24. Devon
DEVON
Isit across from Ember at my mother’s dining room table.
Familiar sights and sounds are made brand new just by having her here.
I wince to think about how I acted earlier.
She brings out a sex-crazed fiend in me that I’ve not even come to grips with yet.
I don’t know what would have happened if Mom hadn’t interrupted with an invitation to dinner.
Mom places the meatloaf between the three of us before taking her place at the head of the table.
“I hope you know, Ember, that I really want to help. I wish there was more I could do, but politics. It’s sad to say, but it is real.
If he won’t give you an extension on the fine or break it up into payments, you come talk to me.
Another business is good business for Harvest Falls. I’ll make him see.”
Mom hasn’t stopped talking about the issue with Nichols since we got here, so I can tell how guilty she feels. Ember, for her part, doesn’t blame her at all. In fact, she’s tried to change the subject several times. “Thank you, Mrs. Lachey. I will. I have a feeling it’ll all be okay.”
Ember smiles at me, and my mom notices. For the first time in a long time, it doesn’t bother me that my mom notices every little thing.
She can see how much I care for Ember already as we fast approach October and the core of the Fall Spectacular festivities.
“You two are the cutest,” Mom gushes. “Oh, I’m so glad you’ve found each other.
Not that I’m pushing anything. Take all the time you need to get to know one another. You know how it goes.”
Crimson appears on Ember’s cheeks. I find it cute as hell, so I don’t bother to stop my mother as she goes on and on about love stories from around town.
The way she tells it, Harvest Falls is the perfect place to fall in love, and it boasts more true love matches per capita than any other town nationwide.
She sounds like she’s thinking of adding all of this information to the town website, whether she made it up or not.
“You just want to make Valentine’s Day a thing here now, too,” I accuse.
My mom’s eyes get wide. “It’s not a bad idea. Re-election here I come.”
“So besides fall, there’s—.”
“Well, we tried the Winter Wonderland thing but it didn’t stick. So, maybe Valentine’s Day is a viable opportunity. Just think of all the couples who could stay at the bed and breakfast. Then the café, bakery, and pub could also benefit. I’m sure some of the other businesses could do something.”
“The well,” Ember says.
Mom peers at me, surprised.
“I told her about the well today,” I confirm.
She claps her hands and looks up at the ceiling. “He’s loved that thing ever since he was a kid. It’s magic.”
She doesn’t say it in a way that’s teasing. My mother has always been like that. If I want to think something is magic, then why shouldn’t it be? I used to have a favorite pair of socks I wore on game days, too.
“What history you have here,” Ember notes, taking a bite out of the meatloaf Mom serves her. “I couldn’t find anything about it online, and only a couple of things at the library though.”
“Did you try the first-person diaries from residents’ past?”
“I don’t think I did. I just searched the catalog.”
“Ah,” my mom says. “These aren’t digitized. I’m sure you can find a few journals or diaries that mention the well. Probably Old Man Lewis’s. I know he donated it in his will to the local library, which we’re extremely grateful for.”
“Do you think Nichols would use that as enough evidence to make it a historical landmark? Devon and I want to preserve it. Right now, it’s looking a little shabby.”
“Listen to you. Devon and I,” she echoes, and I swear her eyes glisten with the beginning of tears.
Ember blushes some more, but I’m going to allow Mom to give her the full brunt of what every other townsperson will do as soon as we go public with our relationship.
Not that everyone doesn’t already know. Chase, who works the counter at the hardware store, even mentioned it the last time I was there.
Mom shakes herself off though. Ever the mayor, she starts pelting us with questions about what we want to do with the well. Ember lets me take the lead, and I tell her everything we’d discussed when we were there.
Being at the well together solidified the fact that I’m not going to let Ember get away. If I have to pay the fine myself, I will. If I have to make Ember feel she can be safe with me in every possible way, I’ll figure it out.
My mom makes sounds of appreciation as I talk, and when I’m finished, she says, “I. Love. It. You two really do make such a good pair. Think of everything you’ve accomplished since Ember has been here. I hear the Children’s Haunted House is coming together.”
“It is,” Ember agrees. “I need to start making the curtains. I’m not much of a seamstress, but I’m sure I can do it. I just don’t have a sewing machine.”
Mom snaps her fingers. “I can help with that! There’s one in the attic, and you’re welcome to borrow it.”
“That would be fantastic,” Ember says, all smiles.
“I’ll load it in the truck when we leave.”
Mine and Ember’s gazes meet again. The rest of the dinner goes smoothly, and then Mom whisks us out the door so she can watch Jeopardy.
It’s the only thing she never misses. I’ve even known her to black out her schedule so she won’t be interrupted.
“Everyone needs their vices,” she’s always said to me.
My vice must be Ember. I place the sewing machine in the back of the truck and make the short drive back to the heart of Harvest Falls.
Ember spots one of the historic landmark plaques just outside the square.
“You know, if you want to attract visitors any other time of the year, you might want to think about renaming the town. Maybe even just for the season. Like Holiday Falls for Christmas, and something-I-can’t-think-of-now-but-it-revolves-around-love for Valentine’s Day. ”
“My mom might have to watch out. It sounds like you’re coming for her job.”
“I would never, but I don’t mind passing out ideas.”
I pull up next to Sleepy Hollow Manor and park. This time, Ember waits for me as I help her out, and then I move to the back of the truck to grab the sewing machine.
“Where do you want it?” I ask as she opens the gate, and I follow her up to the porch.
“Let’s just put it in the dining room for now.”
When I enter, Ember turns on the lights as I move through the hall toward the dining room, placing the sewing machine on the grand table. Surprise flickers through me when I turn, and she’s right there. “I’m scared,” she says.
I tilt my head.
She shakes hers. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding anything super intimate.
It’s not that I don’t want to because I do—I really do—but I’m just worried about what happens after.
It will change things, and I don’t know how much more change I can go through.
I’ve already upended my life. I’m here, trying to figure things out on my own. ”
“That’s the problem,” I tell her, pulling her close. “You’re not alone. I don’t want to help you with just the house, I want to be right by your side for everything.”
“It’s scary,” she echoes again.
“Or you could look at it as an adventure. Like the tale of Devon and Ember. We can write our own story.”
“And it’ll have a happily ever after?”
“My version does.”
From day one, the pull has been a nagging obstacle.
It was stupid to resist it, but it was easy when I knew why she was here.
Over the weeks, we’ve only gotten closer, brought together by the house and the work we’ve done together, but we’ve slowly become intricate parts to the other’s story.
I can’t imagine my life without her in it now.
“I have a confession to make,” she says, peering up at me through thick lashes. “I like it when you talk dirty.”
Relief floods through me. I’ve never been like that with anyone else, but my need for her came out like that, like a destructive torpedo, and I couldn’t take the words back once I said them.
I lift her and place her on the dining room table.
“You really shouldn’t have told me that.
” I part her legs and move between them.
Earlier, her nipples were straining so hard, but she has a different bra on now, and it’s hard to tell what’s going on underneath it.
“When’s the last time you orgasmed?” I ask, clamping her thighs around mine.
“I’m embarrassed to say.”
That answer could go two different ways, so I wait for her to tell me.
“A long time.”
“Let me help you.” I undo the button on her jeans and then shimmy them down her ass. She lifts as I move them across her thighs and down, leaving me enough room to work with. I then trail my hand up the inside of her legs before gripping her hip over her panties, royal blue and silk.
“You’re good at helping,” she gulps, like she’s trying to talk herself into it.
“Only with you. I can fix your house.” I kiss her shoulder. “I can fix your ballroom.” I pull her shirt down and kiss her collarbone. “And…”
“You can fix my climax problem?”
I pull back. “You have trouble?”
“I think so. I don’t know. With my ex, yes. Though, I never seem to have trouble on my own.”
I lick my lips. A new task unlocked. I’m not stopping until she comes around my fingers.
“I think that was your ex’s problem because you’re perfect.”
I trail my hands down her belly, over the line of her panties until I find her core. She inches her legs further apart, taking in a deep breath like she has to steel herself.
“Devon.”
“It’s okay.”
She tries to relax, but when I press my thumb into her clit, she freezes up.
“You’re so gorgeous, Sweetheart. God, these hips. Your whole body, like it was made for me.”
Her eyes flutter closed, and I take that as my cue to rub circles into her nub.
Her hands grip the edge of the dining table, muscles so tight, it’s hard to keep her thighs from clamping around me.
I guide her backward, making her lay on the table.
I pick up one of her legs, forcing it to the side as I continue to stroke her clit.
My own cock swells to the point of restraint against my pants, but I’m not worried about me tonight. The noises out of her mouth make my heart thrum with anticipation. She moans, her mouth firmly closed.
“Don’t hold back. I want to hear it.”
A strangled cry comes from her mouth. I hook my arm around her leg, replacing my right thumb with my left, and then sneaking my other hand past her panties, deftly moving them out of the way before I find her bare pussy.
Her eyes round, like each new step I take is a scary sensation. I rim my finger around her hole and then press inside as the purest noise of ecstasy releases from her throat.
She starts to chant, “Oh my God” while my two hands work in tandem. One still rubbing her clit while the other now presses two fingers inside her. Her hips start to lift to meet me.
She’s so beautiful. Fuck.
Little by little, a new confidence takes over. She doesn’t guard the sounds coming out of her throat, or the way her hips buck into me. It’s as if she’s so wrapped up in me she doesn’t have another care in the world.
“Oh God,” she moans, the sound so deep in her throat like it’s coming from her very being.
“Just pretend this isn’t about to happen,” she says quickly before she screams, the exquisite sound filling the room around us.
I slow my movements until I know she’s spent absolutely everything and collapses back onto the table.
I lean over to kiss her belly button. “I would never want to pretend that didn’t happen.” I remove my hands, straighten out her panties, and lean over her on the table. “Orgasm accomplished.”
She puts her hands over her eyes. “I was too loud.”
“Are you kidding me?” I tell her, pulling her hands away. “Be as loud as you want. It’s good for my ego. Plus, it’s your house. You can do whatever you want in it.”
She sits up, placing her hands on my chest. “That was… Is it stupid if I say fun?”
I crack up. “It’s perfect if you say fun.”
“And I’m not broken,” she says.
If her ex told her she was, I would punch him in the face, but I decide I can’t ask about him right now. I don’t want to ruin the moment. “We can prove it again,” I tell her, gripping her hip once more. She has sexy hips. Sexy thighs. Sexy everything.
She hesitates, so I know I’ve pushed her as far as she wants to go tonight. I press my forehead against hers. “You’re safe with me.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.”