by Ann Carver
Cindy looked bewildered. “Damn, Harper, how low can you get?”
She winked at her. “Ask Garrett.”
Joe had wanted to catch up with Harper and explain that he wasn’t going to say it was just sex. He wanted to tell her it was great, but she’d cut him off and ran like hell to get away from him. He’d drove to the apartment to talk to her, but she wasn’t there, so he figured he’d find her at the only other place she’d likely be. The Dancing Pony.
He was happy that she followed him to a table, with the help of her food, so he could talk to her, but Cindy came and antagonized her. He got up quickly and stood between Cindy and Harper, like a referee, so they didn’t kill each other.
“Okay,” he said as he nudged Cindy away and took Harper by the arm.
“Hey,” Harper said as she stared down at her burger.
Joe sighed and put money on the table. “Grab it and let’s go.” He waited for her to argue with him, but to his surprise, she picked up her burger and let him lead her away. He took her to his truck, anticipating another argument, but she was content on devouring her burger at the moment.
“Why are we in your truck?” she asked in between bites.
He pulled out onto the road. “Because you’ve been drinking and I want to talk to you.” She shrugged her shoulder at him and continued eating while he drove to the apartment. He parked and led her upstairs where she finished her burger.
“Okay, I’m done. Let’s have the lecture,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
He shook his head. The stubborn women frustrated him. “I’m not going to lecture you. I want to talk about what we did.” Just then his phone went off.
“You better get that. It could be work,” she said pointing to his pocket.
Pulling his phone out, he tapped a button and said, “Russell.” It was work and there’d been a two-car accident that needed his attention right now. “I’ll be right there.”
He placed a hand on each of Harper’s shoulders. “I have to go, there’s been a bad accident. Please don’t go anywhere-”
“Where am I going to go? You didn’t let me drive back here,” she said all pissy.
Taking a deep breath, he looked her in the eyes. “Please just stay here. I have no regrets about what we did at the block house.” He moved in closer to ensure she was looking into his eyes and comprehending what he was saying. “None at all, it was great. I’ll be back in the morning,” he promised and then he kissed her to show her he meant it.
It had been hours before he even made it back to the station. After the car accident, they were called immediately to a barn accident. A man was trying to fix the roof by himself and fell forty-five feet into a round hay bale. If he’d fallen a few feet to the right, he’d have been impaled by a picket fence.
After the barn accident, they’d been called for a search and rescue of a toddler who slipped out of their parent’s tent. They found her wandering around the Potomac River bank, luckily not having gone in. The next call came, right after they checked her over, to a fire accident at the campground right up the road. A twenty-two-year-old kid had gotten drunk and fell into the fire. He ended up with third degree burns on his hands and some burns on his stomach.
When they made it back to the station, Joe was tired, filthy and pissed off. He’d really wanted to stay and talk with Harper, but at the rate his night was going, they’d be on calls all night long. And they were.
The apartment was silent when he returned home. Harper had fallen asleep on the couch with the television on and music blaring out of her earbuds. Something about wanting the real slim...something, to stand up. He was never going to understand her music.
Not wanting to wake her up, he quietly slipped past her and took a shower. It gave him time to think about what he wanted to tell her. But he really didn’t know what it meant for them. Were they going to start dating? Would she want to be his girlfriend? Would she want a relationship? He’d fought it so long because he knew she wanted men for a night and that was it, but he was hoping this was different.
The sun was just beginning to rise when he got out of the shower and pulled on boxers. He sat on the coffee table watching her sleep. Her red hair was strewn across her face with one hand above her head and the other hanging off the couch. She had showered and changed her clothes too. Into a long shirt. His shirt, which he liked. The bottom was dangerously close to her panties, which he liked too. He wanted to touch that very spot.
Instead, he settled for nudging her shoulder. “Harper, I’m home,” he whispered trying to wake her up.
She turned over but didn’t wake up.
He nudged her again and spoke a little louder this time. He was tired, but he really wanted to talk to her before he went to bed.
“Hm,” she said as she stirred. Her hand came down and rubbed an eye. “Joey?”
He closed his eyes and squelched a laugh. She was never going to stop calling him Joey. “Yes, it’s me. Joe.”
Her eyes slit open and she smiled at him. “Are you done with work?”
“Yes, and I wanted to finish talking.” He rubbed the creamy skin on her arm, which felt amazing on the tips of his fingers.
She sat up and looked at him. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, Joey. I don’t want to say it was a mistake, but we’re too good of friends to ruin it by doing it again.”
What? He thought he’d actually gotten through to her. Letting her know how good real love making could be. “Harper-” he started.
“Joey, I don’t do the ‘more’ thing, and you deserve more. I shouldn’t have gotten carried away, but it’d been a while since…you know,” she said raising her brows up at an angle.
This was not what he was hoping for. “Harper, we’ve already done the ‘more’ thing. This wasn’t our first time.”
She looked away from him. “I know, but that was when we were kids.” She turned back and looked him in the eyes. “Joey, I don’t want to lose you as a friend. You’re the best thing in my pathetic life and I couldn’t handle losing that.”
He’d never let that happen. “Your life isn’t pathetic,” he said taking her hands in his.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Please! I haven’t accomplished anything. I worked at a bar for the last seven years going absolutely nowhere. I don’t even have my own house…well, until now and only because of my foster parents. I’m not the type of person to stick around.”
And he knew she wasn’t, as well. But there was also something that intrigued him. “You said it’d been a while. How long?”
“What difference does it make?”
“Just humor me, Harper,” he said.
She shrugged her shoulder. “A year.”
This was new. Harper had never gone without having sex, so something happened to make her go without, but what? Was it good or bad? “Did something happen? Did someone hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just…I just wanted something different.”
That was music to his ears. She wanted something different. He was different. He pulled her hands and rested them on his hips, and then he hugged her hips with his hands. “Harper, let me be the different. Give us a chance.”
Harper sucked in the inside of her cheek like she always did when she was nervous. “I don’t know, Joey. I don’t want to lose you. You mean too much to me. If things go bad, then I’d hate myself forever.”
“You will never lose me as a friend. Even if things don’t work out for us, I promise to be your friend, forever. Come on, Harper, let’s see where this takes us.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Joey, you know I’m not that type of girl.”
He needed to make her understand. Maybe he was asking for too much. Harper had always been simple and he was asking for complex. How could he make it simpler?
“Joey,” she said interrupting his thoughts. “How about we just be like we are and…share a bed and…you know.”
Well, hell, that
was simple, but not what he wanted. It was a start and he’d find a way to make it work, to show her they could be together and it’d be great. Harper in his bed every night would be great. Sure, she’d been in his bed every night, but now she was offering hot, steamy sex. Okay, those weren’t her words, but he based it off what they shared at the block house.
“Would you agree to be exclusive? When I share my bed, it’s with one person only.” That is one thing he wouldn’t budge on. Not with anyone, especially with Harper.
She looked everywhere but at him. Several deep breaths later, she finally agreed. He knew it was a big step for her. Nobody had ever tied her down to a commitment and the fact that he just did, made him smile. He’d start with sharing his bed with Harper and then make her see how good a real relationship could be. But first he was starting with the sharing the bed part. He picked her up and carried him to bed.
Chapter Fifteen
Harper squeaked out a scream when Joey hauled her up, carried her to the bedroom and gently tossed her on the bed. She saw how tired he was, yet, there was a flare in his eyes. Want. He wanted her and she wanted him. She was also relieved he agreed to basically be friends with benefits, though she hated that phrase, but lacked for something better. A relationship she couldn’t do because, well, she sucked at it.
The urge to take him hard with his fuck-me eyes was killing her. His boxers where the only thing keeping her from relieving her need, so she pushed them down and smiled at the erection saluting her. It was big, but she already knew that from the block house and before.
Joey leaned down and kissed her. A steamy, hot, wet kiss that made her moan as she met his tongue and twirled around it. His hand slowly slid up her thigh and when he reached her panties he pulled on them and let them snap back to her skin. She gasped.
She arched her back which pushed their hips together. She could feel his erection on her but that wasn’t good enough, she wanted him in her. With him being completely naked, she felt way over dressed, so she reached down to pull her shirt off.
“Uh-uh,” he said as he kissed along her throat. “I’m going to enjoy taking my shirt off you.” He slid his hands over her hips and up to her breasts where he lingered over her tight nipples, teasing them with his fingers.
He circled them and then rubbed them between his thumb and finger, which produced a moan. Her hands were all over him, rubbing his arms, back and through his hair. She was swollen and heated and to relieve some pressure, she continued to arch her back so she’d feel him more.
His lips moved back to hers for a quick kiss and then he tugged his shirt off her. He looked down at her with heavy eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Harper.”
She didn’t think she was, but when Joey said it, she almost believed it for a minute. Bashfully, she turned her head away, but he pulled her chin back so they were gazing into each other’s eyes.
“You are beautiful, Harper.” Then he kissed her like it was life-saving. His hands moved over her shoulder, down her arm and over her belly. When he slid his hand in her panties and between her folds, he groaned deep within his throat.
All the touching and kissing was driving her wild. She needed him. Only him. And that freaked her out a little bit. She would have bolted, but what he was doing with his hands and mouth, and soon to be another part, it kept her planted underneath him.
“Please, Joey,” she panted, barely able to stand it anymore. She needed him in her, pumping hard, right now.
He lifted and grinned at her. “Ask and you shall receive,” he said as his eyes darkened. In lightning, quick motion, he pulled her panties off and moved down the bed parting her legs with his.
Harper was hot and ready. She closed her eyes picturing it. Any second now he’d be pumping hard into her and, oh, she knew how good that felt. But that’s not what happened. She felt his searing lips on her belly, then moving down to the crease by her thigh. Her breathing escalated, if that were even possible. Then her breathing stopped when he parted her folds and licked her.
“Oh, God,” she yelped out. It was amazing and made her ready to come, instantly. “Joey, stop, I’m going to come,” she panted out.
Oh, God, she felt him smile on her skin and the heat from his laugh made her shudder.
“I’m counting on it,” he said and licked her again and again and again until she released in an orgasmic cloud of ecstasy.
When the shudders stopped and she could actually remember where she was, she opened her eyes to see Joey with a smile plastered to his face. “You’re turn,” she said.
He leaned back, reached over to a drawer of his nightstand and produced a condom. “I won’t object to that,” he said with a deviously, delicious smile.
Harper moved quickly. She slid out from beneath him and pushed him down to the bed when he’d wrapped himself with the condom. The look in his eyes was pure shock. He wasn’t expecting it and she liked keeping him on his toes. Crawling over top of him, she took him in her hand and guided him into her as she slid down the most impressive erection.
Joey groaned through his clenched teeth and his hands went to her hips. She stiffened, leaned back and started moving up and down. She put her hands on her legs and moved faster taking all of him into her. Knowing guys liked a girl to ride them, hard, she closed her eyes and concentrated on pleasing Joe. She had come and now it was his turn.
“Harper,” Joey said tightly. Probably because he was ready to come, she thought.
“Do you want it faster? I can,” she said preparing to do what it took to get him where she’d already been.
He tightened his grip on her hips slowing her down. “Harper, wait,” he said, stopping her from moving. “I want you to come with me.”
What? Guys didn’t care about that. They just wanted to get off themselves and she was okay if Joey did too. He’d pleased her first, which never happened to her before. Except with him yesterday at the block house. “Uh, I already did. It’s your turn,” she said quietly, looking down at him.
“I know you did, but I want you to come with me.” He took her hands and lifted them to the headboard. “Hang on here. This way you’ll be arched over me and get more pleasure. Plus, I can reach you. I want to touch you, Harper. All of you.”
Harper gripped the headboard and immediately felt some pressure on the swollen flesh between her folds. When she began moving up and down, it did feel good. Nope, scratch that, it felt amazing.
When his hands cupped her breasts and his thumbs brushed over her nipples, her breath caught, which made her grind into him faster. She moaned and then he groaned in response. He leaned up on his elbows and took a breast in his mouth and sucked it in deeply.
A whimper escaped her lips and she felt the need to go faster. The faster she moved the better it felt for her. His tongue flicked her tight nipple producing a shudder this time. She was falling apart. Something she’d never felt being on top.
“Are you ready to come, Harper?” he asked, coming off her breast only long enough to speak the words.
All she could do was whimper and pant. She was getting close, but not quite there. That was, until he’d slid two fingers between her folds and started rubbing just the right spot. She was ready in point five seconds.
She came down hard on him and hit her release yelling, “Oh, God, Joey,” over and over again. The tremors hit hard and she had a difficult time moving up and down on him, but she wanted him to come and because it still felt good. Great.
Finally, between pants, she asked, “Joey, are you going to come?” She wasn’t sure she could keep moving.
“Oh, yeah,” he said as he flipped her over, switching places with her.
He pushed her legs up on his forearms and pumped into her. She felt all of him go in her and she also felt her tremors wrap around him when he was inside her. He was drawing out her orgasm with every push inside her and unbelievably, she felt herself getting ready to come again.
How the hell could that be? She was still shuddering, yet, she was buildin
g up to another orgasm. She whimpered. She panted. And when she couldn’t hold back any more, she gripped his arms and screamed out his name, again, with her release.
Joe pumped in and out of her harder, drawing out her orgasm, which she liked, and then he pumped in hard and stiffened calling her name out softly between clenched teeth. Then he pulled out and slowly pushed back in her again drawing out both of their orgasms until his muscles gave way and he collapsed next to her.
Spent. Joe was thoroughly spent, but a whole lot of other things too. Like, sexually satisfied, happy, sexually satisfied, and sexually satisfied. But, he was also extremely tired and his eyes just would not open, but he could feel Harper sidled up to him. Naked and equally sexually satisfied.
“Joey?” Harper asked softly.
He didn’t open his eyes or turn toward her. “Hm?”
“Was…was it not good?” she asked as she fidgeted next to him.
This prompted him to open his eyes and turn toward her. “Of course it was good! It was great!” How could she think it wasn’t? “Why would you ask that?”
She fidgeted more and didn’t look at him. “Uh…um…well, it took you a long time to…you know.”
He’d have laughed out loud if he wasn’t so exhausted. He pulled her chin to look into her sated eyes. “Harper, You don’t know how incredibly hard it was not to come the minute I was inside you. Hell, I had to think of lumber so I could hold out for you.”
“But, it took you a while. I…um, came three times before you did, once.”
He smiled at her. “That’s what I was aiming for.” He really wasn’t. He’d wanted her to come twice, the third was an absolute bonus.
A weary smile came across her face. “So, it wasn’t because I wasn’t good?”
A smile filled his face. “You aren’t good, Harper. You’re absolutely amazing! Do you know how many different kinds of lumber I had to think about? Two by fours, four by fours, ply-wood, pressed-wood, oak, cherry, walnut, knotted pine. Really, the list goes on.”