Page 11 of Legacy of Smoke
I nodded but couldn’t say the words. And try as I might, I couldn’t muster a smile. I blinked the tears down and tried to swallow the pain. “Anything you need. Go ahead. And,” Iswiped at my right eye where the tear was just about to escape, “if anyone gives you shit about this, let me know. I’ll set them straight. You tell ‘em Poppy’ll kick their ass.”
Austin clamped down on the laughter shaking his whole body. “Babe, you’re what? A buck twenty? You ain’t kicking anyone’s ass.”
While he was grossly under on my weight estimate, which was awesome, I had to pick a fight. On principle. I wouldn’t be Pinner’s oldest without some backbone. “I’ll let you know I can bash someone’s head in if I wanted to. I’ve got a baseball bat in my truck and I’m not afraid to use it.”
His tongue hit the corner of his mouth and stuck there as he found humor in my defiance. “I think you could. Butshouldyou?”
No. That would landmein prison, and no one would be on the outside to take care of Lily. “Ah… you’re right.”
“You’d be damn cute doing it.” He gripped an imaginary bat and swung through the air. “Home run! The crowd goes wild…”
His smile was so beautiful.
What would it hurt if I kissed him? Would I be an awful person? It was just a kiss. I tip-toed forward, waiting to see if he’d back away, and I could forget this foolish desire.
But he didn’t step away. Instead, he took a step toward me. Then another. “Poppy?”
“May I kiss you?”
His face changed from happiness to wonder. “Do you want to?”
I nodded, not daring to lose eye contact, because whatever this was, it was spellbinding. Mesmerizing, fantastic, unreal, and so damn powerful I don’t remember closing the distance between us.
And like before, being wrapped in his arms and pressed so tightly against his firm body filled a void in my soul. It latchedinto place and buoyed me up like helium. Our mouths met and what began so slowly shot up into the stratosphere like fireworks and our tongues and bodies tried to merge into one being.
When the kiss broke, I was breathless and awed. Never, in my entire life, had I ever been transformed so instantaneously or permanently as this. “I?—”
“Oh shit.” Austin let go of me and backed against the wall. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I meant nothing by it. I just got carried away. I’m sorry.”
“It meant nothing?”
His face blanched, and his mouth fell open. “If Pinner found out I kissed his daughter…”
“He’d what? Break out of prison and kill you?” I crossed my arms and tapped my foot on the ground. “Well?”
“Probably?” Austin winced.
“No. He’s in. You said it yourself. He’s a lifer. He’s never getting out. And I am sick and tired of everyone telling me?—”
“Everyone? You kissed other guys?”
“Not any bikers. Just assholes.”
Austin leaned forward, soaking in my whispered shame. “What was that? Wait, who?” His fists tightened.
Damn protective jerk. “I dated. Then, right about the time it got good, they found out my daddy hacked a man into pieces while he was still alive, and they’d get scared and take off. Happy?” The simple fact was my father was a monster everyone feared despite being in a cage.
He hesitated. Finally, he spoke. “I can’t do this.”
With that, he fled the scene.
4
CEDAR
AUSTIN
Sprout knocked on the trailer door, but didn’t bother to wait for me to say, “Come in.” His head brushed the doorframe of the derelict RV, and his legs stuck out into the walkway as he curled into the tiny booth where I nursed a beer. The roll of papers in his hand almost knocked the bottle over. “What’s up?” I got up to grab a fresh one for him out of the six-pack I snagged from the club bar.
