Cherished (Steel Brothers Saga #17) - Helen Hardt Page 0,71
make it. You have nothing to feel guilty about, son. But you do need to call your brother.”
Dale sighs and messes with his still-damp hair. “I hate to pull the father-son card, but would you do it?”
“I’ll call him. I wish he’d stayed another day. Then he’d be here and could see Floyd one last time.”
“He may still be able to,” Dale says. “We don’t know for sure that he’s going to die.”
“That’s true.” Talon yawns.
Talon’s tone isn’t convincing any of us. Dale’s birth father’s days are numbered. I’ll respect Dale’s decision to wait until morning. I just hope Floyd can hold out.
“Thanks, Dad,” Dale says. “I owe you one.”
“You owe me nothing. Fathers take care of their kids. For life.” Talon’s eyes take on a sadness.
I look to Jade, who’s watching her husband, her expression worried.
We walk back to the guesthouse hand in hand.
“Your dad had a weird expression on his face when he said that fathers take care of their kids.”
Dale nods. “Yeah, he gets that way sometimes. Usually when he’s thinking about his own father.”
“The one who died in prison.”
“Yeah. No one talks much about him, but it’s clear that he wasn’t the best father in the world.”
“I don’t imagine he was, if he died in prison.”
“He didn’t go to prison until late in life. He barely spent a year there, and he died under mysterious circumstances.”
I widen my eyes. “Meaning…?”
“Meaning he was in great health and just died one night. His heart literally just stopped. No one knows why.”
“Well, he was old, I imagine.”
“Not that old. In his sixties.”
That is odd. My father was young when he passed, but I know the reason for his death. He was beaten and violated until his body couldn’t take any more. Even now, I can’t bring much emotion to the surface.
“That’s pretty much all I know about my grandfather,” Dale says.
“Why was he in prison?”
“I don’t know for sure, but there’s some record that he withheld evidence in a federal investigation.”
“What type of investigation?”
“I don’t know. The records were sealed, and like I said, the family doesn’t talk about it. I’ve talked about it with my brother, sisters, and cousins. We’re not even sure if our parents know.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. They have to know.”
Dale gets distant, then. “I think they do. For a while, I wasn’t sure, but I recently learned something, and…”
“And what?”
“I can’t. I don’t want to talk about this. Not right now. I’m too tired.”
My instinct tells me to push him, but I know better. He’s already given me more than I expected tonight and in the last few days. I can’t risk what we have.
“Let’s go to bed,” I say.
“Best idea I’ve heard all night.” Dale takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom.
I don’t expect anything, so I’m more than surprised when he grabs me and crushes his mouth to mine.
Exhaustion weighs on both of us, and I feel it in this kiss. His lips don’t slide over mine with as much passion as they normally do, yet I feel his desire almost more than usual. As if the kiss is occurring in that alpha dreamland between wakefulness and sleep, and we’re cloaked in burgundy translucence.
I don’t know how our clothes end up off, but they do, and we’re naked, writhing against each other as we kiss.
Dale breaks the kiss and lays me gently on the bed. He doesn’t speak, just spreads my legs and buries his tongue between them.
Still in dreamland, still floating in that red-wine cloud. Dale devours me with his lips and tongue, his growls making the cloak around us more vibrant.
I sink into the soft bed, grasping the covers. I’m still in alpha heaven, where climaxes are vibrant and they come quickly.
He nips at my clit, and I soar instantly toward the peak. Almost there… Almost there…
When one of his long, thick fingers breaches my channel.
“God! Dale!” The orgasm breaks me into pieces like shattering crystal. Cracks everywhere, like the jagged glass of a broken mirror. All in a good way as my molecules find their way back together.
Back together, back together, back together.
One. One with Dale because now he’s inside me, his cock stretching and burning me, tunneling through me like a baton of fire.
Ashley. I love you, Ashley. Fuck, I love you so much.
The words float around me, encased in silk. Yes, he’s saying them, but even so, they fly directly into my mind, as if, for one timeless moment, we’re truly one.