This Love's Not for Sale (26 page)

With her head so far in the clouds, she hardly remembered the drive home.
She was so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed the rental car at the far end of her driveway until she stepped foot out of Tucker’s car.

“
You must’ve hit the lottery when Margo died if you can afford a car like that.”

The voice was familiar and
prickly in Lilliana’s ears. Fucking. Adam.

Lilliana was
barely able to withhold her gasp of upset when she saw him on her porch swing, casually relaxed, and his long legs leisurely stretched out in front of him.

“What the fuck...”
The alarm of seeing Adam caused the words to wedge in her throat.

Adam showed no reaction to her
and remained seated.

“It’s good to see you, too, babe,”
he glowered, his sparkling green eyes giving away his pleasure in her utter shock.

Lilliana was breathless with rage and there was no hiding the unbridled anger in her voice when she spoke. “
It’s not my car. Now get the hell off my land.”

Adam’s head tilted and he laughed with easy
boldness. “That’s some kind of shitty greeting. What happened to your Midwestern values? You used to be so gentle and obliging. Hell, it wasn’t that long ago you were eager to wrap that pretty little mouth of yours around my dick.”

Adam seemed to find some kind of perverse pleasure in bringing up their past
, but Lilliana was undeterred by his disgusting words.

“A hell of a lot of good that did me. My
obliging
attitude got me a cheating husband who gave me the clap!”

Adam waved aside her remark and looked out in the distant field and long driveway as if seeing something. “Again with that?”

“I was serious about pressing charges,” Lilliana grumbled.

“You threatened
to press charges if I called, so here I am in person. You brought this all on yourself. I gave you plenty of time to get your ass back home. Now I’m here to make it happen.”

“My home is here!
Get your dick out of here, Adam. I mean it. I’m not going back to Kansas ever.  How dare you come here and…”

Adam stood and pointed a finger in her direction. “I’m sensing aggression,” he chuckled derisively.

All Lilliana could hear was the sound of her heart beating loudly in her ears. She had seriously heard enough of Adam’s bullshit. “You’re going to sense my foot up your ass in about thirty seconds if you don’t get the hell…” Lilliana’s voice broke off midsentence when she heard a car door close behind her.

She spun around to see Tucker moving towards her with his head downcast and
fully dilated eyes firmly fixed on Adam. She stared wordlessly at him, her heart pounding in her chest. Tucker stalked closer to Lilliana and she was stunned by his cool appraisal of Adam. Tucker glided next to her and wrapped a possessive arm around her waist and pulled her next to him.

His action sent her brain spinning for fear of what was about to go down. Her stomach churned with anxiety and her eyes darted over to Adam. He was no longer sitting, but standing on the last step of the
landing ,and making his way rapidly to Lilliana and Tucker. Lilliana tried to slip out of Tucker’s grip, but he held her steadfastly.

“Who the fuck are you?” Adam demanded.

“The boyfriend.” There was defiance in Tucker’s tone as well as a not-so-subtle challenge.

Lilliana’s emotions veered from
trepidation to tenseness to arousal, and back.

Adam’s nostrils flared and his eyes blazed with anger, but he laughed
mockingly and gave Lilliana a hostile glare. “It didn’t take you long to spread your legs for someone new, did it?”

Lilliana felt Tucker’s body stiffen in response to Adam’s vehemence and she winced from his hateful words.

“Only two years,” Lilliana countered, making her point that she was no floozy.

Adam waved towards the Lexus. “So, what? You suck his cock and he lets you drive his car? Is that how this shit works?”

Lilliana’s breath burned in her throat. Adam loved humiliating her. He always had.

“You must not have gotten any good head in your life for that kind of trade off,”
Adam laughed ironically at Tucker.

Unwelcome memories
of how Adam used to talk openly about her lack of oral skills to their friends and acquaintances flashed in her mind and suddenly, she didn’t feel so bold anymore. Adam knew too much about her and her composure started to crack like a shell under Adam’s barbed and hurtful insults. She just wanted Adam to be gone and to hide in Tucker’s arms.

***

Lilliana’s voice had shifted from bold into a hushed whisper. “Shut up, Adam.”

Tucker felt Lilliana
physically withdraw and he tucked her further into his body as protection.  Seeing Lilliana uneasy and fearful was motherfucking gut wrenching. He knew Lilliana to be strong, spirited and brave, and he’d be damned if he would allow anyone to take away her most prized attributes, most especially not the piece of shit standing in front of him.

Tucker sized him up: Military length, dark blonde hair, eyes the color of moss, just over six feet tall and
with a physique of someone who had too much time on his hands and worked out frequently.

“I’ve had plenty of head in my life and Lilliana ranks up there with the best. It’s too bad you’ll never get to experience that again with her,” Tucker answered casually as if unaffected.

Adam merely stared back, tongue-tied. His cheeks flushed before he responded.

“Who says I won’t?”

Tucker took in a steady deep breath. Adam was pushing his limits and his equanimity was wearing thin. “I say,” he snarled.

When Adam realized Tucker wasn’t going to back down, he took a step back and snorted his dismissal of Lilliana. “You want her? Have her. She’s not worth the trouble. Hell, she’s not even a good lay.”

Tucker’s broad-sculptured face twisted in anger. “You obviously didn’t have the talent or skills to bring out her best qualities because as far as I’m concerned, she’s the fuck of a lifetime.”

Adam sputtered and bristled with indignation as though he had been slapped across the face.
He turned to walk away, only to abruptly lunge at Tucker, fists drawn. Lilliana threw herself in between them and took the brunt of Adam’s fist squarely in the eye.

She shrieked like a banshee protecting its child and clawed and scratch
ed at Adam. “You fucking prick!”

Tucker pushed Lilliana off of Adam who was holding his hands up in front of his face protectively. He took one swing, landing it firmly in his smug mouth and brought Adam to his knees. Adam spat out a mouthful of blood on the gravel road and attempted to stand.

“Stay down,” Tucker growled with his hands fisted at his sides.

Tucker was livid. He glanced at Lilliana to see her eye already in the process of swelling
, and he leaned down and struck Adam once more in the eye as revenge.

“You had
perfection and you fucked it away. Now get your lying, cheating ass out of here before I bury you somewhere on this 100 acres of land and make sure you’re never heard from again,” he replied with such seriousness and contempt that it forbade any further argument.

Adam’s face pa
led with terror as he picked himself up and scurried to his rental. The car’s engine whined loudly as it spun tires and kicked up dust in his rush to leave.

Tucker watched Adam’s car until it turned on the main highway then faced Lilliana with a stern look on his face.

“Why did you step in?”

***

Tucker’s voice was quiet, yet held an undertone of irritation and Lilliana couldn’t figure out why he was so angry with her.

“
He was going to hit you,” Lilliana huffed.

“I don’t need you to fight my fights, Lilliana.”

Tucker’s curtness and the silent curses that he mouthed tore at Lilliana’s heart.

“I just didn’t want him to hurt you,” her throat tightened.

“So instead he hurt you. I don’t need that kind of guilt. Fuck, look what he did to your eye!”

Tucker gripped Lilliana’
s wrist and drug her inside the house to patch her up.  He led her to the kitchen table and disappeared to find the first-aid kit. Lilliana patted her eye and winced from the pain. Her vision was already beginning to dim slightly from the swelling and she dreaded what it looked like. When Tucker reappeared, he looked her over and shook his head in disappointment and annoyance.

“If you weren’t such a mess, I’d paddle your ass for that little stunt.”

“If it’ll make you feel better, then do it,” Lilliana sighed, giving a resigned shrug.

Tucker pulled up a chair in front of Lilliana and fingered her chin. “I may be arrogant, but I’m not an asshole. Spanking you when you’re already hurt would never make me feel better.”

“
May be
arrogant?” Lilliana puckered her mouth sarcastically.

“Close your eye and your mouth and let me try and fix what that piece of shit did to you.”

Tucker wasn’t in the mood to jest, so Lilliana did as she was told and allowed Tucker to care for her. His touch was gentle and reassuring as he dabbed antiseptic on it.  Lilliana winced and Tucker blew cool air on it while holding her head steady. His expression was grim as he continued to clean her wound and apply a cold pack to it.

Sinking into the chair and tipping it back onto two legs, Tucker eyed Lilliana quizzically. “What did you ever see in that man?”

Lilliana’s face flushed with humiliation. She stood, straightened herself and cleared her throat.  Moving to the kitchen window she peered out at the beautiful countryscape.

“He promised to love me. He promised me forever.”

Lilliana hunched over and felt a terrible sense of bitterness toward Adam. And men in general. They were all liars. All of them. Turning abruptly, she faced Tucker with renewed doubt about his intentions.

“You should leave now,” she snapped as anguish almost overcame her control.

Tucker’s eyes flashed confusion and he hesitated, measuring her for a moment. Crossing his arms, he shook his head. His face was full of strength, shining with determination. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Then it would make it easy for you to say goodbye to me.”

Lilliana was annoyed at the transparency of her feelings. Yes, it would make it easier for her to be done with Tucker. She d
idn’t want another heart break or any more false promises and lies.

“I’ve already said it twice, but I’ll say it only one more time
: I’m not Adam. I’m not going anywhere and I’m sure as hell not going to make it easy for you to say goodbye to me.”

Lilliana fisted her hair and closed her eyes in exasperation, her mind a crazy mixture of hope and fear. With her eyes still closed, Tucker’s arms crushed her and his mouth was on her ear.

“Let it go, Lilly.”

***

Tucker reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace that he had picked up at his jeweler’s. Lilliana’s eyes widened and she stuttered, but Tucker quickly fastened it around her neck. A look of apprehension washed over Lilliana’s face.

“You hardly know me,” she spoke in a small, frightened voice.

Tucker tried to resist the urge to smile, but it crept onto his face. “I’ve fucked you, licked you, bound you, flogged you, and spanked you. Jesus, Lilly, how much more do you want to get to know each other?”

Lilliana smiled back
and shook her head in concurrence. Touching the necklace, she brought it up and her brown and green flecked eyes scanned it.

“It’s beautiful, Tucker. Thank you,” she gushed. “So
, are you really my… you know… what you said to Adam.”

Tucker’s grin widened. He shrugged and feigned ignorance just so he could hear her say the B word.

“Yes, I definitely think you’re the fuck of a lifetime.”

Lilliana blinked long and hard and puckered her mouth. “Not that. You know… the other thing.”

“Perfection? Skilled at giving head? Yes and yes,” he nodded his head.

Tucker moved toward the refrigerator and opened it to grab a snack when Lilliana was hanging on his arm.

“Tuck… come on. Don’t torture me. Say it again.”

Tucker rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Boyfriend. There. I said it and I meant it.”

Lilliana smiled impishly and Tucker wasn’t content to leave it at that. “Lilliana has a boyfriend! Hooo wee, doggy!” he poked her in the ribs and did a jig around the kitchen like a full-blown red-neck, slapping his knee. “This, here, little filly has a real, bona fide sweetheart!”

“You’re impossible! And there’s nothing sweet about you, Tucker McGrath!”

Tucker swung Lilliana around by the arm and framed her face in his large hands. They both stilled and their smiles faded into something passionate. Tucker’s heart thudded in his chest and there was a tingling in the pit of his stomach at the way Lilliana was gazing back at him longingly. He really would kill that son-of-a-bitch if he ever laid another hand on Lilliana. She belonged to him now. Only him. Tucker kissed her bruised eye tenderly and trailed his mouth down her cheek to her mouth.