Chapter eighteen Willow #2
“We’re almost done, though.” Dallas intercepts the chips from Penn and hands them to Timothy MacDonald, who is one of the judges for today.
“Nicely done, Dallas.” Timothy checks off something on his paper and then hands us the final clue, but not before turning to me and asking, “How’s the house treating you, Willow?”
“Oh. Uh, good. We’re almost done with the renovations.”
Timothy nods. “Nice to see that you’ve made progress. Let Pam over at Cove Real Estate know when you’re ready to sell.”
“Pam can wait,” Dallas tells Timothy before tearing open the envelope with the final clue. “Now, if you don’t mind, Timothy, we have a cup to win.”
Dallas spins toward the rest of the team, all standing around in a circle, waiting to hear the clue. “A symbol of hope, steadfastness, calm, and composure. Carrington Cove is full of them.”
“Jesus, could that be a more generic clue?” Penn grumbles.
“Carrington Cove is full of them?” Astrid taps her chin. “Geese?”
“Uh, pretty sure geese aren’t a sign of hope,” Dallas fires back.
But then a lightbulb clicks on in my brain thanks to a late-night Google session pertaining to the man standing in front of me.
“An anchor…” I declare, not as confident as I should be, but I look up at Dallas as I speak.
“Shit, that’s it!” Brian, the other manager of Dallas’s restaurant, agrees.
“Are you sure, Willow?” Astrid asks.
“Yes.” With my eyes locked on Dallas, I say, “And that’s why all Dallas has to do is take off his shirt and we win.”
His smirk builds slowly, but he knows where my mind is. And even though this is not the time, my body heats up from head to toe as I think about all the times I’ve explored his body and his tattoo.
“Damn, Goose. You just won us the cup.”
Franny’s Crab Shack team starts racing down the boardwalk toward the judges table with a wooden anchor in their hands.
“Hurry up and strip, Dallas!” Penn shouts, cutting through our moment and making the rest of the team laugh.
Dallas shakes off our stare and mumbles, “Fuck. Okay.” He reaches behind his back, rips off his shirt, and points to his chest. “Right here, Tim. An anchor. That’s the final answer.”
Timothy eyes the judge sitting next to him. “Can we accept that?”
She shrugs before looking at Dallas’s torso appreciatively. “I don’t see why not.” And then she smirks. “Definitely the best thing I’ve seen all day.”
Timothy shakes his head and then stands, holding a megaphone to his mouth. “We have a winner! Catch & Release are the new Carrington Cove Games Champions!”
Applause and screaming echo around us as Dallas scoops me up in his arms, bouncing me up and down. “Hell yeah!”
Celebration continues all around us, people running over from the boardwalk to join in on the fun.
But when Dallas sets me down on my feet and frames my face with both of his hands, he whispers to me, “Fuck, Willow.” His lips meet mine in a blistering kiss that steals my breath before he whispers, “You were the teammate I needed today, baby. We won. And now it’s time to celebrate. ”
And in that second, my heart agrees with this unfamiliar feeling in my chest.
Oh my God.
I’m in love with Dallas Sheppard.
***
“Fuck. Right there.”
Dallas grinds his hips into mine from behind, leaning over my back so he can line his lips up to my ear. “Jesus, Willow. Clench that pussy, babe. Fucking milk me.”
I reach behind him and pull him closer by his ass, sending him forward yet again. “Don’t stop.”
Dallas is so deep in my pussy right now that he’s reaching depths I don’t even think I’ve discovered myself.
His cock continues to stroke me expertly, building up my release quickly.
The way this man fucks me should be illegal.
I didn’t know it could feel this good, be this intense, like some sort of religious experience.
Our bodies are slick with sweat, blood is rushing through my veins, and every inch of my skin is alive with electricity. The stroke of his hands on my body sends pulses of energy and lust straight to my clit. I feel like I’m coming undone from the inside out.
This is the second time we’ve had sex since we went upstairs to his apartment after the games. Dallas took everyone back to the restaurant and made food and drinks to celebrate their win, putting the Cove Cup on the shelf behind the bar so everyone can see it when they walk in.
But now, as I feel Dallas start to lose it behind me, I focus on going over the edge with him, eager to relax and rest after a long but amazing day.
“Fuck, I’m gonna come, baby.” He reaches under us, finding my clit and circling it gently.
“God, I want to paint your skin with my cum. I’ve been thinking about what you’d look like, covered in me, marked and owned…
” His fingers put the perfect amount of pressure on me. “How does that sound to you?”
“Do it.” The second those words left his lips, my gut reaction was that I want that too. I want this man to own me, and giving myself over to him is more liberating than I imagined.
“Shit,” he groans. “Come with me then, Willow. Fall apart for me.” He lets out a growl as I scream and shatter simultaneously. When the final tremors race through my body, Dallas pulls out of me, rips the condom off, and releases his cum all over my back, groaning out loud.
I turn back to watch him stroke himself, cursing as he stares at my back, covering me in his release.
God, I want to be his in every way.
When he’s spent, he stills, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his abs contracting with each breath. Then he moves one of his hands to my back and rubs his cum into my skin, admiring his work. “Fucking beautiful.”
I sigh as he falls to the bed beside me, our bodies plopping down on the comforter below us.
“So good,” I mumble into the sheets.
“Incredible, Goose.” Dallas pulls me over to him so he can kiss me. “I’ll be right back.”
I watch his naked back side as he walks over to his bathroom to dispose of the condom, and then returns with two wash cloths to clean me up.
He starts on my back, but not before smearing his cum into my skin again, grinning as he does so.
But when he’s finished, he nudges my hip.
“Roll over, sweetheart.” I do as he says, watching him gently clean between my legs with a second washcloth and then he tosses them in a clothes hamper beside the bed before lying back down with me. “You okay?”
I rest my head on his chest, tracing over his tattoo with my finger. “Better than okay. Today was…”
“Incredible.”
“Yeah, it was.” Sighing, I continue, “I’ve never been a part of something like that, Dallas. It’s crazy to me that there are places on Earth like this that feel like their own little worlds...”
A world I desperately want to be a part of more and more.
“Not even while growing up? You didn’t participate in relay races or carnival games?”
I shake my head. “No. My godparents weren’t keen on stuff like that, and sports were never my thing. I was more interested in studying.”
Dallas chuckles, making my head bounce with his laughter. “I can see that.”
“Are you saying you think I’m a nerd?”
His eyes meet mine again as he shifts to his side to face me. “Maybe, but in a sexy way. You’re intelligent and witty, Willow. And a strong, successful businesswoman. So all of that studying obviously paid off, right?”
I run my finger through his chest hair and back to his tattoo, studying his body. “It did.” My finger finds the scar on his ribs, the one I’ve seen many times now but have never asked about, wondering if now might be appropriate.
“Just ask, Willow.”
“What?”
“You wanna know where that scar came from, don’t you?” His voice is gravelly, deep and almost darker than just a moment ago.
“I mean…”
“I was shot.” He takes my fingers and digs them into the warped skin. “Right through my ribs. Collapsed my lung, but I was lucky. There were people that were far worse off than I was that day.”
“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” I whisper, envisioning Dallas lying in the dirt, bleeding from his side and hating every second of the image taking over my mind. “Not knowing if you’re going to live or die.”
“Situations like that never leave you, Goose. They come to me in my dreams a lot, so I never truly escape them.”
“I wasn’t sure if you dream,” I tease him. “You’re usually so still when you sleep.”
He drags down my bottom lip with his thumb. “I haven’t had those dreams since you and I have been together, actually.”
Oh God.
How much more can my heart take today?
Dallas stares at me, his dark lashes blinking every few seconds. For a moment, I just let him look, let him see me.
I don’t know if I could live without his eyes on me for the rest of my life.
“I bet your parents are so fucking proud of you, Goose.”
The mention of them startles me, especially because that was the last thing I imagined coming out of his mouth right now. “Wh—why do you say that?”
“I can just see it in your eyes when you talk about your childhood.” A tremor of sadness races through me.
“That question of what your life would be like if they were still here, if days like today would have been the standard.” He runs his fingers through the ends of my hair.
“And I want you to know that they’d be so proud of the woman you are. ”
I hold back my tears, but the truth still spills out. “I think about them every day.”
“I get that.” Dallas stares up at the ceiling now, lying on his back again. “I think about my dad all the time too, even though I feel like I let him down at times.”
“He’s proud of you too, Dallas.”
I can’t say that with firsthand knowledge, but how could any father not be proud of this man?
“I hope so.” He strokes his hand up and down my arm as I get comfortable on his chest once more. “I hate that I didn’t get to clear some things up with him before he passed. That regret…” He sighs. “It haunts me.”
That’s what secrets do, too.
“I understand that feeling.”
“How did you know about the anchor meaning today?” he asks, looking back down at me and changing the subject, which I’m grateful for because the mention of Mr. Sheppard just feels like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
My eyes flick back up to his. “I googled it after I saw your tattoo.”
The corner of his mouth lifts. “Really? Why?”
“I was curious about why someone might tattoo something like that on their body.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me?”
I shrug, focusing back on his chest. “I don’t know. It seemed like a really personal question back then.”
“Willow, my mouth was all over your pussy within an hour of you seeing my tattoo. I think we got personal pretty quickly, babe.”
I can feel my cheeks heat up. “Okay, then why the anchor, Dallas?”
He looks down at his chest where my hand is, resting his over the top of mine.
“Well, as you know, the anchor is a symbol of our town, and this place has always been my home. But mostly, it was about the symbol of stability.” He sighs.
“I’ve never felt like I’ve been on stable ground most of my life—with my dad, and with my time in the service.
It wasn’t until I came home permanently that I started to feel like it was time to build a life I was proud of, and I wanted that here.
I was tired of drifting, not being certain about where I was going and what I wanted.
So, like a ship does, I decided to drop an anchor down.
I got this shortly after I bought the restaurant to commemorate that choice. ”
That yearning for stability? God, do I feel that need too.
I smile up at him. “I love that. And do you feel like you’ve found something stable now?”
His eyes bounce back and forth between mine. “I think I’m headed in that direction.”
I run my nails through his beard. “You have an amazing life here, Dallas.”
“You could too, Willow,” he says, his voice low. But before I can respond, he clears his throat and pulls me closer to him by my hip. “I meant what I said earlier about having dinner with my family. I want you there.”
My heart starts beating faster. “Dallas, I…”
“I know you’re leaving, but my mom was asking about you after the games, and I’d like you to meet Parker and Hazel. Plus, my mother’s cooking is top-notch.”
His mom was asking about me?
And he still thinks that I want to leave?
My stomach instantly drops.
“I’ve never had dinner with a man’s family before, Dallas.”
His brow pinches together. “Never?”
“No.”
“Then it’s settled. Next Sunday, after Penn and I finish replacing your roof this week, you’re coming with me to family dinner. It will be the perfect way to celebrate.”
God, he makes it sound like that’s a good thing when we both know once the house is done, decisions have to be made—decisions it feels like we’re both avoiding discussing. And my reasons for avoiding them are going to slap me right in the face when I eat a meal with his family.
“Are you sure?” My heart feels like it’s about to jump out of my chest.
He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”