Chapter 19
My phone lit up in the dark, a quiet vibration rattling against my nightstand like a warning. Or a promise.
Usually, when my phone rang in the middle of the night, it was bad news. Work news. Or something worse.
But as I lifted it and blinked at the screen, I answered on instinct the moment I saw her name. “Goldie?”
“Hi,” she said softly, her voice thick with fatigue. “I’m sorry to wake you.”
“Don’t be,” I replied, my voice hoarse with honesty. “I wasn’t sleeping well, anyway.”
There was a pause, the kind that didn’t feel awkward or forced, but one that wrapped around my chest and squeezed.
“I just…wanted to say thank you,” she said finally, her voice small and full of so many unspoken things, it made my throat tight. “For sending Rhea to me.”
I sat up, pushing the blankets off as a cold sweat broke out over my skin.
There was a small part of my mind that was freaking out, imagining Goldie’s call was to end things with me for good, before we even had a real chance to try it out.
“You don’t need to thank me for that.” I replied, bracing for the worst, hoping for the best.
“I do,” she said. “You didn’t just hand her off. You saw what she needed, and you put her first. Even though I know you wanted to see me. To stay with me. Even though it cost you something.”
I swallowed, trying desperately to be steady and strong, it was what she looked for in me. “She needed you.”
“And I needed her,” she whispered, as if she didn’t want to be overheard.
Which meant Rhea was still there. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 3:00 a.m. A nightcap.
“But the fact that you saw that before I did…” She trailed off, but I felt it.
The shift. The weight of something deeper settling between us.
My head fell back against the wall. “I’ll always put your needs first, Goldie. Always.”
“And hers?” She asked so silently that I could have missed it.
“Hers too. Always. It’s who I am.”
I could hear her deep breath through the line, and my blood heated. “Would you believe me if I told you I was falling in love with you, Tanner?” She whispered. “Even though we’ve barely begun.”
My heart raced in my chest, and my body reacted viscerally to her words. The urge to throw a pair of pants on and race across town to her, to hear those words directly from her lips, was almost too strong to deny. But she wasn’t alone, and I was going to earn my time with her.
“We’ve been building something for a year now, Goldie James. We’re far from new, even if our physical intimacy is.” I tried to be reasonable, and then I gave in to my deeper desires. “I’m falling for you too, sweetheart. You’re all I think about.”
She groaned a sweet little noise, and I smirked in the dark. “I wish you were here.”
Logistics ran through my mind again, but I pushed them down. I couldn’t do that to Rhea. I couldn’t show up during her time with Goldie in the middle of the night, desperate to fuck.
“Tell me about your night,” I shifted the conversation even though I told myself a dozen times since answering the phone that I wouldn’t ask. Not for my own selfish desires. “You said you needed her too. Tell me about it.”
She hummed a sweet noise and then I heard the clicking of a door, and I imagined her walking around her sweet little house in a plush bathrobe the color of her hair, golden and beautiful, with her phone pressed to her ear and a smile on her lips.
“I gave her something tonight I didn’t know I was capable of.
” She started and then went on as I listened.
“I gave her a safe space to let go. I gave her peace.” She groaned a little and sighed, “When I moved to this town with the hopes and dreams of building Honey & Hearth into what it is today, I wanted it to feel like sunshine and warmth, even on the rainy and dark days. I wanted people to find refuge in my space, where they could let go of every other thing going on in their life and just…” She paused, “thrive.”
I smirked into the darkness again, “You are that space, Goldie.”
“I know.” She said with excitement. “But I didn’t know that until tonight. I didn’t feel it until she showed up here. Like she did. Because of you.”
“No, baby, that was because of you.” I corrected her, proud of every single ounce of her perfect self.
“Either way,” She sighed with wonderment in her voice. “Thank you for giving me that opportunity. To feel it. God, it was powerful.”
“I’m so in awe of you, Goldie.” I said plainly.
“See,” she hummed thoughtfully, “It’s you, though.” She cleared her throat, “I only felt this incredible tonight because of you. Because of your thoughtfulness. Because of your selflessness.”
I chuckled slightly, wondering if I’d describe what I did tonight that way.
I wouldn’t. Hell, I’d kicked myself for it just a few hours ago, to be honest.
“Tell me something, Tanner.” She whispered again, a huskiness in her voice that grabbed my attention instantly. “Do you miss me?”
I groaned, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck in silent frustration. “With every single cell in my being.”
“Will you do something for me?” She purred, and I licked my lips, already knowing the answer.
“Anything.” I breathed. “Literally anything you want.”
I could almost hear her chewing her bottom lip through the silence. “Will you touch yourself for me?”
“Goldie.” I rasped, even as my dick jumped in my boxers.
“Please, Tanner.” She whined prettily. “If I were there, I’d do it for you. God,” her groan went straight to my balls. “I want to do it for you so badly, but I can’t right now. So, I need you to do it and let me listen. I want to pretend I’m there with you when you break for me.”
“Shit,” I palmed my erection and laid my head back against the wall as I hardened for her. “Okay.”
“Mmh,” She moaned, the noise deep in her throat as I pulled my dick free and slowly started stroking it. “You’re already hard for me, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I breathed, “I was the moment I heard your voice.”
“I regret not sucking your cock longer the other night,” she said, and I fought the urge to drive across town again.
“I was too focused on my own pleasure and feeling you deep inside of me, that I didn’t take the time to enjoy you that way.
But I will,” She moaned gently, “Next time, I’m starting there.
On my knees for you with your big thick cock on my tongue until you explode. ”
“I won’t complain.”
“Good boy,” She chuckled with a sexy huskiness to her voice, and pre-cum leaked from the tip of my dick in response. “Tomorrow,” she paused, “Or today, damn, whatever day it is. When the sun is in the sky again next, I’m going to find you sometime and get on my knees for you.”
“I have to work.” I growled, hating that I was on shift. “And you will be at the bakery all day. Your reopening is right around the corner.”
“I don’t care.” She urged, testing the taboo of promised time alone, in perhaps not a private space. “I need it. I need you.”
“I’m yours.”
“I’m going to pull your thick cock out and I’m going to let you fuck my throat as hard and as deep as you want to, Tanner.
I don’t want cute, or sweet, or even passionate.
I want it to be raw and real, and I want nothing but your pleasure.
Do you hear me?” She pressed, “I want you to use me like a little sex toy.”
“Fuck,” I gasped, tightening my grip on my cock. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can, baby.” She purred, knowing that I wouldn’t use her like that unless she made me.
It wasn’t in my nature. But it was on my mind.
And damn, imagining her with tears on her cheeks and my come on her lips—fuck.
“It’s your reward for being so damn good to me and Rhea.
For giving up your own pleasure so I could make her come tonight. God, she came so hard for me.”
“Goldie.” The sound of me jacking off echoed around the room, and she moaned in my ear when she heard it.
“You like that, don’t you, baby?” She licked her lips, and I imagined them on my cock, taking me deep. “You like knowing that she got off with me, because of you. Don’t you?”
“Yes.” I growled, giving in. She knew I was fucked in the head over the whole dynamic.
She knew I lusted after the idea of the two of them together, lusted after Rhea.
The other night at the planning meeting, the proof had been hard to hide.
But Goldie never judged me for it. She embraced it.
Nurtured it even. Which should have made alarm bells go off in my head, and maybe they would have had all the blood in my body not been rushing to my dick. “I’m a filthy man after all.”
“No, you’re not, baby.” She said firmly, “You’re my man.
And I get so fucking hot thinking about you lying there, hand wrapped around that cock of yours, stroking it hard and fast, while you think about me, straddling that beautiful woman still up in my bed, her wet pussy against mine as I rubbed us both into ecstasy, over and over again. ”
“I’m—fuck.” I growled, losing control from her words.
“She kissed me like she was starving,” she whispered. “Pinned me to my couch and stripped me like I was something worth unwrapping.”
I bit down on a moan. My hand moved harder, rougher.
“She made me feel worshiped,” she continued, voice husky. “Like I was soft and powerful at the same time. But when she bent me over my bed…” she let out a shaky sigh, “that’s when I lost it. That’s when I screamed her name.”
“Fuck,” I rasped, fisting myself with purpose now. “You’re going to ruin me.”
“I want to,” she murmured. “But I want Rhea to help.”
My hand faltered. I blinked into the darkness, heart racing.
“The only thing missing tonight was you,” She went on, driving me wild in the height of my orgasm. “The only thing missing was your big thick cock, I wanted you deep inside of me as she came on my lips. I wanted to taste both of your orgasms on my tongue when I fell asleep.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped. I exploded with a curse, her name torn from my lips as I came hard into my palm, breathing like I’d just run ten miles. “I’ll give you whatever you want, Goldie. However, you want it.”
“I want both of you in my bed.” She said firmly as I sucked air into my lungs, with blood filling my brain again. “I need it, Tanner.”
“It’s yours.” I replied, knowing it was the truth. “Whatever you want, and whatever she’s comfortable with. It’s yours.”
“Good boy.” She purred and then giggled. “Because I hate feeling like a part of my heart is missing each time I close my eyes at night.”
“Careful, or I’ll give in to my urges and be on your doorstep in ten minutes, Goldie.”
She hummed a delicious noise. “Tomorrow night.” She said, “Tomorrow night you’ll be in my bed with me when I fall asleep.”
“I’ll be there.” I said. “Nothing will keep me away.”