21. Tanner
21
TANNER
“ V ictoria?” I holler from her front porch.
The door is wide open, the screen still closed. After spending the entire day together at the spring yesterday, laughing, playing, touching, and kissing, I have been eager to see her again. I had so much work to catch up on overnight, which took twice as long as normal because all I could think about was how good she felt in my arms and how I want to get back to her to finish what we had started before the kids turned up. I was expecting her to jump from my arms and maybe run to cover herself, but she didn’t care that people saw us together. I know the small-town gossip is probably going into overdrive, but she laughed and stayed in my arms, not put off by any of it. I am a little nervous with her being so much younger, but she had no hesitations with it yesterday, so I hope she feels the same way I do.
“In here,” she calls out, seeming a little preoccupied. When I walk in, I see why .
“What’s all this?” I ask, spotting her sitting on the floor with a few boxes around her, paperwork and photos everywhere.
“Marie’s things.” She looks up at me, smiling, and just like that, I feel the stress in my shoulders soften and my dick harden. Today, she is wearing her signature bright-pink lipstick, making the blue of her eyes even brighter. I have no idea where the hell she has been all my life, but fuck, I am glad I met her now. She was in kindergarten, asshole, the devil on my shoulder reminds me .
“Anything interesting?” I ask her, taking a seat on her soft sofa, wondering if I could find something like this for my place. It feels like I am sitting on a damn cloud.
“Some old papers and things. I found this, which was interesting…” she trails off.
“What is it?” I ask as she hands me the paper.
“It is a letter from my father to Aunt Marie. Looks like they had a dispute over this property a few decades ago. It was around the time that he brought Mom and me here for a visit,” she says, frowning as she thinks. My eyes skim through the letter. It isn’t nice. Her father is basically threatening Marie with legal action and a whole range of other things in order to get this property.
“Marie mentioned that it was her parents' place, but we never got into the details,” I murmur as I try to think back. Marie was always pretty private about her family life. I am sure my parents knew her parents, but they weren’t close.
“From this letter, and a few others I found like it, it seemed my father thought he was more entitled to the property than Marie. Although she was the older sibling and lived here already. My father skipped out of the family home when he was much younger, and I don’t think he ever returned until he brought me and Mom here years later.”
“Family disputes when a parent passes are common.”
“I know. But they sound nasty,” she says with a frown.
“As you said, it was decades ago. Your father has clearly moved on, given that I have never seen him around and Marie never said anything.” I try to calm her concerns, although mine are also heightened. I remember what Connor found on him, and now I really want to get some security cameras installed here.
“Anyway, enough about that. Look what else I found.” She lifts an old photo album, and I sit forward, looking down over her shoulder.
“Who is it?” I ask her, and she giggles, the noise making my heart thud. Fuck. Get a grip, Tanner.
“It is me,” she says, smiling, and I look closer, seeing a young Marie with a young girl on her lap. She’s blond with two cute pigtails, digging in the dirt. If I didn’t already know it was her, the pink bows might give me a hint. “I told you I was here before.”
“Marie looks young. Who is that in the background?” I ask, seeing a man.
“That’s my father. I barely recognize him. He left Mom and me when I was a kid. I haven’t seen him since.” I get the feeling that is not something she regrets or misses. I take a hard look at the man to see if I recognize him, but I come up blank, so I move the conversation in a different direction.
“This photo was taken a few years ago,” I murmur, looking at the landscape behind them, seeing the main distillery being built.
“I think I was about five or six,” she says, and I mentally do the math and realize she is even younger than Connor. I swallow harshly.
“Cute then and cute now,” I say, my gaze moving from the pictures and back to her.
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” she teases, looking up at me. She has a carefree expression on her face, and her long hair flows down her neck and over her shoulders.
“Only the special ones,” I tell her in jest with a wink. I can’t actually remember being this flirty with anyone else. Not in the bright light of day without a few whiskeys under my belt and certainly not in Whispers.
“Special as in good, or are you being sarcastic?” Putting the album down, she sits up on her knees. With me leaning forward on the edge of the sofa, we are now almost eye to eye.
“As in very fucking good,” I growl at her, and the temperature in the room lifts about two hundred degrees. Her hands run up my legs, and she positions her body between them.
“That swim yesterday was better than good before we got interrupted,” she whispers, her cheeks turning pink as her chest moves up and down a little quicker. My mind whirls at how good she felt, her bare skin, her moaning and grinding her hips against mine. We have bickered since we met, but there was always this underlying tension, and I want to rip these clothes off her and have her scream my name in ecstasy rather than frustration. I tried to go slow at the mineral spring yesterday, tried to be a gentleman, but now I am barely keeping it together.
“That swim was fucking phenomenal…” I reach out and cup her cheek, my thumb brushing against her jaw slightly as our eyes meet, knowing exactly how this is going to end.
“I vote we do that again.” Her breathy voice is my undoing.
“I second that motion,” I say, having been waiting for this moment all day. I move quickly and scoop her up off the floor and into my lap as a small squeal of surprise flees from her lips. Her legs fall on either side of mine and her hands run up my arms.
“That’s better… right here with me…” Pulling her face to meet me, I take her lips with mine. I’m greedy. It has been a long time since I felt like this, and I never want this feeling to end. When I sweep my tongue across her bottom lip, she opens for me, and I don’t hesitate to kiss her deeply. She tastes sweet, warm, and welcoming, her lips soft, and I bite the bottom one a little. She rewards me with a moan, the sound running from her mouth to mine and all the way down to my cock, which is now throbbing in my pants.
“At least we won’t get interrupted here,” she whispers against my mouth as she grinds down on me, her hands running up my neck and diving into the hair at my nape. She is right. No one is coming. It is just me and her and our desire for each other. I hold her tight, but with her on top, I let her lead. I know what I want, and now I need her to show me if she wants the same thing. But with the way she is moving and moaning and pulling my hair, I think I have my answer.
“It has been hard staying away from you today, baby girl.” The endearment feels so natural, and she whimpers in response, kissing me even more hungrily. My hands slip around her waist and grip her full, round ass cheeks, molding them in my hands.
“Tanner,” she pants as my lips leave hers and trail down her jaw, her head falling back, baring her neck to me.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” I murmur, captivated by the feel of her in my arms, the scent of her perfect skin, and the movement of her hips as they rub against mine. My hands lift from her ass, and I caress them up her back, cupping her waist and moving them around her front, my thumbs brushing against the sides of her breasts and back down again. Her body is incredible.
“Your hands feel like they are everywhere,” she says as I find her ass again and start moving her hips in rhythm with her little jolts. Fuck, it feels good. To have her in my arms, but to feel her grinding into me. My cock is burning for release, pressing so hard against my zipper from feeling her warmth.
“I want to touch you,” I tell her, and her breath hitches before she speaks.
“God, yes.” Her tongue delves into my mouth, tangling with mine, as my hands find the front of her sweats and glide underneath the waistband. When I hit lace with my fingers, I can’t hold back my groan.
“Pretty lace is my kryptonite,” I tell her in between our kissing, her hands cupping behind my head and pulling my mouth to hers. Women in lace is a favorite of mine. The hints of skin that show through the lace, the soft feel of it. Damn, just feeling it on my fingers, knowing it is the only thing covering her pussy is a turn-on.
“I’m starting to think that maybe you are mine,” she admits, then seals it with another searing kiss, and my breath lodges in my chest. She wants me. I want her. It’s game on.
I lean into the sofa as she sits back slightly and whips her t-shirt over her head, throwing it to the floor. Her hair falls around her bare shoulders, showcasing her see-through matching lace bra, her pink nipples peeking through. My eyes canvass over her beauty and the fact that she is opening up just for me.
“Jesus,” I moan, not hesitating as I run one hand up her naked torso to cup her breast, molding it in my hand, squeezing it and rolling her nipple. I hear her breathing quicken, and I grab her at the nape of the neck and pull her back to me, slamming my lips to her. In the same moment, I slide my hand under the lace underwear and feel her wet pussy.
“Oh God… yes….” she moans, our kiss becoming more frantic as I glide my finger around her wetness and over and over her clit repeatedly. Her body shakes with each touch and her hips move faster against my hand.
“You are so wet, baby girl. Is this all for me?” Slipping a finger inside her, my palm presses against her clit. Fuck, she is gorgeous.
“Yessss. Oh… my… God… yes… That feels so good,” she whimpers, holding on to my shoulders, leaning back from me a little as she grinds down harder. In this position , I get to watch her, eyes closed, head back, face toward the ceiling. Her long hair cascades down her back and sways back and forth with the movement. I have one hand cupping her ass, still pushing and pulling her hips in motion, my other hand finger-fucking her, and I feel like I am the luckiest fucking asshole on the planet.
“That’s it… Have you been thinking about yesterday? About how much you were grinding on me, how hard you made me? You haven’t left my mind,” I say, slipping in a second finger. Mewling, she nods and bites her bottom lip. “Good girl… Fuck my fingers… that’s it…” My praise for her has the desired effect as her movements become hastier. As I rub my thumb over her clit with tighter circles, her body quivers.
“I’m going to come… Oh God, Tanner, I am going to come!” Her voice rises an octave before her mouth opens in a silent scream, curves shaking through her release as she grinds down on my hand. She looks fucking magnificent. Panting, she slows her movements, and I do the same, relishing the arousal now coating my fingers. When she looks back at me, cheeks flushed, her blue eyes glisten, and then she fucking smiles. It lights me up inside.
I’m not sure how it can get better than this.