Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Holiday
Something about the way he kissed me, the way the pads of his fingers pressed into my skin like he was afraid I’d disappear into thin air . . . it all built up inside of me, like a thread coiling tighter and tighter, desperately close to snapping.
There was an urgency to the way he’d just kissed me.
Like he couldn’t have stopped himself even if the wellbeing of the planet was at stake.
There was something thrilling about having that kind of effect on a man like Tanner Fine.
A man who could more than likely have anyone he wanted.
Supermodels, actresses . . . but it was this small-town bookshop owner who brought him to his knees.
It was more than that, though. None of the men I dated in the past ever made me feel so desired. So . . . needed. It was like I was air to Tanner, and I was quickly starting to feel the same about him.
Tugging my bottom lip, I looked up at him from beneath my lashes. “Do you want to come in?”
“I’d love very much to come in.”
My yelp ricochetted off the walls, quickly turning into a fit of giggles when Tanner lunged for me and scooped me up.
He moved so much faster than I expected a man his size to move and I had to wrap my arms and legs around him to keep steady.
He marched right into my apartment, kicking the door shut with a resounding bang.
That sound might as well have been a gun blast signaling the start of a race, because it set off something in both of us that was downright primal.
Sex with Tanner was different, and not only because it was so much better.
Something was different in me. There was no hesitation or inhibitions.
Sex with Tanner made me feel free. He made me feel safe enough to take what I wanted.
And what I wanted in that very moment was him.
I sealed my mouth to his neck, something inside of me dying to leave a mark on him. Something that I could look at and have the fond reminder of how it got there.
“Fuck, you’re wild tonight,” he hissed out as I fisted his hair and jerked his head back so I could get to his mouth. Tanner kept pace with me every step of the way, moving through my tiny apartment to the bedroom.
We managed to break apart long enough for him to strip us both naked, then he gave me a gentle shove and followed me onto the mattress.
I felt like I was burning from the inside out as his weight pressed me deeper into the bed.
My core throbbed, the emptiness creating an ache that was driving me out of my mind.
I couldn’t remember ever feeling so needy. So alive.
“I want you,” Tanner panted as he peppered the skin of my throat and collarbones. “Christ, I can’t stop wanting you.”
A thrill ran through me at those words, sending a flood of arousal between my thighs. “Yes. Please.” I writhed beneath him, my desperation growing so intense I felt like it could consume me at any second.
“Mm,” he hummed wantonly as he cupped my breast in his large hand. “Does my good girl need something?”
God, I loved it when he talked like that.
Arching my neck, I drove my head deeper into the pillows as I wrapped my legs around his trim hips, digging my heels into his firm, round ass to try and get him closer. “I need you,” I admitted without hesitation. “Please, Tanner.”
Something moved over his features that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He looked euphoric and agonized at the same time. “Baby.” That one word sounded like it was being ripped from him. “Can I take you bare?”
“What?” I asked, my brain too hazy to fully comprehend what he’d just asked.
“Tell me I can have you bare.”
My brows pulled together. “But, you’ve already . . .”
“That first time was accidental. The heat of the moment. I don’t want to do that with you. I want you to tell me it’s okay.” He squeezed his eyes closed, his forehead against mine. “Tell me I can feel you with nothing between us.”
“Tanner,” I breathed, my heart feeling like it was about to beat out of my chest. “I want you to fuck me. Nothing between us. I want to feel just you.” Before he could respond or react, I decided to take what I wanted.
Reaching between our bodies, I wrapped my fist around Tanner’s cock, giving it a squeeze before guiding it right where I needed it to be.
“Ah, fuck,” he said on a heavy gust, his breath fanning the hair around my temples and forehead. As soon as I notched the head of his cock into place, he started pushing inside me, stealing the breath right out of my lungs. “Is this what my good girl needs?”
“Yes,” I hissed out, my eyes nearly rolling back in my head at the delicious stretch as he sank deeper and deeper. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to his size—at least not in whatever amount of time we had before he went back home.
“Fucking hell.” His lips curled back from his teeth on a hissed breath.
“Nothing’s ever felt as good as you.” He pulled out and slammed back in as if to punctuate his point.
My back arched at the power of this thrust, a moan of pleasure ripping from my throat.
“Yes!” I cried out. “Just like that, Tanner. Don’t stop.
” I fisted the covers beneath me so tightly it was a wonder I didn’t tear it to shreds.
Tanner felt like perfection. It had never been this good.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, I locked my ankles behind his back and held on as tight as I could.
He fucked me at a pace that was almost brutal, his hips slamming against mine hard enough I wondered if it would leave bruises. And why did that idea turn me on so damn much?
“Your cunt’s like a glove, baby.” He panted out the words, his breathing becoming labored as he used my body like he was exorcizing something inside him, and I was the only thing that could help. “You have the prettiest fucking pussy. Has anyone ever told you that, Sunshine?”
I shook my head, my heart in my throat as everything inside of me began to tighten. Pressure built inside of me so intense I didn’t know if I should be scared or bask in it. “No.”
“Fucking idiots,” he gritted out as a sheen of sweat built across his forehead.
With one hand braced in the pillows beside my head, he reached up with the other and gripped the top of the headboard, using it as leverage to pound into me even harder, his pace relentless.
“Didn’t know what they had. But I know. I know, baby. I’ll tell you every goddamn day.”
“Oh, god, Tanner.” My eyes widened as that coil inside me twisted tighter and tighter.
“You’ve got the most beautiful pussy. Fucking made.
For. Me.” Each word was punctuated by a thrust. On the last one, he planted himself as deep as he could go and rolled his hips in a circle, grinding against my clit.
That was all it took to set me off. I came on a shout of his name and a whole slew of other unintelligible words
“Ah, fuck!” Tanner barked as I clamped down around him.
Tanner moved, resting back on his haunches and pulled me close so I was still stretched out across the bed, but my hips were in his lap.
“Hold on, baby.” I did as he instructed, raising my arms over my head and locking my fingers around the headboard as he drove into me, over and over, each punishing thrust shaking my body and the bed.
“Gonna come so goddamn hard. That’s what you do to me.
” A second later, he swelled inside me, buried deep, and came on a feral shout.
I felt each spurt as he came inside me unobstructed.
Each twitch of his cock inside me as he emptied himself set off a wave of flutters, over and over until I felt like a raw nerve.
“Oh my god,” I panted once I was able to pull air into my lungs and form words. “That was . . . oh my god.” That was the best I could do. “I think you just fucked me stupid, baby.”
Tanner chuckled, the sound hoarser and gravellier than before. “Jesus, just look at you.” His pupils were blown, the black swallowing up all that warm amber as his gaze dragged over my body.
“I look like a mess.” But I couldn’t be bothered to move. I was pretty sure my limbs wouldn’t cooperate if I tried.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not a mess.”
I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth. “Then how do I look?”
His eyes drilled into me, like he was seeing so much more than what he should have. “You look like mine,” he rasped. Those four words sent a shiver through me and made my heart turn over in my chest.
His eyes traveled down to where we were still connected, something shifting over his features that turned the blood in my veins to lava.
He shifted his hips, his cock slipping out of me and forcing a stuttered gasp into my lungs.
My legs moved instinctively, my knees trying to close together, but Tanner brought his hands to my knees to stop me.
“Don’t close yourself off from me,” he said softly.
I curled my lips between my teeth and loosened my muscles, allowing him to spread my legs wide once again.
I could feel him dripping from me and let out an audible breath when he reached between my legs and scooped it up, using his fingers to push his release back inside me.
A whole new wave of flutters started inside me and my legs began to tremble.
“Tanner.” I let out a whimper and arched my back as his fingers continued to play between my thighs, riling me up all over again.
“Christ,” he grunted. “You were made for me, weren’t you?”
I think I might have been. I’d never been able to relinquish control and trust a man to provide my pleasure before. Tanner not only gave me that freedom, but he actually seemed to enjoy being that safe space for me.
And, god, there was something so thrilling about laying there, completely vulnerable to him, while he tried to keep his release inside my body for as long as possible. Like he belonged there.
A minute later, he climbed out of the bed, ordering me to stay put while he went to the bathroom to get a warm washcloth to clean me up. Once he finished, he tossed the rag in the hamper in my bathroom and came back to the bed, in all his naked, impeccably built glory.
He pulled the covers out from beneath me and flipped them down, climbing into the bed and wrapping his strong body around me before covering us back up. I instantly sank into him, feelings of warmth and security washing over me, making me content.
Tanner’s lips moved across my bare shoulder and up my neck. “Can I stay here with you tonight?” he whispered against my ear.
I rolled over so I was facing him, looking up with a lazy, tired smile.
He’d worn me out. “Of course. As long as you don’t mind sharing a bed with Yoda.
” My little fluff monster chose that very moment to jump onto the foot of my bed.
He let out one of his little meows that sound more like a whispered honk than an actual meow, and slowly padded his way toward us.
Tanner crooked his neck to get a better look at Yoda. “What was that sound he just made?”
I let out a giggle. “That was his meow.”
His head twisted back to me. “That was not a meow.”
“For him it was. It’s just one of the many things that makes him so perfect.”
Tanner let out a snort and reached out to give Yoda’s head a scratch. That set him off to purring, and he began to circle around until he found the right spot. Which just so happened to be in the bend of Tanner’s knees.
“Aw, look at that. He likes you.” When he didn’t respond to my teasing, I looked back at his face, and what I saw made my heart start doing cartwheels.
“I like you, Holly. I really like you.”
Leaning in, I pressed a kiss to his lips as butterflies sprang to life in my belly. “I really like you too.” That statement was followed by a yawn so big it stretched the corners of my mouth.
Tanner’s chuckle filled my tiny bedroom as he pulled me flush against him and rested his head on the pillow. “Get some sleep, Sunshine.”
“Okay.” Settling into him once more, I rested my head on his shoulder and pulled in a breath, filling my lungs with the scent of fresh rain and clean linen. I didn’t know what the hell kind of cologne he wore, but I needed to buy a whole damn case of the stuff. “Goodnight, Tanner.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart.”
The last thing I remembered was feeling his lips against my forehead before I fell into the second-best sleep of my life.