Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Leonard
Lying in the crawl space of Shelby’s attic, I strain to hear any noise from the women below.
Silence greets me.
It’s 4 a.m. and my girl and her bestie have been drinking for hours. Apparently, a girls’ night is exactly what they needed because after the crying came the laughing.
I hadn’t been the only one off my game this morning. Shelby had been distracted and off-kilter when we saw her out front this morning.
Maybe two nights in a row was too much.
It doesn’t matter. She’ll get used to it.
Used to me.
She’ll have to because even the thought of going back to “Halloween only” makes my heart squeeze.
No, Shelby needs to know that I’m not going anywhere. Once she accepts that, I’ll tell her who I am. And then we’ll be a family.
This had been my fourth Halloween in Cromwell. We moved here for a fresh start, only to find out that my wife’s lover had followed us here. Over my dead body or, more accurately, theirs.
The first Halloween had only been a few months after my wife “ran away.” Cromwell is a small town. They would not have appreciated me moving on so quickly, especially with a newly turned nineteen-year-old.
But Shelby is twenty-three, and I’m now a divorced single dad. My daughter needs a mother, and I deserve to move on.
Shelby is mine. Always has been.
Forgoing releasing the ladder steps, I grip the edge and lean down until I’m poking out of the loft entrance. Folding, my body curls over until I hang down. Letting go, I drop the few feet into the hallway.
The house is still. Stepping into the living room, I can’t stop the grin that spreads across my face.
This woman.
Shelby is draped over one sofa while Samantha is curled up on the other.
Making my way over to her friend, I eye the four bottles of wine on the coffee table. Three empty and one still sealed. Two long-stemmed glasses sit abandoned next to them.
But that’s not what has me worried. A pint glass sits on the side table beside Shelby, and apple juice fills it halfway.
“Shit,” I curse.
Grabbing the wool throw, I fan it over Samantha, dipping my hand between her face and the back of the couch cushion.
Hot breath fans my skin.
Huffing out a breath, I turn to the woman responsible for my pounding heart.
As I approach, her eyes flutter drowsily. She’s unfocused and dopey.
The way she lies looks awkward and uncomfortable. Her tight jeans don’t help, not that she’ll have them on for much longer.
Glancing over my shoulder, I check on her friend. Jeans too. She’ll be fine. Besides, I don’t want my girl to get the wrong idea by seeing her friend undressed.
I only have eyes for Shelby.
Crouching, I brush the hair from her eyes. Gray-blue eyes blink back at me. Not quite gray, not quite blue. If anyone were to ask her, she’d say they were blue, but I’ve stared at them enough to know better.
Blue doesn’t do them justice. Her eyes are like the rest of her . . . complicated.
Just like us.
“Did you drink water? Naughty girl.”
My question gains me a cute smirk.
“Shelby?” I rouse her with my sharp tone.
“Yep.”
“Good.”
“See, I’m not naughty.”
“This makes you naughty. How much did you drink?” I ask, plucking the pint glass off the side table.
She holds her thumb and forefinger up with a small distance between them. About half the glass.
“And two glasses of wine.”
Good. Given what’s left in the glass, I believe her. My heart rate slows, returning to a regular pace.
Just enough that she won’t remember this in the morning, but not enough to pump her stomach. I place the drink back down. A special concoction made just for my girl.
“I wanted more, but you wouldn’t like it.”
I rub my thumb below her eye.
“Did Samantha drink any?”
“Nope. Two bottles of wine.”
I grin when she holds up three fingers. Wrapping my hand around the digits, I give them a gentle squeeze.
Confused, she tries to sit up. “How did you get in?”
Instead of answering, I chuckle.
“Come,” I tell her, gripping her underarms. “Time for bed.”
“Okay,” Shelby agrees, standing, her earlier words forgotten.
“How was your girls’ night?”
“Weird,” she whispers, her eyes widening, “Sam and Kaleb, hmm hmm.” She clears her throat.
“They what?”
“You know.” She waves her hand.
“I don’t.” I frown.
“Had . . . sex,” she whispers so low I barely hear her.
My head rears back. “Really?” I say far too loudly.
“That’s what I said!” she rushes. “But don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret. Shhhh,” she pleads, a finger over her mouth.
My chest warms. She trusts me with her friend’s secrets.
“I won’t tell,” I promise.
Leading her into her bedroom, I release her waist just long enough to click the door closed.
Turning, I find Shelby facing me, her plump lip caught between her teeth.
“I have a secret too, but I didn’t get to tell her.”
I raise a brow. “Oh yeah? What’s that, baby?”
“Shhh,” she shushes, a finger covering her mouth again.
“Arms up, cutie.”
Shelby does as told. Stripping her sweater off, I throw it into the hamper. Her clumsiness from the wine should start to wear off soon. Two glasses don’t make her so inebriated that she can’t function. And my special mix is for memory and drowsiness.
I want her with me here and now. I just don’t want her to remember tomorrow.
“I don’t think I have a boyfriend.”
My hands still on the button of her pants.
“No?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “A lover, a friend with benefits, a fuck buddy.” Shelby gives a sharp nod. “A fuck buddy,” she decides.
“That’s not what we are, Shelby.” I tell her, my tone sharp.
Her body rocks as I snap her jeans open, her head snaps up.
A deep chuckle rumbles out of my chest.
“You,” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears.
“Me,” I confirm.
Shelby pushes up onto her toes, her lips slamming into mine at the same time I dip my hand into her jeans.
“I can’t believe it was you,” she pants. “This whole time.”
My chuckle mixes with her moan. Easing two fingers into her, I nip the side of her neck.
Always so surprised. And eager.
I grin against her skin.
My hand is rough between her legs.
“I told you not to drink the juice tonight. Didn’t I?”
Shelby nods, pushing up farther on her tiptoes. “Ahh.” Her cry is one of pained pleasure.
My other hand latches onto the back of her neck, holding her steady as I walk her backward toward the bed. “You know better than to ignore an order.”
Shelby shakes her head. “I don’t remember.”
“Then let me remind you.”
Removing my hand, I kneel, shoving her jeans and panties down, when they bunch at her feet, I stand impatient.
It may not have been a year since I last sank myself into her, but it might as well have been. I’m desperate to be inside her. To feel the heat of her around me while she begs me to fill her.
Pulling the baby monitor off the back of my dress pants where it was clipped, I place it on the closest side table.
Shelby lies panting, her ass barely on the edge of the bed.
“In case Riley needs me,” I explain.
Leaning over Shelby’s frame, I brace my hands above her shoulders.
“I’m done waiting a year,” I warn her.
My lips bruise hers with the force of my kiss. Shelby moans below me.
“Why?” she pants. “Why don’t I remember?”
I pull away to stare down at her with a tilted head. “Because it wasn’t time. You weren’t ready. I wasn’t ready,” I confess.
“And now?” she whispers.
Pushing off the bed, I stand tall. “And now, I’m going to fuck you in a way that will have you feeling me tomorrow. Every time you move, every time you walk, you’re going to feel me deep inside.”
I watch as a flush spreads over her chest at my words.
I catch and hold her gaze as I lift her legs. Keeping her knees together, I push them to the right. Her hips twist while her shoulders stay flat on the mattress.
My fingers tug my belt free. My eyes roam over Shelby, taking in every inch of her, from her blushing cheeks to her wet pussy.
This woman was made for me. And only me.
“I will never forget the way you whimpered the first time I shoved my cock into you. I was rough and ruthless, but it was nothing compared to how I fucked you after you came on my cock the first time.”
Shelby bites her lip, her thighs squeezing.
I shove my pants down just enough to release my aching member, too impatient to undress further.
Caging her in, I rub the broad head over her wet pussy. Reaching down, I guide myself in. The head of my cock barely pierces her before I pull back out. Over and over, I tease us both.
“Please, please, Leo.”
The sound of my name, so breathy and desperate, snaps what little control I have left. One strong snap of my hips and I’m buried so deep inside her that I don’t know where I end and she begins.
Shelby’s cry rolls into another and then another. My hips swing back and forth, never stopping to give her a chance to catch her breath.
My back arches and my hips flex. My thighs tighten each time I thrust into her with everything I have.
Her body rocks every time my hips meet her ass. The wet sounds of her body sucking me in deeper leave no room for denial.
Shelby loves every minute of me fucking her raw.
My abs burn and my hips ache, the pain adding to my pleasure.
My spine tingles as my orgasm builds. I need to come, to release inside her.
Nails dig into the skin around my ribs.
“Leo!” It’s a cried plea.
“Give it to me. Come for me,” I demand, my panted words strained as I fight my own release.
Shelby shakes her head. “Condom.” Her left hand releases me to point at the bedside table closest to the window.
My movements slow down as I follow her finger. A stack of condoms.
I grunt. “No.”
Her nails pierce my skin.
Hooking my right arm below her bent knees, I lift them higher onto the bed, making room to perch my right knee.
With the added leverage, I fuck her even harder.
“I didn’t use a condom yesterday, and I won’t today.”
Shelby frowns below me. “You knew, at the appointments. You gave me a hard time about couples making this decision together.”
Leaning down, I kiss her flushed cheek. “And I’m making the decision for us now.”
Shoving off the mattress, I brace on my knee and other leg, one hand on her waist and the other gripping her thigh. Pulling her body toward me, I cry out at the added force as our hips meet.
“Come. Now, Shelby, come while I fill you.”
Two more times our hips connect before the ripples of her inner walls start to strangle my cock.
My orgasm rushes out of me, eager to fill her. Over and over, I pump Shelby full of my seed until it leaks out around my cock.
Her eyes squeeze shut, and she misses the way my body goes rigid, my muscles locking as I continue to come.
“I love you,” I breathe into the now still room.