Cannon (Carolina Reapers Book 5)

by Samantha Whiskey

  Seeing that he was happily in puppy snooze town, I kicked off my shoes and headed to the living room where I knew I’d find Cannon. He didn’t hear my approach, totally consumed in the hardback he had cracked open before him, so I simply hovered in the entryway like a creeper. I trailed my eyes over the relaxed position—his long, strong legs stretched out before him, his head propped against the back of the plush couch. A simple white T-shirt covering his hard chest, the fabric thin enough to show the ink decorating his skin beneath.

  With our puppy snoozing in the next room, a full and satisfying day’s work put in earlier, and coming home to him like this now? Happiness filled me so much I wasn’t sure how to contain it. Didn’t know if I was capable of containing it.

  Didn’t know if I wanted to anymore.

  “It’s considered stalking to silently stare at someone without making yourself known.” Cannon hadn’t even looked up from his book.

  “How did you know I was here?”

  Finally, he tore his gaze away from the pages to look over at me. “I can feel you.” He waggled his eyebrows, the look so playful it broke the last restraint I possessed.

  Fueled by a rush of blissful adrenaline, I hurried over to the couch, gently removing his book from his hands. I marked it before setting it on the coffee table next to the couch and took the liberty to perch atop his lap.

  His thumb grazed my lips, light dancing in his eyes. “What’s that grin for, huh?”

  “You,” I answered honestly. The man was responsible for so much of my happiness these days. “Can I tell you something?” My breath caught in my lungs, a slight terror creeping up my spine. Was I about to ruin this for us?

  “Anything,” he said, his brow furrowing. “You should know that by now.”

  I nodded, sucking in a sharp breath. Nerves took over, causing a slight tremble to shudder my body.

  “Princess,” he said, smoothing his hands over my ribs and settling on my hips. “You’re shaking.”

  I huffed a laugh and brushed my long blonde hair out of my face. “That’s probably because I can’t hold this back anymore,” I said. “But I don’t want things between us to change.” I tightened my thighs on either side of his hips—hey, if he couldn’t move, he couldn’t run, right?

  Cannon tilted his head.

  Here goes.

  “I’m in love with you, Cannon.” The words burst from my lips in one big rush, my body calming at their release.

  I pressed my finger against his lips, urging him not to speak.

  “I know that breaks another one of your rules. And I know that you can’t say it back. I fully understand that. You’re not there. You may never be there. And I get that. After everything that has happened in your past…it’s hard to love people. Especially when you don’t know how long they’ll be around.”

  Cannon’s dark eyes widened, but he made no move to speak, so I dropped my finger.

  “But you needed to know. You deserve to know.” I leaned down, brushing my lips over his, my entire body reacting to the small contact. “You deserve to know that you’re a man worthy of love. A man easy to love. And a man that I’m totally, helplessly in love with.”

  He swallowed hard, and I saw that internal battle raging in his eyes. His need to parrot the words back to me because that would be the solution to cause me the least harm. But I shook my head. “Don’t say it back. Please. That’s not why I told you.” I smiled at him. “You’re an incredible man. You make me so happy. And I just wanted you to know. No expectations. Just truth. Okay?”

  Cannon blinked, once, twice, and then nodded.

  “Whew,” I said and blew out a breath. “Now that the easy part is out of the way,” I teased, and reached in my pocket for my cell phone. “I have a very serious question for you.”

  Cannon visibly swallowed.

  I pulled up the Cosmo web browser I had up from earlier and flipped the screen toward him. “Can you show me how this works?” I asked in my most innocent tone. My skin flushed as I watched his eyes flare as he took in the illustration on my phone.

  The seriousness in his eyes shifted to wicked delight and challenge. “I’m not sure, Princess,” he said. “I’ve never done that before.”

  A thrill shot through me. Another piece of him I’d hold all to myself and hoard like the treasure he was.

  “Too challenging for you?” I teased.

  He studied the illustration for a few more seconds before he plucked the phone from my hand and set it atop his book. “Never,” he growled as he nipped at my neck.

  I wiggled above him, laughing from the tickle in his attack.

  Then the real game began as Cannon hefted me upward and spun me around until I was flat on my back on the couch. He stood, scanning the room. “Supplies,” he said and snapped his fingers. “Get naked.”

  Every nerve in my body stood at attention at the command in his tone.

  “You too,” I snapped back, but there was zero bite in my tone. I hurried to strip myself bare as Cannon grabbed a thick pillow from the loveseat across the room. He tossed the pillow at me so quick I barely had enough time to catch it. I giggled as I clutched it to my chest, watching him drop his clothes in a pile around him.

  I breathed out, some part of me relieved at the sight of him. Would this ever end? This constant hunger? This primal need to be with him, be as close to him as humanly possible? I sure as hell hoped not.

  “You sure?” I asked as Cannon met me on the couch, his lips an inch from mine.

  “You don’t have to ask every time,” he said, a real grin on his lips.

  “Yes, I do,” I said. “This is my silly need to try new things. You don’t have to satisfy them.”

  He cocked a brow at me. “Princess,” he said, flicking his tongue over my lips. “That’s exactly what I want to do.” He settled on his knees between my legs, motioning his head at me. “Pop those hips up.”

  Again, that primal command, that deep tenor of demand, set my blood on fire, and damn me if I didn’t immediately obey. He tucked the pillow underneath my hips, my spine still flat against the couch, my center now on a raised platform to do with as he pleased. The submission in this simple position made my toes curl.

  Cannon sensed the shift in me, spotted the tremble and chills raised along my skin, and he chased them with his fingertips. Everywhere he touched was like the sweetest burn, and I couldn’t help but arch into each caress. Then he brought his mouth into the mix, and I became downright incoherent. He palmed my breast, sucking my peaked nipple into his mouth, nipping enough to hurt in the most delicious of ways. I lifted my hips, desperate for him, but he took his time. Kissed his way across my breasts, over the planes of my stomach, and lower.

  “Cannon!” I screamed as he wasted no time in sliding his tongue between my heat.

  “Mmm,” he moaned against me, the vibrations making my body clench around him. “You’re already so wet for me,” he said against my heat, his lips grazing every spot with a too light touch. “How are you this perfect?” he growled, his tongue lapping and darting in and out of me, feasting on me until I could do nothing but writhe against him. “How do you taste so fucking sweet?” He continued his feasting, and my body tightened like a coiled spring of pure flame.

  “Cannon, please,” I begged, arching against him, my fingers gripping his hair like a lifeline. “God, Cannon.”

  “Always in such a hurry,” he teased, replacing his tongue with his fingers as he raised up enough to look at me with a smirk. He pumped those fingers inside me, teasing that inner edge until I saw stars. “This what you want?” He curled those fingers.

  I moaned but shook my head. “You,” I panted. “I want you.”

  “You have me.” He lowered his face, pumping faster as he sucked that bundle of nerves into his mouth.

  “Cannon!” I screamed as my orgasm hit me hard and fast, my body curling against him as the waves crashed over me again and again.

  He kissed my sensitive flesh before rising abo
ve me. “Now, you’re ready,” he said, his hands gripping the backs of my knees until he’d situated one around his hip. He slid his other hand down my leg until it reached my ankle, and he placed my bare foot against his chest. And without blinking, without catching my breath, the man plunged himself inside me, the elevated angle so deep I moaned and threw my head back.

  “Goddamn,” Cannon hissed. “You’re so fucking tight, perfect,” he growled as he controlled the pace with one hand hooked under my knee at his hip, and the other pressed against my knee near his chest.

  I couldn’t reach him. I was powerless to his will, and I loved it. The thrill of it, the submission, the trust. I’d never felt so connected to another person in my entire life. I gripped the edge of the couch with one hand, digging my fingers in as he thrust inside me, over and over again.

  “Touch yourself,” he growled, and my eyes flared at the command, at the way his eyes churned with desire as he motioned to my free hand. He slowed his pace, taking his thrusts long and deep only to pull out all the way and do it all over again.

  I didn’t lose his gaze as I reached my hand up, dragging it slowly over my breasts, and lower, loving that flash of flame in his eyes as I found that bundle of nerves his mouth had been on minutes ago.

  “Fuck,” he hissed as I touched myself in time to his thrusts, never once hiding the pleasure rippling over my face. Never once breaking our gaze.

  “Harder,” I said, if not demanded.

  Cannon smirked. “Where are those southern manners?” he teased, his breath coming out ragged.

  “Please,” I nearly growled, my back arching off the couch as he sank deeper and deeper inside me.

  “There she is,” he said, and obliged me, thrusting with the power his immaculate body was capable of, allowing me to feel that strength with each time he sank into me to the hilt. I kept up with him, teasing myself as he pumped into me again and again.

  Each thrust felt like a promise or a plea.

  “Cannon,” I moaned, my muscles clenching around the hardness of him.

  “Fucking hell, Princess,” he groaned, feeling me tightening around him, just as I felt him holding back, felt the leash he kept on himself.

  “I can take it,” I said, and understanding and question flashed in his eyes. “Take me as you need me, Cannon.” My words were breathless, but he caught everyone.

  Then he unleashed himself, a fury of hard pumps as he pistoned his hips into me, pressing down on my knee to go deeper, as deep and fast and hard as he possibly could.

  Blinding, beautiful pleasure burst from every coiled cell in my body. One orgasm rolling right into the other as I came hard and long. I trembled around him as he found his own release, his thrusts slowing down into a rhythm that eased our heated breaths until he stilled inside me. He shifted between my thighs, dropping one of my legs until he could lay his head against my chest, our bodies slick with sweat.

  And as he settled his head in the center of my chest, the words I’d spoken earlier radiated from me. I kept them silent but was certain he could feel them.

  Cannon propped his chin up, eyes fixated on mine. “What website was that?”

  I laughed. “Cosmo,” I answered.

  He smirked and nodded against me. “What other illustrations did you find?”

  So I showed him.

  And then he obliged to show me.

  Two more times.

  15

  Cannon

  “His paws are massive,” Nathan noted as we walked down the path from the woods behind Reaper Village. Persephone had a late evening, and when Nathan had seen me taking off on our evening walk, he was quick to jump in. I was happy for the company, but since we’d just gotten home this afternoon from a three-day trip, I really fucking missed my wife.

  “Yeah, he’s going to be a big guy,” I agreed as Cerberus ran out ahead of us in a tangle of legs and tail. He reached the end of the leash and then ran back to us again before repeating it all over again.

  “How old is he now?”

  “Almost eight weeks.” We’d had him for two weeks now, and life had changed drastically.

  “So pretty much a baby,” Nathan laughed.

  “You have no fucking idea. He whines all night unless Persephone lets him into bed with us, pees wherever he wants to, chews on whatever stick he can find lying around, to include the hockey ones, and just when you’re about to kill him—he curls up and naps on you.” And I loved every fucking minute of his idiocy.

  “Yep. Exactly like a baby. Without the stick chewing, or so I’m told.” We crested a small hill, and our subdivision came into view. “Not that I’m ever going to find out at this rate.”

  Fuck. I sucked at relationship shit. Even my own marriage was fake. When the fuck had he decided that I was the emotionally stable one?

  “Uh…you guys okay?” Hey, I was trying.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said quickly. Way too quickly. “It’s just seeing all the wedding prep you and Persephone are going through. That’s all. I’m not sure Harper will ever actually want to take that step, or if she’s happy being permanently engaged. Maybe I’m a little jealous.” His speech slowed at the end as if he was just coming to the realization.

  “I get that.” I had half a mind to tell him not to be jealous. That he might have a gun-shy fiancée, but at least his relationship was real. Mine would end when Persephone’s mom was no longer with us, which was so fucked up to think about that I tried not to.

  “You guys look happy, though, which is way more than I thought possible when you two stumbled out of that hotel suite in Vegas.” He tilted his head and gave me an appraising look. “Love looks good on you, man.”

  I almost tripped over my own feet. Sure, I adored my wife. Worshipped her. Enjoyed her company and missed her when we weren’t together, but love? Fuck that nonsense. Love was for healthy hearts capable of giving their all. Was I infatuated with my wife? Hell yes. Did I love her?

  It wasn’t possible.

  “Persephone mentioned that Nixon was having some PR troubles up there in North Carolina?” I changed the subject as quickly as possible.

  “Yeah, it’s all over the fucking tabloids,” he seethed.

  “Neither of us read the tabloids. We’re more general fiction or fantasy readers.” Every night we curled up in bed and read together. Was it possibly geriatric? Sure, but we enjoyed it, so who the fuck cared.

  Noble and I took the path that ran between Sterling and Briggs’ yards and came out on the sidewalk. I shortened Cerberus’s leash so he didn’t run out into traffic. The dog was a hundred percent enthusiasm and zero percent common sense.

  “Well, I’m the last person to gossip about my twin, but let’s just say that what happened in Vegas didn’t exactly stay there.”

  “Really.” My eyebrows shot up as I thought back to Nixon’s little brunette charity auction date, Liberty. Guy could do worse, if that was who Noble was hinting at. “Guess that happened a lot on our trip.”

  Noble snorted. “Right. Except you and Persephone already knew each other, wanted each other—don’t even fucking deny it—and you guys woke up married. Nix…” He sighed. “He’s a hot fucking mess with a shit ton of trust issues, and waking up married would have been easy compared to what…” He shook his head.

  What the hell had happened after we left? Nixon had stayed an extra day with his date, but everything had seemed easy between the two that morning. Then again, I’d had my head so far up the what-the-fuck-did-we-do-last-night mindfuck that I wouldn’t have noticed if Liberty had been breathing fire across the table.

  “So drama. Got it. Tell your brother I think he’s a solid guy, and I hope it works out.”

  “We’ll see. Guy can’t seem to get the fuck over himself some days. I mean, just because you had some bad shit happen in your past, it doesn’t mean that has to be your future, right?”

  I wasn’t touching that comment with a ten-foot pole, and I didn’t have to, because we’d reached my house. “You goo
d?”

  “Yeah. I’m good. Thanks for letting me vent.” He gave me the nod and then took off across the street toward his house.

  “Women are trouble,” I said to Cerberus, who promptly jumped up my leg. “Hey, no. We can’t do that. Four on the floor, bud.” I set him down like the dog-training video suggested and gave him the I’m-the-alpha-pack-leader stare that was supposed to magic him into submission or some shit.

  He whined at me, and I rolled my eyes as we headed into the house.

  Elton John sang about a yellow brick road from the kitchen, and my smile was instant. Persephone was home. I unclipped Cerberus’s leash and urged him on. “Go find her.”

  He took off like a shot, skidding on the hardwood and nearly missing the turn into the kitchen. I cringed, but he made it. Barely.

  “Hi, Cerberus! Did you have a good walk with Daddy? Mommy missed you all day!”

  God, I loved the sound of her voice filling the house, the feeling I got just knowing she was here. I felt…complete, at peace, even.

  I turned the corner into the kitchen and saw Persephone on her knees, holding Cerberus on her lap as he tried to lick her face to death. His tail wagged at a mile a minute. Hell, if I had a tail, it would wag every time I saw my wife.

  Wife. Sure, we were married now, but in eleven days, we’d be saying I do all over again in front of our friends and family, and this time we’d remember it.

  “How was work?” I asked, setting the leash on the counter.

  “Hey, stranger.” She smiled at me, and I swore the entire room lit up. She put Cerberus on the floor, and then rose. “You looked good against Denver. That second period goal in game three was hot.”

  “You watched me?” I pulled her into my arms and felt the off-kilter pieces of me click back into place. We never talked about hockey when we called during road trips, and lately, Cerberus—and whatever he’d recently destroyed—had been the hot topic. It definitely warmed my chest to think she watched when I wasn’t home.