Taut: The Ford Book (Rook and Ronin Spinoff 2)

She looks around nervously to see if anyone heard me, then lowers her voice, probably hoping I’ll lower mine. “No. I can do that myself. I want more.”

I squint at her. “Like what?”

She turns her head away, like she’s hiding from me. But when she turns back, her eyes have a little gleam in them and she’s biting her lip to tuck away her smile. “Conversation. Answers to my questions about you.”

“No.”

“Yes,” she counters quickly. “You get fifteen minutes with me and I get one question—answered to my satisfaction.”

“I get fifteen minutes of total control over you and you get one satisfactorily answered question from me.”

She smiles but looks down again. I’m already imagining her ass up in the air and her swollen br**sts bouncing so badly, she has to hold them to her chest as I f**k her from behind.

“That’s the deal. You want in or not?”

“Deal,” she whispers as the waitress comes with our coffee. And then, like luck is spitting in my face, the baby wakes up. Ash rocks her in the stroller, cuddles her for a few seconds, and then lifts up her shirt to nurse.

She looks right at me and smirks.

I look away, mostly to stop the hard-on, but also to see if any men are checking her out. Nope. I’m the only perv in here. I look back at her and smile. “I think we should skip breakfast.” She laughs and I can’t help myself. I laugh too. Because I just negotiated a sex deal with a girl who will probably blush so hard the first time I smack her ass I might not be able to control myself.

Chapter Sixteen

We manage to keep our minds off the potential dirty sex we might have tonight and talk about mundane things during breakfast, then head out to the Village to hit the shops. “What do you need here? Clothes?”

“I don’t need any clothes, Ford. Besides…” She tears her gaze away from the architecture and finds my face so she can let out a smile. “I enjoy wearing your clothes. I might wear your jeans tomorrow.”

I look down at her body. “They’d fall off you.”

She shrugs. “It’s called a belt. I like them loose.”

I can definitely picture it, in fact, I almost get lost in the picture and slam right into a family cutting across the street to get to a chocolate store.

“Sorry, man,” the guy says. Then he turns back. “Ford? Is that you, dude?”

Shit. Deny, deny, deny.

“Ford!” The man’s wife comes up. “Wow, it’s been a while. We haven’t seen you since—”

“How are you”—I search my memory for a moment—“Angela and”—I stare at the guy—“Paul.”

Paul grins at my recollection. I do remember them, but not because I know them well. Paul moved to the Valley when I was in high school, Angela was never on my radar. I know her face, but we never had conversations or anything like that. They are just faces.

“Hey!” Paul says. “I heard you guys sold after the accident with your dad.”

“No,” I say, glancing at Ashleigh. She’s staring hard at me. Looking like she has lots of questions. “No, we didn’t sell. We just never came back.”

“Ah.” He claps me on the shoulder and I pull away and stick my hand up. “Fucking Ford. You never change, dude. Got it, stay out of your sphere.” He laughs again and now Ash is enjoying this whole interaction a little too much.

“Well, it’s been nice to catch up. See you next time.” I tap Ashleigh on the shoulder and she walks forward with me. I can hear them laughing as we leave.

“What the hell was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Stay out of your sphere?”

“Ford?” Another voice comes off to my left. “Yes! I knew that was you!”

Aww, f**k. “Lacy, how are you?”

“Oh my gah! I can’t believe you’re here for Locals’ Day! What a great surprise! Did you ride the new gondola up at Lionshead yet? They have it open for us today, no charge.”

As if any locals need a free ride on the f**king gondola.

“Mike and I just got back. Mike!” she yells over to a line of people waiting for hot chocolate at a kiosk in the middle of the street. “Mike! It’s Ford Aston! Come here, quick, before he ditches me!”

Mike leaves his place in line and jogs over. “Fucking Ford! Hey, man, haven’t seen you in forever! I read a story about you a few months back”—I look over at Ashleigh and she’s all ears now—“you, Spencer and Ronin were in some shit again, yeah?”

“Are you Ford’s wife? Ford, your baby is adorable!” Lacy squeals.

“So you got a project these days? I heard you and Spencer did a show? What channel’s that on? I wanna watch.”

I put the hand up. Both hands, actually, since Lacy is on one side and Mike is on the other. “Sphere of privacy, people. Now.”

Lacy laughs and turns to Ashleigh. “He was always doing that sphere stuff when we were kids. Keep out of my sphere, back off my sphere. No one was allowed in his sphere.”

She laughs again and this time Ashleigh joins in. “He’s cute like that, isn’t he. All weird about his sphere. It’s like his Jedi power!”

“OK, we’re done here.”

“Wait, Ford, I’d like to chat with your old friends,” Ashleigh says with a fake innocence.

“Ashleigh?” the voice calls her from across the street near a Bavarian pretzel shop.