A Perfect Mistake (23 page)

“Yes, they
might have,” I agreed. “So tell me about rehab.”

“You really
want to hear this?”

I slid my arm around
his waist, met his eyes head-on. Never more honest in my life. “Yes,
every word you want to tell me.”

His chest heaved and
he blinked a couple of times.

“Remember what
I said about guys crying,” I said. He gave me a wry look.

“Yes, that it
doesn’t bother you.”

“So, if you
cry, I won’t call you out for being a wuss.”

He laughed and
pulled me tight in a hard hug. “You’re always giving me
sass.”

“You like it,”
I said, hugging him just as hard.

Sensing his
pensiveness, I continued to hold him.

He hesitated briefly
before he answered. “After high school, I was so fucking lost,
Verity. I partied and continued my reckless ways. One night I got
really wasted and passed out in my truck just at the edge of the
swamp. I’m not sure if I knew it was too much or not. It wasn’t
a conscious decision. I was so broken and felt so alone…fuck.”
He drew an unsteady breath.

“I’m
sorry.” It was simple and heartfelt. His arms tightened around
me, and I felt so comfortable with him, so connected to him.

“My brothers
found me just in time, got me to the hospital and they pumped my
stomach and saved my life. After that, they wouldn’t leave me
alone. We have tripdar
,
you
see.”

“What’s
that?”

“It’s
like that sixth sense you get when you’re a multiple birth. In
our case, triplet radar. You just know when something’s wrong.”

“Uh-huh.”

He took a shaky
breath. “They badgered me for days, but I kept refusing.
Until…”

I pressed my face
against his. “Until?”

“My ma. She
visited every day, and one day she just completely broke down right
in front of me. I’ve only seen her cry a couple of times. When
Dad left, that was the worst, but she always held it together. She
begged me to go into rehab, and I couldn’t refuse her. I was
pretty scared about what had happened, even though I was pissed as
hell.”

I smoothed my hand
down his back. “And rehab changed you?”

He snorted. “No,
Verity. Rehab cleaned me up and gave me perspective, but the only
thing that could really change me is me. While I was cooling my
heels, angry that my family had done this to me, I got so bored that
one day I just walked up to one of the landscapers and asked him to
put me to work. He did. I always had an affinity for plants. A green
thumb. But I never thought about using it to make a living. When I
got home, I stayed clean and channeled all my energy to taking online
classes in landscape architecture. In the fall, that’s when
Booker hit it big. He made a ton of money when his book went viral.
And then he invested his money in me and Brax. After he built his
house, he let me use it for a final project in one of my classes, and
that’s when Breebree’s ma saw it and hired me to do her
back yard.”

“It’s
really beautiful, Boone, and the pool area that you added is
amazing.”

He smiled at me,
pleased. “Thanks.”

“How did you
get into
Architectural
Digest
?”

“Booker sent
my portfolio for a contest to remodel the Lafayette mall. I won and
the mayor saw my work. He hired me, and that’s when I got the
spread.”

“Thank you for
telling me.”

I leaned my head
back to look up at him and he kissed my mouth slowly and sweetly.
Brushing hair off my cheek, he smiled. “Thank you for
listening, for wanting to know. It’s not easy to tell a girl
you like a lot that you didn’t have total confidence.”

“I told you.
We all make mistakes. I’m no different.”

“I’ve
been wanting to ask you something.”

My heart jumped.
“What?”

“Your designs.
The ones you showed me on our iPad. They looked like they were on
high-fashion models. How is that possible when you were in Kenya last
year?”

It was time for me
to release just a bit more of my secret to Boone. My stomach
clenched, but after he’d told me such heart-wrenching things
about himself, how could I do anything less?

“I wasn’t
in Kenya, Boone.”

“Fuck. Where
were you?”

“I was in New
York City.”

“What? How?”

“When I got to
New York City, I emailed the mission director and told him I was ill.
I still did my mission, though. I joined a literacy project and
taught people to read.”

“Why did you
do that?”

“I had to,
Boone.”

“Why?”

I closed my eyes,
the truth hovering on my tongue.
Just
tell him.
“I…wanted to be a fashion designer, and I knew that it
would never happen if I didn’t establish myself first.”
My fear won out again and I felt ashamed of myself. But our
relationship was just so new. I wanted to give it some time before
blurting out he’d fathered a child. It would come as a great
shock to him.

“Geezus,”
he said. “That scares the crap out of me that you were there
alone.”

I buried my face in
his shoulder and stubbornly held back the tears that clogged my
throat. I heard my cell go off, but I figured it was probably my
parents. They would have to get used to the new Verity. I was old
enough to take care of myself. I had a job and considerable money in
my bank account. I couldn’t cry to release the strain of
holding back on him.

“The
designer’s name is Minnie Tattersall. She loved my sketches and
my ideas. I worked with her for a year, and I have a collection ready
to show at Fashion Week in September. I came back to Suttontowne to
tell my parents that I was leaving.”

Boone stiffened at
my words, and I felt terrible, but also glad it was out in the open
between us. I didn’t know where this would go with Boone, but I
suddenly wanted the chance to find out.

“I don’t
want you to leave, Verity.”

“What is it
that you do want? With us, Boone?”

“I want to
build something with you, Verity. Something meaningful.”

“In
Suttontowne? Do you even think that’s possible, or are we
doomed to fail?” I snuggled my body against his, and he
responded by kissing my forehead. “And for the record, we
already have something meaningful,” I said. “But I’m
scared, Boone.”

“So am I,
darlin’.”

That admission made
me breathe easier. Boone cared enough to be scared.

We dozed, and each
time I woke, he was still holding me, even while asleep.

I spent the night in
Boone Outlaw’s arms, slept with the daddy of my child—our
child. Even as his room lightened from the rising sun, a tremor of
fear rumbled through me.

And more of my
secret had been revealed, but I still had to decide on whether or not
to take that final step and tell him the rest. Something that was too
fragile, too painful, too final for me to reveal. Once I told him the
ultimate part of the secret, how could I ever keep my daddy from
finding out what I had done? How could I keep it all contained?

But the fear was so
strong. And, I had to wonder. Had I come back to break the news to my
parents? Or had I come back for this? To see what there was between
us, if anything. Two people who had collided on a sultry night, and I
had conceived a precious, sweet little boy who had changed my life.

He was…

A perfect mistake.

Our perfect mistake.

Boone

I couldn’t
believe that I had Verity in my bed and I was pumping iron. My dick
was just as incredulous and really disgruntled. But it wasn’t
the head I needed to be thinking with. I was freaking out a little.
After what she told me last night, I had to wonder if I shouldn’t
pull back. I could see I was heading for a fall. If Verity decided to
go, to leave Suttontowne, how far did I want to be in?

How deep was I
already in with her?

Maybe too damn far.

My dick was
convinced I wasn’t in far enough, but we had a different
measurement system and that fucker was biased.

Fuck me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck me.

I set the bar back
in place and pulled off my soaked t-shirt, mopping at my face. I
walked over to the bar and pulled myself up, crossing my ankles. The
sheer concentration I needed for pull-ups helped.

I found lifting
replaced my need to retreat and helped me stay away from drugs and
alcohol. Exercise and the stress relief it provided had been my
refuge. But today it wasn’t giving me the breather I wanted.

Finished with the
pull-ups, I lifted myself up and hooked my knees around the bar,
hanging upside down and started on my sit-ups.

“Boone?”

I heard her gasp as
I did my last sit-up. Hanging upside down, I could see her standing
in the doorway.

She wasn’t
moving or speaking. She was just standing there staring at me. What
the fuck?

I grabbed the bar
and lowered myself down and turned around.

She had on my
t-shirt again and she looked adorable, tousled and sleepy-eyed. She
stared at me, her eyes roaming over my chest and down my stomach. She
liked what she saw, and I knew it was too damn late. I was already
buried to my chest in quicksand and going under fast.

She came into the
light and I said, “Shit, Verity, your face.”

She reached up and
cupped it. “Really? It’s bad?”

I nodded as she
walked right up to me and went to wrap her arms around my neck. I
stepped back. “I’m all sweaty.”

“I don’t
care,” she said and stalked me. Grabbing me around the neck
again, she pressed her body against mine. “Boone, you are so
gorgeous, so powerful. Do you have any idea how many women in
Suttontowne would pay to see you do sit-ups upside down on a bar?”

I laughed. “Really?
It’s just exercise.”

Then I remembered
what Booker said about those hip muscle thingies girls really liked.
“What do you think about these?” I pulled down my shorts
enough to reveal my hips.

She licked her
bottom lip, then bit it. Reaching out she ran her index finger along
the ridge of muscle. I reached up to the bar and gripped it, grinning
as I leaned forward, tightening all the muscles in my upper body.

“I think
they’re amazing.” When she dropped to her knees, I almost
backed up. She looked up at me while she gripped the waistband of my
shorts.

“Verity…”
I trailed off as she licked along the edge of the muscle and bit me.
My hips jerked, and I was torn between hope and terror about what she
was going to do next. I mean, usually when a girl kneels down it’s
pretty clear that she’s going to… I lost my train of
thought as she pulled my shorts down and then looked at my jock like
it was a puzzle she needed to figure out.

“What is
this?”

“It’s a
jock. You’ve never seen one before?”

“No, I would
remember that. Oh, my God, Boone. That is one sexy, indecent rig.”

I looked down. It
was black, and the elastic stretched across my hips and thighs with a
crisscross pattern, the black mesh cupping my dick and balls. “It’s
supposed go on the inside of my shorts. I don’t parade around
town in it.”

She rose, slipped
her hand under the elastic and I almost swallowed my tongue as she
trailed her finger under it all the way to the curve of my ass, then
snapped it against my butt. “Wow, it’s even better from
the back.”

Then Holy Mary
Verity cupped my ass in her hands and pressed herself against my
back, kissing along my shoulder. My hands tightened on the bar, the
feel of her mouth jacking me up. Her hands traveled over my waist and
I flexed all my muscles for her as she trailed her hands over my
chest, making a soft sound of appreciation in her throat. Doing that
whole reveling in me thing that I couldn’t get enough of. Her
flat palms glided over my nipples and I groaned softly as the tingle
shot right to my groin. Holy shit!

In a few seconds my
dick wasn’t going to stay sitting quietly inside the pouch. But
Verity was back in front of me and noticed how I thickened. She was
fascinated, and I had to close my eyes and breathe before I totally
lost it over the way she watched my erection grow.

She placed her hand
on my chest, her eyes direct and really warm and cinnamony. She
looked down the length of my body and dragged her fingers all the way
to the top of my groin. My breathing increased as she said, “I
want to know everything about you, Boone.” Then she slid her
hand over me, handling me hot and heavy, and I gripped the bar
tighter, letting her explore me like she wanted to. “Even
this.”

My hips flexed in
an uncontrollable thrust and she took a hard breath, watching me.
“
This
is me getting a fucking hard-on for you, Verity.”

She closed her eyes
and stepped closer, pressing her face against my jaw, squeezing me
gently and making my balls hurt so damn good.

I was panting now
and groaned as she fondled me through the jock. Pressing kisses along
my jaw all the way to my ear, she whispered, “Would having my
mouth on you give you as much pleasure as I feel having your mouth on
me?”

“Fuck, yeah,”
I rasped.

She knelt down in
front of me again and slipped her hand under the elastic. I sucked in
a breath as she gently pulled the pouch away from my ready-to-go
dick. I didn’t have anything against oral sex. I fucking loved
it, but…Verity?…Sucking me off?

I started to back
away.

She stiffened and
her head jerked up to mine, her eyes stormy. “Boone, why are
you nervous about this? Please stop seeing me as a preacher’s
daughter. I’m really just a woman interested in learning about
the guy I really enjoy being with. I want to do this. Sexual
exploration. Most couples do it. Right?”

It was a knee-jerk
reaction to old baggage. “You’re right. I am thinking
about you as the preacher’s daughter and getting that mixed up
in my head.”