Mick smiled—a smile she hadn’t seen in a long time. “I’ll wait out there.” He strolled out of the bedroom, the width of his back filling the doorway.
As she shuffled out of her nightgown and threw on a pair of jeans and a heavy sweater, she tried to keep her fear to a minimum and remember this wasn’t the love story she’d once hoped for. This was about saving their child. Nothing else, not their angry barbs, not their pokes or prods, mattered.
* * *
MICK grabbed Tessa’s hand as they wended their way along the path from her house toward the deserted street. She loved it here. She loved the small-town feel, she loved that her nearest neighbor was almost a mile away.
She loved the split-rail fencing that lined the road, cordoning off old man Baker’s farm. She loved the summertime, when his horses ran free and accepted carrots and sugar cubes from her. She loved the wildflowers in the field and the scent of sunshine.
As she and Mick crunched along in the snow, all of it felt new and strange now. She saw everything very differently since only this afternoon. She saw the danger that this deserted road she’d taken such pleasure in could present for a toddler on the loose. She saw the vast fields where a child could get lost in the tall grasses where the cows grazed. She saw it with the eyes of a soon-to-be-mother, critical and lavished with scrutiny at every detail.
“Penny for them?”
“I was just thinking about all the adjustments I’ll have to make if . . . when . . .”
“The baby, right?” Mick said it as though he’d always been saying it.
To be fair, at least his tone wasn’t dripping with scorn anymore. But she wasn’t going to dance around about the issue. It was time to face this head-on. He would fertilize this egg with her if it was the last thing he did. “Yes.”
“I’ll help, Tessa.”
She didn’t say anything—she couldn’t. Not right now. The future was so weirdly uncertain, all she wanted to do was focus on the task at hand.
Mick stopped at the end of the fencing, hopping over the top, lithe and strong. He held out his arms for her, picking her up and lifting her to the other side. Taking her hand again, he headed toward the barn, the moonlight shining on his dark hair and making it gleam.
A glow from the old barn’s window stopped Tessa in her tracks. She looked down at the ground. Someone had dug a path to the barn, too. “Who?”
Mick smiled, his grin amused and oddly relaxed for someone who had a mercy fertilization on his plate. “Nina. She insisted.”
“In the time it took me to get dressed?”
“Wanda and Marty helped,” he admitted with a grin, his teeth flashing white against the black night.
“She’s like the Flash. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to her superspeed.”
Mick chuckled. “You should have seen her today with the guys from the firehouse. It was like she was some crazy puppet master, yanking their strings. But you have to admit, it comes in handy,” he said, pushing open the wide doors of the barn to let her see inside.
There were several lanterns scattered about, their wicks glowing with light, warm blankets spread out and pillows piled on a stack of hay bales, and even a kerosene heater. Wine and a platter of grapes and cheese sat on a makeshift table in the corner with one crooked, peeling chair.
Mick pulled her inside, bringing her to sit beside him on the blanket-covered hay. She folded her hands together, unsure what to say. She’d waited all her life for this very moment, and while what Nina had done to create a mood was lovely, it was uncomfortable and painful to think this was how it was all going to go down.
“Tessa?”
“Awkward, right? I know. You don’t have to say anything else. But I’m here to tell you, I don’t care how awkward it is. We’re doing this, Malone. Besides, it can’t be any worse than my first time with Denny Bradford.”
Mick pulled off his gloves, dropping them on the dusty floor with a chuckle. “Denny was your first? I thought that jackhole Adam Monroe was.”
She rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms over her chest, feeling vulnerable. “Ugh. Adam Monroe? I’m surprised you think so little of me. He was disgusting.”
Mick barked a laugh. “I thought everyone in your senior class was hot for him?”
“Everyone but me. And how do you know so much about my senior class—or who my first was?”
Mick shrugged, taking his jacket off. “You hear things. It’s not like we live in the big city. Stuff gets around.” He hopped off the bale of hay, his long legs taking strong strides to the far end of the barn where a small battery-operated CD player sat.
He clicked it on, the soft strains of Andy Williams singing “Moon River” drifting to her ears.
Mick had an enormous collection of CDs and records—he loved vinyl the best, and he loved Andy Williams because he said it always reminded him of visiting his Grandma Edith’s house. Noah used to tease him about his fondness for the oldies, but there had been a time or two when she’d caught her brother humming a Mitch Miller tune.
As he walked toward her, Tessa’s heart began to pound. This was not the way it was supposed to be was all she could think, despite how handsome he was in low-slung jeans and a thick knit sweater.
Mick held out a hand to her and hitched his jaw toward the barn’s big floor. “Dance?”
“You hate to dance,” she said with surprise, even as she slipped off the bale of hay and went to him willingly.
“Maybe not so much with you,” he grumbled.
Walking into his embrace, Tessa closed her eyes, hoping her pulse would slow so it didn’t pound as hard in her ears.
Mick had hugged her a thousand times over the years, and she’d often wondered what the shelter of his embrace would be like if she lingered, but she never had.
Turned out, his wide chest, the beat of his heart, his strong arms around her were just as heavenly as she’d imagined.
Mick let his head rest on top of hers, swaying to the music. “So, let’s talk.”
Tessa squeezed her eyes shut, her arms still uncomfortably at her sides. “We don’t do that very well, Mick. Maybe it’s better we just do this.” Get it out of the way so you can forget you had to do your best friend’s sister like she was on par with having the plague.
“How about we set our differences aside for now, okay? We have other things that need addressing.”
She shuddered an uneven breath, tears stinging her eyes. “Okay.”
He took her arms and wrapped them around his waist. “I’m sorry I was so harsh back at the house. I didn’t understand what you were feeling about the egg. A lot of crazy things have happened, and just as I absorb one of them, something crazier happens.”
“Try spitting a bowling ball out of you, and then we’ll talk crazy. Until then, I have the market cornered.”
“I didn’t get it until Arch had me touch the egg.” His voice hitched then, his thick words becoming husky. “I can’t even begin to . . .”
Tessa nodded, her heart welling with love for an egg. An egg. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? I can’t describe it, but I understood it in my very soul.”
“I did, too.”
She lifted her head, forcing herself to look into his eyes while she wrapped her arms around his lean waist a bit tighter. “Then you understand why we have to do this?”
His eyes, now darker, maybe even fiercer, captured hers. “I do. But I need you to know something, Tessa.”
Here it came. This would mean nothing. It was for the sake of the baby. She tightened her fists to prepare for the hurt his words would evoke. “What do you need me to know?”
Mick cupped her jaw, his lean fingers caressing her skin, sending shivers along her arms, soothing her tension. “I need you to know that my reaction to this—what we have to do—wasn’t out of disgust or anything even remotely like that.”
Her words became like peanut butter, stuck on her tongue, almost choking her. “Then what was it?” she managed to sputter.
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“This—what we’re going to do—is something I’ve always wanted. I just didn’t want it to be this way.”
If words could take a person out, she’d be flat on the floor. Every nerve in her body responded, every bone in her body melted. Tessa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Maybe she wasn’t even sure she was hearing right, but if she wasn’t, she didn’t want to.
Rather than speak, she stood on tiptoe, pushing her fingers through his hair until their lips almost touched. In this moment, she wanted to savor this brief second, remember what his lips felt like pressed to hers for the first time.
She wanted to reflect on every daydream she’d ever had about this very moment.
But Mick took control, pulling her close, capturing her lips with no hesitation, letting his tongue slide into her mouth until her sigh echoed in her ears. Her arms went around his neck, her body inched as close as it could get to his, her head swam with the delicious force of his mouth.
Mick tightened his embrace, his strong arms around her, his hands running along her spine as he and Tessa discovered each other, as their tongues dueled, as her body caught on fire.
“Won’t this hurt you so soon after?” he asked, peeling away her jacket, his eyes heavy-lidded and dark.
“Marty said she suspects we self-heal like vampires and werewolves do. She said when she and Nina had their babies, they self-healed instantly. But I promise, it’s like it never happened. I can’t explain it, but I swear it’s okay,” she whispered back, her nipples tight with need, scraping against her soft sweater.
Mick groaned into her mouth when she lifted herself higher, hoping to get closer. “I never want to hurt you.”
His vulnerability touched her, soothed the edges of her raw heart. Instinctively, she knew she had to take the lead or he’d treat her with kid gloves. Tearing her mouth from his, she pulled him by the hand toward the hay bales. Turning toward him, seeing him, his eyes dark with desire, the pulse in his jaw beating, made her heart speed back up.
Taking the bottom of her sweater, she lifted it up and over her head and dropped it to the floor. She’d never been shy when it came to being naked, and showing Mick that was somehow important to her. She wanted him to want her. She wanted him to want her the way she’d always wanted him.
His breathing hitched, became thick and raspy when she slid her panties and jeans over her hips and hopped up on the bales of hay, pointing to her boots. “Help?”
Mick’s big hands, strong and sure, pulled at her boots, dropping them to the ground before gathering her up in his arms. Pressing her flesh to his fully clothed length was intoxicating, the scrape of skin against material, his hands roaming over her possessively, needy, made her feel wanton and wicked.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, whimpering when his lips raked over the sensitive flesh of her neck, clinging to him when he finally cupped her breast.
Colors flashed behind her eyelids, bright, brilliant colors of heat, exploding with her need, making her tighten her ankles around his waist, clench the thick strands of his hair in her hands.
Mick walked them to a larger hay bale and set her on it, then yanked his work boots off and dragged his sweater over his head.
She’d seen Mick semi-naked before. She’d seen his chest, bronzed from a summer spent baling hay, rippled with muscle, the sharp V at both of his hipbones, the light sprinkling of hair between his pecs.
It was when he went for his jeans that Tessa held her breath. She’d considered this particular part of his anatomy, but maybe her fantasy wasn’t as fully fleshed out as the reality. Still, her mouth watered when he hooked his thumbs into the top of his boxer briefs and dragged them over his bulging thighs.
She loved his legs, so thick with muscle, flexing and tightening when he bent to remove his briefs.
Standing over her, Mick looked down at her, and Tessa’s mouth went dry. Mick obviously wasn’t ashamed of being naked, either. In fact, as he stood in front of her, the finest specimen of undressed man she’d ever seen, she understood why.
Everything about him was sculpted, defined, from his arms right down to his calves. His cock was erect, thick, smooth, hot to her touch when she reached for him.
Mick groaned as her hands went around his shaft, and he drove his fingers into her hair, pulling her closer to his abdomen.
Tessa let her cheek rest against his skin, let the heat of it warm her, spur her on as she explored him, ran her hands over his rigid abs, over his hard ass, kneading, touching.
Mick’s hands went to her shoulders, pushing her backward until she lay before him. His eyes consumed her, scanned her length, burned her skin until he was lying beside her, pulling her to him so their flesh finally met.
It was like a jolt of fire skimming her veins, bringing her nerves to life. Mick’s chest beat against hers, their breathing choppy. “I want you to remember this, Tessa. I want to remember it. Let’s go slow.”
Tears stung her eyes. This was nothing like she’d expected. There was nothing awkward or forced about this. It felt more right than anything she’d ever done before. “Slow,” she agreed, her response husky as she cupped his jaw, letting her fingers spread out over his cheek.
Mick dragged her closer, skirting his hands over the undersides of her breasts, making her gasp when he tweaked a nipple.
Her leg automatically went around his hip when Mick slipped his hand between her thighs, sliding it into her wet flesh, fingering the tight bud of her clit. She drew him closer, keeping his lips pressed to hers, absorbing the decadence of his mouth finally on hers.
But Mick tore his mouth from hers, making her whimper for its return, and then he was sliding along her body, kissing his way across her shoulders and down along her collarbone until he was at her breast. When his mouth enveloped her nipple, Tessa gasped, arching against him, gripping his thick shoulders, digging her fingers into his flesh.
He nipped at the tight peaks, pulling, drawing them into his hot mouth, then rolling his tongue over them until she saw stars.
The moment she didn’t think she could take any more was when Mick skimmed farther down her body, trailing hot kisses along her belly, until his head rested between her legs.
Hiking her thighs over his shoulders, Mick glanced upward at her, catching her watching him. “I’ve waited forever for this,” he said, his voice hot and thick, before he lowered his dark head, spread her flesh, and swiped it with his tongue.
Tessa bucked upward against him, crying out at the contact, loving the slick slide of his tongue, needing it like she’d never needed anything before. Her hands went to the blanket beneath her, clenching it as Mick slid a slow finger inside her.
The feel of his mouth on her, the heat of his tongue made her cry out, writhe in achy desperation. He stroked her long and slow, tasting, swirling over her clit in delicious patterns while his finger drew in and out of her.
Her pulse roared in her ears, her veins hot with molten liquid when the rush of orgasm began to wind its way outward from the pit of her belly. Her toes curled, her breathing grew choppy, her fingers reached for Mick’s hair.
Mick’s head between her legs, his tongue at her core was all too much as a flood of raging tingles began to build until she was almost dizzy. As she found release, her legs went around his neck, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, her mouth opened in a silent scream of pure pleasure.
Her hips rocked upward, driving against the ecstasy of his tongue until she couldn’t breathe anymore, until she was boneless and worn out.
Mick stroked her thighs, kissed them, whispered words she couldn’t quite hear for the subsiding roar in her head. He slid upward, his skin against hers, his cock hot against her thigh.
She melted into him, draped her arms around his neck, clung to his body, ran her hands over his shoulders before his mouth found hers again.
His length was hard against her own frame, solid and tense. Tessa reached between them, grasping his cock, slipping her hand around it and pum
ping it, learning what made him groan into her mouth.
But Mick wrapped his fingers around her wrist to thwart her. “It’s been a long time, Tessa. Go easy.”
“Really?” Why had she asked that? It was none of her business how long it had been since Mick had made love. Whatever he’d done before tonight should be considered voided.
“Really,” he murmured when she slowed her strokes, pulling her mouth from his and letting her lips follow a path along his rock-hard chest.
She sipped at his nipples, licking them, teasing until she fixated on his abs, running her tongue along each hard line, sliding downward until she was settled between his thighs.
Tessa snaked her tongue out, swiping the head of his cock, testing the waters, smiling when he tensed and grabbed a handful of her hair. She took him slowly into the recesses of her mouth, inch by inch, using her teeth to gently scrape his skin until she was at the base of his shaft.
Mick hissed, grinding against her before pushing her away and dragging her upward. “I can’t,” he said with clenched teeth, holding her close and burying his face in her neck.
Tessa clung to him for a moment, inhaling his scent, pressing her forehead to his before rolling him to his back and straddling him.
The view from where she sat was everything she’d ever imagined and more. Mick, his hair mussed, his eyes heavy, his cock strong and thick, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He was so beautiful to look at she had to fight back tears. She smoothed her palms over his bronzed skin, wisped her fingers over his nipples, soaking in every inch of him so she’d never forget this moment.
Placing his hands on her hips, Mick guided her to his shaft, letting her wrap her fingers around it and settle herself there. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Tessa lifted her hips and drove downward on him, relishing their unified gasps.
He stretched her, filling her up, making her heart crash hard against her ribs. She’d imagined this, wondered if making love with Mick was all just expectation, but she’d never thought it would exceed her dreams.
The Accidental Dragon Page 13