Chapter 36
LAWSON
The park’s dappled sunlight hovers as the trees overhead sway with the midday breeze. Carlie is lying beside me, her head on my arm, the both of us tucked under a fleecy throw and lying on the picnic blanket. Her eyes are closed as the folk of New York enjoy Central Park’s relaxed Sunday hours.
A lazy Sunday in Central Park.
A well-earned one. Our food gone, we doze in the sun.
My family is taking in the sights, with Ruby and Addy as their guides. I’m sure Ma’s in her element following Hattie around. She’s such a devoted grandmother. Almost as devoted as she is to being a mother.
Clouds skim overhead, dotting the crisp blue sky. The snow from last night is scattered in clumps around the park, layered over weighed-down tree branches, on the tops of benches, and melting to small puddles over the paved areas, sending folks stepping sideways as they avoid them.
The park is busy, filled with people enjoying the last day of solace before going back to the grindstone.
Carlie hums, rolling over beside me as her eyes open. “Why’d you let me fall asleep.” She smiles, her fingers tracing the angle of my jaw.
Right now, if I could capture this moment and tuck it away, I would. This right here would be enough to carry me through my darkest moments. I’m not naive enough to think a love like this comes easily. Strong women are a force of nature.
One that’s worth every hard day.
My mother has taught me that.
Then Adds.
Then Rubes . . .
And finally Grace.
I dot a kiss to Carlie’s forehead. Hopefully, I will have the privilege to live my life alongside the best one yet. The woman currently tucked into my side under the fleecy blanket we brought for our picnic slash outdoor nap. “You were tired, Princess.”
“I’m not tired anymore . . .”
Her brown eyes darken.
“Baby, we’ll have to take this picnic indoors if you keep looking at me like that.”
She chuckles, rising a little to peck my lips.
Now she’s gone and done it. I roll over, pinning her down. “You grab the blanket, I’ll get the food basket, we can be home in ten.”
“That’s too long,” she groans.
I chuckle into her hair. “I can have us there in eight,” I growl, nipping her bottom lip.
“Get a room!” some guy yells, flying past on his scooter.
Fucking New York.
“Grab the blanket, baby. We’re outta here.”
I scoop Carlie up, and she manages to grab the basket with one hand and the blanket with the other.
As I take off at a run with her in my arms, her head falls back as a hearty laugh tumbles through the prettiest damn parted lips.
The basket thumps against my side and I manage to dodge the blanket trailing between my legs as I run with a waddle.
Reaching the edge of the park, I set her to her feet, the basket falling to the ground. She steps over the blanket to cup my jaw in her palms. “How do you manage to make my life so much better with even the littlest of things?”
I sink my mouth over hers briefly, barely leaving her panting lips from mine. “It’s supposed to be easy, that’s what makes it the real thing.”
Hell, loving this woman is as easy as breathing. I take off in my waddled run again, and she cracks up.
“Are you sure? Because you have been anything but easy, Lawson Rawlins,” she teases.
I nip her ear, slowing a little. She moans ever so softly, propelling me faster again. When we make it to my building, I’m well and truly out of breath. But I don’t want to put her down.
Ever, if I can help it.
I push through the front door and take the steps two at a time, letting the burn sear its way through my legs. I drop my gaze to hers, and her face is tightened with something between shock and . . . awe.
Goddammit, how one parent can screw up his daughter so bad that something as simple as a man caring for her has her in disbelief. Hope he rots in his own karma in whatever life he chose over her.
“Don’t look at me like that, Princess. I might never let you go.”
Figuratively and literally.
“Y—you mean it?”
“I don’t break promises, Carlie. And I sure as hell won’t be breaking anything else where you’re concerned.”
Her chin wobbles a little, and she scrunches her nose up. A beat passes as she schools her face to something less emotional and says, “And to think . . . I used to hate you.”
Her fingers brush over my jaw, her thumb ghosting over my bottom lip. That’s all it takes to have the blood plummeting south, and I set her to her feet and have the door unlocked and opened in a heartbeat.
“I take it that particular phase has passed?” I wink at her.
“Somewhat . . .” She smiles, her bottom lip tugged between her teeth as her browns darken.
“Sassy little woman, I have the cure for that attitude of yours.”
“You do?”
“Abso-fuckin-lutely.”
“My mouth just runs on its own accord around you. I need it, Cowboy.”
I chuckle, tugging her closer. Taking her face in my hands, I smash my mouth to hers, and she crushes her body against mine. Fuck, she’s the softest thing, and I can’t get enough of her.
She tugs at my shirt, and I pull it from my back, tossing it away.
Her coat goes next. The warmest damn coat I’m sure has ever been made joins my shirt.
In under a minute, we stand naked and out of breath.
Impatiently, I grab her ass, kneading it before hoisting her to my waist. She’s hungry, pressing open-mouthed kisses over my jaw and neck.
“Fuck, you drive me goddamn crazy, Princess.”
The cheekiest smile blooms on her face. She likes that she makes me this way. Two can play that game, Carlie Lamont.
I stride to the nearest wall, and her back meets it with a thud. A little gasp escapes as I bend my head, closing my lips around her delicious hard peak. Her hands are feral in my hair, pushing and pulling in desperation as I suckle the nipple and lose it with a pop.
“Oh, fuck, Laws.” The sweetest little moan slips when I palm her other breast, nipping the tight bud. She’s out of breath, rocking her hips into me, hunting for friction in a movement she can barely manage, pressed against the wall.
I don’t move.
I don’t give in to her sweet-as-fuck little plea for me to touch her.
Instead, I brush my knuckles over the skin below her belly button.
She whines in protest. “I hate you.”
I chuckle.
“Payback, Princess,” I rasp.
Who am I fucking kidding? This is torture for me as much as it is for her. This sassy little woman is mine, and I will push her damn buttons and pull the most intense pleasure I can from this writhing, perfect body as I can. I want her to implode with the way I make her feel.
I want her as desperate for me as I am for her.
Something neither of us can walk away from . . .
“Laws, please. Fuck me before I die an early death.”
“This won’t kill you, baby.”
“You sure? I’m on fire. You know if I die, you’re responsible for Mills.”
That takes me aback, and I cup her face, studying her expression. Without overthinking, I let the first response be the one I go with. I nod.
Her face breaks.
I kiss her trembling mouth and whisper, “I will always be there when either of you needs me. And for the moments you just want me around.”
“I—yo—oh, god.”
I rub my thumb over her cheek, catching a stray tear. “Don’t cry, Princess. It’s my privilege to love you.”
“God, how the hell are you so fucking perfect?”
I laugh now, an amused sound that travels around the room. “Far from that, I’m just your first mate.”
“You realize I know what that means for your family, right?” Her eyes study mine as she cycles through heaving breaths.
“Yeah, I do.”
She huffs a laugh. “That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
It’s a tangle of a statement and a question, like the words couldn’t decide. She can’t decide.
“Yes ma’am.”
Now she sobs, her face twisting with every ragged tumble of incoherent words she’s trying desperately to tell me.
I swipe the tears from her face as they fall.
“I—We—urgh . . . I know I already told you I love you, but I just figured out, like ten seconds ago, how much. Do y—are you, I mean, is it this deep for you?”
I study her gaze as I tuck a rogue strand of hair behind her ear. Her brows lower further with every heartbeat that passes while I try to put into words how obliterating this feeling I have for her is.
I grind my jaw as my throat thickens. “There is no place you could wander to that I wouldn’t follow. This sass of yours has got me addicted. This incredible mind, your big damn heart . . . all of it. Mine, until the day you decide otherwise.”
Emotion hits her features, and her hand flies up to her mouth, stifling a gasp. She lets out a sniffle before raising an eyebrow playfully. “Possessive looks good on you, Laws.”
I moan and drop my face into the crook of her neck. “You drive me to places I’ve never been before, Carlie. I have about as much say over my heart now as the sands have over the tide.”
“Then stop making me wait.” She cups my jaw with fine hands, tilting my head up and my gaze to hers. “Fuck me, Cowboy. Just the way I like it, please.”
I open my mouth to tell her ‘yes ma’am,’ but a finger presses over my lips. She wriggles from my hips and sinks to her knees. A second later, her mouth closes around the tip of my cock, and I slam my palms to the wall.
Brown eyes look up at me from under long gorgeous lashes.
Perfect pouty lips that give me a run for my money every damn day are wrapped around my rock-hard shaft.
It only takes three strokes to turn me to full Neanderthal mode.
I haul her up, hands gripping under her arms, and onto my hips as I stride for the bedroom.
“No, the sofa,” Carlie rasps.
“You going to save a horse on the sofa, Princess?”
“It’s the right thing to do, those poor horses and all.”
I sink onto the sofa as she plants her knees on either side of my hips. A heartbeat later, I’m lined up to her soaked entrance, and her hard peaks brush over my chest as she rolls her head back, arching her back. Fucking little temptress knows exactly what she’s damn doing.
I’ve never been a man to complain about getting what he wants, so I take one ample breast in each hand, sweeping my thumb over both nipples at the same time.
“I just want to sink onto you . . .” she breathes.
“Hell, baby, I want that, too. But we’re going slow. We make these moments last. You don’t rush the best parts. And darlin’, you are the best part.”
“Fuck, I could orgasm from your damn words, Laws.”
I chuckle before flicking each nipple, one after the other.
Carlie hums, rolling her hips, and the head of my cock slips inside her.
Fu-uck me.
I let my hands drift to her waist, holding her where she is. I want to feel her wet heat wrapped around my tip for the rest of my damn life. “Christ, woman, way to send a man to heaven in one tiny fucking move.”
Her mouth is a little O as she wriggles ever so slightly.
My grip tightens on her. Hell, I thought our first time was incredible. We’ve barely started, and this is already blowing that memory out of the water.
“Laws, I need to move . . . Please.”
The beg on my sassy woman is damn addictive.
“I’ll give you an inch for every time you beg.”
Her brows lower, mouth gaping. “And how are you going to stop me from taking it all?”
I rise, quick and nimble from training and running, and flip her onto her back on the sofa.
“That’s cheating,” she utters, but her hand slides down her belly toward her sensitive spot that is no doubt driving her crazy.
So I pull out and step back.
“Lawson!”
I lean down, sliding my hand under her knees and pull her toward the end of the sofa. Before she has time to object, I flip her over. Pulling her hips up, I don’t stop until her perfect ass is canted up to me. Her slick pussy glistens with need.
All of a sudden, I’m fucking starving.