Fowl Play (Tuft Swallow)

36. Brian

CHAPTER 36

My gaze scrapes up Kodi’s body one last time before I follow her instructions.

Her toned, muscular legs, including her swollen knee, tangled in my duvet. That fucking denim miniskirt wrinkled up to the crease of her hips; the slight peek of magenta panties barely visible underneath it. Her fluorescent tank top, hem pushed up to her ribcage and rising and falling swiftly with each of her hurried breaths.

My eyes trace the curved line of her gorgeous tits up to the flushed skin of her chest, the delicate outline of her collarbone, her slender neck, all the way up to her perfect, pouting lips that have just begged me to shove my cock between them.

Never has another human turned me on to this degree. Made me feel so strong and manly while being so weak to their desire. I just carried this woman up the stairs, tackled her on my bed, and yet she’s the one giving me orders to straddle her and fuck her mouth. Because she wants it.

Just the thought has my balls twitching with the urge to paint her with my cum.

Fuck, I’ve never even thought something like that before.

But the challenge in her eyes, that goddamn teasing sparkle I’ve gotten so used to from her, and those perfect, kiss-swollen lips…

Just as I think that, her tongue darts out and licks the plush heaven of her lower lip, and I lose it. My arms fall to the top of the headboard behind her, and I hover with my hips just in front of her face. Her head tilts up to meet my gaze, and I hold back a groan as her breath ghosts over my twitching cock.

“Is this what you want, baby girl?”

I never called a woman that in my life before her. Those words had never even crossed my mind until I saw that goddamn hot pink vibrator in her bathroom.

“Give it to me.”

And with my eyes still glued to hers, I pump my hips forward. The second I feel her lips part around the crown of my head, my eyelids drift closed. I let out a strangled cry.

“Fuck, Kodi?—”

And then I feel her teeth. My eyes snap open, and she’s staring daggers at me. She can’t speak with my dick filling her mouth, but her expression carries a warning.

Don’t call me that.

“Baby girl,” I correct, and her eyes flare. “That mouth of yours…”

She hums in approval, vibrating around me, and her tongue and cheeks replace the threat of her bite. I shudder, pure electricity sparking at every point of contact between her hot, wet mouth and my rock-hard cock, traveling up my entire body and filling my chest with heat. Any plans to go easy, to hold back in an attempt to protect her, fly out the window.

She’s not my patient anymore.

She’s just mine.

I thrust again and again and again into her face, and with every jerk of my hips I hear her sloppy breathing around me. Her lips smack open with an audible pop each time, and the sound alone is so ridiculously erotic and lewd it makes my legs tighten from holding back a premature release.

Then her arms wrap around me, and her fingernails dig into the cheeks of my ass. I groan, nestling my cock inside the heat of her perfect mouth, feeling her hollow her cheeks against me as she pulls her hands apart.

Where the fuck did she learn that?

My arms go weak, and I bow forward over her. I’m twitching, so close to losing it that if I don’t pull out soon she’s going to choke on my cum. I gasp out a breath.

“Baby girl–let me, I’m gonna–”

“Mmm-hmm,” she hums her assent, nodding her head a little and waggling her tongue along the bottom ridge of my shaft.

“Ugh–fuck!” I grunt, the tugging in my stomach finally snapping, the stars behind my eyes bursting as waves of ecstasy ripple through me, and my release explodes into her hungry mouth.

I hear the note of surprise in her moan at the thick jets shooting with each jerk of my hips, and the sexy little minx fucking sucks harder.

“Jesus, baby girl! You’ve got my–cock in a–death grip!” I choke out the words with every thrust, losing all control as she wraps her tongue around me, lapping up every last drop I give her.

Finally, I sag against the headboard, my muscles unclenching, and the first thing I feel is her fingers kneading the flesh of my ass. I cough out a laugh at her gentle massage, but then my breath hitches in sweet agony as her lips nip up and down my softening cock.

She finally opens her mouth, inhaling deeply, and I slump further down her body as she releases me. She opens her legs, and I thread myself between them, lying prone over her stunning body.

I prop myself on my elbows, resting my forehead on her shoulder, catching my breath.

“Where the fuck did that come from?”

“I wanted you to come,” she says simply, running her nails gently up and down my sides. “You’ve given me so much. I wanted to–no, I needed–to give you something back.”

I rear up at that, meeting her eyes and frowning at her. “What?”

“What we have…the scales were out of balance. I owed you.”

I scoot back, unentangling myself from her and rolling to my side so I can face her more easily. “Kodi—you don’t owe me anything.”

“That’s not our deal,” she argues, attempting to get up off the bed, but I grab her wrist to stop her. She pauses, looks at her leg, and settles for simply turning on her side as well, her injured knee resting atop the other one. When I release her arm, she continues. “I’m supposed to be helping you with your software and getting customers, but you’ve hardly needed me for that the past couple weeks. And you’ve been without Zeke for almost a month now, so I’m sure…”

My frown has only been deepening the entire time she’s been explaining her reasoning. The high of the moment we just had fading with every word.

Was that–was this–all to pay me back for her adjustments? Is that what she’s trying to say? That us being together like this had more to do with her paying me back for treatment than her actually wanting to be together?

“This,” I gesture in between us with my hand, “is payment to you?”

“What? No!” Kodi blushes furiously, waving her hands at my question. And for a moment, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Of course not. I didn’t mean that. I only meant that…you’ve been giving me a lot lately. Between my knee, and last week when you–well, when you spent the night–”

My hackles rise again. “I wanted to spend the night.”

“I know, I know. It had been ages since we’d been seen together and it looked good for the whole image we’re going for, but I still felt like I got the better end of that deal.”

I blink at her.

I have to be misunderstanding her. Granted, my mind isn’t always the clearest immediately post-orgasm, but it sounds like Kodi’s trying to imply that I only went down on her last week in an attempt to keep up appearances.

Appearances that, since I first realized I was genuinely attracted to her, I couldn’t care less about.

“Wait a minute, here. I want to make sure I’m hearing this right.” I reach for her hand and weave my fingers through hers, then stare into her eyes. She blinks, and I can tell she’s uncomfortable keeping eye contact, but I hold her gaze all the same. “You think last week was about me trying to convince a couple of Tit Peepers that we were dating? Honey, unless you called the fucking press, I don’t see how me making you come in the privacy of your own apartment does anything to convince anyone of our relationship status.”

Her eyes fall to the pillow, and she pulls her hand away. “Oh come on, Brian, you spent the night and we had breakfast the next day. We were all over the Pecker the next morning.”

“And I had nothing to do with that!”

I sit up straight, shaking my head as my heart sinks into my stomach. What is going on here? Why is she pulling away from me right now?

Did I read this whole thing wrong? Again?

“Whether you did or not, now you’re deep in the middle of all my family drama. You’re golfing with my dad in a week!”

“So what? Do you not want that?” I rub my face with my hands, waiting for her to explain.

And just like that, it’s like a window shade closes over her eyes. The want, the need, the hurt, the vulnerability that she showed me not twenty minutes ago downstairs in my office disappears, and her walls are back up. She opens her mouth to speak, but I clamp my hand over her perfect lips.

“Don’t do this, baby girl. Don’t convince yourself that there isn’t something here. Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t do it to me.”

Her eyes widen, and I use my leverage to roll us so I’m once again on top of her. I stare down at her, pleading with everything in me that she hears–really hears–what I’ve been too nervous to say until now.

I know it’s risky to throw this out on the line. For me, her doctor, to tell her that I have feelings for her, completely separate from our ploy to trick Tuft Swallow into accepting me. This isn’t about winning over the townspeople, or expanding my business, or winning back my ex.

Who, honestly, never deserved me in the first place.

And I never would have realized that if it weren’t for the woman in my arms.

This woman here, in my bed? She is what this is all about. It’s about helping her learn to trust in her body again. It’s about seeing her journey, watching her recover, and most importantly, seeing her open up and share her true self and dreams. With me.

It may have started out as some kind of scheme or ploy, but somewhere along the line I got to know the real Kodi Gander. The one she hides behind her competitive attitude and disaffected politeness around town. The Tuft Swallow Ice Queen, who somehow managed to thaw in my arms, until all that remained was this beautiful, intelligent, and funny woman.

“This isn’t just an act to me anymore, baby girl. It may have started out that way, but somewhere along the line, I started believing it. I’m not pretending to want you. I’m not spending the night at your place or kissing those perfect, goddamn lips of yours to keep up appearances. I’m doing it because I want to. Because I want you.”

Tears start to gather and collect along the dark eyelashes sweeping against her cheeks, and I wipe them away with my thumbs. But she doesn’t look away. Her beautiful brown eyes are locked onto mine, and I want nothing more than to sink into them. To see them crinkle with a smile when I tease her, or swell with pride when she’s finally able to run again.

“And if I have to embarrass the hell out of myself on the golf course with your dad to prove to you that I mean this, then so be it.”

A smile stretches her wet cheeks and she chuckles, and I swear the sound gives my heart wings.

“You are really bad at golf,” she admits.

“I might be the worst ever.”

“Like, it’s almost impressive. I mean, how can someone who’s so good at so many things, just suck so hard at–”

I don’t hear whatever else she wants to say, because I’m kissing her. My lips are nipping and tugging and exploring her open mouth, my tongue darting in and out of her, catching the salty tears that escaped down to the corner of her mouth and kissing away each and every one.

And then she’s kissing me back, rolling her neck to allow me to delve deeper, our mouths tangling faster and harder until she pulls away with a gasp.

“What about Zeke?” She huffs.

“Fuck Zeke.”

Her eyes blow wide. She starts to speak, but I press a finger to her lips.

“He hurt me, yes. And there was a time where I thought I loved him. But you…” I drift off, my gaze searching her fiery amber eyes for the words I’m trying to say. “I’ve been guilty in the past of jumping into things too soon with my relationships. I’ll admit it. But I’ve never–never–felt the kind of things with any of them that I do with you.”

Her lids flutter half-closed, and the result is such a sultry look that it makes me want to stop talking altogether. I stroke my fingers from her lips to her cheeks to her scalp, threading them into the tangled mass of her sex hair. And then I sink to that delectable hollow of her collarbone, and press more kisses against her freckles.

“It’s not nothing to me either,” she gasps. “This. What’s between us. I don’t know when it happened, but?—”

“I know.”

“It’s different.”

I nod into her shoulder. “It is.”

Her body, which I hadn’t realized until that moment had been tense as it held onto mine like a koala, relaxes at her confession, and she sinks further into the bed.

I kiss her nose lightly, smiling when I feel it wrinkle in response.

She admitted it. It’s not just an act. She feels the same way I do.

“Alright, alright, we’re getting a little cheesy now.” She tries to push me off of her, but I squeeze her tighter. Then I get off of the bed, pointing back at her with a strong finger.

“Stay right there,” I say. “Don’t you dare move.”