DOTTY (The Naughty Ones Book 3) (12 page)

“My name is Dot. D-O-T. Get it right, loser. Now I’m going to tell you all why this genius and my parents are in on this together,” she says brightly, kicking Alex’s hand away with a huff when he tries to grab her.

I’m high on satisfaction when he finally stumbles to his feet, blood pouring from a nose I can see from even here is broken.

“See, there’s this clause thing that the old Summers and Harper granddaddies wrote into their wills. Apparently they foresaw disaster at some point and decided to leave six hundred mill behind in case of trouble. All we have to do to get that money is marry. One Harper, one Summers, and BOOM! We’re stinking rich again.”

That gets the girls laughing as she sighs and I take a minute to look down, only to see her parents trying to make a hasty exit unnoticed.

Gruffy, in all her evil glory, whacks the father across the head and bitch slaps the mom right back into her seat just as Dot swings around, eyes blazing.

“Oh don’t leave just yet, guys! The show’s not over. Why don’t you all tell your friends how I got engaged to Paul, the man I
love
, only to have you orchestrating the downfall of my relationship? Oh, what? You thought I wouldn’t figure it all out by now. Poor foolish, biddable Dot. She’ll just do what makes others happy. Well not this time, Mom! You want to tell all these people how you told me you had cancer for months when you were already in remission? Or how you took money from me to give to Alex to pay off his debts?”

Her voice is an octave higher than usual and I flinch when she actually cackles and starts clapping her hands in a frenzy.

My poor baby looks maniacal as she slaps Alex again and shoves her hands on her hips.

“You don’t want to speak? That’s too bad. Listen up, because I am saying this again and it’s the last motherfucking time! I will not marry this pig. I am not your kid. I love Paul. I’m marrying him and moving to his ranch and I’m going to take all that lovely money that we get from that will and give it all away!” she crows, making Alex sob into his hands.

“Oh and FYI, this is going on the Internet, so I need to send a shoutout to Sarah Grover and just say thanks a lot for being a raging slut and leaving Paul to a real woman like me. Peace!”

The show seems to end on a crescendo as she flips everyone the bird and waves at her girls to follow. Jack sidles up to Callie with a grin, Freddie and his stroller full of babies flanks Luci, and the terrible two start skipping down the aisle, rapping and striking poses to close off the show.

Just before Dot makes it halfway to the door, that mother of hers finally finds her tongue and jumps in front of her.

“That is my wedding dress, and seeing as you are no longer my daughter, I want it back!”

“You want it back?”

“Yes.”

“This dress?”

“Yes.”

“You sure?”

“Of course I am sure, you little fool. I expect it returned by this evening or I will have you charged with theft.”

Dot cocks her head to the side as if contemplating the lower life-form in her path and does what I will remember for the rest of my freaking life.

She smiles and waves at Percy.

“Let’s give her her raggedy-ass dress back, shall we? Can’t be locked up when I got plans for a certain cowboy and his chaps.”

“Hot damn!”

Percy grins, hops to, and I’m staring at my woman in a white strapless push-up bra and Barney panties as she flings the dress at her mother, squares her shoulders, and stalks out of the church, head held high.

The panties are so small I see a lot more of her than I would like, but I’m laughing my ass off when Percy and Indie start hosing and checking her ass out.

“You still wear those?”

“They’re my lucky panties. Of course I wear them when I have an important thing to do.”

“But they’re for a twelve-year-old ass!” Indie sputters.

“You saying my ass got fat?”

“No. But I can see parts of your vagina.”

“Lucky you. Now come the hell on! I have a man to go woo, you losers.”

They stalk out to the sounds of people laughing and a moaning Alex who has only just now realized that he is well and truly screwed.

I’m grinning from ear to ear as Woody drags me out the back and starts laying out Dot’s plans in a way that makes me love her all the more.

Barney, Help Me

Dot

“Stop moving, I’m almost done,” Indie snaps, socking me a good one to the side of the head when I shift again and groan.

It’s been exactly two days since the wedding and though I’m anxious to get my life back on track I’m still in the city putting it all together.

Right now I have a lot of love and a plan that could flop at a moment’s notice.

All in all I feel good. If the two idiots I call sisters would stop trying to kill me.

“This is the last one, loser. Hold still or these lips won’t be in those Barney panties after all,” Indie warns, yanking the wax strip with a flourish as I howl and slap at her hands.

My plan is simple and yet so convoluted that it’s taken me two whole days to get it ready. I’m starting this shit with a bang and grooming myself to death so I can finally lose the dirty girl title that’s being bandied about.

“That is so enough. My junk hurts and if this works I at least want to have sex sometime this month, you idiots.”

“And you will. I just had to clean it up so your gift is visible.”

              The waxing is just to facilitate the gift, and plus, the tattoo artist made some really unnecessary comments about my bush growth and I was feeling a little raw about it.

When I feel like I can stand and walk without passing out, I lever myself up and look down, grinning at the tattoo that winks up at me from the area just above my mound.

Perfect.

Now all I have to do is get going and get my ass to the private jet so I can go home.

“You ready for this?”

“No, but I’m going so pass me the Barneys and let’s get this going.”

              “If he asks about our kiss—”

“Shut up, Percy.”

***

Paul

It’s been two days since I landed and got back home. I haven’t slept a wink as yet and I’ve called Woody at least six times to ask him where the hell Dot is.

I wanted to grab her and drag her home right after her show-man what a show, but Woody refused to let me go and started talking about how Dot had to be the one to finally break free of her past and come to me with this big declaration and shit.

I accepted only because at the time it tickled me to think that she’s going to go all out and make a public spectacle for me, something I never thought I needed but now look forward to with so much delight, I’m like a kid in a candy store just thinking about her claiming me.

Me—the guy who’s loved only once before and couldn’t even kiss his fiancée in public because she didn’t like it. The fact that Dot is not only giving up her life to come to me but is also going to come at me with guns blazing makes me rock hard and ready to beat my chest.

If only she’d freaking get here.

Not that she needs to do this. We all saw her declaring me hers in that church, and from the numbers I’ve seen on the net, half the world has seen it, too.

Even Jules and the boys found it and I haven’t seen those fools stop grinning since then.

That shit is funny and heart-warming and makes me want to bust with pride.

“Hey, boss, I see a car headed this way,” Jules grunts as I push away from the corral where I’ve been watching him work one of the cutting horses.

I see the car too and I’m almost ready to start running when I hear her come blaring back into my life.

“That her?” Jules laughs, coming up behind me just as she tumbles out of the car and starts rubbing at her butt where her skirt is drenched from the hours spent on the road.

“You bet your ass that’s her.”

“Remember, play it cool now or she’ll be disappointed when she doesn’t get to do the whole thing,” he warns.

“I know! Jesus, what am I, five? Woody already called me this morning and went over it all again.”

With that I school my face as I slowly amble my way down to the front yard where Dot is still standing, ringing her hands at my approach.

She’s so gorgeous right now I have to lock my legs and arms against the urge to grab her and kiss the hell out of her. I’ve missed her every minute of every day that we’ve been apart and I just need to feel her so my stupid body will believe what my eyes are seeing.

“Paul.”

“Dorothea,” I growl, standing my ground as she starts fidgeting around and toes the dirt beneath her feet.

“I, uh, I need to er, do something and, um, I don’t quite know if you’ll get it or not, seeing as you don’t like my movies and all, but, I—”

“Get to it, woman. I don’t have all day to stand around here and make idle fucking chitchat with you.”

“The men—”

“Working,” I growl, denying her the public spectacle she’s been hoping for because I am selfish. I want this all for me and no one else.

And I can’t wait much longer.

No, I need this over with because I need to grab you and take you to bed before my dick explodes.

My tone makes her swallow and take a deep breath before she seems to stiffen her spine.

“Well? Get to it, Dot.”

“Dammit. Shit, just don’t…”

She trails off and I almost take pity on her but she proves me wrong by thinking she’s not strong enough for this and faces me with so much love in her eyes it’s humbling

“I’m so scared, Paul. I’m scared of walking off this ranch and never feeling the rest of my life the way I feel when I’m with you. Because I don’t want to just sit at a pottery wheel with you and have one moment. I don’t want to have you dancing with me and then leave me behind. I don’t want to have one last love scene with you and walk away all alone again as you go off into the light. I want you to take me out of the corner. I want you to teach me how to dance dirty. Most of all, I want to look at you every single morning and know that I never have to watch another movie again because you’re all the love I will ever need in my life.”

Her words are a mashup of her own and all those corny movies Jack gave me with instructions to watch them all, no matter how crazy it may seem.

This moment right here? It’s possibly the most romantic, corniest thing I’ve ever heard and yet I get it.

I get what she’s saying and not saying. To Dot, I am her safety net, her every romantic dream. I beat out that sonofabitch from the movies and that poster she keeps hidden in her room.

I get that she’s laying herself bare for me and that the ball is in my court.

“Is that right? You got over your aversion to being the wife of a rancher who tracks shit into the house and works with dumb animals all day long?” I goad her, watching her little mouth purse as she clenches her lips.

“I didn’t mean what I said.”

“No? Then why say it, Dotty? See, I went after you because as your man and the one who messed it all up, I wanted to fix it and explain—”

“You don’t have to! I get it now, Paul. You started out thinking that you and I were just a means to an end and then you fell for me,” she yells, making my lips twitch at the anger she can’t control.

“You think so?”

That gives her pause and I want to kick myself for being this harsh but I have an agenda here too, you know. Before we take one more step and seal our life together I want her to be her, not the shy girl who doesn’t even talk unless she has to. Not the girl who strove to be so successful but felt empty, and sure as shit not the woman who tries to please everyone around her.

I want the Dot who was happy and had a voice.

This life we’re going to build and live together is not ever going to be perfect. It’s a hard, punishing life with work and fighting against nature and I need my woman to be strong enough to live it as my equal, not some fucking doormat that will let me walk all over her like people have been doing most of her life.

“Paul.”

“No really, Dot, if you’re so Goddamn sure I love you so much, then why walk away without even fighting for me? Why leave me alone and swallowing words that you deserved to hear but were too afraid to let me give you? You think I should just stand here and believe every word you have to say just because you say it? I trusted you once to be more than a coward who runs and you proved me wrong. You think I love that?”

Her blue eyes, well one of them, at any rate, narrows and I see her temper go hot just before she stalks over and starts drilling her finger into my chest.

“You ass! You think you have the monopoly on hurt feelings? You lied to me. You didn’t tell me anything about that slut you were going to marry, and you didn’t even let me meet your mom and grammy. You had every opportunity to come clean with me but you never did. Like what? Like I’m just some little fool you can keep in the dark because I’m not important enough to deserve honesty? I do love you, but I swear to God, sometimes I don’t even know why!”

My smile is huge when she finally stops trying to drill a hole in me and I can’t resist sweeping her up and laying a fat one on her as she gasps and struggles, slapping at my chest.

“Hush, Dot. Stop.” I laugh when she goes for my nuts with her knee.

“You hush, idiot! You freaking pig-headed ass. I went to all this trouble and even got a wax to show off my new tattoo and you’re giving me hell? Loser!”

That fucking does it.

I throw her over my shoulder to the sounds of hooting and stalk into our home, not stopping till she’s out of breath and beneath me in our bed, where I need her scent again.

“I love you, woman. I have loved you since the first moment I looked up and saw you staring at the wall and mumbling to yourself. You were so freaking cute that when I found out you were supposed to marry my ass of a cousin, I got downright furious at myself for even looking at you in the first place.”

Dot stops slapping at my face and goes still, her blue eyes staring up at me with hope and a little smile that’s all embarrassment for that first meeting.

“I was never going to marry him.”

“I know that now,” I growl, adjusting my hips to lie between her legs. “But I didn’t then and I was mad as hell thinking he was getting such a gem while I was never going to have any of this. I never wanted to risk loving again, and that meant I would be alone and never have a family or any of the things I’d wanted before.”

“Paul—”

“Shut up, woman, I’m not finished. I’m an ex-tycoon with dreams of living this hard life and having a wife and ten kids to drive me nuts when I come in from the ranch every evening. I let go of it all after Sarah and I never wanted to think about it again. Then I saw you and I should have known that I wanted it all. With you.

“But I’m stubborn. I kept telling myself to stay away and then when I couldn’t anymore I made all these excuses to justify what I was going to do. Marrying you would never have been a tool to use against Alex, because honestly, I would never have let you go anyway. I realized when we got here that you were mine and I knew for damn sure that I was just bullshitting myself the day you let me teach you to swim.”

“Why then?”

“Because you were giving me all that trust and I realized what a gift that was. I wanted everything else you had to give me then and I just…I knew that I wanted to keep you, and fuck whatever vendetta I had going against Alex. That part of my life didn’t matter anymore. All I needed to do was get rid of the baggage so that we could be together, here.”

              “I believe you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yup. By the way, I still have three gifts to give you. You kind of ruined my moment a little with your bullcrap, but no worries.”

“Gifts? Baby, all I need is you. You’re every gift I could ever want and more,” I croon, leaning in to kiss her.

She stops me, though, and scowls.

“Stop, Casanova, this is serious. The first gift is…well, it’s a video that I should tell you about before—”

“Babe, I’ve seen the thing a million times already, and anyway, I got the live show.” I laugh, loving the way she rolls her eyes.

“Those men are freaking busybodies, the lot of them.”

“Can’t deny it.”

“You were there?”

There comes the blush I love so much and I laugh as I lean down to smooch her, shaking my head at her look of embarrassment.

“I was. You thought I’d let you marry that ass without at least trying to get you back? Have to admit, though, the show was spectacular. No more Barney panties, woman, those shits are indecent and should be illegal what with that ass of yours being so hot.”

She giggles and settles, running her hands through my hair where my hat pushed it all flat with sweat.

“Indie already sold them online.”

“What are the other gifts? No offense, babe, but if you don’t get this over with I’m going to lose my dick to my zipper and those rug rats will be impossible.”

Her gasp when I lift her skirt and free my shaft is a huge turn-on, as is the fact that my flesh encounters wet heat and a tightness that makes me tremble down to my toes.

The feel of her as I push home and pause is so perfect I could cry like a bitch. She’s here with me, forever, and I feel so lucky it’s overwhelming.