Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
The hayride was ridiculously fun. The wagon wasn’t too jammed, but there were a good twenty people seated on hay bales as they rode through the streets of Sutton’s Creek. Ackerman and Reba were there, too, sitting next to each other on a bale near Diana and Alex.
Ackerman had winked at her, and Diana grinned back. Then he put his arm around Reba, and that little woman blushed bright red. Colleen, resplendent in burnt orange, had joined the group in the wagon at the last minute, and she glared daggers at Ackerman’s back the whole way.
Diana thought, if she were Ackerman, she wouldn’t want to piss off a woman who communed with the spirits.
Especially not so close to Halloween. He turned around to talk to her from time to time, but she refused to engage.
Reba didn’t say much either, probably because she could feel her bestie’s ire. But she smiled a lot, so that was good.
Once the ride was over and they’d climbed down, Ackerman and Reba headed off toward the storytellers’ tent where there were live music and theatrical performances throughout the day.
Diana had attended one earlier because Violet Allen was in it and all the ladies had gone to watch.
Ethan had rolled in right as it started and put an arm around Paisley.
Diana watched them as much as she watched the kids.
It was sweet how much they loved each other. Beautiful.
The play was about the founding of Sutton’s Creek, and it was mercifully short. That’s because it featured a phalanx of adorable four- and five-year-olds pretending to be settlers. Kinda like a Thanksgiving play, but less pilgrim and more Little House on the Prairie. Without the prairie.
The adults shepherding the kids had looked harried throughout the adorably chaotic performance.
One little girl cried, a little boy had so much fun stomping and jumping on the small stage that it’d taken two adults to wrangle him off it so the rest of the kids could be heard above the clatter, and at least three kids forgot what they were supposed to say.
All in all, a most entertaining event. Violet hadn’t had a speaking part, so she’d done just fine with her best friend Lily Park at her side as they’d hooked arms and sang America the Beautiful at the end.
Apparently, Sutton’s Creek didn’t have a song of its own, which was probably just as well.
At least knowing the words to America the Beautiful would come in handy at sporting events and presidential inaugurations.
Not that a Sutton’s Creek song wouldn’t be awesome, but nobody had ever written one.
Diana walked through the town square with Alex, holding hands, and feeling like she was living some kind of small-town dream.
There were booths with crafts made by local artisans, and a couple of booths featuring artists from Angels Cove.
There was a library booth held jointly with the Angels Cove library, and Paisley was in it taking her turn.
Emma and Blaze had charge of Violet, who was currently engaged in petting a goat at the petting zoo.
She and Alex ran into Asher McCrae again, the former soldier Alex had talked to at the Dawg the other night. He seemed distracted when they spoke, and Alex looked concerned.
But Asher gave him a firm look and said, “All’s good. Swear it.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do. Promise.”
After that, they spent a bit more time at the festival and then retrieved her bags and took them to her apartment.
Alex caged her in at the island where he’d eaten her for dessert last night, and her pulse immediately spiked.
He dropped his mouth to her neck, inhaled her as he kissed a shivery trail along her skin.
Would she ever feel this way again when he was gone?
“Come home with me, Diana. Let’s get away from town and the noise outside, sit in the quiet of the country. Make love to the sounds of birds and crickets instead of music and voices and that damn tractor going up and down the street.”
She looped her arms around his neck. “I’ll go wherever you want if there’s more of this when we get there.”
He kissed her. “I can promise you, honey, I’ve got plenty to give you before I let you sleep tonight.
You’re turning into a bit of an addiction if I’m honest. The taste of you, the feel of you.
It’s a damned crime no man ever ate you before me, but you know what?
I’m just caveman enough to be happy about it. ”
Heat and want zipped through her veins, sizzled into her nerve endings. She’d never been anyone’s addiction before. “Well, I have to admit that I can’t imagine anyone else could have done it better. I’m glad you were my first.”
He searched her gaze. “You know what you’re worth now, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her heart aching. She didn’t want to think about being with anyone else, communicating her desires to anyone else. Just him.
He took a step back, and she felt the separation between their bodies keenly.
But he kept hold of her hand, tugging her away from the island.
“Go. Get what you need for the weekend,” he commanded, swatting her ass as she walked by.
“I need to get you naked as soon as possible, and then I need to feed you dinner so I can do it all again.”
Her body lit up with anticipation—at the promise of more to come and at the sweet sting of his hand against her bottom. Any other man, she’d have given him a piece of her mind. And quite possibly broken his wrist in the process.
But not Alex. His touch thrilled her. He thrilled her.
As she grabbed her weekender tote and started to fill it with clothing and toiletries, she told herself not to read too much into this thing between them.
It was sex, not love. He’d said she was an addiction, and he’d said whatever they had was more than simply a deception to get them into the militia.
It’d started out that way, but it had quickly overflowed the boundaries.
But that didn’t make it love. Not like what Ethan and Paisley had. Not like what any of them had. Alex’s teammates were all happily in love. It was a beautiful thing, and it showed with every interaction between them and the women.
This thing with her and Alex? It was fun, and it was satisfying in ways she’d never known.
But it wasn’t love. Even if she wanted it to be.
The water was warm, fragrant with apple-cinnamon bubble bath that she’d picked up at the festival. Diana sank down gingerly, wincing a little as she leaned back against the hard body behind her, settling into his arms and letting out her breath. He picked up her glass of wine and handed it to her.
She took it with a murmured “Thank you.”
He kissed the back of her neck, and a shiver rolled through her despite the warmth of the bath.
“That was fantastic,” he said against her skin. “Are sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, it was. And yes, I am.”
She turned her head and kissed him, her tongue tangling with his before she playfully nipped his bottom lip and sipped her wine. His hand glided up to her breast, toyed with a nipple. She sighed.
They’d barely gotten inside his house before they’d started ripping at each other’s clothing, leaving a trail all the way to the bedroom. He’d dropped between her legs, thrown her ankles over his shoulders, and licked her until she sobbed his name.
Then he’d flipped her over and taken her hard, tweaking her nipples, rubbing her clit, driving her to her limits. In a moment of sheer madness, she’d found herself asking him to spank her.
And, oh God, the way his hand stinging her flesh intensified every single sensation ricocheting through her. It was madness—and she’d loved it.
“That’s my good girl,” he’d growled, and she’d shattered. Just shattered around him, walls clamping down, body shuddering, every nerve ending on fire for him. He hadn’t lasted another minute before he rooted himself deep and came inside her.
They’d fallen asleep after that, drowsing for a couple of hours before he’d run the bath, poured in the bubbles from her shopping today—not enough, but it was the thought—poured wine, and carried her into the bathroom where the big clawfoot tub could hold them both.
He picked up a cold beer and drank. “I think it entirely possible I’m spent for the rest of the night,” he told her lazily. “May have to order a pizza.”
“Sounds good to me. Think they’ll deliver to the bathtub?”
“Even if they did, I wouldn’t let them. Nobody sees my woman naked but me.”
“And maybe her doctor.”
He laughed. “Smart ass. Maybe I need to spank you again.”
“Maybe so. But not today. Probably not tomorrow either, if I’m honest. It was… intense.”
“Damn, baby, I told you to tell me if it was too much.”
The concern in his voice. It swelled emotions inside her that had no business getting involved. “And I would have, but it wasn’t. I wanted it, and you gave me what I wanted. Another box checked, and another first.”
“I like being your first. Wish I was your first in everything—and, yeah, that’s a very outdated point of view. I acknowledge it, but I’m not apologizing for it.”
“And this is also an outdated point of view, but I’m glad I’m not your first. Because then you wouldn’t know what you’re doing as well as you do.”
“Valid.”
She ran her fingers up and down his wet forearm where it lay beside her. “What was your first time like?”
“Ah, well. You’re right. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no opportunity before I got to college, so I was an eighteen-year-old virgin. But girls wanted me, so I learned pretty fast.”
She could just imagine. A face and body like his, they’d have been throwing themselves at him.
“Was it at least romantic?”
“Nope. It was a bit of an orgy. Very unromantic. But for a teenage boy? Heaven.”