by London Hale
“Shit.” She practically hissed the word. I stroked my cock from base to tip. Wishing I were there to see her. Wishing it really was me touching her. Kissing her. Loving her. Making her come. “Why did you come back?”
My girl went right for the meat of the issue, didn’t she? I shouldn’t have been surprised. Kate was always good in business mode—direct and succinct. Guess it was my moment of truth.
“You,” I said, closing my eyes and praying she didn’t hang up. “I never felt a connection to anyone the way I did to you on that first call. It was…explosive. When I figured out who you were and how your life intersected with mine, I knew it was a sign for me to come home. It was time to quit fucking around and start living my life. One I wanted to share with you.” I stretched out, focusing on the ceiling. Teasing myself as I fell back into my role as Banner. “Slip a finger inside yourself. Gotta get that pussy nice and stretched for me. I wouldn’t want to hurt you with my cock, now would I? I want everything to feel good for you. Always.”
She laughed lightly, still a little breathy. Sounding slightly distracted. “This is crazy. You know that, right?”
“I do, but so is us talking on the phone when we could be doing this in person. I could have my tongue deep inside you right now. Do you realize that? I could have you open before me. I’d eat you like a woman should be eaten, too. I’d make you come so hard before I even thought of getting mine. Are your fingers still in your pussy, baby? Are you pretending they’re me?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But I don’t think I can…finish. I don’t think we can keep doing this.”
“Don’t.” I clung to the phone, not sure how far that we went. Not willing to give her the chance to think I’d just give her up. “Don’t say we can’t, or throw obstacles up that aren’t really there. I know you, Kate. I know you, and you know me. We’ve spent a year getting to know everything about each other—that has to count for something.”
“Sometimes it’s not that easy,” she said, sounding truly regretful and almost sad. “If you know me as well as you say you do, then you know my career means the world to me. And this…whatever we have… It could blow up in my face. It could cost me everything I’ve worked for.”
“I disagree. I’m a firefighter, for fuck’s sake. People love first responders. It’s practically un-American not to date me.”
She huffed a laugh. “What you are, Riley, is twenty-six.”
“Which means jack shit.” I sat up, unable to keep going with the whole Banner thing. “I’m not a kid, Kate. I’m an adult making sound decisions. My family is known here; I’m known here. No one’s going to talk shit about us because there’s nothing to say—we’re two adults who found a connection and are exploring it. End of. Besides, I won’t let anyone stand in your way. Your career would be safe with me by your side. I’d make damn sure of it.”
“Banner—”
“Riley. If we’re talking real life, I’m Riley, and you’re Kate, though you’ll always be my Kitten.”
Kate sighed. “Riley, I just don’t know.”
“You do, or else you wouldn’t have called. You do know or else you wouldn’t have followed my instructions to play with your pussy. You’re good and wet now, aren’t you? You’re turned on and slick for me, right?”
A long pause, longer than the ones before. Long enough I worried she’d say no. But she didn’t. “Yes. But I don’t—”
“That’s us, Kate. That’s our connection. Right now, it seems solely physical, but it’s not. My words get you off because I care about you, because I know you. Because I understand what you need better than you do yourself sometimes, so I can give you what you truly want. We can move that into real life. I can spoil you as rotten as you deserve to be, and we can be together without giving people a reason to judge us. We can at least try.”
Kate sighed again, still pausing. Leaving me on the edge of my seat for far too long. “What if we fail?” she finally asked.
“We won’t,” I replied, refusing to let her have even a sliver of doubt. “I won’t let us.”
“If people find out—”
“I’ll put the smackdown on anyone who dares to say a word against us, as will the rest of my family. As will every guy at the firehouse. We protect our own, Kate. You’d have a team of people having your back.”
“Riley, I’m just not—”
“Meet me tonight.” Desperate, I threw out the only thing I had left. The only bullet in my chamber. She didn’t say anything, so I plowed on. Hoping like hell I didn’t scare her off. “I know it’s crazy, but we’ve finally seen each other in person, we know who the other is. Meet me tonight. You’re wound up, I’m wound up…let’s see if we can go from fake fucking over the phone to something real. See if we can transition to something tangible. Let me prove we can.”
“You can’t come here. If someone sees—”
“I know a place. It’s private. No one will see us. I just want to be with you for a little while. I want to talk to you in person. To see your face.”
Another fucking pause. My God, the woman was going to give me a heart attack. “You promise it’s secluded?”
“Swear to God, no one will be there. No one will see us together.”
“Okay, I’m going to take a leap and trust you,” she said, making me jump up from the bed and finally throw that fist pump. “Where do you want me?”
“Riding my face, but we’ll get to that.” I chuckled when she huffed a laugh. “Meet me at the old lighthouse.”
“What for? It’s a construction site.”
“I know. I’ve been working there on my off days at the firehouse to keep busy. Meet me there. I promise, it’ll be worth it.”
She hummed as if thinking it over. “I can’t promise I’ll stay for long.”
“Give me five minutes. That’s all I ask.”
“Fine. I can be there in half an hour.”
Motherfucking win. “I’ll be waiting.”
I made it to the spot in twenty minutes, not wanting Kate to end up alone in the dark. She was a little late, turning into the lot about thirty-five minutes after we’d hung up. I assumed because of her nerves. Kate was punctual as fuck in real life—she had to be on edge.
She parked beside me, turning off the engine and sitting in the dark for a few seconds before opening her door. Brave fucking woman, she crawled out and stood tall as she faced me. As she looked me right in the eyes.
For the first time in my memory, I no longer felt lost. Something crackled between us. Something sparked and came to life. There was an energy, a pull. A tension that made me want to surrender to it. She was my home, my true north, my guiding light…all those corny as fuck analogies about the woman you were meant to spend your life with. She was all of them.
We stood in the dark, the only light from the interior of her car. Kate’s eyes held mine for the longest time before swooping lower, taking me in. Almost…inspecting me. I couldn’t blame her—I’d known she was Kate. This was her first time really getting the chance to see the man she knew as Banner. So I stood still, and if someone had pressed me on it, I’d have to lie to say I wasn’t flexed just a bit. I couldn’t help it. Her eyes owned me, and I made sure I looked as good as I could. I needed to make an impression, this time a good one. I wanted her to like what she saw because I sure as hell did.
Tall and curvy, she struck a strong pose. Something in the way she planted her feet—no longer in the pink heels—or the way her shoulders stayed straight and back. Something in her screamed confidence. It turned me on, for sure. I couldn’t have looked away if I’d tried, and I didn’t want to. This was it; I could feel it. This was the night we moved forward.
This was the first step toward our future together.
We stared for what felt like hours, not moving. Barely breathing. Until finally, finally, she sighed in a way I knew meant she was feeling what I was. That she recognized our connection. That we were beginning something amazing.
“Riley,”
she whispered, the tone of her voice like a starter’s pistol.
I broke. I grabbed her, pulling her to me and planting my lips on hers. Fusing us together the only way I could. That first kiss was too strong, too rough, but I couldn’t control myself. This woman was my dream, my wish, my future…and I’d do everything in my power to keep her with me.
Her tongue swept into my mouth, and I groaned. She tasted like citrus and Kate, something completely her that I couldn’t have described to save my life. Her arms around my neck anchored me, her body pressing up against mine the force I needed to hold her to me. The wind blew strong and cold, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. All I cared about was the feel of her lips under mine, the warmth of her body as she pressed herself against me. The world could fuck right off for all I cared.
“Are you ready?” I asked when I finally pulled away. When I finally found the will to release her lips from mine. Her eyes gazed up at me, all wide and shocked. Beautiful. “Are you ready to move on from Banner and come to Riley? Will you let me show you how we’re one and the same?”
A pause, that brain of hers probably turning over every possibility. Every chance of a misstep. Finally, she nodded, and I was done.
“Then come with me, Kitten. I want to get to know you, and we’re sure as hell not doing that outside.”
Riley pulled me along behind him, my lips still tingling from his kiss. I hadn’t been expecting that, hadn’t expected the immediate connection I’d felt as soon as his skin had touched mine. Then again, I hadn’t been expecting Riley.
His hand radiated heat against mine as we climbed the back steps of the lighthouse—the lighthouse he’d slipped us into using a borrowed code for the electronic lock on the back door. The lighthouse that had a bright red NO TRESPASSING sign on the door. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. This kind of thing didn’t even register on my radar—had never. Even as a teenager, I’d been a rule follower, methodical in everything I did. No drugs, no underage drinking, no missed curfew—hell, I’d never even skipped class. If it wasn’t part of the plan, I didn’t do it.
But I wasn’t a teenager anymore—I was the damn mayor. Everything about this situation was ridiculous, and yet there I was. Sneaking into the lighthouse with a man sixteen years my junior to do… God, I didn’t even know what Riley had planned. Which somehow only made this more illicit. What exactly did I think was going to happen here? What was I going to allow to happen?
Honestly? After the phone call? After that kiss in the parking lot? Anything he wanted. Everything.
“You still with me, Kate?” He looked back at me, the breadth of his shoulders blocking out the light from above. No denying the fact that his body had mine humming with awareness. With pleasure.
I squeezed his fingers, giving him a smile. “I’m with you.”
And I was… Being with him, even just over the phone, had been the only time I’d ever been able to shut off my brain. I’d relished that time, relished the freedom I’d felt at giving up control, even for a little while. I’d accepted his offer to meet because of the possibility that what we had together could extend beyond two voices connecting over the phone. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what could be awaiting me if he actually touched my body.
The things he’d said over the phone tonight had been everything I’d been too scared to consider. And he’d been right—we had a crazy connection that would no doubt only grow more explosive in person.
“Almost there. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that you wore the pink heels today when I suggested we climb up here. How’re your toes?”
As if I were thinking about my feet at a time like this. Still, I couldn’t help swooning a little at the fact that he apparently was. He always seemed to be thinking about my comfort…my pleasure. “No worse than they were at five o’clock. I’ll be fine.”
“Good. That’s good. Let me take care of that needy little pussy, then I can kiss all over your feet and make them feel better.”
Jesus. The things he said…the spark in his eyes as he said them? I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to stand if he kept talking to me like that.
Thankfully, we didn’t have much farther to go. Nearly at the top of the lighthouse, we approached a curved landing with a single door along one side. Riley punched another—no doubt borrowed—code into the electronic lock for the room. Once the light went green and the door popped open, he squeezed my fingers, looked back at me with a smile lighting up his face, and tugged me along behind him.
My low heels clicked on the wide wooden planks of the floor as I crept inside the room, staring at the stunning space. The ceilings towered above us, making the small room feel open and airy, and the exposed brick along one of the walls exuded warmth, even with no furniture or decorations inside. A fireplace sat along the far wall, between the floor-to-ceiling windows.
I approached one of them and stared into the darkness. During the day, these would no doubt give a breathtaking view of the lake. Now, though, it was nearly pitch black, except for a few lights flashing in the distance.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know this was up here.”
“Jackson uncovered this room when he bought the lighthouse.” Riley slipped right behind me, his body brushing against mine. I wanted to lean into him, wanted to turn around and kiss him—he hadn’t been the only one fantasizing about it for a year. But then he settled his hands on my shoulders, kneading the tension away. “This room had been storage originally, but it’s too nice for that. The windows were already here, perfectly placed. Once Jackson saw the view from them, he decided to turn this into a single room B&B.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
I looked back at him, a small smile playing on my lips. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
He shook his head, his eyes full of earnest intensity. “Just you.” He dropped his hands from my shoulders, tracing his fingers down my arms, his thumbs brushing the edges of my breasts on the way down. Just a whisper. A tease. Still, my nipples tightened in response. “Since the first call, it’s only been you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, had no idea how to respond. It’d been the same for me. Even if I’d had interest in dating, anyone else would’ve paled in comparison to the relationship Riley and I had forged over the phone. One undeniably filled with chemistry and passion, but also full of understanding and companionship. I could tell him anything—it was just a bonus how easily and thoroughly he could get me off.
He cupped my face in his hands. Rubbed his thumbs along my cheeks, his eyes darting all over my face. Like he was studying me. Like he was cataloging everything in his memory to refer to later.
And then… Then he lowered his head, his lips meeting mine in a soft kiss. Sweet, almost innocent. But nothing about us was sweet or innocent, and he proved that when he stroked his tongue along my bottom lip, groaning when I opened to him, and pushed me back against the wall. He pressed his body along mine as he took my mouth, his tongue sliding against mine in a more polished approach than the hungry, greedy kiss we’d shared downstairs.
I let him lead, let him take me where he wanted me to go, lost to everything but him. Riley kissed exactly like he spoke—with unbridled confidence and power. Without words, he told me he knew what I needed. And he was going to give it to me.
He caressed me over my clothes with desperate hands, his thumbs brushing my taut nipples before he gripped my hips. Tugged me closer. Maybe feeling as desperate for me as I was for him. The hard length of his cock pressed against me as he rocked forward, his harsh groan echoing in the space.
He let me break away panting as he trailed kisses down my neck, one hand cupping my breast, his thumb tracing circles around my nipple. Into my ear, he whispered, “Are you still wet, Kitten?”
His voice sent shivers down my spine, causing me to arch my back…press closer. Between his words over the phone, the anticipation of what was coming as I’d driven over
here, and his hands all over me, it was safe to say my panties were a mess.
“You know I am.”
His lips curved against my cheek, the bristles of his day-old beard tickling my face. “I do know, don’t I? I’ve heard exactly how wet you get. Now I want to feel it.”
I groaned, letting my head fall to the side as he kissed a path along my neck, scraped his teeth against my jaw. Cupped my breasts in his hands and squeezed.
Sliding his fingers to the V neck of my dress, he tugged it away from my body. “You gonna let me take this off you?”
I breathed out a laugh and lifted my arms in response. No longer interested in hesitancy.
“That’s my girl.”
In one fluid motion, he stripped me of the dress, tossing it somewhere off to the side. I stood naked before him, the tiny scraps of black lace I wore the only things keeping him from seeing all of me. I tried not to fidget as he stared, but I couldn’t help it. Yes, I went to the gym. Yes, I tried to eat healthy. But at forty-two, I was a far cry from the twentysomethings Riley was no doubt used to, and no amount of planks would change that.
But as I looked at him devouring me with his eyes, saw the fire there, every ounce of self-consciousness I had evaporated at the sight.
“Jesus, Kate,” he said, his voice low and gritty as he rubbed a hand along the dark blond scruff at his jaw. He reached out, running his hands across my shoulders, down my arms, traced his fingers along the swell of my breasts. “I knew you were sexy as fuck in your suits, but this…” He shook his head. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.”
Dropping to his knees in front of me, he gripped my waist and slipped his hands around to cup my ass, digging his fingers into my flesh. So greedy in his caresses. Making me feel wanted…cherished. He lowered his head, his lips brushing over each hip, then he dipped down, running his nose along the front of my panties before placing a kiss directly above my clit. Sending a shudder through my entire body. “I’ve been starving for this. A fucking year of wondering what you’d feel like against my tongue, and now I finally get a taste.”