NEXT TO ME (A Love Happens Novel Book 1) (11 page)

“Not even in college? The University of Michigan is a co-ed school, isn’t it?” He snorted in disbelief. “Bunch of dumb asses.”

She shrugged again, hoping he would let the tricky subject drop. Gripping his muscular forearms where they wrapped around her waist, she squeezed. “I love the water. It’s like the best therapy session ever. The sound is so relaxing. Makes me sleepy.”

“Did you spend a lot of time on the lake?” he said, reaching for a second bottle of pale ale from the small bucket wedged in the sand.

“What?” Ali asked, clueless.

“Growing up. Did you spend time on the lake?”

It took her several seconds to figure out what he meant. Oh, shit, she realized. There was a big lake in Chicago, right? “Umm, not so much.” Not a lie.

“So what did you do for fun?” When she didn’t respond, he rolled his fingers in a tight circle impatiently. “Did you ever go cow tipping? How many siblings do you have? Are your parents still alive?” He laughed without humor. “These are standard questions, Ali.”

“I studied. That’s what I did for fun growing up. I needed to get good grades so I could go to school. My parents weren’t very well off.” She looked away from the rolling waves to glance at him. “I’ve never tipped a cow, I’m an only child and my dad died last year.” Not a lie.

Sam nodded, looking out at the sea. “Both my parents are gone, too. I have a sister I’m close with. Donna lives over in Chula Vista. Ropes me into dinner once a month, no matter what my schedule is.” He tried to sound put out, but she could hear affection in his voice. Reaching for her hand, he threaded his fingers through hers. “I’m hoping you’ll come with me next time. I think you would really like her. And she’ll love you. Knowing Donna, she’ll demand I propose to you over dessert.”

A date to meet Donna. Another perfect opportunity to come clean.

“I’m not so sure, Sam.” Yep. Total chicken shit.

He leaned in, his breath warm on her ear. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to marry me. Unless you’d say yes. And then I need to know if you prefer to honeymoon in Italy or Greece.”

She smiled and shifted, face to face with him. The moonlight reflected in his gray eyes, lit with humor and a curiosity she chose to ignore, and Ali sealed her lips over his briefly before murmuring, “I’d probably say no, anyway.” Lie.

He cupped her cheek, returning her kiss with a little more heat, his tongue licking into her mouth and stealing her breath.

“Come on, Ali. Say yes.” His voice was serious, the joking tone gone, and for a moment she thought he was still talking about marriage. “I want you to meet my family. I want to take you to my office and introduce you to everyone. Even Ash, who attracts women like white on rice. I want to take you to Tahoe for a long weekend. I want to make this thing public.”

Ali scrambled to her feet. She wanted to say yes to all of that with every fiber of her being, but he was asking for a commitment and Ali couldn’t do that to him. Or herself. This was about geography, sexual compatibility and scare tactics. Not family dinners or gossip inducing visits to his workplace and definitely not romantic getaways to Tahoe. Or Italy, which was her preference over Greece. Hurting him was the last thing she’d intended to do. Mislead him, yes. Use him, yes. And while that made her feel like a despicable person, she had never planned for emotions to factor in this. After all, men had meaningless sex with women all the time, she was simply turning the tables.

God, she didn’t want to cause this man pain.

Brushing sand off the bottom of her shorts, she spoke firmly. “I can’t, Sam. I... I’m not looking for anything serious. I like things how they are now.”

“I like things how they are now, too, Ali.” Sam stood, as well. “But, there’s something serious already happening here,” he motioned between them with the flick of his wrist, “you can’t deny it.”

She scoffed, crossing her arms. “Yeah, you and me getting seriously busy. That’s all.”

He frowned at her sarcasm and reached for her hands, clasping them in his own. “No, that’s not all and you know it. Let’s just see where this leads us, okay? Be open to it. We can take it as slow as you want, babe.”

His expression was boyishly hopeful and she caved instantly, returning his warm embrace. Burying her face against his soft, flannel shirt, Ali inhaled his strength and optimism before pulling back, hoping the smile on her face didn’t look as sad as it felt. Sam accepted her silent agreement with the tip of his head and reached for their bucket of bottles, the glass rattling against the tin as they walked hand in hand toward his house.

And now here she was, lying alongside him in an antique bed fit for a king, wondering when her choreographed plan had gone from sex in exchange for involuntary protection to the suddenly flourishing seed of love and commitment?

When Ali had taken her eye off the ball.

Danny had yet to be seen and she’d started to relax. It was a critical error in judgment. If anything, he was just biding his time, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. She had to keep her guard up and not lose focus. The goal remained the same. Keep Sam close so that when Danny got closer, she had someone handy to scare him off for good. Her truth would be told and she and Sam would go their separate ways, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice.

Burrowing deeper into him, she laid a gentle hand on his bare chest, the steady beat of his heart reassuring as she drifted into a fitful sleep. This was a temporary situation. She would get what she needed from Sam when the time came, and then she would move on. If removing Danny from her life permanently meant Sam would leave, too, then so be it. What she ultimately wanted was freedom and peace. And she wanted those things more than she wanted Sam Gleeson. Ali repeated the silent affirmation as if it were gospel, convincing in its resolute delivery.

That was the problem with lies. They multiplied. Even the ones we told ourselves.

***

The man was obsessed with The Weather Channel. That, and CNN. He would flip back and forth between the two in regular intervals, as if knowing the dew point in Chattanooga was important information. Smiling inwardly, Ali slowly came awake to the hushed sounds of the five-day forecast for the upper Midwest. There weren’t too many things in life better than waking up next to Sam in his big bed, his body giving off enough heat to keep her toasty warm in the cool air conditioning. A good thing since he seemed to consider clothing in the bedroom illegal contraband. She knew without looking at the clock that it was already mid-morning, her brain shutting down long enough to get a solid three hours of sleep in after laying awake until dawn.

Listening to the remote click between news and weather, she grinned and slowly stretched, tangling her legs with his as she crawled over his body. Screw cartoons and Fruit Loops, this was how she wanted to spend every Saturday morning.

“Mornin’,” Sam said, tipping his head to kiss the top of hers.

“Mmm, good morning.” Placing her own kiss on the hot skin of his chest, she looked over her shoulder and saw what she expected. There was no hiding the laughter in her voice. “So, what’s happening today, weather wise?”

“It’s only gonna be eight degrees for a high in Fargo.” His voice was rough with sleep and Ali felt her insides catch fire.

“Sucks for Fargo.” Burying her face in the hollow of his throat, she inhaled deeply.

“Tropical Storm Eric is forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Evacuations are imminent.”

“Erica’s a bitch.” Working her way south, she traced the line of a rigid ab muscle. “I have never met an Erica I liked.”

“Eric,” he corrected, his hand grazing high on the back of her bare thigh, inching inward.

“Eric’s a bastard. I have never met an Eric I liked.” She laughed against his navel.

His chest rumbled as he moved suddenly, flipping her onto her back and making Ali squeal with surprise. Coming down on top of her, his knee nudged her thighs apart. Way apart. She could feel his hardness against her and she reached between them, running her fingers along his stomach and down, the soft hair guiding her to her treasure.

He looked her square in the face, serious as a heart attack. “Eric is my middle name.”

“Really?” she said, stunned.

He laughed out loud, swiftly hooking an elbow under her knee and opening her to his expert touch. “You think you’re real funny, huh? Well, you are. And cute, too. But you’re not the only one with a warped sense of humor in this relationship, you know.”

Ali froze at his easy use of the word
relationship
, her smile dropping as she stared into his perceptive eyes.

Reading her mind, his voice went cold. “Christ, Ali, don’t analyze it. It’s just a word.”

A word. One that meant love and commitment. And honesty.

CHAPTER TEN

It was just a word. And it made Sam wonder why it put the fear of God in her eyes and had her on the verge of bolting from his bed any second. There was so much about her that he didn’t know, that she wasn’t telling him. He’d held back the urge to press her for the details, fighting his natural tendency to get inside her head and see what made her tick. Instead, he’d followed her lead and taken things slow on that front, patiently asking questions here and there, like last night, hoping to get a kernel of something, anything, from her. He was treading carefully, working to build the trust that she must sorely need before opening up. Her reluctance to confide in him was a definite bruise to his ego, though, and while he didn’t necessarily care what she was hiding—as long as it wasn’t a criminal record or a husband—he just wanted her to give a little. And to be willing to see where their powerful chemistry took them.

Sam couldn’t honestly say he was in love with Ali. After all, he had only known her for a dozen days or so. But he couldn’t honestly say he wasn’t, either. What he could admit to, was that when he was away from her, all he could think about was getting back to her. And when he was with her, he wanted to say and do anything that would keep that sweet, sexy smile on her face and chase the shadows from her eyes. The ones she did her best to hide. He hadn’t been kidding last night when he’d told Ali that Donna would love her. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d be preaching for him to put a ring on it before the end of dinner.

I’d probably say no, anyway.
That’s what Ali had said.
Probably
.

Now there was a word he’d been analyzing and it had taken everything Sam had not to jump all over it, because in his world,
probably
was a response that left the door wide fucking open. But she was already spooked and that would have sent her running for sure.

“Sam, please. I want you inside me.” Cupping his face, she whispered the sexy plea.

Her lips were hot against his, her tongue licking against his bottom lip before trailing back to his earlobe, nipping softly and sending a jolt of electricity straight to his cock. Pulling his mouth down to her’s, Sam allowed Ali to distract him with her lush body, letting her deflect any discussion of their relationship. And they damn well had one, no matter how much she denied it. Rising up to his knees, he stared down at her beautiful body, trailing his fingers through her wet heat and running his other hand along her smooth hip.

“What happened here?” he asked, feeling the raised skin against his calloused fingertips.

High on her hipbone, the scar was a long, clean arc and still slightly pink. He’d noticed it that very first night, the mark standing out on her otherwise perfect flesh.

Ali reached down, wrapping her fist around him and slowly stroking, the firm pressure exactly how he liked it. “Mmm, just an accident. A long time ago.”

It was another deflection. And it wasn’t the truth, either. He knew it was a recent cut, no more than a year old. He’d seen guys involved in hand to hand combat or drunken bar fights, himself included, some coming away with wounds from a blade. And the puckered line on Ali’s hip was from the clean slice of a very sharp knife. Not a stab, but a slice, which hurt far worse. And how the fuck he could even process that information was a miracle, considering all the blood from his body was rushing south to settle right where she was giving him the best damn hand job he’d ever had.

“Ali, stop.” He stilled her hand with his. “Babe, tell me what happened. I know that’s not an old injury.”

Her blue eyes went from aroused to guarded and she huffed out an irritated breath, but before she could reply, the sound of his cell phone interrupted them. The heavy beat of Five Finger Death Punch, Grady’s ringtone, echoed through the bedroom. Sam ignored it.

Gently pushing the stray strands of blonde hair away from her face, he leaned down and kissed her lips softly, the touch meant to soothe. “You can trust me, babe. I won’t ever hurt you.” He inhaled her choked sigh and murmured reassurances, coaxing a response from her.

“Sam.” Her voice was watery, her eyes tightly closed. “I don’t—”

Metal music blared through the quiet room again, halting her words.

“Fuck,” he whispered, as he glanced annoyingly at the offensive device on the nightstand until it stopped ringing, then touched a fingertip to her plump bottom lip. “Tell me, Ali-cat.”

She stared at something over his shoulder, her voice small. “I want to. But I don’t know where to start. Where to even begin.”

Finally, a breakthrough. Smiling his encouragement, he stroked her hair. “Whatever it is, we can handle it. Just say it.”

But seconds after the phone stopped ringing, it started right back up again.

“Fuck!” He reared back and grabbed it. “Goddamn it, Grady, this better be fucking good!”

Ali immediately sat up on the other side of the bed, holding the white sheet against her nakedness while she stared out at the panoramic view of the Pacific. Her shoulders were slumped and he cursed again.

Grady’s serious voice got his attention. “It’s fucking bad, man. That’s what it is.”

Which meant only one thing. “Christ, what did he do now?”

“Well, let me bullet point it for you. Dwayne got one of his side piece’s knocked up, told her to pound salt, she went to the media, Carla saw the headline on her coffee run this morning, and I just spent the last hour trying to keep her from cutting his dick off while Dwayne laughed and lied through his fucking teeth the entire time,” he sighed, sounding exhausted. “Oh, and when I called Ray, he told me to, and I’m quoting here,
tell Sammy to take care of it. I need you over here pronto, man. If not sooner.”