Page 165 of Devious Obsession
“Aspen Monroe.” I take in her big, beautiful green eyes that are filling rapidly with tears. “Will you marry me?”
“Oh!” Mom exclaims.
Aspen nods frantically. I take her left hand and slip the ring on her finger, and holy shit.
It’s a perfect fit.
Aspen grabs my face and kisses me hard, just for a second. It tastes like her tears. Then she’s out of her chair and hugging my mother.
Mom hugs her back, patting it softly. She’s bewildered, but she doesn’t pull away or shout in fear. No dramatic reactions at all. And after a moment, Mom makes a shushing sound, soothing Aspen.
When my girl withdraws, she swipes under her eyes and blots at her face with her sleeve.
Mom’s gaze bounces from me to Aspen, then back to me. She frowns.
“What’s that look for?” I ask her, grinning.
She rolls her eyes and points to the board. “It’s your move.”
That it is.
51
ASPEN
“What happened with your mom?” I spin the gorgeous ring around my finger, then pause to stare at it again. Then focus back on Steele. My mind has been a freaking ping-pong ball since we left the assisted-living home.
And now we’ve got about an hour’s drive.
“Early onset dementia. They discovered it when I was in high school.”
Steele glances at me, then holds out his hand. I put mine in his, eager for the contact. As much as I might need grounding, he probably needs it more. So I lace our fingers together and squeeze softly, letting him take my hand back onto his thigh.
“Mom was still… with it, you know? She knew us, our faces. But it was other things that were slipping. And for a while, she went through some dramatic mood changes. Screaming at my dad, flipping us off. She’d have meltdowns or violent outbursts randomly, set off by things that felt huge to her but really weren’t. It was a lot to deal with.” His jaw clenches, the muscle ticcing. “When she had a day or two of clarity, she and my father both recognized that this couldn’t be good for our family long-term. So Dad put Mom in the assisted-living place. She toured it, of course, and agreed to it… And then, a few months later, Dad told me that they were getting divorced.”
I gasp.
“Just like that?”
Steele shrugs. “I don’t know. He never told me much about it—just that they both decided it wouldn’t be fair to him if she was…” His jaw works again. “An empty shell.”
“She’s not an empty shell.” I hold his hand tighter.
“It doesn’t matter. It was done. Dad pays for everything anyway. He promised to give her the best life he could, and… I mean, she stays in a pretty nice place. She never says anything bad about the other residents or the nurses.”
“Thank you for introducing us,” I whisper. I unbuckle my seat belt and shift onto my knee, leaning over the center console to kiss his cheek.
He smirks. “You’re not going to be thanking me when I tell you where we’re headed next…”
“And here I was about to blow you…” I reach down and brush my finger over his zipper. “So maybe you’ll just take me to bed instead of whatever evil plan you’ve made.”
Steele groans, his cock stiffening under his slacks in record time. “You’ve done it now.”
“So… home?”
I undo the button and drag the zipper down, navigating him out of his pants. His cock springs up, already hard for me. I don’t wait for him to answer, just licking my lips and descending on him. He hits the back of my throat, and I pull back slightly, inhaling through my nose.
His hand comes down on the back of my head, pushing me back down. He’s muttering above me. The whine of the engine goes harder, his thigh flexing as he steps on the gas. It feels dangerous and a little nuts—no pun intended—to be doing this.
