Fear Me (40 page)

While the tub filled with hot water, I reached for my bath salts and coconut oil and poured it into the rising water. Knowing that it would take a while to fill up the large, garden tub I left the bathroom to call Willow. Whoever woke up first usually called the other. We liked to torture each other that way.

“I’m going to visit grandma today. You up for it?” Willow sometimes came with me to Red Rock to visit my grandma. I figured today she might need an escape after dealing with Dash last night. Speaking of…

“Yes! When are we leaving?” Her voice sounded desperate and I frowned at the phone.

“Are you okay?”

“Tell you all about on the ride. So…the time?”

“Oh, uh. An hour or so?”

“Can’t make it faster?”

“Willow –”

“Fine. An hour it is then. But make it a quick one!” The line went dead before I could say anything else. Just when I thought Willow couldn’t get any crazier. I figured Buddy was home and driving her crazy but when she answered her voice sounded as if she had just woken up.

I walked back into the bathroom and looked over at the separate shower. I contemplated foregoing a soak to save time but my strained muscles protested when I lifted my shirt over my head.

I’ll just have to make it a quick soak.

I stepped into the steaming water and resisted the urge to jump back out when the heat pricked my skin. Goose bumps covered my skin as I sunk into the water. I quickly wrapped my hair into a messy, high bun and relaxed. Before long my eyes were closing in content and I forgot about my time constraints.

Minutes later I realized I dozed when a sound jarred me awake. My eyes flew open and I saw Keiran sitting on the edge of the bathtub, watching me. He was fully dressed in fresh clothing and looked well rested.

“Sore?” His voice sounded like liquid velvet melting over me. It felt better than the hot water and soothing salts.

“How did you get in here?” I asked instead.

“I swiped your key when you were sleeping and you didn’t answer my question.” I nodded my answer while his eyes raked over my nude body. “That’s too bad,” he muttered.

“Why did you come back?”

He shrugged and ran a hand through his dark hair, causing it to spike. “I wanted to be with you.”

“So why did you leave? You were afraid I would pry?”

“Are you going to?” He held my stare until I broke it. I released a slow breath and rested my head against the back of the tub.

“Not at the moment,” I stated and picked up my sponge. “I need to bathe…”

“Then allow me.” He sunk to his knees beside the tub and took the sponge from my hands. I sat there unsure, while he soaped up the sponge, leisurely. I watched his large hands grip the sponge that looked as helpless as I usually felt under their strength.

He reached for me and I sucked in a breath when he began washing me starting at my neck and methodically moving across my body, barely skimming my hot spots. My breasts began to tingle with anticipation from his neglect and I felt an ache spike from the hard points. His hand ran down the taut planes of my stomach and then shifted around slowly to my lower back before moving up and lifting me. I was now arching into his chest as he rubbed circles across my back before dipping below the water to my waist and coming back around to my lower stomach. I moaned and gripped the sides when a finger began teasing my belly button lightly.

“Easy,” he commanded softly.

My right leg was then being lifted out of the water and he hooked it over the tub side, resting my foot against his chest, leaving me open and exposed. The water instantly soaked though his dark blue shirt as he ran the sponge over my leg, starting at my foot and working down my thigh.

Unexpectedly, he tickled the back of my knee with his other hand, diverting my attention away from the hand with the sponge until it finally reached my throbbing center causing pleasure to explode up the length of the my body leaving me quaking its wake.

I vaguely noticed his head lowering and then his tongue swiped over the peaks of my breasts teasingly before he closed his lips over one and suckled. My hands clutched at his head desperately, needing to keep him there. I heard the low keening sound made deep in my throat and suddenly his hand was there, where I needed him most. He skimmed it briefly over my clit before plunging two fingers inside my waiting walls.

My hand followed him down, directing his movements where I needed it and together we worked to fuck me with his invading fingers, while he latched on to my other nipple with his hot tongue, giving it the same treatment.

My orgasm came swift and was over as quick as it’d come. In the background I could hear the trilling of my phone ringing.
Shit. Willow.

I jumped up from the tub quickly causing Keiran to lose his balance and fall on his ass. He shot me a bewildered look and if I weren’t in a rush I would have found it funny.

“Sorry. I have to go. Willow is waiting for me.” I rushed from the bathroom for my bedroom to get dressed.

“Where are you going?” I heard his deep voice across the room and turned to find him standing in my bedroom doorway with annoyance plastered all over his face.

“I’m going to see my grandma in Red Rock.” He remained quiet and I continued getting dressed and then ran a brush through my hair before letting it fall in long waves down my back. When I was ready I brushed past him to leave but he caught my arm.

“I’m going with you.”

“What? No you aren’t. Why?”

Instead of answering me he led me to the front door and used my key to lock up. The chill of the morning air greeted me and I suddenly wished for Keiran’s body heat. I noticed that he’d switched cars as he opened his car door and all but threw me inside. I watched him saunter to the driver’s side through the windshield until he seated himself and was grateful when he blasted the heat. I hated how cold it got in the North but Keiran never seemed to mind, even forgoing a coat sometimes. It made me wonder where he grew up if he was so comfortable in this weather.

Minutes later we were pulling into Willow’s driveway so I hopped out barely letting him stop the car and rushed for the door. I rang the doorbell and waited. After a few heartbeats I heard footsteps moving to the door then it opened and a half naked, male body greeted me.

My mouth opened and closed when words failed me. I was pretty sure I resembled a brain dead fish. I was not expecting him to answer the door. He was shirtless and his jeans were left opened, revealing tanned skin and the hard planes of his upper body. I looked up into his smug face, noticing his ruffled, bed hair. My shock turned into anger and I glared at him but he only smirked and moved aside letting me in.

I bounded up the stairs for Willow’s bedroom where I found her wrapped in bed sheets in the middle of the room and I took in her disheveled appearance. Her wide, sensual mouth was kiss swollen and passion marks decorated her neck and the top of her ample breasts and I was sure there were more under the sheets. She looked frustrated and close to tears and I immediately embraced her.

“I’m a failure to women around the world,” she cried out. Even in her stressed state, Willow still managed to find a joke in the situation.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was here? I would have come sooner.” I ignored the guilty feeling over what held me up.

“What would be the point? The damage was already done. Your phone call woke me up and when I saw him lying there beside me, last night came rushing back and then he woke up and we— we… Oh God,” she groaned.

That explains her not being dressed yet.

“What do I do, Lake? He will never let me go now.”

“Is that really what you want?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want. We can’t do this. We are from two different worlds.”

“It doesn’t seem to bother him.”

“But he’s using me. What happens when he gets tired of me?”

“Then he would be a fool.”

“I would get Buddy to kick his ass but the little shit has a man crush on him. They’re ‘the bestest buds’ now.” She rolled her eyes and I laughed. We both knew Buddy would never let anyone seriously hurt his sister. He adored her although he gave her a lot of shit. He may be younger but Buddy was fiercely protective.

“Where is he anyway?”

She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. He isn’t around much anymore. My little Buddy bean is growing up,” she stated using her nickname for him that he hated.

“Well, let’s get you dressed. Grandma is waiting.”

“Yeah, we don’t want to keep that firecracker waiting too long. She will curse us both out.”

“Uh, more like all of us. Keiran is coming.”

She lifted an eyebrow curiously. “Oh, wow. Grandma Lane will eat him alive. I can’t wait!” She rushed out of the room and moments later I heard the shower turn on.

I looked over at
Pepé
, who was in the corner curled up on his pillow sleeping. I hoped the little guy slept through whatever occurred in this room. I remembered the depth of her screams when I walked in on them weeks ago. Poor guy was probably traumatized.

I left the room and headed back downstairs where I heard two male voices speaking low. I cleared the living room doorway where they were sitting and their talking immediately stopped as they looked at him.

I shot Dash a withering glance before plopping down on the recliner. I felt their stares on me but they remained quiet.

“Are you two done man-bashing already?” Dash joked. I snorted and pulled out my phone to text my aunt rather than answer him.

However when he stood up and headed for the stairs my attention diverted back to him. “Where are you going?” I questioned, hostility dripping from my voice.

“Bro, get your woman out of my business,” he laughed. I ignored his insinuation that Keiran could control me even though we both knew he did.

“Leave her alone.”

“I’ll never leave her alone. You of all people should know that.” His eyes flicked to Keiran and back to me, suggestively.

“She doesn’t want you, Dash.”

“And yet she hasn’t told me no,” he grinned and I hated his cocky attitude.

“You could be the man you claim to be and give her what she wants.”

His entire demeanor changed in a flash. I watched his eyes harden and his jaw clenched leaving behind traces of the easy-going guy. “I’m not interested in what she think she wants. But I do know what she needs and I’ll be the one to give it to her. The rest doesn’t matter.”

“
I still don’t understand why you needed to come,” Willow griped from the backseat. Willow and I were finally on the road, heading to Red Rock plus two.

“Because it upsets you so much. You know…we were friends for a short time but when did you get so bitchy?”

“Right around the time your dick started showing…and I don’t mean the one between your legs.”

“Ssss, ouch. You burn me, baby. You burn me.”

If they kept up the bickering then I was in for a long ride. Keiran had yet to say a word to me since we left my house. I could tell he was pissed but I didn’t know what for and told myself I didn’t care. I peeked at him in the driver’s seat but his face was unreadable.

It was at least an hour and a half drive ahead of me with a bickering couple and a brooding lover for company. I pulled out my iPod and played the first song in the cue.

My favorite song,
The Sweetest Thing,
flowed through the tiny buds of my headphones.
Nice.

* * *

We pulled onto the flowery estate of Whispering Pines an hour later and only then did I remove my ear buds. Sometimes I begrudged my grandmother the peaceful hideaway, although I could do without the smell of Ben-gay and antiseptic.

On these visits, I made sure to keep my appearance as close to the pictures my grandmother had in her room as possible. I was really young when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so she still associated me with the image of the younger me. During each visit I brought her a new picture of me to make it easier. She also kept pictures of Willow since she often came with me.

“I need you two to stay away for a moment. She doesn’t know you so I don’t want to alarm her. She likes to take walks so I’ll bring her out so she can feel more comfortable out in the open.”

“Sure thing. I can’t wait to meet you in sixty years. I bet she’s hotter,” Dash grinned.

“You can’t seriously be considering flirting with a seventy-year old woman?” Willow’s voice dripped with disgust and a hint of jealousy.

“That depends on if you are seriously going to be jealous of a seventy-year old woman,” he countered.

And the bickering begins again.

I looked at Keiran who nodded his head once and headed over to a chess table currently occupied by an elderly man with a thick mane of snow-white hair.

I grabbed Willow and pulled her to the entrance to avoid another nauseating session of foreplay with words.

“Ugh, he just bothers me so much,” Willow groaned while I signed into the front desk before making my way to grandmother’s room.

“He doesn’t bother you, Willow. He affects you.”

“The difference O’ wise One?”

“His effect on you is only possible because of your feelings for him.” I pushed open the door while she sputtered and huffed. My grandmother was sitting by the window gazing out onto the front lawn and I wondered if she saw when I arrived or more importantly, who I arrived with.

“Who are those strapping young men, you two gals rode in with?” she asked without turning her attention away from the window. I had no doubt of who had her so transfixed.

“Strapping? Gals? Grandma Lane you get older every time we see you,” Willow jokingly stated.

“Ha! I made be old but I still got it and don’t you forget it. If I was just a few years younger…” She ran a hand through her hair suggestively and I couldn’t hold in the bouts of laughter any longer. I didn’t get two steps inside but she already managed to make me smile and laugh all in one.

“Just a few, huh?”

“You girls come in here and let me look at you.” She turned away from the window to face us, finally and gave us a stern look.