Austin
Sitting on the back porch steps, he exhaled a heavy sigh. He’d told himself coming out here in the middle of the night had simply become a habit, one he needed to break. But as Austin glanced down the road, he knew he was merely lying to himself. He missed her and it pissed him off. He hadn’t missed Ginny when she’d broken his heart. Why the hell was he climbing the walls and going through withdrawal from not seeing Paige?
The rumor in town was that Johnny had left, but Austin wasn’t buying that tall tale for a New York minute. The poaching prick hadn’t cared a damn thing about Paige, or he wouldn’t have knocked her up.
Five days ago, when he’d found out she was pregnant, Austin couldn’t keep from holding out hope that it might be his. But when he sat back and started replaying each day with Paige, that glimmer of hope had died.
When he’d rushed her to Denton, sat with her for endless hours in waiting rooms, then brought her home and made love to her in his shower before tucking her against him, Paige had known she was pregnant.
Yet, she hadn’t said a fucking word.
She’d leaned on him as if he were her rock. Clung to him as if he were a lifeline and screamed his name as if he was the only man on the planet who owned her heart.
Yet, she hadn’t said a fucking word.
Paige had had every opportunity to tell him the good news, but she hadn’t because she knew the baby wasn’t his.
Even after connecting all the dots and snapping all the puzzle pieces together, knowing full well Paige had played him for a fool, Austin still ached for her, like a fucking drug addict ached for a fix.
He still dreamt about her.
Still soiled his sheets like a pubescent teen.
Still wept alone in the shower, not because she cheated on him, not because she let that arrogant dipshidiot Johnny knock her up, but because he’d lost the one woman who’d made him believe in fairy tales and happily ever after’s again.
Yeah, he was an idiot and a fool to be taken in by an innocent little girl.
She’s not so innocent now, is she?scoffed the voice in his head.
No, but Austin had gotten one thing Johnny would never have…her virginity. But without the girl who came with it—and boy, oh boy, how she’d come for him that night—taking her innocence lost its luster.
As the wind rustled through the trees, Austin could have sworn he’d caught a whiff of Paige’s spicy vanilla scent. He snapped his head toward the road, but she wasn’t there. Lowering his chin, he scrubbed both hands over his face and exhaled a heavy sigh. It had to be a memory, one branded so deep in his brain that it had tripped his sense of smell.
When he lifted his hands and raised his head, Paige was standing right in front of him. Austin reared back as denial and need warred and screamed inside him. A part of him wanted to yank her across his lap and spank her ass until it was black and blue. But the other part of him wanted to whisk her up into his arms, carry her up the stairs, and make love to her until the end of time.
Instead he mutely stared at her.
“Hey,” she whispered.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk…to explain.”
“What’s left to say, Paige?” he scoffed.
“A lot actually. Can we go inside, please?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Because if I get you behind closed doors, I’m gonna rip your clothes off and bury my cock so deep inside your hot little cunt you won’t know where you end and where I begin, little girl.
“Maybe not, but I don’t want to leave things between us like this. I need you to hear me out before…”
“Before what?”
“Before you throw me away.”
“I throw you away?” he scoffed. “I think you have that backward, little girl.”
“No. I don’t. If you’ll just let me—”
He reached out and snatched her arm, then stood and pulled her up the stairs so fast she couldn’t finish what she’d been saying. After opening the door, he dragged her into the kitchen, and kicked it shut. Then he spun around and pressed her up against the wooden panel before slapping his palms on the polished wood, caging her in.
“What did you really come here for, Paige?” he murmured, leaning close and inhaling her erotic scent.
“T-to talk,” she stammered, shamelessly staring at his lips.
Bullshit. She wants me to kiss her.
Austin wanted that too, but he’d never be satisfied, never stop with just a one taste. No, he’d keep going until he’d devoured her and seared every breath, moan, and pleading whimper to his fucking soul.
“Why? Doesn’t Johnny talk to you the way I do? Of course not. He doesn’t speak the language you crave, the language you know I’m more than capable of giving you. Isn’t that right, little girl?”
“Austin,” Paige moaned.
He couldn’t miss the shiver rippling through her, the widening of her pupils, or the familiar scent of her feminine musk teasing his senses and making his mouth water.
“It’s okay, little girl. I’ll talk to you. Talk to you so sweet and dirty you’ll melt all over my cock. The cock you want…the cock you’ll never stop craving.”
“W-what are you doing?” she breathlessly whimpered, unconsciously rocking her hips.
Cupping her chin, Austin tilted her face back until Paige’s lips were perfectly aligned beneath his. Then he leaned in close…so close he tasted the need saturating her hot, wet breath as it spilled into his mouth and onto his tongue.
“Giving you what you want…what you came here for, little girl,” he groaned, pressing himself flush against her wicked body.
Slanting his lips over hers, Austin plunged his tough past her lips and swept her mouth, rough and possessively deep. Paige gripped his shoulders and sank her nails into his back, scoring his flesh beneath his shirt.
Swallowing her kitten-soft whimpers, he memorized each warm crevice and slick valley of her mouth. He knew this was the last time he’d ever have to taste her, claim her, and own her…at least for a little while.
As he feasted on her sinful mouth, their tongues tangled in an urgent dance of want and desire. Paige writhed against him as her body silently begged for more.