Not now.
Not while we still had this moment in time where there was nothing but us.
I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked at him before smoothing some water from his face. "I think I might be falling for you too," I whispered words that didn't need to be said.
He knew. He had to know.
But his answering grin was enough to make my heart skyrocket again. It was enough to make me want him, even though he had just wrung every bit of pleasure from my body.
"That's good to hear, princess." Then he kissed me, and I knew that there was no turning back from this. Whatever Beck wanted from me was his. All he had to do was take it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
BECK
Josie couldn’t stop touching me, and I couldn’t stop touching her.
I didn’t want this weekend to end. I didn’t want to give up this bubble we had created around us and our friends that blocked out the rest of the world, but we had to.
This wasn’t real life. Unfortunately, both of us had to face our realities.
"One more kiss." I gripped her around her waist and pulled her back into me.
She giggled as her hands hit my chest. "You said that with the last kiss."
"I lied." I pressed my lips to her and ran my tongue over her soft bottom lip.
"I have to go." She pushed against my chest and grabbed her bag off the ground before jogging up to her front door.
I walked back around my car, my keys in my hand and a stupid fucking smile on my face, and I was still so lost in her that I almost missed Mr. Vos leaning against his garage door with his arms crossed against his chest.
My steps faltered, and even though I wasn’t scared of the man, I would be lying if I said just the sight of him didn’t put some fear in me.
I wasn’t foolish enough to not realize how much power he held.
I didn’t say a word to him. I simply walked to the driver’s side door of my SUV and put my hand on the handle. Before I could open it, he pushed off the wall and walked in my direction.
"Beckham, I guess it’s safe to assume that my daughter was with you all weekend instead of where she said she was going to be."
I hesitated but looked up at him. I didn’t know what to say. He clearly
saw me dropping her off, and if it wasn’t for her, I would have told him to go straight to hell. But this was Josie’s father. This man controlled everything for her.
"That’s all right." He tucked his hands in his pockets and looked back toward his house. "I don’t need you to answer me."
"What are you going to do?" I didn’t know why I said it, but I knew that he was going to do something. I knew that he was going to hurt Josie for disobeying him.
"Beckham, I know you think you have life all figured out, but you’re young. You are going to meet plenty of pretty girls in your lifetime, and you’ve had enough of your fun with mine."
His words enraged me, but I couldn’t for the life of me form a complete thought to say back to him. "What?"
He just watched me, completely cool, fully at ease with what he was saying.
"My daughter is not going to be with you." He leaned back against the hood of my car. "You’re not good enough for her."
"From what Josie says, I’m surprised to hear that you care about her at all."
"Josie is my daughter. She is my blood. Of course, I care about her."
"I care about her too."
He pressed his lips together as he shook his head and looked away from me. "I don’t think my daughter needs the kind of care you give her. I think far too many people learned about your kind of care a few weeks ago."
"I didn’t…"
He interrupted me before I could finish my sentence. "Your ass is lucky that you’re not in jail. The fact that you’re still running around with her and that she seems to have forgotten that you showed her exactly who you are is nothing but luck on your part."
"Me?" I pointed to my chest, and my damn hand was shaking. "What about your stepson? I think both of us know that if anyone deserves anything, it would be him."
He nodded softly, and I knew that he was as aware of that fact as I was.
Even if he was the one who got Lucas out of everything.
"We’re not here to discuss Lucas, though, are we? We’re here to talk about you staying the hell away from my daughter."
"And why should I listen to you?" I cocked my head to the side and
studied this man that I hated so much. "What makes you think that I would ever do anything that you wanted?"
"It’s called leverage, Beckham, and it’s something that you need to learn about if you’re going to be half as successful as your father."
"You don’t have any leverage over me anymore. You already used that card with your piece of shit son."
"Not on you. Her?" He nodded up to his house, and I knew that he saw the panic that must have flashed in my eyes. "She’ll either leave you alone or she’ll lose."
"She’ll lose what?" I knew what Cami had told me, but I needed to hear it from his lips. I needed to hear the selfish bastard tell me exactly what he would do to his daughter if she didn’t do things his way. If she didn’t do exactly what he wanted her to.
"Everything." He pushed away from my car and began walking toward the house. "You leave my daughter alone or she’ll lose everything she cares about. Her mother’s house. The money her mother left her." He ran his hand over his hair and looked back at me. "Did she tell you that she plans on getting as far away from this place as she can once she graduates?"
She hadn’t, but I didn’t want him to know that. I didn’t want to think that he had any sort of upper hand when it came to her.
"The only reason she’s still here is because that’s the only way she gets to keep those things. If she doesn’t graduate, they’re mine. If you don’t leave her alone, they’re mine."
"I don’t want to leave her alone," I said to his back, and he paused.
"Then you don’t care about her at all." He looked back over his shoulder at me. "You’ve already shamed her beyond repair. What do you think she’ll do when she finds out that you were only pretending to want her again to ruin her further? When your plan all along was to make her lose everything?"
"That’s not true."
"The truth doesn’t matter, boy. Not after all the lies you’ve already told."
I knew what he said was true. She would have absolutely no reason to believe me over him. Not after everything I had already done.
I stared up at the house with my hands clenched into fists. Her father was cruel, but I knew he wasn’t lying. Josie was going to leave this place and I would stay here. She was going to move on with her life, and she was going to fucking hate me if I had some part in taking away the things she wanted most.
I knew that.
Especially after this weekend and hearing her talk about how badly she missed her mom. After hearing her talk about her home.
My heart raced in my chest and every part of me wanted to run into her house and pull her away. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and protect her from any and everything that could ever harm her, but I knew that I couldn’t.
I knew that I had harmed her almost as much as the others.
And that thought sobered something inside me.
And I knew what I had to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
JOSIE
Icouldn’t stop smiling.
I knew how stupid that sounded, but it was true.
Not even my dad or Lucas could knock the smile off my face. Even though my dad had been looking at me like he hated me since the moment I first ran into him on Sunday evening.