Diamonds and Dust (Lonesome Point, Texas) (13 page)

How had he survived for so long without her? She was the treasure he’d been hunting for, the precious thing he’d lost, and all the proof he needed to believe in miracles. Her love was the best reason he’d ever had for living, the only thing worth dying for, and now that he had Tulsi back in his arms he never, ever wanted to let her go.

CHAPTER NINE

Tulsi

Tulsi stood on tiptoe, knocking Pike’s hat into the water as she drove her hands into his soft hair, kissing him with an intensity that left her breathless. But she didn’t need to breathe. She needed Pike’s lips bruising hers and his taste filling her mouth, banishing the memory of every kiss she’d shared with men who weren’t this man.

No one else had ever been able to make her feel this way—so wild and desperate. With other men, she remained in control and conscious of all the roles she played outside of the bedroom. With Pike she was pure need, pure desire. She didn’t care about playing nice or following the rules. She and Pike were a brush fire and a hot desert wind. He fueled every primal instinct inside of her, leaving no room for shame or doubt.

When he picked her up in his arms, she didn’t hesitate to wrap her legs around his waist and lock her ankles at the small of his back. She didn’t try to hold back the moan that burst from her lips as his erection pressed against her through their jeans, bringing her body even more savagely to life. She only kissed him harder, her breath coming faster as she circled her hips, grinding against the long, thick length of him, their tongues tangling and Pike’s hand tugging roughly at the top of her shirt.

He freed her breast to the warm air, fingers capturing her nipple and rolling it hard enough to send sharp waves of longing coursing through her body. She gasped into his mouth, fingers digging into his shoulders as the tension building inside of her twisted up another notch.

“God, Tulsi, you’re killing me,” he mumbled against her lips. “If we don’t stop now, I’m going to take you right here in the river.”

“Don’t stop,” Tulsi begged against his lips, hips bucking more frantically against his. “Please don’t stop. I want you so much.”

Pike spun toward the bank with a hungry sound that made Tulsi even more wild to have his skin on hers, his body driving inside of her as he filled the unbearable emptiness that had haunted her since the day he left her behind.

Tears filled her eyes as Pike laid her down on the rocks and tore at the button fly of her jeans. This was such a bad idea, but God help her, it had been so long since she’d felt this way—so awake, so alive. So terrifyingly, perfectly alive. She didn’t want to think; she wanted to get lost in the need that rocketed through her as Pike jerked her jeans down her legs and tossed them away before surging back over her, claiming her lips with another savage kiss.

“Now,” Tulsi gasped into his mouth as she reached between them, her trembling hands tangling with Pike’s as they both fought to free him from his jeans. “Now, Pike. I need you inside of me, I need—”

Her last word transformed to a cry as Pike shoved his jeans down around his hips and rammed into her, pushing all the way to the end, claiming her with one brutal stroke. He was large and thick and in the past it had sometimes hurt when he first pushed inside her, but right now Tulsi felt only pleasure—razor sharp and fierce—and relief so intense a sob ripped through her chest as Pike began to ride her hard and fast, his frantic rhythm matching the erratic pounding of her heart. He drove so deep he made her gasp every time their bodies connected, but it didn’t hurt. It was exactly what she wanted, what she hungered for. Each savage thrust was a promise that she was his, that she belonged to him and nothing else mattered. Not the past or the future or pain or regret or anything else that would try to come between them.

She squirmed her hands beneath his tee shirt and dug her fingernails into his sweat-slick back, pulling him closer. He was even more muscular than he’d been when he was younger—nothing but rock hard flesh covered by hot, smooth skin—but the way he made her feel was still the same. He made her blood burn and her heart race, made her nerves sizzle and her spirit swell past the boundary of her skin, like a bird with no permanent relationship to the ground.

As Pike’s hands slipped beneath her, gripping her bottom in his hands, angling her tight against him as he chanted things she could barely make sense of in her ear, Tulsi’s soul took flight. One moment she was in her body, the next she was nothing but light and beauty and bliss so complete it was almost too wonderful to bear. She threw her head back as she came, fighting for breath as Pike’s lips seared a trail down her throat and his pubic bone nudged at the top of her entrance, drawing out her orgasm until she felt like she would die.

“I love you,” Pike whispered against her skin, groaning as his rhythm faltered. “God Tulsi, yes, yes, this is all I want. You’re all I want.”

She sobbed his name as she wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on tight as his ragged breath rushed against her throat. At the last moment, he pulled out, coming on her stomach in thick, hot bursts that made her moan and squirm against him, wishing he was still inside of her. He felt so amazing, so perfect that her heart fought to keep reason from making an appearance for as long as possible.

This had been a mistake—she knew that—but she didn’t want to think about it now. She wanted to relish the feel of Pike’s weight on top of her, their sweat-slicked bodies pressed close, and his lips moving back and forth between her cheeks, kissing away her tears.

“Don’t cry, Tuls,” he whispered as he smoothed her hair from her forehead. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t hurt me,” she said, struggling to regain control. “It was…wonderful. Perfect.”

“Then why are you crying?” His fingertip traced the trail of her tears as his worried eyes met hers. When their gazes connected, he sighed. “Never mind. I’m stupid, but I’m not that stupid. I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry I fucked things up.”

“No, I’m sorry,” she said in a strained voice as she swiped at her damp face. “I’m so sorry, Pike.”

“Don’t be,” he said, his eyes shining. “Tulsi, please don’t cry. It’s my fault. You were right. I should never have shut you out. My only defense is that I was a stupid kid. I loved you like nothing else, and I thought that was enough for us to get through anything. I didn’t know how easy it would be to screw it all up. But I do now, and I swear to God, if you give me another chance, I won’t fuck up again.”

Tulsi’s eyes squeezed shut as regret twisted like a knife in her chest. It was everything she’d ever wanted to hear from Pike, everything she’d dreamt of, but it didn’t matter. There was no going back. What was done was done, and if Pike ever found out the truth, he wouldn’t love her anymore. He would hate her…and he might even try to take Clem away.

The thought banished the last of the ecstasy still shivering across her skin.

Pike was insanely wealthy, beloved by half the country, and had the best of everything at his disposal. That included the best child custody lawyers, who would have no qualms using Tulsi’s years of deception to prove she was an unfit mother. She had lied to keep Pike from his little girl and stolen six years of Clem’s childhood from her daddy. It would be all too easy for the court to rule in his favor. She could see it all playing out now—the baseball star vs. the selfish, small-town nobody in a high profile court case that would be splashed across every trashy magazine in the country.

She would be crucified. She might even deserve to be crucified—she’d been so wrong about Pike, she could see that now—but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t lose Clementine. Clem was her world and she was Clem’s. Her daughter was precocious and intelligent, but she was still just a little girl who needed her mother. Tulsi was the only one who could calm Clem down when she was having one of her temper tantrums, the only one who understood how hard it was for a kid like Clem, who was so ahead of the curve and so full of questions, to fit in with her peers.

Tulsi had been through every bump in the road with her daughter—from the long newborn nights when Clem wailed for hours with colic to the broken wrist when four-year-old Clem made her own flying machine to launch off the chicken coup. It was Tulsi who’d been there for the lonely days at the beginning of kindergarten—as Clem struggled to find friends and fit in with children who hadn’t been reading since they were three and hadn’t spent hours staring up at the night sky, trying to wrap their minds around the idea of space stretching on forever. No one else knew Clem the way she did, and no one was more committed to making sure her daughter grew up feeling loved, understood, and accepted for the person she was—flaws and all.

They’d made it almost seven years without a father figure in the picture and were doing just fine. Clem was happy and well-adjusted and Tulsi intended to do whatever it took to keep her daughter’s life drama free—even if it meant giving up on this.

This…everything that she found in Pike’s arms.

“Say something, Tulsi,” Pike whispered. “Please. At least look at me. Give me a clue what’s going on in that head of yours.”

Tulsi’s eyes opened and the hard words began to form, but before she could speak another voice cut through the silence of the woods.

“Pike, where are you?” Mia called, sounding too close for comfort. “Pike! Tulsi?”

Pike cursed as he scrambled off of Tulsi, hitching up his jeans as he reached for her discarded clothes. Pulse racing, Tulsi splashed away the stickiness on her stomach, wiggled into her underpants, and had just finished buttoning her jeans and tugging her tank top back into place when Mia appeared at the top of the bank.

“There you two are.” Mia frowned as her eyes flicked from Pike, who had just finished rescuing his hat from where it had floated downstream, to Tulsi and back again. “Didn’t you hear me calling?”

“Guess not,” Pike said innocently. “Sound doesn’t carry too well around here. What’s up?”

“I was worried,” Mia said, her brows still drawn together. “Everyone else is already back, but you two were missing. I thought maybe your knee was giving you trouble.”

“No, I’m good,” he said, glancing Tulsi’s way. “Tulsi and I were just catching up.”

“Pike was telling me I should quit breaking horses for Daddy.” Tulsi sat down on the rocks and began pulling on her socks and boots, past ready to make her getaway.

“He’s right.” Mia came to stand beside her, sending dirt skittering down the steep bank as she moved. “I’ve been saying that for months. Don’t suppose he got through to you, did he?”

Tulsi shook her head, keeping her eyes on her feet as she tugged on her boots. “Nope. I told him it was none of his business, thank you very much. My life is my life.”

“You’re getting sassy in your old age,” Mia said with a laugh. “Isn’t she, Pike?”

“She was always sassy,” Pike said, his tone far too intimate for Tulsi’s liking. The last thing she needed was for Mia to start suspecting that she and Pike had a history. She’d kept her affair with Mia’s brother a secret for years and she intended to go right on keeping it. Nothing good could come from her best friend learning the truth.

“Only with family.” Tulsi came to her feet and forced a smile. “It’s easy to tell your big brother to mind his own business.” She looped her arm through Mia’s. “I’m sorry, but I went wading instead of scavenger hunting. I hope you’re not mad.”

Mia scrunched her nose. “Of course not. I hate organized activities. The scavenger hunt was Gram’s baby. I just checked all my boxes as soon as I walked into the woods and Sawyer and I spent the rest of the time making out.”

“Hey, big brother here.” Pike fell in beside them as they started back toward the clearing where they’d had lunch. “Spare me the gory details.”

Mia laughed. “Now you know how I feel when I see pictures of you and your lady of the moment making out on some magazine cover. I swear I’ve seen at least three women fondling your butt in public. I’ve probably been scarred for life.”

“Some of those aren’t even me,” Pike said, sounding uncomfortable. “Photoshop is out of control. I’ve just got better things to do than sue the paparazzi.”

“I can’t imagine having people hiding in the bushes trying to photograph me all the time,” Tulsi said, seeing a chance to get her message across without having a one-on-one conversation with Pike. She obviously couldn’t be trusted when they were alone together, no matter how many reasons she had to keep her hands to herself. “I’m glad I’m a nobody from a small town. Being famous sounds awful.”

Pike hummed thoughtfully beneath his breath. “It isn’t for everyone, but the wives of the players are usually left alone. It’s only the girlfriends who make for interesting news. So the sooner we get married, the sooner the media frenzy will fade. What do you say, Tulsi? How’s next week sound?”

Tulsi’s jaw dropped, but before she could say a word, Mia reached out and slapped Pike’s arm.

“Stop it! Don’t tease her,” Mia said. “You’re awful, you know that?”

“It’s okay,” Tulsi said breathlessly, meeting Pike’s gaze with a warning look while Mia’s head was turned. “I know he’s kidding, and it’s not like I still have a crush on him. I got over that when I was eighteen. I’m a big girl. I can take a little teasing from an old friend, right Pike?”

“Sure you can.” Pike’s jaw clenched, but he smiled a beat later. “I’m going to run ahead and ice my knee before we head back. See you two on the trail. Good catching up with you, Tulsi.”

“You too,” Tulsi said brightly. “I’m glad we had a chance to talk. Sorry things didn’t work out with that woman you were telling me about, but I’m sure you’ll find someone great when you go back to St. Louis.”

He hesitated before nodding soberly. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

Mia watched Pike move down the riverbed in front of them before she turned back to Tulsi with a guilty look. “I’m so sorry. I can’t take him anywhere. Are you embarrassed?”

“No, it’s fine.” Tulsi smiled so hard her cheeks began to hurt, determined to hide her secret misery from Mia. “Seriously, my crush on your brother is old news. Don’t even worry about it.”