by Eden Connor
* * * *
She knew wood the way he knew cars. "It's peach wood. My two grandfathers used to operate a huge peach farm together," said Colton, "but a lot of the trees have died. We chop those for firewood now, but I used some of the wood to build the drawers and columns."
"Colton, this is incredible." She leaned over to pull out one drawer. He knew she was examining the way he'd put them together, not critiquing how he'd folded his work shirts. Such a detail would be important to her. He held his breath, waiting for her judgment.
"Look at the hand-cut dovetailing. This is the very finest sort of craftsmanship."
He heard the approval he craved in her voice, and he flushed under her praise as he basked in the admiration shining in her eyes. "Coming from you, that means a lot."
"The work you've done is amazing," she stated, running her hand over the elongated triangle cuts he'd made to hook the fronts of the drawers to the sides. "This is utterly one-of-a-kind. Maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever seen that wasn't in a magazine."
* * * *
Yeah, he thought, she is. He could hardly wait to see her in his bed, either. But he was determined to feed her first. "Thank you, I'm glad you like it. Truth is I did see a picture somewhat like this in a magazine. One you left at the shop, actually." He hurried past the confession. She'd turned down the corner of the page, and the bed had captured his fancy, too. "Jonah's room is on the other end of the house. I'll show you, but that sound you'll hear is me gritting my teeth."
They retraced their steps and Lila's shoulders shook silently as she surveyed the chaos of Jonah's room, so at odds with the rest of the immaculate house. "Tomorrow noon's his deadline to get it cleaned up," he said, shaking his head as he closed the door when they stepped back into the hall. "If not, he won't be going to practice."
Back in the kitchen, he pulled the skewers of shrimp and vegetables out of the refrigerator. He kept darting looks at her as he worked, enjoying the reality of Lila in his home, perched on his barstool. "Too early for a beer? I bought your brand," he tempted, holding up a bottle of the variety he himself preferred.
"It's five o'clock somewhere," Lila joked, reaching for the frosty bottle. "And, it's the weekend."
* * * *
He led her through French doors opening off the dining area to a patio made from the same ochre-tinted stone as the fireplace and indicated she should sit on one of the comfortable lounge chairs while he lit the grill. Plates and silverware were stacked on one end of the huge stainless steel monstrosity that looked as if it would easily hold meat for two dozen.
Lila sipped her beer. Overhead, paddle fans circled lazily, mounted to beams stretching from one side of the patio to the other, cross-braced between. The far end where the grill was located was screened, and the roof was corrugated tin, powder-coated to match the fans. The patio was a cozy space enclosed on three sides by the house. The view in the distance was of gentle mountains, the part of the Appalachian chain known as the Great Smokey Mountains. It was so quiet she could hear the rushing sound of a stream she figured had to be over the hill in his wooded backyard.
"This must be a great place to sit and listen to the rain," she said, picturing herself curled up with a book, watching the rain fall over the mountains.
"It is," Colton agreed. "Now, if you can help me convince Jonah that's an activity, I'd be grateful."
Lila thought the situation over. What thrilled her about the location was the total sense of privacy. To Jonah, that might translate into a sense of isolation. "He must think he's been dropped off in the wilderness," she said. "I suppose he still complains about the lack of excitement?"
"Constantly," Colton agreed as he basted the shrimp a final time with his homemade barbeque sauce. "He lived in an apartment complex with a lot of other kids. There was a pool and a skateboard park nearby, video arcades in walking distance, and public transportation, though I doubt Sarah knew when he used it. The Pacific Ocean was a short drive away. This is his idea of hell on earth, I think. The need for big city excitement was what drove my sister away, and my mother, I guess. Jonah has their affinity for them."
"Maybe you can take him fishing in my pond, and we'll feed him the result of his efforts," Lila offered, knowing her small pond was lame compared to the Pacific Ocean. "I'll bet he's never caught a bass in his life, much less gutted it and had it for dinner. And he'll make friends, they'll go hang at the mall and look at girls. He'll adjust."
"Promise?" he asked, darting a look at her as he took the skewers off the grill and slid the simple meal onto a single plate. "You're officially elected activity director. I live in fear he's going to try and run away. I hide my keys and get up in the middle of the night most nights to be sure the kid is still in his bed."
Which explained why he took so much of Jonah's attitude without complaint, she realized. "He'll adjust," she said firmly. "Before you can blink, he'll be driving, too."
The look on his face warned her he'd be touching her in a very few minutes. Her heart rate mirrored the whirring wings of the myriad ruby-throated hummingbirds flashing around in his backyard as she wondered whether he could adjust to the thing she wanted to ask of him. Things between them were very good. Perhaps she should leave well enough alone.
Chapter Fourteen
"Would you like to eat out here?" he asked. No matter where, he'd decided to feed her with his fingers. She was so damn perfect, he thought, appreciative of the rural life he preferred and she shared his pleasure in doing things by hand. She was so freaking sexy she could have stopped traffic on the streets of any big city. He'd been so busy admiring her, he'd forgotten to offer her a glass for her beer, but she'd taken the bottle and raised it to her lips as if she always drank it that way.
"I'd like that," she agreed.
He got two more beers and placed them together on the table, held out a hand to help her off the lounge chair, then drew her toward him instead of allowing her to take the chair beside him. "Part of the service," he explained, patting his thigh after taking a seat. He reached for a shrimp and raised it, wondering what she'd think if she knew he'd never brought a woman here before. He hadn't really dated anyone since finishing the house about a year ago, and it pleased him to think she was the first woman to be in it. His gut told him to keep that tidbit to himself.
* * * *
"Wait a minute," Lila murmured. Her body heated as she realized his intent. "It would be a shame to get something on my new dress." She grasped the hem and drew it slowly over her head. Down to her new underwear, she straddled him. "Or your shirt," she continued, reaching for the buttons of the crisp white and blue striped button-down Amy would've approved of. She liked him in his jeans and t-shirts, picturing him in a white wife-beater that would show off his dark skin. That's what she'd buy for him, if they had that sort of relationship. Amy could have the shirts needing to be starched and ironed, and the men who wore them, she thought as she smoothed her hands over the strength of his chest.
* * * *
"Pink is my new favorite color," he breathed, staring at her breasts, wrapped in shimmering pale pink and ecru lace like a beautiful gift. He shrugged out of his shirt, letting it fall to his waist. The silky fabric of her bra tickled his chest. Reaching behind her, Colton felt the naked skin of her butt cheeks that signaled a thong, making him growl deep in his throat as he tucked her against his erection.
She worked the silky triangle in front against his cock as she accepted a shrimp from his fingers, sucking every drop of sauce from his fingertips. "Excellent," she praised, reaching for another. "You should try one."
"I intend to," he said, sucking her nipple into his mouth through the sheer silk.
Her head fell back as she whimpered under the assault, one hand clutching his hair at the nape, pulling at the bit of leather he'd tied it back with. "Keep that up and I'll come in your lap," she breathed.
"You do that," he said, releasing the nipple as he felt the heat from her pussy began to seep through his pa
nts to warm his cock. "That sweet cream is my new favorite dessert."
* * * *
He had a lot of favorites, she thought. She was becoming very partial to that mossy green his eyes became when he was aroused. She rubbed the shrimp against his lips, so she could lick the sauce from them while he chewed.
He accepted the shrimp, chewing slowly, his hands kneading her ass like a contented cat as she slowed her pace against the hardness between his legs while she dragged her tongue across his lips. She wanted to come for him, but needed the heat to build first. He lifted her, moving her along his length as he suckled her fingers. That felt good; heat rose inside her like the mercury in the big thermometer fastened to the wall just behind him.
She steeled herself for the thrill when he picked up the icy beer bottle and touched it to her other nipple, relishing the sting as the cold penetrated her heated, sensitized peak and sent a lance of pleasure to her pussy. His eyes held a challenge as he raised his head and took a long sip. He pulled her head down to meet his kiss, sharing the beer with her as he pulled the cup of her bra down underneath her breast. He kissed her again in the way that made her senseless.
"Oh, my God," Lila gasped, panting as he broke off their kiss. She felt the juices spill from her pussy, wetting the scrap of fabric between her legs and likely his pants as well.
"Try the veggies," he said, slipping the other lacy cup down as he selected a piece of squash, using it to baste her nipples with the buttery sauce before placing the morsel in her mouth. He suckled them clean while she consumed his offering. "It's really good," she said inanely, feeling the tension beginning to knot inside her.
He continued like this, coating her nipples with sauce and licking it off until she finally cried, "I can't come this way!"
"Sure you can," he urged. He dipped his fingers beneath the tiny strap of her thong, finding her most sensitive spot. "Use me to come, Lila. Ride me, baby, rub your clit against my cock until you scream."
He dropped his head to torture her peak with the edge of his teeth. The breeze from the fan tickled the wet tip of her other point, whispering across the residue of the oily sauce from the squash. She felt the sensation of his finger rubbing against her pucker as her hips worked, the four distinctly different sensations shattering her body's resistance. She might have screamed, she really didn't know, but she came.
"Dessert is served in bed," he informed her hoarsely. "God, you're so fucking sexy, Delilah."
How he lifted her and stood up, she had no idea, but she wrapped her legs around him, her eyes nearly sightless as he strode through the house.
* * * *
Colton jerked the comforter down and laid her on the sheets crosswise, placing her ass at the edge of the mattress and spreading her legs so he could anticipate revealing the beauty between them as he hastily shed his clothes. Once he got naked, he unclipped her bra and pushed the straps down her arms, just to enjoy the way her skin felt to his hands.
She hid from him behind lowered lids until she heard the rip of the condom package. Her eyes flew open. She pushed up on her elbows, causing him to admire her reddened breasts as he tugged at the edge of the foil square in his hand.
"No, please don't," she begged.
"It's to protect you," he said, stunned by her request.
"It cheats me."
She wanted him bare inside her. His dad and Dan had taken turns lecturing him about the risks of not using protection until donning a condom was no different to him than brake maintenance, a routine chore that might save your ass. The thrill that she wanted him that way was making it hard to think. "I've never…" He choked on the admission.
Her eyes were huge and serious as she talked. "Do we need it to protect me from anything other than pregnancy? Because that's a waste of time."
He stared at her for a long minute. Pregnancy was off the table, and so were the other reasons he wore them, he realized. She was as likely to have an STD as he was to get her pregnant. After what he'd learned about his last girlfriend, he'd gotten tested, even though he'd never gone bareback. Lila was offering him something he'd never have dared ask for as casually as he'd offered her shrimp. In the back of his mind, there was a caveman yelling at him to mount her, mark her, and keep her locked in this room.
* * * *
"Please, don't wear it," Lila repeated as her desire receded a bit so she could think. Her bottom teeth gnashed her upper lip as she steeled her courage to offer him the deal she hoped he wouldn't be able to refuse. "Let me feel you, the way this is supposed to be, and then—" She felt the burn on her cheeks, as she tried to explain the rest of her need, but stumbled on—, "let me watch your face as you admire the results of your handiwork."
* * * *
The condom package fell from his frozen fingers, forgotten as the meaning of her words struck him. He went to his knees, partly because they buckled, partly because he wanted to lap every drop of her cum while he simply anticipated the fucking amazing picture she'd just drawn inside his head. A twist of his hand moved her thong out of his way. He tilted her hips up so he could begin in the place he'd played with on the patio. If she was offering so much, he'd give back all he could. Reveling in the strangled sound that his light lick evoked, he lingered, circling the puckered spot several times before working his way to the drenched, fluttering flesh that shielded her pussy. He gathered every sweet morsel of her juices before suckling her erect and sensitive clit. He might have spent a damn decade fantasizing about her, but he hadn't come close to getting it right.
He'd pictured a Corvette; she was a fucking Ferrari.
He slipped one, then two fingers inside her, rasping them against the spongy bundle of nerves he felt at the top of her channel until she cried out again. God, that was his favorite sound, he thought as he released her clit and stood, loving the expression on her face, unable to wait any longer. He pressed his eager cock against her slit and offered her his fingers, pausing before he thrust into her to enjoy how she sucked them into her mouth as she pleasured her own nipples. Just drinking her in, memorizing her every look, imprinting her in his head the way he did complex wiring schematics.
The muscles in his jaw were set, clenching as he began to experience the exquisitely soft feel of her wet pussy. Her mouth drew on his fingers as if on his cock, her cunt clenched his bare shaft. The sensation of being bare inside her was like nothing he'd ever experienced, but he had crazy images flashing in his head of polishing the cheap vinyl upholstery in his first car and choosing the buttery leather he'd had installed in his current truck as he worked his shaft deeper into her.
The exquisite feel of her snug channel caused his thrusts to become more urgent—damn her, she was still hell on his control—and he finally pulled his hand from her mouth to grasp her hips, eyes fastened now to the sexy sheen of her juices coating his cock as he reveled in the feel of her silky wetness against his bare and exquisitely sensitive skin.
Fucking unbelievable, he thought as he felt the tightness in his balls and pleasure roiled at the base of his spine. He let go of her hips and slid his hands under her shoulders, lifting her off the mattress into his arms, his lips seeking her mouth as he emptied inside her. He was the one who needed to be held this time, but he was aware his orgasm had triggered another for her as she bucked in his arms. Her snug cunt locked and unlocked around him as she drove her hips toward him a final time. They clung together like castaways on the island of his big bed, his legs braced apart, hers wrapped around his hips, until he finally had to release her mouth to fill his heavily beating chest with air.
He'd had sex. Kinky, wild sex. He'd had sex with Lila, incredible sex, but nothing had prepared him for the raw intensity of the feelings striking him. She was stained by his seed; he'd painted her his. He clutched her to his chest, nibbling the soft skin she exposed at the base of her throat as her head fell back. Possessiveness surged inside him as he tightened his teeth.
As he held her and waited for her to take all she needed from his arms,
he
was eight again, standing at the top of the steps in the farmhouse he'd been raised in, calling impatiently for his father and brothers to wake up so he could unwrap his single gift waiting beneath the last Christmas tree his dad had ever bothered to erect. Lila's heels pressing into his back became Sarah's hands as she tried to shove past him down the stairs. "Delilah," he managed to croak. "My Delilah. I've got you, sweetheart."
He eased her back on the mattress when she loosened her arms and regretfully yet anxiously began to slide out of her, his eyes welded to her entrance. Anticipation coiled in his gut as he spread her thighs. Chest heaving, he stared at the petals of flesh he found so beautiful, fluttering now as if caressed by a summer breeze. Raw, primitive feelings pierced him as he spied the sheen of the first pearly drop as it emerged from inside her.
His pearly drop, the sight of it transforming him into a man he had never been before this moment.
Her man.
She whimpered as he couldn't resist catching it on one fingertip, using it to soften a caress of her visible, still-throbbing clit.
He glanced up to see her watching him, propped on a single elbow. Her tongue swept her lips as he offered it to her. She didn't hesitate, sucking his fingertip into her mouth.
"Mine," he rasped, profoundly overwhelmed by the raging possessiveness he was feeling.
* * * *
Of course it was his, she thought, savoring his taste triumphantly as she reveled in the luxurious feeling of his cum trickling from her. There was something about that feeling that drove home her femininity. She counted it second only to the feeling of Charlie's first internal caress. Lila knew that only a woman and a man together as bare as nature intended could create this specific sensation and as she gloried in the sexy slither, she had the crazy notion that this was the gift she'd earned for surviving all the tears and the pain of her recent dark days. A slight smile tipped her lips as she recalled the two words he used to describe the sensation of being bare inside her just before he came. "Fucking unbelievable" was as accurate a description as any, she thought as her eyes drifted closed while she basked in the simple joy of the life-affirming whisper inside her.