Otterly Scorched

by Tara Sivec

  Looking away from where Dax is giving Nanci a goodbye hug next to her car, I shrug when I look back at my mom.

  “Oh, you know, no big deal. Just lying to the man I… I don’t know what, trying to figure out how to tell him something that will break his heart.”

  My mom wraps her arms around me, giving me a quick, comforting squeeze. She pulls back to smile softly at me, reaching up to brush my hair off my forehead.

  “Everything will be okay. Just screw his brains out to distract him until you can figure things out.”

  Ovaries: This woman is a god.

  CHAPTER 21

  Significant Otter

  Dax

  Once the table has been cleared and folded back down to a four-seater, the dishes have been washed and put away, and all the lights have been turned off—aside from the handful of candles still flickering around the kitchen and living room, and the nightlight brightly glowing on her kitchen range hood—Harley steps back inside her house from the front porch.

  “Feel better?” I ask hopefully, wiping off my hands with a kitchen towel and tossing it on the counter.

  After everyone left, Harley seemed more on edge than she had all night at dinner. I thought at first it was the stress of her brother’s stupid crab getting loose and running down the table, or maybe she wasn’t really being serious about loving the ice sculpture and was actually annoyed I brought it out. But she’s used to her family’s ridiculousness and mine at this point. It should come as no shock to her that nothing we plan will ever run smoothly.

  Not knowing what else to do so she’d stop looking so worried and tense, I made her go outside and sit on the porch for some fresh air while I cleaned up the house, hoping that would help. I love cleaning. It relaxes me. But being alone in Harley’s quiet house just gave me too much time to think about why she was so worried and tense. Which then led to me having an entirely too long of a discussion with Marilyn Mongrow.

  The worry lines between Harley’s eyes when she stops right inside her front door after she closes it and leans back against it, has me moving around the kitchen island and walking toward her.

  “I need to tell you something,” she whispers, my feet coming to a sudden stop in the middle of the living room.

  The fresh air clearly did not help, and now I kind of want to throw up dinner, even though those were the best goddamn Beef Wellingtons I’ve ever made. A thousand scenarios ran through my head while I scrubbed the pans that didn’t fit in the dishwasher, all of them worse than the last about what could be bothering Harley. For a minute, when she walked through the door, I thought I was being overdramatic, since this is my first relationship with a woman and I might not be able to read all the signs right yet. But whenever a woman quietly says she needs to tell you something, it never ends well.

  “I don’t love your father anymore, and I’m not very good at being a mother. We’ll keep in touch though.”

  “Zat soufflé is merde. Crap! Make eet again!”

  “I lied when I said I’d have sex with you in the back of your cruiser. I just wanted a free meal.”

  “I have gonorrhea.”

  I’ve been spending all this time trying to get Harley to admit she has some kind of fondness for me, when maybe this is just a fun, good time for her and she’s not thinking serious or futuristically at all. I was half in love with her five years ago, when she was just a sexy smartass who couldn’t stand me. Now… now that I know her, now that I know she means everything to me and I can’t imagine a day going by where I don’t hear something sarcastic come out of her mouth, or hear her laugh, or listen to her moan my name, or watch her throw away a perfectly good box of Lucky Charms just because all the marshmallows are gone… if she stands there and tells me this isn’t serious for her, I’m not going to handle it well.

  I hate feeling so insecure. This is why I didn’t people for so many years.

  “Before you say anything, I need to say something first,” I quickly speak when Harley’s mouth opens to say whatever she came in here to say that has her looking like she too wants to throw up all the delicious food I made tonight.

  Clearing my throat, I run my hand through my hair nervously.

  “No matter what happens… with us or whatever… thank you.”

  Harley pushes away from the door and walks toward me, stepping onto the living room carpet and then stopping a few feet away when I continue.

  “Thank you for forcing me to start talking to my dad. I never knew how much I needed him to accept me for who I am and for what I love to do, in order to finally let go of the past, forgive him, and move on, until tonight. All of that happened because of you,” I tell her, watching her bring a hand up and press it to her stomach. “I never would have reached out to him if you hadn’t made me do it. I would have just continued the cycle of being pissed and not giving him a second chance. So, thank you for giving me my dad. The one I always wanted.”

  “Jesus, who did I piss off in a former life?” Harley mutters.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” she says with a shake of her head, sniffing and swiping at something on her cheek when she takes another step toward me.

  She looks hot as hell in the skinny jeans with ratty holes in the knee, and I stare at her bare shoulder with her dark-gray sweater hanging loose off of it, instead of looking at her eyes, which are probably looking at me with pity that I’m so serious and she’s so “Weee, this was fun while it lasted!” I thought staring at her silky-smooth shoulder and thinking about all the times I ran my fingertips over her skin or pressed my lips there throughout the night would make me feel better, but it just depresses the hell out of me that maybe I won’t get to do that anymore, because she’s breaking up with me.

  Fuck, I am such a pussy.

  “I just wanted you to know how much that means to me,” I tell her, finally looking up at her again, thankful I don’t see any pity, but the apprehension is still there. “Nanci has been amazing and has always been there for me, but it’s not the same as having your actual parent care about you. Being able to talk to my dad like that tonight and have him interested in what I’m saying, and what I’m passionate about, and asking so many questions… it’s all I’ve ever wanted, and I’m grateful to you for making that happen.”

  “Please, don’t thank me for that. Especially because—”

  “The dinner party was too much, wasn’t it?” I interrupt, unable to keep my fucking mouth shut and just let her get this over with and rip it off like a Band-Aid. “It was too much, too soon, and it scared you. All the redecorating probably didn’t help either, but in time, I know you’ll see that having a hutch to store your good china in really is a great investment for every home.”

  “I have a hutch? And good china?” Harley asks, looking around the living room while I silently groan.

  “Um, yeah. They’re out in the garage. I haven’t had time to bring them in yet, and you know what? You’re right. Too much, way too soon, and it scared you shitless. I get it now. I mean, we haven’t even had a talk about… you know… us, but yeah, maybe an intimate dinner party with our friends and family was a little too premature.”

  Harley shakes her head, but I’m already well into the word vomit, and just like real vomit, there’s no pulling it back in once it has begun spewing everywhere.

  “I will admit I went a little overboard with the printed menus, but I stand by everyone’s initials I put on their Beef Wellingtons with puff pastry. It’s elegant, and it shows your guests you care by adding a special touch. I just wanted it to be perfect. I wanted you to see that our insane friends and family could all get along and make sense, and that we make sense,” I ramble. “Because we do, Harley. We make perfect fucking sense. You calm me when I’m in a rage, and I soften you when you want to eat people for breakfast. I need you to see that—”

  “I love you.”

  My mouth was already dropped open spewing all those words, so it doesn’t have far to go when Harley interrupts me with
those three quietly spoken words. Her wide eyes and O-shaped mouth tell me she’s just as goddamn shocked as I am right now.

  “What?” I whisper back when I finally remember how to speak again, taking a final step toward her until we’re toe-to-toe.

  My heart was already pounding in my chest when I thought she was breaking up with me, and now it feels like I just ran a marathon it’s beating so fast.

  Harley finally closes her mouth, and I watch her swallow nervously and rub the tip of her nose twice before looking up at me.

  “I didn’t mean to say that.”

  My heart drops right down to my feet, where it gets kicked across the room, tumbles outside the front door, and then gets plowed by an eighteen-wheeler in the middle of the street.

  “I mean, I meant to say something else!” she quickly amends when she sees the kicked puppy look on my face, but that doesn’t help either, and she knows it. “Shit! I’m so bad at this. Where’s that Emotional Support Limb when you need it?”

  Neither one of us laughs at her joke, and Harley rubs the tip of her nose nervously again.

  “I actually meant to tell you I like you,” she speaks softly, leaning closer to press her hand over my heart. “But I was standing here looking at you, listening to you say all those things, and thinking to myself, ‘What the hell are you doing? You know damn well how you feel about him. Just say it already!’ And I opened my mouth to say I like you, and I said I love you instead, and… holy shit… I do. I love you, Dax.”

  Wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, I haul her to me and kiss her. Who knew five years ago when I was chasing after this woman that I would eventually get my shit together, and she’d fall in love with me?

  Pulling away from her lips after a few seconds, I stare down at her in awe, sliding my free arm around her waist and holding her tightly against me.

  “I’m so fucking in love with you,” I tell her back, saying those words to a woman for the first time in my life and knowing I mean them more than any other words I’ve spoken before.

  Harley blinks back tears, squeezing her eyes closed for a few seconds, mumbling to herself under her breath.

  “It’s fine. The other thing can wait. I should listen to my mother.”

  “What other thing?”

  She suddenly steps back out of my arms, grabs the hem of her sweater, and pulls it up and off her body before tossing it over onto the couch.

  “Sweet mother of fucking God,” I groan when I see nothing but beautiful, bare tits in front of me. “You had those under that sweater the entire night without a bra, and I didn’t even know it?”

  Reaching for boobs, I pout as Harley quickly swats my hands away.

  “Sitz! Blieb!”

  One hand is on her hip, and one is pointing at the couch behind me, and I almost come in my pants when she orders me around topless in German as I take a few stumbling steps backward and flop down onto the couch.

  “This is an important night,” Harley says, slowly walking toward me while her fingers unbutton her jeans. “I love you, and you love me. Our family and friends didn’t kill each other tonight, and we should celebrate. We can talk about other stuff tomorrow.”

  Harley stops between my spread legs, swaying her hips from side-to-side seductively as she pushes her jeans down over her hips. My dick is so hard watching her strip for me I might have to excuse myself to rub one out in the bathroom first or this’ll end embarrassingly quickly.

  Keeping her eyes on me the entire time, Harley continues slowly sliding her jeans down below her knees until she can shimmy out of them the rest of the way and kick them off to the side.

  “Say it again,” I request softly when she’s standing at the edge of the couch between my legs, wearing nothing but a pair of white cotton hipster panties.

  She knows exactly what I want to hear, but she smirks instead and then slowly turns away to look back at me over her shoulder, a few strands of wavy blonde hair falling down over one eye. I’m a man. Of course my eyes immediately trail down over the skin of her smooth, bare back to focus on her butt.

  And then I do something I never thought I’d do while looking at Harley’s ass, especially when those white cotton hipsters she’s wearing show off a lot of bare, luscious ass cheek.

  I throw my head back and laugh.

  Harley shakes her ass a few times, and I lean forward and swat my hand right over her cheeks, where there’s a picture of an otter and the words Significant Otter printed on the back. She turns around to face me again, and my laughter is cut off, because her sexy naked tits I want to put my mouth on are right in front of me once more. I grab onto her hips when she climbs onto my lap, running my hand up her bare thighs when she straddles me and sits. Harley rests her hands on the back of the couch on either side of my head and presses her forehead against mine.

  “Say it again,” I request softly once more, grabbing tightly to her hips.

  She swivels her body, rubbing her cotton-covered pussy right over my cock straining behind the fly of my jeans, and I groan against her mouth, digging my fingers into her skin.

  “I love you,” she whispers against my lips, lifting her hips up a little and reaching between us with one hand to unbutton my jeans and run her palm up and down my cock a few times before pulling it out.

  Keeping her lips right against mine, teasing me and pulling back whenever I try to kiss her while she continues driving me crazy with her slowly pumping hand, I quickly grab a condom out of the armrest in the sectional where I threw a box last week. Harley removes her other hand from the back of the couch and reaches between us again when I get the condom on, pulling her panties to the side while sliding the head of my cock through her wetness, letting just the tip slip inside her.

  I groan and start panting against her mouth when she puts her hands back on the couch on either side of my head, swivels her hips again on the tip, but doesn’t lower herself on me.

  “You’re killing me,” I moan when she finally inches down on my cock just the tiniest bit.

  She runs her lips back and forth over mine, dragging my bottom lip through her teeth, making my dick pulse and twitch, aching to be inside of her fully.

  “Just remember this tomorrow. I love you,” she whispers against my mouth.

  Before I can ask her what she’s talking about, Harley finally presses her lips to mine, sinking her tongue into my mouth at the same time she sinks all the way down on my cock until she’s fully seated on my thighs.

  We swallow each other’s moan as I deepen the kiss, sliding one arm around her waist and running my other hand up her spine and the back of her neck until I clutch onto a handful of her hair. Her thighs tighten on either side of me as she starts sliding her tight, wet pussy up and down my length, definitely making me black out for a few seconds until I have to tear my mouth away from hers so I can breathe.

  Knowing exactly what she likes, I keep her hair clutched in one hand, tilting her head to the side, and press my mouth against the spot where her neck meets her shoulder, grazing my teeth against it.

  “Oh my God,” Harley moans, riding me harder and faster.

  I smile against the skin there, tightening my grip on her hair as I bite down harder and thrust my hips up to meet her, fucking her just as hard and fast. Unwinding my arm from around her waist, I drag my palm up her side, cupping one of her full tits in my hand, rubbing my thumb back and forth over her nipple.

  Harley groans and chants my name over and over, and I can’t believe there was ever a moment tonight when I thought she was going to say something really bad to me. She’s perfect. Everything about her is perfect, even her crazy, insane family. Maybe I finally have paid my penance for all the stupid shit I’ve done in my past, and this is my reward.

  I feel Harley’s pussy tighten and clench around me and hear the familiar sounds of her coming apart as she moans and shouts my name.

  The feel of her coming and how tightly she’s clinging to me, like she never wants to let me go, has me fol
lowing right behind her. I wrap both my arms around her, pump my hips up roughly, and hold myself deep inside her when my release explodes out of me, telling her I love her over and over.

  As soon as we find Chris and Lincoln and I can beat the shit out of anyone who knew about or had anything to do with their kidnapping, my life will finally be perfect.

  Trusting Harley Blake and falling in love with her are the first fucking good decisions I’ve ever made.

  CHAPTER 22

  Ferrets on Crack

  Harley

  “He’s going to forgive me, right?”

  I stare up at the stone mega-mansion where Dax grew up that looks like a luxury, medieval castle and has so many fucking turrets I lost count. He’s shown me a few pictures, but nothing prepares you for the monstrosity and pretentiousness of it until you’re standing next to a giant, hand carved, three-tiered, white marble fountain with angels pissing out of their tiny marble penises.

  “I don’t know. We don’t have time for that now. Make sure my vest is secured tightly.”

  Looking away from the estate that has to be at least ten thousand square feet, my dad is standing next to my car with his arms held straight out to the sides, wearing a stupid SWAT team vest, a helmet, and yellow night-vision glasses.

  “You look ridiculous. He isn’t going to shoot us. Martin Trevino hasn’t slept in weeks and could barely hold his fork at dinner he was so exhausted,” I remind him again, glancing around the dark, swanky neighborhood that only has enough room for three mega-mansions on the cul-de-sac.

  Since it’s just barely five in the morning, all the houses are dark, save for the decorative spotlights shining on them from the professionally landscaped shrubbery and a few vintage streetlamps at the end of every driveway. Knowing I exhausted Dax enough that he definitely won’t be waking up at his usual time of right now, since he just passed out after our third round of sex an hour ago, I immediately snuck out of the house when he started softly snoring and called my dad for backup.