Untamed: (Heath & Violet) (Beg For It)

by Callie Harper

  “You’re going to do something great. I know it,” he assured me, kissing my hair. Lying there in his arms, I really believed I would.

  And I hadn’t even looked at my phone yet to see the text waiting for me, inviting me to a meeting with a new network.

  CHAPTER 24

  Heath

  I headed back up to Watson after another week and a half, and another week after that Violet came up, too. It felt so good to spend time with her again up there, where I still felt most at home. And what was incredibly cool was the fact that there were two reasons she was back in Vermont.

  The first and clearly best reason was that she wanted to see me. I couldn’t get enough of her and apparently she felt the same way. We’d had our fight back in February, spent our time apart, and now both of us were holding on to what we had together with fierce protectiveness. Seeing as how tough we both could get, I’d give our relationship a pretty good chance at survival.

  But the second reason Violet was back up in Vermont was to get video footage to pitch a concept for a show. And not the show that Fame! had in mind. This was a new network. Violet had a friend in the city who apparently knew everybody. She was the type of person who had the exact opposite instincts as me. Where I’d see a crowd and turn away quick, this friend of Violet’s would plunge right in and three hours later have a hundred and fifty new best friends.

  Violet had made the most of her new connections, wining and dining, lunching and brunching, and each time she talked with someone new she circled in closer and closer around what it was she wanted to do. It was so fun to watch her do it, too. I didn’t go along with her to any of the meetings, but I got to hear about them as she came back with shining, excited eyes and talked rapid-stream about all her new ideas.

  I did my own work of a sort in the city, meeting with my oldest brother Colt and then some of the artists I was getting to know. There was a lot we could do together, and I finally felt open to giving it a try. It was worth a shot, putting all our work together on a website, marketing it to niche customers. Colt hooked me up with people who knew all about branding and targeting and all sorts of other actions that sounded vaguely violent but the way they talked about it got even me interested.

  Once I returned to Vermont, I didn’t try to force things with my friends and neighbors. I let things take their own, natural course. Vermonters were slow to warm up and not overly fond of change, two of the many reasons I felt right at home among them. But it didn’t mean my re-entry into Watson as Heathcliff Kavanaugh, heir to a couple hundred million, would be smooth.

  My buddy Dave took things in stride, dealing with the new reality by giving me plenty of shit. “Guess you’re buying,” he liked saying to me whenever I came by his bar.

  Sometimes he called me MB for moneybags. Sometimes Richie Rich. Either way, I preferred it to the way he’d been looking at me the day he’d stopped by my cabin, like I was an alien from another planet. If he was harassing me, it meant he still thought of me as a friend. That was the New England way.

  In early April the guys down at the brewery decided to throw a party. That was also the New England way. No one complained too much about winter in Vermont. It was a given, an accepted part of life in our part of the world. But once spring came, you realized just how much you’d been missing the sunshine and all the green. People came out of the woodwork, blinked their eyes, and wanted to party.

  On the night of, Violet came out of my bedroom twirling in a flippy dress that ended mid-thigh.

  “Too much?” she asked, as if any man in his right mind would ever say no to seeing his woman wear that dress.

  “Don’t you dare take that dress off,” I told her, rising to greet her in more ways than one.

  “I could change into some baggy jeans,” she said, teasing me now. “Maybe some sweatpants?”

  “Wear that dress,” I told her stern, catching her in my arms. “Until I take it off later.”

  Everyone was at the party, because that was how Watson rolled, all the residents hanging out from ages eight months to 80. They’d strung up some little white lights in the patio area and a local band was playing bluegrass tunes. Violet did some dancing. I did some sitting, shooting the shit and drinking beers with some guys, which suited me just fine. I had a great view of the dance floor.

  When the band took a break, someone hooked up an iPad to the speakers. Bruno Mars came on and like some kind of a flash mob, Violet and Helga and a bunch of other women flooded the dance floor and shook it in a crazy routine, laughing the whole time. I only had eyes for Violet, though, watching her all flushed and relaxed and having the time of her life.

  “So she’s back,” Harriet said, coming to join me. “With another idea for a show?”

  “Yup,” I agreed, still a couple of years away from earning my official Vermonter’s card, granting me the right to say “a-yuh.” I’d get there, though. You had to have goals in life.

  “But a different network?” Harriet asked.

  “I think it’s called Explore? Something like that.”

  “How do you feel about all of it?”

  I turned to her. Nice of her to ask. She’d been a little frosty with me when all the shit had hit the fan a couple months ago. But she seemed to have gotten over all that. Especially since new opportunities had opened up for her, our shop, and all of the artisans in the area courtesy of my brother, Colt, and his extensive team of marketing geniuses.

  “I’m good,” I assured her, eyes back on my girlfriend.

  She kept on talking shop with me, wanting to check in on this or that detail about our new web retail presence. I still didn’t follow all of the ins-and-outs of it, but I had been amazed at what some high-quality web design and marketing could achieve for our small, locally-owned and operated businesses. Colton had been right, which, I had to admit, he usually was about a lot of things. With some niche outreach—I was still figuring out exactly what he meant by that, but it seemed like matching up interested people with stuff they’d like—we were all seeing our visibility and sales climb rapidly.

  It all dovetailed nicely into Violet’s latest pitch. She’d met with a bunch of people in New York, but the meeting that had gone the best, where she felt like they instantly got her concept and ran with it, was with the Explore Channel. She was developing a concept with them for a series of half-hour shows called Love Your Local featuring the best of local spots all over the U.S. and their food, art, people, music.

  I thought she had a great idea on her hands and so far the network executives seemed to agree. They were giving her a ton of creative discretion. The first place she wanted to film? Watson, Vermont.

  “Oh my God! Have you tried these?” Violet came over carrying a plate with a few cookies, fresh-baked from the town’s diner.

  “Crazy good,” I agreed, helping myself to two. They made a white chocolate Macadamia nut cookie that could probably inspire world peace it tasted so good, though chocolate chip was still my favorite. I was a basic kind of guy.

  Violet settled into my lap and I was glad we didn’t have to have the whole “get on over here” conversation. Wrapping an arm around her, I gave her a kiss. And maybe she had a crumb or two at the corner of her mouth I got in on as well.

  “We’ve got to get the diner on the show, too,” Violet declared.

  “Maybe they’d want to sell some cookies from the website?” I could see a tie-in from the show after it aired, sending people to the site where they could taste for themselves. The hard cider, too.

  “Colt would be so proud of you.” Violet smiled, nuzzling me behind my ear. “You’re such a corporate raider.”

  “I do like raiding things.” No, it didn’t make much sense, but from my suggestive tone and hands caressing her waist, she knew what I was thinking about.

  “Really?” she asked, teasing me back but I liked the hitch in her breath all the same. “Are you going to raid and plunder me later?”

  “I don’t think so.” I shook my head.r />
  “No?” She looked so disappointed that my masculine pride swelled, in both the literal and figurative sense.

  “Later seems like too long to wait.” I gave her a roguish smile. “How about now?” I stood, offering her my hand.

  “Now’s a good time,” she agreed, placing her hand in mine as we made our way through the party, saying our good-byes.

  Just two months ago I’d been pretty worried that I’d been permanently cast out of Watson, branded as a fraud and a liar. Turned out that most of the townsfolk seemed either to have forgotten all about the blip on the radar that was the promo for the exposé, or they hadn’t cared in the first place. I guessed my own fears of what people would think had loomed larger than reality.

  “Headin’ out, Richie Rich?” Dave asked me, clapping me on the back.

  “Got to go count my millions,” I confirmed, clapping him right back.

  “Not going to buy us a few rounds first?” another guy who worked at the brewery asked.

  “Hey, there’s a tropical island I’ve had my eye on,” Dave added. “And my birthday’s coming up.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” I called over my shoulder, amiably, and we all laughed as Violet and I headed to my truck. That seemed to be the biggest fallout from people finding out about my moneyed background. I got some grief over it. But other than that, people still seemed to accept me for who I was now. I liked that outcome just fine.

  Violet settled in next to me in the cab of my truck with her dress scrunched up all high on her thighs. God bless a warm spring night. She buckled and started straightening out the material, covering her skin.

  “What are you doing there?” I asked her. “You’re ruining my view.”

  “Oh, sorry,” she laughed. “I thought you’d be driving.”

  “I can multi-task.” I rested a hand on her creamy exposed thigh as I drove us out of the party.

  “Me? I just have a one-track mind.” That saucy minx shifted her body closer to me and worked her hand over to my jeans, up my thigh and over to the rapidly-forming bulge in my jeans. “Mmm,” she murmured appreciatively, already testing my ability to focus on two things at once. “I love how big you are.”

  Her hand found the outline of my cock and followed it, tracing the stiff ridge, caressing it as it grew longer and harder under her touch. I adjusted myself, trying to somehow create more space by moving my legs but that didn’t do a damn thing. Once a party got started down there, there was only one good way to end it.

  Her fingers found the button of my jeans and slipped it open. I grit my teeth as she moved in closer and slid my zipper down. Her silky hair brushed against my arm and I felt the soft pressure of her breast against my bicep.

  “We’re not going to make it home if you keep that up,” I warned her. In fact, we were awfully close to Gary’s house, the very first place I’d ever made her come. Tucked away on the dark side of the road really had its benefits. Vermont had way more trees than people, which left a whole hell of a lot of places where we could get up to no good without much risk of getting caught.

  She stroked me through my boxers now, gaining more access but still not enough. I pulled over into a place where we were tucked into darkness, covered up as good as under a big blanket.

  “I warned you,” I told her as she unbuckled, and I pulled her over into my lap.

  “Was that a warning? I thought it was a promise,” she teased back, kissing me urgently, hungrily.

  “I was going to take you to my bed and give you a good, sound fucking.” My hands on her hips, I rocked her into me while I licked her throat and sucked her. She moaned, tilting her head back, one hand up along my chest, the other impatiently pulling down the waistband of my boxers.

  “You can still do that later,” she told me. I liked how this woman thought. “Oh, and I have a fantasy.” She sat up, smiling at me mischievously.

  “Yeah?” I asked, all ears.

  “You know how you sometimes work shirtless in your workshop. Like, with the metalworking helmet?”

  I nodded. I remembered one time after we’d first met she’d walked in on me when I’d been doing just that. I also remembered what I’d wanted to do to her that day, but her phone and my phone had conspired against us.

  “OK, so you’re wearing the helmet.” She ground her hips against me and kissed me, her tongue licking and teasing. “And you have no shirt on.” She reached down and pulled my shirt right up and off my head. Her hands on my shoulders, down my pecs, I let her explore, enjoying seeing how much the feel of me turned her on.

  Two could play at that game. Her dress had an elastic neck opening, perfect for easy on, easy off, or easy pull down around her shoulders. She wore a strapless bra underneath, her breasts pushed up into two creamy mounds. I dove right in, licking, finding her stiff nipples through the silk.

  She groaned and pushed against me, moving her pussy over to my cock so she could grind. “I’d come up to you, in the middle of you working. And I’d strip down naked, get on my knees and take your cock right into my mouth.”

  As she spoke, she grasped my shaft in her hand, clutching me, stroking.

  “Would you like that?” she asked in a husky whisper, working me in a slow rhythm with her hand while she pressed against me with her pussy.

  Would I like her dropping down and taking me into her hot, wet, eager mouth? “Hell, yeah,” I murmured, licking and kissing my way down her chest to her breasts. I unclasped her bra and they spilled out, ripe and mine for the taking. “But I might also have to push you down over my table and spank you for disturbing my work.”

  I cupped her breast and massaged it, licking and teasing the sensitive nipple with my tongue. With my thumb I found her pussy, dripping wet for me and needy. “You’d probably need to get fucked hard over the table, too.”

  She groaned, eyes closed, lost in the fantasy. I pulled at her panties, hearing a rip. Happened all the time. She giggled a second at losing yet another pair, but then her eyes widened as she straddled me and I positioned her right over my cock.

  “Show me how you want it,” I told her, my hands on her hips, her dress bunched around her waist.

  She lowered herself down, all in a swift motion though she had to stop halfway down my cock. Her mouth and eyes wide open as she adjusted to my size, I swear it made me even bigger, watching the effort it took to take me in, seeing how much she wanted to do it. She didn’t stop until she’d worked her way all the way down on my cock, crying out and leaning back into my hands as I filled her to the hilt.

  “Yes!” she screamed as she started moving, pumping up and down on my shaft, her slick wetness coating us.

  “That’s it.” I feasted on her as she moved, sucking her breasts, licking her throat, my hands firmly gripping her ass cheeks. I rolled into her, thrusting and getting just the right angle, but I let her set the pace. She liked it wild, gaining momentum, her hands reaching up to clutch my shoulders, her nipples grazing my chest.

  We fogged up the windows of my truck, her grunts mingling with my groans, a light sheen of sweat glistening on our skin as she rode me.

  “Heath! Heath!” she started panting as I felt her quiver and tense up, her thighs gripping my hips.

  “Ride me till you come, baby.” I guided her up and down on my cock, my hand down to play with her clit. “Come for me.”

  Reaching up and pushing against the roof of my truck, she shoved her pussy down all the way and came, her orgasm rushing up through her like an explosion. My cock joined right in the party, so deep inside her, as I came hot and full.

  “Oooh,” she moaned, wracked by a few more shudders as she settled down in my lap. “That felt so good.”

  “I’m happy to play out your fantasies any time you want,” I assured her, holding her close.

  Because she sure the hell was my fantasy. The woman I never thought I’d find. I should write a thank-you letter to the Fame! Network for sending her to me that stormy January night in a MINI convertible. Had she not
showed up stranded and in need that night in Dave’s bar, I knew I’d be exactly where I was before, a whole lot like a bear in hibernation. It wasn’t a bad life, but it was nothing like this.

  I buried myself in her hair, stroking her golden locks. She sighed against me, her head nestled in the crook of my neck, completely content.

  I didn’t want to rush things, but I knew. Deep inside, I knew she was the one. Next month, she’d meet everyone in my family at Ash’s wedding, including my gram. I usually dreaded those kinds of things, but knowing Violet would be by my side I almost found myself looking forward to it.

  I’d caved and agreed to be Ash’s best man. After he and Ana helped me out, putting me up for weeks without batting an eye, hooking me up with restaurants and hotel rooms for me and my girl, all my reasons for not wanting to be involved had started seeming pretty childish. They were good people. I was lucky to have them in my life.

  I guessed that was the thing about family, you were in it for the long haul. You might go through rough patches—and I’d had those with both my brothers. But maybe it was time for a whole new chapter, yes still living life on my own terms but not so on my own anymore. Maybe things weren’t as black and white as I’d always thought. As it turned out, life was more fun in a spectrum of color. Violet had shown me that.

  CHAPTER 25

  Violet

  Who was that over there on the dance floor shaking his tail feathers with my mom? He looked an awful lot like George Clooney. Could it be Clooney? But he was still married to that woman, wasn’t he? Either way, Mom was having the time of her life, shaking her moneymaker with one hell of a silver fox. Way to go, Mom.

  Ash and Ana had insisted on inviting her to their wedding. I’d protested at first, out of instinct. It was nice of them to suggest it, but weddings were ridiculously expensive and Ash had a huge family. They didn’t need to invite Heath’s girlfriend’s mom on top of everyone else. I’d done enough events to know, caterers, equipment rentals, DJs, everyone tripled their price once they heard it was a wedding.