Need You Now

by Ali Parker

  One of his big hands swept out ahead of us. “Did you believe you were going to live here forever?”

  “No. It was only a few days out here that time.” Precious days that I longed for, but they hadn’t exactly been moonshine and roses.

  “That’s how I feel about my relationship with Noelle. It was more than a few days, but it doesn’t really seem that way anymore. Having had her in my life left a lasting impression, but it hasn’t dictated who I’ve become.”

  I looked up at him as he glanced down at me. Our gazes suddenly seemed fixed on each other, neither of us willing or able to look away.

  Colton dipped his head forward just as I lifted mine from his shoulder. Our lips came together in a tender, almost lazy kiss that lit my insides on fire in a slow burn instead of the inferno that’d happened the last time we’d kissed at the end of a date.

  That had been passionate and frenzied, my neediness clashing with his in a battle of lust and hormones. This wasn’t that.

  This felt soothing. Almost like it was the perfect balm being applied over a mild case of sunburn. My emotions were completely torn to shreds after telling him everything, but like that mild case of sunburn, I knew it might’ve hurt a lot more later if he wasn’t taking care of it.

  Taking care of it, of me, felt like exactly what he was doing, though. He wound one of his hands around the back of my neck while the other clasped my own. His lips moved like he had all the time in the world, like kissing me under the bright light of the moon was the only thing he had planned for the rest of his life.

  I kissed him back the same way. After he’d opened up to me the other night, I’d shut him down at my door. I hadn’t been in the right frame of mind then to give him the same acceptance I felt from him tonight. I was now.

  While I had no idea how terrible it must’ve been for him to go through what he had, I didn’t want him to think that I felt anything other than acceptance about it. I didn’t pity him, I didn’t want him to feel humiliated by it, and I might even have wanted to show him that he wasn’t worthless as all of that had made him feel.

  Well, that remains to be seen.

  I shut down the snarky voice inside and focused on him instead, on how it felt to have his lips pressed against mine and how my body was aching for him to have his hands all over it. We kissed like that for a long time, until I was practically humming with need once again.

  “Colton,” I whispered between kisses. “How do you feel about sex in public?”

  The massaging of his tongue against mine had just about driven me up the wall. If he decided we had to get back to one of our houses first, I was not going to be a happy camper.

  Thankfully, it turned out that I wouldn’t have to pout all the way home or send him away so I could take care of things myself. He smirked against my lips before gently starting to wrap his arms around me.

  “I like a bit of adventure, and this is hardly public,” he murmured. “But it might take some maneuvering if we don’t want to be picking stones out of our asses for the next few days.”

  He pulled me into his lap, letting me feel just how much it wasn’t only me who was totally ready for this. Then he looked up into my eyes. “Hang onto my shoulders. This might get a little rocky.”

  I laughed at his pun but followed his instructions when he moved to stand up without letting me go. “I can walk, you know?”

  “Yep, but I prefer doing it this way.” Somehow managing to get to his feet without falling over or dropping me on my butt, he carried me to one of the lower rocks on the far side of the little outcropping.

  He spun us around to sit down on it, standing me up between his knees. As soon as he was seated, he started kissing every inch of exposed skin on my belly, peeling my shirt up to give himself the access he wanted.

  Thoughts about how we’d just been on a hike and how sweaty I’d been at one point flooded my mind, but my lust-addled brain wouldn’t let me stop him. It’s just a little sweat.

  Besides, he certainly didn’t seem to mind. My shirt and bra disappeared over my head, his hot mouth closing over one hardened nipple while his fingers stroked the other. His free arm was banded around my waist, holding me to him and supporting me at the same time.

  My head rolled back, and I was struck by how bright the stars out were again just before Colton worked his fingers into the waistband of my pants and rolled them down. My eyes closed when the cool night air hit my overheated body, and I decided stargazing could wait.

  I moaned, probably too loudly for being just off a public hiking trail, but I didn’t give a crap. He’d brought his fingers from my nipple to my slit and there was no way I was going to be able to keep quiet—not even if I tried. Which I didn’t.

  It even kind of excited me to know we could get caught at any time by anyone else who had decided to come up this path tonight. Exhibitionism wasn’t a concept I’d ever really paid much attention to, but I was definitely getting a thrill out of this.

  Colton caressed me until I was writhing in his hand before finally sliding a finger into me. One became two before he bent over and sucked my aching clit into his mouth.

  My orgasm came careering into me soon after, bowling me over with such intense pleasure that my knees went numb. I knew without a doubt that I’d have hit the ground if he hadn’t been holding me up.

  “Get on top of me,” he growled once I came around again.

  I shook my arms out to try and regain use of them, then wrapped them around his neck and allowed him to lift me up.

  Glancing down when I didn’t feel his shorts against my skin, I realized he’d already pushed them off. He held a foil package up between two fingers, breathing heavily, and tilted his head at me.

  “Care to do the honors?” He smirked. “You’re still trembling. I don’t want you to fall if I let go.”

  “You’re awfully full of yourself suddenly,” I teased, even though I really was still shaky.

  “Yep, but you’re going to be fuller of me real soon.” He wagged his eyebrows at me, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed his easy banter even in the heat of the moment.

  Until I rolled the condom over him and he guided me down.

  Then all laughter ended and the night air filled with our moans. He thrust up into me, establishing an exquisite, electrifying rhythm with his hips and bringing his fingers up to cup my breasts again.

  I was so sensitive that my next orgasm started building again almost immediately. I fell apart around him not long after, but he wasn’t quite done with me yet.

  Despite his earlier comment about having to dig stones out of our asses, he moved us down to the ground but made sure that his body took the brunt of it. It was a touching gesture that again made me feel like, somewhere deep down inside, he cared about me.

  When he had flown me to the moon once again, his face finally contorted into a mask of blissful torture and he shuddered as he came apart above me.

  As I lay there a few minutes later with my head on his chest and his fingers stroking my hair, I felt a strange kind of peace washing over me. A lot of what we’d talked about were things I’d held inside for a long time. It felt better than I ever could’ve imagined to get it off my chest and to have someone really listen to me when I told them.

  “I like spending time with you,” I whispered into the moonlit darkness of our little alcove between the rocks.

  Colton shifted beneath me to lift himself up on one elbow, a slight frown tugging at his dark eyebrows when he looked at me. “This sounds like a ‘but this is the last time’ kind of talk.”

  “It’s not. Well, I don’t want it to be. Do you?”

  “No, but if we’re going to keep doing this, there’s something I have to tell you,” he said, his voice quiet but serious.

  When he didn’t continue, I reached up to brush my fingertips over his cheeks. My heartrate spiked again, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the intimacy of the moment or because of fear of what he was about to say.
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  He groaned softly, lowering his head to run his nose up the length of mine. “But I don’t want to do it right now. Let’s save it for another time.”

  Protests ricocheted through my mind. I wanted to know what it was he wanted to say. If he had finally been about to tell me that he was investigating the clinic and the person behind it, I wanted to hear how he said it and how he justified what he’d written so we could finally get it all out into the open.

  But at the same time, I didn’t want it to steal this moment away from us. I’d rarely, if ever, had such peace with another human being as I’d had a minute ago with him. So I nodded my agreement and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

  “Tonight’s been heavy on revelations and truths,” I said against his mouth. “We should save something for next time.”

  Part of me felt like a coward for not just demanding we talk about it right then, but the other part sighed in relief. I deserve this little slice of peace. I’m not letting anyone ruin it. Not even me.

  Chapter 20

  COLTON

  My email inbox had never seemed so unappetizing. There wasn’t a single tip I could actually use. I drummed my fingers against my desk and scrolled through the last few pages of items again to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.

  The story exposing the corruption in the next county over had gained some traction, but it was too soon to do a follow-up. People were still investigating the information from my articles, so there wasn’t much I could do there.

  Ross had sent the psychic who’d contacted us about the Yellowstone disappearance packing after verifying what I had told him about the guy. None of the feelers I’d put out over the last few weeks had turned anything up from my extensive network of contacts.

  There had to be something good out there. I just had to find it.

  As I clicked onto the news from other sites to see if something there caught my attention, the door to my office burst open. I looked up to see Ross closing it behind him.

  He was dressed in yet another three-piece suit, his blond hair pushed back and his blue eyes narrowed. “You haven’t sent in a progress log this week.”

  “I know.” I shut my laptop and gave him my full attention. “It’s because I don’t have any progress to report. There’s nothing going on at the moment that’s caught my eye.”

  “What about that story about the bogus donor and the animal clinic?” He dropped into a chair and hooked his ankle over his knee. “That seems like a nice loose end for you to tie up. You even got a dog for that one.”

  “I wanted a dog anyway, remember?” I folded my hands over my stomach. “Besides, that one’s looking like a dead end. Not a loose one.”

  He frowned at me and dipped his head between his shoulders. “Are you sure you don’t just think it’s a dead end because of the vet tech who works there? I mean, come on, dude. She might’ve been a good fuck, but since when has that ever been a reason to abandon a story?”

  “She’s not the reason I’m abandoning it.” My voice came out a lot more forceful than I’d intended for it to. Dialing it back, I shrugged and shook my head. “I haven’t received anything from anyone about that piece except for that one email. My digging hasn’t turned up anything on the company, and frankly, I’m starting to think you were right.”

  His brows rose. “About?”

  “I might’ve been chasing a ghost on that one. No one in their right mind would let an article like that stand without coming out to defend themselves.”

  “We’ve received several more emails about an apology.” He dropped his head to the side. “You ready to issue one?”

  “I have nothing to apologize for.” I looked him right in the eyes. “I wrote that article based on the information I had in front of me at the time. Nothing else has surfaced. Ergo, no new article.”

  “You haven’t got any leads on anything else?” Turning his head to look past me and out the window, he sighed. “This has never happened with you before. You’ve always got the next one lined up almost before the first one is even out.”

  “You said it yourself,” I replied. “I’ve been on a roll my entire career. Maybe you were right about the fact that the wheels had to come off sometime too.”

  “You assured me that wouldn’t happen.” His expression turned hard. “You can’t do this to me, man. I’ve already assigned you your usual space in the paper. It can’t be filled with a blank fucking spot.”

  “So give it to someone else.” Lord knew I’d had to jump in at the last minute several times to make things happen. “There’s nothing there, man. Give me a break. You know I’ll have the next one on your desk in no time.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. In my line of work, I always needed something in the pipeline to get a decent story out by next issue. It wasn’t quite as simple as writing a column about my week, political events, or the latest scandal in the celebrity world.

  Sure, I knew those took work too, but my kind of stories took some time to investigate and to craft. I had to wait for tips to pay off and for contacts to come through. Without that, all I had was conjecture and speculation. It didn’t make for good news.

  My article about that donor had been as low as I was willing to sink. I’d done it for a reason, and I thought it had paid off when I got that email, but the bait had only been nibbled. It sure as fuck hadn’t been taken.

  Ross looked at me like he knew I was being full of shit. “How long is ‘no time’?” He made air quotes around the words.

  I shrugged one shoulder, glancing down at my shut computer. “As long as it takes for me to find and put together something worthwhile. You know that. This isn’t the first time a lead hasn’t panned out or that I haven’t had something to report back about.”

  “Maybe not, but it is the first time you haven’t been working on anything.” Concern tightened his eyes. “Just tell me the truth. Are you letting this one go because of the girl?”

  “I’m letting it go for now because I have no new information to work with.” Granted, I definitely hadn’t been doing the kind of digging I usually did, but there never seemed to be a right time to ask Haven about her employer. “I just don’t think it’s going to be as good of a story as I thought it would be.”

  “If you have no new information, then how do you know? You’ve never given up this easily. What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing. I just think I might’ve barked up the wrong tree this time.” I didn’t really, but telling him that would be counterproductive. The facts of the matter remained as they had been at first. Donors didn’t just drop off the map, nor were they never around their own businesses. “I’m not writing it off just yet. I’m just also not writing it just yet.”

  Ross patted out a beat on his thighs, looking at me with intent in his clear blue gaze. “I’ve never had to push you, and I don’t really know how to do it.”

  “So why do it?” I frowned at him. “Do you think I’m losing my edge?”

  My stomach nearly bottomed out at the question. I literally couldn’t afford to lose my edge. It wasn’t about my condo or my car or even about my reputation. It was about my mother.

  The nursing home she was in did not come cheap, and with her condition bound to deteriorate, she would only need more care. Not less.

  Ross sighed, reading the panic that must’ve come into my eyes. “I don’t know if you’re losing your edge. All I know is that I’m your friend, but I’m also your boss. I need a story, Colton. If not a story, I need a fucking update about a work in progress. I can only cover for you for so long.”

  What he wasn’t saying was that my bonuses and commissions, which by far exceeded my salary, were dependent on my stories. He was trying to watch my ass to his own higher-ups, but he couldn’t keep it up forever.

  “I got it,” I said firmly. “I’ll find something soon.”

  “If you don’t, you come to me.” He got up and fixed me with a stare he only used when he was trying to remind me of his authorit
y. I knew he meant well, though. He didn’t use that stare for nothing.

  He was clearly getting pressure about my recent inaction, and he was trying to warn me the only way he could. “Get it together, Colton. She needs you to.”

  The words were like a stab to my gut. He knew how to press my buttons, but he was also right. The place Mom was in didn’t take kindly to things like skipped payments or arrangements being made. They had a waiting list from all over the state for people who would gladly take her spot.

  But I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.

  It didn’t matter what it took. Mom would stay there and keep receiving the best care my money could buy.

  Ross didn’t bother saying anything else before he left my office. He’d come to deliver a message and I’d heard it.

  The paper wouldn’t expect something overnight. Integrity meant the world to them, despite how my last article had apparently made it seem to the ‘Concerned Reader.’ It meant the world to me too.

  I didn’t just write inflammatory shit because I got off on it. I did it when I had to bait the hook, and our bosses knew that. It was why they gave me leeway when I came up with shit like that.

  In this one instance, it might not have paid off, but it had plenty of other times. If they made me retract and issue a formal apology at the end of the day, I’d do it.

  Fuck, it was no skin off my back.

  The more important thing was finding a new story. Something I could update them about next week. With that in mind, I opened my laptop again and scrolled through a host of events happening this weekend.

  There was only one that captured my interest. Yellowstone was holding a summer bash, and they were very deliberate in not mentioning that anything untoward had happened there recently.

  It had been an interesting season for them so far, though. Rangers had been accused of poaching, that couple had disappeared, and conservationists were concerned about some species that was on the brink of extinction.

  The website made no mention of any of that. A few weeks ago, there had still been active links to the investigation into the couple and to a statement about the rangers, but there was nothing there now.