He couldn’t wait to be alone with her. They’d agreed to take a step back and take things slower, but he was over that, and he suspected so was she.
Kaia nudged her mother forward. “Ask him,” she whispered.
Tank looked slightly wary but mostly pleased to see his daughter in a better mood. “What’s going on?”
Kaia looked pleadingly at Montana, and Montana sighed. “Well, I was going to talk to you about this tomorrow, but someone is clearly impatient, so...” She hesitated. “Eddie invited her to volunteer at the station’s Haunted Trail event this year. He said they need a ton of helpers to run different stations.”
“He said I could be the victim in the spider-web exhibit,” Kaia said, nearly bouncing with excitement.
To his credit, Tank looked like he might say no, but they all knew he wouldn’t.
Still, he asked all the right questions before deciding. “What time is the commitment? Halloween is Wednesday night, and I don’t want you out too late on a school night.”
Kaia looked at Eddie for the answer.
“It would be from five thirty until about ten thirty, eleven at the latest. We run a family/kid-friendly version earlier in the evening, and then it gets spookier later in the night for adults,” he said.
“She’d be safe in that area of the trail?”
“Absolutely. There are three volunteers per station.” One state trooper manned the entrance of each station, while the volunteers ran the show inside and several others walked the trail all evening to make sure everything went smoothly.
“You’d be there with her the whole time?” Tank asked.
The fact that he trusted his daughter’s safety to him had Eddie’s shoulders straightening. “Absolutely.” He’d make sure the spider-web station was easily accessible with his chair, and he’d keep an eye on her—not infringe on her fun but make sure she was okay.
Tank still hesitated.
“Please, Dad. I’m sorry for my attitude lately and for skipping class... It won’t happen again, I promise,” she said, folding her hands in front of her face and sending him a pleading look.
Montana looked just as pleadingly at Tank. She’d made progress with Kaia that evening, and Eddie knew she wanted to keep the good momentum going.
“Okay,” Tank said, then held up a hand when Kaia got ready to pounce in excitement. “On one condition.”
“Anything,” she said.
“Someone gets me a piece of pumpkin pie to go,” he said with a grin. “Damn, Eddie, I could smell it from the lobby.”
“Hey! Why do you assume Eddie baked the pie?” Montana asked with fake hurt, hands on her hips. “Maybe I made it.”
Tank laughed and laughed.
Five minutes later, Montana hugged them both goodbye, and Eddie’s heart was nearly exploding out of his chest. With Kaia around and the focus on pumpkin carving, it had been easier to keep his thoughts PG. Not easy. But easier.
Now they were alone. And his gaze swept over her tight jeans and soft-looking V-neck sweater that accentuated her full breasts and tiny waist. Her makeup-free face had never looked more radiant, and the way she’d butchered her poor pumpkin with its crooked, uneven expression made her that much more endearing and irresistible to him.
Montana seemed to take a really long time closing the door, but when she finally turned the lock and turned around to face him, he headed straight toward her.
Grabbing her around her waist, he pulled her down onto his lap. “Hi,” he said. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
“You don’t always have to give me a heads-up,” she said as his mouth met hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, moving even closer. She tasted like pumpkin spice, and the scent of the fall air still lingered on her clothes and her hair. She was addictive, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever stop kissing her.
“I’ve been craving this since I left you the other morning,” she murmured against his lips before going back in.
“Well, why didn’t you come get it?” he asked.
“Just because you live next door doesn’t mean I can be presumptuous.”
“You can presume anything. Anytime,” he said, kissing her again.
He was hard already, and the way her body was pressed against his, her fingers tangling in the back of his hair, her breath shallow, he knew she was just as turned on as he was. “I’ve been craving something else as well,” he said.
She grinned. “Oh, yeah?”
His hand covered her breast. “I know we said we’d move slower, but I’m not sure I can do that anymore.”
“Thank God. I thought I was going to have to do something drastic like bungee jumping naked or something to get your clothes off again.”
“No drastic measures required. All you have to do is ask.”
She kissed his mouth, then his earlobe, then his neck. “Okay, Eddie, can I take your clothes off, please?” she whispered in his ear, and goosebumps surfaced on every inch of his body.
“Yes,” he said. “And do it fast.”
She wiggled free of his grip and climbed off his lap. She knelt in front of him and wedged her body between his legs, reaching for the button on his jeans. His breath was already labored in anticipation of being naked with her again. Their long, heavy make-out sessions weren’t enough. Her sultry gaze locked with his, she undid the jeans and pulled them off, tossing them on the floor.
His dick was already rock hard. He was always turned on when he was around her, and he didn’t think his desire for her would ever start to fade.
She slid her hands up the inside of his thighs and ran her fingertips along his groin, teasingly slow, before sliding both hands beneath the waistband of his underwear. One hand cupped him, while the other wrapped around him.
He swallowed hard, and his body tensed at her touch. She gently stroked him beneath the fabric and he was desperate for more. He moaned. Damn, it felt so good. He’d been fantasizing about her hands on him since the first time they’d had sex.
He removed his underwear and threw them aside. “Those have to go,” he said.
“Agreed,” she said, lowering her head to him. She licked the top of his cock, slowly, running her tongue along the length of his shaft before circling the tip. Precum escaped, and he gripped the chair. She was so crazy sexy. All the time. But right now, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
She took him into her mouth and glanced up at him, and her expression nearly put him over the edge. Her mouth was soft, warm and wet, and the way she eagerly wanted to pleasure him was driving him insane.
“Montana.”
She sucked and licked and pumped him with her hand as he fought the orgasm and pleasure erupting inside of him. He didn’t want to come just yet. He wanted this to last. But damn, it felt so fucking good.
“Can we slow down a little?”
She removed her mouth from him slowly, and he instantly regretted the decision. The deep burning coursing through him demanded release. He was so close to the edge already. She kissed along his inner thighs, coming so close to his cock, then backing away again. Her hand stroked him up and down. Slow and teasingly. Not enough pressure to make him come but just enough to keep him erect and throbbing.
She moved closer between his legs. Gripping his upper thighs with her hands, she kissed his chest, his abs and lower. Her tongue traced the shape of his muscles and the lower she went, the more excruciating the desire pulsing through him. “Montana, put me in your mouth again,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“I thought you wanted to go slow?”
“I’m not sure I can take slow.”
She grinned up at him as she teased the top of his cock with her tongue, flicking gently. “Unfortunately, you’re not in control...”
Fuck that.
Gently, but firmly, he gripped her ribcage and moved closer to the edge of the chair.
He pushed her slowly backward onto the floor and allowed himself to topple on top of her, protecting the back of her head as they hit the living room floor together.
She gasped in surprise at the reversal, as his hands massaged her breasts through the fabric of her sweater and he wedged himself between her thighs, pressing his cock against her.
“What was that about control?” he asked, grasping both her wrists together with one hand and placing them over her head. With his other hand, he dipped inside the tight jeans that had him drooling all evening with the way they hugged her hips and ass so perfectly.
She wasn’t wearing any fucking underwear. She was going to be the end of him. “You’ve been commando all evening?”
She grinned. “It’s laundry day.”
“I’ll be sure to keep the machines busy all week.” He slipped a finger inside her wet, warm body, and the effect on him was almost as intoxicating as it was on her. She moaned and grabbed a hold of his shoulders, her back arching to get closer to him.
Knowing that he could turn her on made him feel powerful again. Capable, strong, sexy...
He moved lower down her body and gripped the waistband on the jeans. She raised her hips to allow him to lower the fabric down over her hips and thighs, then she let her knees drop to the sides, giving him full access to her body. He took a moment to just look at her...all of her. Exposed and vulnerable but still so confident. He’d never met anyone who balanced the dichotomy so perfectly. She was always so in control, so giving it up to him in that moment told him that this connection went further than just the physical. She trusted him, and damn, that was empowering.
His gaze met hers as he buried his face between her legs. She gasped, and her moan of pleasure made him throb as his lips met her opening. He kissed gently at first, giving her the same torturous pleasure she’d given him. Then he licked along the folds as he dipped a finger deep inside of her body. She tasted so good. He couldn’t remember ever feeling as insatiable as he licked and sucked and explored every inch of her with his tongue.
“Jesus, Eddie...”
Her back arched closer to him, demanding more instant relief, but he pressed a palm to her pelvis, holding her where he wanted her. He was in control now.
He put another finger inside as his tongue flicked against her clit...over and over, bringing her closer and closer to the edge.
Her hands flailed out around her body, looking for something to grab hold of, and finally her fingers buried into his hair, pressing his head into her body. “I’m so close.” Her legs shook at her sides, but he wasn’t about to let her come that fast. He moved his head away and removed his fingers from her body.
She moaned. “Fuck, Eddie...”
“You were planning on teasing me before, weren’t you?” he asked, licking the inside of her right thigh, then the left one.
Her breathing was labored as she fought to control the tremble of her body. “No. I’d never do that to you.”
He laughed as his lips moved higher, kissing along her inner thighs, along her pelvis, up her stomach and over the valley between her breasts. His cock pressed against her as his mouth found her right nipple. He circled it with his tongue, before taking it into his mouth. He bit gently, and her hands tangled in his hair. She pulled gently, and he bit a little harder.
She rocked her hips against him, desperate for friction. Any kind of release.
He moved to the left breast and continued to torture her with a combination of gentle sucking and little bites until he couldn’t take it anymore, either. He needed release, and he wanted to give her a mind-blowing orgasm.
Leaving another trail all over her body as he went, he returned his mouth to her opening. His hands pushed her thighs apart, his fingers digging deep into her flesh as he licked desperately at her clit, making her wetter and wetter.
“Eddie, please don’t stop this time. I’m too close.”
He had no intention of stopping this time. He quickened his actions, dipping two fingers back inside her body. He felt her clench around them as her entire body trembled beneath him. She moaned in pleasurable release, and her body slowly relaxed.
He raised his head to look at her, and the look of satiation on her beautiful, flushed face filled him with even more confidence. “Was that okay?” he asked, though he knew the answer. She couldn’t fake the way her body had convulsed around him.
“More than okay,” she said, sitting up and reversing their position. She straddled him and slid her hands beneath his T-shirt as she lowered her mouth to his. She kissed him hard and long, before moving away and shimmying lower.
When her mouth took his cock this time, he thought he might instantly explode, but she gently sucked and licked, keeping him so close to the edge to enjoy the sensations without it ending too fast. His dick throbbed at her touch, her eagerness to please, the way she lovingly pleasured him...
He felt himself spasm, and there was no holding it back any longer. “Montana, I’m coming,” he said.
She didn’t stop.
Eddie felt the waves of his orgasm crush him, almost drown him as he fought for a breath. Damn, it was incredible. She was incredible. His body trembled as the orgasm peaked, then gradually receded.
She lifted her head and smiled at him as she moved higher to cuddle into him on the living-room floor. “Was that okay?” she asked.
“It was perfect,” he said, holding her tight and kissing the top of her head.
She was perfect. And he was so screwed.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“CAN I SKYPE with Grandma and Grandpa to show them my Halloween costume?” Kaia asked as Montana returned from handing out candy at her apartment door a few weeks later.
Or rather, giving the kids in apartment 4C her stash of oversize chocolate bars because she hadn’t expected trick or treaters in an apartment building and was caught completely off guard when kids started knocking on the door that evening. She had two bars left and three cans of Diet Coke, then she was out. She’d head down to SnowTrek Tours and help Cassie give out candy there while Kaia was helping out at the Haunted Trail event.
“Um, sure,” she said. Should she give Kaia another heads-up that her parents weren’t exactly into the Halloween thing and they probably wouldn’t get the scary, realistic-looking zombie makeup job Cassie had helped her perfect? Maybe they’d pretend for Kaia’s sake.
A minute later, her mother’s blood-curdling scream could have come straight from a horror movie. Montana hurried over as Kaia tried to get her to calm down. “It’s okay, Grandma. It’s just makeup,” she said.
“Good heavens, why would you do that?”
Montana shot her daughter a Told you so look.
“It’s part of my Halloween costume,” Kaia said, standing to show them the ripped, blood-stained clothes.
“Halloween is tonight?” Montana heard her father ask.
“Yes, Grandpa. It’s October thirty-first every year,” Kaia said with a laugh. “Don’t you have trick or treaters?”
“We don’t answer the door to strangers—big or small,” he said.
Montana remembered hiding out in the basement of their house with her parents and sister on Halloween nights, watching movies, ignoring the ringing doorbell. Maybe it should have bothered her not to participate in the festivities like the other kids did, but she and Dani had popcorn and full-size candy bars and pop, and the family had their own fun evening together, so she really hadn’t felt like she was missing out on anything. They’d always been on the move, seeking out one new adventure after another, so the slower pace of that family movie night had been special.
“Who did that to your face? Your mother?” Montana’s mother asked, disapproval evident.
As if. Kaia genuinely looked like she’d just climbed out of a grave. Gray and purple makeup paled her complexion with a creepy undertone effect. Facial prosthetics cove
red in blood gave the look of gashes along her forehead and cheeks, and black eyeliner applied thick around her eyes completed the terrifying look. No number of YouTube tutorials would have helped Montana pull off something like this.
“No, my stepmom—I guess you could call her—Cassie, did it,” Kaia said. “Dad’s girlfriend.”
“Ahh,” came the reply on the screen.
Ah, the undecipherable ahh. Montana had never known exactly what that simple word meant when her mother said it, but it was never good. It was usually the response to something she was disappointed about or didn’t understand. When she didn’t want to start an argument or give a real opinion on an issue but she wanted Montana to know that she wasn’t completely on board with an idea.
Kaia’s excitement dampened, and Montana jumped in. “I think it looks so great. Super scary. And she did most of it herself, which is quite impressive, don’t you think?”
Come on, Mom and Dad. Take a hint.
She’d warned Kaia that this grandparenting thing was going to be new for them, and they would need some time to figure it out, but Montana hoped that her daughter could feel their love for her, despite not showing it in the most traditional of ways.
“Oh, yes, well, makeup artistry is a growing industry,” her father said.
There you go. Was that so hard?
Kaia beamed, and Montana continued with something she knew would appeal to her mother. “She offered to volunteer with a Haunted Trail event tonight. Proceeds go to the youth shelter in town.” Eleanor Banks had to approve of volunteer work, at least.
Her head bobbed up and down on the screen. “Yes, okay. Now, that makes more sense.”
“I still don’t love the idea of Halloween, though,” her father said. “It’s bad enough out there every other night of the year, but Halloween just gives teenagers an excuse to get into trouble.”
A Sweet Alaskan Fall Page 18