by Kat Ransom
“Ms. Mitchell, are you suggesting there’s a method to my madness?” He smiles and throws more popcorn at the screen and I flinch in reflex, which just makes him smile more.
“I’m surprised you didn’t call me Mrs. Gibbes,” I tease him.
“I will one day,” he says.
“So arrogant,” I shake my head at him. He’s irresistible when he’s in these moods, which are more like his daily personality now. They’re not just flashes of the man I’d only get to see sneak peeks of from time to time.
“Nope, confident. It’s inevitable, Mallory. Told you that in Bahrain.” He grins from ear to ear chewing his popcorn. He’s quite pleased with himself tonight.
Stupid sexy asshole.
“Watch the movie,” I roll my eyes at him and bite my cheek to keep from smiling.
Going back to IT—and trying to focus on the movie, not Lennox who’s making a show of licking his fingers—all the kids from The Losers Club are in the street. Ben says he thought they wanted to get out of this town, too. And Beverly, arguably the best character, the girl bullied over rumors of promiscuity, argues, “I want to run toward something, not away.”
I need to write Mr. Stephen King a thank you note.
Thirty Three
Lennox
Most of the house is done now. Just some small finishing touches left to finish. I had hoped Mallory would be home by the time it was ready to furnish so she could decorate it however she wants. I’d just have helmets and trophies scattered about if left to my own devices. I’ll start feeling her out to get hints on furniture. I’d rather be over-prepared.
She didn’t answer my call this morning. Maybe she was asleep or out with her friends or her brother. Or working with Maxwell Cooper. Whatever she’s doing, I trust her. Hopefully, she’ll call tonight, or better yet, FaceTime me so I can see her beautiful smile. She smiles at me again, these days.
I need to get this new interior door I stained finished and hung and then head into town to ship out today’s package to Mallory: a stuffed Loch Ness monster, a book about hunting Nessie, and some brochures for tours I promise to take her on when she comes home. I’m pretty sure they’ll deport me from Scotland for participating in that tourist bullshit, but she’s been teasing me about bloody Nessie for six months. So a-Nessie-hunting we will go. When she comes home.
And she will.
I have the rest of my life to keep this up, to earn her trust back and prove I’m not an asshole or a monster. That I’ll never hurt her again. Patience has never been a strong suit and every day I have to stop myself from flying to New York and dragging her home, but it has to be her choice. When she comes back to me, wherever in the world that is, I want all of her with me. Not just pieces because she’s afraid to give me everything. I can’t live with her holding herself back from me. Every day is a workout to be the man she wants to come home to, one day.
A green light is flashing on the far wall of the garage and I walk over to investigate. Ah, just the wall charger blinking to say she’s full up. I hate this bloody Tesla. I have no idea how to work on it, there’s nothing to tinker with. It’s not natural, though I’ll admit that Marvin Gaye Mode is pretty cool. The bloody thing starts playing love songs while a fireplace video crackles on the huge computer screen. Ridiculous. But it’s safe, it parks itself, can drive itself, and has all kinds of heads-up alert systems to prevent bad drivers from doing bad things. I’ve only driven it a little to set it up for her. I want it to still have the new car smell when she gets home.
Turns out, I didn’t need to cool it on buying the supercars, but instead I bought Mallory a Tesla. My contract with Celeritas is pretty much null and void now after the world of shit they’re in. Administrators are saying the whole company will be sold off, hopefully intact to a new team who can take over. Pretty much all of the executive staff was let go after HR documents came out about all the sleazy things Digby had been up to, harassing staff, inappropriate touching, and unwanted advances.
What a prick.
Authorities finally caught up with him, he failed all the drug tests, like all of them. He’ll never drive again. Last I heard he was on house arrest in Monaco. I told Jack I don’t want to hear the salacious gossip anymore, though. Don’t ever put me in the same room as DuPont and expect me to not bury him in a shallow grave for what he put Mallory through, but that shit is otherwise done. Over.
Moving on to better things.
The power drill drives in the last screw of the new door hinge when a god awful noise sneaks into the garage. Sounds like down the road someone is grinding the shit out of the gears of their transmission. The clutch is slipping and sputtering, metal is rubbing together, gears being ground down to shavings. Christ, it makes my blood run cold. I wonder if Mrs. MacDonald, the mail lady, is having trouble with the post truck.
I set the drill down and walk out of the garage, down the gravel drive and toward the street. When my drive gate comes into view, there’s a small red car coming up the drive. No idea who this is, paparazzi or fans have never shown up here. It’s too bloody remote for the paps to warrant making 50 pounds on a boring photo of grass and trees, and the locals have always respected my privacy and played stupid when anyone asks how to find my house.
But, this car isn’t slowing down as it nears the gate. No, it keeps its ambling speed with no signs of stopping. I pick up a jog and when I’m about ten yards away, the car runs right into the damn gate. The engine sputters out and the car lurches forward in one final death throe as the clutch is let out. “What the fuck?” I yell and jog faster.
The car door opens as I reach the gate.
Mallory.
Her head pops out of the car, gorgeous chestnut hair with bits of honey woven throughout catching the sun. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry! It’s a stick shift! That’s all the rental place…”
Those are all the words she can get out before my lips meet hers and silence her complaints of the rental car. Both of my hands on her head, my fingers in her hair, I bring my head down to hers and she stands on her toes to meet me in the middle.
Soft, full lips and a hint of cinnamon meet my tongue, dancing, probing, communicating so many words of desperation, relief, adoration. She makes a tiny moan and her body softens into mine, her hands around my neck pulling me into her more. Fuck, the noises she makes, the little moans and noises, the way her body goes limp and she gives herself to me—it undoes me.
She pushes her body into mine and every muscle comes alive and she reminds my body of what she felt like pressed up against me. Our mouths still frantic at one another, I start to move her out of the open door of the car and press her against the rear door so I can feel more of her, harder up against me, I need to feel everything.
Shit.
“Are you ok?” I pull back and run my hands up and down her arms, her face her head. I don’t see anything hurt and she was going pretty slow, but…
She launches herself back at me gripping at my shoulders, fingers digging into my neck, then clutching my hair as her tongue moves past my lips and into my eager mouth. Coherent thoughts are gone, replaced with fire, the heat of an inferno combusting through my veins. She pushes her hips into me and her left leg starts to lift over my thigh. I grab it behind her knee and press her hard into the side of the rental car.
The tips of my fingers are buzzing with electric current feeling every detail of her skin. The memory of her taste and that sweet jasmine smell makes neurons fire in my brain that had been asleep for weeks. “Lennox,” she pants when she lifts her mouth away an inch for oxygen, the whisper of her breathe passing my lips.
Taking her head in my hands and searching her eyes, those hazel orbs alight and dancing back and forth as she searches my own, I whisper her name, “Mallory.” She’s so fucking beautiful. Is she really here, is she back, is she mine? “Are you…” I have to know, I have to know now what this means for her, her coming here, these kisses, the way she’s looking at me.
“I’m home,”
she whimpers, her eyes locked with mine.
Everything in my body that’s been under lock and key explodes, overwhelming relief, ecstasy, joy, love, it all floods my being as I smash my mouth into hers again. I bend down and wrap an arm under that perfect round ass and pull her up, her legs wrap around my waist and I slam us hard into the car. She rocks her hips into me and I feel her heat radiate into me.
“I love you so fucking much,” I groan into her neck as I run my tongue from the base of her neck to her ear, reveling in her taste.
“Show me,” she whines.
I turn us and start carrying her back up the drive. I’ll show her, show her how much I love her, now and for the rest of my bloody life. Her mouth is on my neck sending shivers up my spine.
“You’re squeezing the life of out me,” she giggles into my neck, and I realize how tight my arms are wrapped around her.
“Aye, you realize there’s no escape now, I’ll never let you leave.” Never. Never will I let her go.
She’s writhing against me, licking and sucking my neck as I carry her past the garage toward the house. “Mm, Lennox, now,” she points to the garage, the nearest structure.
Jesus fuck, the idea of making love to her in the bloody garage is my teenage fantasy come true. May as well do this right, I carry her to the hood of her new car and set her down, lean her back and kiss the ever-loving hell out of her. She leans her hands back onto the hood and arches her back.
“What is this?” She realizes the new addition to the stable amongst the other cars. “Did you? You seriously bought a Tesla?” she laughs. Her face is so alive, her smile lights me up and that laugh will warm me on the coldest of nights.
“Have you seen our gate?” I tease her and point in the direction. “Yes, you need this dumb vehicle.”
“I need you,” she clutches my shirt and pulls me back down to her. Her words make me swell with pride. They push out all the fears and darkness.
She tears the shirt off over my head as my fingers work her button and zipper down. She kicks her shoes off and I push everything past her hips, down her smooth, toned legs and rip it all off over her feet.
I savor the taste of her skin up her legs, her inner thighs, the curve of her hips, her stomach that’s rising and falling with desperate breaths. She pulls her shirt over her head and those soft, perfect breasts are mine again. Rosy round nipples turn to peaks under my fingers and tongue again. She says she’s the one who’s come home, but this is my home.
I kiss my way back down her body breathing in her intoxicating scent, my mouth salivating as I’m about to taste her but her fingers in my hair are pulling me back up. “Need you up here,” she whines.
“Mmm,” I groan into her flesh, “I want to take my time, savor you.”
“We have the rest of our lives, I need you inside of me.”
Fuck, I love this woman.
I take one long swipe of my tongue through her folds and growl as I move back up and cover her body. I kiss her and she moans as she tastes herself on my lips and pulls my cock out of my pants, her warm fingers gripping me tight. I’m so goddamn hard and throbbing, I need her like the air I breathe.
Her hand grabs my ass and grips my jeans, pulling me into her. Her hips rise toward me with urgency and I line myself up and slide into her slick heat in one smooth thrust. Mallory clutches me, her back arches and those perfect tits reach for me while sweet moans and whimpers fill my ears. “Oh, fuck,” I groan into her, so wet I slide fluidly in and out, so tight wrapped around me I can feel every clench of her walls.
Her skin squeaks against the hood of the car every time I rock into her and her pelvis rises up to meet mine. I swivel my hips while deep inside of her and cover her length with my body, hold her tight inside my arms. I can’t get deep enough inside of her. I can’t hold her tight enough against my heart. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to get closer and deeper into her.
“Love you so mmm…” I try telling her again but her fingers are clawing my hair out and she crashes her mouth into mine rendering me speechless as she whines and pants around my lips.
I can feel her heart pounding in her chest when her wet core tightens around my shaft and starts spasming. Her nails dig into my back and I hiss, grinding deeper and harder into her. She arches and her cries grow louder, her body tensing up around mine, “Oh god, Lennox, yes, fuck, come with me!”
Watching her face twist and distort in pleasure, her gorgeous naked body before me, hearing her scream my name in ecstasy, feeling so full of pride to make her feel good, a volcano rumbles inside me and I thrust. I hold myself inside her tight walls as a flood of lava erupts and fills her. “Fuck!” I roar as she continues to spasm around me, wiggling her hips riding out aftershocks as I collapse against her soft tits.
Our breathing is still sporadic and her fingers are running through my hair when she giggles, “Holy shit I missed you.”
“Mmm, Dick-on-Demand was in danger of going out of business there, for a while,” I mumble into her warm mounds.
“Never,” she laughs, my head rising and falling with her chest.
Blissful moments pass even though the hood of this car is not the most comfortable place. Elon Musk should work on that. I take Mallory’s head in my hand and look in her eyes, kiss her lips softly. “I’m so in love with you, Mal. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn your love, please know that.”
“You idiot,” the corners of her eyes crinkle and she smiles, rubbing her fingers through the stubble along my jaw that’s gotten quite long in my laziness. “Where’s my phone? I think it’s in my pants.”
She grunts and points to her pants flung on the floor. I groan at the loss of her skin pressed up around mine but I sit up and reach for the pants before settling down again on my back and handing them to her.
She pulls her phone out of her pant pocket and starts swiping through it. I grumble at her and the bloody phone, but keep my mouth shut as I’ve been working on. She snuggles into the side of me and hands me the phone, “Here.”
She has the messaging app pulled up. There’s lots of messages in green instead of blue, red exclamation points next to them, message not delivered. “What is this?”
“Read,” she taps the screen with a fingernail.
Lennox, I love you. I love you so much. You stupid asshole I’m fucking in love with you.
“You… love me?” I lower the phone and turn my head to look at her. Her full lips are curled up, her eyes soft and happy, her face flush with contentment.
She holds my face in one hand and caresses a feather-light kiss across my lips. “I’ve always loved you, Lennox Gibbes.”
I capture her in my arms and drag her onto me, kissing her with every ounce of passion from deep within as her long hair cascades over my shoulders.
“That’s what you get for blocking me,” she giggles and bites my lip.
Epilogue
“If you need a light, I’ll be the match to your candle. My darlin’ I’m ready to burst into flames for you.” - Vance Joy, ‘I’m with You’
Fourteen Months Later
Mallory
The trees are rich oranges and auburn and the gentle breeze making leaves dance in the grass is crisp on my skin, but the fire keeps me cozy. Surrounding the fire pit that we use more nights than not, when we’re home, are now deep wooden benches so we can sit together.
Pumpkins and a few carved turnips line the stone border wall. My second year attempting to carve a turnip didn’t end up much better than the first. Mine look like rats gnawed through them versus the little intricate faces hollowed out of Lennox, Jack, and Matty’s turnips.
That’s ok. I know when I’ve been bested and they can win the turnip battle.
“Warm enough?” Lennox has an arm around me and snuggles me closer into his warm chest.
I’m plenty toasty but I lean into him anyway, let the smell of his woodsy cologne mix with the scent of the fire and the ocean. “Mmmhmmm,” I nuzzle him and run my hand
up his muscular thigh.
“Mallory,” his fingers thread through my hair and he warns me, “don’t rub the lamp if you don’t want the genie to come out.”
I silently chuckle at the ridiculous things he still finds to say to me every day, all the ways he makes me laugh. “Does the genie grant me three wishes if he does come out?” I look up at his green eyes dancing, reflecting the light of the fire.
His warm hand comes to my face and his thumb traces my jaw, “There’s no limit on the wishes I’ll grant you.”
God, I love this man.
This castle on the island is our sanctuary but home is wherever he is. We find a way to keep home with us no matter where in the world we are. And when we are back on the Isle of Skye, the time spent here is extra special. Our home is full, not just with furnishings now, but with Aria who has become a frequent flyer, Matty and Jack, Mum and Pop, Bram who is graduating soon, old karting friends Lennox has reconnected with, and new local friends I’ve made. My sister is a lost cause, but Cody’s been here a few times for the holidays and we’re closer than ever.
“We should get started,” Lennox gives me a quick kiss, “I’d like to take the bike out one more time this year.”
“I’d like that,” I smile into his lips looking forward to another afternoon with him along the coastline. Pods of minke and orca whales are frequent this time of year, coming in closer to feed. More than that, it’s just the comfortable quiet time with Lennox, letting everything slip away and letting him guide me wherever we’re going, knowing he always has me.
I feel his hand slip into my pocket and he pulls my phone out, turns on the voice recorder, and smirks. I know he’s about to make another joke about me throwing my phone into the fire the last time we tried this.
“Yes, haha, Mr. Gibbes,” I roll my eyes and pull my legs up underneath me on the bench so I can sit facing him.