Off Limits Neighbor Read online

  I cut her off. “I do think he’s great, and I have for a long time. Besides the other day and earlier this afternoon, when was the last time you actually spoke to Rey? You didn’t even know that he lived in Affliction Creek.” I point at my dad. “You thought he was in jail.”

  “You don’t have to get so defensive,” my mom says. “We’re just trying to look out for you.”

  I take a deep breath and blow it out through my nose. “Okay. Please, enlighten me, how you’re looking out for me?”

  My dad stares at me, not unkindly. “You know he was a troublemaker. And he’s not like you. He didn’t go out and make a name for himself anywhere else. He stayed here. And that isn’t a good thing, Klara. Anyone who stays here is more than likely a bum and a failure and nothing more. I don’t want to see you give up what you have in Austin to move back and shack up with a loser.”

  Steel enters my spine. “So just living in Affliction Creek makes you a loser and a failure? What does that say about you, Dad?” The words are harsh. I know they are, but I don’t regret them. “You found incredible success in this town. And when you get these houses fixed up, you’re going to do it again. You’ve been in this town for years, and no one in their right mind would tell you that you’re a bum. Or a failure.”

  “I’m an old man,” he says. “I want you to have a better life than I did. So, get out of here and don’t stay. Don’t stay for him. Anything, literally anything, has to be better than that.”

  I feel like my vision tints red. “Dad, I love you, and I’m happy that I was able to help out you and Mom with this project. But I’m also an adult. And what I do with my life, and who I choose to live it with? It’s none of your business.

  “Rey and I haven’t even talked about that. We’ve been having fun along with fixing your property. And I already told you that none of this would have gotten done without him. You both have some nerve judging someone you haven’t spoken to in years. Rey has made a name for himself. He’s one of the best carpenters in the region and the reason that we got the crew working on this house was because of him.”

  All of those words come out in one long rush, and I’m out of breath afterwards. “I love you both, and I’m going to finish this project, but unless you have something else to say to me, I’m going to need some time before we ‘just talk’ again.”

  Turning on my heel, I don’t wait to see their reaction. I don’t need to. They’re so fucking out of line it’s not even funny. But Rey isn’t in the house, I find him sitting on the sidewalk out front. “Let’s go,” I say, walking past him.

  “They’re right,” he says quietly.

  “What?”

  Rey shakes his head. “I listened to some of the conversation. I know I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry.”

  “They don’t know shit about you, and they’re wrong.”

  “Not about that,” he says. “I know they’re wrong about that. But about you living here with me. As much as I might want that, they’re right. Your career—your life—will be so much better if you’re not in this town. And I don’t want you to leave a good life for me, Klara. Not if you’re better off there.”

  I stop in front of him. “I’ve had about enough today of people trying to tell me what’s best for me without actually fucking asking,” I say, my voice ringing out across the cul-de-sac. “I was going to talk to you about this, preferably after you fucked me into oblivion, but I guess we’re talking about it now.”

  “Klara—”

  “Nope,” I say, cutting him off. “My turn. The last eleven days, ever since you caught me with that fucking cat, have been amazing, and I literally can’t remember the last time I was this happy.”

  Rey’s mouth parts like he’s about to speak, but he stops himself.

  “And maybe my life in Austin is good, but it’s also lonely. And maybe I’ve been thinking about the next steps in my life more lately. I’m at the beginning of my career. I can go anywhere. I’m not tied down like I might be if I were more established, and I—” My voice breaks. “I don’t want this to end. Even if we have to make it work long distance. So don’t you dare tell me what’s best for me because I already know what’s best for me, and that’s you. And me. Here. Together.”

  My mom comes out of the house and waves her hands. “Klara, keep your voice down. You’re making a scene.”

  I just roll my eyes. We’re the only people here. There’s no scene to make. But the motion makes me take my eyes off Rey, and the next moment he’s on his feet and his mouth is on mine.

  This is another claiming kiss. Searing. Burning. A kiss that’s meant to ground me right here and now. Every emotion in the world pours through his lips and into me. “I want that too,” he whispers against my lips. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Klara. I realized it today and I was going to tell you. And I don’t ever want you to sacrifice your future for me.”

  “You are my future,” I say. “We’ll make it together. I think with your skills and mine we’ll make a pretty good team, don’t you think?”

  He grins. “I do think that.” His smile drops, and he’s looking at me seriously. “I may not ever be who your parents want me to be, but I’m glad that I’m who you want me to be.”

  I kiss him again. Hard. “You are. You are that. And you’re not the only one who’s in love, you know. Now please, take me home and fuck me until I forget my own name.”

  “Home?” he asks.

  “Yes,” I say. “Home. Our home. With our cat.”

  He can’t stop the smile that’s on his face. “You have no idea what it means to hear you say that.”

  Rey sweeps me into his arms and walks with me down the sidewalk toward our house. And I’ve never felt surer that this is where I’m supposed to be.

  Epilogue

  Klara

  Six Months Later

  The stars ripple out overhead as we drive into the desert. “Where the hell are we going, Rey?”

  He grins over at me from the driver’s seat. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

  I really haven’t. It’s been a hell of a week. The renovation project that we’ve been working on together has taken all the energy out of me this week, and I’m pretty much brain dead. The cul-de-sac project was so successful that the city hired us to refurbish more old buildings. Which is awesome. And exhausting. “You could ask me what I had for breakfast today and I wouldn’t know, Rey,” I say.

  He reaches across the seat of the truck and weaves his fingers through mine.

  “We once talked about dirty thoughts, and I told you that I wanted sex under the stars. I finally found the perfect place.”

  “Oh my god,” I laugh. “I completely forgot about that.”

  “It’s not far,” he says. And it’s not. Not even ten minutes later we’re pulling up to a large rock bathed in moonlight.

  “See?” Rey says. “No lights in sight, and no chance of being bitten.”

  I laugh. “I do see.”

  He pulls me out of the car and over to the giant rock that’s still warm even though the sun set hours ago. Even in the winter, it’s hot here.

  “Before we go up there,” Rey says, backing me up against the stone, “I need to tell you something.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, and I haven’t been able to find the right time.”

  “Oh my god, please don’t tell me we’re not going to get the wood for that flooring. Because if we don’t have that color, I’m going to have to rework the whole color scheme again and I’m not sure that I have the energy for that.”

  He puts a finger to my lips while smiling. “The wood is fine, and I want that to be the last reference to work that you make tonight, all right?”

  I press my lips together. “Okay.”

  “It might be a little soon for this,” he says. “But we’ve always moved a little faster than most couples.”

  “Okay,” I say, drawing out the word like a question.

&n
bsp; “But the last six months have been the best of my life, and now that you’re in it, I cannot imagine my life without you.”

  He starts pulling away from me, and it takes me a second to realize that he’s pulling away and down. Oh my god. Rey sinks onto one knee in front of me, and every bit of air in my lungs is gone.

  “Klara Miller,” he says with a smile, “will you marry me?”

  The ring in his hand sparkles in the pale moonlight, silver and diamonds and twisting filigree. I used to imagine this when I was younger. The girlish fantasy that you had about your crush. This is so, so much better.

  “Is this real?” I manage to say.

  “It’s very real.”

  “Yes,” I breathe. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”

  My voice breaks with emotion, but it’s lost in the way he sweeps me up into a kiss, pressing me harder into the rock and blowing away every other thought that’s not him.

  A brief thought is spared for my parents. They haven’t warmed to Rey in the time that we’ve been together. A little, maybe, but not much. They’re not going to be happy about this, but I don’t care. It’s my choice. And I hope that once they see how serious I am about this man, they’ll take the chance to get to know him. Even if it’s only for my sake.

  Rey slips the ring onto my finger and helps me up onto the rock. “Now I get to fuck you in this ring and nothing but this ring.”

  I shiver, a cool breeze blows across the open desert. “Yes.”

  As soon as we’re on the top of the rock, Rey peels me out of my shirt, and I can’t get his off fast enough. Our clothes disappear, landing as dark stains on the stone and god my fiancé—fiancé—is sexy in the starlight.

  The silhouette of him rolling a condom on in the dark is so fucking hot. It’s always hot to me, watching him touch himself. “Come here.”

  Rey sweeps me off my feet and lays me down on the warm stone. I’m caught between two different kinds of hardness, and it’s delicious. When we started this drive, sex was the last thing on my mind, but now the built-up arousal from the last few days is rising up and I’m shuddering with need.

  “I missed you,” Rey whispers.

  “How long has it been?”

  He chuckles. “Like three days.”

  I can’t respond. Rey hikes my legs over his shoulders and devours me. No mercy. His mouth seals over my clit and sucks, tongue swirling around it in the way that he’s perfected over the last six months. He knows exactly how to make me writhe in pleasure, and the look in his eyes right now tells me that’s where he’s heading.

  “Fucking hell, Rey.”

  “More like fucking heaven,” he pulls away to say.

  He’s not wrong.

  Rey switches his movements, using his tongue for long strokes over my entrance and up to my clit. Over and over again until I’m moving my hips against his mouth and silently begging for more.

  “Don’t be afraid to let it out,” he whispers against my clit. “We’re the only people for miles.”

  I’m not sure why that makes me blush, but it does. The carnal feeling of being so exposed and open is overwhelming and erotic, and I’m shaking from more than just the pleasure of his mouth.

  Moving back to only my clit, he wraps his lips around it, teasing with his tongue, circling and sucking until I can’t see and can’t breathe. My hands flex against the stone like I’m looking to grab the sheets of our bed, and when I break, my voice echoes into the silent air.

  Pleasure pours down on me in a bright wave, dragging me down into the center of that light and making me forget completely that we’re out in the dark. My fiancé.

  The thought of that word brings on a whole new wave of pleasure. I flood into Rey’s mouth, and he laps at my entrance, drinking all of my orgasm exactly the way that he likes it.

  I sag against the rock, already spent. “Well,” I say with a soft laugh. “That was fun.”

  “And we’re not even close to finished.” Rey slips between my legs and slams in one brutal thrust, making me cry out. Oh fuck, he feels good. It hasn’t mattered how much sex we’ve had in the last six months—and the sheer wanting that we have for each other hasn’t lessened in the slightest—he always makes me feel this way.

  So good and so impossibly full that I don’t think that I can take more of him. And then I do, and everything turns to golden pleasure.

  Rey’s body comes down on mine, pinning me to the rock as he fucks me. That’s exactly what he’s doing, driving into me with all of his lust, every stroke sending crackling ecstasy along my nerves.

  I can’t keep myself quiet and I know that he doesn’t want me to. He’s tapped into that feral part of me that he loves, and I give myself over to it completely. Rey is groaning in my ear, grinding his hips down into my clit, hands tangled in my hair.

  His lips slam down on mine, and I feel like we’re completely different people. Out in the open with our commitment to each other solidified, we’re free.

  Reaching up, I wrap myself around him until we’re so tangled that I can’t completely tell where we separate. My back scrapes against the stone, and I’m going to enjoy whatever marks it leaves.

  Rey shifts his angle a fraction, and that’s all it takes. Brand new pleasure blooms deep in my gut where Rey’s cock slams into that deep place that only he has ever been able to reach. I can’t hold myself back, golden light slowly taking over my vision until I’m drowning in the haze.

  And then I’m gone.

  I’m falling into what feels like the stars that are spread above us. All-consuming pleasure that feels different and wild out here in the middle of nowhere. And at the same time, it feels solid. Because now I know that we’re in this forever.

  Rey comes with a roar that echoes off the sand and stone, burying his cock in me and holding himself deep. I can’t stop kissing him—and tears come to my eyes as I realize that I’ll never have to. I’m his and he’s mine.

  Finally.

  He’s breathing hard when he pulls away. “I like this.”

  “Definitely something we’ll have to do again,” I say with a grin.

  “What do you say we do it again right now? Seems a shame to drive all the way out here for just one go.”

  I laugh. “You’re wicked.”

  “And you love that.”

  “I do. And I love you.”

  Rey presses his forehead against mine. “I love you.”

  Under the stars, it’s a promise and a vow all in one.

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