22. Annabelle
Annabelle
T he sun is lowering as I wipe sweat from my brow.
“What if I pushed it and you pulled it?” Kevin suggests, the two of us trying to lift a large oak barrel that Tanner gave us about a year ago.
“It’s too big. It’s too big to roll, too big for me to lift.
It’s just too big.” I sigh, my hands finding my hips.
We are both tired after a big day at school, and since Noah is still with Debbie for a few more hours, Kevin and I are getting some things done around here.
But moving this barrel has taken up most of our time, and we have only managed to get it a few feet across the barn floor.
I admire the new nook I’m putting together to store all my soapmaking utensils.
It looks good with my homemade shelves and a small old cupboard I found.
My idea was to have this barrel at the side to use as a high-top table, giving me some extra bench space.
That idea is feeling less and less genius, though, as the afternoon wears on.
“Why don’t you go inside, wash up, and start your homework. I’ll just fix up out here and see if I make the space work without it.”
Kevin looks at the nook, to the barrel, and then back to me.
“Okay…” He sounds unsure, but he knows it’s futile. I watch him go inside, the door closing behind him before I look back at the barrel.
“You are not getting the better of me today.” I roll my shoulders and get back to the task at hand.
Grinding my teeth, I push it, feeling it roll a little but not much.
Tanner warned me that this was a bigger barrel than usual, which is why I wanted it.
Seeing it sitting out back of his distillery one day when I was there to see Victoria, I knew immediately how good it would look in my barn and have only now taken the time to try to move it.
That task appears to be easier said than done.
But I’m not really concentrating. My mind keeps going back to Sawyer.
Because of him, we have a brand-new dining table and chairs, which he had flown in from the city within a few hours of us breaking it.
I have no idea how he did it, but I guess as a man with means, he can get things quickly and easily.
While I offered to pay, he declined, a move I’m not overly comfortable with; however, the fact that he half broke it helped me to reconcile the purchase.
It’s now been a couple of weeks since that day.
He’s working more and more from Whispers, his travel time away becoming less and less.
He’s here almost every night, helping with the boys, spending quiet nights with me.
My bed hasn’t broken yet, but it will. With all the activity that we’re doing, it’s only a matter of time.
My cheeks heat as I think about how good we are together.
My lack of a sex life has now well and truly been eliminated, the two of us unable to keep our hands off each other some days.
We have sex just like in the movies. The kind of sex that we both want so much, we can’t even make it to the bedroom.
The kind of sex where I feel wanted, desired, craved by a man who could literally be on the cover of those fancy men’s magazines.
“Come on…” I grit out, trying to focus on the barrel as I put my whole body into it, pushing as hard as I can. I can lift it a little, I’m not totally inept, but being small-bodied, I have no weight behind me.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I jump a little before I look up and see Sawyer standing at the barn door, looking as polished as ever in his suit, with his hands on his hips. My lips twitch, his presence making me smile. I have developed serious feelings for this man, and that’s impossible to deny.
“Hey.” I stand up, blowing out a breath as I push the hair from my face.
“Please tell me you are not trying to move that by yourself.” Even with all the time he’s been spending at my place, this is the first time he’s been inside the barn.
“Well…” I shrug, because he caught me in the act, and I can’t lie to him. Moving closer, his hand skirts around my waist and his lips meet mine too briefly.
“Where do you need it?” He steps back and removes his jacket, folding it over his arm before placing it over the rack of garden supplies.
“No! You’ll get dirty…” I tell him, but he pulls his tie from around his neck and opens the top buttons of his shirt, lifting his eyebrows in my direction.
“Where do you want it, Annabelle?” His voice is a little deeper, the sound tracking from my nipples straight down to my core. God, this man.
“I was thinking over there.” I point listlessly, my eyes now only on him as he rolls up his sleeves, his polished veneer now ruffled and sexy as hell. Men in suits are hot, men in suits that are undone I now realize is a new level of hotness unlocked.
“Here…” Leaning forward, he wipes his thumb over my lower lip.
“You’re drooling.” His grin is wicked before he grips my chin, bringing my lips to his and kissing me hard.
I lift onto my tiptoes as his hands land on my ass, and he squeezes my curves tightly in his palm.
I melt like butter, leaning into him, his arms holding me so tight it feels like there’s nowhere else I’m meant to be.
“Missed you,” he murmurs against my lips, and my chest warms even more.
“Mmmm, me too.” And then I’m kissing him again.
“At least you kiss better than you give directions.” He chuckles as he pulls back slightly. “Now, try again… Tell me where you want it.”
Rolling my lips, I point to where I’m trying to move the barrel. “Over in the corner… on the left.”
I squeal as he slaps my ass before stepping back from me, and I need to hang on to the shed wall where I’m standing so I don’t topple. I swear this man is a continual surprise, and I can’t get enough.
“Right, got it.” He squats to pick up the barrel and my eyes widen. I thought he would just roll it, push it along the floor, but he picks it up like it’s as light as a feather and walks it over to exactly where I need it, putting it down carefully before standing back up.
In awe, I step over, my mouth now watering. I knew he was strong, but he isn’t really a man-of-the-land kind of guy. But seeing him just now getting his hands dirty, helping me, does something to my insides.
“Right here okay?” He dusts off his hands.
“Uh-huh.” My eyes roam over him, nearly speechless.
“You’re doing it again…” he warns, watching me.
“Doing what?” I’m not really paying attention to our conversation, my eyes glued to his white shirt that’s now dirty, the way his forearms are showing from his rolled-up sleeves, and the tease of his bare chest from where his shirt is open at his collar.
“Drooling… But I’m not complaining.” He’s smirking when my eyes make their way up to his face.
“You need to take off your shirt, it’s dirty…” My hands hit his chest, and I start opening the buttons in a hurry.
“Are you trying to get me naked in the barn, Mama?” His hand comes to my waist, gripping me there, and I have to hold back a moan from how aroused that simple touch makes me. Opening the last button, I push the shirt from his shoulders, Sawyer’s chiseled body now right in front of me.
“God, yes…” I lean in and kiss him, and his grip on me tightens. Pulling me close, our lips fight for dominance, my body thrumming for him, never having felt this needy for a man before.
You would think we haven’t seen each other for weeks, not just mere hours it’s been since this morning when he woke up in my bed.
I lower myself down his body, leaving trails of kisses along his chest, my hands touching him all over, feeling every ridge, every muscle.
I move them to his belt, making quick work of it before I open his pants and fall to my knees on the floor at his feet.
“God, this is like every fucking wet dream I’ve had coming to life,” I hear him murmur as his hand dives into my hair.
Tugging his underwear down, my thighs clench at seeing him hard for me already.
I should pause; I should hesitate. But I know we won’t be interrupted, with Kevin firmly inside and no one else here.
My need for him is too much, and I take him in, hungry to please him, my mouth teasing his tip a little before licking along his length.
He hisses. “Fuck, baby… this was not what I was expecting when I walked in here…”
“Well, I need to thank you somehow…” I say playfully, my eyes on his as I take him back into my mouth, my tongue sliding down his length again before I suck on his tip.
“I will move any damn barrel you have… any day of the week, if this is the thanks I get. Fuck, this feels good. You’re so good to me.” When he groans, I take him deeper.
Leaning back on my heels, I take a breath, palming him with my hand as I grin.
“There are some things on the farm I need help with…”
“Name it. I’ll do it,” he says eagerly, and I giggle.
“Hmmm… you will ruin your suit, though…” I say as I feel him thicken even more in my grip.
“You will ruin me the way you are teasing me right now. Let me feel your throat, Mama… Take me deeper…” I follow his instructions and do as he asks, taking him deeper, all the way to the back of my throat, sucking on him thoroughly as desire courses through my own body.
I quicken my pace as I rock my hips, needing some friction, needing something. His fist tightens in my hair, the sting on my scalp welcome as he pulls my head back into his hands so I’m looking up at him again.
“Fuck, I’m going to come, baby… I’m going to come so fucking hard down your pretty little throat.
” He grunts, his thighs tensing, and I whimper around him, swirling my tongue and sucking him in the way I’ve learned he loves.
With one more husky, rumbling groan, he comes with jerking hips, his orgasm coating my throat.
Swallowing him down, I pull off with a pop, sitting back on my heels, and catching my breath.
“Best Friday night I’ve had for a while,” he says, breathing heavily, and I grin as I move my thighs together, still feeling needy.
“Me too,” I admit, loving that our time together has been this good, and knowing that I’m falling a little more every day for the man I can’t stop thinking about.
“Come here.” He grabs me under the arms and hoists me onto the barrel he just moved.
“Sawyer!” I squeal, laughing at the unexpected manhandling.
“Let’s test this barrel, see if it can hold you when you come on my tongue.” He opens my jeans when I moan my yes, and I lean back as he strips them from my legs, then devours me with his mouth, my burning need for him satisfied. For now.