Live for You (7 page)

The door opens and my
ex-boyfriend is suddenly by my side.

“
We can’t tell anyone, Vi.
No one can know,” Jaxon says, taking my hand as I lay in bed. We’re
in my room and I haven’t seen the light of day since the hospital
discharged me.“If they did, our careers would end. And maybe I
could come back from that, but you couldn’t, not after what you
did. I still love you and it’s why I’m trying to protect you.
Protect us.”

I stare up at the white
ceiling, feeling nothing for him. Not even the sting of his
betrayal remains inside of me. “It was an accident.” Although the
press would disagree. The police report would disagree. But I can
barely remember that night. “I don’t remember getting into my car.”
In fact my phone showed a barely readable text to one of the local
cab companies.

“
Doesn’t change the
consequences.”

He’s right. It didn’t.
Finally, I turn my head to look at him. He has a black eye and
there are cuts on his lip. “Did you get into a fight?”

His gaze skitters away.
“Yeah. Listen, I can’t stay…Just promise me you won’t say
anything.”

“
Like when you promised
you’d only love me?”

He exhales. “People
change, Vi.”

“
You didn’t change.” I
shake my head at his frown. “You. Got. Caught.”

The last notes of the hymn
leave me and I’m empty again.

“
Fancy seeing you
here.”

Eyes popping open, I
scream and scramble to my feet, head whipping around. My heart is
pounding loud in my ears by the time I find the intruder. Of course
it would be
him
.
“Stalk much?”

“
You wish.” Cole smirks,
towel around his neck and little sister at his side. Of course she
is. And of course I sound like a total bitch. “I’m here to watch
Kelly play in the water.”

I wave at Kelly. She waves
back and jumps from the bank into the creek. Fearless. I smile. I
used to be like that.

“
Am I allowed on that
side?” Cole asks, joining his sister, but he doesn’t stay with her.
He keeps walking, straight to me, stopping a couple of feet away
and dropping the towel on the ground.

I guess I should be
thankful that he’s wearing clothes today. He pulls his shirt over
his head and the sarcastic reply I had dies on my lips. Hard abs,
lean body and damn tattoos. His shorts ride low on his hips,
exposing those indentions in the sides that make smart girls
stupid—or so I read on Pinterest.

Personally, I feel dumber
than dirt right now.

Flashing a smile, like he
knows what I’m thinking, he says, “Plan to answer me in this
century, Rae?”

“
I was getting ready to
leave. So you can be on whatever side you want.” I turn, but his
hand on my elbow stops me. I looked down at his hand, large and
tanned on my skin. I shiver, skin prickling in pleasure at his
touch.

“
Don’t do that,” he
whispers, then glances at Kelly.

“
Don’t do
what?”

“
Shiver when I touch
you.”

“
Why?” I blink and lick my
lips.

He groans, then his
gorgeous blue eyes become intense. “Because you’re making it hard
for me.”

Hard how, I want to ask,
but don’t. We’re already treading the heavy flirting line and I
don’t want to cross it. “Fine. Then I’ll leave like I was planning
to do before you mauled me.”

“
Please stay.” He dips his
head, lips close to my ear. “Promise I won’t bite, unless you ask
me nicely.”

My neck arches against his
whispered words and I feel the flick on his tongue on my skin. I
gasp, wanting more. Another soft scrape and I’m ready to tackle him
to the ground.

“
Damn, you taste good.” He
steps back, checking on his sister again. “C’mon stay. Tell me all
about California.”

“
California?”

He gives me this look.
“That’s where you said you’re from.”

Nana was right. No good
ever came of lying. I begin to back away. Retreat my only option.
“Maybe another time. I’d promised to help Nana can some peaches.
They’re so juicy and ripe that I can’t wait to eat one.” His
eyebrows raise. Okay, so wrong choice of words. “Or green beans.
Something very boring and not innuendo filled.”

He makes a little grunting
sound. “Whatever. Guess I’m too
boring
for someone from
Cali.”

Oh great. Now I’ve gone
from bitch to snobby bitch. “That’s not what I mean.”

“
Then say what you mean.”
He crossed his muscular arms over his equally muscular chest, which
does not help my thought process at all. “Or are you scared of a
good ole boy from the south and how he makes you feel?”

“
How you make me feel?” I
toss my head. “You don’t even know me.”

“
Then sit your cute ass
down and enlighten me,” he challenges and turns away, sitting on
the edge of the grass bank.

For the next few
heartbeats, I stare at the back of him. What’s the harm? Why can’t
I sit and talk to a cute boy while I’m here? I’m an adult for God’s
sake. Still, I stand there, torn. Then…I walk to him and
sit.

*** *** ***

Cole

Please don’t let me screw
this up.

I’ve never met a girl more
confusing. Timid one minute, bold the next. Tastes salty sweet. I
can’t believe she didn’t knee me in the balls when I licked her the
first time. I made myself stop after the second. That little gasp
made me hard as a rock.

But I want to do it again.
I want to taste her everywhere. To lick her nipples and between her
thighs. I want to know if she’s wet for me.

What I want, I’m pretty
damn sure I won’t get. And since I’m not pressing my luck again,
I’ll keep my damn tongue to myself. For now, anyway.

“
So…” I say, keeping my
eyes on Kelly as she splashes and not the gorgeous girl sitting
inches away from me, wearing nothing but a sports bra and running
shorts.

“
Nice weather.”

Weather talk? “Anything
like California?”

“
It’s cooler there,” she
says after a brief hesitation.

Cooler in California? I’m
pretty sure they have great weather year round. But since I’ve
never been out there…“Do you go to college?”

“
No, I—I deferred
acceptance to concentrate on my career.”

“
Career?” I can’t help but
look at Rae. Her blonde hair is mostly plastered to her head with
sweat. Little tips of purple sticking out everywhere. I let my gaze
travel down her body. The little top and shorts she’s wearing
doesn’t hide a damn thing from me. Her tanned belly is flat and
there is a faint jagged line cutting across the middle.

What. The. Hell.

She begins to turn and I
force my gaze away, focusing on her face. All delicate features,
with a little pink mouth made for kissing me. “Yeah, I’m a
singer.”

“
Anyone I
know?”

“
Do you listen to country
music?”

“
Hell, no.” I squint one
eye against the sun, pick up a rock and hurl it in the opposite
direction of Kelly. It hits the water twice before
sinking.

“
A good ole boy from the
south that doesn’t listen to country, huh? Isn’t that against the
law?”

I shrug. “Just call me an
outlaw.” No way in hell I’d ever listen to country music. My sperm
donor had seen to that. He’s a big shot producer out in Nashville.
Most likely Rae knows him, but I’d bet everything I own that she’s
never heard about me from him.

She laughs, the sound doing
funny things to my heart. “Then I guess you wouldn’t have heard of
me.” She picks up a rock, turning it over and over in her
hand.

I raise my brows. “So
you’re pretty famous?” Was she pulling my leg? I mean, when I heard
her singing, she blew me away, but did that translate into country
music star?

“
Yeah,” she says, then
tips her head back and looks up at the sky for a minute. She
exhales. “Oh God, I can’t believe I’m even contemplating this, but
it would be…
nice
to not have to lie or keep more secrets. I’m so damn sick of
keeping secrets.”

While I wished everyone in
this town knew a lot less about me. “Then don’t.”

She keeps messing with the
rock, her knuckles turning white when she makes a fist. “If I tell
you, will you promise not to Google me?”

Googling her is nowhere on
the list of things I’d like to do her. But she’s completely
serious. And if she squeezes that rock any harder, she’ll hurt
herself. But maybe she needs to hold onto something. Or
someone.

“
And you promise not to
tell anyone I’m here in Forrestville?”

Slowly, I reach out and
take her fist in my hand. Keeping my gaze on her fingers, I gently
pry them open. The rock falls to the ground with a dull thud. I
brush away the leftover sediment, then trace the grooves left
behind. I can feel her eyes on me. Beneath my fingertips, the pulse
in her wrist is pounding, with excitement or fear of discovery, I’m
not sure.

What I am sure of: This
connection between us is real.

I bring her hand to my
mouth, kissing the center of her palm. Her blue eyes widen, then
darken. Her chest rises and falls like she’s still running. I kiss
her hand again, this time turning it and running my lips softly
over her knuckles.

“
I promise,” I say softly.
And I mean it.

She takes a deep breath.
“Violet Lynn.”

“
Hmm,” I say, still
tasting her skin. “Never heard of her.”

“
You can call me
Violet...or Rae like you’ve been doing.”

Another kiss and her body
shakes. Jesus, I want this girl. “What do you prefer?”

“
I don’t know,” she says
breathlessly.

Keeping my gaze fixed her,
I ask, “If I took you to a party, to celebrate my buddy’s
homecoming, how would you want to be introduced?” Why in the hell
would I do that? I don’t even know her.

“
Cole…your sister.” She
glances in the direction of Kelly.

“
Is she okay?”

Nodding, she faces me
again. “She’s fine.”

I kiss the inside of her
wrist. “Answer me.”

Another shiver. “I don’t
remember the question.”

I don’t hide the satisfied
smile that kicks up the corners of my mouth. “Rae or
Violet?”

“
Maybe both.”

“
Violet Rae is a
mouthful,” I tease.

Her lashes flick up. “It’s
my name.”

“
You tell me, darlin’.
Anything you want, that’s what I’ll call you. Your secret identity
is safe with me.”

“
Why do you have to be
so
gentlemanly
?”
she huffs.

I place her hand on her
thigh and let go. “Are you seriously complaining about
that?”

She bites her lip and I
lean closer, sneaking a glance at my sister to assure myself that
she’s still safely playing. “You’re not making it easy on me,” she
says, accusation lacing her words.

“
Didn’t know I was
supposed to.” Her lips are so close to mine that I’d be insane not
to kiss her. Or at least try to.

“
Rae,” she says, jerking
her head back and scooting away. “I’d liked to be called
Rae.”

Denied. “Rae, it is,
then.”

“
What about
you?”

Biting back a grin, I say,
“I go by Cole.”

She punches me in the
shoulder. “Be serious.”

“
Ow!” I wince in mock pain
and rub the spot she hit.

She shakes her fist at me
and playfully narrows her eyes. I hold up my hands in surrender.
Kelly squeals about the fishies eating her toes and I take a couple
of minutes to save her. Once she’s playing closer to me, in the
shallower part, I turn my attention back to Rae.

“
I run a bar with my
brother, take classes online for my business degree and raise our
little sister.” While waiting for my mother to either overdose or
kick her habit. But I don’t say that.

“
Oh…wow. You sound
incredibly busy.” The admiration on her face makes me sit up
taller.

“
And you sounded pretty
good earlier.” Actually she reminded me of a sad angel. Like the
song was bringing back bad memories for her—or fighting
them.

Her face flushes and her
nose wrinkles, diamond catching the light. “Heard that,
huh?”

“
Yeah. Waited until you
were done though, before I scared the shit out of you.” Actually, I
had waited because I thought the moment belonged to her. No matter
how entranced I was, or how much Kelly had tugged on my arm,
wanting to go to swim, I couldn’t interrupt.

She rolls her eyes. “You
didn’t scare the—”

“
Really, Rae?”

Blowing out a breath, she
smiles, taking mine away. “Okay, so maybe you scared me a
little.”