Chapter 12 #3
Her pussy clamped down around his cock like a vise, and Boone stopped trying to fight it. Bending, he kissed her as she screamed into his mouth, his fingers still locked around her wrists, as he came inside her. Hard.
She’d said the spanking had hurt, yet she liked it.
He got it, because this was by far the most blissfully painful climax of his life. It felt as if his balls were going to explode.
“Mila,” he groaned, as the last spurt of come erupted. “Darlin’. Fuck.”
It took a full minute before Boone managed to let go of her, dropping to her side.
Mila flopped toward him, her hand finding its way to his chest again. He lifted it, placing a kiss on her palm, frowning when he saw the red marks circling her wrists.
“I hurt you,” he grumbled.
She shook her head without lifting it from the bed. “Don’t feel any pain,” she murmured, her words garbled enough that she sounded drunk. “Only feel good.”
Boone chuckled, placing a kiss on the top of her head, the two of them falling asleep within seconds.
This was the second time Boone had woken up in his bed today, and he discovered Mila watching him, much as he’d watched her sleep first thing this morning.
She’d looked so beautiful and peaceful, he hadn’t had it in him to wake her.
So, he’d studied her sleeping face, committing it to memory, because even as happy as he’d been, there was still that small voice in the back of his head telling Boone he couldn’t keep her.
It looked like Mila was hearing the same voice, her expression too pensive, too serious, given what they’d shared.
“What time is it?” he asked, clearing his throat.
“Just after one.”
They’d napped for three hours. Boone couldn’t recall the last time he’d slept in the middle of the day without being sick.
“You okay?”
Mila nodded, but the affirmative response didn’t match her expression. “The power is back on.”
Boone glanced over to his nightstand where, sure enough, his alarm clock was blinking, waiting for him to put the right time back in.
“Came back on about an hour ago,” she added.
“You’ve been awake all that time?”
She shook her head. “I kept dozing, waking up, then falling asleep again.” She gave him a sheepish grin. “Someone wore me out.”
“Not as much as you wore me out. Because I just slept like the dead for three hours straight.”
Mila giggled, delighted, but the soft tinkling laugh didn’t last nearly long enough.
It looked like the rubber had hit the road, and it was time for that talk they’d both been avoiding since the night before last, when Sadie snuck out of the house.
Before he could start, his phone rang from the kitchen. He considered ignoring it.
“It’s probably Sadie,” Mila said. “You should go get it.”
Boone agreed, so he climbed out of bed, not bothering to pull on his pants. Instead, he walked to the living room, grabbed his phone, and started back to the bedroom as he answered it.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hiya, Donut. You having fun with your mom?” he asked as he returned to the bed, leaning against the headboard. Mila pushed herself up, sitting next to him quietly.
“Yeah. We did a movie marathon last night.”
“Oh yeah. What did you watch?”
“Promise you won’t be mad?”
Boone closed his eyes, counting to ten. “Sadie.”
“Magic Mike and Bridesmaids.”
Awesome. Leave it to Lena to show their daughter an R-rated movie about strippers. If he wasn’t sitting next to Mila, he’d probably ask to speak to Lena, but he was already facing one difficult conversation today and had no desire to double down.
Ignoring the movie selections, he asked, “How much snow did you get there?”
“Not much. Aunt Carol said there’s not more than three or four inches. Piper said you all got a ton, and school is already closed for tomorrow too.”
“We got a lot. But the weather is supposed to clear by the weekend, so I should be able to pick you up on Sunday like we planned.”
“Okay,” Sadie said. “Mom wanted me to ask if you’d just come here so she doesn’t have to drive to Fredericksburg again.”
Of course, Lena thought it was smart to put Sadie in the middle of that argument. “I’ll text her later about that,” Boone said noncommittally, because that text was going to be a big HELL NO.
“Do you have big plans for today?” he asked.
“Yeah!” Sadie replied, excitedly. “Mom said I could hang out with Stella, so I’m going over to her house today. If the roads aren’t too bad, her mom is going to take us to the mall, and then we’re going bowling, and afterward, we’re getting pizza and chilling in Stella’s room.”
Fucking great. Boone had specifically asked Lena to limit Sadie’s time with Stella, and now it sounded like she was leaving their daughter with the world’s more irresponsible parents for the entire day.
“Thought you and your mom were spending time together.”
Sadie’s brief silence warned Boone he wasn’t going to like what was coming next. “Mom’s boyfriend, Uncle Adam, came with her. They’re going to the movies and out to dinner because they want some alone time.”
Yeah. Like they didn’t get enough alone time in Florida, where it was always just the two of them.
But what the hell could he do or say to any of that? He was trapped in a foot and a half of snow in Gracemont, and even if he forbade Sadie from seeing Stella, Lena would still drop her off anyway, while making him look like the unreasonable hard-ass.
“Okay, well, behave yourself.” Boone didn’t have to see his daughter’s eye-roll; he could feel it. “Have fun but make smart decisions.”
“I will, Dad. I gotta go.”
“Love you, Donut.”
“Love you too.”
The call disconnected, and Boone put his phone on the nightstand.
Mila leaned closer, shoulder-bumping him. “Everything okay?”
He nodded, even though nothing ever felt okay when Sadie was with Lena.
“You sure?” she pressed.
Boone must not have been very convincing, so he dug deeper. “Yeah. It’s fine.”
Mila didn’t look assured, and it occurred to him he could talk to her about Lena’s parenting, but this wasn’t the time. For one thing, they were sitting together naked in his bed, and for another, they had their own issues to sort out.
He wasn’t sure when Mila had become so attuned with his thoughts, but he could swear she’d just read his mind. Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she sighed.
“Boone,” she started. “I’ve been thinking.”
“So have I,” he admitted, even though his thoughts were one giant swirling mass of conflicted feelings.
Mila put her hand on his forearm. “Can I go first?”
“Sure.” Maybe hearing what she was thinking would help him figure out his own shit.
“I know that you’re not interested in a relationship, and that your affairs since Lena have just been casual hookups, but—”
“This isn’t a casual hookup, Mila,” he all but barked.
Her nervous smile gave way to a genuine one. “It’s not?”
“Good God, no.”
She released a relieved breath. “Good. Because I was kind of hoping we could keep going.”
He nodded, but wanting that and proceeding with it were the two conflicting parts. “I want that too, darlin’, but—”
“You said I could go first,” she interjected.
He lifted his hand, waving it in a proceed fashion.
“I know your primary concern is Sadie, and she should be. The two of you are making a life here, so we need to be careful. Boone, you haven’t been in a relationship since Lena, and I’ve never been in one.
We had sex, and it was amazing, incredible, mind-blowing,” she said, her tone becoming louder with each descriptor.
Boone chuckled. “It was all that and more.”
“But sex is only one part of this,” she hesitated, before adding, “thing between us.”
She was right about that. Sex was what led to his downfall with Lena.
Because he’d gotten so carried away with the lust, as well as his desire to get to the next part—marriage—that he’d failed to see too many red flags regarding their relationship.
While Lena had only been seven years younger than him, she was a hell of a lot less mature than Mila.
He could argue that was because she’d been twenty when they met, but that maturity still hadn’t grown as she aged.
“Sex is only one part,” he agreed.
“And as amazing, incredible, and mind-blowing as it was,” she repeated, “it’s not the most important part.”
“You’re right.”
“I think it’s the other parts we should try to figure out, and it would be easier to do that if we weren’t subjected to other people’s opinions and thoughts on the matter.”
Boone frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Until we see if this,” again with the pause, “thing—”
“Relationship,” he corrected her. “We’re trying to build a relationship, Mila. You don’t have to change the word because you think I’ll go running for the hills.”
“Okay. Relationship. Until we see if the two of us are as compatible as I think—I hope—we are, I don’t think we should tell anyone about us.”
Boone rubbed his jaw, stroking his beard as he considered what she was suggesting. “How would that work?”
“We both work on the same farm. I think we should reinstate the Tuesday night cooking lessons. Because it gives me a chance to spend time with you and Sadie, gives me a chance to continue to build a relationship with her as well. I think that would help when…if…we decide to make this Facebook official.”
He chuckled at her description, but she was also right. Because his reason for not dating was because any woman he brought home wouldn’t just be in a relationship with him, but with Sadie as well. He was touched that Mila saw that and was willing to put in the work.
“I agree.”
“And I was hoping the two of you would start coming back to Sunday dinners. My family is a huge part of my life. I want them to know you, and you them.”
For someone with no relationship experience, Mila had a firm grasp on the building blocks, on what would create a firm foundation for a successful one. Family was top of that list for both of them, and she recognized that.
“We’ll come to Sunday dinner.”
“Other than that, I think we need to chisel out some time where the two of us could be alone to get to know each other better. How would you feel about lunch dates? Sadie would be at school, and there are a million private places where we could meet.”
In one short conversation, Mila found a way to take all the jumbled mess swimming in his head and tuck it away into neat piles. She’d broken things down bit by bit and made something that seemed virtually impossible to him not only possible but simple.
“I think lunch just became my favorite meal of the day,” he joked.
Mila laughed. “Mine too.”
“You know, Sadie doesn’t get back until Sunday. Think we can come up with a reason for you to keep being snowed in here with me?” he asked.
Mila gave his question some thought. “I’ll tell my sisters we’re doing a puzzle.”
Boone chuckled, thinking she was kidding.
When she didn’t laugh, he asked, “A puzzle?”
“I don’t do puzzles very often because I become sort of obsessed. Like, I don’t look up or stop until it’s done.”
“And your sisters will buy that?”
“Nora will, because she’s usually the one sitting beside me, just as obsessed.
We might actually have to set a puzzle out on the table, just in case she tromps through the snow to help.
As for Remi, twenty bucks says she’s all but camped out in the stables, making sure her precious babies are warm and cared for. All her attention will be on them.”
“Good. Because I’m going to be greedy and hoard you all to myself this weekend.”
“Hoard away,” she said with a happy smile.
Boone wrapped his arm around her shoulders, tugging her against him. Now that they’d had the hard talk, he felt even closer to her than he had a few minutes ago. This woman got him, understood him better than he did himself.
Then, he considered Maverick’s assertion that the Storms lived under that “love at first touch” curse, that they knew their soul mate the moment their hands touched.
Boone hadn’t believed the story at the time, but now…
If it was true, Maverick was wrong. Because it was no curse.