Chapter 6 #3
Still, my mind raced.
I knew Aurora De Laurentiis ran some kind of shelter, and I made a mental note to donate because nobody should be outside in this.
“You did a great job with her.”
I glanced at him. “She did it herself.”
“Nah.”
“Yes.”
“Naaaah.”
I grinned but found myself quietly proud of his compliment. “Your ma thinks she’s a nightmare.”
“That’s because she’s a round peg and Ma’s all square holes.”
“Your poor father.”
“Don’t even go there!”
“You laughed first!”
“It was instinctual!”
“Well, don’t blame me.”
His snicker warmed my heart, especially because I felt the release of tension in him. My teasing had loosened him up. Something a kiss to the crown of my head only confirmed.
“I can see the cogs working from here.”
“Huh?” He peered down at me. “Oh, nothing.”
Hmmm.
“It’d be great optics.” I helped him along.
“What would?”
I quirked a knowing brow.
His smile was sheepish. “I thought about couching it as a tax break.”
“Of course you did.”
“We could have parties. Rachel Laker does. You know. Those big galas.”
“We could.” I deserved a prize for not snorting like a loon.
“The O’Donnelly Petting Zoo.” He chortled. “Nobody would ever think that someone who owned a petting zoo would have mob links.”
“Wait until Shay’s twenty-one next year and then have him establish it on his birthday or something. Frame it as him giving back to the community. It’ll fuck up the SEO on his name. We can build toward that. Make sure we have pigs there too.”
His lips pursed. “Just in case there are any references to our pig farms? Good thinking.”
“Not just a pretty face over here.”
“Gorgeous face,” he corrected.
“So long as you think so.”
“No.” His tone shifted, turning oddly serious. “You need to think it because it’s the truth. You’re fucking beautiful, Star. Say it.”
Because he rarely used that voice on me, my brows lifted. “I’m fucking beautiful.”
He dipped his chin. “Now, say it like you mean it.”
I hated how predictable my body could be around him. That voice, his urgency, the demand, the meaning—they combined and triggered the faintest stirrings of a blush.
That fecker.
I released a huff. “I’m—” I paused. Knew sarcasm or snark would get me nowhere with him. “I’m beautiful.”
He twisted and cupped my chin, using his thumb to direct the soft pad as he gently tilted my head back. “Not just beautiful. Immaculate.”
“Hardly.”
“I see what no one else does. I see the real Star. And you are. A fucking gorgeous woman. And a wonderful mother—”
“Hardly,” I croaked out, wondering how he always knew where the dark shadows of anxiety trespassed in my soul.
“A fantastic mother. The mother our children deserve.”
With me melting, the height difference between us went to war with my synapses. I could feel my breathing quicken and my heart race. Softness curled inside my being, overtaking the hard shell that I used to get by.
Only he brought this out in me.
Only he made me crave this, him, instead of wanting to run for the hills.
I sucked in a breath that smelled of his new aftershave—a faintly incense-like aroma the kids had bought him because Katina had said his other one was for old men. This scented heady and warm and spicy. It slithered through my olfactory system, laying claim to that sense too.
Gently, he shuffled me forward until my back pressed into the window. The cool glass contrasted greatly with the wall of heat in front of me.
His eyes, so sharp usually, wicked humor and intelligence evident for all to behold, were soft with love.
For me.
It still boggled my mind that Conor O’Donnelly loved me.
All my battered and abused and broken and volatile edges didn’t matter to him. He loved them because he loved me.
When I swallowed, a hungry cast seemed to mask his features. I wasn’t surprised when his lips caressed mine or that he kept it gentle at first.
Soft brushes here and there. Mostly pecks. Innocent but filled with promise. Tenderly, he nipped on my bottom lip before laving it with his tongue. Instinct had me parting them, and he swept right in.
I shuddered as he breached every defense I had—emotional and physical—but I opened up to him.
Willingly.
When his tongue traced mine, toying and teasing, I followed. I played. I let him steal my breath, but only so that I could surprise him by twining them together and encouraging the battleground to shift to his mouth.
He groaned the second I did, and his erection branded my stomach because he’d switched into sweatpants post-swim and that meant I felt everything.
I delved between us and ran my fingers over his tip, concentrating there to drive him wild. His breath stuttered and his kiss faltered, but that was more than fine.
Just experiencing him react to me, his response, lit me up like a firework display. Nothing empowered me more than this gorgeous genius shuddering at my touch.
The jersey fabric grew damp from pre-cum, which told me he wasn’t wearing underpants, and fuck if that didn’t get me wet too.
I kept my touch light. His response was anything but.
Pushing our foreheads together, I bit his bottom lip as I tugged the waistband of his pants down and dragged his cock free.
One stroke of my palm over his length and he released a guttural groan that had my core pulsing in response.
When I sank to my knees, he grabbed me by the elbows. “Where are you going?”
“Where do you think?”
He huffed, but then with that wiry strength that often fooled me, he lifted me by the damn elbows and carried me to the trunk at the foot of our bed.
“Stay there,” he ordered.
Though I blinked, he nodded and traipsed over to the closet after tucking his cock away.
When he returned with a vibrator, I laughed. “Is this one of yours?”
He scoffed. “Of course it is. I’m not letting you have anything but the best.”
“I wondered where Lorelei’s gifts went.”
“Savannah’s Mom can go to hell. My woman uses my toys.”
His woman shuddered. “Is that my Christmas gift?”
“One of them.”
I could feel the low-level burn begin. Just thinking about what this toy would do had warmth arcing through my body.
And he saw it too.
A cocky smirk creased his jaw, but he didn’t say anything. To distract from that smirk, the wise man threw his hoodie off and then tugged down his sweats.
While I enjoyed the show, he dropped to his knees in front of me and carefully unfastened my jeans.
I wiggled to help him remove them as well as my panties and then tossed off my thin sweater before unhooking my bra.
Biting my lip, I watched as his gaze tripped all over me. Every inch received an appreciative glance. It was insane to be this wanted. This desired. I’d never known anything like it in my life, and it always made this so easy.
I rarely worried about the shadows of the past with Conor because he made everything brand new, and it was always enhanced by the knowledge that he’d put me on a very high, very stable pedestal.
I’d never be knocked off it. That level of certainty was a faith I had in only one person—him.
“You are so fucking perfect,” he rasped, merely confirming where my racing thoughts had taken me.
I watched him study my cunt and knew that he could see the beginnings of arousal. His knuckles ran over my folds, one gently circling my slit before he tilted his hand and rubbed my clit.
“What does the next miracle toy do?” I released on a sigh as my back arched.
“It has a sucking motion—”
“Oh, I’ve seen those.”
He sniffed. “You haven’t seen one like this. It flutters back and forth too—”
“Like a lick?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you intend on doing while that toy does all the work for you?” He eyed my tits, and I ahhhed. “Now I understand.”
“Chef’s perks?”
“You’re not cooking anything.”
“No, but I made you something infinitely unique,” he demurred before fluttering his tongue over my clit.
The stirrings of pleasure began to awaken inside me. “So, you made a toy just for this?”
“I’m selfless.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“If you knew how many prototypes I burned through, you’d realize how selfless I am.”
It was my turn to smirk. “Okay, I’m convinced. Who gets to come first?”
“If you don’t, then I’ll throw it out.”
My eyes bugged. “You’re such a perfectionist.”
“If it doesn’t blow your fucking mind, what’s the actual point?”
“I can’t decide if you’re upselling or downselling this.”
At my wry tone, he beamed. “Only one way to find out.”
I studied the contraption, unsurprised that it didn’t conform to any of the typical sex toys I’d seen on the market.
The little sucker thing was different, and I could tell he’d taken my request for a harder edge on one side because I liked to feel the vibrations intensely on my clit.
He’d also moved the power button from where it had been on the last few he’d created, and it weighed barely anything once he placed it in my palm.
Seeing his excitement and getting the idea that what I was about to experience would be life-changing… I hit the power button.
Immediately, my eyes widened—and that was just in the palm of my hand.
“Holy fuck!”
“Yeah. I had to be careful. I don’t want to cause nerve damage from the vibrations, so make sure you hold it here.”
I followed his instructions with a shake of my head.
“Now, press on it until it’s the lowest vibe so you can build up to that level.”
I blinked. Again. But did as he said. The softer level packed more of a punch than any toys Lorelei had ever gifted me.
He stared at me with an expectant air, and releasing a heavy exhalation, I rubbed the tip of the device over my clit.
My eyes widened before immediately shuttering. My brows furrowed and I uttered a deep, deep moan that bordered on cleansing.
A guttural sigh escaped me next as my hips jolted back, then forward as I rode the device.
Only when the early flutterings of release hit me did he murmur, “That’s it, baby. Take your pleasure. Go on. Fuck me, you’re so hot like this.”
My throat bobbed as I keened, “Conor.”