Chapter One #2
If she was pulling away, he wanted her to just do it. Rip the bandage off. He could handle bad news better than uncertainty.
Summer wasn’t usually cautious with him.
And that hesitation alone put him on edge.
* * * * *
Summer knew this thing with Vander couldn’t go on. What they shared was temporary at best. There was no future in it and no version where it ended in a relationship.
And if there was anything a single mom couldn’t ignore, it was the future. Her own wants didn’t come into play when she had her son to look out for.
But as she stood there drinking in Vander’s rugged features and his muscled arms that felt so good around her, three words filled her brain.
One more time.
It was a bad decision. She knew it even as she made it, even as her pulse kicked up for a reason that had everything to do with temptation.
He stared down at her, eyes half-lidded and his chest the perfect spot for her hands to slide up.
Movement to the side caught her eye, and she glanced toward the duplex’s neighboring screen door. It inched open soundlessly and the barrel of a gun appeared.
Most people would panic at the sight of a gun popping through a neighbor’s screen door, but in this neighborhood—and this duplex too—it meant Granny Helen was on watch. Even if she wasn’t a blood relative, the woman had Summer’s back more than anyone else in this town.
Vander went dead still, but Summer threw a small wave to Granny Helen. “It’s me. I’m good.”
Granny didn’t lower the weapon right away. The crack in the door parted a bit wider as she leaned forward to get a better look, her sharp gaze moving from Summer to Vander.
“It’s okay,” Summer assured her again.
A beat passed before Granny gave a short nod. “You holler if you need anything.”
“I will.”
The barrel retreated along with Granny’s face, and the door closed.
After the exchange, she wondered if this was an omen for her to just thank Vander for making sure she made it home safe and send him away.
But the dark glimmer in his eyes made her hold the door open before she could change her mind.
She glanced back over her shoulder. “Come in.”
As the door shut, the light from a small lamp she always left burning for when she came home from work washed over them, a warm glow that highlighted small things she’d left lying around.
Her son’s jacket. A couple comic books on the table. The house felt too quiet without him these past two days since her parents picked him up for winter break.
It also meant no getting up early for the school run. No responsibilities.
Her skin was already tingling at the way Vander was looking at her.
He reached back and locked the door.
Then he was on her.
His mouth crashed down on hers hard, and she met him on tiptoe, fisting his shirt to pull him closer.
He let out a low groan that tightened the knot low in her stomach and angled his head to deepen the kiss.
She slipped her hands up his thick, muscled shoulders and tore off his cowboy hat. It tumbled to the floor, and she sank her fingers in his hair.
He moved his hands over her body, dragging her coat off her shoulders and letting it drop. As he tugged up the hem of her top, he let one callused fingertip glide over her ribs.
Her skin pebbled. Her nipples pinched into tight buds.
Gasping, she parted her lips, and he swept his tongue over hers. Liquid heat that came with every one of his touches stole through her belly and set her on fire.
Their clothes didn’t last long. He ripped off her top and knew his way around a bra clasp like it was his job. She worked off his shirt and went straight for his belt buckle.
In seconds, they both kicked off their boots and stepped out of their bottoms so there wasn’t a stitch between them.
His gaze scraped down her breasts and a stomach that bore the signs of carrying a nine-pound-three-ounce child to full term, to the dark shadow between her thighs. “Christ, Summer. You’re so damn beautiful.”
She’d heard it before from him, but it always struck the soft, feminine part of her that craved kisses and sweet nothings and dates who showed up with a bouquet of flowers.
Running her hands down his carved chest to his washboard abs…and lower…she flicked her eyes up to his. “Pretty words from a cowboy.”
His lips quirked at one corner, but it lasted only a single heartbeat before he lifted her. With a soft cry, she wrapped her legs around him as he turned down the hallway without breaking stride.
He didn’t need the light to find his way to her bedroom—he’d been here at least a dozen times since they started this wild fling to scratch an itch for each other.
Her back hit the mattress and he followed her down, settling his weight over her. His mouth found hers and she arched her body into his as their tongues swirled in the heat of passion.
Everything else dropped away. The late shifts and PB&J sandwiches with the crusts cut off. The smell of draft beer and the endless spiral of catching up on bills.
Vander kissed her until her lips were swollen and she was gasping for more. When he pressed small kisses down her neck, her insides clutched with want.
Moving lower, he dragged his tongue across the swell of her breast before taking her nipple between his lips. Hot desire rushed through her veins, making her pulsate. She dug her nails into his shoulders to anchor herself, but soon he slipped out of her grasp and slid down her body.
She stopped breathing as he hooked her ankle over his shoulder and buried his face in her pussy. His tongue flicked out to lick her wet folds, and her whole body locked with anticipation of him blowing her mind.
He let out a groan, and she echoed it as he lapped a path down her soaking seam to dip inside her pussy. He burrowed deeper, tasting her inner walls and tongue-fucking her with a skill that she knew from past experiences went above and beyond.
Her body rocked to the rhythm of his tongue. Working it back up to flick around her aching clit, he brought her to a fast, hard peak that made her vision white out. She threw her head back and rode the waves breaking over her.
With her body still trembling, Vander’s mouth covered hers. The taste of herself on his lips sent a thrill through her again, and she wrapped her ankles behind his back and pulled him down on top of her.
He had a condom at the ready and rolled on in seconds. Hovering over her again, their gazes met.
She tried not to feel the slight rattle in her heart from the intense expression in his eyes. This wasn’t about emotions. This was only pleasure.
When he slid inside her in one smooth motion, her body took over again. She gasped, gripping him as he moved, hips churning, cock stretching her just the way she needed it.
He withdrew on a low growl and plunged back inside her. She felt the power coiled in his muscles and saw it in the way the cords in his neck stood out in an effort to gain control, to slow down.
She watched him for a minute, silhouetted by moonlight streaming through her bedroom window, and thought things she had no business thinking.
Shoving them away, she focused on the moment. On making them both feel good and getting what they wanted from their night.
She squeezed her inner muscles around his thick length, and he groaned.
“You’re killing me, honey.”
“Good.” She crushed her lips to his and kissed him with all the desire building inside her. Heat stroked along her senses, and that coil of pleasure in her core tugged, sharp and tight.
“Oh god, Summer.” He kissed her again, long and forceful, as he drove them toward the final pinnacle. But when he slipped his hand between them and pressed a fingertip over her aching clit, her mind splintered…and her body went with it.
“Vander!”
His name broke out of her as she came, and he followed right after, his muscles hardening and his movements growing jerky before the low groan of completion burst from him.
Everything went still. It should surprise her by now, how he could take her through a storm into complete calm and make her mind blank with so little effort.
She didn’t move, listening to the quiet hum of the furnace and their breathing as it slowed.
He didn’t move either. Time stretched on, and she knew exhaustion of such a long day was about to win. When she felt him draw the covers over her, her mind decided to make a return.
She caught his wrist before he could pull away. In the moonlight, his eyes glistened dark blue, but she knew they were much closer to the cool color of the sea.
Her throat closed, but she forced the words out anyway. “You know this can never happen again.”
He stared into her eyes. “We’ve been saying that for a while.
” He brushed a caress up her arm, light and fleeting.
It almost undid the decision she’d made when he walked into the Stockyard tonight, in jeans and a Black Heart Ranch T-shirt, that Stetson riding low and looking so hot that every woman in the place started panting.
Her included.
She pushed into a sitting position, pulling the blanket over her bare breasts. “I’ve been thinking.”
He went still, body more rigid than when he saw Granny’s gun aimed at him.
She hated that she had to say the words.
“I realized recently that I have nothing to give. And you have nothing to give either.”
Damn. It hurt more than she expected, but she knew this road was headed to a dead end. She had to stop now because she wasn’t winding up at another dead end.
He didn’t argue or push for more.
He just got up.
That was worse.
Her chest grew hot and tight and would have made words impossible if she had anything left to say.
He pulled on his clothes and didn’t stop to look back at her as he walked out of the room.
In the front of the house, she heard the front door open and close.
She sat there in the dark, the blanket tight around her, her body still warm from her lover’s touch and her chest aching in a way she couldn’t ignore.
She’d made the right call. Did what she had to.
But it didn’t stop her from wishing.