Tore Up (Mississippi Smoke Series Book 1)

Fingertips gently caressed my lower back and down over my barely covered bottom. My dream Bane.

I burrowed my face into his neck and inhaled. God, that was so good. Wondering if he tasted as good as he smelled, I flicked out my tongue to run along his skin. A deep hum of pleasure came from his chest, and I smiled. He’d liked that. I did it again.

His hand slid further down my butt until his fingers were just inside my crotch. I sucked in a breath as my body shuddered. I wanted more of that.

“Ah, pretty girl, you’re killing me. Be still.” His voice was a husky whisper.

I didn’t want to be still. I wanted his fingers inside me again. Whimpering, I lifted a leg to lay it over his. The growl he let out when my thighs were open caused tingles throughout my body. He liked it. He might want me to stop, but he liked this.

A thick, callous finger slipped inside my folds, and I moaned with relief. That felt amazing.

“Is this what you need, sweet girl?” he whispered.

I wanted to say yes, but I rocked against his touch. Another finger moved under the satin fabric until it was pressing into me. I gasped and fisted my hands against his chest.

“Fuck.” His hoarse voice was gentle, but the strain in it made me want more.

He enjoyed this. Touching me. My dream Bane wanted to feel me.

I pressed a kiss to the curve between his neck and shoulder, then tasted him some more on my tongue. His other hand clasped the back of my head and held me there.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he encouraged me.

A finger shoved inside of me, and a long, soft cry tore from my lips. He stilled.

Why was he stopping? I needed more of that.

“Easy,” he murmured as he began to sink deeper.

My breaths were coming in quick pants against his skin. The pleased sounds he was making went straight to my clit. I bucked my hips against his hand.

“Ooh.” That one word came out pleadingly.

The hand he had on my head massaged my scalp. “You like that,” he said as his lips pressed against my forehead. His finger then began to pump in and out in a slow rhythm that was going to drive me crazy. “This slick cunt is so tight.”

The words were so soft that I almost didn’t hear them over the sound of his heart, so close to my ear.

I was close. The crest was rolling over me with each thrust of his finger. My nails bit into his skin as I held on to his hard bicep.

“Bane!” I cried out as my body shook and pleasure ripped through me.

“That’s it,” he whispered.

The darkness came, as the dream faded with his arm locked around me and his finger still buried deep inside me.

Bane pulled up to a fancy building with expensive stores that I’d never been into. I looked at a display window that had a chandelier and lots of pink fur, gold accents, bath bombs, bars of soap, bath salts, bottles of all kinds. I should have been more specific when I told him I needed to go buy some shampoo and soap.

I shifted my eyes to look over at him. “Uh, while I am sure this store has lovely bath items, what I need can be found at a pharmacy. Perhaps Walgreens or Rite Aid,” I explained.

He reached for the handle on his door and opened it. “Okay,” was his response as he stepped out, then closed the door.

I watched him as he walked around the front of his truck until he was at my door, opening it.

He had heard me. He’d said okay. Why were we getting out?

“Is there somewhere in here you need to go?” I asked, thinking maybe this was a stop he was making that had nothing to do with me.

He held out his hand for me. “Yep.”

Oh. Well, okay then.

I slid my hand into his, and he helped me out of the truck. I glanced back at the building. What would he need to get here? I knew there were other stores inside, but from the looks of this place, I didn’t think it was anywhere he would want to shop.

As I walked beside him, he went to the two double doors with gold teardrop-shaped handles that had a large crystal of some sort in the center of each. He opened one, then stepped back so I could enter. As I walked inside, the smell was phenomenal. I inhaled another breath deeply.

Bane’s hand rested on my back, and he nodded his head toward the entrance to the bath store. I went with him, trying to decide if he’d brought me here to buy something for another woman. The idea bothered me, but only because it was getting more difficult to remember dream Bane and real Bane weren’t the same.

When we stepped inside the store, a lady with a pink pencil skirt and matching jacket walked up to us. Although she was older than Bane, her appreciative smile wasn’t lost on me. The charming smile he gave her made me bristle. I had no right to be jealous, but I was.

“How can I help you?” she asked, barely giving me a glance.

“I need something that smells like strawberries,” he told her.

I snapped my gaze up to stare at him. Strawberries? My heart did a funny flutter, and then it began to race. Was this a coincidence? Dream Bane had said something about me smelling like strawberries, but never this Bane. His eyes met mine, but he said nothing.

“We don’t have a strawberries scent exactly, but we do have a strawberries and cream. There is also our newest line; it isn’t strawberries, but it’s divine. Marula oil, white truffle, vanilla bean—”

“The strawberries and cream,” Bane interrupted her sales pitch.

She looked deflated, but kept her smile. “Of course,” she replied, then led us over to the scent he had requested. With a wave of her hand, she beamed at him once again. “We have shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, and soap in this scent.”

Bane reached for a bottle of shampoo and opened it. His nostrils flared slightly as he held it to his nose. He nodded, closing it, then handed it back to the woman. “All of it.”

Her eyes flickered to me momentarily, then back to him. “One of each?” she asked for clarification.

“Yes,” he replied.

She beamed at that and began taking the items off the shelf. “I’ll go get this all packaged up for you.”

Bane pulled his wallet out of his pocket, then slid a black card from the worn leather. When he handed it to her, I saw her eyes widen slightly as she took it.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

With a quick glance down at his name, she looked back up at him. “I’ll be right back, Mr. Cash.”

How likely was it that he’d bought that for someone else? My mind was whirling. If that was for me, why had he chosen strawberry? How had he known that my shampoo was strawberry?

“Stop frowning,” he told me. “You’ll smell just as good with the added cream scent.”

My eyes darted back up to him. “So, this is for me?”

He smirked. “Did you think it was for me?”

I ran my bottom lip through my teeth, thinking about asking him why he’d chosen strawberry or how he had known.

“What is it?” he prodded.

“My shampoo that I get can be purchased for a tenth of what the bar of soap here costs.”

He chuckled. “You didn’t even pick it up to look at the price.”

“I’m guessing.”

“This will be better for your hair and skin,” he told me.

The strawberry thing was bothering me still.

“Why strawberry?” I blurted before I talked myself out of it.

He raised his eyebrows. “That’s the shampoo scent you use, isn’t it?”

Yes, but how had he known that?

I stared at him, trying to read his expression. But the amused gleam in his eyes wasn’t helping me.

“You realize that your eyes hide nothing. Every thought you have is right there on display,” he said with a curl of his lips. Then, he leaned down close to my ear. “I’ve carried you, Halo. I know how you smell.”

Oh. I wasn’t sure if that was relief or disappointment as I let out a breath. Perhaps it was a mix of both.

The saleslady returned with his card and a white bag with gold printing on the front and pink tissue paper inside, as if it were packed to give as a gift.

Bane took the card and the bag. “Thank you,” he replied, then signed his name on the iPad screen before turning back to me. “Ready?”

I nodded and headed toward the exit as he followed me.

Bane had just bought me expensive products for my hair and body. Why? Was this just part of his taking care of me because I was carrying his brother’s baby, or was it something more? The time we’d spent together, mixed with my dreams of him at night, was getting it all confused in my head. And I was afraid for my heart too. It was easy to protect myself from the rude, angry man who hated me. But this Bane? He was too much like the one who had held me at night. I wasn’t sure I could protect my heart from him.

He opened the truck door for me. “Library next?” he asked me.

I’d mentioned this morning that I’d like to find a library nearby so I could get some new books to read. He hadn’t responded, only nodded.

I sat down and looked up at him. “Yes, if you don’t mind.”

His cocky smirk no longer grated on me. Instead, I found it endearing.