With a frustrated growl, Lucky propelled them to the side of the lake and she gasped as he rose out of the water, exposing their nakedness to the open air. The world tilted, heaved, but her focus was on Lucky. Gently, he lowered her to the nest of blankets in the truck bed and climbed in after her.
“Lucky, what you said.” She couldn’t say the words; too many thoughts and emotions jangled around in her head to think straight. But right now she needed to believe it was possible for them. “The words. Make me feel them. Show me.”
“You want me to show you how much I love you?” Lucky leaned forward, water droplets cascading off his body and caressing her skin like his own touch. Taylor opened her legs in invitation, her body already slick with want and need. “I can do that.”
“I love to worship your body with my mouth. Taste your sweetness here”—he ran a hand along her thigh downward until he reached the apex—“and here most of all.”
His fingers stroked her, spreading her desire and drifting up to circle her clit. Taylor gasped, closing her eyes against the onslaught of pleasure, wave after wave that swelled until she thought she’d come apart.
Lucky shifted, his big body scooting back until his warm breath coasted across the sensitized skin.
“Oh God.” Taylor’s eyes shot open, looking down to find him between her thighs, his face a mask of feral hunger, his eyes locked on her own. She shifted, her body involuntarily arching upward, inviting him to lower his mouth and take his fill.
He ignored her silent plea, offering only the sweet stretch of her flesh as he entered her with his fingers. In and out he pulsed, paced at a rhythm to drive her insane inch by agonizing inch while his gaze dared her to look away.
“Lucky, please.” Her voice cracked on the second word, but she was unashamed of her weakness. Lucky was right there with her.
His voice, no more than a deep whisper drifted across to her on the breeze from the lake. “I know, baby. I’ve got to have a little taste. Just a taste and then I’ll take you there, I promise.”
She swore the stars in the sky flashed when he finally tasted her. His lips, tender and urgent, kissed her thigh, her hip, and then trailed down to close over her clit. Taylor was a mass of feeling, her body crackling with the rush of electricity pinging off her nerve endings. The breeze from the lake, warm and moist with summer humidity, caressed her nakedness and heightened her pleasure.
Lucky groaned against her skin, the deep reverberation of his desire igniting the first spark of her orgasm low in her belly. Taylor tensed, her body clenching around him as the sensation overtook her. So fast, pleasure hit her, like a star shooting across the night sky in its last glorious ride. White hot. Intense. She had to cry out, had to scream her pleasure into the darkness or risk burning alive.
Lucky lifted up on his elbows, brushing her hair back from her face as his calloused fingers tenderly coasted the ridges of her nose, cheekbones, eyebrows.
“God, I love you.” Lucky whispered. Love turned his eyes to a hue that matched the vast sky serving as their cover tonight. “I dreamed of you…of this…just the thought of you kept me sane. If you only knew…”
Taylor’s breath caught in her throat at the naked emotion on Lucky’s face, the awe in his voice. Never had she thought that someone could look at her like that, like she was the only thing keeping him tethered to this earth.
“Did you hear me, Tay? I dreamed of you. I would lie in the desert and my body would ache to feel you next to me, to be inside you just like this. Safe and hungry, surrounded by your wet heat.” Lucky kissed her, a tender one and almost sweet in contrast to the fire in his words. “I would wake up and swear you were with me all night long. Sometimes the memory of you was the only thing that kept me alive. I swear to God…the only thing.”
Lucky moved then, lowering his head to brutally take her kiss. His hips rocking forward to thrust his cock deep inside her body. Taylor gasped at the exquisite pleasure radiating through her. Unrelenting, Lucky, drove into her, deeper with each stroke as his tongue plundered her mouth. She clung to him, giving him free rein to take what she offered.
For a split second panic rose in her throat. She couldn’t do this. Taylor closed her eyes tighter and steeled her heart to resist giving all of herself to this man. If she did, she wouldn’t survive it when the time came for it to end.
Lucky grasped her hands, pulling them back from where they’d been unconsciously pushing against his chest trying to create distance. He raised them over her head, stretching and opening her body further, making her more vulnerable to his rhythmic thrusts and rough caress.
His low, guttural voice broke through her concentration. “Taylor, open your eyes and look at me. I need you…so much.” Lucky threaded his fingers through hers, a sweet gesture that forced her to open her eyes. “I love you. Stay.”
All of the world faded away as Lucky’s gaze caught and held her own. With a sigh, the last part of her defenses crumbled into nothing.
She was done.
Her heart was his.
His honesty, his vulnerability, worked better than any slick seduction line. She’d spent years secretly yearning for him to look at her like he was right now. And although she thought she’d thrown out those girlish fantasies with her rumpled wedding dress, they were still here just waiting for Lucky to bring them back to life.
“I’ll stay.” She almost couldn’t believe what she was saying, but it felt right, true. “I’ll stay with you.”
She was still scared, still skeptical in the power to make anything last for a lifetime, but she’d follow his lead and step out in faith. Because Lucky believed in them.
That was enough. It would have to be.
Staring into his eyes, Taylor gave herself over to the pleasure created by the sweet friction of their bodies moving together. She chased the sensation until it crashed over her, pulling her under the waves of her orgasm. Her spasms, hard and intense, dragged Lucky with her as he shouted his release and collapsed on top of her. Taylor sucked in big gulps of air as she released her hands and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him in a tight, sweaty embrace.
Her eyes fluttered shut, the moon creating a silver sheen against her eyelids, matching the shimmering glow now settled deep in her chest.
Right where her heart used to be.
Chapter Twenty
“Lucky Landon, cover your naked ass up and explain to me why you’re sleeping in the bed of your truck.”
Lucky stirred, blinking into the muted sunlight of morning. His mind hovered in the space between reality and one of the best dreams of his life. It took great effort to resist the desire to bitch-slap the man who was intruding on his awesome morning after.
He yawned, purposefully flashing the previously mentioned part of his anatomy before turning to face his good buddy Sheriff Burke. The older man was holding a cup of coffee, one foot resting on the tailgate as he sipped and smirked. The old bastard broke out into chuckle, saluting Lucky with his cup while he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Well, damn. Under the ball-busting cop exterior the guy had a sense of humor after all.
“I take my coffee black. Taylor likes it with a little bit of milk.” Lucky lay a gentle hand on the woman next to him, pulling the blankets firmly over her, and shaking her awake.
“What do I look like? Starbucks?”
“Good morning, Sheriff,” Taylor murmured.
She sat up, her sleepy smile bright, and unashamed of being caught wearing nothing but a blanket in the back of a pickup truck in the woods. Ignoring their intruder, Lucky smoothed her tousled hair from her face, pressing a soft kiss to her mouth.
“Hey.” Taylor beamed up at him, her face displaying no signs of panic over the night before. Lucky sighed in relief.
“I’ve got a good idea of what y’all were up to last night, but it’s time you moved on home and did this stuff in a bed like normal people.” The sheriff lowered his foot from the tailgate and headed toward the squad car parked just behind
them. He got to the bumper and turned, yelling out into the still of the morning. “Besides, y’all are late for your cousin’s piano recital brunch at the Southern Comfort.”
Shit. Lucky peered down at his watch—they weren’t technically late yet, but if they didn’t get moving they would be.
“Baby, we’ve got to go to or my mom will have my ass.” Lucky groped around for his jeans, shoving his legs in, opting to go commando.
“Well, since I have plans for that ass later, we’d better get moving.”
Taylor grinned up at him as she lowered her sundress over her head, covering up her luscious body. He bit back a groan of disappointment at the way reality was intruding on their time together. His consolation was the knowledge that now they had all the time in the world.
A crazy drive back to town, rushed showers, and a shave landed them at their destination with five minutes to spare. Pulling the truck into a parking spot just down the street from the diner, Lucky turned to Taylor. She looked beautiful, her chin-length, funky hairstyle framing her sweet face, the blond highlights catching the morning sunshine and making her hazel eyes sparkle. Dressed conservatively for Taylor, she wore a sexy dress that ended right at her knee and covered everything except her shoulders. She even wore underwear—a matching yellow thong and bra set he couldn’t wait to take off later.
Downtown Elliott was busy as usual, and there was no way to kiss her without someone seeing, so he settled for reaching out and giving her hand a squeeze. Taylor pressed back, her smile growing wider as he grinned back like a loon. He was so gone over this girl.
“So, you’re going to stay,” he said.
“I’m staying.”
He brought her fingers to his mouth for a swift kiss. “Thank you, baby. We’re going to beat the odds, you’ll see.”
“God, I hope so.”
Something in his chest shifted at the pang of doubt in her words. He’d do anything not to let her down, and as of today, it was his number one priority. Given time, she would believe as much as he did.
Out of the corner his eye, he spotted his mother peering out at the truck from the window of the Comfort. They had about one minute before she sent someone out for them. Time to set the game plan.
“So, we’ll tell everyone you’re staying, but nothing about us. Right?”
“Yeah. You want to talk to Teague first, and I think that’s the smart way to go,” she answered.
Lucky unlocked the doors, adjusting his dark suit jacket as he crossed the front of the truck to meet Taylor on the sidewalk. “I do, too. He’s been so weird lately about you, and I don’t want to piss him off any more. If I had to guess, he’s not going to like it.”
“I don’t see why not. You’re one of his best friends. He knows you.”
“And that’s the problem.” Lucky touched her back where her waist curved in to the swell of her sexy bottom, remembering the tattoo inked into her tan skin underneath her dress. She halted, looking up at him with a quizzical expression on her face, and it took all of his restraint to keep from placing a kiss on her soft mouth. “He knows everything about me, including how many women I’ve had in my life and that none of them stuck.”
“Oh.” Her voice was just above a whisper, but the hint of hurt was unmistakable.
“Until now.”
“Oh.” She was a little perkier, the blush on her cheeks betraying how pleased she was with the news.
“Stop fishing for compliments and get your sweet ass inside.” He laughed and guided her through the door with a quick tap on her bottom. Taylor swatted his hand away and they entered the door laughing at their own private joke.
The aroma of the Southern Comfort—fresh-brewed coffee, fried chicken, and Aunt Dolly’s famous peanut butter pie—wrapped around him and dragged him all the way inside. He went willingly, having spent a good portion of his feckless youth in this restaurant waiting tables, hanging out with the Boys, and chasing girls. This was home.
People waved from booths and tables, greeting him with smiles and curious looks for Taylor as they passed by. They headed to an area currently occupied by about half the zip code’s population, most of them related to him in some way or another. Southerners knew their people, and once you were claimed by either blood or marriage it was almost impossible to shake them.
The little lady of the hour, his five-year-old second cousin Maddie, was standing with her mom and her brand new baby brother, Oliver. This brunch was a command appearance from her grandparents, his Aunt Dolly and Uncle John Cantrell. While he wasn’t looking forward to an hour of little kids pounding out show tunes, the brunch hosted at the Comfort was worth the price of admission.
Taylor was quickly absorbed into the crowd by his mom, and from the squeals and hugs that accompanied their conversation, he guessed she’d spilled the beans about staying in Elliott. He watched her across the room as she kissed Oliver, fist-bumped with Maddie, and hugged Michaela and Jack.
He didn’t even try to hide the smile on his face, and he let his mind imagine the way this scene would be played out over and over again in the future. Taylor with him, marking life’s ups and downs and making their own memories with their own children and grandchildren. Always a risk-taker, he’d bet money on how this was going to turn out. They’d win the whole damn jackpot.
A few moments later, Jack and Beck sidled up next to him as he poured himself a cup of coffee and topped off their own steaming mugs. He took a sip of the perfect brew and sought out Taylor’s gaze across the room, remembering the night before. The farm, Taylor—it was all more than he deserved and everything he wanted.
“Holy crap. Look at that face.” Beck laughed as he lifted his mug to his lips. “I guess you and Taylor worked out your ‘sleep together/not sleep together’ dilemma.”
“Of course they did.” Jack broke in with his own chuckle. “After working on the farm all day, he isn’t rushing to Elliott House just to get all hot and sweaty packing boxes.”
Lucky was in too good of a mood to get pissed over their mocking this morning. He even resisted the urge to flip them the bird. Clearly, it was love.
“Kayla loves it when I work around the house and get all sweaty. If I’d known, I would have been a construction worker or something,” Jack offered.
“Whoa. Oversharing,” Beck said.
Lucky choked on his coffee, barely stopping from spitting his mouthful across the floor. “I think I liked you better when you didn’t talk so much.”
“Bite me,” Jack said.
“How are things going with Taylor?” Beck asked.
Before he could answer, Teague walked through the door, scanning the diner until he saw the three of them. He raised a hand in a wave and headed over, weaving through tables and greeting other patrons as he made his way across the room. Teague was so much like his father, confident and outgoing with everyone. Lucky had no doubt he would be successful when he entered politics in the future.
“Not a word to Teague about me and Taylor. I need to talk to him in private,” he said to Beck and Jack.
“Hey, guys. Sorry I’m late.” Teague offered handshakes all around, nodding yes when Beck offered coffee. “Olivia had a late start getting back to DC.”
“Did she enjoy the party last night?” Beck asked.
Teague shook his head, taking his first sip of the hot beverage. “I don’t think the country is her thing.”
“That’s too bad. She seemed like a nice woman,” Jack said.
Lucky blinked at him in amazement. Olivia had been rude, distant, and snobbish. He’d disliked her within minutes of meeting her. She must be dynamite in bed because he couldn’t imagine why Teague put up with her attitude.
“She is. But her father is a lobbyist and her mother is old money.” He emphasized the word and Lucky could only take it to mean that her money was older than Elliott money—and that was saying something. “She’s a city girl. I probably won’t see her again until I head back to DC.”
“Well, we’re at
least keeping one Elliott in the old town.” Jack continued when Teague gave him a puzzled look. “Taylor is staying and going into business with Aunt Sissy.”
Teague swiveled to look at Lucky, his mouth hanging slack with shock. Oh buddy, wait until you hear the rest of the news. Lucky’s gut tightened at the idea of telling Teague he was in love with Taylor. What he thought shouldn’t matter, they were both adults, but Teague’s disapproval could cause a rift in the Elliott family and their lifelong friendship. With the pressure Teague was under right now, it was anyone’s guess how he would react.
“What is my sister doing?”
“She’s going into partnership with my mom and opening a day spa.” Teague still looked a little dazed, so Lucky added, “She isn’t going to Hawaii.”
“When the hell did that happen?” Not waiting for an answer, Teague turned, searching the crowd for Taylor. Spotting her, he placed his coffee cup on the counter and started to make his way across the room, almost colliding with Sheriff Burke, who nodded to them all. When his greeting reached Lucky, the cocky grin on his face sent a shiver of apprehension crawling over his skin.
Now was not the time for Sheriff Burke to unveil his newly discovered sense of humor.
“Lucky. Sorry about my wake-up call this morning.”
No. No. Fuck no. Lucky desperately tried to signal for him to shut up, but the older man was too busy setting up the punch line to notice.
“I know it’s Landon property, but you and Ms. Elliott should be careful about where you decide to make love. Bodean Taggert is still mad at you and there are all kinds of hunters a—”
“What?” Teague asked. He turned back to face him, his red face testifying to his inability to breathe.
“Teague—” Lucky instinctively raised his hands. Teague was going to hit him, he could see it in his eyes, and who would blame him? This wasn’t a great way to find out your baby sister was having sex with your best friend.
“Did you sleep with Taylor?” It must have been meant as a rhetorical question because Teague didn’t even take a breath before plowing on. “Are you fucking my sister?”
His Southern Temptation Page 13