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

This girl, I swear. She is kinda cute with her silly superiority complex. “Because I’m sorry I hurt you. I know better, so this was all my fault. It can be playful, but for me it’s serious. Now, come over here and I’ll make it up to you.”

“I thought you don’t like to be close to people.”

“I don’t like people touching me. But I can touch them if I want. And right now I want to touch you, so come here.” I beckon her with a finger. “Come on.” She crawls slowly across the couch to my side and I open my legs to make room for her. “Turn around and lean back.” She obeys and when her back rests against my chest I feel a bit of satisfaction. She did not submit to me tonight for the fight, but she does for the make-up. I lean down and whisper softly in her ear. “Thank you. Now put your hands in your lap and don’t move them, OK?”

“OK.”

I put my arms around her shoulders and squeeze her a little, then nip her ear until she sucks in a breath. “I am sorry. If we do it again, I’ll be more careful. But you have to obey.”

“I’m not sure I want to do it again.”

“I’m not gonna force you. I won’t even bring it up.”

“I might, but I’m just not sure yet.”

“If we do it again, then no more questions about my dad. Don’t take this personally, but I don’t want to share that with you. I don’t want to share that with anyone.” She stays silent, just calmly breathing. “Oh, and one more thing.” I get my phone out of my pocket and find the picture. “Here,” I say as I hand it to her.

“Oh my God! You took a picture of me like that?”

“It’s sexy, huh?”

She giggles and it vibrates through to my chest.

“You can delete it. I just wanted to show you how f**king hot you looked.”

The phone makes a few noises as she deletes the picture and then she lets out a little gasp. “You have a picture of me and the baby on here.”

“I took that this morning, remember? You looked pretty cute with her when she was laughing.” Ashleigh squirms in my embrace and I hug her tighter to keep her from turning around. “Stay put, Ash.”

“Ford?” she asks softly as she stops wiggling.

“What?”

“Thank you. For helping me. For talking to me this morning. I just freaked about the duck thing. It was a gift. A very special gift. I’m sorta sorry for making you worry, but then again, I’m not. Not really.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you said you’ll take me to LA and honestly, that makes me really, really happy. I thought I’d be OK by myself when I left Texas, but I don’t think I can do this alone. It’s not good to have too much time to think about things, ya know? It’s not good. And I know you’re only in it for yourself, but I’ll take any help I can get.”

I sigh and internalize this. I can relate to that, for sure. Thinking too much about Rook is getting me nowhere. “I can use the company on the drive. And you’re pretty, so what the f**k, right?’

She leans into me a little more and for a moment my heart rate jacks up. I don’t usually embrace the pets, hell, I don’t even talk to them beyond barking commands and handing out the occasional praise when they’re exceptionally good. So I’m not all that skilled at this comforting stuff.

“You’re like crazy sexy, Ford. And all this weird shit you do, that just adds to it. I’m not sure why, but I like your strangeness. It’s real. And it drives me a little wild.”

It’s my turn to laugh and my heart calms down as I let it out.

“I better go back upstairs. I can hear the baby fussing.”

“You cannot. She’s fine.” The truth is I don’t want Ash to leave. I kinda like this.

“No, listen.”

And sure enough, when I listen very carefully I can hear small cries. Not anything urgent like she was this morning when Ashleigh was in the van looking for that duck. But she’s definitely about to become demanding. I let go and Ashleigh sits up and turns a little to look at me. “I’m tired anyway, and I need some alone time to satisfy myself.”

I pull her back and poke her ribs until she laughs. “Don’t. If we do it again, then there are rules. One is you obey me. The other is no cheating. And that is cheating.”

“I was kidding.”

“You were not.”

She laughs and wiggles free and gets up. “You’re right, I wasn’t. But I’ll be nice and give you one more chance to pleasure me. Then I’m on my own.” And then she runs to the stairs, her pink panties blinking at me as my t-shirt bounces along her ass to the rhythm of her climbing.

I think about those panties and her bare ass spanked red for hours before I finally fall asleep.

Chapter Nineteen

A squealing baby wakes me, but I’m getting used to it, so I just try and let it go. She sounds happy, not upset like yesterday. And I can hear splashing, so I figure Ash has her in the tub down here for a bath.

I close my eyes again and drift off until the spin-cycle of the washer wakes me back up. Laundry room is downstairs too. Babies make lots of things dirty, so… right.

The smell comes next. “Fuck, Ashleigh! You have the whole upstairs to do that shit. Come on!”

I open my eyes and see the baby, sitting in her carrier on the floor next to the couch, presumably content with her warm and stinky diaper because she is fast asleep. The shower’s going this time, so I guess I’m sorta doing babysitting duty.