Keep Me (Shelter Me #3) (8 page)

“You’re a goofball, Uncle Antonio,” she tells me, scrunching up her nose as she pulls away from my face.

“Oh, yeah? Well, you’re an airplane, so let’s fly into the kitchen and see what your aunt is up to, shall we?”

Roaring up my best engine voice and laying her flat on her stomach in my arms, we run through the living room and into the kitchen as fast as I can go, causing an eruption of giggles. The sound of her laughter always puts me in a better mood.

Jealousy rears its ugly ass head as I place her back down on her feet. Ever since I turned thirty, those feelings have been penetrating my brain more and more. Time is ticking away. I would love to have a child of my own to enjoy before it’s too late. Watching Shelby take all the items out of the bag and place them neatly on the counter, I wonder if she wants the same things I do. Does she want a family? Does she want to settle down?

Wow, where did that shit come from? Hell, all we have ever shared with each other are a few heavy make-out sessions. And, there’s the fact that I live here and she lives… fucking hell, I don’t want to even think about this shit anymore. Shelby bends over and retrieves two frying pans out of the cupboard. Her booty is screaming at me to grab hold and squeeze.
Not going to happen, buddy.

“Ah, what do you think you’re doing?” I ask, coming up behind her as she places the pans on the stove.

“I’m making breakfast, what’s it look like?”

Man, how I would love to shove my tongue down her mouth and suck the smart ass feistiness right out of her.

“No, you’re not.”

I move in closer so my back is pressed up against her. Her breath hitches right along with mine at our close contact. Yeah, baby. You feel this connection between us, too. I grab the spatula out of her hand.

“Go sit down, or change, or whatever it is you need to do. I'm cooking this morning.”

“Oh, please. You cook?” she scoffs, trying to weasel her way out from in front of me.

“Baby, there are a lot of things I can do, and one of them is cook. Now move your ass out of my way before I move it for you.”

“Fine. If you burn it or if it tastes like shit, you’re in so much trouble. You got it, mister?”

No. I don’t got it, but I sure as hell want it. I have to bite my tongue in order to stop myself from telling her how I feel. 

“I love it when you're feisty. Trust me,
bella petardo
. I got it, all right?”

I back away to give her enough space to get by me. She tosses her hair and my eyes drift to the fine sway of her ass as she walks out of the room. Shit, I am so fucked.

“Wow, Antonio. I am impressed.” Shelby saunters back into the kitchen twenty minutes later, freshly showered and looking even more beautiful if possible with her hair braided off to the side, wearing skintight jeans and a black hoodie.

“Thanks.”

It’s the only thing that will come out of my mouth. She’s stunning and she doesn’t even know it. Maybe this is what attracts me to her so much. Appearances mean nothing to her, which I find refreshing and oh so different from any of the other women I have dated, always wanting to impress me with their made up faces and high heels they can barely walk in. All this time I thought those were the types who appealed to me, and yet they’re not.

This is my type of woman. This carefree, 'take me as I am’ woman who has me twisted up inside to the point I can’t even think straight. She’s loyal to her family. Hell, she even shot and killed her sister’s ex-husband and she’s still going strong.

Or is she? Her poise and self-assurance is there on the outside, but how is she really doing on the inside? One thing is for sure, I am not going to give up until I find out what is behind the sadness I find whenever I look into her eyes.

“Can we go outside and build a snowman today, Aunt Shelby?” Sierra asks as she starts to dig into her food.

“Hmm. How long does it take to make a snowman?”

“I dunno. Do you, Uncle Antonio?”

Sierra gets right up in my face with a big syrupy smile on her face.

“Depends on how big you want this snowman, I guess.”

“I want it really big and I want to take a picture of it to and send it to my mom and dad. And I want a carrot for his nose and I want to put my pink sparkly hat on him, too. Can we, please?”

“I could never say no to making a snowman, especially with you, pretty girl, so yes, we can. You have to eat all your food first, okay?”

“Yay!”

She plops her butt back down in the chair and digs right back in. Turning my attention back to Shelby, I gauge her reaction closely. She’s turned awfully quiet and my brows scrunch wondering what the hell is the matter with her.

“You game for it, Shelby?”

“Yeah, I guess," she huffs, "But I'm warning you, I hate the cold and the snow, and I have no clue how to build a snowman. However, I will do anything for my girl here.”

“It will be so much fun, Aunt Shelby! We can teach you how to make one and you can wear all of mommy’s warm stuff and you won’t be cold at all. Even Muppet likes to play in the snow. Don’t you, boy?”

Sierra leans down and pets Muppet, who is laying at her side on the floor.

“Anything for you, honey,” she says, avoiding eye contact with me.

She’s trying so hard to not let anyone read her, but I can. I need to know what the hell happened to her in the past four months.

Woman, I am going to find out what the hell is rambling around in that thick skull of yours, so be ready, baby. I am going to climb in there and dig until I find out.

Everyone stays quiet for a few moments until Shelby takes a bite out of my French toast. Out of the corner of my eye I watch her close her eyes.

Fist pump!

A low moan escapes her lips. Fuck me royally, when she finally looks up at me with one brow raised and a small dab of syrup at the corner of her mouth, it's all I can do not to grab her by her delicate arms and lick that syrup off. Yeah, my mind is warped. The pornographic film running through my mind of me licking syrup off of every part of her body shoots straight to my cock.

“You’re doing it again,” says Shelby with humor in her voice, snapping me back to reality.

“Doing what?”

She jerks her head toward Sierra who isn’t even paying attention to us at all.

“Staring at me like you would rather eat me instead of your breakfast.”

I lean over to whisper her way.

“And so what if I was? What are you going to do about it?” I ask, challenging her.

Without a word she pulls back from me, swirling her fork through the syrup on her plate and then seductively bringing it up to her lips, licking it slowly. Shelby has the seductive tease down pat; those stunning blue orbs of hers are killing me right now.
Fuck me!

Chapter Eight

Shelby

All through breakfast Antonio was looking at me as if he were trying to read my mind. If he is, then he’s going to be shit out of luck in the most karmic of ways. There is no way in hell I will let him find out how my life has been these past few months.

I know I am living in a shell; I hear it every day from Markus. Outside of work, I don't have any sort of life. I just feel like I am disengaged from my own body. I have nightmares and I can't sleep, but I'll be damned if I will let Antonio find out about that, either.

The sexual tension between the two of us is tangible; the sharpest knife in my kitchen couldn’t cut through it. We finally seem to be on the same level, at least for the next few weeks, anyway. We need to have a talk, set some sort of boundaries. I have no clue what he expects of me, if anything.

I look up and find him staring at me as I try to wiggle my body into Erin’s snow pants. I halt mid-way up when I see the expression on his face. My mouth goes dry as all of my breath whooshes out of my lungs. It’s as if he is struggling to gain his composure.

The look between us speaks volumes, saying what our mouths are incapable of saying. Is this normal? This raw sexual desire is the purest and most intense thing I have ever felt. It’s frightening and exhilarating at the same time.

Antonio moistens his lips as he continues to stare at me, licking all the way around the corners. Visions of his tongue invade my brain as I imagine it travelling lower and lower down my body, going beyond the point of no return. I want to get up off of this floor, jump into his arms, and cling to him, never letting him go.

Suddenly, Antonio snaps his glance away, breaking the spell. He takes a deep breath then turns and hurries out of the room as if he were being chased.

A modest smile skims my face as I realize that he is as deeply affected by the pull between us as I am, but it dissolves just as quickly when I think about becoming simply another body in the long line of his sexual conquests. A man like him just tosses aside women at his convenience. Fucking hell, why does the one man who I can't seem to get out of my mind, the one man who I would give my virginity to, have to be the biggest slutbag I have ever met?

“Aunt Shelby, you look so cute! And we match, see?”

Sierra’s smile is spread clear across her innocent little face as we take in our matching attire.

“Wow. Should we call each other twin today?”

I bend down and tie her cute scarf around her face.

“Daddy said Mommy and I are twins, too,” she exclaims.

“Yes, you are, and since all of this is your Mom’s stuff, I guess I am your twin today. What do you say we go outside and build you your snowman, huh?”

“And a snow fort, too!”

Her excitement shines right out of her, making it awfully hard for me not to get excited as well.

“Let’s do this then, sweet girl.” I pull open the door and a blast of icy air hits my face. “Holy crap, it’s cold out here!”

Even though I am bundled up in all of Erin’s pink winter gear, I am still freezing as I trudge through the snow in the back yard. I have no clue what the hell I am even doing, but the view in front of me is nice to look at as I ogle Antonio’s ass.

Out of the blue, I feel my entire body warm up at the thought of what his ass looks like underneath all those clothes. All muscle and damn near perfection. Visions of bouncing a quarter off of it pop into my head. Damn I could even bite that sucker. My mind is so far gone into Antonio assville that I am not even paying attention to where I am going until I run smack dab into the back of him and fall backwards into the cold snow.

“Oh, my God! Help me!” I scream as I feel snow on the back of my neck.

Antonio and Sierra stand above me, laughing their butts off.

“This is so not funny, you two! Help me up, would you?”

I reach up so Antonio can grab my hand. Squatting down, he leans into my face with his mouth just a mere inch or two from mine.

“You need to pay attention to where you're walking there, Firecracker. I will say I like how you look all spread-eagled with your cheeks flushed, though.”

“Puh-leeze. I am not spread-eagled. And I
was
paying attention,” I add, lying on both counts.

“That’s your story, not mine.”

Swiftly he grabs me under the arms and lifts me up out of the snow, bringing me flush with his body.

“You were checking out my ass, weren’t you?” he whispers in my ear. “Come on, don’t lie. You were, weren’t you?”

Before I can say anything, he releases me without another word and makes his way over to where Sierra is starting to roll a snowball. Smug bastard.

“Maybe I
was
checking out your ass, mister, but it isn’t
that
fine, so don’t let it go to your head there, big boy.”

I march right past him to Sierra and bend down with my ass in the air, pretending to know what the hell I am doing by starting to pack snow to roll it. I suppress a small laugh, thinking I finally got one up on him, when I feel myself lifted from behind. I scream bloody murder as I am tossed into the freezing snow.

“Shazaam, baby!” shouts Antonio as I land face first into the snow.

“You have got to be shitting me?” I shriek as I lift myself out of this cold wet stuff. All I can hear as I turn around is Sierra laughing her cute little butt off while she high fives Antonio. I wipe the frigid snow off of my face.

“Ugh!”

“No, beautiful, I am not shitting you. That was epic as all hell. In fact I think we should do it again, don’t you, Sierra?”

His question has her jumping up and down.

“Yes! Let’s have a snowball fight!” she hollers.

“Oh, no. You two said we were making a snowman and a fort. This is not funny.”

I cross my arms over my chest pretending to be mad, when in all actuality I find this to be quite comical and the most fun I have had in a long time. That is, until I get hit upside the head with a snowball from Sierra.

“You are so in trouble, little girl!”

She takes off running as fast as her little legs will carry her.

“No, Aunt Shelby! No!”

“Too late, little miss.”

I grab a wad of snow, pack it, and toss it hard enough that it hits her right in her cute little butt.

She turns around and gives me a 'game on' look. I lift my brows and do a funky dance, egging her on.

“Oh, my gosh! Look out!”

Her high pitched voice races across the yard and, BAM! I am hit in the gut with a snowball from my right.

“You ass!” I screech.

I fire up my arm to throw another packed wad of snow at Antonio, but shit, he is too fast and I am blasted again right in the face.

“Not fair! Y-you...”

I let the snowball fly and miss him by a mile.

“You what?” he grins, holding his hand up to his ear as if he is trying to hear. “You sexy beast of a godly man. Is that what you were going to say?”

Confidence and cockiness drip from his words. He knows he is, damn him, but I’ll play his little game and win.

“Only in your dreams, Schavone.”

There, take that!

“Oh, Firecracker. I will tell you all about my dreams later, and trust me, you’re the star in every single one of them.”

Holy crap. This man is driving me bat shit crazy. Here we are out here in the middle of the freezing winter and he has me feeling hotter than a summer day in the middle of a dry spell in Texas. Well, everything is hot and dry except between my damn legs.

My panties are wetter than this flipping snow is from his words alone, not to mention my imagination is running a marathon of all kinds of soft and hard core porn at the moment. Fucking hell in a hand basket. He’s good, I will give him credit for that.

My mind comes out of the gutter as the two of them plaster me from both sides, ganging up on me with multiple snowballs. This game continues between the three of us for I don’t know how long until Sierra decides she has had enough and wants to go inside and call Lucy. Even though my toes are freezing, I needed this fun adventure today that has me smiling and forgetting all the things that have made me feel empty inside for months.

My cell phone rings just as I hang up all of our clothes in the laundry room to dry out. Darting around the corner, I make it in the nick of time to answer it before my voicemail picks it up.

“Hello?” I answer, nearly out of breath.

“Shelby? What the heck are you doing? You sound winded.”

Erin sounds concerned on the other end of the line.

“I was in the laundry room and dashed out to answer the phone. What the heck are you calling for, Mrs. Payne? Aren’t you supposed to be lying in bed with your husband right now?”

“She is in bed with her husband, and she isn’t leaving it until I say she can,” Adam’s loud voice reverberates over the line.

I roll my eyes as I hear him carrying on in the background.

“You hooker!”

“Oh, hush. How’s my baby girl?”

“She’s good. We went outside for a bit and now she is downstairs playing video games with Antonio.”

I chew on the inside of my mouth nervously just waiting to hear what she has to say about him being here. Her silence on the other end for a few moments leaves me even more anxious until I hear rustling of sheets, as if she were getting out of bed.

“No shit. He’s really there? You go, girl.” she whispers into the phone.

“Why are you whispering?” I whisper back.

“Oh, hell. I don’t know why. So, tell me everything,” she prompts.

“Erin Payne. I am hanging up now. You’re on your honeymoon and your daughter is fine and I will see you when you get home. Don’t call again. Bye.”

“Shelby, wait! You ass. I want to talk to my girl.”

“Oh, all right. But this is it, and I mean it. Go have fun. You deserve it you, know?” I huff with attitude as if she were standing right in front of me.

“I know. It’s just that I have never been away from her like this before. And don’t tell me what to do either, mouth.”

“Yes, Mom,” I tease. “Let me go get her.”

I holler down for Sierra and her little legs run up the stairs. I hand her the phone indicating it’s her mom. She takes it from me and makes her way into the living room where she starts talking a mile a minute telling Erin about our morning and our bet about me putting a dollar into the bowl every time I swear. I’m going to be broke by the time I leave here, that’s for damn sure. 

Upon returning to the kitchen, I set about trying to decide what to make for dinner, opening the fridge and bending over to see what I can find. I am so fixated on what to make that I don’t even hear Antonio creep up behind me.

Smack!

I am startled and stunned speechless as his hand connects with a sharp slap to my ass. What the hell? Spinning around, I give him nothing short of the glare of death as I narrow my eyes at him.

“You jerk. What was that for?” I ask, standing there with the fridge door wide open and rubbing my ass.

He is in my personal space in a nanosecond and I tilt my head slightly to look up into his gleaming eyes. Fuck me, if a man could be pretty, he tips the scales between fucking gorgeous and stunning. I know he could easily rip my heart out of my chest if given the chance, but I’ll be damned if there isn’t something about him that makes me want to jump him right here on this kitchen floor and devour him like my favorite flavor of ice cream.

“Shelby, if you’re going to have that mighty fine sweet ass bent over and making me slobber all over myself, I am going to either slap it or squeeze the ever loving shit out it.”

His eyes turn dark as they roam all over my face. Hot damn. I think I just swallowed my tongue because for once I don’t know what to say. And when he moves until his strong chest is up against mine, I swallow. Definitely not my tongue, though, as it practically missiles itself out of my mouth to lick my lips.

Needing to kiss this man so badly, I become bold as I grab his sweatshirt. Without giving it a second thought, I roughly crash his body firmly and abruptly against mine. He dips his head as his lips barely brush mine.

“Hmm,” I moan, astounded by how soft his lips feel.

He cuts me off without a word when he coaxes my mouth open by gently nibbling on my bottom lip. I’m a goner when our tongues finally touch and swirl effortlessly with one another’s. I have been kissed before, but never in my entire life has it felt like this.

My body is reacting in ways so foreign to me I don’t even know what to do; all I do know is, my body is on fire. It tingles, and my natural instinct is to just push my chest into his and mold myself to him. Holy hell, he’s relentless as our kiss continues on and on. His hands roam from my waist to fisting my hair and back to my waist again. I moan into his mouth and I know it's not my imagination when I feel him shudder and press his erection into my lower belly.

Oh, God, can a person wake up from a lust-induced coma? If so, please don’t wake me now. He feels right and he feels so damn good. He pulls away much too swiftly for my liking and I know it’s for both of us to catch our breath. I lose my balance, feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen.