I burst out laughing. “You’re crazy. Nobody stares at me, Mack.”
Mack shakes his head. “Another reason why I love you, Dove. You have no fucking idea how beautiful you are.”
I sense my face heating up, so I pull Mack downward before he can see me turn red. “Get down here before I turn into a puddle of goo.” I’m pretty sure I’m too late when he starts laughing and kisses both my cheeks.
His lips travel down my neck to my naked breasts. I grasp Mack’s hair with my right hand and the bed sheets with my other. I lift and bend my knees as electricity shoots all over my body, signaling what’s to come.
Abruptly Mackson’s cell phone begins to ring.
Mack tenses for a moment but doesn’t stop. While the phone continues to ring, Mack curls his tongue around my nipple and sucks gently. I whimper, loving the sensations he sends through my body.
The ringing stops and then starts again almost instantly. Mack and I sigh at the same time, knowing he has to answer it. Mack has a rule with his brothers, if they call back straight away then they have to pick up the call since it usually means it’s urgent.
“Christ.” Mack’s voice is thick and rough.
He lifts his body off mine and reaches to the dresser next to my bed, peers at the screen and then swipes quickly to answer. “Yeah.” Mack hops off the bed. “Whoa. Slow down, Kelso…” Mack pauses listens to his brother and then replies, “Okay, I’m on my way now. Be there in ten.” Mack hangs up and then grabs his shirt off the ground and shoves it over his head.
“Is everything okay?”
Mack looks around for his car keys and answers, “Something’s going on, he’s freaked. Slater wants us all home straight away.”
I jump off my bed and throw on some clean panties and a long T-shirt. “Okay then, so I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yep, tomorrow,” Mack says distractedly putting on one boot and looking around my room for the other one. Quickly I find his brown leather boot covered in grease stains peeking out from under my bed. I grab it and hand it to Mack. He sees it, looks to me, and when usually he’d give me a cheeky grin he smiles awkwardly.
My chest constricts slightly feeling as if something’s wrong between us, but I push those feelings aside knowing he’s just worried about his family. They aren’t your average brothers and sisters. Having grown up together in a place of nightmares, everything with them is just more; tougher bonds, stronger love, fiercer will to look after each other.
Mack stands, walks to me and kisses my forehead. Not my lips, like he usually would.
No, Lana stop it. He loves you. If there was a problem, he’d tell you.
My insecurities get the better of me and I quickly wrap my arms around his middle and squeeze tightly. Heaviness hits my chest, a weight that scares me because I know it’s love. It’s also trust, loyalty, and commitment, that’s what I offer this man and I’m terrified of how hard I’ve fallen.
I look up and catch Mack quickly glancing at the window with a furrowed brow.
“Go. Call me later.”
He gives me another strained smile, kisses my hair and then he’s off, climbing through my window, and running down the side of my house to his car which is hidden in an alley a few streets over.
I chuck on some jeans, head out to the kitchen and check the time, it’s three p.m., plenty of time for me to start dinner and get to my shift at the liquor store at five.
I decide on steak hamburgers for dinner. So I pull out the meat and set it on the bench to defrost. Then place the bread rolls on a plate to the side for now turning to begin slicing up the salad. An hour passes and I’m checking on the meat patties when I hear the front screen door squeak open.
I glance up and wait to see who it is; it could be Rex or Dad. They both finish at the garage around the same time. I pray silently to myself that it’s Rex. I could use a quiet afternoon before work, no snide comments from my father of how my cooking needs improving or how our house isn’t ever clean enough.
It’s Rex who turns the corner and into the kitchen. The moment I see his wisps of blond