She shakes her head no.
I bite the inside of my cheek so hard it bleeds, then tip my head harshly toward the door before turning and storming out. Hoping she’ll follow. Needing to talk to her.
I march back out into the parking lot, freshly paved, so the place isn’t so fucking dusty all the time.
“Beau!” she calls as she clears the door.
“Over here.” I wave her back with me, going around the building to the little sheltered shed at the back where we keep the empty kegs. Pickups happen on Mondays, so there’s nothing in here right now, and I yank the door open, ushering her in. She scoots past me and I slam it shut behind us.
Light seeps in from between the boards, casting a faint glow.
Bailey’s eyes are wide with unease, and she opens with, “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
I cut her off by pressing one finger to her lips. “Are you okay?”
She nods but blinks rapidly. Fuck, my girl is tough. She’s saying she’s okay, but she’s not.
“Bailey,” I sigh her name and take my hand back, scrubbing it over my mouth. All the tension in my body pulses to the surface, writhing beneath my skin.
“Beau, please. Just don’t make a scene. They’re never as bad when my dad is around. I don’t want there to be a scene. I want them to finish their shit and get out and to just be the bigger person.”
“I’m fucking sick of you having to be the bigger person, Bailey. They know what they’re doing. I told them to get off my property and stay away from you. And yet, here they are, shoving their defiance in my face. You deserve so much better than this.”
She rubs at her temples, peering down at her feet. And I wish I could make this all so much easier for her. But I don’t know how.
She needs to get out of this town, and soon.
We both know it. We just don’t talk about it.
I don’t pretend to know how much money she needs to save up to pull the pin, but I suspect there’s a level of nerves that accompany her plan. Wanting to leave, but also afraid of starting fresh.
I worry I’m holding her back.
She turns tearful eyes up at me. “I’m so tired, Beau. So fucking tired.”
The air in my lungs empties in a heavy whoosh as my chest caves in at her admission.
I don’t know what to say to make it better, so I kiss her instead. It starts with a little whimper into my mouth, but then her hands are on the back of my neck. Her nails are in my hair. She’s gripping me to her like she might breathe me in and sustain herself on my kiss alone.
My hands start on her hips, but the minute they start to roam, the energy in the shed changes.
Our patience frays.
I want her with a violence I’ve never experienced, with a ferocity that shocks me.
I shove her against the wall, pressing my leg between hers. My thigh grinds against the apex of hers while I take her mouth and rip at the button of her tight jeans.
“Beau,” she whispers between bruising kisses, hands running up under my shirt.
“I want these pants off. Now.”
“Beau.”
“I want you to walk back in there knowing that you’re mine. No matter what happens. No matter what anyone says.”
“What?”
“I want you to walk back in there looking freshly fucked so that no one questions a single thing about us. Especially not you.”
“Beau, there are customers … ” She trails off as I yank her jeans down her firm thighs, leaving them stretched there, and run my fingers over her panties.
“Bailey, shut up and let me fuck what belongs to me. We can talk later.”
“Yeah,” is her breathy response as I rub at the cotton thong that’s now wedged between her pussy lips.
“Turn around and bend over.” My voice is sharp, bordering on demanding, but she doesn’t flinch. She knows me well enough to know there are different facets of me that come out to play, depending on the day.
She tells me she likes all the versions of me, so I haven’t bothered hiding even the most vicious parts of myself from her. The ones I’ve always left overseas or on base. I don’t have to pretend those facets of me don’t exist with her.
I love her all the more for it.
Bailey spins, palms flat against the crudely constructed wall of two-by-fours. Her bare ass faces me, her head bowed while her body rises and falls under the weight of her panting.
“So obedient, Bailey.” I hook a finger under the T of her thong while my opposite hand presses flat on the small of her back to bend her over further.