Mine to Claim Read online

  Paulo walks in, his head on a swivel. Roxie strides up to him, her hips swaying. “Hey, handsome, come on and have a seat.” She leads him–pretty much by the dick–over to her section. Good. I would’ve had to boot him out of Orchid’s section if he’d tried it, and I’d do it a hell of a lot more forcefully.

  “Hey, Paulo,” Orchid calls from behind the counter. Then she speaks to Dixie through the kitchen window and turns back around. But she looks at me. She always does. She sneaks glances at me the whole time I’m here, and also when we’re at home. If I’m in the yard, she tends to find a reason to go outside, which then starts the domino effect of that dumbass Paulo coming out, too.

  But maybe I’m reading too much into things. Probably am. After all, I’m a bear compared to her. She’s a little Goldilocks with no idea about all the filthy things I’d love to do to her.

  After a while, she brings my plate–chicken fried steak with a side of mashed potatoes and greens. “Let me get you more coffee. I’ll be right back.”

  “No rush, Orchid. Take your time.” I hate when she feels like she has to hurry from table to table, especially when it’s my table. She doesn’t. I’d be here even if Dixie was serving up unsalted grits with a side of tripe. It’s Orchid that makes the diner enjoyable, nothing else.

  “I’m trying to be a good waitress.” She gives me a cute smile. “So I can get good tips.”

  “Have I not been tipping you well enough?” I ask.

  Her eyes widen. “Of course you have! You’re always so generous. Even that first night when I spilled your food all over you–”

  “You did? I don’t remember that at all.”

  “You don’t remember–Oh.” She laughs. “You’re messing with me.”

  “The only thing I remember from you is wonderful service every time I set foot in here. That’s all.”

  Her cheeks turn that light pink again. “Thanks, Sully. You’re so sweet to me.” She turns and fetches the coffee carafe.

  As she’s walking back to me, the diner door opens, and two men walk in.

  I feel the shift as soon as the door closes behind them.

  Orchid stops, her skin going pale.

  I toss down my silverware and rise to go to her.

  Before I get there, she gasps, then drops the carafe, the glass shattering at her feet as the men walk toward her.

  4

  ORCHID

  I suppose a girl can only run for so long before her past catches up to her. That is the only thing I can think as I stare into Jeremiah’s bright blue eyes. The ones that all the girls back at the land always fell all over themselves about. They are beautiful. Striking, really. But I know what lies behind them.

  They’ve always reminded me of hard ice and unforgiving cold that goes bone deep. Even now, a chill races right through my entire body. The heat of the coffee pot that’s shattered at my feet, some of the hot fluid splattered across my legs, is welcome. Anything to stop the coldness that keeps spreading through me. But I don’t think the devil himself could cut that cold blizzard I feel whenever I stare into Jeremiah’s eyes.

  Sully’s warm sweet breath still tingles across my lips. Somehow, it’s the only place that’s staying warm. Jeremiah is no match for the things that Sully can make me experience and feel.

  I’m sure most would laugh at me saying Sully is sweet. I don’t care how others see him, though. To me, everything about the man is sweet. Heck, I get jealous over Sully’s garden and sculptures that he’s always tending to with those rough hands of his. At how much attention he pays to each and every one of them.

  It doesn’t matter how rough those hands of his were. His touch always looks so gentle when he’s working with them. I have to admit that I’ve gotten turned on more than a few times just watching him. Even with the few times he’s casually touched me, my body longs for more of the sweet caress. The one that shows you he can handle you with care no matter how rough the texture of his skin is. If anything, it only adds to the sweetness of it.

  But now, all the sweetness I’ve started to experience over the last few months is rapidly fading from my body. Anything and everything I’ve enjoyed or dreamed of is always taken from me. Especially by the man standing next to Jeremiah. My father.

  My gaze moves over to him. My father has always thought Jeremiah to be some prophet. I don’t know why Jeremiah has always scared me more than my own father, but he does. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that my father would do anything Jeremiah asked him to, which is odd because my father is the one that’s supposed to be the Prophet with the capital ‘P.’

  Jeremiah has never laid a hand on me, but something in his cold blue eyes always told me that in time that would change if I was to become his. I don’t just mean physical blows, either. He’d leave scars that would not show only on my flesh but in places no one else could see. Only I’d feel and know they were there, making and changing me forever. More so than the ones I'm still trying to work my way through.

  As always, they both are dressed in suits. They often do, especially if they are leaving the community to go out and do whatever it is that they do when they left the land. Unlike the rest of our clothes, which we’d often make ourselves, theirs are always so nice.

  “Orchid.” My father's tone is calm. It only makes my fear start to rise. They’re going to take me. “It’s time to come back home.”

  My eyes flick from him and back to Jeremiah, who is no longer staring at me but at Roxie. Unable to help myself, my head starts to nod yes. No! Orchard, you’re home already. Briarton is your new home, I fight to remind myself.

  “But I was…” I trail off when Jeremiah’s attention swings back my way. His eyes roam up and down my body. He licks his lips, and something else altogether flashes in his eyes. That coldness is replaced by lust.

  I’ve never much cared for how Jeremiah looks at me. More so when he thinks no one is watching. It always makes me feel gross and happy for the oversized ugly dresses we always had to wear.

  Funny how when I think I catch Sully’s eyes taking me in how it makes me feel so different. Things inside me rise to the surface and tempt me to do things to see if I can get him to stare at me longer. How can I loathe something from one person but want it so badly from another? I don’t understand my own thoughts, and I can’t help but think it has everything to do with how I was raised … or maybe I’m broken inside. Maybe I’m permanently damaged.

  “Have you been doing things you’re not supposed to be, Orchid? You’re my fiancée,” Jeremiah says loudly.

  A few small gasps sound through the diner as everyone watches. I’m sure they’re wondering what the heck is going on. Then again, I’ve never been quick to tell much about my past. Not because some of the shame I carry that slowly–as I’ve grown on my own–has started to fall away but because I didn’t want them to find me. My fear that I’m not strong enough to tell them no. It’s why I ran to begin with.

  “Jeremiah asked you a question,” Father snaps.

  Jeremiah opens his mouth but shuts it as his eyes go wide looking over my shoulder.

  The coldness starts to change as warmth seeps back into me. I don’t have to glance over my shoulder to know who’s there. I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing Sully heard the whole ‘fiancée’ comment. Now what’s he going to think of me? Here I am trying to lure him to kiss me, and now he thinks I have a fiancé.

  “Just because you ask someone a question doesn’t mean they have to answer it.” Sully’s deep voice rumbles across the diner. To my surprise and thrill, his arm wraps around my waist, and he lifts me off my feet as he steps back a few feet. “Don’t want any glass to get on that petal skin of yours,” he says against my ear. His tone is back to being soft and sweet for me. “Charlie, can you get a broom out here?” he shouts to the back.

  Slowly, Sully puts me back on my feet, but he doesn’t let me go. His arm stays tucked tightly around my waist. I wish I could drop my head back and look up at him to see his face right now. I’m not sure what it’s showing, but my father and Jeremiah aren’t looking so tough at the moment. I let myself sink back into Sully’s body, wanting to draw from his strength.

  “She’s my fiancée, or did you forget?” Jeremiah gives me a pointed look.

  “That so, Petal?” Sully draws out his words, almost sounding bored with Jeremiah and his question. As for me, all I can think about now is him calling me Petal, but somehow, I manage to shake my head no this time.

  “I left a note,” I quickly add. I mean, do I really have to break up with someone I never agreed to marry? I was told. It was never a question.

  “But not the ring.” Jeremiah is quick to point out.

  “It was my grandmother’s. She left it to me.” I reach up and pull the necklace out from under my dress. I always keep it tucked away there.

  It wasn’t the ring my father gave my mom, who was his fourth wife. No, it’s the ring my grandma on her side left to me when she died.

  I don't believe she ever meant for it to be used in the kind of marriage Jeremiah is thinking we’d have, even if he is promising I’ll be his first wife. Not his first lover, of course, as he expects from me. No, I’ve heard those rumors. Some of the men sneak into some of the widows' homes, or they get dressed up in their fancy suits and go out to find the company of a woman.

  While my grandfather did have two wives, he’d only acquired the second 'cause Grandma Noel nudged him to. I don’t think there was ever anything romantic with the second wife, Gina. She was more like an aunt to me. She never had children, and while Grandpa was kind to her, I never saw any romance between the two. As for Grandma and Gina, they were best friends.

  I know Gina was a widow, and I don’t think she wanted anything to do with any man after her first husband died. Grandma Noel and Gina had some kind of sisterly bond. I truly think she was a roommate that lived out her days doing what she wanted. If I recall correctly, Grandma Noel held tightly to Grandpa, and he held her just as close. I remember telling her I wanted what they had. After she passed, she’d left me her ring, and I took that as her telling me that I could have what she had if I wanted.

  “You stole it,” my father interjects. “It was mine to give to your future husband of my choosing.”

  “Not sure that’s how wills work.” Sully’s voice is getting deeper by the second. All the coldness has left my body now. His hold on me keeps on tightening. I’m all but surrounded by him now.

  The ring, a few of my belongings, and cash I’d been slowly tucking away that I’d earned is all I took when I left.

  “I’m not so sure you know who you’re dealing with,” my father tells Sully. He has to drop his head almost all the way back to even meet Sully’s stare. If my emotions weren’t all over the place, I might giggle. However, that doesn’t stop Dixie from doing it.

  “So she’s a thief? I knew it!” Roxie hisses loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Roxie,” Dixie snaps in her no-nonsense tone. It’s the one that tells everyone they better watch what they say next.

  Roxie seals up her cherry painted lips real quick.

  “You agree to marry this man, Petal?” Sully asks me as he ignores everyone else. His forefinger and thumb come to my chin to turn my head to look up at him.

  “You don’t really get to agree to much where I’m from. You’re just told.”

  “I don’t know what they or anyone else has been telling you, but you do get to agree on who you marry. You want to marry this man?”

  “No, I don’t want to marry him.” Gosh, it’s so much easier to answer when I’m staring into Sully’s eyes and he’s got his hands on me. I feel utterly safe.

  “Then there you go.” Sully dismisses Jeremiah and my father as if it’s so easy.

  Problem is, Sully can’t have his arms around me all the time. When they drop away, that safe feeling vanishes with them.

  5

  SULLY

  Orchid is shaking, her cheeks colored a bright pink and her eyes glassy. She’s fucking terrified of these two assholes.

  I ease her into the booth beside me and kneel down to check over her legs to make sure she didn’t get cut when the carafe fell.

  “Don’t touch her.” The younger one steps forward, his shoe crunching the glass that Charlie is trying to sweep.

  I ignore him and finish my inspection. “No cuts. Just a little wet is all. Did you get burned?” I ask her.

  “N-no.” She shakes her head.

  “Good.” I rise and turn to the jumped-up asshole in the suit. “Let’s take this outside.”

  He blanches and moves back. “I didn’t come here for violence. I’m here to take my fiancée home.”

  “And Charlie’s here to clean up the mess you made.” I gesture toward the cook. “So how about you fuck off outside so he can do his job?” I step up to the prick.

  “Come on, Jeremiah. Let’s not make a scene.” The older man, Orchid’s father I assume, pulls Jeremiah toward the door.

  I follow them out.

  “I’m not leaving without Orchid.” The prick stops and stares into the diner, his eyes on my Orchid.

  “You aren’t leaving with her, asshole. So get used to disappointment.” I stand in front of the door and cross my arms over my chest. I’m perfectly aware that I’m a large man, and the beard only adds to how intimidating I can look. That’s never bothered me, mainly because I’ve never had to deal with people too much. But at the moment, I’m enjoying the fear in the prick’s eyes as he swallows hard and looks up at me.

  “She belongs to me.” He fists his hands at his sides.

  “Last I checked, she was a grown woman. She doesn’t belong to anyone except herself.”

  Jeremiah snorts. “Spoken like a true godless heathen.”

  “Godless, eh?” I smirk. “I tell you what, you keep looking at Orchid like that, I’ll make sure you meet God tonight. How’s that sound?” I step to him again.

  He makes a whimpering sound in his throat, then tries to cover it with a cough as he backs away.

  “I don’t know who you think you are–”

  “I’m the grim fucking reaper as far as you two are concerned. Now get the hell out of here before I show you just how much of a godless heathen I really am.” I don’t put my hands on Jeremiah or the older man. I don’t have to.

  They back away from me, then turn and hurry to a truck in the back of the small parking lot.

  I don’t miss the look Jeremiah gives Orchid or the second one he shoots me. The little prick is pissed off. Good. He shouldn’t be out here pretending to be a man when he’s nothing more than a schoolyard bully with a doomed crush. A crush on my Orchid.

  Once they peel off and disappear down the dusty road, I return inside.

  Charlie’s already cleaned up the mess, and Dixie is sitting across from Orchid and trying to comfort her.

  Orchid wipes tears from her cheeks and gives me a weak smile. “Thanks, Sully. I’m sorry you had to see all that.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I’m not.” I don’t want her to think for one second that she’s not worth fighting for. She is. I’ll always take her side, no matter what.

  “You’ll be safe here at the diner, girl. You know that. I won’t let anything happen to you, and neither will Sully.” Dixie looks up at me. “Right?”

  “One hundred percent.” I offer Orchid my hand. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

  “But my shift’s not over.” She sniffles.

  “Yeah, I ain’t taking her tables.” Roxie pops her gum from where she’s leaning on the counter.

  “I will.” Dixie rises as I pull Orchid to her feet.

  “Thanks.” Orchid hugs Dixie. “I’ll um, I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?”

  “Sure thing. Don’t you worry. We’ll watch over you.” Dixie hugs her tightly then lets her go. “Sully, you know what to do.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I lead Orchid out to my truck. Once I help her inside and fasten her seatbelt for her, I grab her bike from the rack out front and put it in the bed.

  “Let’s go home.” I climb in beside her and pull away from the diner.

  “Thank you,” she says quietly, her fingers tangling together in her lap. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been there tonight.”

  “I’m pretty sure Dixie would’ve clawed their eyes out.” I glance at her.

  She gives me a smile, and something about it soothes some of the anger I feel toward the assholes who tried to boss her around. Orchid’s like that–she can make me feel lighter than air with just a look.

  “She may have. Dixie doesn’t play around.” She nods.

  “Hey.” I reach out and take her hand. I don’t even realize I did it until I’m holding her little hand in my big old paw, but it feels just as natural as breathing. “I won’t let them force you into anything. You know that, right?”

  She nods. “I think I just had to say yes so many times.” She fidgets. “You know, to avoid being punished.”

  I don’t know, but the thought of anyone punishing my soft little petal of a woman makes that anger rise again.

  “Anyway, I think I just got so used to agreeing to everything that I fell back into it when I saw Jeremiah and my father. Like a defense mechanism. I have to break out of that. I mean, I thought I had, but then …”

  “They surprised you, Petal. Don’t fret too much about it. Next time–if there is a next time–you’ll be ready.”

  She takes a deep shaking breath and lets it out. “I hope so. Because I’ve already promised myself I’ll never go back. No matter what. If I do, that place will kill me.”

  I squeeze her hand. “Then you may as well forget about it, because I won’t let you go anywhere that’ll lead you into harm’s way.”