Shaken, Not Stirred

  "That shit wasn't cool," I tell Brianna as I level a hard stare at her.

  "What?" she asks innocently, batting her lashes.

  "Taking Zoey to Florida last week when you knew I was going to be here for her," I growl with frustration, because she knows damn well what I'm talking about.

  "Sorry... it was too good an opportunity to pass up." Her petulance makes me grind my teeth together.

  Leaning in toward her and lowering my voice, I say, "What was too good to pass up? Taking advantage of your newest fuck and his money or making me suffer?"

  Bri's eyes narrow at me, and she hisses, "Both."

  I lean back away from her and mutter, "Selfish bitch. Always looking out for yourself."

  She's completely unfazed though and as if I hadn't just called her a bitch, asks sweetly, "So... are you going to move here to be near us?"

  "Are you going to stay put here?" I ask her skeptically. "Because I'm not chasing you all over the fucking country just to be with my daughter."

  "You'll go wherever we are," she asserts confidently. "You can't stay away."

  I nod at her in agreement and then lean back in toward her. My voice is steely and dead fucking serious. "You're right. There's no way in hell I can stay away from my daughter, but I'll fight you for custody if you keep playing these sick games, Bri. Take a fucking hint... we are done and I am never going to be with you again."

  And once again proving why I couldn't stay married to her crazy ass, she waves her hand at me impatiently and says, "You'll change your mind and I'll be here waiting."

  I want to punch the wall in frustration, but I don't. I never do anything outwardly actionable that lets Bri know just how much she gets to me. I'm ultimately saved from further maddening conversation with my ex when Zoey comes running back through the living room. She put her hair in a long braid and has an army-green satchel looped across her chest.

  "I'm ready," she says. She bounces right past Brianna without a backward glance and heads for the stairs.

  "What time will you be back?" Brianna asks with eager anticipation. "I'll have dinner ready for all of us."

  Crazy bitch.

  I turn to follow Zoey but swivel my head slightly to look at her over my shoulder. "I'll have her back after dinner."

  "So what's the deal?" I ask Zoey as we munch on blue corn chips and spicy salsa. We chose a Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating for lunch.

  She shrugs her shoulders and won't meet my gaze. Her hand reaches for another chip, but I reach out and grab it. Her eyes come to mine.

  "I can't fix it unless I know what the problem is," I tell her softly but firmly.

  Zoey pulls her hand away and then a fountain starts gushing. "I hate it here. I miss you and Wyoming. Mom's always working and when she's not working, she's always with Kip. And she's doing the same shit--"

  "Language," I warn.

  "--sorry, crap that she did with you. Gets pissed if Kip shows me any attention."

  "And what type of attention is he showing you?" I growl menacingly.

  "Eww... gross, Dad," Zoey says with a huge eye roll. "He's a nice guy. He shows an interest in my schoolwork and my activities. It was his idea to go to Disney, but he said we should wait until after you came to visit me. It was Mom who insisted we go right then... said it was the only time she could get off work, but we both know that's bullshit."

  My hackles immediately flatten out, and I disregard her curse word. I personally had thought Kip was an okay dude... an idiot for putting up with Brianna's shit, but he seemed cool. Brianna has been dating him for almost a year and after he got a job here in North Carolina, she used that as the perfect excuse to pack my daughter up and leave with her. As a nurse, Brianna was highly employable, and it was nothing for her to relocate. She easily got a job that paid her way more money than she ever made back in Wyoming.

  Placing my forearms on the table, I lean toward her. "Listen, honey. Your mom is... well, your mom has some issues."

  "She's nuts," Zoey huffs.

  "She loves you," I maintain, because that's true enough. Despite Bri's petty jealousies and mind games, I know she loves her daughter. "We have to accept the way she is."

  "I want to go back to Wyoming and live with you," she whines, those big, blue eyes filling with tears, and aw, fuck... that gets me every time. "It's not fair."

  "Listen," I say as I reach across the table and grab her hands. "We are going to be together. I'm looking at some options to move here. I have an idea on a business I want to start."

  "I bet Grandpa loved hearing that," Zoey says sarcastically.

  I laugh and squeeze her hands before I release them. "Well, I haven't told him that part yet, but I'm sure he'll have something to say about it."

  My father always had something to say about the direction I chose to move my life, especially since it wasn't aimed back at the ranch.

  "I miss my horse," Zoey blurts out. "I miss riding every day."

  "Aren't you going to a riding camp next week?" I ask as I reach for another corn chip.

  "Yeah... Kip found a great one just north of Raleigh," she says excitedly.

  And as only a fourteen-year-old can do, she immediately changes subjects again. "I want to live with you once you move here."

  A wave of pure, unadulterated joy sweeps through me, because there is nothing I would want more in this world than to have Zoey with me full time. But I proceed cautiously. "Are you sure about that, honey? I mean... I work too. Or, at least I hope to be working if I can get this business idea launched off the ground. Could be long hours."

  "Dad," Zoey says earnestly as she looks me dead in the eye. "No matter how hard you worked before, you always had time for me. You always helped me with schoolwork, went horseback riding with me, and took me on bike rides. You spent all your free time with me. You've always been there for me."

  And fuck... getting a little choked up now. I clear my throat and give her a tentative smile. "Okay... got it. I'm a pretty cool dad."

  "So can I live with you?" she presses.

  "I'll talk to your mom about it once things get settled with me," I promise her.

  "She won't agree," she mutters sulkily. "She won't agree just to punish you."

  While I don't voice this to Zoey, I know without a doubt that if she really wants to live with me and Bri won't allow it, I'll fight her in court. Zoey's old enough now that a judge will listen to her preferences.

  "Don't worry about it, baby girl. I'll handle it, okay?"

  "Okay," she says happily and then launches in to telling me about the riding camp she's going to attend.

  I fucking hate doing laundry. I hate it even more when I'm out on the road because there is nothing worse than sitting in a laundry mat and watching all the other pathetic fools folding their underwear and socks on a Friday night.

  Throwing my laundry bag complete with freshly washed clothes on one of the hotel beds, I flop down on my back on the other. Laundry aside, today was a moderately successful day. I had a blast with Zoey, and I even got Brianna's agreement to let me take her to the beach when she gets back from riding camp.

  Of course, I want Zoey to have a great vacation on a sunny beach, but my idea to bring her there is completely self-serving as well. It means I get to see Casey some more, which is a very good thing because I can't get her out of my fucking head.

  As per usual, Brianna put up a huge fight about it, maintaining that Zoey needed to stay in Raleigh because she couldn't be parted with her for that long. For Christ sake, it's just a week or two, but luckily for me, I didn't even have to enter the argument. Kip happened to be there and yeah... he's a cool fucking dude because he stepped in and got Brianna to agree to it with a lot of cajoling, of which, I'm sure she'll make him suffer for later.

  My phone rings, and I turn onto one hip to retrieve it out of my back pocket. When I see the Caller ID, my smile breaks out as I answer, "About time you called me back, asshole."

  My buddy, Nix Caldwell's, deep voic
e booms through. "You left a message just two hours ago, asshole."

  Yeah... when you serve in the Marine Corps together, forever spitting sand out of your mouth and sweating buckets a day in a war zone, you tend to get away with affectionately calling each other "asshole".

  "How are you, man?" I ask as I push myself up on the bed to rest my back against the headboard.

  "Fucking fantastic," he says, and then in a lower voice he whispers, "but I have to say, planning this wedding sucks donkey dick."

  I hear a feminine voice in the background say, "I heard that, and you'll pay."

  Snickering, I try to call upon an image of badass Nix Caldwell tasting wedding cakes and picking out flowers. "It will be worth it, dude. Keep your honey happy."

  "That's what my life is all about, man. Keeping Emily happy."

  I saw Nix about six months ago out in San Diego when we had a battalion reunion. He brought his fiancee Emily with him and holy fuck... the guy scored big time with that one. She's bright, funny, and scorchingly hot, so yeah... I'd see why he'd want to marry that woman and lock her ass down.

  Also got to see our buddy, Paul, who served with us. He's walking great on his prosthetics and was starting to do some motivational work with other wounded warriors. While I don't know all the details because the mission was beyond my secrecy clearing, Nix and Paul got caught up in a green-on-blue attack and both of them got pretty fucked up. Nix took a bullet to the chest, and Paul lost both his legs. Would have lost a whole lot more the way he tells it if Nix hadn't pulled him out.

  It was during that get together that the three of us went out for beers one night, and I became extremely interested in what Nix has been up to since he got out of the Corps. He works as a metal artist but one of his specialties is custom-built motorcycles. It got me thinking and I haven't been able to let it go since.

  "So... you up for a visit?" I ask him.

  "Dude... door is always open," he says. "When can you be here?"

  "Two days," I tell him. "I'm going to fly rather than ride my bike. I have to be back in Raleigh by middle of next week."

  Because I want a full week back on the Outer Banks with Casey before Zoey comes back from riding camp. I want at least a full week to immerse myself in her hot body and hopefully continue to chip away at her walls. It wasn't until Zoey told me that she wanted to live with me that I seriously started realizing that I'd be making North Carolina my home. Casey and me in the same state? Yeah... that was all right by me.

  Nix and I iron out the details for my arrival. He knows I want to discuss a business idea with him, but we didn't get into the specifics. After we hang up, I take a moment to flip through my email. I'm not a big electronic communicator, but I try to make it a habit to check it every few days.

  As expected, there's a long-winded email from my father, giving me a chatty update about the ranch and reminding me of my heritage and legacy. God love my father... he's a wonderful man, truly. But he's a bit rigid in his ideas over what his sons ought to be doing with their lives.

  I forward the email on to Woolf with a short but blunt statement, "Dude... you need to step up."

  If only my baby brother would grow up and take the helm, then I'd be released from my obligation to the family and the ranch. And it's not like I'm pressing upon him something he doesn't want. He loves that ranch more than anything but he refuses to grow the fuck up, instead intent on spending all of his free time partying and chasing tail. Running the ranch requires he settle down... man up... pay attention to what's important, the way my father has his whole life.

  I really wish it was something I wanted. I really wish I had some desire to fulfill my father's legacy, but I don't. I've never been built that way. As long as Woolf will eventually get his head out of his ass, I'll be free to do what I really want with my life, which is to work in a career I love, have my daughter by my side, and some day... the fates willing... have a good woman by my side to share in it.

  That, of course, makes me think of Casey. The woman I know virtually nothing about, yet share knowledge of one of her most intimate secrets. The woman who I have no clue whether she likes red or white wine, yet I know she sucks my cock like she owns it.

  Yup... she pretty much owns it, and just thinking about that wet mouth wrapped around my dick starts to get me hard.

  I made Casey give me her phone number before I left. She fought me on it, insisting that was a little too close for her comfort. So I pushed her down on the bed, stripped her bare, and ate her pussy like a mad man. And when she'd get close... I'd withhold her orgasm from her until she promised me the number.

  She obviously relented, she came fantastically hard, and now I feel like calling her.

  But this being Casey, I expect she might ignore me.

  One, two, three rings and I'm shocked. She answers, "Hey stud. Missing me yet?"

  It's maddening, but I do miss her. I also know she really doesn't want to know that, so I keep it more on a level she understands. "Miss fucking that beautiful body."

  And Christ... I fucked that body a lot in the two days I had with her before I left. I thought we might burn ourselves out or even get a little tired of being around each other, but it never happened. We were insatiable... unstoppable... completely ravenous for one another.

  "Mmmm," she murmurs into the phone, and I can hear the playfulness in her voice. I caught her at a good time. "I miss that big cock of yours."

  That right there makes me go fully hard.

  As I start unbuttoning my jeans, I ask her, "Feel like talking dirty to me while I jack off?"

  "Only if I can play with myself at the same time," she says with a hoarse laugh, causing me to groan and go harder yet.

  Goddamn, I fucking miss her.

  "Get naked," I tell her. "It's on."

  Chapter 11

  Casey

  "Seriously, Casey... will you just look over there once and put those men out of their misery?" Gabby grumbles at me.

  Ignoring her, I tilt my head back so my face gets the maximum exposure to the hot Carolina sun. I push my feet further into the sand, wiggling my hips a little to settle deeper into my beach chair. My eyes are closed and I want to get into a nice, hot daydream about Tenn.

  The slap on my thigh gets my attention though, and I surge up into a sitting position to glare at Gabby. "What the hell, Gabs? I'm trying to relax here."

  "I don't like being ignored," she sniffs. "Besides... I'm tired of those guys over there with their lame attempts to play Frisbee just so they can get your attention. They keep throwing it closer and closer to us, so just freakin' look over there and give them a smile or something to appease them."

  Turning my head to the right, I watch as two guys look at me with their tongues hanging out of their mouths and unbridled hope in their eyes. I shoot them the bird and then lay back down in my chair, closing my eyes again and conjuring up an image of a naked Tenn Jennings.

  Slap.

  "For fuck's sake, Gabby," I yell as I sit back up again and rub my stinging thigh. "I'd like to spend a few hours on my day off relaxing in peace on this beach, and you're ruining it."

  "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asks me with narrowed eyes.

  I blink at her and take note of the eyebrows drawn severely in and the flat line to her lips. She's seriously dismayed with me. "What do you mean, 'what's wrong with me'?"

  She flicks her hands at the men over my shoulder who I just flipped off. "You're acting strange. Those dudes have money... I can tell by the amount of gold hanging off them, their fancy haircuts, and their designer beachwear. Granted, one has a bit of a pot belly, but the other is kind of cute."

  "So?" I ask, not even bothering to look back over my shoulder at them. No sense in giving any false encouragement.

  "So," she drawls out as if she's getting ready to reveal the secret to world peace, "that's not like you to ignore that. That's your modus operandi. Those guys are right up your alley. The Casey Markham I know and would love to kill on a
ny given day would have sauntered her lovely ass up to them and had a date within about three minutes flat. So I repeat... what the hell is wrong with you?"

  I open my mouth to try for some reassurance but apparently, Gabby hasn't run out of steam yet.

  "And on top of that, you've been withdrawn... hiding out. You don't hang with me anymore. So something is up," she proclaims.

  "I'm hanging with you now," I counter.

  "Only because I dragged your ass out of your house," she counters back. Narrowing her eyes further, she then one-ups me. "Plus... I saw a used condom in your bathroom trashcan when I peed so I know you've had a man at your house, and you never have men at your house. Never."

  "Eww. Gross," I mutter. "How'd I miss that?"

  "Casey," Gabby barks at me to get me focused and back on track.

  "Is it time for lunch yet?" I hear and turn my head to see Hunter jogging up to us with his surfboard under his arm. He starts to jam the end down into the sand, but Gabby points back out to the ocean.

  "Get back in the water, baby," she says sweetly.

  "What?" he asks in thorough confusion.

  "I'm in the middle of berating Casey. She's on the verge of spilling some juicy secrets to me. So get your ass back in the water and give me a few more investigative moments."

  Hunter just stares at Gabby a moment. Then he starts muttering curses as he jerks his surfboard back under his arm and heads back to the ocean.

  True love at its finest.

  "Now--" Gabby says as she flips her legs to the side so she can face me.

  "You really have him pussy whipped," I observe thoughtfully as I watch Hunter running back in to the water.

  "Focus, Casey," Gabby says, snapping her fingers in front of my face.

  I turn to face her and with a sigh, I tell, "There's nothing wrong with me. You're imagining things."

  "I am not," she says confidently. "There is something going on with you, and I want to know what it is right now. Tell me about the man you had at your house."

  Mmmmmm. Tenn.

  The corners of my lips tip upward and my eyes flutter closed, remembering what he looked like just before he left a few days ago. When he kissed me so thoroughly, I knew I'd be feeling him on my lips for some time to come.