by Kira Blakely
And if I told him about the baby in my womb, he’d flip out. He didn’t need the extra pressure, and I didn’t need him freaking me out. Stress wasn’t good for an unborn baby. Whatever I had to say to him would have to wait.
A day or two couldn’t hurt. It’d give me time to prepare how I wanted to tell him, so I could minimize the shock. Then we could handle it. Or I could handle it, and he could leave.
Him leaving made me nauseated all over again, and it wasn’t from the morning—ha, evening, afternoon, whenever-it-felt-like-striking—sickness.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
He lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. “Not much I can do. Look for another hospital that wants an asshole on their staff. That’s about all I can do at the moment.”
“And until then?” I asked, and nerves whooped in the pit of my belly. Would he be here? With me?
“Until then,” he said and froze me to the spot, caught me with a look that spoke about things I’d never experienced. Things I wanted to experience, desperately. “Until then, I’ll be in Summit Springs.”
“You don’t like it here,” I said.
“Never have. Not since I was a boy. Bunch of rich bitches and bastards ruining a perfectly friendly setting,” he said, then laughed. “I suppose that’s ironic coming from me.”
“You’re not a bastard.” I leaned back against the tree and shut my eyes, inhaled the summer’s day and its heat. “You’re not even close to one.”
His grip tightened on my hand. “I’m not going to force you to do anything, but I strongly fucking advise that you take this creep to the police. He’s a bully, and he needs to be put in his place.”
“Maybe in your world it works that way,” I said and opened my eyes again. Holding his hand like this was nice, but a huge distraction. It sent shivers racing over my skin, raised the hairs on my arms.
He kissed my knuckles this time and I struggled for breath. It wasn’t normal to feel this way. I wasn’t OK, especially with everything unsaid between us.
The minute he found out about my situation, things would change. And if he suggested I get rid of my baby, it would shatter every illusion I held surrounding him.
Couldn’t I cling to that for another hour? Another day?
It was weak of me, sure, but I needed this. I needed him.
You need to have your damn head checked, is what you need.
“Tell me what you need me to do,” Houston said. “I’ll do it. I’ll rip his fucking head off or have him arrested. Whatever you need, Charlie.”
I need you. I need you to help me. But I couldn’t ask that, and I wouldn’t.
I shook my head and focused on my knees instead of him, on the frayed hole in my jeans—the one Pammy thought was super cute and stylish.
“What do you need?” He scooched closer to me. He kicked over the iced tea bottle but didn’t pick it up. The last of the liquid glugged out into the grass. “Tell me what you need.”
He pressed his side against mine, brought the heat that I’d pined for these past months.
I couldn’t kiss him. I wouldn’t. It would be manipulative and wrong to do it without having told him about our unborn child.
He’d hate me if he found out, after the fact.
I stared directly ahead at a tree across the pool of steamy water, counted its branches, focused on the susurration of wind in leaves.
“Tell me what you need,” he breathed, on my earlobe.
My eyes rolled back in my head, and I crossed my ankles. My core tightened up.
“Charlie,” he whispered, a hint of impatience in his tone. “Tell me.”
I let the quiet build. I let his heat suffuse through my shirt and my jeans. Let it all happen.
How was I supposed to resist this?
“You,” I said, at last.
Chapter 20
Houston
We’d been together in a motel room. We’d been together in her little room at her aunt’s place. And now, we were under the trees, out in the open. Anyone could come down here at a moment’s notice, disturb the quiet and the occasional bubble popping in the spring.
They could find me with my arms wrapped around her, and her head on my shoulder.
I still couldn’t resist.
Just one kiss. Just one taste of this angel.
So fucking pure and mine.
She hasn’t been with anyone else since I left. I refuse to believe it.
“Houston,” she whispered.
“How much have you missed me?” I asked. “How many times have you thought about me naked?”
“It was just one week,” she replied and opened her eyes, looked over at me. She couldn’t hide the lie. “One week, that’s all. Why would I have thought about you? Missed you? You weren’t coming back.”
“But I am back. I’m right here,” I said. “You thought about me.” No way she didn’t. I hadn’t lost my touch.
“How would you know?” Charlie asked and stiffened up a little.
I ran a finger along her cheekbone and down to her lips. “Because I thought of you. Every damn day. Every night, I thought about you beneath me. The way you tasted and felt, tightening around me. Coming for me.”
She let out a tiny whimper, and her eyelashes fluttered.
“Charlie, you drove me crazy for a week, and then you fucked my mind for weeks afterward. You’re coming with me,” I said.
“W-what? Coming where?”
“The question of the hour.” I laughed softly and leaned against the tree. The bark scraped against my arm, but I didn’t give a single fuck. “Look at me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“Because if I look at you, I’ll cave,” she said. “I’ll sleep with you again. And I can’t sleep with you again.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re leaving as soon as you can. You want out.”
I opened my mouth and snapped it shut again, a frown wrinkling my brow. She was right, of course. I’d be out as soon as I got the opportunity. The career was everything.
She could come with you. She could move, too. Find a better school to teach at. Fuck it, you could pay for her studies. I’d sat on my nest egg for long enough.
What the fuck was I thinking? I’d known her for one week, and now, a day or two more. Christ, we’d fucked and talked, that was it.
It was impossible to fall for someone instantly. That was movie bullshit. It didn’t happen in my life or anyone else’s.
Charlie shifted away from me, just an inch, and I let her go. “What does it matter if I’m leaving or not?” I asked. “We should be able to enjoy ourselves, right? It could be more than a week this time.”
She got up and dusted off the backs of her legs. I took the opportunity to check out her ass.
“It matters to me,” she said. “You stay for months and we have a casual relationship and then you leave again. It’s different for me.”
I rose, too, and stood right behind her, not touching, but close.
“You were my first.”
And only.
“And my only,” she finished. “It’s—well, you’ve got to know what that’s like. Didn’t you have a first?” Charlie spun toward me and crashed into my chest.
I caught her before she fell. Clumsy again, adorable. This woman could do no wrong.
She was nothing like the others I’d met and dated—casual wasn’t even the word for that—in the past. She didn’t want something from me. She didn’t keep secrets and pop them out later. I could trust her.
And that made this dangerous territory.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her close. “I’m not like other people. First for me wasn’t what it was for you. It was something I got out of the way.”
“How romantic.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “I’ve never been romantic. Not until now.”
She swayed in my arms, then, and gripped her forehead. “I need to lie down. Th
is is too much.”
“Come on.” I slipped one arm free, then walked her over to the brown paper bag.
“What are you doing?”
“We can’t leave this trash here,” I said.
We gathered it up, then walked toward the trail together, away from our spot. Our spot. Christ, what if I did want her to come with me? What if that wasn’t a crazy thought and all the love at first sight crap was the real deal?
Snap out of it, jackass.
We dumped the bag into a trash can at the peak of the trail, then walked out of the park and onto the sidewalk in Summit Springs.
This was our weird-ass crossroads.
“Well,” she said and stuck out her dainty, pale hand. “It was nice seeing you again.”
“Handshake?” I chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
I tapped her arm to one side, then looped one arm around her waist and tugged her to my chest. I pressed my lips against hers and she moaned, instantly.
I took advantage of that, slipped my tongue into her mouth and kissed her hard. I took what I wanted and gave what she needed. That was the fucking deal.
She melted into me, and I kept her upright.
Finally, I stopped the kiss and planted a little one on the tip of her nose. “It doesn’t have to be one week this time,” I said. “It could be more than that.”
“Are you—Houston?”
“Yes, I am Houston. That’s the point of this. I’m me and you’re you, and we’re going to have a good time and see where it goes. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
She giggled, then bit her bottom lip. A-fucking-dorable. No wonder I was addicted to this chick.
“I mean, are you serious, Houston? Are you serious?” Charlie’s stare intensified.
This was her moment of truth, apparently. She needed this confession from me.
I’d give her what I could.
“Yeah, I want to know more about you. Let’s find out where this goes.” This was a huge step for me. “But listen, I’m not making any promises. I’m not good with, uh, this.”
“What?”
“Emotional crap. Romance and shit.”
“Me neither,” she said. “I’ve never done it before.”
“You don’t say.” I smirked, then kissed her nose again. It was cute, smooth and made for my lips. “Come on, let’s go back to my motel. We can take a walk.”
She swallowed, nodded. “OK,” she said, and tension leaked from her shoulders. Why was she this worked up? Was it the school stuff? That creeper?
I’d wipe that stress from her.
I took her hand and led her down the street. The walk wasn’t too long, since the park was closer to the edge of Summit Springs, and the motel was, too. I’d settled into the same place, but not the same room, not that it made a damn difference.
I’d stayed in enough motel rooms in my time—they were all the same.
I fished my keys out of the pocket of my jeans, then unlocked and held the door for her, headed in after her and closed up again.
Charlie circled and took in the room, the double bed with its clean white sheets, and the small, flat screen TV attached to the navy-blue wallpaper. She tapped her heels on the wooden flooring, then walked to the desk and touched it.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
She jumped, colored, and faced me. “The last time I was in your room, I didn’t see anything. I want to remember it all.”
“Charlie, you’ve got to quit saying shit like that. It makes me want to devour you whole. Just eat you from head to toe.”
“Is this the part where you tell me you’re a serial killer? Like Dexter?” Her lips tugged upward at the corners.
“He was a forensic technician,” I replied.
She laughed full on, an effusive noise that filled all the spaces. Even ones I didn’t want to admit I had. Ones that were deeper inside. “Of course, you’ll correct me on that. Can you ever be wrong?”
“Eh, only if there’s categorical proof. Or hard evidence.” I cocked my head to one side, mentally tracing the curves of her face and the line of that slender neck down the shoulder. The collar bones. The breasts. Fuck me, what a woman. “Besides, I’m much worse than him. I’m not a killer in the normal sense. I’ll devour you, Charlie, that’s not a lie.”
She chewed the inside of her cheek.
“I’m going to consume you heart and mind and soul. All of it. You’re already mine. You know that.”
“Am I?” she challenged. It was weak, though, and she placed her palm on the desk behind her, braced for what would come.
“You already know that,” I said and strode across the space between us. I pressed my forehead against hers, lowered my voice. “You were mine the minute you walked into the doctor’s office. The minute you spoke to me for the first time.”
Her bottom lip trembled.
“I know how you’re feeling.” I whispered, still just with my forehead touching hers, my groin pressed against hers.
“How?”
“Because I feel it, too.”
She let out a tiny sigh.
I caught it in my mouth, breathed it in, and tasted her flavor again. Another kiss, melting, breaking, heart-rending. My hand rested beneath her chin, smoothed her skin, crept around to the back of her neck and held her at its nape.
Charlie tilted back to accept more of the kiss. Her tongue massaged mine. She was as enthusiastic or more, as needy for this feeling we’d woken within each other.
I broke away first.
“More,” she whimpered and tugged on the belt loops of my jeans. “Houston, please.”
“Patience,” I said.
She shook her head.
I unbuttoned her jeans, then dragged them down, revealed plain cotton panties underneath. God, I’d missed these fucking panties. They were so her. No fancy lace, just sweet cotton panties.
I stripped them off, too, bent and lifted each of her feet to slip them free. I tossed them aside and rose again, peppering kisses on her calves, her knees, her thighs. I hovered by her sweet, shaven mound, and licked my lips.
Not yet.
The longer we drew this out, the better.
I grasped the hem of her blouse and lifted it as I stood, tore it up and over her head, then threw that to one side, too. Her bra, plain purple cups and a clasp in the front, enticed me as much as her panties had.
“Fuck, look at you,” I said.
“What?” Charlie looked down at her body. “Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? Fuck no,” I replied, then took her palm and pressed it to the raging erection that strained against the front of my jeans. “Does it feel like anything’s wrong?”
“Oh my god,” she whispered.
“That’s right.” I unclipped the clasp of her bra, and it popped open.
Her breasts—perky, pink nipples—begged for my tongue, for a tease. I obliged, splayed my fingers on her back, lowered my head and sucked one of them into my mouth, teased the nub between my teeth.
“Oh god, oh fuck.” She writhed against me. “Don’t stop doing that. Don’t stop.”
I cupped her breast in one hand and massaged. She was a little more than a handful, so full and delicious. I suckled on her, teased her, and she cried out, leaned back, almost fell over again.
“I’m going to come,” she said.
My eyebrows jounced upward. From this? Nipple play? Hot damn, I’m good at this shit.
“Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop,” she whined and gripped her other breast, tweaked that nipple. “I’m coming.”
Chapter 21
Charlie
My nipples were aflame. They’d never been this sensitive in my entire friggin’ life, and now, with him sucking on one, wet pressure, his searing hot body pressed against mine? It was all too much.
I crested the peak and crashed over it, clenching tight, though he hadn’t even entered me yet. “Oh, my—” Nothingness after that. I blanked out and clung to him,
his lips my everything, as I rocked through the blinding white pleasure.
Wrong. So wrong. So right.
I didn’t want it to stop, but the orgasm petered off into pleasurable aftershocks, each one another jolt to my system.
Houston stood straight and caught my gaze. “Damn, girl,” he said and grinned. “That was impressive.”
My cheeks heated. If you knew why they were this sensitive…
He tugged his cotton tee off, and I lost that train of thought right away. His abs rippled, as did his biceps. He exuded strength in every movement, every twitch of muscle. He stripped off his belt, then popped open the top button on his jeans.
Houston dropped his pants and stepped out of them. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him fully naked, but it felt like it.
My gaze lingered on the V that led to a smattering of soft, brown hair, and I held back a moan at the sight of what waited there.
His thick, throbbing dick, already dripping pre-cum for me. All for me.
God, a couple months ago, I hadn’t even experienced this or anything much like it.
Houston was right. I was his.
He’d claimed me that night he’d eaten me out in front of the motel then pushed me inside and taken my virginity.
“Look at me,” he said.
I raised my gaze, caught his, and sucked in a breath.
The intensity there astounded me. He’d do what he promised. He’d eat me alive.
Houston grabbed my ass cheeks and lifted me. I squealed, wrapping my arms around his neck. He plopped me down on the desk, then pressed a hand to the center of my chest, just above my breasts and forced me backward, using his other hand to brace my back.
He laid me down gently, then parted my legs. “Look at you. Look how ready you are for me, Charlie. I’ve fucking missed you. Missed this tight little cunt.” He ran his finger between my lips, watching my reaction, then switching his gaze to my slit.
I gasped and jerked, my legs hanging off the edge of the desk.
“So wet. So fucking delicious,” he said, then lifted his finger and licked it clean. “Addictive. No one should be allowed to be this fucking addictive. I crave you.”