42. Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Three nights later, an alarm blared and startled me from a deep sleep. I rolled onto my back and reached for my phone, instantly alert. A drowsy Mallori reached behind her and laid a hand on my bare stomach.
“Few more minutes,” she mumbled.
Unlocking my phone, I felt my heart rate gallop when I saw the alert.
Tornado Warning.
“Fuck, Mal. Wake up, baby.” I flicked on the lamp, and she groaned as I rolled off the bed. “Come on. We’ve got some bad weather coming.”
That woke her fully, and she sat up, the sheet pooling around her waist. “What is it?”
“Tornado,” I said quickly, holding her hand and helping her off the bed. As I led her to the closet, my thumb scrolled the weather app.
Fuck, this is not good.
The wind outside whipped, and I heard something crash. “It’s almost on us,” I told her, looking up from my phone to see her eyes wide with fear. “Put on some of my clothes. I’ll be right back. ”
Panic lined her face. She grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my arm as a loud crack sounded outside. “No! You have to stay in here!”
I grabbed both sides of her face and kissed her hard on the lips. “I have to get the cat.”
Mal slapped a hand over her mouth and nodded as tears streamed down her face. “Be careful.”
“We’ve got about two minutes. I’ll be fine,” I assured her, grabbing a pair of shorts and hopping on one foot and then the other to get them on.
Sprinting to her room, I found a restless Coconut mewling from the bed. She hissed when I picked her up, sensing the danger that was coming.
“Shh, I got ya, furball.” I quickly grabbed a pair of Mallori’s tennis shoes and returned to my closet.
She was wearing one of my T-shirts, and her pretty, tear-stained face melted when she saw me. “You’re okay!” She threw herself at me, and I pulled her close with the arm not holding the kitten. “You saved her. You could’ve been killed.”
I kissed the top of her head. “I’m fine, baby. Here, take your kitty and put your shoes on while I get some blankets down.”
“You took time to get shoes?” she asked indignantly as I pulled a Maglite, blankets, and spare pillows down from the top shelf.
“If there’s damage when we walk out of here, I don’t want you stepping on glass or anything else dangerous,” I explained. “Any time there’s a tornado, grab a pair of shoes if you have time to do so safely.”
Now that I had Mallori in the most secure location in the house, I dialed Shark’s number and put the phone on speaker as I crammed a green plaid blanket into the corner. “Sit,” I ordered Mal a second before Shark answered.
“On it. We’re in the closet,” my friend said in a clipped, efficient voice. Due to the damp soil composition in Texas, houses didn’t have basements, so an interior, windowless room was the safest place.
“Us too. And the others?” I tucked pillows on either side of Mal, who was backed into the corner with the cat cradled in her lap.
“Everyone I’ve talked to is hunkered down. I was just about to call you and Bode.”
Another crack came from outside, and then the lights went out, drenching us in darkness. Mallori’s soft whimper pierced my gut.
“We just lost power. Talk later.”
“Take care, bud.”
Turning on the flashlight, I crammed as many pillows as I could find around Mal, making a kind of protective fort to protect her from any flying debris.
The wind picked up, whipping around the house, but even over the noise, I could hear Mallori’s breaths coming out in harsh, ragged gasps. I put the light down beside her hip and kneeled in front of her, covering her small body with my big one before pulling an old comforter over our heads.
A loud roar filled the air, as if a freight train was barreling through the small closet, and I held her trembling body against my own.
Shit, it’s right over us. I’d never felt fear like this in my life, and I’d been in some scary motherfucking situations. But I wasn’t scared for myself.
I was scared for Mallori .
The noise was deafening, and every muscle in my body went taut as I curled around her, wanting nothing except to protect her. I would rather die than see a single scratch on her body.
Because…
The sound of shattering glass crashed from somewhere inside the house as the walls shook violently. Mal clutched an arm around me, the other one holding the kitten to her chest.
“I’ve got you, baby. You’re being so brave. I won’t let anything happen to you.” I wasn’t sure she could hear me over the uproar, but I think I was saying the words as much for myself as for her.
The noise escalated until it was almost unbearable, and then something hit me hard in the back. I swallowed my grunt and held Mal tighter.
Then slowly, so slowly, the ruckus around us began to subside as the beast of nature moved on. I held firm for another couple minutes, hearing sirens in the distance before finally shoving the blanket off our heads and straightening up on my knees.
We were both drenched in sweat, and I pushed Mal’s damp hair away from her face. Even in the limited light from the flashlight, I could see the fear on her face. The storm still raged on outside, but at least the twister had passed us.
“Are you okay, Bee? Does anything hurt?”
Wide-eyed, she shook her head.
My eyes dropped to the cat, who was snoozing peacefully in Mal’s arms without a care in the world.
“How the hell did she sleep through that?” I asked, stroking a finger through her white fur .
“I don’t know,” Mallori said in a shaky voice, looking down at her little pet before returning her gaze to me. “Are you okay, Hawk?”
I collapsed back onto my butt and rubbed a hand through my hair. “I’m fine.”
“You… you covered me with your body.” Her head was tilted to the side, eyes soft.
My gaze dashed away, staring at a steel-toe boot sitting beside me. I think that’s what struck me in the back. Must’ve been shaken off the top shelf.
“Yeah, well, I’m bigger than you,” I mumbled.
Movement caught my eye, and Mal placed the kitten on a pillow before crawling toward me. When I looked up at her, she rose on her knees and pulled her T-shirt off over her head.
I could barely breathe. She’s so fucking beautiful.
She worked her panties off and simply knelt there in front of me like an offering. The air thickened around us as we stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. I itched to reach for her, and yet I was overwhelmed by the fact that my hands weren’t nearly worthy of touching someone so perfect.
Mallori inched closer, reaching for the waistband of my pants to help me slide them off. We seemed to be lost in each other’s gaze, neither of us speaking when she straddled my hips and crashed her lips to mine.
The kiss was laden with desperation, tongues thrashing as she settled herself onto the shaft of my cock, rocking back and forth until she was wet. Then she shifted her hips, and I was at her entrance. We ended the kiss and stared at each other as she slowly took me inside her .
Mallori’s hands buried themselves in my hair as I banded my arms around her waist, holding her so tightly I was surprised she could even breathe. Her lips hovered over mine, and we paused the instant I was seated all the way to the hilt.
Her lips hovered over mine. “Tate,” she whispered, and I lifted one of my hands to cup the perfection of her face, letting my thumb brush back and forth across her cheekbone.
Something was happening between us. Something that should have scared me but didn’t. I was too gone for this woman.
“Need you closer, baby. Wrap your legs around me.”
She did, binding them tightly around my waist as she closed the distance between our mouths. Our tongues moved slowly. We’d kissed a thousand times, and yet this felt like an exploration of sorts. Like we were learning each other for the first time.
Mallori’s hips rocked like the gentle waves of a lake. It was slow, sensual. I was buried deep inside her, and yet this didn’t feel like fucking. It felt like… more.
I handed over all control to her, letting her have me like she needed, and it blew my mind. She blew my mind.
My Little Bee never sped up—and I didn’t urge her to—taking us both on a tender journey of pleasure. And not just the physical kind. Something profound was happening inside me that I couldn’t quite define, and my chest suddenly felt too small to contain my heart.
With the wind and rain still storming outside, we finished together. There was no wild thrusting or dirty talk, and yet it was the most fulfilling orgasm of my life. I poured every bit of myself into Mallori Fitz as she squeezed around me .
She stopped moving her body, just holding me inside her, though our kiss continued for a long while. When our tongues and lips slowed and she eventually pulled back, what I saw in her eyes should have scared me away, but it didn’t. I wanted those emotions from her, wanted to return them, but I didn’t know how.
All I knew was that one night in a closet in the middle of a raging storm changed me forever…
And I wasn’t sure how the hell I was going to let her go.
When a ringing sound shattered our moment, Mallori lifted off me and sat on the blanket before silently handing me my phone. I kissed the back of her hand before answering Woody’s call.
“Hey, man.” My voice sounded like the tornado had ripped directly down my throat.
“You okay?” he asked quickly. “You sound weird.”
“Fine,” I assured him, still holding Mal’s hand. She pulled it away, and I frowned. “You and Taz?” I watched as she stood and dressed.
“We’re good. We hunkered down in the closet.”
“Yeah, us too. I haven’t gone out to check for damage yet, but we don’t have lights,” I said as Mallori picked up the flashlight and moved around the walk-in closet.
“We don’t either. Our house is fine, but we have a lot of branches down. I was thinking we should go check on Cam’s place since they’re in Florida.”
“Good idea. I’ll meet you over there at first light. ”
Woody waited a beat before saying in a low voice, “That scared the shit out of me. All I could think of was my wife and baby getting hurt.”
I feel ya, brother.
“But they’re okay?” I checked once again.
He chuckled. “Yes, Taz threatened to beat me with her leg if I asked one more time.”
“Sounds like her.” A soft gasp had my spine straightening in panic, and then a gentle hand touched my back. I tried not to wince at the pain. “Look, Woodster, I need to run. I’ll see you at dawn.”
“Okay, man. Glad you’re okay.”
As soon as we disconnected, Mallori sat behind me, her legs bracketing mine as she placed feathery kisses against the sore spot.
“You have a boot print on your back. It’s all bruised.”
I swiveled around to face her. “I’m okay, Bee. I’m going to check on the house. You stay here until I make sure it’s safe.”
She frowned and shook her head. “No, I’m coming with you.”
“Don’t be stubborn,” I started, but she pressed her hand over my lips.
“I’m coming with you.” I licked her palm, and she giggled and pulled it away.
“Fine, but stay behind me.”
I quickly dressed myself and gave Mal a pair of my shorts to wear, cinching up the drawstring to keep them from falling down.
The damage inside my house wasn’t too bad. The television had been knocked from the wall and lay shattered on the floor, but other than that, the interior was fine .
I stood on the front porch with Mallori to assess the front yard. Some branches were down, but otherwise, all was good at my place. I glanced to the right and saw Ms. Wallace, my elderly neighbor, standing in the darkness of her porch, staring at a pine tree that had fallen across her burgundy sedan in the driveway.
Jogging across the yard in the rain, which was now a soft patter, I called to her. “Hey, Ms. W. Are you all right?”
She placed her hands on her ample hips, covered by a floral cotton nightgown. “I am, but poor Jenny isn’t,” she huffed, gesturing to her car.
“That sucks. I’ll come over in the morning and get the tree taken care of for you.”
I hadn’t even realized Mallori had followed me until she spoke, “I’ll come too and take pictures of the damage. You’ll need that for your insurance.”
Smiling down at her, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Like we were a real couple.
Ms. Wallace’s eyes missed nothing, and she grinned at the gesture. “That’s very kind of you both. I checked with the electric company, and they said it would be at least three days before the power is back on.” She sighed. “This old lady can’t go that long without air conditioning in this damn heat, so my daughter is driving over from Longview so I can stay with her until it’s back on.”
That triggered something in my brain. Longview was a couple hours from here in the Piney Woods of East Texas. I actually had a place near there .
After assuring Ms. Wallace that we’d be back tomorrow, I led Mallori back to the house. We were dripping from the rain, but it actually felt good since it was muggy and the temperature was in the high eighties, even in the middle of the night.
We entered the house, which was already becoming stifling, and I removed my arm from her shoulders. “Mal, I was thinking we should go to my cabin for a couple days.”
Her brows scrunched together. “You have a cabin?”
“Yes, and as much as I’d like to stay here and lick sweat from your body for the next three days, it’s about to get very uncomfortable in this house without air conditioning.”
A smile crested her lips, and she nodded. “Okay, that sounds good.”
Though I meant what I said about the air conditioning, I had an ulterior motive. This time next week, Mallori would no longer be living in my house, and that made my stomach clench. I wanted to spend as much uninterrupted time with her as possible before she left me.
Leaning down, I softly kissed her lips. “We’ll leave in the afternoon. Don’t bother packing any clothes.”