Life as We Know It (Love Not Included) (Volume 4) Read online

  I’m gonna let the whole ‘you’re a hussy’ accusation go for the time being because I know he doesn’t know all the facts, but when he forgives me, which I hope he does, an apology will be in order.

  “My neighbor is gay,” I confess, my voice soft but firm.

  His glare doesn’t leave mine. I wait for my words to register, but he doesn’t show any sign of letting up. “Jamie. MY neighbor. He is gay, as in into guys. Not interested in boobs or labias.” I try again.

  “He’s gay.”

  “Yes, full breed.”

  Placing his hands on the counter effectively caging me in, he growls, “What the fuck was he doing at your place at seven o’clock in the morning shirtless if he’s so gay?”

  “We…we went out. I was upset. Our fight, and well, he and Patti were trying to help me feel better. One thing led to another and we ended up two sheets to the wind. He had to carry me home, but then passed out in my bed shortly after dumping me there.”

  His face softens at my explanation. His hand lifts and, not going to lie, I worry he may try and strangle me. Thankfully, he places his knuckles across my cheek, until he hits my hairline, opening his hand to dig his fingers into my scalp.

  “Why didn’t you answer your phone, Penny?” he pleads softly, releasing a breath. “Why, baby?” He bends forward, placing his forehead against mine. “We could have avoided all of this bullshit.”

  “Because I was upset. You accused me of some pretty messed-up things.”

  He’s silent for a long time. So long that I wonder if maybe he didn’t hear me. “And God I’m so fuckin sorry.” He brings his lips to mine, milking them to open. I don’t resist and I oblige his simple request. He starts off lightly. “God I’ve missed you,” he leaves no part of my mouth untouched, licking and biting. “I’ve been so damn miserable.” Finally he increases the pressure of his grip, causing a tingle to spread down my spine.

  I lift my arms up and they wrap around his neck. “I won’t ever lie to you, Sam. I promise you.” I vow, breaking the barrier between us, knowing then that Sam forgives me. He places soft kisses down my neck and over my shoulder blade. He makes his way to his special spot—his mark—and brushes his hand along my faded spot. “No one sees this but me. This is mine. You are mine.” He brings his head up, his searing eyes meeting mine.

  “Yours, Sam. I promise.”

  And then his control is gone. Up I go, as I’m lifted, my legs willingly wrap around his waist. His mouth crashes onto mine as he consumes every part of me. Carrying me down a long hallway into the master, I break away just in time to witness a gigantic bed made for a small colony.

  Sam climbs onto the bed, never letting me go. He brings us to the center and dips so my back touches the soft silk bedding where I allow my legs to drop. He whispers against the base of my chin, “You are something I don’t think I will ever get used to. Do you know that?”

  Ummmm… Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing? “No?” I answer in a question. He dips down, kissing the confusion off my lips. Man, this guy can kiss. As he pulls away, he smiles at the replacement look of satisfaction twinkling in my eyes.

  “Your liveliness. The way you can make everything better. You make my life better.”

  Okay that works. I’m sold. I go to grab for his face, but he stops me.

  “We talk it out next time, okay? We don’t allow ourselves to run away with doubts. We ask and we talk it out. I never want something so trivial to come between us again. I never want us to be apart.”

  My emotions are locked, jammed and stuffed in my throat. “Kiss me, Sam,” I huskily demand, beg even. He is just as far gone as I am, coming down like a crashing force, our lips, our tongues, our hearts, all colliding into one explosive emotion.

  Love.

  I am falling in love with this man.

  Every single goddamn piece of him. His words, his kindness, his touch, his scent. His heart. All of him.

  I squeeze tighter, just in case this is a dream, because I refuse to let go.

  “Christ, you are so beautiful,” he murmurs, brushing the hair off my face. “Every inch of you. It’s like pure heaven, Penny. Your skin, your scent, you. Just you.” He dips down and places a kiss to my lips. Pulling away he locks eyes with mine. “I’m a goner for you, my sweet Penny.”

  If he’s a goner, I’m—shit I have no idea. But I can’t beat that.

  “Kiss me, Sam. Make me only yours, now and always.” He doesn’t answer, but his feral growl shows me he’s a man starved and he is ready to make me his.

  His hands go wild at my hip. With a strong grip he lifts me.

  “Flip over, baby,” he instructs, and I am up and on all fours instantly. It doesn’t even take him touching me for my breathing to pick up, the small whimpers of arousal undeniable.

  Sam’s hands are ruthless, his touch almost to the point of bruising. They’re impatient as he runs his palms up and down my arched back. Placing his open palms flat and caressing my butt, he then offers a small smack. It’s nothing like the other night, but I also know that won’t be the last one, and that anticipation gets me wet between my legs.

  “I’ve thought of nothing but this. But you,” he says as his warm hand runs along my lower cheek, testing me.

  “You are embedded so deep inside me I can’t think of anything, anyone but you.” He glides his thick finger in-between my spread legs, testing out my opening. His moan at discovering my sopping wet entrance turns me feral as I back my butt into his hard and wanting cock.

  “I’ve never been so crazy about someone before. Never have I felt like I needed to claim someone, but dammit Penny, I need to claim you. I need to know you are all mine.” He rubs at my clit, while my butt makes contact with this dick.

  “Ahhh Pen, shit, you’re gonna make me come just from watching your perfect ass begging for me.”

  Oh god, did he just say that to me? I will beg for anything. “Sam, please. Take me. Take all of me. Fuck me until I scream.” The vulgar talk had to have come from my vagina but either way, I win and he loses. He loses himself inside me as he pounds all the want, the need, the love, and everything that is electrifying between us, into me until we explode into a world that only exists for Sam and me. A world that promises us, each other, a future.

  I’m lying on my stomach while Sam brushes his fingers up and down my back. His breath continues to hit my shoulder blade as he paints countless kisses along my shoulder blade.

  “Pen, can I ask you a question?”

  I’m pretty sated so I’m sure I would answer anything right now. “Shoot,” I reply.

  “How did you and Henry find each other? I mean you just seem like two completely different people.” I turn and flip onto my stomach. “You mean he’s rich and I come from the slums of Indiana?”

  “No, I’m sorry, I should have phrased that better.” He wraps a thread of my hair around his finger before tucking it behind my ear. “I meant that Henry seems so stiff. Boring. Not one that would enjoy or appreciate such a spirit like you.” He glides his finger down my cheek and across my bottom lip. “I just don’t see him deserving someone so wonderful.”

  I stare at him because his words are not what I was expecting. I can’t say that I have ever dated anyone who truly appreciated my antics and society glitches. Well I can’t say never. I did date a guy right after college who embraced the free spirit so much that he felt it was okay to walk into the Arby’s after a rock show and hold up the place for a stupid double cheeseburger and some curly fries. That was also the shortest relationship under my belt yet. And did I mention Arby’s doesn’t even sell cheeseburgers?

  “Well, I met him through work actually. I’d been at West and Mills about two years before he came in as a client. He had a way with words, and I was young and naive. He said the right things, and before I knew it, I was this perfect little pet who bowed and smiled on command, who spent more time hiding who I really was to be something I thought he would want.”

  Sam’s
facial expression goes from soft to hard.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He releases a breath of frustration. “It infuriates me to hear you changed for anyone. Your spirit is what makes you, you. And anyone who took that away from you should be tied, taken to the bottom of a deep sea and left there.”

  Wowza.

  Mr. Dresden, tell us how you really feel!

  “So you’re not turned off by my past or my extensive criminal record?” I ask, turning the conversation more comical than serious.

  “If anything I am turned on by it.” He bends down and places his lips on mine. “But can I ask one more question?”

  “I’m afraid to say yes, but go on.” I smile.

  “Are you able to leave the country?”

  “Yes!” I swat at his smiling face. “I met you in the Bahamas silly!” I laugh.

  And plus, they released that restriction like two years ago.

  I WAS REALLY HOPING to stay in bed all day and get to know Sam on a more physical level, if you get what I mean, but he had other plans for us. He dragged me out of bed telling me he wanted to take me on a field trip.

  “And where is it exactly that we’re going again?” I inquire.

  “Research.”

  “I know, but that’s what the World Wide Web is for.”

  He laughs, the sound pure heaven. “This one requires us to travel.” He places me in the seat of his black BMW, hybrid, of course. Showing off his impressive arm muscles, he leans over locking my seat belt and shutting me in. Getting into the driver seat and pulling out of the parking garage, we head east out of the city.

  “So are you going to give me any clues as to where we’re going?”

  “No,” he states simply. I stay silent enjoying the scenery until my patience takes a toll and I turn back to Sam, “Okay, so I give up, where are we going?”

  Laughing he says, “Penny, we’ve been driving for two minutes.”

  Not the point. “Well still, you’ve piqued my curiosity, so spill.”

  “No.”

  Ugh, stubborn man.

  “Does this have anything to do with asking me if I can use my passport?” Oh my god if this trip requires me to be in a bathing suit, I’m in major need of a wax. Speaking of wax, holy unsexy, I need to make an appointment—

  “Relax, my little thinker. We are staying within state lines. We should be there in just a few short hours.”

  Hours?

  “So since we have some time, tell me more about yourself.”

  “Who, me?”

  “Well I don’t see anyone else in this car.” He takes his eyes off the road to smirk at me.

  So funny.

  So damn sexy.

  Folding my legs in an Indian style position I clap my hands with a playful smile on my face. “Fine, I’ll continue to play this game. How about twenty questions? I ask one, you ask one. That way it’s a win-win. We both learn more about each other.”

  More lady bit-tingling laughs from Sam. “Okay, I’ll bite. But I get to go first,” he says.

  I shrug my shoulder, “Fine, give me your best shot.” I turn my whole body to face him.

  “Why did you move to New York?”

  Pfft, weak question. “That’s all you have for me? Easy. For a job.”

  “No, I want to know why? Besides the job. You could have found a job locally. You chose to move halfway across the United States.”

  My man.

  Always wanting more.

  “Well, from my rap sheet, you probably already know I grew up in a small town in Indiana. The only cool thing that happened even close to our town was the Indy 500. Short shorts and lots of engine revving just weren’t my thing. When it was time, I practically ran off to college. That’s where I met Patti. Funny, we learned that we actually lived two towns away from one other. College was great, as my record proves, but we both wanted more. I knew I didn’t want to stay and work a boring nine to five job. I wanted to experience life, see things, and make a little history along the way,” I stop to wink at him. “Anyway, we both applied for jobs in other states and made a deal that whoever got the first call, that’s where we both would move. It was between here and Chicago and here won. Fast forward to the present and voila!”

  He offers me that smile but a look that says, I still want more.

  “Okay, my turn, what made you so set on saving the world from pollution?”

  Now in the spotlight, he seems to feel out my question. By the crease in his brows I hit a sensitive topic. “My father died when I was young.” Whoa, okay maybe I should started with his favorite color was. “I know this might shock you but I didn’t always come from money. I was born in a small town in Maryland. My father was a laborer in a manufacturing plant for over forty years. He got really sick at fifty-six and died from lung cancer. When he wasn’t the only one who fell ill, an investigation was put in place. Turns out the plant they all worked for was using chromium, a toxic chemical, to create the steel. Turns out long-term exposure to chromium is hazardous, eventually linking to lung cancer.”

  I’m completely shocked at his admission. Let’s be honest, I was expecting him to tell me he was a huge superhero fan and wearing a cape was his all-time dream. And why didn’t he tell me this when I mentioned the town in Morris?

  “Every single person who worked in that plant for more than twelve years was diagnosed. Many didn’t live past seventy. Luckily, the lawsuit left us with a pretty nice settlement. Allowed me to go to college. Made sure my mother was taken care of.”

  My heart instantly hurts for him. I want to crawl into this lap and kiss away the sadness forming in his eyes. “Sam, I’m so sorry.” I lift my hand, placing it on his thigh.

  “Don’t be. It was a long time ago, and it gave me the push to fight to take down big plants that turn their heads the other way when using materials that are not safe. You would be surprised at how many manufacturing plants are still fully operational in the U.S. because the EPA is just too backed up to stay on top of them all.”

  “Wow. So are you like the male version of Erin Brockovich?” I semi-kid. He looks so hot when he gets all environmental badass on me.

  “Ha ha, funny. I wouldn’t go that far, I definitely didn’t keep quiet about what happened, though. As soon as I was educated enough, I started making a lot of noise. Talking to newscasters and local papers. Small time and big time politicians. Anyone who would take the time to hear my story.”

  “Man. That’s crazy, so then what happened?”

  “Well the clean, short story, the plant was shut down.”

  “Okay, long story?”

  “There was a huge battle. The plant was privately owned by a very wealthy oil distributer. One who kept his name out of the pipework, so nothing bad fell on his clean crisp name.”

  “Who?”

  “Kellan McMaster.”

  I gasp. “As in the Kellan McMaster, who owns McMaster Steel Corporation?”

  “The one and only.”

  Kellan McMaster, or should I say, the entire McMaster family, was huge in steel and mining. From what I can remember, back in the early 2000s, they were the second largest steel producer in the U.S.

  “Wait, so then what happened? I thought they claimed bankruptcy due to losing money on cheaper labor and the failed expansion of newer plants?”

  “Well that’s what the papers read. But no, he was forced to step down. The bankruptcy is most definitely true. The courts pretty much cleaned him dry on all the settlements he had to pay out, or face a lengthy trial on homicide for the deaths of half a town. Records proved he was well aware of the chemicals that were being used in the plant. But the profit and income were too high to change. I guess in 2001, he was approached by a local organic manufacturer to change. He turned them down. Greed made him decide that making money was more important than saving lives.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Yep. Okay, my turn.”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure I can top anything after that one.�
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  “I beg to differ. What’s your obsession with tequila?”

  Only that it is the best thing invented next to air…and pants.

  “Um…well, I never was a big beer drinker in college. Just wasn’t my thing. When I was a freshman, I went through the whole color spectrum, you know clear to dark brown. After a lot of test runs and some serious barf-o-ramas, tequila was just the nicest to me. Vodka would always make me angry. Anything dark would make me cry. Tequila just made me happy. Well, and a little adventurous.”

  Sam is looking at me semi-intrigued, semi-unsure. “So where does the criminal record fall into this entire color spectrum?”

  “Ehhh that’s two questions. Sorry.”

  “Seriously?” he laughs.

  “As a heart attack pal, my turn. What’s your biggest obsession?”

  He turns to me, “You.”

  Sorry ladies, he’s mine.

  “That’s not a real answer.”

  “You asked me what my obsession is. It is you.”

  Breathe Penny.

  “Fine besides me,” I blush, trying to act super cool.

  “Okay, then the ocean. I love being in a place that is open. Free. Natural.”

  “Like on a beach?” I ask.

  “Well yes. On a beach, but on a beach that hasn’t been trampled on by money hungry vacation corporations. Places that suck in spring breakers who piss and litter everywhere aren’t my thing.”

  Ohhh, man I love those kind of places. Spring break 2008. Panama City, looting at its best. Just remembering Patti getting super trashed from those frosty bombs they served and thinking this guy was so super into her that he just wanted straight action and no words, when it turned out he was just super deaf.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Oh, nothing. Okay your turn.”

  “What makes you happy?”

  Huh? “Huh?”

  “Pretty basic question, Pen.” He turns and smiles at me, before bringing his eyes back to the road.

  Okay. True statement. What does make me happy? Before Sam, I guess it would be hard to tell, being truly me hasn’t been on my agenda for quite some time now. I think about the things that make me smile and truly warm my heart.