Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gideon
My erection wasn’t going away. I tracked Autumn into the house like a fucking panther. I wanted to get her inside and get my hands on her again.
“And this one time, Eleanor didn’t win for over two months at weekly bingo, and me and a few of the other teachers almost gathered a pool of cash to bribe the bar to let her win.” She giggled. She hadn’t quit talking since we’d left the school. I liked hearing her rattle on, but mostly, I used the lilting cadence of her voice to fuel the desire pumping through my veins.
I kicked the door shut behind me.
She bent to take her boots off. “None of us could figure out how they’d do that. I mean, we’d have to bribe the other players. So then we thought, what if we all go and play and just keep our bingos to ourselves. Would that help? ”
She was about to step away from me, but I caught her wrist and spun her toward me.
Her lips were parted when I smashed my mouth to hers. I didn’t hesitate to sweep my tongue inside.
Fuck, she was sweet. We’d each taken a mint from the admin office on our way out, but it wouldn’t matter if she’d bathed in garlic sauce. I would lick every inch of her up. One thing I knew after that kiss in her classroom—I could not take one more night sleeping next to her without my dick getting itself in trouble.
A needy groan left her. Good, we were on the same page. I lifted her, fucking loving the way she twined her legs around me. This girl didn’t hold herself back and I needed her open and willing tonight.
“I’m taking you to the bedroom.” I took a step and had to wait until the pressure against my shin let up. Stepping on the cat would kill the mood. “And I’m going to fuck you until my name echoes off the walls.”
“I told you the kid thing is off the table.”
“It’s not about a kid. It’s about you and me. Do you want me to fuck you, firecracker?”
“Yes,” she moaned as she kissed a path down my neck. Energy knotted itself tighter around my muscles. I was stiff as a board and it wasn’t just my cock.
She pulled back, uncertainty in her eyes. “So this is?—”
I paused in the hallway. “Just you and me. No deals.”
She flicked her tongue out to lick her lower lip. “Might as well, right?”
Did she have to talk herself into it? “Why waste an entire month?” Or I’d fucking explode. Sleeping in her bed, right next to her, for weeks would be sheer torture. I’d resort to jacking off and lose the control I prided myself on.
Desire lit her eyes and her legs around my hips tightened. “An entire month.”
“I’ll be inside you every fucking day.” I continued to the bedroom. When I crossed the threshold, I aimed straight for the bed—the way she pressed against my erection demanded it, but then I remembered the cat. I kicked the bedroom door shut too.
Crossing to the bed, I laid her down. She dropped her feet from my waist to the covers, but I was cradled in the juncture between her thighs.
I kissed my way down her neck as I tunneled my fingers under her dress to start tugging her leggings down. She gasped and half sat up, knocking her chest against my head. An oomph gusted out of me and I sat back on my knees, blinking.
“Oh my god, I’m sorry.” She grabbed my head between her hands and inspected me. “I didn’t take any teeth out, did I?”
I never laughed when I had sex, but I chuckled. What an odd feeling—to be so turned on yet find humor in her caring reaction. “No. The only way your tits would make good weapons is if you smothered an attacker.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment.”
“Trust me. It’s a compliment.”
Her soft chuckle cut off. She lowered her hands. I almost put them back in place. She reached over to flick on her bedside lamp. Soft light washed over us.
She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, her gaze anguished. “I don’t have any condoms.”
As blood ever so slowly rerouted to my brain, I understood the issue. She wasn’t pushing the baby agenda on me, but she had been ready to have a baby. So, she likely wasn’t on birth control.
“I don’t have any either,” I confessed. How could I have not anticipated needing them?
Because I’d been too obsessed with being inside her. The idea of protection had never occurred to me, baby deal and all.
She eyed me. “You don’t have any ?”
I ran my hands down her—clothed—legs. “I don’t walk around the world planning to get into some woman’s pants wherever and whenever. I’m deliberate.” I was paying for my lack of preparation. Desire built under my skin and only Autumn could sate it. “I can run to a gas station?—”
“No.” Her eyes grew round as saucers. She gripped me by the shoulders. “We’re supposed to be so wildly in love we married right after meeting. Your dad won’t buy the family idea if gossip spreads around town that my new husband is buying protection.”
From her tone, she was worried the nameless and faceless gossipers would say more, like that I was purchasing condoms to keep from getting my new wife pregnant.
A small glow of disappointment lit in my stomach. She kept her wits about her when I was pawing at her. I was ready to bury myself in her sweet body and she was thinking strategy. She’d been considerate about me and then about my plans.
My ego wasn’t usually frayed so easily, but Autumn wasn’t swept away by the thought of just being with me.
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “But no condoms will be bought in Bourbon Canyon.”
“No one knows me at the grocery store. ”
She gave me a doubtful look. “You’re right,” she said dryly. “No one will notice the incredibly handsome stranger buying Trojan XLs. And absolutely no one, especially not the older employees who’ve worked for decades at the store, will put two and two together when they hear that Gideon James is back in town and married to a Kerrigan.”
The way satisfaction rolled over me when she said my full name was all-consuming. I wanted my name on this woman’s lips, only I’d rather she was breathy and moaning it. “What, then? We have those Trojan XLs shipped to us?”
Her hands were propped on the bed, but she lifted her shoulders. “I guess.”
“I’ll run to Bozeman tomorrow.”
“I can walk to work.”
“No. I’ll drop you off.” A reminder clicked in my head. “Shit. I have a meeting right away. I can drop you off and then run to Bozeman. Maybe I need to buy that pickup.”
Her mouth twitched like she was holding back a smile. And yeah, the idea of planning a condom run around work meetings to run a half-a-billion-dollar casino was absurd.
“Mrs. James, there is nothing funny about our lack of protection.”
She pinched her finger and her thumb together. “It’s a little funny. You’re planning to buy a vehicle so you can buy condoms.”
Kissing her told me it’d be worth it. Protection wasn’t happening tonight, but I was a resourceful man. I gripped the fabric of her leggings and tugged. “There’s plenty we can do in the meantime. ”
“Oh,” she squeaked, going tense. “Um . . .”
I paused. “Do you want this?”
“Oh my god, yes. But can we shut the light off?”
No fucking way.
Yet I wanted her to be comfortable with me. Only minutes ago, she’d twined her body around me like I was a pole and she was a Vegas stripper.
I claimed her mouth again and eased her to her back. “I want to see it all,” I said against her lips and skated my hands over her sides and down her torso. “Every last inch.”
“I don’t think?—”
“Good. If you’re thinking, I’m doing it wrong.” I kissed her again, taking my time plundering her mouth until I earned that little whimper and she went molten in my arms.
Her legs relaxed and her knees fell to the side. Instead of stripping her down and getting to business, I rocked against her, loving how she automatically tipped her hips up to meet me. I wedged an arm between us and drew her knee out, getting her used to being spread out before me. Then, I worked on getting her top over her head.
Her bra was plain and white and trimmed with lace. A simple, perfect wrapping for spectacular tits. I tugged the straps down her arms and freed her globes from the material. Her breasts popped out, her nipples pearled and begging to be sucked.
“Fuck me, those dusty-pink tips make my mouth water.” I caught one just as a shudder of self-consciousness was closing her expression. As soon as my lips touched her skin, she arched into me.
“That’s it,” I murmured and gave each side some much-needed attention. I kneaded her flesh, licking and sucking her nipples and getting her as pliant as I wanted her.
When a needy “Gideon” left her mouth, I worked my way down. I rolled the leggings off and tossed them to the floor. The damn things had been blocking heaven for far too long. Her underwear had come off with them. I faced a nearly naked Autumn. Her bra straps held her arms in place. Her round tits were peaked with tight buds and her legs were spread. The most erotic image I’d ever seen.
Vulnerability shone in her eyes. I was completely dressed, which was a good thing. If my cock wasn’t trapped in place, I’d blow. One brush of the bedding and I’d be coming all over it.
She tried to close her legs, but I put my hands on her thighs. I was staring, but how could I not? “You know what I see when I look at you?”
The rawness in her eyes was back. I didn’t like it, but I had to make damn sure she knew what she did to me.
I traced a finger over a long white line on her thigh. Just like her arm, small white pockmarks dotted each side. From staples or stitches? Maybe she’d tell me someday.
I looked her right in the eye. “I see a pussy begging for my tongue.”
Her breath hitched.
“I see how fucking wet I make you.” I dragged a finger down her seam. She rocked into the touch. “That’s it. Let your body tell me what it wants.” I reversed direction. She was hot and wet and I knew she’d be fucking tight, but I’d find out soon enough. “I see thighs that I want clamped around my head.” I pushed her legs farther apart.
“Gideon,” she groaned. But she was no longer tense.
“Everything I see makes me so fucking hard it hurts. Now I need to know how you taste.” I wedged my shoulders between her thighs and licked through her small patch of trimmed curls to her clit.
Her hips ratcheted off the bed. I used the moment to tuck my hands under her ass and pull her as close to me as possible. I licked down her seam and back up to her clit. Her moans filled the room. I stroked and sucked, giving her clit even more attention than I gave her nipples. She would get close, her body would get taut and I’d back off. Maybe I was being cruel, but I didn’t want this to end. I’d waited all of four days for Autumn and it felt like a goddamn eon.
“Gideon,” she panted. The need for release was in her voice. Her heels were digging into my shoulder blades, but I could spend an eternity buried between this woman’s legs.
I was being selfish, and for once, I didn’t care. I took what I wanted because she was giving it to me.
Finally, when her legs were shaking from the vibrations of her body, I threaded a finger inside. Hot, wet heat squeezed around me. If this was my dick, I’d never make it beyond one thrust.
This time, the groan came from me. “Goddamn, you’re fucking tight, just like I thought.” And I was back at her clit.
A rush of heat exploded against my face.
“Gideon!”
The bed shook as she came, hard and loud. I continued lapping at her until she came down from her high and sagged against me, too boneless to do anything. I pulled away and kissed a path up her stomach. She twisted her hands in my hair, keeping them there until my hips were nestled back between her legs. My jeans were a barrier, but her heat enveloped me.
“You’re going to get your pants dirty,” she murmured.
My erection was painful. The seam of my pants was cutting in, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. She had the sleepy, well-fucked look going on and we hadn’t officially had sex.
“I don’t care.” Her breasts were pressing against my chest. My heartbeat hammered in my groin, but I was content. Strangely satisfied with only getting her off.
She started lifting my shirt. “You need?—”
“I got what I needed.”
Confusion scrawled over her features, but I lightly kissed her mouth. “This isn’t quid pro quo. I can wait.”
What I couldn’t say was that I wanted to hold her. I couldn’t verbalize that this had been the most intense sexual experience of my life and my dick was still firmly zipped in place. My world was already disrupted. I needed an anchor right now. I needed to have her in my arms. After getting married, seeing my dad, and tasting Autumn, I needed to feel like I wasn’t the only one whose world as they knew it was slowly crumbling around them.