A Date with the Other Side (Cuttersville #1)(58)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Shelby was overwhelmed by the riotous feelings ripping through her as Boston caressed the corner of her mouth with his lips and pulsed inside her with an intimacy she’d never experienced. Every inch of her was alive with pleasure, streaming with passion, aching with want.

She felt his vulnerability, was humbled herself by it, was amazed that this man could feel what he did for her. “Yes, Boston, I absolutely do love you too.”

“Good.” He took her mouth with his and moved inside her, with a wild edgy abandoned thrust that had them both skating into violent release a minute later.

It swept over her, hard and fast and unexpected, and she clung to him, calling out his name, drowning in sensation and ecstasy. Boston dropped onto her, a crushing weight that felt so real and solid she didn’t even object.

Turning her head and sucking in air, Shelby didn’t see his face when he spoke. He was kissing her forehead when he murmured, “Come back to Chicago with me.”

Shelby lost all ability to breathe, and it wasn’t because he was lying on her. “What? Why would you want that?”

He laughed softly. “Were you sleeping when I told you I’m in love with you? That’s why. Come to Chicago. Marry me. Make my apartment a home.”

That was so not fair of him to dangle something like that in front of her. She shoved at his chest to get him to back up a little, give her a measure of space. “Boston, I can’t do that. I can’t leave Cuttersville, you know that.”

He eased out of her reluctantly and gave her such a look of puzzlement, Shelby understood that he truly didn’t get it. Boston didn’t have the kind of family that mattered and so he didn’t understand.

“I can’t leave Gran, and my mom, my cousins. And I’d never fit in in Chicago. I’d get lost on the subway thingy, thieves would peg me as an easy hit, and all those women prancing around with fancy jobs and even fancier black wardrobes would leave me feeling like a country cow.”

The very thought of living in the city made her feel claustrophobic. Shelby sat up and fished her panties back out of her shorts with a sigh. She hadn’t wanted it to end like this, so soon. She had been hoping that once, just once, she could spend the whole night in Boston’s arms. “Why don’t you stay here in Cuttersville?”

Boston raked his hands through his short hair. “I can’t. When my boss says I have to leave, I have to. And how do you know you wouldn’t love Chicago? It’s a great town. You could go to college if you wanted to, and get a real job. I’d pay for it.”

Shelby froze in the act of skimming into her underwear. “I have a real job. And I don’t need you to pay for me to better myself. I happen to like the way I am right now just fine.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Boston was back in his own boxers and dragging on his jeans. “I just meant if money was holding you back, I have that.”

Tears were in her eyes, and Shelby had no patience for them. She blinked hard and reached for her T-shirt. “You don’t get it, Boston. I don’t need money to make me happy. Never have, never will. And while you can give me money, you can’t give me what I really want.”

Even in the dark she could see his stony gray eyes. “What is it that you want?”

The last thing she’d wanted was to hurt him, but she had to be honest, here and now before they both starting spinning fantasies about working things out. “I want to live here in Cuttersville close to my family. I want a creaky old house just like this with antiques older than Gran. I want a husband who loves me and doesn’t care when I wear grubby shirts. I want children, a family of my own that I can raise right here in the same way Gran and my mom raised me.”

There was a long pained silence. “You’re deluding yourself if you think any man alive would prefer you in dirty baggy shirts over a tight tank top.”

He’d either missed the whole damn point or he was being deliberately dumb. “Tell me, honestly, can you give me any of those things? Can you be content to live here without access to hair products? Can you say that it wouldn’t bother you if I stayed at home and raised . . . children?” She’d almost said our children then had caught herself because it was too painful to say that out loud. “I know you. You don’t understand that lack of ambition.”

“I don’t understand your willingness to just throw in the towel on us without even trying or talking about options.” He stood up, brushed her bare leg with his jeans. “Clearly you’ve made up your mind already.”

Shelby didn’t know what she’d done except make a huge elephant-ass-size mistake. She never should have slept with Boston, she never should have told him about her feelings, she never should have even spoken to him the first day she’d met him. “Boston, I’m trying to fix this before we hurt each other worse.”

Suddenly he bent over, so fast that she jumped. He pressed her shirt and shorts against her bare br**sts with a scowl. “Do me a favor. Put some clothes on before we continue this discussion.”

Embarrassed, she got dressed. “What else is there to say?”

“Just tell me that you’d rather take a chance on staying here and never getting married or having the kids you want than come to Chicago with me. Just tell me that.”

Shelby had never been the type who knew how to soothe and comfort, or say the right thing to defuse a situation. She was honest and direct, and before Boston, she hadn’t had a relationship with another man besides Danny since she was fifteen. She didn’t know how to do this. “Danny asked me to marry him again.”

That was the wrong thing to say.

She could feel Boston’s hurt and anger, even before he spoke, his voice tight, hard, cool. “When?”

“A couple of weeks ago.” Shelby stood up, unable to sit still anymore, hating what she was doing to him, knowing that she had to if she wanted to retain her own bit of sanity and not agree to do whatever he wanted. To not stupidly agree to go with him and then hate every minute of it, hurting them both worse in the long run.

A professional mask had slid over Boston’s face. He watched her, assessing, but calm and in control. “And you’re going to say yes?” he asked conversationally, like they’d run into each other at the grocery. His hands were clenched into fists, though, revealing more than he probably wanted to.

Shelby could picture him at work, intimidating and always, always coming out on top.