Justice (15 page)

Dallas rubbed his forehead. “Brock, stop fuckin’ around. I saw the other file.”

“And exactly how did you see the other file?”

“I’m thinkin’ I’m not gonna tell you that.”

“Nita,” Brock said.

“I plead the fifth.”

“How pissed is Macey?” Brock asked.

“She’s no longer pissed at
you
if that helps.”

Brock sighed. “It’s your day off, so what do you want to do?”

Dallas glanced toward the bedroom. “I need to get this note over to the office for processing.”

“How about I swing by your place in an hour and pick it up?”

“That would be appreciated.”

“Okay, see you later.”

“’Bye.” Dallas hung up and headed into his bathroom, slipping out of his shorts and into the shower, pulling Macey’s back against his chest. “Hi.”

She dropped her head back onto his shoulder. “Hi.”

“Brock’s gonna swing by and pick up the note.”

“Okay.”

He turned her to face him, but she stepped closer again, and he guessed it was so he couldn’t look too closely at her. “One day, Macey.”

She blinked up at him. “But not today.”

Dallas let her hide as he slid his hands in her hair, gently tugging her head back so the water covered her. He squeezed shampoo in his palm and then massaged it into her scalp.

Macey closed her eyes and sighed with a smile. “I think that works better than the meds.”

“Good to know.” He guided her head further under the spray and rinsed the soap from her locks before conditioning and then rinsing again. “Your hair is incredible.”

“Really?”

“Definitely.”

She wiped her hands down her face and looked up at him. “I was thinking about cutting it.”

“No,” he said, frowning.

“Is that an order?” she retorted.

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Seriously?”

“Macey.” Dallas sighed. “No of course it’s not an ‘order.’ It’s just that only women who have given up cut their hair.”

Macey let out a surprised snort. “Pardon?”

“At the risk of sounding like a dick, have you noticed that the older women get and the more kids they have, the shorter their hair gets?”

“Um, no, I guess I haven’t noticed that.” She giggled. “What about Nita? She’s almost bald and totally gorgeous.”

“She’s the exception.” He leaned down and kissed her neck. “Think about it.”

Macey hummed as he kissed her pulse. “I’ll think about thinking about it.”

“So contrary.” He grinned.

“Only to you.”

“Promise me you won’t cut your hair.” Dallas ran his tongue across her lower lip. “Not because I’m making demands, but just because you love me… and your only desire is to please me.”

“Oh, honey, you picked the wrong woman if that’s what you want.”

He chuckled. “No I didn’t.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Absolutely not. You please me greatly.” He smiled, cupping her bottom. “Maybe you just don’t know you’re doing it.”

“I won’t cut it.” She stared up at him and smiled. “For now.”

“Wrap your legs around me,” he growled.

She didn’t hesitate, and Dallas positioned her against the wall, sliding into her and forcing himself to go slow. He dropped his head to her shoulder and took a deep breath. “You okay?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Shit,” he ground out as he shifted. “Are you sure? I can stop if you need me to.”

“You can stop asking me if I’m okay, Dallas. I will tell you if I’m not.”

He stared at her, her face relaxed, her eyes hooded with desire. “Promise?”

If she said she wanted to stop, he’d stop, but he was well past of the point of no return and if she stopped him now, he’d be in a hell of a lot of pain.

“Promise.” Macey giggled. “Time for you to please me, baby.”

And he did. Twice.

CHAPTER TWELVE

T
HEY STAYED IN the shower until the water turned tepid and he’d kissed her one last time before grabbing a towel. He handed her one, but she’d forced him to grab another from the linen closet in an effort to keep her hair somewhat contained. She knew Brock had stopped by at some point to pick up the note, but had no idea if he was still there.

Now, Macey stood in Dallas’s bathroom and attempted to blow-dry her massive amounts of hair. She got that he loved it, even kind of saw his point about women growing older and cutting their hair, but what
he
failed to see was that it was a total, complete, and utter bitch to dry. By now, Dallas had probably managed to dress, shave, prepare a four-course meal from scratch, even perhaps bake a pie, and she was still standing in front of the mirror attempting to dry her hair enough so she didn’t catch pneumonia from the cold.

She caught movement out of her peripheral and turned to find Dallas leaning against the doorjamb with a stupid smile on his face. “What?”

“Just admiring the view.” He waved a hand down her body. “This is a good look for you.”

“Wife beater and granny panties?”

He shook his head. “Tight white tank top that leaves just enough to the imagination to drive me crazy, and tiny cotton panties that barely cover that delicious ass of yours.”

She giggled. “Wow, you make this sound so much sexier than I could have imagined.”

“It’s the woman inside of it.”

“Charmer.” Macey smiled and turned back to the mirror, dragging a brush through her hair. “Right now, I’m thinking of defying you. This monstrosity takes too long to dry.”

Dallas held up a hand. “Hold that thought.”

She leaned against the counter and stretched her neck as she waited for him to return. He walked in carrying one of his bar stools and set it in front of her. “Have a seat.”

Macey sat on the stool. “I take it Brock’s came and left?”

“Yep. Note is now official business,” he said as he scooped her hair behind the chair back before picking up her brush and the hair dryer. For the next ten minutes, Dallas took on the role of hairdresser, or best man ever, as he gently dried her hair. When he was done, he leaned down and kissed the back of her neck. “Gorgeous.”

Macey smiled up at him. “Best boy… I mean, man, ever.”

“Never had one, so I don’t know.”

She giggled.

“What time do you have to be at work?” he asked.

“Eleven.”

He checked his watch. “Two hours.”

“I can go in a little early if you have stuff to do,” she offered. “I could also drive myself.”

Dallas frowned and shook his head.

Macey smiled. “It was worth a try.”

She followed him into the bedroom and he grabbed a pair of socks from his bureau. “I need to head into the office and talk to Matt for a bit, but that won’t take long.”

“But it’s your day off,” she said.

“I know.” He sat on the edge of the bed and donned his socks. “But it’s not yours and since I don’t have you to play with, I figure I might as well get some stuff sorted with this stalker asshole.”

“To play with?” she repeated. “I’m your play thing now?”

Dallas grinned. “You’ve always been my play thing, baby. You haven’t figured that out yet?”

Macey closed the distance between them and pushed him onto his back, climbing over him in order to straddle his hips. “I’ll show you play thing.”

“You want to play?”

“Do we have time to play?”

He chuckled. “We’ll make time. Don’t move.”

She stayed put as he slid lower, keeping her body above him, lifting her slightly so he could slide her panties to the side and raise his face to her center. Macey gasped as he kissed her, running his thumb over her clit as he sucked and licked her into a frenzy.

Somehow he managed to flip her onto her back, keeping his head between her legs. Macey slid her fingers into his hair and he gently yanked her panties off before returning to his objective. She felt her climax build, but wanted it to last, so she forced herself to wait, but when he slid two fingers inside of her, she broke, crying out as an orgasm ripped through her.

“Come here,” she rasped, and stared down her body. Dallas smiled and moved to lie beside her, but she shook her head. “No. Come here.”

“You sure?”

She nodded and he raised himself up, pushing her tank top further up as he kissed her belly, then the undersides of her breasts. He slid her tank top from her body and stroked her cheek. “You okay?”

“I just have one problem.”

“What? Let me move.”

“No, not that.” She held him tighter.

“What baby?”

“I’m naked and you’re not.”

She shouldn’t have been surprised by how quickly he sat up and divested himself of his clothes, but she was no less impressed. He made love to her with a gentleness that overwhelmed her, and she managed to keep her emotions in check until after he’d made her come twice.

“Hey,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “Did I scare you?”

She shook her head and burrowed her face into his neck. “No. That was incredible. I really… really thought I’d always be scared. You make everything okay.”

“I do?”

Macey nodded. “I feel safe with you.”

“You
are
safe with me.”

“Oh, I knew you’d keep me physically safe,” she met his eyes, “but the way you make me feel…" she blinked back tears again. “Do you know how huge that is?”

“Are you surprised?”

“A little,” she admitted. “We just had such a tumultuous beginning, you know?”

“Tumultuous?”

“Hey, if you can use ergo, I can use tumultuous.”

Dallas chuckled.

“Anyway, you could drive me crazy like no one I knew, but I guess what I failed to see was that you’d protect my heart as valiantly as you’d protect my body.”

“Babe.” He shifted in order to face her more. “Was I that much of a dick?”

“Kind of. I mean, I thought you were, but looking back at it through this new filter, I see now that you were protecting me even then. I just didn’t realize or appreciate it.”

“I wish I’d handled the Tommy situation better.”

“In what way?”

“I wish I’d broken his neck before he took what was mine.”

“I’m sorry?” Macey leaned away from him. “
What
exactly was yours?”

“You were mine.”

“Dallas,” she admonished.

“No, I need to say this.” He frowned. “I fucked up, Macey. I was crazy in love with you and thought the best way to get you to come running into my arms was to make you jealous and play the big fucking deal on campus. You were out of my league and I thought I’d never get you if I wasn’t “on” all the time.” Dallas ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “If I’d taken five minutes to think, or listened to Brock, I would have told you how I felt and gone from there. Instead I made backhanded dickhead comments and drove you right into his arms.”

“You were crazy in love with me?”

Dallas laughed. “Here I am pouring my heart out, and my woman picks
that
out of the whole thing.”

“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation. “And I pick it out because I had
no
idea.”

“That I loved you?”

She nodded. “And
you
were out of
my
league, not the other way around.”

“How do you figure?”

“You were this super hot jock with über rich parents, and I was this chubby red-head with braces and freckles.”

“You were
never
chubby.”

“I was chubby.”

“Who the hell told you you were chubby?” he demanded.

“It doesn’t matter. It was true.”

His body locked. “Did Payton tell you you were chubby?”

“No! She would never say something like that,” Macey said. “If you must know, it was Whitney.”

“Styles?”

“Yes.”

“And you
believed
her?” he asked in surprise.

“Well, yeah. I guess I did. She was gorgeous, Dallas. And she had you.”

“She never had me.”

“Yes, she did.”

“Uh, no she did the fuck not.”

“She didn’t?” Macey sat up. “Ever?”

“Never.”

“But you went to prom.”

Dallas sat up and frowned. “We didn’t
go
to prom, Mase. We hooked up
at
prom because you shot me down.”

“I shot you down because you asked me as a
joke
.”

“What? No I didn’t. I asked you because I wanted to go with you.”

“What?” Macey jumped off the mattress.

“Who told you I asked you as a joke?” he asked.

“That lying, conniving, bitchy, whore-y slut face!”

“What did I miss?”

She let out a frustrated growl, the pain and embarrassment she’d felt back in high school now replaced with unadulterated rage.

“Mase?”

“Whitney and her posse followed me into the bathroom the day before you asked me to prom. I hid in the stall and, since they didn’t harass me, I thought they didn’t see me.”

“They harassed you?”

“All the time,” she said. “But said it super sweet like to my face so I didn’t realize I was being insulted. You know?”

“Ah… sure?”

“They were talking about prom and she was going on about how you had asked her and she’d booked a hotel suite and you guys were totally going to do it, and she’d bought sexy lingerie, because that’s obviously what you do when you’re a senior in high school,” she snapped sarcastically.

Dallas shook his head, his expression one of amusement.

“She told Katie that you’d told her you were going to ask some junior girl just to mess with her, but had every intention of not showing up on prom night.”

“What the hell? Seriously?” He dragged his hands through his hair. “I couldn’t figure out why you were so mad when I asked you. I was a little bummed out when you said, “I wouldn’t go to prom with you, even if you were the last man on earth.””

Macey bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Dal. I shouldn’t have believed her. I wanted to ask you about it, especially when you looked disappointed, but then I thought you were just a really good actor.”

He held his hand out to her and pulled her between his legs. “Whitney really was a lying, conniving, bitchy… ah… what was the rest?”