Chapter 21 That Heated Confrontation in Summer
That Heated Confrontation in Summer
Callan
Erin flicked the switch for the kettle, but getting a tea bag out of the canister was too much. The strings twisted, and a twirling mess of threaded bags lifted. She had no patience for it. The canister clattered against the tiles when she shoved it away.
She slumped against the wooden counter. “I can’t even make a cup of tea without it turning into a drama.”
“Hey,” I said. “Come here.” I coaxed her out of the corner she’d wedged herself into.
Erin’s footsteps inched closer, and I put my arms around her. A muffled “He’s never going away” came from the spot where she buried her face against my chest.
“No, I guess he’s not,” I said.
“You hate me.”
“Never.”
“You hate the situation.”
“I knew what I was getting myself into.”
“It’s only going to get worse.”
“Jeremy’s down here—what—a couple of days on some weekends? We’ll manage.”
Erin’s chin lifted, and she frowned at me. “Tell me how you really feel about all this. And be honest. You know I can tell when you’re lying, Cal.”
“Then watch me real carefully, okay?” I snuck a kiss to her forehead before letting her see my face again.
“Jeremy can go fuck himself. He talks down to me like I’m a moron.
Always has. Worse still, he treats you like garbage, and he’s always done that, too.
But I also know you have a kid together, and that means that no matter how much I hate him, I’ve got to step up and be the bigger man. I can do that. You’re worth it.”
“I’m really not…”
On whose scale? Not mine. “I love you.”
Erin’s eyes widened. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. You said it once before in the bathroom… I wasn’t sure…” She bit down on her lip.
“If I meant it?” Did she think I’d be less honest with my hand on my dick? Guess so. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”
“Are you upset I haven’t said it back?”
“Nope. Even if I hadn’t had a four-year head start, I know you like to take things slow, think everything over…” And I liked that about her. “You’ll tell me how you feel when you’re good and ready, and when you do, I’ll know you really mean it.”
Erin’s hand touched my cheek, fingertips running down the longest scar. “It’s easier to show people how I feel...”
“I like it when you send me messages.” I grinned down at her. “Even if I can’t always guess those bloody Unscrambles as quickly as you.”
“That’s all?”
“I like the way you make people feel special in little ways.”
“Anything else?”
I bent forward and whispered in her ear, “I like the way you’re touching me.”
“Yeah?” Erin bit back a smile. “This is enough?” Her hand wandered down my neck, her fingernails dragging over my skin. I shuddered. I couldn’t help it.
She liked teasing me, but I was just as good at making her knees weak. I captured her lips in a kiss. And another. My hand slipped over the curve of her ass, and I pulled her against me. I liked her best when she was close enough to feel the heat spike underneath her thin cotton T-shirt.
Gasps of air panted against my lips. “Til’s with Mim…” she murmured. “But I don’t think I’m ready for… for…”
The same hesitation paused my hand from drifting further down her waist. We both knew there was no going back once we fell into bed together.
Unexpected nerves tightened in my chest. Everything else about the relationship growing between us was so perfect.
What if I wasn’t what she hoped for in bed?
I’d lasted less than a minute the night I’d seen her naked.
She was going to be disappointed if our first time together was all over in two pumps.
With her under me, touching me, feeling her… I’d be lucky if it were two.
Erin was watching me closely again. She wanted me to be honest. It wasn’t my manliest confession, but if I could give her anything, it was the truth.
“Sleeping together is a big step,” I admitted. “I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared for that yet, either… But what about if…” My hand left her ass with a possessive squeeze. I tugged open the button of her jeans instead. “I can give you a little relief…”
“Yeah…”
I only just heard her sigh over the metal drag of the zipper sliding down. A hint of silky pink panties peeked out of the gap. “You’d like that?” I asked.
I thought Erin was going to stand there, acting all shy with her teeth buried in her bottom lip, but she shimmed her jeans down her hips.
Just enough. Yeah, she’d like it. I dusted kisses along her jaw as I stroked the bump hidden by silk.
I knew the speed, the pressure, she liked.
I’d done this so many times. Sighing, she wove her hand around my neck to hold on.
“Good?” I asked her.
“Yeah, but…” Her head tipped back, baring her neck to my mouth, while her free hand fumbled blindly for the counter. “I can’t…” She scrabbled to get a tighter hold of the wood. “I can’t get comfortable.”
“Want to try the bed?”
She bit her lip, uncertain, but nodded. She trusted me.
I scooped Erin up easily, and her legs locked around my hips as I carried her to the bedroom.
It wasn’t difficult to keep my lips on hers.
The cottage was tiny. Four, maybe five steps, and I tossed her on the bed, wasting no time to yank her jeans past her knees, over her ankles, scrunching them in my hand, and tossing them to land in a denim puddle on the floor.
I climbed over her, kissing her for just a second before dipping my hand low to trace my fingertips up her thighs, stopping at the elastic of her panties. The little pink bow at the top taunted me. I knew what was underneath.
“What if you let me use my mouth this time?” I probably should have said please, but I wasn’t in the mood for remembering my manners.
“You want to?” There was surprise in her voice.
I gave her a heated look. She had to feel how hard my cock poked her stomach. I tempted her a little more by rubbing my fingers over the silk. “You’ve got to say it’s okay.”
“Yeah…”
Good enough.
I didn’t bother taking Erin’s panties off.
I teased her with a few more strokes over her clit, and impatient, probably a bit too rough, I pushed the fabric to the side and dived down.
My shoulder was at one hell of an angle, and I was half falling off the bed, but I wasn’t stopping.
I buried my nose in the hair between her legs and lapped her pretty pink clit with my tongue.
She tasted out of this fucking world. Her desperate sighs only fueled the hunger in me to keep going… and going…
Thumps pounded on the cottage door so hard the old windows rattled.
“Erin!” Jeremy shouted. “I know you’re there!”
I gripped her thighs to stop her from jumping off the bed and shot a hot, dark look. “You want to sort him out?”
Erin’s head twisted on the pillow. I think that was a frustrated “no.” “I’m so close.” She wriggled on the sheets, her hips arching to push her pussy against my mouth.
Something almost like a growl vibrated in my chest. She was close, was she? Good. That idiot outside wouldn’t interrupt me from pleasuring my woman. I lapped my tongue along her clit and shuddered when her fingers laced in my hair.
She settled back on the pillows. “That feels so good.” Her hips rocked harder against my face.
More knocks pounded the door, louder this time. “Erin!”
“I’m… God!” Erin moaned a long, drawn-out sigh but called out, “I’m busy!”
I rumbled a dark chuckle against her skin.
“Are you…” Jeremy’s confused voice drifted in from outside. “Are you…”
“One”—Erin’s thighs crushed my ears—“minute!”
A minute? My tongue worked over her hot, slick skin, the deliberate strokes tempting a soft shiver to start rolling through her.
Heat gathered beneath my mouth. The taste…
Fuuuck. She’d be lucky if she lasted a couple of seconds.
Her legs trembled as she came, a long, desperate moan slipping out, only half-muffled by the pillow.
I heard her. I bet Jeremy heard her, too.
But his constant thumps on the door wouldn’t interrupt me.
I stayed close to Erin. She’d earned those slow kisses up her thighs and the murmurs of reassurance I barely realized I was saying.
I was woozy. Over the moon. I refused to rush her.
How could I when she lay sprawled on the bed, her chest rising on deep gulps of air?
I carefully rearranged her panties and found her jeans on the floor.
She was still smiling at the ceiling when I guided her feet into the denim, one leg at a time, to tug her jeans back up over her hips.
I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Good?”
She only managed a breathy “Cal…”
I chuckled. Almost speechless was the best compliment, I think. “Get rid of that idiot.” I patted her on the rump to shoo her off the bed. “And we’ll do it again.”
Erin slid off the mattress and bent over to peck a kiss on my cheek before she stumbled out of the room.
With a flick of her hand, her jeans buttoned up.
She didn’t bother smoothing her hair, but she turned to look at me over her shoulder.
Her cheeks were flushed hot pink. Then, her smile disappeared, and her footsteps padded along the hardwood floors.
The front lock clicked open.
“What?” she said.
“Hey.” Jeremy’s voice sounded thicker without his usual condescending drawl. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I just wanted to talk to you… You know… About what happened at the cafe…”
While he bumbled his way through another pathetic apology, I got off the bed.
I was harder than a rock. The taste of Erin was still sweet on my tongue.
Had I ever been so turned on going down on a woman before?
This was torture. I forced down a deep breath, unbuckled my belt, and adjusted myself enough not to embarrass her.
“Look, Jeremy, I’m not upset about dinner, okay?” Erin said. “I don’t want to do this right now. We can talk on the phone tomorrow if it’s about Matilda.”
The squeak of the door hinges closing was my cue to move. I wanted to get eyes on Jeremy to make sure he left.
“I’m so sorry.” He was still stumbling over words that were months too late.
“I know I shouldn’t have come. I told myself to give you space to deal with how I acted.
And then… when I heard you… Fuck, Erin. I know I lost it, but I can’t handle imagining that…
The idea of you and him… I know you’d never do that to me.
You said you could never sleep with anyone else so I know you could never be doing that with”—Jeremy must have heard my footsteps coming because his dark eyes were waiting when I cleared the bedroom—“him.”
“You again, huh?” I said, leaning my shoulder against the doorway. “When are you driving your sorry ass back to the city?”
The devastation painted on Jeremy’s face was like he’d been ripped apart from the inside out, but that vulnerability disappeared as quickly as it came. If I’d blinked, I would’ve missed it. His face contorted, his features twisting into an ugly sneer.
“Well, aren’t you just a little two-faced fucking liar?” Jeremy spat at Erin. “You think you can make me jealous by fucking him?”
I wasn’t putting up with him talking to her like that. I was already striding across the room, but Erin turned slightly and shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to start a fight. I gritted my teeth but stopped where I was and folded my arms. I’d trust her. My feet planted to the hardwood…for now.
Jeremy scoffed a laugh. “She’s got you on a leash.”
I cocked my chin, waiting. Was that the best he had?
Erin’s hand gripped the door tighter. “I’m not trying to make you jealous,” she said. “I’ve moved on. I don’t think about you, and I don’t want you here.”
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed.
“You heard her,” I said. “Time to go.”
“Or what?” he said. “You’re going disobey the little woman and come over here and hit me?”
“And waste a night in the lock-up for punching your stupid face instead of spending it with my girl? Sorry, mate. Not interested.” This time, Erin didn’t stop me when I stepped in to block the space between her and Jeremy. “But it is about time you got your ass off my land.”
Jeremy snorted. “Your land?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “Turn around and look to the horizon. That’s my land. And I don’t want your pointy-ass shoes touching one damn inch of it.”
“You really think she’s going to pick you?” He sneered. “You?”
I refused to let him see how much my heart sank. My greatest fear, and everyone kept voicing it. “Erin’s told you enough times she doesn’t want you here. Fuck off.”
“And if she wanted you, she had years to tell you,” he said. “She doesn’t.”
“You done?”
“You’re nothing but a revenge fuck.”
I put my hands on my hips and shook my head. Was she going to say something? Bloody hell. Anything? Was this hitting too close to home for her? Was that all I was to her?
“You’re easy,” Jeremy went on. “You’re convenient.” He smirked, first at me, then her. “I’m not angry, Erin. If this is what you think you need, do it. We’re even. I forgive you.” He saluted me. “Stand down, farmer. I’m removing myself from your land.”
Laughing, he stomped off the porch.
And still, Erin said nothing.