AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Looping his arms around her body, holding her in place, Cash couldn’t resist pulling her closer to him. It felt like holding a board—a board with curves in all the right places. The feel of her curves against him made him want to taste her. If he didn’t think she would hand him his ass, he would try it. Cash looked at her and grinned. It would be worth it.
“Let me go, Cash,” Reese hoped it would sound harsher, but things weren’t going her way today.
“Not yet. We still have to talk about that heap you call a car sitting there dead in your driveway,” his glint was unmistakable, even in the darkness surrounding them. Cash was enjoying this. He waited all day to see her again, to maybe get the chance to touch her. Sitting on her steps was better than what he imagined.
His unwavering tone cracked the dam Reese could usually keep in check. He looked at her like she held a secret that only he could see. It unnerved her. When Cash toyed with the ends of her hair, her resolve cracked, and it all came tumbling out.
“I can’t afford to replace it. I have no idea what is wrong with it. The last time it was the radiator. The time before that, it was a serpentine belt. The time before that, it was something else. I don’t have any tools. I sold everything my ex-husband left because I was short on the mortgage a few years ago. I make sure the oil is changed, and I do try to keep it running. I have no idea what to do with it besides plant flowers around it and call it a day.” The words came rushing out of her mouth, and for some reason, and once she started, she couldn’t stop.
“Life is crazy right now. Not only did I get fired today, but Pappy is also living with me full time. My father took everything he owned. The last of his money went into a bus ticket to get here. I had to spring him from the police station this morning because he told them he suffered from an illness when they found weed in his bag. He and Mav are sharing a room because my house doesn’t have enough bedrooms.”
Reese was on a roll now. She may as well tell Cash all of it. Once she did, he would hotfoot it across the yard. He was guaranteed never to come back. Hell, he wouldn’t even wave from a safe distance.
“Mav got kicked out of school for two weeks because some little snot-nosed rich brat made fun of me in front of him. He beat the crap out of the kid. Mr. Woodson, the principal, practically called me an unfit mother and threatened to call social services. If Mav gets into trouble again, they are going to expel him. The kid needs a hobby to keep him busy or a new school to attend. I have no idea if a new school is even possible after he has been in so much trouble.
“Not to mention, I come home with Pappy only to find some strange guy in the garage with Mav. The kid can attract trouble like a magnet. I have no idea what you want, but I can pretty much guarantee you aren’t going to find it here.”
Cash let her ramble until she was done. When she was finally quiet, Reese was leaning into his chest with her arms wrapped around him. He didn’t think she had any idea her body was resting against him. If ever there was a woman who needed to unload, it was the one in his arms.
“Beautiful, if I had known holding you would get you to talk, I would have done that this morning,” Cash teased to lighten the mood.
Reese caved just a little more. She was already leaning on him. Reese gave in and rubbed her cheek against his chest, taking comfort from him. “It has been a rough day.”
“Sounds like it,” Cash agreed, dropping a kiss on her head.
“Did you just kiss me?”
“Not like I want to,” he admitted.
“You can’t do that,” Reese jumped off his lap. Stupid was happening, and it needed to stop.
“Why not? You have somebody?”
“No.” Shock and then exasperation settled across her face. “I am a forty-year-old mom with a mortgage and a teenager and, as of this morning, a senior citizen. I don’t have time for whatever it is you want. I don’t like being toyed with, so why don’t you take yourself home and find someone else to bother.”
Getting to his feet, Cash was eye to eye with her while she stood on the second step. He wondered who had let this woman down so bad her first reaction was to push people away. Worse yet, they made her wonder what they wanted from her. Someone made her question her worth. When she was his, the beauty before him would never question that again. Cash knew he should get to know her. But he could talk to her after he tasted every inch of her body. After he worshiped her, quenching the hunger she stirred in him, he would tell her anything she wanted to know.
“I have no idea what age has to do with a damn thing,” Cash told her. “But let me put it plainly for you. I am a forty-six-year-old single guy who just moved in beside a smokin’ hot woman with a son. Her senior citizen sounds like he could be a good time too. I ain’t going to lie to you and tell you I haven’t been thinking about what you got tucked under that tank top all day long or the way your legs would feel wrapped around me. I am a guy who is attracted to a sexy woman. It has been too fucking long since someone made you see that you are a sexy woman.”
“That is none of your business,” Reese snapped.
“Shit, woman,” Cash groaned, grasping her hips to hold her in place while he closed his eyes to take a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, Reese was watching him with worried eyes.
“Okay, let me try this again. Beautiful, I want to take you out to dinner. Hell, pizza on my living room floor or Chinese food at your house, I don’t care as long as I get to spend time with you.” Before she could answer, a mischievous gleam crossed his face. “I promise I will not jump you until you ask me to, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do everything I can to get you to ask me.”
“You are impossible,” Reese shook her head in amazement.
She lived with men all her life. First her father and brothers, then her husband and son, but she had a feeling Cash Jacobs was a whole new kind of man. He didn’t appear to throw gobs of money around to fix a problem like her father and brothers. Cash looked at her with more male interest than her husband ever had. Those looks had warning lights flashing in her brain.
“I will think about it,” Reese whispered, studying him. “No promises.”
“Think about it, huh?” Cash stepped into her, pulling her closer. “Anything I can do to help you with that? Anything that would sway you in my direction?”
The smell of his cologne clogged her senses as his lips caressed hers gently before pulling away again.
“Mom,” Mav cleared his throat from the doorway behind them.
Reese jumped away before Cash could stop her. “What’s up, Mav?” She stuttered. Reese could feel her face flush enough she knew he could make out the crimson color in the dark.
