Placing Charlotte in the chair nearest to me, I move back to Emma. “What have I ever done to deserve your lies?” I ask, overwhelmed with tiredness.
“You never loved me,” Emma whispers.
“We’re both to blame for that. You don’t love me. If you did, you wouldn’t have gone looking elsewhere.”
“Are you trying to get me back for that?” The surprise in her voice causes me to curse.
“No! I am not getting you back for anything. We are over. We have been for a long time. The situation we’re in now is my fault. I should never have agreed to help you when you came to me after I got back from Lexington…but blaming me now for getting you pregnant won’t work Emma. I’m not so cruel that I would make you do the paternity test now, but unless you admit the truth, I will be having a lawyer serve you with papers the minute your baby arrives.
“I’m in love with Charlotte, and I have been for months. She’s mine and we’re going to be together regardless of what you say, but you know what? I hope you find what I have with Charlotte one day because it feels amazing.” Hopefully she’ll feel guilty for her accusations now that I’m wishing her well for the future.
“You mean that, don’t you?” Emma whispers. “Why are you always so nice?”
I laugh. “I was raised well, but me being nice only goes so far, Emma. I won’t let you ruin what I can have with Charlotte.” I let my words hang in the air and turn to glance at Charlotte.
She’s pale and her eyes are rimmed red, but she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I desperately want to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything will be okay. I know it will be in the end, I’m just pissed that Emma is trying the ‘you’re the father’ with me when we both know I’m not.
Turning my attention to Emma, she stares at me for a long time before turning to Charlotte. “He’s telling you the truth. We haven’t been together in over a year, so this baby I’m carrying, isn’t his.” She glances to me and then to Charlotte. “I’m not a horrible person. I’m sorry.” Her last words uttered, she heads toward the door.
“Wait up. I’ll walk you to your car. It’s slippery out.”
She rolls her eyes.
“Humor me, okay? You’re pregnant, and we don’t want an accident. You need to be in good health to go and tell the actual father.”
She winces. “I guess.”
“Charlotte, don’t move.” I look at Charlotte but don’t get any response. With nerves dancing in my stomach, I help Emma to the car. Good thing I did because she lost her footing a couple of times.
My mind is on Charlotte and what she must be thinking as I close Emma’s car door and watch her drive off.
At the end of the day, I’m finally free to be with her.
73
Charlotte
I’m a little bit in shock as I think after Emma’s dramatic attempt to keep Tanner in her life, although I’m sure as hell feeling relief that none of it is true.
When she’d showed up here and started with the accusations that I’d stolen her fiancé from her, I hadn’t a clue as to what to say. It was true in a way, although we hadn’t been having an affair, and when we had been together, they weren’t engaged. She hadn’t wanted to listen and had made sure I understood Tanner had still been making love to her all these months.
I shouldn’t be relieved considering they were engaged, it would have been expected of them. To hear that I was the only one to have Tanner’s attention in that time made me smile, like I’m doing now as my guy walks back into the house, stomping the snow from his boots before he leaves them at the door.
His head tips up and he meets my gaze, the love that he has for me is there to be seen. “Are you okay?” he asks, moving closer, placing a suitcase beside the sofa.
I blink and stare. “You have my case?”
He grins. “Bo called me while I was in town, so I swung by and picked it up.” He kneels on the floor, pushing my legs open so he can get closer. Cupping my face, he softly smiles. “I have your backpack too.” He leans forward and slides his lips gently across mine.
They tingle at his touch and when I press closer, he retreats until I grab his shoulders. I cover his mouth and invade with my tongue. His hands tremble as his lips suddenly become hard and searching.
My whole body throbs and I moan when he raises his mouth from mine, and gazes into my eyes, leaving my lips burning with fire.
“I wanted to wait until tomorrow to love you,” he whispers, his breathing heavy. “I’m not sure…” His lips recapture mine, more demanding this time and when his hands move to my hips, I move from the sofa, wrapping myself around him.
His large hands grip my bottom, pressing me against the throbbing hardness behind his zipper. My fingers slide through the strands of hair at the nape of his neck.
He raises his head once more and rests against my forehead while he pants, unable to get a breath. He moans loudly when I wiggle my hips, rubbing along his erection. “I love you Charlotte, and I had all these plans for our first time together once I was free to be with you.” He hisses when I rotate my pelvis, wishing there weren’t any clothing between us. He’d be buried deeply if there wasn’t. “I even thought about waiting until tomorrow, when the dust had settled after Emma’s visit, but…all I can think about is being naked with you. Having my dick buried inside of your wet warmth while the rest of me is wrapped around you.”
“I love you Tanner, and waiting won’t change that, but right now, I think I’ll cry if you don’t move my panties to the side and impale me on your cock. No condoms. I just need to feel every inch of you.”
“Oh God! I want to take my time,” he moans, already moving me away to rip apart his jeans.
Knocking his hand away, I reach inside, and wrapping my fingers around his flesh, pull him out. He’s hard and pulsing against the palm of my hand, and when I rub my thumb over the head, it comes away wet.
“I need you now.” I yank his shirt and T-shirt off, my bra quickly follows seconds before I’m lifting his clothes over his head. “I’m not waiting. Move them out the way and slide in…please.”
Tanner’s hands tremble and then I feel his finger searching between my thighs. I throw my head back and moan when he fingers me. At the same time, his tongue slides between my breasts…and then, I feel the head of him nudging at my entrance.
He pushes inside easily as he wraps his arms around my waist. I wrap mine around his shoulders and meet his soft smile with one of my own. His hands dip into the back of my shorts, taking a firm hold of my bottom.
“I’ve waited a long time to have you where you are right now.”
I grin at Tanner’s words. “I’ve waited just as long.” I squeeze around him and watch his eyes roll—his hands clamp my ass tightly as he pulls me against him. I’m going nowhere. Not that I want to.
“I’m trying so hard not to come yet, but you’re making it very difficult.”
Wanting to tease, I nibble on his lobe, and then whisper, “I want to feel your penis twitch and jerk as you come. I want to feel every damn thing I’ve been missing.” I kiss behind his ear and feel him shudder in reaction.
“Hold on.” It’s the only warning I get when he tightens his hold and climbs to his feet.
My legs wrap around his hips and then I feel my butt hit the countertop. He rummages around in a draw and pulling a pair of scissors free, he grins. “No way am I pulling out of you, but having these between us is driving me crazy.”
He cuts the material and tosses them to the floor. “Mmm, now I get to see you.” He presses his fingers over my clit and plays while he gently rocks with his hips. Only about an inch of him comes out of me before he’s pushing back inside, and even that’s enough to make my toes curl in pure delight.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you,” I admit, tears in my eyes. “I wanted and missed you so much.”
Tanner cups my face and holding me still, slowly kisses away my tears while his hips continue to slowly move. His
whispered words of love continue between kisses and my hands caress over his sides and back. My beaded nipples rub against his chest and gradually, our breathing deepens…and when he presses inside of me, grinding his hips, I grip his sides and come.
My core ripples and pulses, tugging at his thick cock, as he swells seconds before he groans in my ear, holding me tightly as he releases. It’s like a chasm has opened and the next moment I find myself sobbing against his chest. All my emotions for months are suddenly on the surface and I can’t breathe as he’s surrounding me with love.
“I have you,” he whispers into my ear. “I’m not letting you go…I love you.”
I sob harder.
I’m not sure how long I cry but, when I finally go quiet, Tanner keeps one arm around my waist, and slowly tilts my face to his. He smiles. “Let me clean you up.”
I nod.
He slips free of my body and slowly moves away. Grabbing a fluffy towel from the top of the clean laundry bundle, he wets a washcloth and moves to me with a soft smile on his lips.
Tenderly, he wipes my face and then dries me off with the warm towel. He reaches to wipe between my legs but I catch his hand. “I want to feel you for a bit longer.”
His eyes flare with heat as he drops the towel. “It’s as well I’m so in tune with you, otherwise, I’d have thought I’d hurt you.”
“No.” I offer him a watery smile. “I don’t know how to explain it to you…my emotions just got the better of me. All the longing for you, not knowing whether I’d even see you again.”
“I figured that was why, which is why I didn’t push you to talk to me.” He tilts my face up to his as he settles against me. “I’m here for you, Charlotte. I’m totally yours now, okay. From this point forward.” He smirks. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
He gathers me into his arms and when I’m snuggled against his chest, I whisper, “I love you, Tanner Jackson. You’re mine.”
74
Tanner
I can’t remember how long it’s been since I last had a good night’s sleep, but I certainly did last night with Charlotte wrapped in my arms. To wake with her lying sprawled over the top of me causes my heart to jolt with the love I feel for her. She’d quickly wrapped herself inside of me and hasn’t let go all these months later. If anything, my feelings for her have grown.
I’d told myself over these past months that I’d built her up in my mind to be someone she isn’t, but those were lies—she’s everything and more. So much more. I knew she would be the moment I’d laid eyes on her, which was why I’d initially ignored her. Or, at least, appeared too.
I brush a wisp of hair back from her face and smile when she mumbles my name in her sleep. She’s beautiful and so soft. I’ve never had this closeness with a woman before and now that I have it with Charlotte I’m not prepared to let it go—let her go.
Her warm curves fit perfectly against mine, which my body is reacting to.
The famous morning wood!
It’s trapped between her spread thighs with the head nudging against the warmth of her sex…as though it knows what it wants and is ready to take it. The throbbing arousal that’s currently coursing through the hard length, makes my dick pulse with need.
“Hmm,” Charlotte mumbles into my chest. “I like this. In fact, I love waking wrapped around you.” She smiles, yet to open her eyes. “I think you need to turn me over and make slow, sweet love to me…slow, no matter how much that kills us.”
Chuckling, I do as she asks and slowly slide inside of her. She feels delicious as her body takes my full length…wrapping around my dick like a tight glove. Her silken sheath pulsing around me has my breath stuck in my lungs.
Her hands reach up and pull me down on top of her. “I need your weight on me.”
“This…here with you…is perfect,” I whisper, pressing her hands into the bed at the side of her head. I find her lips as my hips find a slow, pleasurable rhythm.
Her sharp, little gasps when I slide back inside of her, send pulses of pleasure rippling down my cock. The love on her face as I hold her gaze is my own doing as I reclaim her lips in a kiss so scorching my balls erupt, shooting my release down my thickening cock. The hitch to her breathing happens seconds before I feel Charlotte join me in release. Her core convulses around me, bathing my shaft in liquid warmth, prolonging my own pleasure.
“Oh! That was amazing,” she mumbles, her eyes glowing with happiness.
“Yes, it was.” I collapse half to the side and slowly slip free. I gather her into my arms, and ask, “What do you want to do today?”
“Sleep,” she laughs. “I’m only joking. I slept really well last night.”
“Me too.” I kiss her forehead. “Do you think less of me because of last night?” I ask the question that’s been on my mind.
Charlotte raises her head and looks at me with a frown on her pretty face. “Why would I think less of you?”
“I broke my engagement and within minutes, I was inside of you. I know we’d planned on being together last night, but when it happened, it felt weird and I thought about waiting. In the end, I touched you and all reason left me.”
She shakes her head. “You hadn’t been with her for over twelve months. Although she wore your ring, it wasn’t a true engagement. So no, I don’t think less of you. I love you.”
“I got so lucky when I met you.”
“Didn’t meeting me make it harder for you to carry on here?”
“Meeting you made me realize what I was doing. It made me realize I wanted more from life than to just go on. I wanted what my parents once had…and that’s you, Charlotte McKenzie.”
“I’m so damn glad.” She snuggles into my side. “Now, back to your original question…I think we should go and buy a Christmas tree. You have decorations somewhere, right?”
My heart sinks. “We do have decorations, but they haven’t been out since the Christmas before my mom died.” I hold her close. “We usually have a tree and use cheap plastic decorations.” I smile. “The tree is usually about two feet high and pitiful. My dad wanted to do something for me, but he couldn’t bring himself to get the old decorations out.”
I squeeze her shoulders. “But this year, I want us to visit the lot and find a huge tree. We’ll get lights and decorations. Start afresh with ones that will last from year to year, that our children will be excited to place on the tree.”
“Getting ahead of yourself, Mr. Jackson, aren’t you?” She grins, her smile wide and her eyes alight with mirth.
“I don’t think so, Miss. McKenzie. I know exactly where I want you for the next seventy-eighty years.”
“And where’s that?”
“Right by my side.”
“I like that idea… So, we’re going to buy a tree, huh?”
“I think we should follow it with hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows.” I grin. “And I know where we can get them.”
“Tanner?”
I frown at the serious way Charlotte says my name and hold her troubled gaze.
“How are your friends going to react to us being together so soon after…” she waves a hand around, which I catch into mine.
“My friends are going to love you, and like Bo, they know that I haven’t been happy with Emma. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“You sure?”
“I’m positive.” I rise up slightly and press a quick kiss to her lips. “They’ll see how much I love you.” I grin. “Besides, Bo has probably told the whole town that I finally have my soul mate living with me.”
“Hmm, can we please have a walk around town?” She smiles. “I love Christmas and the way the stores smell. Cinnamon. Apple. Spices. It always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.”
“We can. I know where I’ll take you.” I kiss her lips before rolling out of the bed.
Her eyes trail over me, giving new meaning to erection.
75
Charlotte
The cold is biting and th
e snow crunches under our booted feet, but I’ve never been as happy. Tanner holds my gloved hand in his as we walk along the sidewalk. It’s busier than I thought it would be with shoppers weighed down by heavy bags, an elderly woman across the street has help with her dolly from a police officer. It must be too heavy with groceries for her to pull in the cold.
Trees are planted along the sidewalk with festive lights strung up, the branches showing the overnight snow we had. A number of storefronts have striped awnings with colorful and welcoming displays. Tanner told me all the businesses along this main street are family owned—the deli, coffeehouse, bakery, and of course, one of my favorite stores, a bookstore.
“Look,” Tanner whispers, his word leaving a trail of vapor in the cold as he tugs me closer to a store. “Look through the window.”
Excited at what he wants me to see, I place the arch of my palm against the glass store window and peer inside. I smile in delight at the beautiful display to fascinate children and adults alike. The Christmas train is slowly moving around the large figure eight track. It has bright parcels overflowing from the open carriages, with people, dressed in Victorian clothing, in the windows of the passenger cars. It’s magical to watch and has me transfixed.
Tanner moves behind me, wraps his arms around my midriff, and places his chin on my shoulder. “Every Christmas since I was small, my mother would bring me to this store to watch this exact train.” He pauses. “It took a long time for me to come back after she died. It became easier as the years moved on, but she would have liked me sharing this with you.”
Tears hover on my lashes as I think about him coming here alone, and the memories his visit would hold.
“Lets go inside,” he suggests and taking my hand, leads me into the store.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, delighted. “It’s like a treasure trove of all things past.”
McKenzie Cousins Box Set 1 Page 37