Live for You by Marquita Valentine

Bob
Dylan.”
    “ I’m singing Darius
Rucker’s version.”
    I fold my arms over my
chest and shake my head. “If you can’t convert me without resorting
to cheating, then I—”
    “ Okay, okay. Last one.”
This time the song’s slow and seductive as her voice flows. “I’ve been waitin’ on you. Wishing you were here.
Skin to skin, lips to lips. My nights lastin’ forever without you.
Come on home.” She winks at me. “C’mon to where you belong.” As the last note fades away, I rise to my feet and walk
slowly to her. She props her guitar against a pine tree right
before I reach her. The strap of her tank top falls down her
shoulder.
    I can’t help but touch her
bare skin, trailing my fingers down her arm to that thin strip of
material. There’s nothing more I’d like to do than to tug it lower.
Goose bumps appear as I slide it back in place, slow as molasses as
I go. She shivers and I harden against the zipper of my
jeans.
    “ That was fucking amazing,
Rae. You’re amazing.” I mean it. Nothing about my words are meant
to seduce, meant to tantalize or tease. Yes, I want inside her, but
even more I want inside her head. I need to know this girl. What
makes her tick; what she likes and dislikes. I need to know all of
this, despite not knowing how long she’ll stay here.
    She flushes, then her nose
scrunches and she gives me this lopsided smile. “I wrote it the
other night. You’re the first to hear it.”
    “ You wrote that in one
night?” My jaw drops.
    “ Inspiration hit me.” She
shrugs, glancing away. “I couldn’t not listen to it.”
    It occurred to me in that
moment that I might be the inspiration she was talking about. “Tell
me more about this inspiration.”
    She waves a hand in the air
and shifts from side to side. “Oh, you know….see something you like
and it won’t leave you alone.”
    “ I wouldn’t know.” I grin
at her adorable unease. Oh yeah, this song definitely has something
to do with me. “Could you, maybe, explain a little more about your
thought process?”
    Fisting her hands on her
hips, she gives me a teasing glare. “Don’t pretend you like you
don’t know, Cole.”
    I take her hands in mine,
rubbing my thumbs across the knuckles. Her vivid blue eyes widen.
“Rae,” I murmur. Her breath is sweet when she tips up her chin in
answer. “You’ll never convince me to start playing country at my
bar, but you have convinced me that I shouldn’t lump it all
together.”
    She blinks, long lashes
dark with mascara. The diamond in her nose flashes. I find it
incredibly hot she pierced there. It’s so unexpected, yet
completely her. “Maybe I shouldn’t lump guys—things all into the
same category either.”
    There a layer of hurt
there, and that’s the last thing I want to hear from her. “No, all
guys, er things that you’re talking about are pretty much the
same.”
    “ Really?” A small smile
curves her mouth.
    “ Oh yeah. Pretty much
haven’t evolved out of the Neanderthal stage.” I tilt my head to
one side and bite my bottom lip. She watches me intently, her gaze
on my mouth. “Except me.”
    “ Always an exception,
huh?”
    I rake my eyes over her.
She’s so tiny that I feel like some hulking beast beside her. For
once I want to take my time, to not rush things and just hook up
with her. Not that I think there’s a future with us. With me,
really.
    Eventually, she’ll workout
what’s bothering her so badly and go back home while I’ll stay
here, going to school, managing a bar, raising my sister and
waiting for my mother to come home from rehab.
    I have nothing to offer
anyone, especially someone like Rae.
    Every woman, past, present
and future, is better off without me and my baggage. Hell, I doubt
any woman wouldn’t want to handle the truth of my life, much less
hear about it.
    But as I gaze at Rae,
something sparks inside of me. “Always.”

Chapter
Eleven
     
     
     
     
     
    Violet
    Surreal. That’s how I would
describe the