by Erin Wright
He let out a deep sigh.
“When I’d first walked out the door, I was on this euphoric high – I’d stood up to my father! I’d walked away from him! It was a really great feeling…right up until the adrenaline drained out and I realized everything that I’d just lost. I had no idea how hard that part would be. I guess a part of me just didn’t believe that my father would really do it.”
The shock of it all, still reverberating through him two weeks later, made him clench his fists in anger. “I still can’t figure out what his game plan is, honestly. He’s the kind of guy where pride means everything to him. If me or Rhys don’t take it over from him…he’s going to be tacitly admitting to the world that his sons want nothing to do with him. After all, it is the Garrett Tractor & Implement Dealership – my father even put our last name on the side of the building. If someone from outside of the family bought it, they’d change the name. If nothing else, I didn’t think his pride would allow that to happen.”
They’d arrived at the old house that’d been long ago chopped up into apartments; they took the creaky wooden steps up to the main floor while a staircase wound its way down to the basement underneath them.
He was suddenly embarrassed. This wasn’t exactly a palatial home, not like his parents’ was. He—
Georgia put her hand on his arm and spoke, the first words she’d said since he’d started telling her his story. “I’m happy to see your new apartment,” she said softly. “It’s an apartment earned with your two hands. I’m proud of you.” Sparks shot up his arm even through the sleeve of his jacket at her touch. It was so damn amazing to be around her again – like soaking up the rain after a long drought.
He nodded. He had to believe her, if only because he had no other choice, but it was still hard not to see it in a judgmental light like his father would. His mother…well, she wouldn’t say her judgmental thoughts out loud, but they’d be there in her eyes.
He definitely couldn’t bring his parents here. Not ever.
He shoved a key into the lock and with a deep breath, opened the door, following her inside with his minimal groceries in hand. It was a simple layout – a living room and kitchen combo upfront, with a short hallway leading to the bathroom and bedroom in the back. It was a step up from a studio apartment, but not much of one.
Georgia looked around as he shoved the milk in the fridge and tossed the bread on the counter, flexing his hands to bring the circulation back as he watched her take in the worn couch and wooden crate serving as his coffee table, not even a TV on the wall. He’d been picking up pieces from the thrift store as he could, practically haunting its aisles, trying to find furniture that wasn’t ripped from the 70s to decorate with.
“It’s not much—” he began defensively, and she looked back at him, a huge smile on her face.
“But it’s yours, at least for now. Moose, I am so damn proud of you.”
“You are?” he repeated, dumbfounded. “But there’s a crack in the wall, and the mattress in the bedroom is still on the floor because I haven’t bought a bed frame yet, and—”
Georgia walked over and placed a finger on his lips, stopping him from speaking. He wanted to flick his tongue out and suck her finger into his mouth, but he wouldn’t let himself. He hadn’t earned that right. Yet.
“You and your father are more alike than I think you realize,” she said softly.
“What?!” Those were fighting words right there. He felt his blood pressure skyrocket. “I am not—”
“You both think that a girl judges a guy based on the size and lavishness of his home,” she continued, not unkindly. “I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s true. You’re worried about showing me your apartment, because you think I’ll judge it inferior, and thus judge you inferior. I don’t judge a man based on the luxuriousness of his home. I judge him based on his decisions in life and his work ethic.
“Moose, you chose me over pleasing your father three times now – once when you came to save my life up at Eagle’s Nest, once when you chose to drive me out to my car even though your father was angry with you for going to work late, and once two weeks ago, when you chose to strike out on your own rather than saying yes to your dad and getting all that had been promised you your whole life.
“I let a little bit of pride get in the way for me, too. I’ve been sitting around all this time, waiting to hear what happened with your father and Tenny. I wanted to ask my cousin, I wanted to ask my parents to ask her parents, I wanted to ask you. But I wouldn’t let myself because there was some small part of me that believed your father when he said that you weren’t stupid enough to marry the ugly cousin, and I guess I just didn’t want to hear that for sure. It was better for me to hide and not ask, than to ask and be told that is how you felt.”
“I didn’t know my dad went in and talked to you—” he mumbled around her fingertip, and she simply pushed it harder against his lips.
He shut up.
“Right now, all I want is for you to kiss me. I don’t know everything that happened or how you came to live here, and you don’t know what I’ve been thinking these last two weeks. But considering that this, whatever it is between us, cost you the woman you’d been paired with your whole life and the John Deere dealership you were supposed to inherit, I think it’s about time we at least kiss. Because after all that’s happened, what if we’re not compatible? We’re here on a wing and a prayer, and—”
Which was when Moose decided that it was Georgia’s turn to be quiet. If she didn’t stop talking soon about kissing, and actually get to kissing, he might go crazy.
He swung her up into his arms, grinning at her yelp of surprise, and carried her the few steps to the piece-of-shit couch that also happened to be comfy as hell. He sank down into it with her in his arms, pulling her gently to him and settling his lips over hers.
He didn’t know what he expected when he kissed Georgia Rowland, but…this was not it.
He never could’ve expected this.
Chapter 22
Georgia
Moose pulled her down onto his lap and settled her against him, his dick quickly gaining an interest in the proceedings under her ass as he dipped his head down, his lips grazing softly over hers.
She didn’t know what to expect when she kissed him – excitement? Pleasure? Happiness? – but whatever she had expected, it was all of that…and so much more.
She lit up inside, as every pleasure center in her brain went haywire, overloaded by the sheer joy and lust and desire pulsating through her. She groaned, pulling him closer to her, wanting to crawl inside of him somehow; become one with him. Being separated from him, even just by clothes, suddenly seemed like the biggest tragedy she’d ever lived through. She pulled away and began tearing frantically at his clothes and at hers, hearing a rip and not knowing where it came from and definitely not caring. All that mattered was being able to feel his skin against hers…
Finally, she managed to get his shirt off him and began running her fingers up his skin, the muscles jumping under her fingertips. “Ohhh…” he groaned, his eyes fluttering shut. He leaned his head against the back of the couch, letting her feel her way over his body. “I’ve wanted this…my whole life, I think.”
The softness of his skin overlying the bulk of his muscle, and a bit of hair on top of it all…it was heaven to explore. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his chest and he let out a groan that vibrated through his whole body and up through her lips, muscles tensing up beneath her. She opened her eyes just a bit and peered down, noticing that his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, and she grinned to herself. To see a man like Moose desire her this much…
No, she’d never expected anything like this at all.
She moved her lips over to his flat nipples, one and then the other, suckling on them, running her tongue over their rigid tips as his dick grew just as rigid under her ass and his breathing grew shallow and his fists curled into tighter balls. “Oh…Geo
rgia…oh…Georgia…” he panted, his eyes screwed shut. “I didn’t know…if I’d known…I never would’ve waited so long…please…” His breaths were short, his chest rising and falling with each gasp and she grinned to herself as she moved lower down his body. She slid off the couch and landed on her knees in front of him, and then began pulling at the buckle and zipper of his Wranglers.
“Yes…no…please…” he begged and she let out a little laugh. She, the ugly cousin, had done this to Moose.
Yeah, she was feeling pretty damn good about herself.
Between the two of them, they wiggled his jeans and boxer-briefs down to his ankles where they were caught up by his boots and then she was staring in appreciation at his dick. A little precum was hanging off the tip while the rosy red length was pulsating with every beat of his heart, practically straining towards her.
Well, if it wants me so much, who am I to tell it no?
She wrapped her mouth around his rock-hard dick and he jerked off the couch, hips bucking as he groaned loudly with pleasure. “Georgia! Georgia! I…” He stopped, groaning and jerking and then his eyes fluttered open and he looked down at her through barely opened eyelids. “I’m a virgin!” he gasped.
Georgia yanked her head back and stared up at him. His eyes fluttered open wider as he gulped in air, visibly trying to calm himself down.
“You’re…you’re a virgin?” she breathed, the world tilting to the side as she stared at him. That…that wasn’t possible. Moose was the cutest guy in town. Every girl in their graduating class and two below had spent their entire school years in Sawyer High School drooling over him, whispering about how cute he was and how good he must be in the sack and Tenny never said anything to disabuse them of that notion; she just kept a small, secret smile on her lips and Georgia had thought she’d been remembering back to some truly spectacular sex sessions.
But if Moose was a virgin…
He nodded slowly. “Tennessee and I have been shoved together since birth, and…I just didn’t see her that way. We made each other a pledge to stay virgins until our wedding night back when we were freshmen in high school, but honestly, looking back on it now, I think we were willing to make that pledge because the idea of having sex with each other was…unappealing. To say the least. So it was an easy pledge to keep.” He shifted on the couch, his engorged dick swaying in the air as he did so. “I’ve watched enough…and read some…well, I mean, I know what’s supposed to happen,” he stumbled out. “I don’t want you to think I don’t. I just…I haven’t actually done it myself.”
Some naughty prankster part of her brain couldn’t help it. The words slipped out before she could stop them, as she looked up at him innocently. “If you’ve made that kind of commitment, I’d sure hate to be the one to cause you to break it. Maybe we should just stop right here.”
Moose’s eyes went wide, the panic plain as day in them. “Oh, right. Of course. I did wait this long, so it’s…it’s good that…I mean…”
She started laughing. Five seconds. She could only last five seconds. “You should see the look on your face right now!” she howled, wiping the tears of laughter off her cheeks. “Pure terror.”
He stopped for just a moment, frozen as he stared at her, and then his laughter joined hers even as he lifted her onto the couch next to him so he could tickle her relentlessly. “I can’t believe you!” he hollered, even as his fingers danced up and down her sides. She writhed with laughter, helpless to protect herself against it. “I really thought you were serious!” He leaned over and rubbed his scruffy jaw against her neck and chest. “Revenge. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna exact revenge for this,” he promised, whispering the “threat” in her ear even as he began to kiss his way down her neck to her chest.
He pulled back just before he got to her nipples, gave her a saucy wink, and then jumped to his feet, stripping off his boots and then his jeans and boxer-briefs that’d puddled around his feet, until he was proudly naked as a bluejay in front of her. Her laughter stopped as she took in his body – dips and ridges and valleys everywhere, just begging to be explored with her tongue and her fingers and her eyes and he was hers, all hers – and then he was scooping her up into his arms for a second time that evening, this time to carry her to the bedroom.
“I can walk, you know,” she told him primly, even as she grinned to herself with pleasure. The feminist inside of her would never admit it out loud, of course, but she loved being carried around by him.
“What would the fun in that be?” he asked when they’d covered the few steps into the bedroom and he could begin stripping what was left of her clothing off her. “When you’re walking, I can’t snuggle you against my chest; I can’t feel your curves or your skin; I can’t move you wherever I want. That takes all the fun out of it.”
She laughed and then said mock-seriously, “I can see why you would feel that way. It’s important to take all of that into consideration…”
He pulled her panties off – a little piece of lace nothin’ that she normally didn’t wear very often but had picked out for tonight’s outing over her normal granny panties, thank God – and then began crawling over the bed towards her, growling as he went. “I believe you have something I want,” he said, his chest vibrating with the sounds as he hovered over her.
“Oh yeah?” she said, a squeak betraying her at the end. She cleared her throat and tried it again. “What’s that?”
“Your pussy.”
“Oh!” Her face flushed pink and he grinned lasciviously down at her.
“Your face matches your pussy when you get embarrassed,” he told her.
Which was right about the time that her face flushed an even deeper red.
He laughed.
“Remind me to never make rash promises without understanding the consequences of them again,” he told her between nibbling kisses down her slim waist.
“Yeah?” she breathed. “Like…like what?”
“Like staying a virgin until I got married. I don’t think my 14-year-old self had any idea of what he was agreeing to give up with that promise.”
His tongue rimmed her belly button and she moaned. “Probably…not…” she gasped.
“If I hurt you,” he murmured, sending puffs of warm air over her labia, “I want you to tell me. I’d hate to know I’d hurt you.”
“Moose?” she panted.
“Yes?” He stopped nosing through her curls and looked up at her.
“If you don’t stop talking, I’m going to kill you.”
“Fair enough,” he said with a laugh, and then began working his tongue up and down her, following the writhing of her hips as she screamed with joy. There was a boyishness, an innocence to his moves that instead of being a turn-off, just heightened the stakes even more.
He’s all mine…all mine…all mine…
“Can’t…wait…” he panted and crawled up over her, thrusting inside of her as she locked her legs around his hips and rode him, letting the pure pleasure of it all roll over her like a wave onto the shoreline. He strained, stopping, jerking inside of her, face a frozen mask of pure pleasure and no one was breathing, no one at all, until he finally relaxed and collapsed against her.
It was just the two of them, sweat sticking their skin together, as he rolled over and pulled her against his chest and they fell asleep, curled up together, them against the world.
Chapter 23
Moose
He drifted slowly to the surface on a haze of pleasure, trying to revel in it while also putting his finger on…something. Something that was wrong. It was niggling at him, taunting him from the sleepy corners of his brain, and if he could just reach out and grab it…
“Georgia!” he whispered urgently, shaking her shoulder. “Georgia, you gotta wake up.”
“Huh?” she mumbled and rolled over to crack her eyes open up at him. “Whatswrong?” she sleep mumbled, even as the tiny crack in her eyelids fluttered closed again.
“I didn’t use a condom!�
� he said urgently, trying to keep the panic under control. He shook her shoulder again. “I might’ve just made you pregnant!”
With a sigh of regret, Georgia pushed herself up into a sitting position. “What time is it?” she asked around a jaw-cracking yawn.
His eyes flicked over to the nightstand and then back to her. “It’s 2:35.” He wanted to shake her again. She obviously didn’t understand the importance of what he was trying to tell her.
“You woke me up at 2:35 in the morning to tell me that you forgot to use a condom and you may have made me pregnant?” She yawned again, and Moose wondered for a moment if he’d actually spotted her tonsils or not. He kinda thought that he had. “You really weren’t kidding when you were saying you didn’t know much about girls.”
“Hey, I didn’t say that,” he protested defensively. “I said that I was a virgin. There’s a difference.”
“Doesn’t appear to be much of one to me right now,” she grumbled. “Moose, I’m not pregnant, I promise. I’ve been on the pill for a long time now. It helps regulate my cycle. Otherwise, I’m all over the place. Why—” She paused to yawn again. “Why did you think we needed to have this discussion at two in the morning?”
“Oh.” He felt embarrassment overtake the panic that had been welling up inside of him. “I thought after what happened with Levi, that you being pregnant would be a really big thing and I just…didn’t think so much as panic.” He sent her an apologetic smile. “You can go back to sleep now, I promise.”
She shoved a hand through her hair and then rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Sorry, what thing with Levi?” she asked sleepily. She wasn’t lying back down and closing her eyes, which he kinda really wished she’d do, and hopefully just forget any of this had happened.