Chapter 18
teddy
I kissed her before she could second-guess her decision or talk herself out of it. Before the doubts could creep back in. Before reality had a chance to remind us of all the reasons this was reckless and impulsive and probably destined to blow up in our faces.
She melted against me, her hands climbing up my chest to tangle in my hair. The small bite of pain only made me pull her closer, needing to eliminate every inch of space between us.
“Need you to know something,” I panted against her lips. “I’m gonna fuck this up sometimes. Gonna say the wrong thing or handle shit badly. But I’m not walking away again, Kels. Not for the club, not for anything. You’re stuck with me now.”
“I’m counting on it,” she whispered before sucking my bottom lip between her teeth.
My hands dipped lower, kneading the curve of her ass. “Fuck,” I growled. “Never been able to take it slow with you. Don’t see any reason to practice restraint now.”
Kelsey gasped as I hauled her up into my arms, her legs instinctively wrapping around my waist. “But your back—”
“Is fine,” I argued as I carried her down the hall. “Everything’s fucking fine now that you’re staying.”
I kicked the bedroom door open, not bothering to be gentle about it. We’d been gentle long enough. Careful. Tiptoeing around each other for years when what we’d really needed was this—raw, honest, desperate.
I lay her down in the center of the bed, taking a moment to just look at her—hair fanned out across my pillow, lips swollen from my mouth, chest heaving beneath the flannel she’d claimed as her own.
Christ. Fifty-one years old, and she still took my breath away like she had when we were kids. Still had the power to turn me into a bumbling seventeen-year-old kid again with more hunger than sense.
“Teddy, come here,” she whimpered softly, reaching for me.
“Patience, baby.” I caught her wrists and pinned them gently above her head. “Gonna take my time with you.”
She nodded, and I released her to peel my shirt off her shoulders. The pajamas underneath came off next, revealing inch after inch of soft skin.
When I tossed the fabric aside, exposing her to the morning light streaming through the windows, she tried to cover herself.
“Don’t,” I warned, letting a little roughness seep into my tone. “You’re fucking beautiful, Kels. Don’t hide from me.”
“But the windows…”
I cocked a brow, and she trailed off like she’d lost her train of thought. A fraction of a second later, her hands fell away from her body, moving up to rest against the pillow behind her head.
“I like Bossy Teddy,” she murmured, sucking in a breath as my hand traced the curve of her collarbone, the swell of her breasts, the faint stretch marks on her belly from carrying our children.
“Like it when you let me take care of you, darlin’,” I rasped, watching the goosebumps breaking out across her skin before lowering my mouth to follow the path my fingers had just taken.
She arched up off the mattress with a whimper when I reached her nipples, already hard and begging for attention. I smiled against her skin before drawing one into my mouth, sucking gently before grazing it with my teeth.
Every one of her sounds went straight to my dick. I was so hard it hurt, straining against my sweatpants, but I ignored it.
This was about Kelsey.
About showing her how much she meant to me, what she’d always meant to me.
I worked my way down her body, taking my time despite the urgent need thrumming through my veins. Teased her nipples until they were pink and puffy, kissed the soft curve of her stomach, the jut of her hipbone.
By the time I settled between her legs, my shoulders spreading her wide, Kelsey was squirming restlessly. Still, she kept her hands locked above her head. Because even though it had been ages since we’d been together like this, my girl still remembered the rules.
Kelsey was a control freak in every area of her life except one—the bedroom. In here, she was mine to command. I owned her pleasure, her worries, her stress. Her only job was to let go and let me give her what she needed.
Her pussy was already slick and swollen, and I hadn’t even laid a finger on her yet. Not that she’d ever needed help in that department.
“Spread for me, Kels,” I ordered, voice low and shaky, but she didn’t hesitate. Just let her knees fall apart until I could see every perfect detail.
“That’s my good girl,” I murmured, my breath ghosting over her clit.
A moan escaped her throat at the praise, her pussy clenching around nothing. I’d forgotten how responsive she was to those words—how easily they could make her come apart.
“Touch me. I need—”
“I know what you need, baby.” I pressed open-mouthed kisses to the inside of her knee and the soft skin of her inner thighs, everywhere but where she wanted me most.
She growled in frustration, and I couldn’t help but grin against her skin. The playful push-and-pull had always defined us in the bedroom. Before grief had stolen it. Before wanting each other came with so much damn responsibility.
With one hand splayed flat on her belly and the other digging into the meat of her thigh to keep her pinned open, I drew out my torture, teasing her with light, flicking passes of my tongue, never quite close enough to get the job done.
“Please, Teddy,” she begged, a broken sound clawing its way out of her throat. “Please.”
“There’s the magic word,” I whispered up to her with a grin before dragging my tongue up her slit.
She eagerly ground her pussy against my face as I sucked her clit, gentle at first, then harder, alternating with soft laps and tight little circles. I slipped a finger inside, twisting just so until she let out a sound that belonged in a goddamn porno.
“That’s it, Kels. Let go for me,” I commanded, my voice gone hoarse from need.
I added a second finger, stroking in and out slowly, using every trick I’d learned since my Bronco days.
I kept my focus on her face as I did it.
Watched the way her eyebrows pinched together, mouth slack and wet, eyes glazed with want.
She bit her lip hard, stifling another moan. “I—fuck, I’m close,” she warned, like I’d ever let her come before I was ready.
I eased up for a second, just to drive her insane, and looked up the length of her body. “Not yet. Stay with me.”
She fisted the pillow with a mewling whimper, clinging to control like she could will herself not to fall apart. I went back to work, relentless, tongue and fingers together until her whole body bowed off the bed.
“Come for me,” I growled, and that was all it took. She broke, cried my name as her walls pulsed around my fingers, wetness flooding my hand. I kept going until she was spent and boneless on the sheets, chest heaving, limbs shaking.
I quickly shucked my sweatpants, letting them fall to the floor before hooking my fingers under her knees and dragging her to the edge of the mattress.
Kelsey looked up at me with a drowsy smile, green eyes widening slightly when they landed on my cock—already hard enough to pound nails.
“Need a minute?”
Shaking her head, she reached for me before catching herself. “Can I touch you—please?” she asked, her voice gone small and sweet and so unlike the woman who commanded every room she walked into.
That fucking did me in. “Yeah, sugar. You can touch me,” I said, groaning as her palm wrapped around my shaft.
She stroked me from root to tip, her fingers reverently tracing the veins and ridges as she guided me forward. My cock brushed against the inside of her thigh, leaving a streak of precum across her skin. Without missing a beat, she swiped it up with her index finger before bringing it to her lips.
The sight of my girl tasting me—so fucking unashamed, so in control of her own want—damn near pushed me over the edge.
“Missed this side of you, Kels,” I growled, bracing myself before nudging the head of my cock inside her. She always ran tight after she came and now was no exception.
Kelsey sucked in a sharp breath, her nails sinking into my shoulders. “God, Teddy, you’re so—I forgot how big—” Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes locked on mine, tears racing down her temples toward her ears.
“Kels—baby, am I—am I hurting you?” I asked, already pulling back.
She shook her head and wrapped her legs tight around my back, heels digging into my ass to prevent my escape. Once she was satisfied I wasn’t going anywhere, she brought her hand up to my cheek, her fingertips moving over an old scar beneath my left eye.
“There you are—” She paused, gulping back a broken sob before whispering, “I thought I’d lost you.”
It was the same thing I’d said to her after the wreck, but instead of pain, there was wonder in her voice.
Like she was seeing me for the first time.
Not the physical me, but the version I’d spent the final years of our marriage pretending no longer existed—the man who’d loved her without reservation, without walls, without the burden of grief and guilt pressing down on my shoulders every waking moment.
A man who made promises to her and kept them.
Something cracked wide open in my chest. A fissure that had been sealed shut for years, protecting the most vulnerable parts of me from the world. From her. But I didn’t need it anymore. Not with Kelsey looking at me the way she did when we were kids.
“Right here, Kels,” I agreed roughly, pressing my forehead to hers as I sank deeper. “Not going anywhere.”
Her walls stretched around me, hot and slick and tight—so goddamn tight—I had to grit my teeth to keep it together. It was almost too much. Like, after years of wandering from place to place, I’d finally come home.
Kelsey slid her fingers down my jaw and neck, pressing them to the name scarred over my heart before exhaling another soft sob.
“I know, baby.” I brushed the tears from the sides of her face with my thumbs, my hips beginning to move in slow, deliberate strokes. “I know.”