Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3) (28 page)

“Yeah. He even told me it pisses you off when a man tries to open the door for you.”

All of a sudden, flashes of my failed dates past started running through my head.

Son of a bitch!

“Excuse me, Matt. I have to go.” I turned and started for the exit, no longer caring about the cold meds.

“It’s Mark!” he called from behind me.

I waved my hand in the air, not bothering to turn around. “Whatever!”

I couldn’t concentrate on Matt/Mark right now. I had a husband to kill.

I should have known something was wrong the minute she walked through the door and started acting all caring and sympathetic.

“Feeling better?” Lizzy asked lovingly when she walked in the house and saw me standing in front of the fridge.

That should have been the first sign.

“Yeah. I’m finally feeling like I can eat something other than soup. I’m fuckin’ starving.”

She walked up to me and rubbed her hands up my chest, making my dick start to swell. “Oh, poor baby.”

Hell yeah! I was
this
close to getting some sympathy sex. That was the second-best kind after makeup sex. Wait…no, the third best. It was makeup sex, angry sex,
then
sympathy sex.

Grabbing hold of her hips, I pulled her against me so she could feel the hard-on I was sporting through my sweats. That always got her hot. “Yeah. Want to kiss it and make it all better?”

“Mmm,” she hummed as she slowly drug her fingers from my abs up my chest. “I don’t know if you deserve it,” she whispered seductively. “Have you been a good boy?”

A deep rumble vibrated from my chest. “Oh, baby. I’ve been a very good boy.”

The smile that spread across her lips was downright wicked. I wanted to suck that beautiful, plump bottom lip into my mouth.

“Is that right?” she purred. “Because I heard different.”

“Ow! Sonofabitch! Fucking shitballs!” I yelped as she clamped her goddamned talons down on my nipples and twisted for all she was worth.

“What the fuck, Lizzy!” I yelled once I’d finally broken away from her death grip. The sexy, seductive woman who had been standing in front of me just moments ago was gone. In her place was a pissed-off, spitting-mad hellcat ready to scratch my eyes out.

“I can’t believe you!” she screamed at me as she began pacing the kitchen.

“What? What’d I do now?” I had to ask, because truthfully, God only knew. Men didn’t have to do much more than sneeze and women were up our asses bitching before we ever had the chance to say ‘God bless you’.

“You are just…I can’t even…GAH!”

I held my hands up in surrender and slowly took a step back. “Okay. It’s okay. Just…calm down,” I spoke gently, like I was trying to soothe an angry bear.

“Oh, fuck off!” She waved her hand at me in frustration and continued to pace. “You’re something else. You know that?”

How she said it led me to believe she didn’t mean it as a compliment.

“Baby, you’re gonna have to give me something more to go on if you want me to figure out what you’re talking about.”

“I ran into Matt at Target tonight.”

“Who the hell is Matt?” I asked, jealousy immediately forming a hard knot in my gut.

“Matt, you know, the guy you convinced I was a hardcore feminist and preferred to pay for my own meals? That Matt!”

Oh, shit, not good.

“You mean Mark?” As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them. Fuck me and my stupid mouth.

“What the hell ever! Matt, Mark. Doesn’t matter! He told me what you did. You’ve been sabotaging my dates, you asshole!”

“Okay, now, just calm down. Ouch! Damn it, Lizzy!” I rubbed at my arm where she’d just pulled a bunch of tiny hairs out. Damn, my girl was in a mood tonight.

“I can’t believe you’d do something like that. What the hell were you thinking, calling all those guys and lying about me?”

Okay, the jig was up, best to just beg forgiveness. “I’m sorry,” I replied lamely as I ran my hands through my hair anxiously.

“You’re sorry? That’s the best you can do?” Her hip was popped out, hands resting on her waist. Not a good stance. It was a woman’s fighting stance.

“Look,” I started, hoping she’d be willing to hear me out. “I know it was an asshole thing to do—”

“No shit, dickhead.”

Okay, she wasn’t going to make this easy. My agitation bubbled up at her stubborn attitude. “Damn, woman, don’t you get it? I did it for you!”

She gave me an indelicate snort. “Please. How in the hell was that for me?”

“First of all, those guys were all losers. I mean, seriously, did you go online and just search out any douchebag you could find?”

“That’s not—”

“You were too good for all of them and you know it,” I interrupted, my frustration with this maddening woman growing by the second. “I’ve been chasing you around like a goddamned schmuck since I met you! And when you started dating those idiots, I decided it was time I finally did something about it.”

“Well, excuse me for not thinking I held your interest over all the other women you’ve been screwing!”

I finally snapped. “What women?” I bellowed. “For fuck’s sake, Lizzy! There have
been
no other women! Yes, when I first moved here, I took what was offered to me. I was a single man, so sue me. A few women made themselves available and I took them up on it like any
unattached
man would. But there hasn’t been anyone since I got to know you!” I could see the minute realization finally hit. Thank Christ! It took her stubborn ass long enough. I took her hands in mine and pulled her down onto a stool, taking a seat on the one next to her.

“It’s only you,
cher
. It’s only been you since we met. It’s
always
going to be you. I haven’t been with another woman since I realized that.” I spoke with the same conviction I felt deep in my bones. And I could see she was finally starting to believe me.

“Well, you didn’t have to sabotage my dates to prove your point,” she grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest and sticking her lip out, because my girl wasn’t one to easily concede when she was wrong.

Smiling at how well I knew her, I closed the distance between us and wrapped her in my arms. “I love you,” I muttered against her lips, enjoying the feel of her body slowly relaxing in my arms.

“I love you, too,” she mumbled. I could tell she still wasn’t totally ready to relinquish the fight.

I knew the one thing that would melt her icy demeanor completely, and I wasn’t above using everything to my benefit. Pulling her body flush to mine, I pressed my lips against hers, taking the kiss I’d been craving since the minute she walked through the door.

The moment her lips opened on a moan, my tongue dove in to her sweet, warm mouth. Every time we kissed I couldn’t help but savor the taste of her. Her tongue pushed against my own, meeting mine stroke for delectable stroke. I had touched every inch of her body. I had kissed every inch of her beautiful skin. I had made love to her in all different positions and places. And it would
never
get old.

“I should still be mad at you,” she said, breathless as she snaked her arms around my neck, sliding her fingers into my hair as I kissed my way down her neck to her collarbone.

“You can be mad at me after. But right now, I need to be inside you,” I told her as I grabbed hold of her perfect ass, lifting her up so she had to wrap her legs around my waist and hold on.

“Take me to bed,” she said against my lips before her tongue dove between them and fought for dominance with my own. She didn’t have to tell me twice. Keeping a death-grip on my girl while our mouths stayed fused together, I started making my way in the direction of the stairs, not caring what got taken out as I walked blindly through the house. I couldn’t give up the taste of Lizzy, even for the few seconds it would have taken to make it up to the bedroom. There was nothing seductive about our trek from the kitchen to the bedroom. We took out tables, knocked pictures from the wall as we bumped into anything and everything. I’m pretty sure a lamp was caught in the crosshairs, as well. But we never broke the kiss until we made it to the bed.

Dropping Lizzy onto the mattress, I savored the giggles that came from her as she bounced twice on the bed. There wasn’t a more beautiful sound in the world than my woman’s laughter.

Quickly whipping my shirt off my body, I collapsed on top of her and began devouring her mouth again when a sound from the foot of the bed pulled our attention away from each other.

“What the hell?”

Lizzy erupted into laughter when she turned her head and saw Merle and Mr. Bojangles lying on the foot of the bed, staring at us with what I could only describe as curious expressions on their faces.

“Get out!” I shouted at the two most cock-blocking pets I’d ever met. They hopped down and casually strolled out of the bedroom, taking their sweet time as they went. “Glad you find this so funny,” I fussed as I turned back to see Lizzy still laughing.

“Ah, let me kiss it all better,” she cooed as she pulled my face back to hers. Our bodies were a tangle of flailing limbs as we worked frantically to undress each other. No matter the number of times we’d been together, the moment our bodies connected was a pleasure like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Every time was better than the last, to the point that I was afraid sex with Lizzy would one day kill me. But what a way to go!

I lifted up and looked down into her beautiful green gaze. “How could you ever think I’d get tired of this?” I was in awe of this woman. From the top of her red head all the way down to her painted toes, she was pure perfection to me. I couldn’t have picked a better woman to spend the rest of my life with. It was as if she was created solely for me alone.

“Every time I open my eyes and look at you it feels the same as the first day we met.” I grabbed her hand and placed it against my chest so she could feel my rapid heartbeat. “
You
do this to me. No one else. Never anyone else.” I needed her to understand the effect she had over me. She’d told me once that I was the only one who could hurt her. Well, she was the only person on the face of the earth with the power to completely destroy me. She had everything I was in the palm of her hand. There wasn’t a second of the day that I regretted my decision to rip myself open for her. I’d gladly do it again and again just for the chance to look into those eyes and see love radiating back at me, even if it was only a second.

She blinked and a lone tear trickled down her temple into that fiery mass of hair. “I love you,” she whispered up at me, and that was all I needed. That was all I’d ever need.

If only everything could stay the way it was in that exact moment, life would be perfect.

But things rarely ever worked out the way we hoped for.

Marissa had texted me at least three times a day in as many days. It got to the point where I cringed every time my phone dinged with another alert.

Each text consisted of basically the same thing.

I need to see you.

We need to talk.

I’m not leaving until you talk to me.

Yeah, over my dead, rotting, zombie-resurrected body would I be talking to that scorpion woman. But that wasn’t what had me so stressed. It was the fact that I was keeping it all a secret from Lizzy. Not only was she completely unaware that my ex was texting me, but she also had no clue whatsoever that I even
had
an ex who was staying in Cloverleaf.