Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Teller
Madison refused to bake naked, but I got her down to her bra and underwear and an old apron that I had gotten as a housewarming gift from one of my sisters. The front read My ego is as inflated as my buns .
Madison giggled every time she looked down at the words.
She pulled a batch of sugar cookies out. Three bowls of colored frosting were lined up on the counter. The shy way she’d told me that decorating cookies was something she loved to do still gutted me.
Why had everyone in her life been so terrible?
I snagged a warm cookie and shoved the whole thing in my mouth.
“They’re better cold and frosted,” she said.
I lifted a shoulder, still chewing. They’d be better if I could eat them off her bare stomach.
She turned the oven off and studied her cookies. “I’ll put the frosting in the fridge. These need more time to cool, or the icing will ooze everywhere after I pipe it.”
I selected a cookie and took the narrow spatula from the pink icing and spread it over the cookie. It thinned and crept close to the edge, but it didn’t drip off. “Come here.”
Her eyes flared. She moved to put her hands on her hips, realized she wasn’t wearing much for clothing, then started to fold her arms, clocked the floury apron, and clasped her hands instead. “Why?”
“You haven’t eaten one yet.”
“I don’t usually when I’m baking.”
“You’re done baking.” I turned on my stool and pushed the seat next to me a few inches out so she could slide on. “Come here.”
Tentatively, she crept toward me, her gaze dipping from mine to the treat in my hand. She stopped by the stool and licked her red lips. I lifted the cookie to her mouth. She took a cautious nibble as if she was afraid I’d shove the thing in her face.
“Take a goddamn bite, Mads,” I growled.
Her eyes locked with mine. She opened wide and chomped half the cookie off.
I gave a grunt of approval. Her eyelids fluttered and the faintest moan left her.
“Good, aren’t they?” I asked gruffly.
She delicately wiped the corner of her mouth. “I wouldn’t bake them if they weren’t.”
A grin stretched my lips. “That’s my girl. Don’t hide from your talent.”
A blush stained her cheeks and I offered her the rest. She chewed, her gaze darting around like she didn’t trust when the focus was on her.
I framed her hips with my hands, my fingertips hitting just above her underwear on her warm, bare skin. “Tell me what you’re tasting.”
Her brows crunched together. “I’m chewing,” she said around her mouthful.
I placed a kiss right above the top of the apron. Her plain black bra was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and it was hotter that it was partially covered by her apron.
I wrapped a hand around her throat. My thumb moved as she swallowed. “What are you tasting?”
“Sugar. Butter.”
I brushed up to stroke the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip. “And?”
“The way they almost caramelize in the oven, but the rich creaminess of the butter shines through, not to be overpowered by the sugar.”
There she was. My little baking nerd. “What else?”
“The icing almost overpowers it all,” she said, her voice husky. “But the butter would be too rich without it. It’s a nice balance, and why I like this recipe.”
I took another cookie, spreading some icing over it. This time, it didn’t thin as it spread, but I got frosting on my fingers.
I lifted one to her mouth. Her pupils dilated. She licked her lips before swirling her tongue over my fingertip. I’d been battling an erection all night, but I lost the second her tongue touched my flesh. I adjusted my position on the stool. Things were getting damn uncomfortable behind my fly.
Holding the cookie up, I let the challenge in my eyes say everything.
She took another big bite, her teeth sinking through the frosting. She pulled back and that wicked tongue licked out to catch all the crumbs. I’d never watched anything more intensely in my life.
“What do you taste?” I didn’t recognize my voice. Deep and rough.
She held my attention while she chewed. Then she swallowed, the movement of her narrow throat mesmerizing me before her tongue darted out to catch the few small crumbs remaining. “It’s what I feel.”
I didn’t think I could get harder, but goddamn, my vision was crossing from the pain. “Tell me.”
“It’s crunchy. Satisfying. A little rough on my tongue and then it just... melts.”
“I like sweet treats like that.” I offered her the rest of the cookie.
As soon as her lips closed around it, I rose. I reached around her and tugged on the string to the apron. When it fell loose, I lifted it over her head.
“I want to carry you upstairs, but I don’t want to take you to your bedroom, Maddy. I want you in mine.”
“What?” She put her fingers over her mouth and swallowed.
I kissed her, long and slow, before pulling back. “I know how sweet you taste. Now I need to know how you feel.” I trailed kisses along her jaw to her ear. “I want you to melt around me.”
“What happened to over and over and over again?”
“You’ll always be my priority, Madison. Because you deserve to be and because I want you to be. Do you want this? Between us? If you do, I’m going to make it happen.”
She didn’t say yes. But her hair tickled the side of my face as she nodded.
I lifted her and she automatically wrapped her legs around my waist. The juncture of her thighs cradled my erection. I went for the stairs and crested them like the house would collapse if I didn’t get inside of her soon.
“If you’re trying to show off,” she said, nipping my ear as I turned into my bedroom, “I’m seriously impressed.”
“I haven’t gotten around to showing off just yet.” I set her in the middle of my bed and drank her in. She propped herself on her elbows and looked around while I dragged my shirt over my head.
“You have such good taste. It’s simple and not overdone, like the rest of the house.” Her gaze landed on my chest and her eyes widened.
My pants and underwear came off next and her lips parted. “Like what you see, Mad Maddy?”
“I can’t hear that name without getting turned on.”
Good. No one could hurt her with it again. I took a condom out of my nightstand.
Madison looked away, but I caught the flash of disappointment in her eyes. I read her as easily as the menu she’d studied in the tasting room. I’d told her I didn’t date. So why did I have condoms in my nightstand?
“Don’t worry—they’re not expired. Brand-new box.” I tossed a packet on the pillow above her head. “Which also means I have plenty. You know why it’s brand new?”
Her headshake was nearly imperceptible.
“I’ve never brought anyone here.”
The flare of her eyes validated my wait. My resistance to letting someone random into the house I wanted to be mine forever.
“It’s not my business.” She tilted her head from side to side. “Except for how well you are stocked now.”
“Maddy,” I said, crawling over her, “a lot of my business is quickly becoming yours.”
She didn’t lie back right away. “You seem to be in a lot of my business too.”
Her response lacked heat, but there was a hint of bewilderment and more than a little satisfaction. “That’s because you fascinate me. And a whole lot more.”
She dropped her attention to my erection. “What do you feel?”
“Like I’m going to explode and implode at the same time if I don’t find out how you feel coming around my cock.”
Those red lips of hers parted.
I braced myself on my knees to reach around and unhook her bra. Her perfect breasts spilled out. I might be ready to combust, but I was also a man who liked to play.
I laved open-mouthed kisses down her chest until I reached a peaked nipple. Pulling her tight flesh between my lips, I sucked. I kneaded her other breast. My dick protested being smothered against the comforter instead of her, but she was worth the wait.
However, she still wasn’t fully bare to me. I released her nipple, loving how she arched into me, then slid her underwear down her legs, scooting lower as I went. My cock fucking throbbed, but still, I took my time.
When she rolled up, I stiffened, panicking. This was it. She was going to tell me this was a mistake and we couldn’t mess around anymore. And I’d have to tell her that nothing about her and me was messing around.
The longer I was around Madison, the more I wanted to stay in her orbit. I wanted to be that buffer between her and the world. Her safe space.
It was humbling to think she might let me.
But instead of telling me she needed to get back to her own room, she encircled my cock with her warm hand. My hips kicked out and every muscle locked up. I could come so easily, and not just because her hands were the only ones besides mine on my dick in a long time.
“It’s my turn to play,” she said. “To taste.”
“Christ, Mads. I’ll come in your mouth as soon as your lips wrap around it.”
She gave me a pump and my eyes damn near rolled back. “Later?”
“I sure as fuck won’t stop you any other time.”
She twisted and reached for the condom. Ripping it open, she said, “Then I get to put this on.”
I stayed on my knees and let her roll the condom on, flinching and jerking the whole time. Her fingers could just as well be laced with electricity.
“Lie back,” I said gruffly.
When she did, I pushed her knees open. My bedroom door hung open and the light from downstairs filtered in. Her hair was still braided, but my next goal would be to see it spread behind her.
“Take your hair out.”
Her expression flickered, but she reached back. Plait by plait, she undid her braid and fanned her hair out behind her.
“Now you’re completely unbound. Just for me.” My caveman brain pounded against my skull. Take her. Take her.
Her tits were full and her nipples strained upward. Her pussy was wet and glistening, begging for my tongue.
I said I was a man who liked to play and I meant it. I stretched over her and dragged a finger through her folds. She soaked me to the knuckle. “Fuck, you’re wet for me.”
I circled her clit and she groaned, her hips rolling up.
My resistance broke. I’d been waiting too long, giving myself the worst case of edging ever. Goddamn torture. But worth it. So damn valuable to see her come undone over and over again. To witness her consumed with pleasure, lost to it. And the power to know it was because of me.
Because she was fucking mine.
I raked the tip of my dick through her seam, wetting the tip before pushing inside. I should’ve waited, teased us more, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t superhuman.
Her heat surrounded me, gripping me tight. “ Fuck .”
She arched and rocked, adjusting to my size. “Oh god.”
Clarity flooded back. “Did I hurt you?”
She gave me an incredulous, albeit heavy-lidded look. For an answer, she widened her legs and grabbed my ass.
Pleasure stabbed me between the eyes and I bucked my hips against her. “You’re so fucking tight. It’s like you’re made for me.”
Her eyes widened. I didn’t want to ruin the night, so I went for distraction, catching her lips with mine. I pulled out and thrust back in. Her groan went right into me.
“Teller.” The catch in her voice was there, the one that told me she was so damn close.
I broke the kiss to wet the tip of my finger between her lips, and as I pumped, I dragged my fingertip down her sternum, loving how her tits fucking bounced, over her belly and all the way to her clit.
Her tight little bud was begging for attention. I gritted my teeth and tried to hang on. I wasn’t coming without her, but if I took too long, I wouldn’t have a choice. The squeeze of her was absolute bliss. Her moans and whimpers were rapture.
“Teller,” she whispered. “I’m close.”
“Come for me, Mads.”
She rocked with me. We were one.
The pressure inside me built to atmospheric levels and then her body fisted mine, holding tight.
I dropped to an elbow by her head, thrumming her clit while I pumped. My chest heaved and my rhythm went erratic like I’d never fucked before. “You’re mine, Mads. Just for me.”
Her explosion hit. She convulsed, hugging me tight, burying her face in my chest and clamping her legs around me.
Fuck, yes. My release slammed into me. I stiffened as lightning crashed through my body, sizzling and licking over my nerves, racing up and down my spine. I closed in around her as much as she embraced me.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I’d never come this hard before. I could barely breathe. She milked everything I had and then more. I was all too willing to give it.
After my world quit catapulting through space, I sank onto her and rolled us to the side. She had a leg pinned under me, and an arm, but we were each limp. Sated.
For now. An eternity could come and go and I’d never tire of her.
Madison
We reclined in the massive soaking tub in his equally spacious bathroom. I ran my hand over the bubbles.
After our first round, we’d gone two more.
Two . And while I was sitting on his lap with warm water and bubbles up to my nipples, he was half-erect underneath my ass.
I leveled the bubbles in front of me. “I do not understand how you’re not worried about the two of us in this tub full of water. That’s a lot for a floor.”
He pulled my loose hair to the side and kissed my nape. “I left the details to the architect. I told him I wanted the biggest fucking tub he could find. I work hard, but I like my comfort.”
I did too, but that was a face mask when they were on sale. Sitting on his lap alone was a luxury. Getting carried up the freaking stairs like I was just a bulky scarf was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Having him steal my cookies and then feed them to me ranked as an erotic fantasy.
I could very easily get used to this.
Who was I kidding? All that and then the sex? I was a goner.
I laid my head back and the ends of my hair floated out to the sides. “I can’t believe you were hiding this in your room. I bet it’s the most popular part of your house.”
“Like I said, no one’s been in here but me.”
I peeked at him, but he was focused on the bubbles. Or my nipples. I couldn’t tell.
“You didn’t believe me?” He sounded almost hurt.
“It’s okay if you did, you know. We both have pasts. But... no one ?” Maybe I hadn’t truly believed him. Guys said a lot to get laid, and it wasn’t like I had stopped to ask myself if he’d been sincere. I’d wanted to get laid too. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known you meant it.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ll earn your trust one day.”
“No, I trust?—”
“ All of it.”
Fair enough.
“No one’s been in my room.” He trailed his fingers through the wet strands of my hair. “I’ve never had a woman here.”
I sat up, my butt grinding against his thighs, and half turned. “Why?”
“This is my safe space.” The corner of his mouth lifted and his gaze went distant again. “I wouldn’t change anything about my past because I wanted what my parents had. They loved each other. If someone doesn’t believe in soulmates, then they haven’t spent any time around Mae and Darin Bailey. Those two were in sync. Somehow even their arguments ended in laughter. I thought it was a one-in-a-million thing. Then Tate married his first wife and only confirmed it.”
I barely recalled that Tate had been married before. Mom had complained when he’d moved back to town and made some snide comments about his marriage failing and apparently those Baileys weren’t good when it counted. I’d only listened with one ear.
“But then he met Scarlett. And Wynter tracked down Myles.”
I turned my head again. “Tracked him down?”
His fond, big-brother grin was everything I had wanted growing up. “He had no clue who she was when she started working for him as an assistant. Then he shows up for Dad’s funeral, and bam, there she is, at the kitchen table.” He went quiet for a moment. “All my siblings fell like dominos. One by one, holding out until they found their perfect match. After the way I behaved once Wendi split, I didn’t want random anymore. I didn’t want to fill my house with memories that weren’t from me and my perfect partner.”
I swallowed hard. “Then someone threw a brick through my bar’s window.”
“You’re not random, Madison,” he said quietly.
“You’ve had a long dry spell.”
“You’re very much worth it.”
An exhale puffed out of me. “You’re a real sweet talker.”
“I’m honest.” He flattened his hands on my stomach. “This thing between us isn’t coincidence, and I hope I’m not the only one who wants to see where it goes.”
“You want to?” I hated how scared I sounded. Being cheated on had left a gaping wound over my heart that threatened to swallow me up in the name of self-preservation.
But I could trust Teller.
He slipped his hand farther down my belly until his finger tunneled through my seam. I squirmed and my breasts lifted above the bubble line. He cupped one while making lazy circles with his other hand. Under my ass, his dick grew, prodding at my flesh.
He nipped my earlobe. “I want to.”
I forgot the question.
“I also want to take you to Tenor and Ruby’s wedding as my plus-one.” He pumped a finger in and out of me and my eyelids fluttered shut as I succumbed to unparalleled pleasure.
“I got my own invite,” I murmured.
“What’ll it take to convince you to go as my girlfriend?”
Girlfriend? I rode his hand. The water lapped around us, splashing close to the edge. It would take nothing. Absolutely nothing. But it wasn’t in my nature to make things easy for anyone. “A few more orgasms and I’ll think about it.”
His low growl vibrated right through my back. “I’ll have your answer by noon.”
I couldn’t laugh. My climax was building, quick to wake up despite the sexfest I’d just been through. I’d gotten off three times already. This shouldn’t be possible. But Teller made it seem easy. And it was—with him.