Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
NASH
I glanced around the barren front yard as I strolled up to Rory’s door. If my calculations were correct, Ava and Ella were at their dad’s house, which meant Rory and I would be all alone for the first time in way too long. Never mind that “way too long” had been only days, or that I didn’t get antsy to spend time with women. I got in, got off, got out.
But it wasn’t like that with Rory… Never had been. No matter how many times I was with her, how many days and nights we’d spent together, I still hadn’t gotten my fill. At this point, I wasn’t sure I ever would.
After climbing the steps, I knocked twice on the door and waited for her to answer. By the noise coming from inside the house, I doubted she’d even heard. Instead of hollering through the screen to get her attention, I tried the handle…and cursed under my breath when the door came open without issue. How many times had I been on her to lock the damn thing?
Tossing my keys on the side table next to the couch, I followed the…well, singing was too nice of a word for what was happening right now. But I didn’t think she’d appreciate caterwauling, so I’d go ahead and keep that term to myself.
Rory stood in the kitchen with her back to me, stirring something on the stove and belting a song playing from her phone. I cringed as she attempted to hit a particularly high note. Sweet Jesus , the girl was as tone deaf as a barn door. But even with my ears ringing, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face or tear my eyes away from her.
She was completely and utterly lost in the moment, and I knew, without a doubt, this was pure, undiluted Rory. How many other people had ever gotten the privilege of seeing her like this? If my gut was right, I’d say exactly zero.
Somewhere along the line, Rory had decided she needed to put on a show for everyone and shove that gorgeous, firm, smartass, belligerent, determined woman she really was into the shadows. I didn’t want her in the shadows, though. I wanted her right here, just for me.
I came up behind her and slid my hands around her waist at the same time I pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.
She screamed and jumped, jerking away from me as she spun around, wielding her sauce-covered spoon like a weapon. Her eyes were wild and crazed, her stance saying she wasn’t there to fuck around. If anyone could incapacitate an intruder with a kitchen utensil, I had no doubt it’d be Rory.
When her eyes locked on mine, her shoulders relaxed a bit. “Nash? What the hell ! Why do you insist on sneakin’ up and scarin’ the ever-loving daylights outta me? What is wrong with you?”
I let my gaze dip, my smile growing when I saw the catastrophe of her shirt. Tomato sauce splattered in clumps over the white cotton. “I seem to have a knack for scarin’ you and gettin’ you all dirty because of it.”
She glanced down, her mouth pulling into a frown when she saw what was there. “Dammit, that’s another of my shirts you’ve ruined.”
I stepped into her and pulled the spoon from her grasp, set it on the counter, and placed my hand on the small of her back. “Technically, it’s my shirt, and I’ve got a whole drawer of ’em at my place if you want another.”
Color bloomed in her cheeks, as if she were embarrassed by getting caught in my clothes. I fucking loved that she wore it so much, that she seemed to enjoy being in it as much as I enjoyed seeing her in it. Truth was, the only thing sexier would be her out of my shirt.
“What’re you doin’ here?” she asked.
“Well…” I tugged her forward until our bodies were nearly flush. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to grab something for supper.”
She tipped her head toward the stove behind her. “I made spaghetti.”
I leaned down and licked a tiny splatter of tomato sauce off her neck. “I can see that. Tastes good…though maybe that’s just you.” My voice came out low and deep, a barely restrained rumble of need. For her. For her touch and her body and her breathy moans in my ear.
Before I could tug her even closer, she halted me with a hand on my chest. “Wait. You’re gonna get all dirty, too.”
I pulled back enough to shoot her a devilish grin. “I sure as hell hope so.”
She rolled her eyes, though her cheeks burned even brighter. “I meant your shirt, Casanova.”
“This one?” I fingered the hem of my shirt that she wore, sliding my hand back and forth, brushing my fingers against her bare stomach.
Her breathing quickened, her eyes taking on the dreamy, half out of her mind glaze I’d come to love. Tentatively, she slipped her hand under the hem of my shirt, her fingers pressed flush against my abs. “I meant this one, actually.”
Careful to keep our chests from touching, I leaned in and brushed my lips along her neck, smiling when she craned it to one side to give me more room. “I have a solution for that, you know.”
“What’s that?” Her hand slipped down my stomach until it notched in the waistband of my shorts, her fingers curling around the material, nearly touching my straining cock.
Figuring the best response was actions and not words, I reached behind me, gripped the neck of my shirt, and tugged it off.
“That’s a bit presumptuous, don’t you think?” The breathy tone of her voice contradicted the admonishment, and I nearly grinned.
“You’re up, princess.” I tugged at the hem of her shirt, lifting it slightly.
That jerked her out of her stupor as she snapped her head from side to side. As if we were in the middle of the Square with onlookers all around us instead of in the privacy of her own home without neighbors as far as the eye could see. “Wait… here ? Let’s go into my bedroom…”
With exaggerated slowness, I shook my head. Every time I’d been inside her had been while in her bed. And though it was a damn fine bed, it was time we stepped outside our comfort zone…or hers, anyway. “Nope. I can’t wait to get you into your bedroom. I want you right here.”
“But the front door’s wide open! Anyone could?—”
“Walk right up and hear how much you love havin’ my cock inside you? Yep.” I dipped my head and grazed my lips against hers. “Maybe this’ll remind you to lock your damn door.”
She jerked away from me, some of the blissed-out haze leaving her eyes as she narrowed them at me. “I’m a grown woman, and I can handle my?—”
Without letting her finish, I lifted the shirt from her body, groaning when nothing hid her tight nipples from me. “Hope you weren’t plannin’ to leave the house like this.”
She crossed her arms, but all that did was serve her breasts to me as if on a silver platter. “If I were, there’s nothing you could do about it.”
A laugh rumbled out of me even as I ached to bend down and suck one of those tight buds into my mouth. “Don’t test me, princess. I’d fuck you right in the Square so everyone could see whose you are, and I’d happily go sit in jail for indecent exposure for doin’ so.”
I told myself I’d said those words simply in the heat of the moment, and they meant nothing. I didn’t do public…anything. Hell, I didn’t do Havenbrook women, period, let alone Havenbrook’s freakin’ namesake. And I sure as hell didn’t flaunt that shit around.
Whenever I’d had an itch, I’d scratched it out of town, always a one-and-done scenario. My goal since I’d been old enough to realize exactly how the people in Havenbrook viewed my father was to show them that the apple fell as far from the tree as possible.
But the thought of Rory traipsing around town like that, with her perfect tits out and available for anyone to feast their eyes on set off a primal scream inside me. A scream that sounded an awful lot like Mine .
Rory’s mouth dropped open. “You’d do no such thing!”
“And you’d never leave the house like this.” I tugged her to me, groaning when my cock pressed against her stomach. Holding her tight with a hand splayed on her back, I nuzzled her neck. “We both know you don’t show anybody this side of you, isn’t that right? Nobody but me.”
“That’s not…” She trailed off, her voice losing steam as her body sagged into mine. Her skin pressed flush against mine, her tight little nipples brushing across my chest, and I groaned at the contact. Reached down and cupped her ass. Pulled her right off the floor and up against me as I devoured her mouth.
“You drive me fucking crazy, Rory, you know that? I can’t keep my head around you.”
The truth was, she made me frenzied in a way I hadn’t been since I’d been a fumbling teenager, angling to lose my V-card in the back of my truck. Rory made everything brand-new again. Amplified every feeling—every touch and throb and ache—until she eclipsed all else.
Without another word, I let go of her and shoved her shorts down her legs until she stood in front of me bare. I didn’t even allow myself a chance to look at her standing there in all her glory before I undid the fly of my shorts. Fuck, even just watching her watch me made me throb in my goddamn boxer briefs, my cock thrum-thrum-thrumming to get inside her.
That was what she did to me. I might be helping her explore things she’d never had a chance to explore before, but I was along for the ride. Sex, I knew. Intimacy? Not so much. In the weeks since we’d started this, Rory was changing that for me.
I had the condom out of my pocket and rolled down my length in ten seconds flat. And then she was in my arms, her legs around my waist and her arms locked around my shoulders. She met my tongue stroke for stroke as I kissed and licked and sucked, her breathy whimpers only stoking the raging fire inside me.
She was no longer the quiet little lamb she’d been that first time. I’d coaxed the noises from her a little more each time I’d been inside her, and I hung on every single sound that came out of her mouth when we were together. Those sounds meant one thing: she was so crazed for me, she couldn’t control herself. That made two of us.
Slipping one hand under her from behind to test her readiness, I groaned when my fingertips slid through her wetness easily. “Seems your pussy loves the idea of being fucked out here where anyone could see.”
“Nash…”
“What? You want me to stop talkin’ like that?”
“I didn’t say that.”
A slow smile spread across my face. That was as much a confirmation that she loved it as I was going to get from her.
“You only say my name like that when you’re gonna yell at me or when you want me to fuck you.” I gripped my cock and ran it through her wetness. “Tell me, princess, is this pussy feelin’ needy for me?”
She groaned, her eyes closing as she tossed her head back and gripped my shoulders tighter. Rocked her hips just so to try to pull me inside.
“Mhmm, that’s what I thought. Greedy little thing, isn’t she?”
Rory gasped when her ass hit the wall as I pressed her up against it, her eyes flying open to stare into mine, then fluttering closed on a moan when I notched into her entrance and drove deep.
No matter how many times I’d been inside her, it still felt like the first. Overwhelming and all-consuming, and I never, ever wanted to leave.
“Ah, shit. There it is.” I dropped my head to her shoulder, panting through the first few moments inside her that always had me desperate to blow. “ Fuck , you squeeze my cock so good.”
I dug my fingers into her thick hips and pinned her to the wall, making sure there was near-constant friction on her clit as I pumped into her with slow, deep thrusts.
She held me tightly, her arms wrapped around my head, her fingers locked in my hair, keeping my face buried in her neck. The move brought her lips right next to my ear, which meant I could hear every pant, every sigh, every moan that slipped from her mouth. Could also hear when she started to whisper my name over and over as her arms tightened even harder around my head and her legs clamped around my waist.
“Tell me what you need, Rory, and I’ll get you there.”
“I don’t know if—” She whimpered and I pulled back to see her eyes screwed closed tightly, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.
I wasn’t sure if she meant she couldn’t ask for it, or if she was uncertain if she could come like this. If it was the latter, I’d fuck her against the wall until my legs gave out, and then I’d go some more after I collapsed on the floor if that was what I needed to do.
As for the former, well… One of these days, I was going to make her ask for everything she wanted before I touched her. But today—when I was buried inside her, working both of us toward orgasm—wasn’t the day.
I alternated my thrusts—deep, shallow, shallow, deep—as I bent to take a nipple into my mouth, sucking on the tight bud until her movements became sporadic. Slipping one hand between us to rub her clit, I pressed my other hand against her lower back, bringing us as close together as possible. I rubbed her in tight, fast circles, just how she liked, as I maintained my rhythm. Desperate to hold off my own release as long as she needed. I’d mentally walk myself through every aisle of the entire fucking hardware store if necessary.
When she locked up around me, everything clenching tight and her breath held in anticipation, I gritted my teeth, pressed harder against her clit, and waited for her to fall.
“ Nash .” She came on a sobbed exhale, her body going limp even as her pussy squeezed me for dear life, pulling the orgasm straight from my bones.
I thrust all the way inside her, settling deep and clutching her to me, my face buried in her neck as I came. “Shit, Rory. Fuck .”
It felt too damn good to stop moving, so I didn’t. I rocked into her with slow thrusts. I’d never once been with a woman without a condom, but I wanted that with Rory. Wanted to feel her bare, wanted to stay inside her until I got hard once more and fucked her all over again.
“I can’t believe you took me against a wall,” she said next to my ear, her fingers running through my hair.
I lifted my head to look at her and raised an eyebrow. “‘Took you’?”
She pinched my side, hard enough for me to jerk away. “You know what I mean.”
Smiling, I palmed her ass and squeezed. “I didn’t take you anywhere, princess. I fucked you against this wall. And you loved every second of it.”
The look on her face said I wasn’t wrong, and it gave me a jolt of satisfaction that I was the only one she’d ever shared this part of herself with.
I had no idea what this thing between us was. And with the timeline ticking away on buying out my old man, my efforts should be focused elsewhere. Trouble was, I couldn’t walk away. Not now. Not yet.
Whatever this was for her—exploratory sex with a guy young enough to fulfill all her desires, I guessed—I was going to take it without complaint. I was getting fucked on the regular by my long-time fantasy, and I was loving every second of it. Never mind that my heart was starting to enter into the equation.
I ignored the part of me that whispered I was getting in too deep, too fast. I was going to ride out this thing with Rory as far as it took me. I’d worry about the fallout later.