Make You Remember

by Macy Beckett

  She came hard and fast, crying out into the room without a care for who might overhear. She was too far gone. Her inner walls convulsed around his pistoning fingers until the tremors ceased and she slumped back in the chair, utterly boneless.

  Exactly as he’d promised.

  Beau nipped at her inner thigh before rising from the floor and giving her a look that would melt steel. He licked off each of his fingers and spoke in a lust-roughened voice. “You’re so fucking sweet, Dev. You always were.”

  The heat behind his gaze sent a new shiver of desire down her spine. She glanced at the enormous bulge straining the front of his pants and reached for the zipper. “Now it’s my turn to taste you.”

  “Unh-uh.” Wickedly, he grinned and shook his head. “You’ll have to take a rain check. I want inside you. Right now.”

  She tried to stand, but her knees wobbled and gave out, sending her plunking back to the chair.

  This seemed to please him. Beau smiled while unbuttoning his pants. “Didn’t I say you wouldn’t be able to stand up? I’m a man of my word.”

  Swamped by satisfaction, Devyn couldn’t fire a witty comeback. Instead, she mirrored his smile and watched as he lowered his zipper to free his erection. His skin was stretched tight over a delightfully long, wide shaft. He was the living embodiment of masculinity, so big and strong and hard. Despite the two orgasms he’d given her, heat pooled low in Devyn’s belly, making her go tingly in all the right places. Her body wanted him—needed him—and she was more than ready to take him in.

  She spread her thighs for him, and he stepped in between, then gathered her in his arms. “Wrap your legs around my waist,” he said. “I’m going to fuck you against the window, with all those people on the other side.”

  A charge of anticipation unfurled between her legs. The whole experience was so wrong, but in the best way. She couldn’t recall the last time sex had made her feel so alive. She clung to Beau’s shoulders and locked both ankles at the base of his spine while he grabbed her by the hips and pressed her bare bottom to the glass. The cold shock made her breath catch, but she quickly recovered when he nudged his rounded head inside her.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned while her eyelids slammed shut. The pleasure. There was no describing it. He’d given her only an inch, and she was already on the verge of coming. “More,” she pleaded.

  He pulled out to the tip and slid in halfway, until her body protested at the pressure of his girth. Beau hissed through his teeth and held there, trembling with need while she stretched to accommodate him. Then he pulled back and sank in a fraction more, working inside her gradually until he rocked his hips one last time and buried himself to the base.

  Devyn held her breath and willed her inner muscles to relax. God, she was so full—so unbelievably full. She hadn’t had a man this big in years, not since the last time she and Beau had made love, and the delirious invasion came with a stitch of pain.

  “Are you okay?” he asked against her lips.

  She nodded. “Just give me a second.”

  He kissed her in a gentle sweep of lips that told her to take all the time she needed. When her passage had adjusted, she squeezed her inner muscles and ground against him. “Go slow,” she whispered.

  And he did. He cradled her hips between his powerful hands and moved in and out in a lazy, fluid motion that had her neck arching against the window. He watched her carefully, gauging her reaction. “Is this all right?”

  “Yes.” Oh, yes. Feeling him so deep and hard inside her was the truest form of ecstasy she’d ever known. With his iron shaft gliding so smoothly between her legs, Devyn was much better than all right.

  Until he gave her that intense look—the one that said this wasn’t just sex.

  “Dev . . .” he whispered, then pulled in a shaky breath. Unable to say anything more, he burned her up with his gaze and tipped their foreheads together. In response, her heart swelled and cracked as if to allow him inside, baring herself in a way she hadn’t done since graduation night.

  Right before he’d abandoned her.

  She couldn’t keep this up. He was taking too much. But when she let her lids flutter closed to escape the connection, Beau halted his movements.

  “Look at me,” he whispered. “No hiding. I want all of you.” She rolled her hips, but he pressed her hard against the window to keep her immobile. “Want me to stop?”

  “No,” she cried, hating herself for her weakness even as she strained forward for more friction. She opened her eyes. “Don’t you dare.”

  “That’s a good girl.”

  Beau rewarded her with a rotation of his hips, smiling when her eyes rolled back in rapture. He quickened the tempo of his thrusts, and she matched each one. Keeping their gazes locked, she dug her fingertips into his shoulders and held tight as the tension built low in her core. She raced toward climax to alleviate the sweet agony, telling herself this didn’t mean anything, that she could give Beau her body and keep her soul hidden.

  Even though it felt like a lie.

  Beau gasped, his rigid control beginning to crack. She could tell he was near the brink, and she was nearly there herself. “Come for me,” he murmured, squeezing her ass with those strong fingers. “I want to feel it, Dev.”

  Then he angled his hips and plunged hard, hitting exactly the right spot. She cried out and begged him to do it again. So he did, over and over, filling the small room with the squeak of her bare skin against the glass and the ragged pull of breath into their lungs. Each slow, slamming thrust increased the pressure until it finally broke into a molten release that sent sparks bursting down her legs. She buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed an incoherent strand of curses as she clenched around his pumping shaft.

  “God damn,” Beau growled with his forehead pressed to the window. “You feel so fucking good, I can’t—” He cut off, and with one final slam of his hips, he stiffened and spilled into her with a low groan. For several heartbeats, he continued swearing under his breath until he placed a kiss below Devyn’s ear. “Unreal,” he whispered. “That was unreal.”

  “Mmm,” she agreed. It always had been—sex with Beau was never the problem. What came afterward was a different story. “It really is a Magic Stick.”

  He laughed and pulled back to look at her, so happy that it put a hitch in Devyn’s pulse. “Abracadabra, honey.”

  “And you’re so modest, too,” she teased. “The whole package.”

  “Let’s make some more magic.” He kissed her, soft and sweet. “Stay with me tonight. I’ve got that great big bed—plenty of room to strip you down and tend to anything I missed.” In demonstration, he took her breast in hand and swept a thumb over her nipple. “I still haven’t kissed you here.”

  The sweep of his thumb was going to turn her on again if he didn’t stop. Devyn had no regrets for what she and Beau had done, but she needed some distance. Her body might be able to handle another round with him, but she couldn’t say the same about her heart. If she spent the night in his bed, he would have her wide open and desperate, and he’d make her look into his eyes until he branded her. She wasn’t ready for that, wasn’t sure if she ever would be. Shaking her head, she unwrapped her legs from around his hips, sucking in a sharp breath of pain when he withdrew.

  Maybe her body couldn’t handle another round, after all.

  “Sore?” he asked, handing over her panties.

  It took a couple of tries to get her wobbly legs inside her bikini briefs. “Yeah. It’s been a while for me.”

  He zipped up and smoothed his shirt, trying unsuccessfully to hide a prideful grin. “Stay the night anyway. I won’t lay a hand on you.”

  She arched a disbelieving brow.

  “Okay,” he conceded, “I might. But I’ll be gentle, and you know I’ll make it good.”

  Yes, she knew. But that wasn’t the issue. “Not tonight.”

  “Hey.” He stopped what he was doing and took her face between his hands. “Are we all right?” />
  “Just all right?” she asked. “Didn’t we agree that we’re magical?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “We’re okay, Dumont.” To reassure him, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his nose. “And we’re still on for tomorrow. Come get me when lunch is ready.”

  “At least let me walk you to your room.”

  She palmed his chest. “No way, not while you’re wearing that dopey grin. The whole staff will know what we’ve been up to.”

  That dopey grin widened. “You’re glowing too, by the way.”

  Devyn didn’t doubt it. And truth be told, that scared her.

  So she told him good-bye and returned to her room on shaky knees, for once relieved at the sight of her lumpy, narrow bunk. There, she was safe.

  • • •

  The next morning, the staff formed a line near the bow ramp to wave to the passengers as they left for their daylong excursions in Natchez. In between shaking hands and wishing guests a great day, Beau kept catching Devyn’s eye, flashing a secret smile that affected her more than she wanted to admit. The heat in his stunning green eyes made her heartbeat catch, and when she returned to her room to change, she found herself taking extra care with her makeup and deliberating over what to wear.

  She finally decided on jeans and a simple, snug-fitting blouse in Beau’s favorite color—blue—and let her curls hang loose around her shoulders. She even skipped the antifrizz serum because it felt sticky, and Beau loved playing with her hair. Every choice she made was out of consideration for him.

  That’s how she knew she was in trouble.

  At around noon, he knocked on the door, looking good enough to eat in paper-thin denim and a short sleeve T-shirt that hugged the contours of his muscled chest. He must have come straight from the galley, because he carried the scent of baked bread on his clothes. When a wide smile lifted the corners of his lips, he made her mouth water in more ways than one.

  “You look beautiful,” he said.

  “You’re kind of easy on the eyes yourself.”

  He laughed and lifted a wicker picnic basket for show. “As much as I’d love to stand here and soak up your ridiculous compliments, our lunch is getting cold.” Extending an elbow, he asked, “Ready?”

  She grabbed her handbag, and they linked their arms to set off toward the dock. At the head of the ramp, they crossed paths with Thing One and Thing Two, but for once, Devyn couldn’t tell the twins apart because each man kept his gaze respectfully above the neck. This was unusual, not that she was complaining. Since they were still in uniform, she glanced at their name tags to differentiate between them.

  “Hot date?” Nick asked with a crooked grin.

  The question didn’t faze Beau. “Jealous?”

  “Hell, yeah. I’m stuck here running payroll for this guy,” he hitched a thumb at his twin, “while he gallivants around Natchez with Ella-Claire.”

  Alex smiled. “He lost a bet, fair and square.”

  “I don’t know about fair,” Nick mumbled.

  Ignoring his twin brother’s complaint, Alex turned to Devyn. “Is Ella still getting ready? She needs to shake her tail feather, or we’re going to miss our tour.”

  Devyn tipped her head in confusion. Ella had been up and out before breakfast. She hadn’t even joined the staff that morning to bid farewell to the guests. “She left hours ago. I assumed she was with you.”

  “No.” His blond brows pinched together. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday.” When he pulled out his cell phone and texted Ella, she didn’t reply. A wrinkle of disappointment creased his forehead, and for the briefest of moments, Devyn felt sorry for him. Until she remembered her conversation with Ella-Claire—and the hurt in the young woman’s eyes.

  It seemed that Ella had drawn a line in the sand. Good for her.

  Devyn put the matter behind her as she and Beau strode down the ramp and onto the dock parking lot. The unyielding pavement felt so good beneath her feet that she stamped her heels a few times against the asphalt, enjoying the energy that resonated up her shins.

  Beau cast an amused glance at her. “Better?”

  “Much.” She pulled in a deep breath of Mississippi air and turned her face to the sun, its rays heating her skin despite autumn’s arrival. It was the perfect day for shore leave—clear and ever so breezy with the faint scent of mown grass drifting on the wind.

  She turned to Beau and found him watching her with a grin. He shook his head in a slight gesture of disbelief. “I could look at you all day and never get my fill.”

  Her face heated, so Devyn did what she knew best—she deflected. “Where are we eating?”

  “Over there a ways,” he said, jutting his chin toward a grassy easement about fifty yards upriver. “It’s not a proper park, but there are a few picnic tables overlooking the river. Should be more private than anything we’ll find in town.”

  He surprised her by taking her hand as they walked onward. His fingers felt so perfect when they were laced between hers that Devyn couldn’t bring herself to pull away. She enjoyed feeling anchored to him like this, so she swung their joined hands between them and savored the caress of the sun on her shoulders until they reached the first wooden picnic table and settled on opposite sides.

  “What did you pack in here?” she asked, lifting the lid to peek inside.

  Beau lightly smacked her hand. “Sit down and relax,” he said, pulling a bottle from the basket and twisting off the top. “Here, have a beer.”

  “Nice.” She tipped it back for a deep pull. She didn’t know how he managed it, but the beer was ice-cold. “Doesn’t matter what else is in there, this lunch is already a winner.”

  He unpacked the contents: two paper-wrapped packages, a pair of dill pickle spears, half a cheesecake, and a sack of breaded bits she couldn’t identify. Then he pointed to the first bundles. “Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Smoked provolone and cured bacon on artisan bread with sun-dried tomato pesto.”

  “Oh, my God,” she moaned. That sounded like heaven. “I just had an orgasm in my mouth.”

  Beau waggled his brows. “Only one? You know that’s not enough for me,” he said as he shook the bag, rustling the bread crumbs inside. “Allie told me you love fried okra, so I put a spin on your mama’s recipe. Gave it a little kick.”

  “You do love spice.”

  “Who doesn’t like it hot?” he asked with a wink while opening the bag. “Try one.”

  She didn’t need further persuading. The mixture smelled amazing, like peppers and salted garlic. When she popped a bite in her mouth, the flavors burst across her tongue, and she made a noise of pleasure. “You’ve got skills, Dumont,” she mumbled around the okra. “Mad skills.”

  “Wait till you try the grilled cheese,” he said as he unwrapped both their sandwiches and grabbed a beer for himself. “You’ll fall down at my feet in worship.”

  Devyn chuckled while she sank her teeth into the crispy bread, but by the time she finished her first bite, she wasn’t laughing anymore. The smoky cheese and bacon provided the perfect contrast to the sweet tang of sun-dried tomatoes. Her taste buds were weeping with joy as she devoured the sandwich with no ladylike grace whatsoever. She wished she had an extra stomach so she could keep eating—it was that good.

  “Wow,” she said, wiping her mouth. “Ex-marine, security specialist, casino pit boss, gourmet chef. Is there anything you can’t do?”

  “Apparently, I can’t get you to spend the night with me,” he complained, tipping his beer bottle toward her. “How about it, Kitten? I’m awful lonely in that suite by myself.”

  Before she could tell him no, the rumble of a nearby vehicle drew her attention to the street. Then, as if it were a scene from her own personal nightmare, a Larabee Amusements tour bus motored past them and turned toward the heart of town. Here she was, having the best culinary experience of her life with a hard-bodied stud begging her to share his bed, and the moment was ruined by the reminder of what awaited her at home.r />
  “There’s no escaping it,” she said to herself.

  Beau watched the bus until it drove out of sight. His voice was full of caution when he said, “You have options, you know.”

  Devyn propped her chin in one hand, irritated with herself for letting something as trivial as a passing tour bus ruin her lunch. “Not as many as you think.”

  “Come on, Dev,” Beau said. “I’ve seen you in the education center. You were born to teach. It’s not too late to go back to school.”

  She laughed at the absurdity of it. “How am I supposed to support myself through four years of college and pay for tuition and books?” she asked. That ship had sailed long ago. “Most states require teachers to get a masters degree on top of that. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.”

  “So you bite the bullet for a few years,” Beau said. From the flippancy in his tone, you’d think they were discussing a cardio workout. “The reward will be worth it.”

  “And the tuition?” she asked.

  “Student loans and grants.”

  “Sure,” she deadpanned. He made it sound so simple. “And who’s going to pay my rent while I’m in class all day?”

  “It won’t be easy—”

  “So far, that’s the first logical thing to come out of your mouth.”

  “But there are ways to make it work,” he said, ignoring her. “Split rent with a roommate, get a job that fits your hours, look for programs that let you take classes online. If you want it bad enough, you’ll figure out a solution.”

  “Maybe I don’t want it that badly.” She enjoyed teaching, but not enough to spend another four years living like a pauper. For once, Devyn wanted to go to dinner without checking the credit balance on her MasterCard. She wanted to feel like an adult, not a college kid. “I appreciate your concern, but just drop it, okay?”

  Beau clenched his jaw, but he didn’t push. He drew a deep breath through his nose and blew it out. “I care about you. Sue me.”

  Devin smiled and threw a bread crumb at him. “Thank you. Now, new subject.”