite accustomed to the constant threat of violence. “Carly, I’m about to drop. Can I sleep here with you?”
She put her hands around his throat and squeezed. “I’m going to kill you.”
He covered her hands with his own, rubbing soothingly. “In the morning, if you don’t mind.”
James would have sprawled out in a chair, or on the floor, but Carly insisted the bed was big enough for both of them. He kept his clothes on, and his shoes, just like he did at Stephen’s, because he never knew when he was going to have to bolt.
Just as he was drifting off, she said, “Tell me about the girls you’ve been with.”
His eyes fluttered open. He felt like he hadn’t slept in a week. “No.”
“Why not?”
“They didn’t mean anything,” he mumbled.
“Then you shouldn’t have any trouble talking about them.”
He sighed, sliding his palm over the indentation of her waist. There was something so comforting about her body. Maybe Carly was more girl than woman, but she had curves in all the right places, and he didn’t mind staying awake to humor her. “Five questions, short answers,” he conceded.
Pleased with her victory, she snuggled into him. “Have you ever been in love?”
“Yes,” he answered, after a pause, glad she couldn’t see his face. When she bristled, he had to smother a laugh.
“What was she like?”
“Beautiful. Spoiled.” He smiled. “Inquisitive.”
He could feel, as if by sixth sense, her brow furrow in concentration. “All that? I thought you said none of them meant anything.”
“This one did,” he said with an exaggerated sigh.
“What was her name?”
He lifted his head from the pillow. “I don’t remember any of their
Her right elbow connected with his rib cage.
“Carly,” he choked. “Her name was Carly.”
She grew very still. “Do you mean it?”
“Yeah,” he said, nuzzling the back of her neck. “Now go to sleep. You used up all your questions.”
“Tell me again,” she urged.
“I love you,” he said, without regret, breathing in the scent of her hair, savoring the feel of her skin.
“Why?”
Of course she had to know why. She was Carly.
He moved away from her to lie on his back, needing some space for perspective. Putting his hands behind his head, he stared up at her bedroom ceiling, searching for the words to explain it to her. “My whole life, I’ve been like a stray dog, the kind you see next to a Dumpster. Either you feel sorry for it or you want to kick it out of the way, because you can’t stand the sight of suffering. It’s human nature.”
She turned to face him, her beauty bathed in moonlight.
“I’ve been half in love with you since junior high, because you were everything I wasn’t. You’re the kind of person everyone wants to be around.”
“Just because of my dad,” she countered.
“Maybe that’s part of it,” he replied, “but you have this glow about you, something all your own. No one would ever kick you out of the way.”
“Oh, James,” she said, cupping her palm around his cheek.
He took her hand away and held it instead. “You’re the only good thing I’ve ever had.”
She pressed her face to his chest, sniffling.
“You make me feel like a man.”
“You’re not a man,” she whispered.
“That’s what you keep telling me. Maybe someday I’ll prove you wrong.”
CHAPTER 13
Flexing his hands in frustration, Ben crossed a dark, deserted Neptune, the street lamp overhead contorting his shadow into an eerie Nosferatu.
All he wanted to do was fall into his bed and sleep for a week. He might not even wake up early to surf tomorrow.
He was physically exhausted, sexually unsatisfied, and emotionally…well, he wasn’t sure where he was emotionally. He didn’t want to dig too deep there.
Summer was driving him insane, running hot one moment, cold the next. Now that he wanted to hold on to her a little while longer, she kept slipping farther away. He realized it was part of her appeal. She was elusive, perhaps deliberately so, and he was infatuated.
If he wasn’t careful, she’d be leading him around by his cock.
Although he was dead on his feet, he stopped by Carly’s room to check on her before he went to bed. She was sound asleep, as sweet and innocent as an angel, warm and safe in the security of James’ arms.
Rage and indignation burned through him. Ben couldn’t believe the little son of a bitch would dare to get horizontal with his daughter in his own house. In her bedroom, no less, right down the hall from Ben’s. Then he saw that while Carly was under the covers, James was on top of them, fully dressed. He was sleeping soundly, his arm across her waist, shoes hanging off the edge of the bed.
It was time for a man-to-man talk, Ben decided with a grimace, kicking James’ foot.
James woke with a start, tightening his arm around Carly’s waist protectively. Noticing Ben’s presence, he narrowed his sleepy eyes. Of course he was expecting a fight.
With movements that showed utter exhaustion and a reluctant acceptance of defeat, he rose to his feet, preparing to do battle.
Or, at the very least, to be tossed out on his ear.
Downstairs, on the way to the front door, Ben detained him. “Wait,” he said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. When the corner of James’ lip curled up in a feral, visceral response, Ben removed his hand. He’d never known a person more aversive to touch.
Except maybe Summer. But they were working the kinks out of that phobia pretty nicely, he had to admit.
He gestured toward the living room couch. “You can sleep here if you want. I can’t have you in Carly’s room.”
James’ expression revealed suspicion. “Why would you let me sleep here?”
Ben took a pillow and blanket out of the closet. “Kid, you look about to fall over. I don’t know what you’ve been doing, or why, but I feel sorry for you.”
James deliberated, looking from the door to the plush space in front of the fire.
“Trouble at home?” Ben asked.
James scowled at the question, shuffling his feet instead of answering.
Ben was fairly certain James had been knocked around at home, and that didn’t sit well with him. It didn’t bode well for his daughter, either. “I’m concerned for Carly. Can you understand why?”
“Sure. You think I’m like my dad. That I’m looking for someone smaller and weaker to pound on.”
