by Anya Nowlan
Something unintelligible tumbled out of her mouth as he stretched her thin, mixing pain with pleasure in the most tantalizing way. Sweat broke out all along her back and her hand flew back to hold on to any part of him she could reach. Her fingernails dug into his skin, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Groaning softly, he began to move, pulling out of her only to sink back into her tight pussy. Hands moving from her hips to her breasts, Dean gently squeezed her nipples between her fingers as he continued to thrust into her, building the tension inside her with each stroke.
Deirdre was way beyond reason at that point, only thinking about how good it felt to have his strong body wrapped around her as he drove into her, the room filling with the sounds of their moans.
“Yes,” she hissed, moving her hips in sync with his, drawing him even deeper.
Kissing her neck, Dean started to move faster, making her gasp as he bounced her off his cock. Her voice didn’t even sound like hers anymore as she whined and mewled under his touch. His hips slammed against hers, his thrusts relentless as he pushed her towards the point of no return.
Dean’s lips on her neck, his fingers twisting her nipples and his cock splitting her open, Deirdre briefly considered if she had died and gone to heaven. All the nerves in her body were wired tight, overwrought with pure ecstasy and waiting for release.
Losing whatever restraint he had left, Dean’s thrusts grew hard and fast, making her whole body convulse. The world started to fall away as the tightness in her stomach grew, overwhelming both her body and mind.
“Dean!” she mewled, barely holding on to her thread of consciousness.
Nothing else mattered except for his rock-hard cock hitting just the right spot deep inside her, making her clutch on to the sheets as stars erupted behind her eyelids. A scream tore out of her throat as she reached her peak, lost in the wave of white-hot satisfaction.
Dean continued to slam into her, making her body twitch with every thrust until he found his own release. She barely noticed, so lost in the delicious convulsions of her body. A roar echoed throughout the room as he pulled out of her, his hot seed falling on her back.
He wrapped her in a warm embrace as she came down from the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced, spent and gasping for air. His green eyes stared at her, full of emotion. She couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“I don’t think I can let you leave tonight,” he murmured, tapping a finger to the tip of her nose.
“I don’t think I could leave anyway,” she said, being more earnest than she’d thought herself capable of.
Nothing about what just happened seemed real, but hell if it wasn’t better than anything she could have ever dreamed up in her head.
The thought What does this mean for us? flitted through her head, but she shoved it aside.
There would be time to worry about later. For now, she wanted to enjoy the buzz flowing through her veins and commit every detail of this evening to memory.
I have a feeling I’m going to be thinking about tonight a lot.
Fourteen
Oliver
Deirdre sat at the table, wearing the same dress from last night and a soft smile. Her hair was wild and her lips pinker than usual, and she couldn’t have looked more beautiful if she tried. Hope was in her lap, giggling as Deirdre swayed and bounced her around.
It was a picture-perfect moment, and Oliver wanted to grab it and make it stay forever. But the truth of who he really was still loomed over his head, no matter how happy having Deirdre here made him. After last night, he had no doubts about her being his mate, and he wasn’t going to let her slip out of his grasp.
The grim thought of that being out of his hands to an extent didn’t entirely escape him.
He didn’t want to be a loner or a rebel anymore. It wasn’t just that he owed it to Dray to be there for Hope. He wanted a life with Deirdre and he was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.
But first, he needed to know if she felt the same way.
Plating some scrambled eggs for the both of them, he sat down at the table.
“Here you go, breakfast of champions.”
“I got to say, I’m pretty hungry after all that… exercise last night,” Deirdre grinned, glowing in the light of the morning sun.
Oliver hadn’t been up this early in spirits knew how long. Who knew, maybe he’d discover a well-hidden affection for being a morning person or something.
“Always happy to help you burn a few calories.”
She smiled, shaking her head at something.
“This is all a little crazy. I mean, we’ve just met… But it doesn’t feel that way.”
That was a promising start. Oliver smiled despite himself, hiding the grin behind the rim of his coffee cup for a moment.
“I know what you mean. I don’t think we should overthink it. It feels right, so why not go with it?”
“You think it can really be that easy?”
“It can be as easy as we want it to be,” Oliver shrugged.
“I do have to admit, I’ve never felt such an immediate connection with anyone before.”
She wore a slight frown as she said that but the words made him feel warm inside. He had never been the sappy type. Hell, he had never been the relationship type, either. Picking up girls had been more of a pastime for him, never the starting point for any sort of commitment.
And now here he was, ready to change his ways for a woman he had only known for a few short days.
The fact that it didn’t sound at all crazy to him was insane in its own right.
“Not even with the guy you were set to marry?”
It was a selfish question. He had never felt about someone like he did about Deirdre, and a part of him wanted it to be the same way for her. All in all, it didn’t really matter, but there was still a twinge of jealousy deep in his chest.
Looking uncomfortable, Deirdre hesitated for a moment, and he immediately regretted ever asking the question. There was obviously still some pain attached to the break-up, and he hadn’t meant to dredge it up like the emotional dumbass that he was.
“I’m sorry,” he started, before she interjected.
“No, it’s fine. It’s not like I’m not over the guy or anything like that. More so, I’m embarrassed. Deep down, I knew better than to rush into things with Shawn. He was good on paper – stable career, ambitious, respectable. I was looking for commitment, to start a family, and he seemed like someone who could give me that.”
She looked wistful for a second before smiling down at Hope and continuing her story. Oliver’s eggs were getting cold before him, but he didn’t care as he listened intently, all of his attention on Deirdre.
“So I turned a blind eye to our incompatibilities and the lack of chemistry and I made myself believe it could work. By the end, I wasn’t even sure I was pretending. I was so excited to get married, I let it overcome my common sense. You should see me when I’m in wedding planning mode. I can get scary.
“I guess Shawn either realized we were making a mistake or he got cold feet, whatever. He ended up skipping out two days before the wedding, leaving me a note he’d changed his mind.
“I was left to deal with a cancelled venue and out of town guests by myself. I hated him for a while after that, for being too much of a coward to face me and leaving me with the fall-out. In the end, though, it was probably the best possible outcome.”
“I don’t think you have anything to be embarrassed about,” he said when she was done. “It’s human to want to build a connection with someone. And I don’t think you could be scary if you tried, Dee.”
Taking a couple of bites of her food, Deirdre nodded before kissing the top of Hope’s head. Oliver let out a little sigh of relief, happy that the conversation hadn’t gone to a dark place.
“Yeah, I just went a little overboard.”
“I know you must not want to rush into anything again, but I have to say something. I want to be a part o
f your and Hope’s lives. You can set the pace, but I don’t want to lose you. I think we would be really good together.”
She smiled shyly, looking down at Hope a bit too fixedly before returning her gaze to him. He tried to read those gorgeous eyes of hers and found a wealth of honesty there.
Honesty he had not shown her.
“You’re right, I don’t want to rush things. But I do want to see where this leads. You make me excited to try again. I didn’t think that was even possible,” she said, hazel eyes swirling with emotion. “But now, I have to get back into town. All of Hope’s stuff is at the B&B, and I’m running out of diapers.”
Oliver nodded, stilling himself. The moment to have that damn conversation kept seeming to run away from him. He knew why that was though. He couldn’t bear to have it if her reaction didn’t end up being in his favor.
“I’ll follow you. I have to pick up some supplies, anyway.”
“Can’t let me out of your sight, huh?” Deirdre teased.
I sure can’t.
“You really don’t have to walk us to the door, you know,” Deirdre half-heartedly objected.
But he had already grabbed Hope’s car-seat and was making his way to the center of town, taking Deirdre’s hand in his as he went.
“I want to,” was all he said, mirroring the smile of her face.
The truth of the matter was, he really did want to.
Nothing felt easier than just hanging out with her and Hope, imagining how this could be their everyday. A family life wasn’t something he had ever dreamed of, yet now it was all he could think about. Little Hope had already stolen his heart, and Deirdre… Well, she had him wrapped around her little finger, and he was totally fine with it.
“Oliver!” a familiar voice called out from somewhere behind them, making him grit his teeth and pick up the pace.
Come on, not now.
He knew he should have told her the truth by now. It was stupid of him to keep putting it off, and now he might be paying for it. Not that he wouldn’t deserve it. He’d been an idiot with her and wasn’t that the price of lying? Misery?
She can’t find out like this.
All he could do was ignore whoever it was and hope they went away. His luck had changed when fate put Deirdre in his path, it couldn’t be failing him now, could it?
“Hey, Oliver,” the man behind them continued, closer this time.
Deirdre had obviously picked up that something was wrong, tugging at his arm so he would stop.
“Dean, wait,” she said, craning her neck to see who was calling the name of the man she had come to find.
With a resigned sigh, he turned around to see the sheriff catching up with them, waiving at him. Colt was wearing an amicable smile that Oliver in any other situation would have weighed against the man immediately. This time, however, he couldn’t help but think that Colt was just doing what fate had set him to do and it was all Oliver’s own damn fault.
“Staying out of trouble for once, I see,” he commented, giving Deirdre a quick nod.
She was looking confused, gaze darting from the sheriff to him.
I need time to explain things to her.
“Colt, this is not really a good time,” he growled, trying to get the man to back off.
“I didn’t mean to hassle you on the street like this, but there’s still the matter of that fine you need to pay,” Colt said, arching a brow at him.
“Excuse me,” Deirdre interjected, staring up at Colt towering over them all. “Were you calling him Oliver earlier or was I just hearing things?”
Colt studied her curiously, looking uncertain. The sheriff glanced at Oliver but it was too late. Short of tackling the man, there wasn’t anything that Oliver could have done anymore. He had to stand by and watch his little charade come to the crashing halt he’d known it would end up in.
“That is his name, ma’am. What else would I be calling him?”
Shit.
“Deirdre, I can explain,” Oliver said, but she held up a hand, cutting him off.
“This is Oliver Atwater?” she asked, taking a step back when he tried to place a hand on her shoulder.
“As far as I know,” Colt answered, throwing Oliver a suspicious look, a frown curling on his expression.
Shock turned to anger as Deirdre grabbed the car-seat from Oliver’s hand, careful not to rock the baby too hard. Her eyes were burning a hole in him when she faced him.
“You sick, twisted bastard. I never want to see your face again,” she hissed, before turning on her heel and marching off.
Oliver might have imagined it but for a moment, he thought he saw tears in her eyes.
“Um… Oliver, we can talk about that fine later,” Colt said before turning on his heel and rushing off. “Ma’am! Wait, please!”
Great. Just fucking great.
Fifteen
Deirdre
“I can’t believe this,” Deirdre muttered to herself, holding back tears as she threw clothes into a suitcase. “I should have known the only men interested in me are assholes.”
It was painfully obvious Dean, or as it turned out, Oliver, had been playing her from the start. Even after she told him the whole story of Jamie and how she came to be Hope’s guardian, he didn’t say anything. She poured out her heart to him, while all he did was lie.
God, and I kept thinking how honest and open he was. Could I be a bigger idiot?
The night they just spent together had been so amazing, and the way he spoke to her at breakfast seemed so sincere, she couldn’t even figure out why he was going to all this trouble. If he had wanted to get in her pants, well, mission accomplished. What was the whole speech of wanting to be in her life about?
He probably gets off on toying with women, she thought bitterly, gathering Hope’s toys from the floor and stuffing them into a diaper bag.
She didn’t even care that she had found him. If that’s what Dray’s friends were like, God only knew what kind of a bastard he could turn out to be. Jamie had had nothing but good things to say about him, but then again, they only spent one night together. How well could she have possibly known him?
Not well enough, clearly, Deirdre decided, letting her hand run over the golden necklace of a simple cross on her chest.
It wasn’t nice to speak ill of the dead but right now, her emotions were bubbling over in every direction and she could barely keep herself from breaking down.
And all things considered, if Oliver was as tight with Dray as she thought, he had probably already contacted his friend and told him she was looking for him. The guy probably didn’t want to suddenly become a father and had Oliver jerk her around instead to buy him time to put some distance between him and Hope.
Hope deserves so much better.
Tears spilled onto her cheeks and she wiped them away, cursing herself for even sparing a single sad thought for Oliver. What a fool she had been for letting him into her heart so easily. What had she been thinking?
I wasn’t thinking at all, that’s the problem. Too busy admiring that stupid, gorgeous face of his and letting him sweet talk me to see the truth.
She wondered how long he would have kept up his charade if she hadn’t found out his real identity. Would he have disappeared after getting her into bed a few more times, moving on to another town like he was known to do? Would he have left her here, in a hopeless search for Oliver?
The thought made her stomach churn.
Suddenly, she felt disgusting in the dress she had let Oliver rip off her just hours ago, so she peeled it off, pulling on some jeans and a long-sleeved shirt instead. She felt like burning the sexy black number altogether, but there was no time for that.
I need to get out of here. As far away from Sweetwater and Oliver as I can.
As the disgust and disappointment swirling in her was slowly replaced with fury, she forced herself to move even faster. It was unlikely Oliver would come looking for her, having already gotten his kicks, but she couldn’t be
sure. Who knew what other games he wanted to play with her?
Grabbing her toiletries from the bathroom, she shoved everything in sight into her bags, letting her gaze sweep over the room to see if she had missed anything. It didn’t look like it, so she called down to the front desk to have someone come up and help her load her stuff into the car.
A very helpful young man named Jimmy arrived at her door only minutes later, dutifully grabbing her suitcase and many bags, and wobbling downstairs ahead of her. She trailed behind, carrying Hope and doing her best to keep it together.
I’ll have time to break down once I’m back home. Or at least on the road again.
Her car was parked to the side of the building, away from the street, so she let herself sag against the wall as Jimmy loaded her things into the trunk. Everything was spinning around her, too much information to absorb and not enough time to process it all.
She wanted to curl up into a ball and just lie on the ground for a while, but she had to think of Hope. Her little girl came first.
And that was exactly what Hope was now. Her little girl. She was the only person left for the child and she was going to make damn certain that no one could ever take advantage of Hope like she felt Oliver had taken advantage of her.
“All done, ma’am,” Jimmy said, closing the trunk and giving her a polite smile.
“Thank you,” she replied, watching the young man go back inside.
Taking deep breaths to try and calm herself, she strapped Hope into the car. Running around the vehicle, she was getting ready to hop in herself, when she heard a familiar voice.
“Deirdre. Please, wait,” Oliver pleaded, emerging from behind an adjoining building.
“I have nothing to say to you.”
Still, she paused, her hand on the door handle. He looked distraught.
Why do I care? a proud voice inside of her asked bitterly.
“Just let me explain. You didn’t get closure with Shawn. At least hear me out before you take off and we never see each other again.”