by Molly McLain
Yes, please. She nodded and closed her eyes, giving him all she had. Wet tongue, suction, and the grip of her hand, rotating around the length of him that she couldn’t take in her mouth.
“You look so fucking pretty with my dick in your mouth,” he whispered, brushing the hair back from her face and grazing his knuckles across her cheekbone. Raw, heated desire flashed in his eyes when she looked up at him again and...oh, God, her heart thumped so hard in her chest.
Pleasuring a man like this had never been so intimate before. Never this tender or connected. But until now, there’d never been Tony.
Emotion burned in her chest, but she pushed it aside, taking him deeper instead.
He groaned and his thighs tightened at her shoulders, his hands sliding back in her hair, holding her. His cock grew harder on her tongue, longer even, and she felt the slow, telltale tension creep into his body.
“Ah, babe, I’m gonna come.” His hips lifted and surged off the table in time with her motions and she watched every ripple of pleasure pass over his handsome face, barely pulling back at the very last second so he could let go all over her chest.
He stared at her, wide-eyed and breathing hard, like he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that she’d just done that.
“Feel better?” She smiled innocently and teased a fingertip through the warm evidence that she had indeed done that, then she licked it off.
And just like she hoped, he lost it all over again.
He hauled her to her feet with a growl. “You better be ready, baby, because these next six weeks? You’re mine. And I’m gonna have you every friggin’ way imaginable.”
And she’d let him, because tonight she’d given him more than her body—she’d given him her trust, too.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Come on, pumpkin. You can do it. Just move that little hand...”
Tony grinned from the couch where he watched Nicole and Brianna play on the floor. Well, Nicole played, anyway, wiggling a little yellow bunny and squeezing it every now and then so it would squeak. Brianna was working out her deltoids and biceps like a champ, trying to catch the noisy thing.
“You just wait,” Nicole said to him over her shoulder. “When she starts moving, your days of sitting back with your feet up are over. She’ll be tearing the pots and pans from the cupboard, following you to the bathroom...even chewing on the dirty socks you leave on the floor.”
Tony grimaced. “That’s disgusting.”
“Yep.” Nicole got to her feet and bent to steal a kiss from his lips. “Motivation to keep ‘em cleaned up, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.” He got down onto the floor by Bri and took over bunny duty when Nicole traipsed off to the kitchen to check on dinner. “Hey, have you heard anything from the Historical Society yet?” he called to her.
“Yep. Beatrice is coming over next week. Honestly, I’m a little scared.”
“Why? She’s got a great eye for possibility. You never know, she might even have some ideas for all the furniture.”
“I’d planned on having an estate sale and Ally and I have been organizing with that in mind, but time is ticking and people usually like those kinds of things when the weather is nicer, so I don’t know what the turnout will be. What am I going to do with all the leftover stuff if the house sells fast?”
“Donate it. Or put it in consignment.”
“Ohh, is there a consignment shop around here? That’s a great idea.” She came back to the living room with a towel over her shoulder.
“Not in River Bend, but there’s one over in Cameron. I could help you bring some things over, if you want. Might make a few bucks for your big adventure up north.” He waggled his eyebrows, hoping to make light of the comment. Her leaving wasn’t his favorite subject, but he knew she had to do it, so he might as well try and make her comfortable with it.
“Yeah?” A taunting smile turned up her mouth. “For a new parka maybe? Or how about a gym membership? The hospital has a nice workout center, but the gym around the corner from Rachel’s has more hot guys.”
“Fuck that,” he growled. He’d keep his mouth shut on her move, but he sure as hell wasn’t gonna sit around and listen to her talk about moving on to another dude.
Nicole pointed between him and Bri. “Watch it, mister, or she’s gonna sound like a sailor by the time she turns one.”
“Watch it yourself, city girl, or I’ll cuff you to the bed for talking smack about someone new.”
She rolled her eyes and waved him off. “Oh, whatever, like I’ll have time for that. Dinner’s ready anyhow. Come and eat.”
He got to his feet and carried Bri to the table, pausing only to suck Nicole’s bottom lip between his teeth and grope her ass. “You think I’m playing?”
She laughed and squirmed against him. “I hope you’re not.”
***
“And the little bluebird closed her eyes, dreaming of sunshine and clouds and the wind in her wings. The end.” Nicole closed the book and carefully set it down. Brianna had crashed minutes ago, but she kept reading, selfishly admiring the little girl’s innocence as she slept.
Bri wasn’t her child, but Nicole still closed her eyes and said a prayer that Bri’s life, with all its yet-to-be discovered possibilities, would always be blessed with love and compassion and kindness. That she’d never see a day of pain or hate or cruelty and that, someday, she’d meet that special person, who’d make her feel as cherished and as needed as Tony made Nicole feel.
After tucking Bri into bed with a kiss, she tiptoed away, closing the door behind her. The house was still and the only sound was the crackle and hiss of the fire dying down in the fireplace. Through the window at the end of the hall, snow flurries danced in the night sky and Nicole’s stomach knotted. The first snow of the season was always so magical, but this year, it served as a bittersweet reminder that her time with Tony and Bri was passing too quickly.
Tony lay back against the pillows in bed, the lamp beside on the nightstand casting shadows across his bare chest. He smiled when he saw her. “Hey. That took longer than usual.”
“I read mostly to myself,” she admitted as she crawled in beside him and curled against his side. “Thank you for letting me do that.”
He kissed the top of her head. “It’s surreal, isn’t it? Just watching her and wondering who she’ll be someday?”
She nodded, a tightness growing in her chest. “What do you think she’ll do with her life?”
“Like, for a living?”
“Yeah. I think she’s going to be a teacher.”
“A teacher?” He frowned down at her. “That’s boring as hell.”
“Maybe not to her. I mean, she’s so mild-mannered and generous. You know how much she loves to share her fruit puffs."
His chest shook beneath her cheek as he laughed.
“What?” She poked him in the belly. “Not everyone wants to be a badass soldier, you know.”
“A Marine,” he corrected her. “The best kind of badass.”
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry.” She pinched his side and he tensed.
“Don’t taunt me, Nicole. I’ve been hard since you mentioned the handcuffs.”
“You brought up the cuffs!” Rolling up, she climbed on and straddled his lap. Yep, he was gloriously hard, and as tempting as it was to grind on him and give in to what they both wanted, she wanted something else, too. “Very impressive, Mr. Dunn, but let’s talk first.”
“Sure, we can do that, but I prefer the kind of talking where there are no words and no clothes and I’m fucking you until you can’t remember your name.” His fingers tugged at the waistband of her shorts, but she held him off.
“We can definitely do that. But not quite yet.”
He gripped her hips and growled. “Fine. You’ve got five minutes, then that pussy is mine, babe.”
“Ten minutes and you can have me twice.”
“Deal. Now talk. Time’s ticking.” He slapped her ass and she shriek
ed.
“Jeez! Okay, uh, tell me about your deployment.”
“Not much to tell. You watch the news, right?”
So typically evasive. Just like her dad was when she asked about his service. “Yes, but I want to hear about it from your perspective. Something personal.”
“Got a lot of sand in my crack. Is that personal enough?” He tried to lift up and dry grind into her center, but she shifted forward and he caught her butt instead. Didn’t seem to bother him, though. His jaw tightened and his eyelids lowered, and he kept pulsing against her ass.
“Tony, I’m serious.”
“What do you want me to say, babe? That it was awful? Okay, it was awful. Would I do it again? Any fucking day of the week.”
Not the answer she expected. “Really?”
He dropped his head back on the pillow and stilled his movements. “No. I mean, back then, yeah. Not now though. Not with Bri.” His voice was strained, his breathing ragged. “God, I want inside you. Can we please get naked?”
She ignored him. “Why didn’t you re-enlist then, if you wanted to go back?”
“My dad died and my mom fell apart.”
Shit. “I’m sorry. About your parents, I mean.”
“It’s life, Nicole.”
“Your life.” And she wanted to hear about it. She leaned forward, cupped his jaw, and forced him to look at her. “What would your dad say about Brianna?” she asked quietly, hoping he’d open up.
“He’d say I fucked up.”
No. God, no. Brianna wasn’t a mistake, and she had a hard time believing anyone who cared about Tony would think that. “That’s not true.”
He lifted a shoulder. “He’d love her to death, don’t get me wrong. But he’d also make damn sure I didn’t screw up again and that I busted my ass to give her everything she deserves.”
Sounded an awful lot like Tony’s own attitude. “Is it possible you’re subconsciously trying to live up to those standards, even though your dad’s no longer here?”
“There’s nothing subconscious about it. I let my old man down too much in this lifetime already. I won’t do it again.”
How could a man who’d gone to college, joined the Marine Corp, fought in a war, and now helped run a very successful construction company ever be viewed as a disappointment? How could Tony ever think that about himself?
“The worst parts came after he died,” Tony continued on and she slid back down to his side, snuggling in tight because this was suddenly about more than sex. “I was pissed at myself for not being here. I know there was nothing I could have done to keep him here longer. The aneurysm took him fast and I have some comfort in knowing he didn’t suffer, but I was gone for seven months before he died. We hadn’t fished together in over a year, we hadn’t hunted in...”
She squeezed him harder as he broke off and sucked in a heavy breath, letting it seep slowly from his body before he spoke again.
“But more than that, I totally bailed on my mom. All I did was drink and party and tear shit up. I rarely came over, and I did nothing to help her out around here. I mean, I’d landed a great job at Hudson Contracting and all she had to live on was Dad’s survivor benefits. They didn’t have the right kind of insurance on the house and it wasn’t paid off when he died and she struggled, fucking struggled, while I pissed away my money on booze and women.”
He pounded his fist against the bed and Nicole pinched her eyes shut, willing the tears away. She didn’t want to cry and draw attention to herself—she wanted him to keep talking. She’d hoped to learn more about what made him tick, but this was more than that. He needed to get all those pent-up regrets and frustrations out.
“She lost the house and moved in with my aunt two years ago. She’s only been back to River Bend a handful of times and I’ve asked her twice as often to come back and move in with me. It’s pathetic, but when I found out about Bri this past summer, I thought for sure it’d finally bring my mom home.” He shook his head in disgust and rubbed his eyes. “Now her heart is giving her trouble and I’m two hours away. I even thought about moving to Hastings, but then Carissa bought this place and fixed it up and buying it seemed like the right thing to do. I mean, I wish I’d thought to buy it sooner myself, but my head wasn’t in the right place.”
Dammit, her heart was breaking for him. “You’ve been hard on yourself the past few years.”
“As I should’ve been.”
She disagreed, but trying to tell someone how they should feel never fared well. She knew that better than most.
“Life loves to challenge us, Tony, and sometimes we do really stupid things for longer than we should. But even while we’re being foolish, we’re becoming stronger. All of those things you’ve gotten down on yourself for...they’ve brought you to today. To being the best dad you can be for Brianna.” She pressed a long, lingering kiss to his chest and teased her hand over his stomach, loving how his muscles bunched beneath her fingers. “I wish there was a way I could unload some of what you’ve been carrying around.”
He shifted to face her, grazing his knuckles over her cheekbone and then swiping his thumb across her lips. “You just did.”
There was something different about him tonight. Something softer and more at ease, despite all he’d just shared. “I think your dad would be very proud of you.”
“He’d say you were too good for me.”
A twinge of unworthiness, even a little shame, niggled in her stomach. “I’m not without faults, Tony.”
“And every one of them has played a role in creating the beautiful woman I’m looking at right now.”
Damn him for turning her words around on her. “Maybe we should do the naked talking now.”
“For someone who claims to wanna talk, you’re awfully good at dodging.” He grinned at her and she smiled, inching her hand toward the waistband of his boxers. He stopped her though,
wrapping his fingers around her arm and bringing her wrist to his mouth. His lips were soft against her pulse and the flick of his tongue across her skin unnerving.
“I might have done my fair share of hell-raising, but I’ve never known a woman like you.” His voice was hoarse, like opening up to her had left him raw. His kisses danced up the inside of her arm and then he was above her, his big body pressing her down in that delicious, just-this-side-of-uncomfortable way that reminded her he was a man and made her feel so much smaller in comparison.
“A woman like me?” she dared to ask, though he made it really hard to think when he pulled her t-shirt over her head and work her bra free.
“A woman I wanna take my time with. A woman I wanna know everything about here...” He brushed his lips across her forehead and she closed her eyes, her breath stuck in her throat. “And here...” He brought his mouth down on hers, slow and sweet, and she began to shake. “But mostly here...” He dipped his head to her chest and placed a wet, promising kiss over her heart and the tears she’d held back before broke free.
“I wanna make love to you, Nicole. I wanna fill you up with all these things you’ve made me feel and I wanna go slow so you don’t miss any of it.” Threading his fingers through hers, he locked their hands above her head and placed tender, succulent kisses over her jaw and down her neck. “I don’t want you to doubt for one second what you’ve done to me.”
His erection pressed against her middle and she shifted her legs, accepting him into the cradle of her thighs, wishing all the barriers between them were gone so she could show him without words that she felt it too, this wonderfully unexpected connection that she feared she’d never get enough of.
“I need you inside,” she whispered, not caring that undisguised emotion sounded in her voice or that he saw her tears. “I want to love you, too.”
His mouth curled into a pleased smile and he lowered his head to hers, peeling her shorts off at the same time. She wiggled beneath him, helping the fabric down her legs, and then together they rid him of his boxers too.
His thick cock
brushed against her sex and a rush of goose bumps erupted on her skin. Her nipples tightened even before he lowered his mouth and sucked one peak between his lips, strumming the chord of nerves that ran between her breasts and the apex of her legs.
“You’re so wet,” he said, stroking his fingers between her folds as he tortured her with those taunting nibbles and tugs up top.
“I love when you touch me.” She lifted against his hand, seeking out more of that friction. He grunted and replaced his fingers with his cock, sliding along her seam and nudging her clit over and over again until her ears rang. “I need you,” she whimpered. “Please.”
He reached into the nightstand, slipped two fingers inside her channel, and she nearly came undone. “Lean up, babe. Watch.”
She did, because at that moment she would do anything he wanted her to do. Pulling her knees back, she watched him spread her with his thumbs and push in, inch by exquisite inch. Feeling him so deep inside made her heart race because there was nothing better in the world than becoming one with Tony.
“I love losing sight of where you begin and I end,” he whispered and she arched into him, his words just as potent as the feeling of being filled by him. He groaned and gathered her up tight, rocking into her core with his face buried in her neck. “You’re mine, Nicole. This is mine.”
“Yours,” she exhaled. “Just for you.”
He growled in her ear and pumped harder, one hand around the back of her neck and the other digging deep into her hip, holding the angle just right. “Always mine,” he said breathlessly. “Never gonna be like this with anyone else.”
“Never...” Ahh! She was so close, the coil of pleasure so tight.
He lifted her leg just a little higher, and when the base of his cock rubbed divinely against her hypersensitive clit, she flew, soaring off into oblivion and clinging to his back. The muscles flexed and bunched beneath her fingers and a fine sheen of sweat had formed on his skin. A handful of deep, hard thrusts and he followed after her, letting go with her name on his lips. He kissed her neck and jaw and then took her mouth, as the spasms wracked both their bodies.