by Taryn Quinn
I handed it to her as I went for my belt. She trailed the end of the tie down the middle of her breasts. “It smells like you in here. Sawdust, like your shop.”
I swallowed at the thought of her stretched out over my workbench. “You’re going to kill me.”
She grinned in the dark, her heeled foot dragging up the back of my jeans. “I don’t think I’ve ever killed a guy with lust before.”
I shoved her skirt up and hooked her knee over my shoulder. “Let’s see if I can do some of the same.” I kissed my way down her inner thigh.
“August, wait… Holy—” Her voice cut off as I tucked my tongue under the little scrap of silk she was wearing.
She was wet for me. So wet. I learned her sighs and her intimate taste. The salty seascape that would forever be Kinleigh in my mind. Her thighs quivered and my name rumbled through her throaty sighs.
I found her tight little clit and circled it ruthlessly. She writhed under me and I had to hold her down from bucking me off of her. Her moans turned into cries, and she twisted to get away from me at the same time she gripped my hair to make me stay.
I grinned against her thigh and drank her down as she vibrated under me. I couldn’t take it anymore.
Tugging at my jacket underneath her, I prayed my hands were steady enough to get on the condom. Thank God for Gideon.
I hooked her legs around my hips and leaned back to get to my belt again. She reached for me, helping me until we were laughing and fumbling with the buckle and zipper and then her cool, long fingers were around me.
Her huge blue eyes glimmered in the low light. “Well, hello there.”
My face went hot, but luckily, I was pretty sure I was hidden in the shadows. She tightened her hold and licked her lips.
“No way. I won’t make it.”
She tried to sit up. “It’s only right to return the favor.”
“Next time.” She tightened her hold and I grunted. “Definitely next time.”
She went quiet, but I didn’t want to let her think. I couldn’t do this only once with her. Not after knowing just how perfect she was for me. But I wouldn’t push now. I’d wait her out just like I’d been doing for months.
Surely I had more patience inside me. Just not right now.
I lifted the foil packet between us and she snatched it from me. “Dear Goddess, thank you.” She tore it open as I freed myself fully.
Before I could ask for the condom back, she rolled it down on me.
“Shit.”
She dragged me down over her and I had to get inside her. I nudged aside her panties and hissed as I slid inside to the root, as if we’d done this a million times instead of this being the first. She fisted around me with so much warmth and softness my vision hazed. I threw my head back at the perfection of it and then she was vining her way around me, surrounding me in her heat and wetness.
Her arms slipped around my neck and her legs curled around me until there was no air. Just Kinleigh finally wrapped around me.
I braced myself on either side of her and drove into her. Her boots were probably leaving marks on my ass, but I didn’t care. I was so far gone, pain and pleasure were a rioting mass of colors inside me.
Like an imprint I’d never get off.
All too soon, I knew the end was coming for me like a freight train. I tried to hold it off, but she felt too good.
There was no way I was going alone.
Not this time.
I reached between us, searching for where she was flushed and swollen. She cried out my name, clamping down on me. Wrenching my release from me no matter how much I tried to stave it off.
God, I was so fucking gone for her.
I threw my head back and locked my gaze with hers as she shuddered, her fingers digging into my shoulders as we matched each other in every way. I lowered my mouth to hers and swallowed her cries, giving her back a heated groan of my own.
“Kinleigh.” Her name burned my tongue. “Fuck, Kinleigh.”
Losing myself inside her was the sweetest pain I’d ever known.
Five
Warmth and bulky muscle wrapped in the scent of eucalyptus draped over me. I didn’t want to let him go.
August Beck had just been inside me. Dear Goddess, he still was. He’d left me battered like a shell along the shore, but I’d never felt more delicious.
How was he still hard?
He pressed his face into my neck, nibbling a little until I wiggled under him with a laugh.
He rose up to look down at me, his hips rocking slightly. Reminding me all over again how good we’d been together.
I groaned and dug my nails into his shoulders. He was an oak wrapped in skin. Not a single part of him was soft. And I could verify that. Whoa.
“How?”
His lips quirked. “Incentive.” He lowered his mouth to my neck again, rubbing his scruff against my skin until I shrieked out a giggle.
“Shh. Do you want to broadcast we’re up here?”
“I’m a passionate woman.”
“No truer words, Kin.” He hovered over me, his lips gentle on mine. “I never want to leave this room.”
I rubbed the upper part of my heel down his thigh. He still had his jeans on. I still had my panties on for that matter. He’d just shoved them aside and slid in. And yet I still felt like purring like a contented cat. In fact, I could curl up right now and take a nap.
My arms slid away from his shoulders to flop on the plastic-wrapped mattress.
He laughed. “Is that—oh, man, you rocked my world? Or thank God today is over?”
I opened one eye. “Need a little ego stroke.” I tightened myself around him still inside me.
He groaned as he dropped his chin to his chest with a hiss. “Oh, I don’t need that. I felt how hard you came. And how hard I’m going to make you come again.”
“Is that a fact?” I hooked my knee around his waist, holding him tighter. “Round two so soon?”
“I’m good until sunrise.” He curled his arm under me and lifted me like I was no more than a blanket.
I yelped as he shifted to sit on the mattress and sat me astride him. I tipped my head back at the fullness and his recovery time. I mean, he’d finished, right?
My dress was half off my shoulder and my nipple was caught on the edge of my slip. Which August was fully taking advantage of. Jeez, he was good at that. He sucked harder, making everything in me clench.
He scraped his teeth up over the middle of my chest to my throat. “If only I had a second condom.”
I laced my fingers at the back of his neck as he drew me up straight. “I thought you were a Boy Scout?”
“Fuck no. I suck at being a joiner. Really good at building shit for people though.”
“Exceptional.” I tightened my knees along his hips to hold him where I wanted him. I so shouldn’t be. But I couldn’t remember feeling so deliciously sated and on edge at the same time. I counted myself lucky if an orgasm was included with some form of friction.
Especially something like this. Under the cover of night in a place we shouldn’t be. Or maybe that was what had made it so good? I wasn’t exactly the illicit sex kind of girl. Heck, I wasn’t a booty call kind of girl, period.
Not that he was a booty call.
Nope, he was even worse. A wedding reception hookup. Not that I’d actually made it into the reception. Oh, and couldn’t forget the fact that he was my best friend’s brother.
“Where did you go?” He dug his fingers into my ass.
“I was just thinking how unusual this is for me.”
“Me too.” He tipped his forehead to touch mine. “I’ve wanted this for—”
My phone started vibrating. Dammit.
“How do you have a pocket in this thing?” August tugged at the flowy layer pooling between us.
“Yes, because I can sew. And every woman should have pockets in her dress for just these times.”
He wrapped his arm around my back. “Ignore it.”<
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I wanted to. What had he been saying? Had he really wanted me before tonight?
Then he was kissing me again. And he really deserved a few gold medals in that arena. He cupped my jaw and his flavor and scent just seeped into my bones.
My phone pulsed against my belly twice more.
“Ignore it,” he said against my mouth and dragged me back under.
The ice cream truck chime had me scrambling off him, almost tripping in my haste to get off.
Ivy. Dear goddess.
I fumbled for my phone.
August hissed and cupped himself. Hopefully, I hadn’t injured anything important in my hurry.
Sorry, Mr. Wonderful. Seemed like the best name for August’s number one tool right now.
I didn’t want to answer the still chiming phone. Nope, I couldn’t answer it. No way.
I silenced the ring and pulled my dress up over my shoulder. My ankle buckled and August shot out a hand to steady me.
“Sorry. Just scared me.”
He shoved his hair back from his face. I wasn’t used to seeing it without his backwards cap. Then again, I only usually saw him in work mode. He was kind of like me, always working. We both pulled late nights at our respective shops.
What had I been thinking?
My thighs still throbbed from twining myself around his thick middle. So much muscle and layers of strength. And he’d felt so darn good.
Focus. My phone started ringing in my hand again. This time, it was a text chime. I flicked it open and found a barrage of text messages waiting for me.
Rylee: How much tequila did you drink? Do we have to fish you out of one of the bathrooms around town?
Ivy: Where are you? You’re missing cake.
Ivy: Seriously, where are you?
Kelsey: You’re missing all the dancing. Where you be?
LuckyCharms: Don’t make me get sober. Where are you?
Rylee: You ok? You’re harassing my buzz, girl.
Rylee: Oops. Harshing. Stupid AC.
Ivy: Don’t make me turn on the friend finder app.
I quickly typed back a message that I was coming. And I hadn’t been able to answer the phone because I was in the bathroom. Seemed safest. I kind of needed to find one of those, to be honest.
“Is there somewhere I can, you know…” I gestured at my disheveled self.
He nodded toward the left. “I think the main bathroom is actually done.”
“Great.” I snatched my coat off the bed.
“Kin?”
I stopped, turning toward him in the shadows. His ultra white shirt practically glowed in the moonlight. That and the endless bit of tanned skin underneath there were riveting. I couldn’t see him clearly, but the memories of him at the lake were burned in my brain already.
Now I could add this shadowy, hot, ridiculously decadent encounter to my memory banks.
Oh, sleepless nights, here I come.
“You’re not gonna get weird about this, right? We’re good?”
“Of course. Why would I get weird?” I’d just freak out instead. That wasn’t weird. Because I’d totally screwed up for the sake of an orgasm and maybe almost another. Okay, so there were definitely two, on the way to three. But I wasn’t counting. Mostly.
I escaped to the bathroom. He was right that it was mostly done, except for the whole no paper of any sort in there issue. Or towels. But I did what I could to get my clothes back to semi-presentable. One of the ties was frayed.
I shivered.
I remembered when it happened. His impatient hands on me had driven me crazy. I’d never had a guy that wild to get into my pants. Or lack of pants. To rip at my tie to get closer to my skin—well, that would live with me for a long time.
Good thing, because this definitely couldn’t happen again.
I shrugged into my jacket. My hair was beyond help at this point. So that was what sex hair looked like. My finger in a socket. Wonderful.
“Kin?”
“Yeah, coming.” I stuffed my hands into my jacket pockets and met August in the moonlit room. He’d cleaned up our wreckage. Funny how it was just a high-end mattress in the middle of a pile of sawdust when it had felt like so much more.
He moved in front of me, smoothing his hands along my arms. “You okay?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” I was glad he couldn’t see my face or the fact that I was freaking out. How many times had I done this sort of thing?
Oh, right. Never.
The rare handful of guys I’d been with in my life were always after careful consideration and perfectly pleasant sex. It hadn’t been boring or anything, but it was never like…that.
I couldn’t even look at that mattress.
“Let’s get back to the wedding before someone comes looking for us.”
I tried to move around him, but he caught my arm. “Kin?”
I stared at the floor. I could barely see anything, and I hoped to the goddess that was the same for him.
“No regrets?”
“No,” I whispered.
“I don’t believe you.”
I forced my voice to even out. “It was just…intense.”
“I can work with intense. And repeat it.”
“I’m sure you could.”
“Would it be so wrong?”
My phone started ringing again. Ivy. Like I needed a reminder of my epic stupidity. “That’s your sister.”
“Who cares?”
“I care.” Finally, I stared up at him. His eyes were barely a gleam in the room, but his scent and warmth were right there, overwhelming me. I wanted to lean into it. Into him. I couldn’t remember wanting anything more in my life.
I pulled away. “We’ve got to get back before a search party comes looking for us.”
He sighed and let my arm free.
The trip down the stairs was decidedly less exciting this time. Now it seemed full of debris and hazards that should have stopped us.
Before I could try to climb over the stack of lumber, August was behind me. “Careful.”
His breath caressed my ear as he lifted me over and gently lowered me down two stairs before hooking one of his long legs over it all and meeting me at the bottom of the stairs.
I blasted through the door and had never been so happy for the brisk wind coming off the water, whipping down the alleyway. A good ol’ slap of reality.
Music and laughter chased the wind as whoops and catcalls came from The Haunt. I followed the sounds like a beacon. Anything to get away from the tumultuous feelings from next door.
I’d totally lied to him. I regretted every second right now.
It had been way easier when I’d had no idea how good we were together. It had been so much easier to live in the denial I’d been steeped in for all these years.
Yeah, years. There was no sense lying to myself now.
“Kin, wait.”
But I didn’t wait. I practically ran down the alley to the sidewalk and lost myself in the street traffic flowing in and out of the restaurant. I followed a river of people into the usually dimly lit horror fan’s wet dream.
Except this time The Haunt was lit up with wild purple and orange lights strung around all the scary replicas. Michael Myers had a bat perched on his shoulder wearing a veil. Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger were dressed like a bride and groom and had been moved behind the cake. Obviously, Rylee’s handiwork. No one else would have the balls to touch them.
Macy had lost her veil—now on Jason’s hockey mask—and her train was hitched up on her hip with a rainbow-colored scrunchie. Her shoes were gone and she was getting dipped by John Gideon in front of everyone.
My heart squeezed as I came to a halt just outside the circle gathered around them.
I’d never seen Macy so at ease with public affection in my life. But she was kissing him in front of all of our friends. Rylee and Vee were whooping it up, and the war cry Ivy let out reminded me of the crazy blond from the end of Dirty Dancing.
There was no doubt as to why Macy had ended up pregnant as quick as humanly possible when Gideon put that ring on her finger. The whole restaurant was flooded with their sex pheromones.
Looked like the honeymoon would be just as hot.
My chest was tight.
Suddenly, I wanted to leave. To go to my safe little shop where I knew every corner, every piece of clothing and trunk, every couch and chair, every crystal and jewel. Not stay here where it was so full of laughter and love.
All the things I couldn’t have. Probably would never have.
“Kin, there you are.” Ivy snagged my arm and pulled me forward. “Where have you been?”
“I—”
“Never mind. You’re here now and it’s time for all the single ladies to line up.”
“No. I really don’t need—”
“Oh, but you do. All us married mamas have to live vicariously through you and Gina and Gabby. Even Macy’s girls from the café are here.” She pushed me forward. “Go.”
Instead of a garter and bouquet, there was a stuffed bat and cat sitting in a place of honor on a small table beside the remaining cake shrapnel. Evidently, they’d fed the entire town with the huge gothic haunted house cake that Vee had designed with Tabitha over at Sugar Rush, the town bakery.
And I hadn’t gotten a single piece.
Clapping sounded in time with the song being pumped into the room. Macy climbed up on the chair someone had dragged over to her and Gideon.
“All right, people. I’m ready for my damn honeymoon, so let’s get this crap over with.”
The room booed when she held up the black stuffed bat.
“What? You think I’m letting you animals watch my husband feel me up for a garter? Get real.”
More booing.
I couldn’t help but laugh even as I was getting herded into a group of women. Gina hooked her arm through mine and dragged me in closer.
“I say we escape.”
Gina grinned. “No way. I’m looking for my luck to change from this eternal single status.”