"You really have to stop eavesdropping on my conversations, Drew," she told him, trying her best to sound convincing when the truth was she didn't mind at all.
"Is that right?" His hands went to her waist, backing her up against the counter. She couldn't hold back the moan that escaped her lips as he touched her.
"Yes." The words were barely audible as they left her mouth.
He bent his head so his mouth was beside her ear. When he licked her ear lobe, her hands grabbed his T-shirt, desperate for more. "Hmmm, maybe you should stop talking about how hot I am behind my back and tell me instead."
"I don't need to tell you that, Drew. You have a mirror." She had no idea how she was still capable of thought when Drew licked her neck. God, he remembered her body like it was yesterday. All week, her body had been hot for him, and God, she wanted more.
"Maybe I want to hear you tell me." He pulled his head back so they were eye to eye.
"What are you doing here, Drew?" His hands travelled down her lower back, resting just above her ass. Her hips tilted forward by themselves and when she shivered, she heard his groan.
"Wanted to see you." He squeezed her ass as he talked to her, and she was so turned on, she wasn't sure she could form a coherent thought if her life depended on it.
"Why?" she managed to ask through the fog of lust in her brain.
He gripped her ass and lifted her onto the counter. Their mouths were so close his breath caressed her lips. "Because after hearing you say I'm hot and that you're waiting for me to make my move, I don't think I can leave without getting a taste of you."
He squeezed her inner thigh with one hand and teased her bottom lip with his thumb, driving her crazy with need. "Oh, God."
He licked her bottom lip and pulled back. "Yeah, I definitely need a taste. Tell me I can have a taste, Amanda. Tell me I can taste those pretty lips."
"Please." She had forgotten how much his need for her permission turned her on, and just like that, a switch was flipped. Her whole body relaxed into his and her legs spread wider, giving him room to step closer to her.
She saw the same switch in him when her body relaxed, and the next time he spoke, his words were harsher, demanding more. "Say it, Amanda."
"Kiss me," she told him, slipping her hands under his tee, desperate to feel him without any barriers.
"With pleasure," was all he said before rocking her world with the most amazing kiss of her life.
Drew didn't need another invitation. He dove right in and took what he was desperate for, her lips. He caged her face with his hands, loving how her body relaxed into his, like it hadn't forgotten their connection. When his lips had their first taste of hers, he lost it. He was kissing her like his life depended on it, and in that moment, he was pretty sure it did. He kissed, licked and nibbled on her lips as his hand tilted her head back, desperate to deepen the connection. "So sweet. So fucking sweet."
He kissed her neck, loving the feel of her nails digging into his chest. He lowered one hand and covered her breast, squeezing hard, making her hips jerk. Before he knew it, her legs were wrapped around his waist and he was spinning them around, pinning her back against the wall.
"Drew."
He rocked his hips into her, showing her how much he wanted her, how much she controlled his body. But it was when he looked into her eyes that he showed her how she controlled his heart. "Mine, Amanda. These lips are mine. Tell me I'm the only one who can taste them. I keep replaying it in my head, and I can't stop hearing you tell me that no other man has touched you. It's making me a little crazy."
"Yours, I'm yours, Drew. Please…." She didn't wait for him that time; she lowered her lips to his and kissed him, showing him exactly what she was feeling. He groaned when she bit down on his lower lip, pushing her tongue inside, teasing him. When she started rocking her hips and moaning, he knew this was getting out of control, but he couldn't stop.
She threw her head back, and he had never seen anything more beautiful than how she looked in that moment. Lips swollen form his kiss, face flushed, hair tangled, she looked like a wild child. "What do you want?"
"More, I want more. God, please touch me." He had his hand on the base of her T-shirt when he heard the kitchen door open, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Oh, hmmm…I'm so sorry, but there's a problem out front." He could hear Abby giggle, but all he could feel was Amanda's warmth as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"I'll be right there, Abby." He lowered her to the ground slowly and fixed her clothes, and he knew by the way she was avoiding making eye contact that she was embarrassed. He hated seeing that look on her face, but he was also aware that he didn't have the time to say everything he wanted to say, and he knew they needed to talk.
He kissed her hard enough to leave her breathless, then kissed her forehead and whispered, "This isn't over," before walking out the back. If anyone asked him the moment his life changed, that was it.
Chapter Six
To say that the last couple of weeks had been busy would be an understatement. Between pulling his weight at the ranch, working on Amanda's house and getting things ready for Cole's wedding, Drew was exhausted. The one good thing in the midst of crazy long days was that he got to see Amanda almost every day. The more time he spent with her, the more she opened up to him about her life in the city and how she felt about being back home. Their extensive chats had made his days longer and his nights shorter, but he wouldn't trade any of it for a couple hours of sleep. Slowly, he was getting a glimpse of the woman he loved.
The day had been brutally hot, and he knew his body would make him pay in the morning, but he didn't care. It was well past 9 p.m., yet he was still working on the roof. His brothers had insisted on staying and helping him, but he didn't want them around; he wanted time alone with Amanda. As if his thoughts had conjured her, she stepped out on the back porch holding two beers.
"Are you trying to get me to drink on the job, Amanda?" He really liked teasing her. It was one of the things he loved most about her; she was so easy to tease but unlike women who got offended, she just laughed it off.
"It's almost ten, Drew. I think you've done enough for today," she shouted before sitting down on her front steps.
"All right, I'll be right down." He climbed down from the roof in record speed, making sure everything was safe. When he sat down beside her, the scent of her perfume lingered in the wind. God, he wanted to drown in it.
She gazed around the house, and he could tell she was taking everything in. "I can't believe how fast you guys got things done. The house looks amazing." When she turned to look at him, the emotion he saw in her eyes took him back.
To him, this wasn't something he needed to do; this was something he wanted to do. He took a sip of beer, clearing his thoughts before saying something that would send her running for the hills. "Your safety is important, Mandy."
"Apparently, sleep isn't all that important to you. You look like something out of The Walking Dead." She sounded amused, and he'd missed that about her so much. But this, just talking, was one of the things he'd missed most of all.
He took off his baseball cap and ran his fingers through his hair. "Is it that bad?"
"Don't worry, you're still the most handsome brother." She smiled at him and for the first time in weeks, he saw it radiate through her eyes.
"Straight to the heart, sweetheart," he told her, his hand over his heart. When she shifted on the stairs, he grabbed her by the hips, pulled himself back a little farther and sat her down between his legs, her back pressed to his chest.
He smirked at her intake of breath and waited for her to protest or move away from him, but she didn't. Instead, she dropped her head back on his shoulders, letting out a sigh that made it seem like she'd just found something she'd been missing. Hell, he could relate to that himself.
Her eyes went up to look at the stars, and a smile covered her face. "I forgot how peaceful it was out here. So quiet."
&n
bsp; "Bet you couldn't get that in the city." He remembered how much she used to enjoy lying out in the fields at night, just spending hours looking at the stars. She used to say that every person we'd ever lost could be found in the stars. When he saw the longing on her face, he knew she was thinking about her dad. They had spent so many nights out in the middle of nowhere, talking about their families and how they would raise their own kids someday. To sit there with her and see everything she still wanted written on her face took him for a ride he wasn't sure he was ready for.
"Definitely not." Neither of them said anything more. They stayed there in each other's arms like they didn't have any history, only the present. As much as Drew wanted that to be true, it wasn't. They did have a history, one that ended in heartbreak. If they were to have any chance to move forward, to give this relationship another try, there were some things they needed to talk about.
He could no longer avoid their past, like they had been for the past weeks. "Can I ask you something?"
She pulled away from him, and he silently cursed the loss of her body against his. "Would it matter if I said no?" she asked.
He took a sip of his beer and went straight to the point. "Probably not. Why did you leave without saying goodbye?"
He watched her face, trying to see what she was thinking but he couldn't struggled read her. There was something blank about the way she was looking at him, something he didn't like, not one bit. She didn't say anything for a few moments, and just when he was about to tell her to forget it, she spoke up. "I didn't think I would be able to get in my car and drive away if I saw you before I left. I don't think I could have walked away from you. You'd have tried to talk me out of it, and you would have won. I needed to leave, needed to go and find something more."
"When I came over to pick you up and saw your car leaving, and your dad told me you were gone, it almost killed me."
She started to cry, and he felt like the biggest asshole in the world, but they needed to have this conversation. They had to close that chapter if they were to have any chance at starting another one, one that didn't end up with taillights driving away. "I never wanted to hurt you, Drew. I loved you so much. That's why I had to just leave."
"Watching you drive away from me like that, drive away from everything we had planned, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life."
"I tried calling you a million times when I got settled in the city, but every time I attempted dial your number, I couldn't do it. Alone in a new city, I was so lonely, and I missed you so damn much. I knew if I heard your voice and you asked me to come back, I would." Tears ran down her face, and he realized leaving had hurt her just as much as it had hurt him. He knew it was something she had to do; he just wished she had done it differently.
He wished she would have given him the chance to say goodbye, the chance to tell her he how he felt one more time, but she had taken that away from him. "I'm not happy that you left like you did, and God, I missed you so fucking much. But looking back now, I get why you had to leave. I look at you and I'm happy you did it, because you became stronger for it but let me tell you this: if you walk away from me again, I will chase you, Amanda."
He lifted his hands around her face, his palms pressing against her skin, and he didn't give her a chance to move away or speak. He slammed his mouth down on hers, swallowing her gasps when their lips touched. God, the feel of her mouth moving against his, the warmth of her kiss, there was nothing else like it. He nibbled and licked her lips, slowly demanding she let him in, and when he took her bottom lip between his teeth, she surrendered. Her hands went around his neck, pulling him closer, like she couldn't get enough, and he enjoyed her out of control. He slipped one hand behind her neck, tilting her head to the side to deepen their connection. She was giving as good as he was, and when her nails dug into his scalp, demanding more, he knew he had to stop before things went too far. They weren't ready to take that step yet.
He slowly pulled away and they were both panting. She looked so damn beautiful with swollen lips and pink cheeps. He dropped his forehead to hers, giving his body a chance to adjust. "You got better at that," she told him, smiling brightly. He laughed loudly, like he hadn't in a long time.
She laughed with him, and he couldn't help it; he pressed a soft kiss to her lips before kissing her forehead "Are you saying I wasn't a good kisser in high school? I'm hurt."
She slapped his chest and grinned. "You know you were a good kisser, but now? You're, hmmm…."
"Can I ask you something else?" He had another thought on his mind that he hadn't been able to wrap his head around, and he couldn't let it go. He waited for her answer, even if they both knew he would ask her no matter what.
She smiled at him. "Go ahead."
He lifted off the steps and settled her so she straddled his thighs. He needed to see her for this conversation. "Why are you still a virgin?"
She took a deep breath and glanced away from his eyes. He thought he would have to force her to look at him, but she surprised him by locking her eyes with him as she spoke. "Honestly, I just never found someone I trusted enough to give that part of me to. I always thought it would be you that I would share that part of me with. Every guy I met, I compared to you, and they never measured up."
He let her words sink in for a few seconds, because the urge to claim her was becoming overwhelming. To know she hadn't given that part of herself to anyone, that she was somehow saving herself for him even without knowing she would end up back in Montana, made him feel all types of possessive toward the woman currently blushing at him. "Is it wrong that I love that no one has ever touched you but me?" he asked, his hands going for her ass. She had always had curves but after all this time, she was all woman. God, her ass fit perfectly in his hands, and the image of her riding him while he grabbed it invaded his vision.
"It's a bit primal, like 'I'm going to drag you into my cave primal'."
"Call it whatever you want, baby, but knowing there's a part of you no one has had, it's making me feel pretty fucking primal." When she pressed her breasts against him, his cock grazed his zipper.
"This primal side is pretty sexy," she told him as she licked her way up his neck to his jaw. She was driving him crazy and if she kept that up, he wouldn't last very long.
He grabbed her ass with one hand, pushing her into his erection, and let the other one travel up to her neck, bringing their faces as close as he could. "Yeah? Well, you're the sexiest thing I have ever seen, babe, and I'm never letting you go." He kissed her like she was the only thing keeping him alive. This kiss was rougher than the others, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to mark her, to own her and judging by how hard her nails were digging into his shoulder blades, she didn't have any objections.
Her body rocked into his erection, and her heat pressed against him through his jeans. He had to stop before she made him come in his jeans like a teenager. He slowed the kiss down before pulling away from her. Helping her off his lap, he pressed down on his erection, desperate for relief he knew he couldn't take, not yet.
He stood but before walking to his truck, he turned around. "We're doing a barbeque at the ranch tomorrow, since Becca is coming home for the wedding. I want you to come." It was important to him that his sister and Amanda healed old wounds. Amanda was a part of his family, and he needed them to get along.
"Okay," she answered him breathlessly, and his cock took notice. He had to get out of there before he laid her down on that porch and fucked her until dawn.
"Shit, that was easy. I had this whole speech ready," he told her, flashing her a grin. He loved seeing her all flushed, especially from his kiss.
"When you kiss me like that, I'll probably agree to anything." He knew she probably hadn't wanted to tell him that, but he was sure glad she did. Every tool he had in his bag, he planned on using with her.
"Good to know. I'll see you tomorrow. It starts at two."
He walked over to his truck, but not before he heard her wh
isper, "See you tomorrow."
Amanda woke up to the sun shining through her bedroom window with a smile on her face that could only be explained by one thing: Drew. The night before, something had changed between the two of them. They had spent weeks just flirting and spinning around each other, but as he pulled her into his arm, she felt like she had finally come home. As much as she wanted to fight that she depended on Drew to make her feel like this was where she belonged, she couldn't get herself to do so. And God, her whole body came alive as she remembered the way he had kissed her, the way he had marked her lips with his. There was no doubt she was his, and as she rolled her legs off the bed, she realized that thought didn't scare her, not even a little.
As she walked downstairs, she smiled at how much the guys had done to make her house safer. They'd made it feel like a home. She still had a ton of work to do but she knew she wouldn't have to do it alone, and that was something she never thought she would feel again. She started a pot of coffee and smiled when she saw a Post-it on the fridge with Drew's handwriting: See you at two!
She spent the rest of her morning making calls into the diner to make sure everything was running smoothly, checking the place hadn't burned down, and finalizing the menu for Cole and Jamie's rehearsal dinner and wedding reception. By the time she was ready to leave, she had changed five times, finally settling on a blue sundress with thin straps that flowed down to her knees. She figured it was probably too much for a simple barbeque, but she knew Drew would love her in this dress, and that was all she cared about.
When she pulled up to the Callaway ranch, she smiled when she saw Drew leaning against his truck, wearing faded blue jeans and a white T-shirt that hugged to every muscle in his chest. The man was breathtaking, and she couldn't stop looking at him. He had a baseball cap on and God, she loved the way his hair was long enough to peek from under the cap. She had spent so many nights wondering how all that hair would feel against her skin. She put the truck in park and gathered her thoughts before opening the door.
Forgive Me (Callaway Book 2) Page 8