Dale nods. “Yeah, he gets that way sometimes. Usually when he’s thinking about his own father.”
“The one who died in prison.”
“Yeah. No one talks much about him, but it’s clear that he wasn’t the best father in the world.”
“I don’t imagine he was, if he died in prison.”
“He didn’t go to prison until late in life. He barely spent a year there, and he died under mysterious circumstances.”
I widen my eyes. “Meaning…?”
“Meaning he was in great health and just died one night. His heart literally just stopped. No one knows why.”
“Well, he was old, I imagine.”
“Not that old. In his sixties.”
That is odd. My father was young when he passed, but I know the reason for his death. He was beaten and violated until his body couldn’t take any more. Even now, I can’t bring much emotion to the surface.
“That’s pretty much all I know about my grandfather,” Dale says.
“Why was he in prison?”
“I don’t know for sure, but there’s some record that he withheld evidence in a federal investigation.”
“What type of investigation?”
“I don’t know. The records were sealed, and like I said, the family doesn’t talk about it. I’ve talked about it with my brother, sisters, and cousins. We’re not even sure if our parents know.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. They have to know.”
Dale gets distant, then. “I think they do. For a while, I wasn’t sure, but I recently learned something, and…”
“And what?”
“I can’t. I don’t want to talk about this. Not right now. I’m too tired.”
My instinct tells me to push him, but I know better. He’s already given me more than I expected tonight and in the last few days. I can’t risk what we have.
“Let’s go to bed,” I say.
“Best idea I’ve heard all night.” Dale takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom.
I don’t expect anything, so I’m more than surprised when he grabs me and crushes his mouth to mine.
Exhaustion weighs on both of us, and I feel it in this kiss. His lips don’t slide over mine with as much passion as they normally do, yet I feel his desire almost more than usual. As if the kiss is occurring in that alpha dreamland between wakefulness and sleep, and we’re cloaked in burgundy translucence.
I don’t know how our clothes end up off, but they do, and we’re naked, writhing against each other as we kiss.
Dale breaks the kiss and lays me gently on the bed. He doesn’t speak, just spreads my legs and buries his tongue between them.
Still in dreamland, still floating in that red-wine cloud. Dale devours me with his lips and tongue, his growls making the cloak around us more vibrant.
I sink into the soft bed, grasping the covers. I’m still in alpha heaven, where climaxes are vibrant and they come quickly.
He nips at my clit, and I soar instantly toward the peak. Almost there… Almost there…
When one of his long, thick fingers breaches my channel.
“God! Dale!” The orgasm breaks me into pieces like shattering crystal. Cracks everywhere, like the jagged glass of a broken mirror. All in a good way as my molecules find their way back together.
Back together, back together, back together.
One. One with Dale because now he’s inside me, his cock stretching and burning me, tunneling through me like a baton of fire.
Ashley. I love you, Ashley. Fuck, I love you so much.
The words float around me, encased in silk. Yes, he’s saying them, but even so, they fly directly into my mind, as if, for one timeless moment, we’re truly one.
Our minds have melded. Our hearts have joined like our bodies.
And still we exist in dreamland, in the Syrah-hued haze.
And still…
And still…
I’m on fire. At the same time, ice shrouds me. I fly higher, higher, and higher still.
Until…
Until…
“God, I love you.” He thrusts hard into me, holding our bodies together as if they’re no longer joined but have fused into one being.
He fills every empty crevice inside me. Everything bad in my life ceases to exist in this one tender moment.
And I know…
I know…
This won’t end after two months.
This won’t end.
Ever.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Dale
“I need you here,” I tell Ashley in the morning.
“I need to be with you,” she says.
I called St. Mary’s earlier. Floyd Jolly is still alive and still wants to see Donny and me. After a quick call to Donny, I learned he has court today and can’t get here. He plans to come tomorrow—if it’s not too late.
I want to tell Ashley to come. That I need her. That I need her more than I ever thought I could need anyone.
But—
“This is something I have to do alone.”
Truth be told, I don’t know how I’ll react to seeing my birth father on his deathbed. I’m still struggling with the knowledge of what happened to my real father. Questions. So many questions. Not my father. Not Talon Steel. Strong and muscular Talon Steel. How? And why? And what does my grandfather have to do with all of it?