Sugar Springs

by Kim Law

  He loved her. And she him.

  So where did they go from there?

  She returned to lying on her side and watched him, appreciating the male form that lay beside her. He was on his back on top of the sheet, one arm thrown over his head, no shirt on, but his dress slacks from the night before still covering him from the waist down. The fastener and zipper had been loosened, though, and she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be navy briefs underneath. The sight made her mouth water as she wondered just what he’d look like without the pants.

  The red digits of her clock showed that it was only seven, and that meant that since the girls were spending the rest of the day with Joanie—they were going to try out some cupcake recipes of Joanie’s—she and Cody still had hours to make up for their change in direction of the night before.

  She slipped quietly from the bed and padded to the bathroom, where she was horrified to look in the mirror and see traces of mascara running down to her neck. The man could have at least told her she’d dripped all over the darned place. She brushed her teeth and scrubbed her cheeks, then made a face at her reflection showing the bedhead she was sporting. Could she look any worse? Good thing she’d snuck out before she woke him up.

  She did her best to fluff the flat side of her hair back into some semblance of order, then stepped back and took inventory. Not perfect but far better than when she’d entered the bathroom. It was the best she could do, anyway, without bringing out the heavy-duty stuff. And lazy Sunday mornings were not made for makeup and hair product. Cody would have to deal.

  Flipping off the lights, she quietly opened the door but found herself staring at a hard chest and an eye-catching tattoo instead of a rumpled bed. His brown eyes were only half open, but he seemed to be awake enough to have the same thing in mind that she did.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  Her blood heated. Yes it was. And she was tired of waiting.

  She untied the robe and dropped it to her feet, standing there wearing nothing but the only pair of sexy underwear she’d been able to locate. It was a black-and-white thong Joanie had given her for her birthday a couple years ago as a hint that she needed to date. It may not have gotten any use before, but Cody seemed to be appreciating it very much now. He slowly scanned all the way down her body, and with each second that passed she got more turned on.

  “Turn around,” he said. The deepness of his voice caused her to involuntarily pull her shoulders back, pushing out her chest. It wasn’t a large movement but enough to be noticed. Her nipples beaded.

  “What?”

  “Turn.” He rotated his finger in the air in a slow, circular motion, indicating what he wanted her to do. “I need to see if the backs of those things are as hot as the front.”

  She was standing bare-chested in front of him, but he wanted her to turn around? She rolled her eyes. Whatever. Apparently he was an ass man. When she was facing the opposite direction, she bit her lip at his soft “Oh, yeah,” then tossed him a look over her shoulder.

  “That doing it for you?”

  “Oh, baby.” His eyes gleamed as they watched her. “Everything about you does it for me.”

  She completed the circle until she faced him once again. “Then please, tell me why you have yet to put your hands on me.”

  With a groan, he did exactly that. He reached out for her, clasping his hand on her bare rear, and pulled her into his own hardening body. His mouth fused to hers then, and she lost herself in the taste and feel of him.

  Wanting still more, she slipped her hands inside the waistband of his slacks and pushed until they landed on the floor with a soft swish.

  “They can keep my robe company,” she whispered. She stepped past him before turning back to take in the full image. Then she took her own time perusing his body as he had done hers. She could spend hours doing this simple pleasure.

  And it was navy boxer briefs, not plain briefs, but she liked them even better than what she’d imagined.

  With an impish smile, she pushed down her thong and climbed onto the bed.

  He was there almost before she was, sans underwear, and she laughed out loud, drunk on the thought of him—of them—and fell into his arms. The next second they were kissing and finished playing. His hands raked over her with a mission, touching her everywhere and setting her on fire.

  “I want this, Lee.” Intensity filled his words. “I want us.”

  She nodded and he reiterated, “I want us to work.”

  “I want that, too.”

  And she so very much did. Not only because he was the perfect man for her, but because he was the only man for her. No one else had even come close. She was as drawn to his loneliness and vulnerability today as she had been as a teen, and even more to the fact that he tried so hard not to let anyone see it. But she saw it, she always had. Because she had so much of the same running through her as well.

  Not that she had ever been as alone as he. She’d had her mother after all, and everyone in Sugar Springs. But the fact she’d spent the better part of her youth pining for a father who wasn’t worth the title had made her and Cody naturally migrate toward each other when they’d first met.

  And it hadn’t diminished a bit over the years.

  Ready for more, she pushed against his shoulders and nudged him to the mattress. She rose up over him, one leg sliding over his stomach so that she sat straddling him. She wiggled against the hot flesh jutting against her backside and smiled when his eyes fluttered with pleasure.

  “I have some exploring to do,” she murmured, and she set about doing just that. She made sure there was nothing casual about it as she stroked and kissed and generally touched any which way she wanted. She was very meticulous.

  “I love your tattoo,” she said right before she leaned in and touched her lips and tongue to the pattern. The tips of her breasts brushed against his chest as she moved. She was feeling so much that it scared her, but she refused to back down. She didn’t want this halfway. “It feels like you.”

  He grunted at her comment, but she didn’t need him to say anything else. She’d already figured out the significance of the design the other night, and yes, the proud but solitary eagle suited him perfectly.

  By the time she’d inched herself down to his thighs and eyed the part of him straining toward her, she was as turned on as he. She was wet and hot, and her thighs were like lava.

  She dipped her head, making a low moaning noise as she moved lower, until she finally closed her mouth down over him. He groaned. Loudly. His hips lifted off the mattress as she stroked with her mouth, and she began to wonder if she’d pushed too far. He was ready to go.

  “Though I appreciate your thoroughness,” he said, his words tight and short, his breathing ragged. He gripped her shoulders. “I’m going to have to let you in on a little secret.”

  She looked up from where she was currently enjoying herself, feeling the power of what she was doing to him, then squealed when he flipped her over in one smooth move. She found herself flat on her back, her arms pinned above her head, and his free hand crawling down her body.

  “You are not in charge here,” he taunted. He missed nothing as his hand roamed, and she came darn close to losing her mind.

  “Sure I am.” She breathed the words. Her thighs parted as his fingers traced the lower perimeter of her abdomen. “I have you exactly where I want you.”

  Her body tensed from the core out. They’d played enough. She was going to come at the mere thought if he didn’t quit teasing.

  A lone finger stroked along the seam of her girl parts and she cried out.

  “Hurry,” she begged, suddenly desperate for him. But he didn’t hurry. Instead his fingers continued to flitter over her, touching her everywhere but landing nowhere, while his mouth swooped in and latched onto a turgid nipple.

  “Oh, God,” she cried out again as she strained toward him. She thrashed her head against her restrained arms. “Cody, please.” She couldn’t catch her breath.
His mouth was so insistent on her body, so perfectly right, and she was so ready. “Please. Now.”

  Blazing eyes captured hers, and he smiled wickedly. “I’m the one in control, babe. I could get you to do anything I wanted at this point.”

  She forced herself to focus on him and had to agree. And not just because of his skilled hands and mouth, but also because she loved him so much she wouldn’t be able to say no if he asked. “Yes.” She nodded. “Yes, you could.”

  A predatory gleam flashed on his face a second before he slipped a finger inside her.

  The next instant, she exploded around his hand, her thighs clenching tight. He rocked the butt of his hand against her and thrust harder while she rode the wave until there was nothing left that could be wrung from her.

  Her breaths were short and fast as she came back to earth, and she couldn’t help teasing as she looked up at him. She smiled, but the action felt more like a satisfied oozing movement across her face. “Maybe I was in control the whole time. I am the one who just got off like a rocket.”

  A chuckle reached her ears, and then he leaned in and kissed her, both hands cupping her face and holding it captured beneath him. His touch was warm and familiar and so full of love that she knew she’d finally found someone she could put her trust in. Cody was there for her. And he loved her. She couldn’t picture anything but happiness.

  “If that was your doing, babe, I’m all for it.” He reached for the wallet she’d noticed on her bedside table and pulled out a condom. “At this point, I can’t imagine how anything will be better than watching you fall apart at my hands, so I’ll take it. But you’ll have to remember that I’m the one who gave that to you.” He paused and held her gaze steady, his tone serious. “Me. I’m the one who makes you feel that.”

  She nodded. And she wanted it to be him forever.

  Not ready to go there, she blinked and put a wide grin on her face as she reached for the packet. “Let’s see what I can do for you now, shall we?”

  His smile matched hers. “I’m all for that.”

  Instead of keeping it lighthearted, though, he slipped on the protection and stretched out over her. In one smooth motion, he joined them, and love pressed so hard against her chest it caused her physical pain. They moved together as they kissed, so perfectly in sync that it became difficult to breathe. She wanted so badly to believe she could have everything she’d ever wanted.

  His hands reached for hers as he moved, his fingers sliding between hers, and he held them on either side of her head. “I love you,” he whispered.

  She nodded, unable to speak. He kissed her again, and this time they didn’t let go until both of them were spent.

  Lee Ann licked the buttercream icing from the tips of her fingers, then propped her chin in her hand and concentrated on Candy and Kendra in the adjoining room. They both sat in the middle of the floor with their legs curled to their sides as they smiled and cooed down at Keri’s newborn baby. They’d all come over with Joanie. Instead of the normal Monday afternoon massage and girl talk at the salon, she and Joanie were bringing the party to Keri. With cupcakes instead of massages.

  She turned her attention back to her friends and answered the question Keri had just asked. Was it good with Cody? A grin covered her face. “It was spectacular.”

  The other women sighed at the same time.

  “But was it everything you’d built up in your head?” Joanie asked. She went for another dessert, picking out a chocolate cake with blue icing. “Was it the big wow we all are searching for?”

  When she looked up at Lee Ann, there was no delay in the answer. Lee Ann’s face heated in an instant. She nodded yes, it had been the big wow. And then some. She ducked her head in embarrassment as both Joanie and Keri squealed like junior high girls. All three of them busted out laughing when Candy shot them a hard look and shushed them. She was born to be a babysitter.

  Kendra, on the other hand, turned from her spot in the middle of the oak-stained floor and watched the women, studying them with an air of interest. It was the same look Lee Ann’s own mother often got when she was trying to decipher what was going on right under her nose for the sole purpose of sharing the info.

  Oh, great. Now Kendra was joining the family business of gossip?

  “Can I change his diaper?” Candy asked. Serious eyes burned steady on Keri. “I checked, and the strip on the diaper changed to green. He’s wet.”

  Keri started to get up, but at the crestfallen look that came over Candy’s face, she immediately lowered back down. “Sure,” she said. “But do you know where everything is?”

  “I figured that out when we got here. I checked out the nursery carefully as you showed us around.” She nodded as if to assure Keri that she knew exactly what she was doing. “Is it okay if I take him in there and do it myself?”

  Lee Ann sensed Keri’s new-mother nerves over the thought of letting her baby out of her sight, but then also saw the relief that landed on her shoulders a couple seconds later. Candy was responsible, and Keri knew she could trust her to be careful. “It sure would be nice to have a break from diaper duty, even if it is just this one time.”

  Candy’s eyes sparkled as she carefully scooped the baby up and turned to face them. “If Mom will bring me, I’ll come over and help out all you want.”

  “You’ve got a lot going on the next couple of weeks,” Lee Ann said. “But we’ll try to get over another time or two.”

  Lee Ann watched her daughter as she stood with the child in her arms, and thought about the fact she’d been barely five years older than her when she’d had two of them to take care of herself. Sometimes she had no idea how she’d done it, and other times—times like yesterday morning as Cody had made love to her so tenderly—she wondered what it would be like to do it again. With him there this time around.

  She shut down the thought for fear she would start depending on the idea of it, and he would decide his current life was more appealing than sticking around there would be. It was a conversation they would eventually need to have, but for now she wasn’t worrying about it. She was in love, and things seemed to be going great. She was sticking with that plan until she couldn’t.

  Kendra hopped up and followed her sister to the other room, but not before glancing back at the women one more time. It wouldn’t surprise Lee Ann to learn that her mother had put Kendra in charge of reporting back anything “juicy” that came out during the girls’ afternoon.

  “She sure is great with him,” Keri said, her exhaustion evident. She couldn’t hide the yawn that snuck up on her.

  Pride gleamed from Lee Ann. “I’m not sure where she gets it, but yes, she is.”

  “Excuse me?” Joanie asked. “You’re not sure where she gets it? Honey, that child is an exact replica of you. If I hadn’t been there to know you truly hadn’t given birth to her, I would swear she came from your blood.”

  Lee Ann looked at her, dumbfounded. “You think so?”

  She’d often seen her mother in one or the other of them, as well as bits of Stephanie and Cody both, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever thought about the fact each of them had traits that belonged solely to her. The idea made her happy.

  Keri snorted and went for another of the cupcakes that Joanie had brought over. “You’re blind, girl, if you can’t see that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her carrying around a camera next.”

  She tilted her head at the SLR sitting at Lee Ann’s elbow and gave it a pointed look. Lee Ann had made a lot of pictures when they’d first arrived, with the intention of getting the best ones back to Keri. She rarely went anywhere without at least one of her cameras with her.

  “To tell you the truth,” she replied, “she’s already interested. I’ve been teaching her in our spare time.”

  “Of course you have.” Keri reached over and squeezed Lee Ann’s arm. “You’re a great mother, Lee Ann. They’re both terrific kids. I only hope I can do half as well as you.”

  It was as if the woman
could read the niggling fear that had crept up lately. Being a parent wasn’t easy, and with Cody in the girls’ lives now, and seeing that they were learning new things and getting a more well-rounded life experience, she’d been worrying that she hadn’t been doing a good enough job.

  “Thank you,” she said simply. “I appreciate that.”

  Joanie let out an exaggerated sigh but softened it with a quick one-armed hug. “Can we please get to the main subject of the day? Details, girl. We need details about the weekend. Make us jealous.”

  Lee Ann laughed, almost giddy to talk about the last forty-eight hours, the majority of which she’d spent with Cody, mostly just the two of them.

  As she proceeded to share way more details than would probably make him comfortable, another part of her brain started working on the idea of what she might be able to do to convince him to stay. Of course he’d have to fulfill the contract in Florida first, but she was thinking about after that. She wanted to make sure he came back. And at this point, she couldn’t convince herself his returning full-time would be a fact. He was too used to going. Running. And she caught that look in his eye occasionally that make her think it wasn’t purely a thing of the past.

  He didn’t like to be in one place for too long, and with his past, she could see why, but she had to make sure he knew things were different now. She and the girls would never want him to leave. She only prayed he felt the same.

  Cody jabbed his fork into the coleslaw, his mind focused on one main topic. Lee Ann. How was he going to stand being separated from her for three months? And at the end of those months, what then? He knew what he wanted. He wanted her. Whenever and however he could have her. He wanted forever. Scary as it was, he couldn’t imagine not knowing he always had her to come home to. But what he didn’t know was how he was going to make that happen.