Surrender (13 page)

“Hi, you’re about finished here?” Rome asked her when he had reached her side.

The deep huskiness of his voice strummed down her spine like caressing fingers. “Yes.”

“Need a ride home?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be at the bar waiting for you.”

“All right.” Jada watched him walk away. Ignoring the heat flushing her skin, she went about completing her final chores before she could leave and go home.

“Thanks for bringing me home, Alex. You don’t have to walk me to the door.”

“Yes, I do. You don’t know if your parents have returned from the hospital yet, and I have to see you safely inside.” He got out of the car and walked around the vehicle to her side. He thought that once he got her tucked safely inside, he would have ful
filled her brothers’ expectations, and he could be on his way. The sooner he got away from Christy the better. Hopefully it would be another year or so before he saw her again. By then he would have figured out a way to better control his attraction to her. He was still trying to recover from the rippling heat that had been generated in the short span of time they’d been confined in his car together.

A short while later he was walking her up the walkway to the front door. “I probably won’t get the chance to see you again before you return to school so I hope you enjoy the rest of your spring break.”

“Thanks, Alex,” Christy said when they had reached the brightly lit porch. She fumbled a few minutes in her purse before pulling out the key. After opening the door she turned to him. “Do you want to check inside?”

“No, that won’t be—”

At that moment the shrill sound of the phone interrupted what Alex was saying.

“Excuse me, that’s probably my parents calling from the hospital,” Christy said before racing off to the phone, leaving Alex standing in the doorway.

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. As she crossed the room to answer the phone, he thought there was something very feminine and alluring about her walk that made his heart thunder deep in his chest. He tried not to notice the sexiness of her legs beneath her short silky-looking outfit or the way the dress caressed her body, emphasizing the
curves beneath the soft material. And he could just imagine her wearing a majorette uniform marching across a football field at halftime. Sweet, hot desire gripped him at the thought of those long, slender legs kicking up, kicking out and lifting high.

“Hello? Mom! Yes, I just got in. Yes, Alex brought me home.” A few seconds later Christy’s face broke into a wide smile. “They did! That’s wonderful.” She turned to Alex. “Corinthians and Trevor had a boy!”

Christy then resumed her conversation with her mother. “Yes, I was talking to Alex. He’s still here. Sure, I’ll be okay if you and Dad decide to go and celebrate with the Grants and Averys tonight. All right. Goodbye, Mom.” Christy hung up the phone and looked over at Alex, smiling. “Isn’t that wonderful for Trevor and Corinthians?”

“Yes, if you’re into the family thing.”

Christy lifted a brow. “You’re not?”

“No. That’s something I don’t plan on getting into anytime soon. At least for another ten years or so,” he said smoothly. Inwardly he asked himself why he was having this conversation with her. Why was he even still there? He had done his duty and had made sure she was safely inside so now he could leave. He should quickly walk out the door before he was tempted to give in to this crazy impulse and cross the room and kiss Christy Madaris senseless.

“Ten years? You plan on waiting ten years before getting married? I’ll be nearly thirty-one by then,” Christy said annoyingly.

Alex raised a thick brow wondering what had gotten her all upset and why her age at the time he decided to marry meant anything. “Yes, I guess you will.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to wait that long.”

Alex wished he could logically follow her conversation but she was downright confusing him. “You don’t want to wait that long for what?”

“To get married.”

Alex shook his head and decided to try another approach. “Christy, I’m sure you’ll be able to marry before your thirty-first birthday if that’s what you want.”

“Not if you plan to wait ten years.”

Alex was even more confused. “What does the amount of time I plan on waiting to marry have to do with you?”

Christy looked at him, surprise gleaming in her eyes. She then slowly crossed the room to him. “Don’t you know? Don’t you even remember?” she asked softly.

Alex looked at her serious expression. What was he supposed to know? What was he supposed to remember? “No. How about you tell me? Remind me,” he said quietly.

She nodded slowly, seriously. “Better yet, I can show you.” She lifted her finger to him and he saw the ring she intended for him to see. He quickly remembered it was an inexpensive ring he’d worn as a teenager on his pinkie finger. He had given it to her years ago.

“Do you remember when you gave this ring to me, Alex?”

He frowned. “Yes. It was on your thirteenth birthday.”

“Do you remember why you gave it to me?”

Alex shrugged. “Yes, you had been crying that day because of your brothers’ overprotectiveness. You thought you would grow up to be an old maid because no one would ever want to marry you because of being afraid of your brothers.”

Christy nodded, and she looked at him, held tight to his gaze. “That’s right. Now do you remember what you told me that day? What you promised?”

Alex frowned when he remembered. “Yes, I gave you the ring and told you that you didn’t have to worry about your brothers scaring any of the guys away because I would be the one to marry you when you got older, and that I would wait for you…” The words trailed off when what he’d actually said to her that day almost eight years ago hit him in the face.

“To grow up,” Christy finished for him.

Alex leaned back against the door as he studied her intently. Surely she didn’t expect for the two of them…He shook his head. “Christy, you know I was just kidding with you that day, don’t you?”

An angry glint appeared in her eyes. “I don’t know anything of the sort. I assumed you were telling me the truth.”

Alex narrowed his eyes at her. It had been no secret to anyone who lived in their old neighborhood that
Christy Madaris had always had a crush on him that started when she turned eleven and had lasted until she’d gone off to college at seventeen. Although he’d been flattered by it, he’d been careful not to do anything to take advantage of, or encourage, her tender feelings. Except—maybe for that one time on the day she had turned thirteen and had been crying. But what he’d done had been perfectly innocent on his part. He had a weakness when it came to females and tears.

“And you want me to believe since all that time, from the time you were thirteen, you thought I would marry you?” he finally asked her.

“Yes! Why wouldn’t I believe it? You said it.”

“I just told you that to stop you from crying. How could you have believed what I said?”

“Because you said it, and I’ve been wearing this ring for eight years to prove it. That’s why I’ve never let my brothers’ attitude toward other guys bother me and why I never got serious about anyone. I was promised to you. Everyone in my family knows that I plan to marry you, Alex.”

He thought about Justin, Dex and Clayton and found that hard to believe.

“Even your brothers?”

Christy glared at him. “Yes. I told everyone that day. They probably have forgotten about it just like you’ve forgotten about it.”

Alex sighed deeply. He remembered the Madaris brothers teasing him about it years ago because they knew he hadn’t meant anything by it other than a way
to soothe Christy’s tears. Over the years either he or one of her brothers would bring it up and joke about it occasionally. He was more than sure that, like him, they assumed Christy had grown out of that crush. However, from the look on Christy’s face, it appeared she had not.

He knew a quick and easy way to resolve the matter before it led to trouble and a whole lot of unnecessary pain. “If you thought I actually promised myself to you eight years ago, then it should be easy enough to get unpromised.”

Christy lifted a brow. “What are you saying?”

“I’m setting the record straight. Now. Tonight. What I said to you eight years ago should not have been taken seriously.”

His words hit Christy like a ton of bricks. She shook her head, confusion evident in her gaze. “But I’ve made plans,” she said quietly. The hurt was evident in her voice.

A part of Alex felt his insides get ripped in two with the hurt he saw in her features. He felt even worse knowing he’d put it there. “What sort of plans?”

Christy lowered her head. She didn’t know if she could find the words to explain.

“Christy? What plans?”

She lifted her gaze to his. He took a sharp intake of breath when he saw the lone tear in her eye. “You were to be my husband, the man I was saving myself for, the man whose babies I would have, the man I would love for the rest of my life.”

Alex’s anger flared. She’d had no right to make those sorts of plans that involved him, especially since her feelings weren’t the result of adult emotions but of an infatuation that had started when she’d been a kid—which she wasn’t anymore. “And you decided all of that just because of those words I said to you eight years ago?” he asked incredulously.

Christy stiffened her spine and glared up at him. “Yes. It was a promise.”

“It meant nothing!”

“It meant everything to me, Alex!”

“I’m eight years older than you!”

“So! I’ll be twenty-one in a few months.”

“Then I’ll be seven years older than you. You need to date guys closer to your own age.”

“I’ve never wanted anyone but you.”

“I’m a man, Christy.”

“And I’m a woman, Alex.”

By now they were nose to nose. Anger and tempers flared. Then suddenly, so did passion. Alex’s gaze dropped from the angry fire in Christy’s eyes to her peeved, parted lips. They were lips he had an immediate need to taste.

And so he did.

He pulled her into his arms and seized her mouth like the hungriest of men. Because at the moment, he was. His tongue swept inside and only after hesitating a few seconds, she responded to him with a burst of passion that nearly staggered him, kissing him back with a fervor that made him forget anything and
everything, except for her. She tasted like heaven, and a rush of desire he had never felt before tore into him. He wanted more of her.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and slowly lifted her off her feet, closer to him. Their tongues mated, and they were helpless to the hot, searing need they were building within each other.

Unable to help himself when the urge to touch all that skin had tortured him all night, he lowered his hand and dipped it beneath the hem of her short dress and curved his hand possessively over the curvaceous swell of her soft behind. Pulling her forward, closer to him, he pushed his pelvis against hers.

He heard her moan, some unintelligible sound from deep within her throat, and knew this kiss they were sharing was the most intimate he had shared with a woman in a long time. He intensified the kiss when Christy tightened her arms around his neck, and he gripped her behind more firmly, cradling the very essence of her heat to him.

Alex knew then that kissing her wasn’t enough. He wanted to taste her all over. He wanted to join himself with her in the most primitive way. At the moment, he couldn’t think straight. He couldn’t think at all. His mind was in a state of frenzy. His body was about to explode, and he wanted to be inside of her when it did.

He was about to lower her to the floor when the sound of a car’s horn brought him back to his senses. He lowered Christy back to her feet and breathed in
deeply, trying to regain control. He released her from his hold because he was too confused not to do so. He rubbed his hand over his face and wondered what the hell had just happened. One minute he and Christy had been yelling at each other and the next they were trying to devour each other’s mouths.

Alex glanced over at her. She seemed as shaken with the kiss as he did. Her chest was rising and falling as she tried to get her breathing back on track. “Christy? You okay?”

She nodded before taking a few steps and burying her face against his chest. Instinctively, he tightened his hold on her.

“I’m sorry, Christy. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he groaned, his voice muffled by the torment he felt. He couldn’t believe he had just kissed her that way. He glanced down at her and when he did, she lifted her head and looked at him. She drew in a long, deep, shuddering breath and as he continued to watch her, her lips, he thought, curved into a delicious, satisfied smile. “Don’t apologize, Alex. That kiss was worth the eight-year wait. It was real nice.”

He inhaled deeply, thinking that if anything, it had been hard and greedy. His desire for her had come on him fast and furious. For some reason he now wanted to show her what a “nice kiss” was like. Feeling his willpower dwindling, being shot to hell, he cupped the back of Christy’s head and lifted her face closer to his. He leaned down and gently parted her lips with the tip of his tongue. Slipping inside he
kissed her tenderly, the way a nice kiss should be. His hand moved across her back, down her spine to the curve of her bottom. Then he pulled her against him as he slowly and gently savored the taste of her as their tongues continued to stroke and mate slowly, tenderly. It was nice. Real nice. He heard her moan, the sound vibrating against her lips, and he continued to kiss her, taste her—over and over.