Chapter 13
thirteen
GEORGIE
“Oh, come on. You had to have cracked a smile.” There’s no way he didn’t when he stumbled on his boss—Evergreen Lake’s new sheriff—in the lake with two women skinny dipping.
“Maybe.” Drew’s lips twitch.
“You so did.” I point my fork at him. “I bet you laughed.”
“If I did, and I’m not saying that’s what happened, but if I did, I wouldn’t have done it until I was in the cruiser driving away.”
I can’t help the smile forming on my face. “And that was the first time you met him? Sheriff Whitworth?” I can’t stifle a giggle before I say my next words. “In the flesh?”
I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, but a snort escapes me anyway, and Drew isn’t faring much better. His lips are pressed together in a tight line, and those tiny laugh lines at the corners of his eyes make an appearance. It takes him ages to answer me too.
“Yes, it was the first time I was face to face with my new boss. Our only interaction before today was a brief discussion over the phone.”
“Oh! That reminds me. I heard a rumor Maddox crashed his car on the way here.”
“Not a rumor.”
I wait for him to elaborate but he just scoops up a forkful of pot roast and puts it in his mouth. But there’s a tilt to his lips that tells me he’s trying not to smile.
With a huff, I pick up a carrot and nibble on the end. The way his eyes track my movements, the way his jaw slows as he chews…oh yeah, two can play the tease game.
Because that’s what he’s doing. He knows I’m waiting for him to give me more information. While his reticence to talk is normal, he’s been more verbal in recent days, and I just know he’s keeping quiet to rile me up.
He stops chewing all together when I pop the last bit of carrot in my mouth and lick my lips.
His thick throat works as he swallows and lowers his fork. “I didn’t want to jump you the second I got here…”
I arch an eyebrow and tilt my head, a smirk playing on my lips before I close my eyes and swallow with a small moan. “I forgot how delicious this meal is.”
“That’s it!” My eyes pop open as he shoves his chair back and surges to his feet.
Laughing, I jump up and turn, but I don’t even take a step away from the table—not that I know where I’m going—before Drew is on me.
His arms wrap around my waist and I’m off my feet, my back pressed against his chest, his lips pressed to my ear.
“I’m jumping now,” he growls.
He has me in my bedroom, face down on my bed in record time, and when he lays himself on top of me, his weight pressing me deeper into the soft bedding, my laughter turns into a moan.
I know where this is going and my body is already lighting up, my core clenching and weeping with anticipation, and we haven’t even taken our clothes off.
“I love that sound.” His teeth graze my earlobe. “I want to hear it over and over again.”
His words, his hot breath fanning my face, along with the feel of his thick erection pressing into my ass, has me shivering with a moan.
“Yeah, just like that.” He punctuates his sentence with a thrust of his hips that has me moaning again. “There it is. Let’s see if we can get you to do it louder.”
I’ve barely register his words when he’s off me, his hand curling around the waist of my yoga pants. They’re down and off my sock covered feet in my next breath.
“Jesus fuck. Georgie. ” My name is more groan than word. “Look at you.”
Glancing over my shoulder I see he’s staring at my ass. The one exposed by the thong I’m wearing. I grin and wiggle my hips, lift them slightly.
“Goddammit!”
A crack splits the air a second before pain blooms across my right butt cheek.
“Oww…” My voice tapers off as heat streaks through my flesh to pulse in my core. My ass cheek burns, my thighs clench, my clit throbs. “Ooo…”
He smooths his palm over my tingling cheek then squeezes, and a pinch of pain once again fires through me to thrum in my clit.
I haven’t caught my breath when another crack echoes in the room and my left cheek lights up with the same sensations.
I’m gasping, clenching, and rocking as my whole body stings with arousal.
“Fuck that’s pretty.” His hands are on my ass, palming and stroking and squeezing, each touch sending sparklers of tingling pain through me to burst into flame in my sex, and as the seconds tick by I climb closer to release. “I love seeing my mark on you.”
My brain is fogged with lust, I can’t think about anything but the pleasure coursing through me, the need pounding in my veins. “ Please. ”
His hands slide under my shirt and up my back, pushing the top up as they go. “I want you naked.”
“Yes.” I raise my arms over my head, let him take my top off, all while clenching my core muscles in search of relief from the burning between my legs.
“Don’t worry.” A fingertip trails down the side of my face. “I’ll give you what you need.”
A squeak bursts from my lungs when he grips my ankles and yanks me down the bed. My hips press into the mattress edge, my knees to the floor, and when cool air brushes over the warm globes of my ass I suck in a breath.
My thong is gone a second later. Torn apart and wrenched from beneath me.
“Drew—”
I don’t get anything else out because his mouth is on me. His hands span the back of my thighs, push them apart, and his face presses harder against my sex.
He licks and nips and sucks and I’m barreling towards release in seconds. I can’t keep quiet. Or still. He’s giving me more pleasure than I knew existed.
It’s not the first time a guy has gone down on me but it’s never felt like this.
Everything Drew does feels new and yet familiar. He hits all the right spots, instinctively knows how hard or fast I need to get me skyrocketing into orbit.
In seconds he has me writhing and gasping and moaning and begging for relief.
“Please,” I sob into the bed. “Pleas?—”
He pinches my clit between his teeth and shoves fingers inside me.
“Drew!”
My whole body spasms. Clenches and releases and clenches, over and over, while flashes of light fill my vision and my chest heaves as every molecule of air is dragged from my lungs.
I don’t know how long I lie there struggling to breathe, or how long the spasms ripple through me. It feels like forever before I’m able to think—to move.
Lifting my head, I turn in search of the man who just blew my mind. The only thing I can think about is touching him, getting my hands and mouth on him.
When my eyes land on him, he’s across the room standing in the doorway, his hands gripping the frame above his head.
It’s the look on his face that has my brain snapping back online. “What’s wrong?” I manage to roll over. “Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
The lust fog must still be hanging on because I have no idea what he’s talking about. “What?”
“I was too rough, too demanding, too?—”
“Whoa.” I shove myself up on one arm. “Did you hear me complaining?”
He studies me and I squirm under his gaze. I might have just come hard enough to blow brain cells but the way he looks at me has my nerves buzzing with excitement.
“In case you missed it, I came harder than I ever have. In. My. Life. Also in case you didn’t notice, I begged for you not to stop; not once did I say stop. No, I begged for you to keep going. Drew.” I reach out a hand, hope he takes the hint and comes back to me. “I’m fully capable of telling you to stop if I don’t like what you’re doing.”
He ignores my hand and shakes his head. “I hit you.”
Ah . “You spanked me. And I got off on it just like you did.”
“I’ve never done that before. Never thought about doing it to anyone else.”
I try to hide my smile by pulling my bottom lip between my teeth. I more than like knowing I’m the only woman he’s done that with. It makes the moment more special. “I haven’t done that before either. But I know I want to do it again. If you’re willing.”
His head cocks to the side and those eyes rove over me, from head to toe. He catalogs every inch of me. “You’re not lying,” he murmurs.
“Hell no! But if there’s any doubt I enjoyed what we just did, and how could there be when I’ve soaked the bed with my release, I’m telling you, I. Loved. It!”
“Hmm…”
His hum has a shiver skittering over my skin, goosebumps popping up in its wake. “You want to know what you’ve done wrong tonight?” I ask.
Straightening, he drops his hands to his sides and fists them. “Yes.” His voice is full of conviction and fear.
“Okay.” I move off the bed and walk toward him. When I get close enough, I place a palm flat on his chest. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”
Neither of us speaks or moves. Pretty sure we don’t breathe.
I’m on the verge of gripping his shirt in my fist when he snaps. Like he did earlier, I’m off my feet, pressed against him in less than a second.
He buries his face in the side of my neck and growls, “Thank fuck!”
Wrapping my arms around him, I hold on tight and let him settle. Every inch of him is hard—including the ones between his legs—but he doesn’t make a move, either toward the bed or on me.
His breaths are heavy and the hold he has on me a little desperate, as though he thinks I’m about to wiggle free and run. I want to soothe him, want to say something, do something, that will calm his racing heart.
Except for someone who loves words so much, my brain is dismally lacking.
We hold each other for what feels like hours and while I want to make this better, I’m quite happy in Drew’s arms. I feel safe in them. Like everything is right—where it’s meant to be.
“I’m sorry I freaked out.”
His words startle me and I lean my head back to look up at him. “Is that what you did?”
“Yeah. You’re so…” He shakes his head. “Precious. I said before I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not only talking about emotionally. I’d hate myself, never forgive myself, if I hurt one hair on your head.”
My mouth threatens to kick up in a smile and it takes all my concentration to not let it. I’m thrilled he wants to protect me from pain but I’ve learned that life doesn’t work that way.
“Drew. Nothing we did tonight hurt me, I promise you that. But life isn’t lived in a bubble and I’m sure we’re going to do things in the future that hurt each other.” I sneak my hand up between us and press my fingers to his lips when he goes to speak. “No. Let me finish.”
I wait, make sure he’s going to remain quiet before returning my hand to his chest and continuing.
“It might be something as simple as forgetting a requested bag of marshmallows or leaving a wet towel on the floor, or forgetting an anniversary, a birthday. There are any number of things that can hurt us but I don’t believe for one second you would hurt me on purpose. And I promise, I would never do that to you.”
My eyes are locked on his and I hope he can see the sincerity of my words. After several seconds his head lowers and I think he’s going to kiss me, my lips part in anticipation, except he doesn’t.
He rests his forehead on mine and takes a deep breath. “What ever I did to deserve you, I need to keep doing it.”
“You’re just being you.”
His brow rolls back and forth on mine. “I wasn’t enough?—”
I jerk away, yank a handful of his shirt to make sure I have his full attention. “Oh, no you don’t. I don’t care what your ex or anyone else said, you are enough, you were always enough. They weren’t! And to make up for that they blamed you. It’s bullshit.”
A grin forms on his face before he says, “I like it when you get feisty.”
“I’m not a delicate flower, I won’t break. I’ve been through so much and I’m still standing. Any one of those things could have taken me down, made me give up, but I didn’t let them.”
“No. You’re not delicate. Your strength is something I’m drawn to. Even more after your grandmother…” He shakes his head. “You weathered that loss on your own. I wanted so badly to hold you, to help you through it, but I didn’t think I should and you didn’t need me. You came out of that the same bright, smiling woman.”
“I wouldn’t say I didn’t need someone, but I didn’t have anyone, and Granny taught me that even when life takes away what we love we’re still living it and we should do it the best way we can.”
“A smile is free and it could brighten someone else’s day.”
I laugh. “Oh my gosh, she said that to you?”
“Yes. Every time I came into the library. And any time she saw me around town. You’ve said it a few times too.”
“She loved that saying, but mostly she believed it. Made me believe it.”
“She was right. Your smile brightens my day every time I see it.”
“Well, if you want me to brighten your day again, you better get your clothes off and take me to bed.”
“As you wish.”
In my next breath I’m flat on my back, the mattress bouncing beneath me, and Drew stands beside the bed stripping his clothes off.
Nothing better than watching the man you love get naked.
My smile falters when I realize what just went through my head.
I already knew I was falling for my grumpy deputy, but after the last few minutes I know the fall is over.
I’m already on the ground.