39. Piper
PIPER
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Mollie Wilson: Looking for a donkey. Any ideas?
Comments:
Atticus Thompson: The ranch up in Rainwood has a few. They’re asses, though.
Mark Bell: Atticus, is that a pun?
Atticus Thompson: No. They’re actual dickheads.
Marjorie Brown: Why would you want to buy one when @Hu Gh is RIGHT there?
Hu Gh: You want to see a real ass? I have a new itchy spot I can’t WAIT to show off!
Mollie Wilson: NO.
Kerry Winsor: He’s gonna get the group banned if he keeps this up! He’s got too much power!
I was in a far better mood after dinner.
Not only was I able to get my mind off of things, but Marjorie and Henrietta were even more fun in their own home.
Online, Marjorie seemed like she only cared about egging everyone on, but here, I could see the way she and her wife played off of each other.
Dinner felt like a familial affair, and I was lucky to be invited.
Henrietta wound up making us all brownies, and we stayed late finishing them. But after the sun had sunk below the horizon, Theo gently reminded them that he had to leave.
Even I was disappointed, but I promised we would come back very soon.
He was right to mention leaving when he did. The emotional toll the day had taken on me was wearing me down, and the second it was just the two of us, I felt it.
“Was that too much?” Theo asked when we got to the car.
“No. I needed that. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dinner like that.”
“They’ll remember it, and want more.”
“I’m happy to go,” I replied. “Any reason you don’t seem like you are?”
“The usual ones,” he said. “Worrying about the future and getting too close to people that I’ll have to leave.” I nodded slowly. “I don’t want them to hate me.”
“Do you know that they’ll hate you?”
“I—” He paused. “No, I guess I don’t, but I do know the rest of the town.”
I would give him that. I saw the way Kerry seemed to need to know everything going on, and how she seemed so dedicated to safety. If his past got out, it would be bigger than any of the other news I’d seen.
“Any word from Sheriff Mike about Arlo?” I asked.
“He hasn’t seen a thing. I think the threat of cops got him to leave. Mike still has eyes out, though.”
“Then I don’t think anyone is gonna know for now.”
Theo sighed and thought about it. “I want to believe you’re right.”
I waited for the reasons he couldn’t, but nothing came. “And?” I pressed.
“And nothing. I wanna be positive for once.”
I sat up straighter. “Really?”
“It seems to work for you.”
“Sometimes.” I tilted my head as I looked at him. “You’ve come a long way.”
Theo took his eyes off the road for only a second, looking down at where my hand rested on him. “So have you.”
“It’s almost like we’re good for each other.”
“Yeah.” He huffed out a laugh. “Maybe we are.”
This was what Joey wasn’t seeing. This was what made him wrong. There weren’t many times in my life that I was confident, but with Theo, I felt like we were right. It was like every puzzle piece was in place when we were together.
“Can I stay at your place tonight?” I asked.
“Don’t wanna be in your own apartment?”
“My apartment is nice, but I like your house more.”
“You’re sucking up to me,” he said, but his lips quirked upward.
“I’ve already sucked you off. How much worse could sucking up be?”
Theo’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Piper!”
“What? Too much?”
“I’m driving. Don’t remind me of that while I have to focus on the road.”
“Are you tempted not to focus on the road?”
“With you in the passenger seat? Always.”
So much had happened today, yet being with him, I felt like everything would be okay. Joey was the last thing on my mind when we pulled up to Theo’s house. In the past, the fight would be all I could think of.
Theo yawned when we walked in, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
“Need to talk about what happened with Joey?”
I blinked as I thought of it. “Honestly? Not really.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did he react badly to you being with me? I’m not gonna get offended. Or that offended.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I will. I’d rather just have you right now.” I held my arms out. “Come here.”
A small smile made its way onto Theo’s face—one of my favorite sights.
“Think Marjorie’ll get a picture this time?” he asked.
“If she followed us all the way here and gets one, she deserves it.”
I pulled him in fully. When his arms wrapped around me, I surged upward and pressed my lips to his.
Kissing Theo felt like coming home. I loved the scratchiness of his beard on my face and the way he leaned over me.
My mind flashed back to the hotel room where I’d been on my knees for him. My body heated immediately, and I knew what I really wanted for the night.
The floodgates had been opened. There wasn’t anything else I wanted other than him.
Theo tried to pull away, but I made a sound of disappointment.
“Love, we should go to bed.”
“Hopefully that means what I think it means.” My voice pitched low and his eyes widened.
“You want that tonight? How are you not exhausted?”
“Oh, I am. I just want you, though. We don’t even have to move. We can just stay on the couch.”
Theo rolled his eyes. “My knees can’t take doing anything on the floor or couch.”
My bottom lip poked out. “You’re such an old man.”
“You’ll get here and you’ll thank me. Come on, love. Get on my bed.”
His words did the trick. I nearly ran to his room, tempted to go ahead and strip off every layer of me. I would be happy with another blow job. I would be happy just to have his hands on me. I just needed him and whatever he was ready for.
Instead, I settled for waiting on the bed. It would be fun to get myself naked, but I wanted him to do it.
My body hummed in anticipation and he kissed me again. Theo’s mouth moved with mine like he owned it, like this was the time he wouldn’t be pulling away.
It was just like the hotel room.
His hand ghosted over my breasts and I let out a soft moan. Every inch of me begged for more. My nipples hardened at his featherlight touch and I arched into him.
“So ready,” he teased.
“Every single time,” I said, tugging him back down to kiss me.
Theo was everywhere, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I didn’t want space, I wanted him.
Things had shifted away from mere testing what I could do. Now, there wasn’t a moment with him where I felt unsafe. There wasn’t a limit to hit.
I was whole.
Determined to see more of him, I worked at the buttons of his flannel. The second it was tossed on the floor, my hands ran over his skin and tattoos in the same way I’d done it before. This time, my hands brushed over his nipples and he shuddered.
“Should I slow down?” I asked.
“No. It just feels . . . I never thought I’d have this.”
“You do now. You can have me any way you want.” I pushed him back so I could get off the bed and sank to my knees.
“Love, I can’t take it if you do that again.” His voice was rough.
“I’m just down here to get these off.” I unbuttoned his pants. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I only want you to fuck me today.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you tried to push me to the edge.”
Now there was an idea. “If I didn’t have something I wanted, I absolutely wouldn’t listen. You’re lucky.”
“Of course I am.”
“Don’t be romantic right now. I’m trying to be sexy.”
“Who said you can’t have both?”
I got his jeans off, and he made quick work of the rest of my clothes as I laid back down on the bed. With nothing on, I could feel how wet I was. I wanted him. I needed him.
He leaned over me, kissing me once more. I shifted against him, wanting to feel the press of his cock against my core. It was going to feel so different than my dildo, and I needed to know what that was like.
I could feel how hard and wide he was. This was going to be better than anything I could buy in the store, and I ground myself against him, trying to catch the head of his cock at my pussy. I wound up only getting friction.
“God, the way you’re moving.” He muttered it into my mouth. I had to suck in air before I could speak.
“Fuck me,” I whined. “I need it.”
“The things you say.” He shook his head. “But we can’t rush this.”
“Rush it. Please.”
“Love, we have things to talk about. Like condoms and other risks.”
I blinked, my own logic coming back online. “Oh. Right.” I bit my lip. “I’m on birth control.”
“You are?”
“I went to a virtual appointment not too long ago. No touching, and they shipped it here. And I’ve obviously never been with anyone and I don’t think I have anything. It’s a bit of a risk, but . . . if you’ve ever had a test—”
“I have. I don’t have anything.”
“Then we don’t have to use a condom.” I looked up at him through my lashes, watching as his throat worked. “If you’re okay with that.”
His cheeks darkened and he kissed me again before answering. “I’m okay with it. More than okay with it.” His voice was low in a way I’d never heard before, and it made my skin erupt in gooseflesh.
“Then fuck me, Theo.”
“Not yet.” When I frowned, he added, “We’re working up to it.”
“And what are you planning to do?”
“Just hang on.”
He moved downward and my body shivered in anticipation. I knew what his mouth had felt like when he went down on me. I wanted to be fucked, but this also was something I wouldn’t complain about.
I let out a gasp when his mouth covered my clit, eyes slipping shut as I gave into the sensation. I was already building to something from the way his mouth moved.
But he’d said he wanted to work up to fucking me. And I realized what he had planned the second one of his fingers brushed my core.
Theo was gentle with it, not rushing to get inside like some other men would. His finger slowly entered. My body didn’t react like I wanted it to. I was so into this. There was no way I wanted to stop, yet I tensed anyway.
“Sorry. I’ll get over it.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “This is why I wanted to take it slow.”
“Is this where you tell me ‘I told you so’?”
“The only kind of man who tells a woman ‘I told you so’ while fingering them is a single one. I’m not an idiot.”
I laughed. “I love that about you.”
“And you’re loosening up.” He pressed a kiss to my hip. “This is new, so I want to go slow.”
“Things being inside of me is not new.”
“With another person.”
“But it’s you. I do trust you.”
“So trust me to do this right, love.”
Theo had one hell of a point, and I nodded. His mouth covered my clit again and he slowly started moving.
My core relaxed the rest of the way.
One finger already felt unreal, and it took me a moment to adjust as he slowly went deeper. It was like that when I was alone too, but a lot of the time I pushed past the pain to get to the pleasure.
And after what I’d read online, I figured my first time would be the same.
I should have known that Theo would never do that to me.
“More,” I whispered.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I need it.”
He hummed and added another finger, pausing when I tensed. But the second one was better than the first, and this time, he curled his fingers upward and hit a new part of me.
“Fuck,” I groaned as I moved my hips, uselessly chasing a feeling that was going to catch me anyway.
And I was right. Heat blossomed from my core with each of his movements and it grew to the point that everything else faded away.
My back arched and I slipped into another dimension; feeling was the only thing I could do.
It was incredible in a way I could never achieve on my own, and for once, my thoughts were silent.
But when I did finally come back into myself, I wanted one thing.
“Okay, are we ready now?”
“Was that not good?”
“Theo, it was incredible, but I need you. I’ve been waiting for way too long.”
“Got it,” he said as he made his way back up to my lips. Finally, he lined himself up with me, the head of his cock right at my opening.
I was still sensitive, but was also wetter than I’d ever been.
Theo pressed in just slightly, and I knew this was about to wreck me in the way I needed it to.
“God,” I said. “Keep going.”
“Love, you’re tense again. I can feel it.”
I let out a whine. “It feels good.”
“I know, but I don’t want it to be too much that it ruins this for you. Just take a second. Breathe through it.”
I bit my lip, tempted to ignore what he was saying. But I took stock of myself. His cock was barely pressed into me, and that felt incredible.
Unfortunately, he was right about the rest of me. I was tense, and even though I was trying to ignore it, fear made my fingertips tingle.
I sucked in air, gazing up at Theo. He was patient, as always, and the sight of him reminded me of all the things he’d done to make me trust him. How he was still doing those things even now.
“There you go.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That was what I needed.”
“Any time.” He kissed me once more before pressing in farther. My legs tightened around him as I welcomed him inside of me. There was a slight pain that I was tempted to ignore, but he stopped just in time to give me a moment.
I only felt pleasure when he resumed.
The second he was fully seated, I was gasping for breath. For so long, I never had an idea of what this would feel like, being completely intertwined with another person, but it was better than I could have ever imagined.
Tears sprang forward.
Theo saw them immediately.
“Are you—”
“I’m happy,” I said. “So happy that I can do this.”
Understanding dawned on his face and he kissed my forehead, something that felt just as intimate as what we were also doing.
“I’m okay. Back in the mood now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure.” Emotion was fading, replaced by the heat of him being inside of me. When he finally moved, it all rushed back and words were lost to feeling.
I wrote a lot of dirty talk into my romance books, but there was no room for that. There was only him. One day, I’d try to do it, but for now, I could only feel him.
I angled my hips in a way so each of his thrusts put pressure on my sensitive clit. That had me seeing stars.
Everything exploded right when Theo picked up speed. All I could feel was the rush of pressure that overtook me with rippling waves of pleasure. I wasn’t sure if I moaned or managed to say his name, but something tumbled out of me as I came.
And that’s when he did too. He braced his forearms as he leaned over me, getting as deep as he could as his cock emptied.
“Fuck,” he said, his voice gravelly.
I couldn’t answer for a long moment, and then I finally caught my breath.
“Th-that’s what we just did, yes.”
He huffed out a laugh and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I’m too spent to even joke.”
I wanted to find another one, but there was nothing. Just pure, unfiltered happiness.
Theo saw it all.
“I hope it was everything you wanted,” he said.
“It was more.”