Chapter 9
Avery
I lay there beneath him, my heart flying, trying to figure out what we’d just done. Clothes-fucked like teenagers? Evidently.
Flint’s arms were wrapped around me, one hand cradling the back of my head to keep it off the hardwood floor. I could feel his chest rising and falling against mine as he caught his breath.
He was so solid. So warm.
His body felt like a cave of muscle surrounding me, and even though we were lying on the unforgiving hardwood floor of the romance section, I had never felt better in my life.
But as the fog of pleasure started to clear, reality crept back in.
What had I just done?
I’d dry-humped my boss’s nephew on the floor of the bookstore. I’d come apart beneath him like some desperate, needy thing, moaning his name loud enough that anyone walking past on Main Street might have heard.
And the lights were on. Had anyone seen us?
Panic clawed at my throat.
“I should go.” I tried to push against his chest, but he didn’t budge. “Flint, I really need to—”
“No,” his voice was a low rumble against my hair. “Not until we talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. This was a mistake, and I think we should just pretend it never—”
“Avery,” he lifted his head and looked down at me, his hazel eyes serious. “I’m crazy about you.”
My breath caught.
“I know you’re scared,” he rumbled. “I can see it in your face right now. But I need you to hear me out before you run.”
I stopped struggling, though my heart was still racing.
He shifted his weight to one elbow, his other hand coming up to brush a strand of hair away from my face. The tenderness of the gesture made my chest ache.
“I haven’t let a woman close in eight years,” he said quietly. “Not since Brenda left.”
I blinked up at him. “Eight years?”
“Eight years.” His jaw tightened.
“Brenda and I had dated for years, and I was pretty sure we were going to marry. But when my dad died, I was lost. Brenda wanted to make decisions about my inheritance when what I needed was to grieve.”
A gasp slipped out of my mouth. I couldn’t imagine how he’d felt at the time. I was close with both of my parents, and if I lost either one of them, I imagined I’d be stuck in a fog of pain for a few years straight.
His voice was deep with emotion. “She wanted me to leave the mountain and buy her a nice house in a bigger town… become civilized. When I wouldn’t do it… she found someone who would.”
He paused, and I could see old pain flickering in his eyes. “I was still grieving my dad when she walked out. After that, well, I sent a big old fuck you to the opposite sex and decided women weren’t worth the trouble.”
“Flint—”
“But then I walked into this bookstore,” his thumb traced along my neck. “And there you were, all flustered and pink-cheeked, trying so hard to keep me at arm’s length. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since.”
My eyes burned with unexpected tears. I wanted so badly to believe him, but I’d believed someone before. Someone who was a lot like Flint.
“I had a thing with someone once,” I whispered. “He was older than me, a mountain man like you.”
Flint listened intently, tightening his grip around my waist.
“I told my friends I thought we were getting serious,” my voice cracked.
“That’s when the rumors flew around town that we might get married soon.
A bitter smile landed on my lips. Now I know why he wanted to be so secretive.
It’s because he liked to keep his active social life off the radar.
I wasn’t the only woman he was with during that time. ”
“That asshole. Who was it?”
“It actually wasn’t Sawyer’s fault.”
“Sawyer Reed?”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “He never told me we were exclusive. I… jumped to that conclusion all on my own. I always make fairytales out of nothing. He let me down gently once he found out. After that, the rumor mill worked overtime for a while.”
Flint’s expression darkened, but he didn’t interrupt me.
“The heartbreak was bad enough,” I continued, “but the gossip was worse. Everyone in town knew, and everyone had opinions. I couldn’t go anywhere without feeling people’s eyes on me, whether they were pitying me or judging me.”
“I understand,” he said, and the weight of voice told me he truly did. “The gossip about Brenda and me is part of why I moved out to a cabin where I didn’t have to see sympathy in everyone’s eyes every time I bought groceries. I fucking hate that shit.”
Something shifted in my chest. He did understand.
He knew exactly what it felt like to be the subject of small-town whispers. To have your private pain become public entertainment.
“I can’t be someone’s Friday night fling again,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t do that to myself. If this is going to be anything, it has to be public. I need to know you’re not going to hide me away.”
His eyes flashed with something fierce, and when he spoke, his voice was a low growl that rumbled through my entire body.
“Avery, I don’t hide what’s mine. If we do this, everyone in town will know you’re with me.”
My breath caught in my throat as his hazel eyes burned into mine.
Flint Campbell looked dead serious right now.
Then, he lowered his mouth to mine. The kiss was slow and deep, not like the frenzied kiss from earlier.
It was like he was trying to tell me something with his lips that he couldn’t put into words. I melted into it despite myself, my hands sliding up his chest to grip his shoulders.
His fingers found the top button of my cardigan, and I felt it give way. Then the second button. And the third.
He took his time with each one, his knuckles brushing against my skin through the thin fabric of my bra, and by the time he reached the last button, I was trembling.
This is happening.
He pushed my cardigan open and just looked at me for a moment, his gaze traveling over the white lace of my bra and the soft swell of my breasts spilling over the cups.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, and the reverence in his voice made my eyes sting again.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the curve of my breast. Then another, and another, trailing his mouth across my skin until I was arching up into him.
His beard scratched deliciously against my sensitive flesh as he nipped me through the fabric, his tongue tracing the edge of the cup.
“Flint, please—”
He reached beneath me and unclasped my bra with one hand, pulling it away to bare me completely. The cool air hit my nipples, and they tightened instantly, and then his mouth was on me, hot and wet and perfect.
He sucked one nipple between his lips, and I cried out, my fingers tangling in his shaggy hair.
His tongue swirled around the peak, teasing and tasting, while his hand came up to cup my other breast, his thumb rolling over the nipple until I was writhing beneath him.
“So fucking perfect,” he growled against my skin.
He switched to the other breast, giving it the same attention, and then I was lost.
My hips rolled up against him instinctively, seeking friction, seeking more of him.
I heard the rasp of jeans sliding down, and my breath caught.
His hand skated down my body, pushing my skirt up around my hips, and then his fingers were hooking into the waistband of my panties.
But he didn’t pull them off. Instead, he pushed them to the side, baring me right there in the bookstore.
“Look at me,” he commanded, and my eyes flew open to meet his. “I want you to see exactly who’s inside you.”
And then he was pushing into me, slow and steady, stretching me in a way that made me gasp. He was big, bigger than I’d expected, and my body struggled to accommodate him even as slick arousal eased his way.
“That’s it,” he murmured. “Take all of me, Avery. You can do it.”
He sank deeper, inch by inch, until he was fully seated inside me. We both stilled, breathing hard, and I could feel him everywhere.
He filled me so completely that I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “You feel incredible. So tight. So wet.”
He started to move, pulling back slowly before thrusting forward again, and I moaned at the sensation. Each stroke sent sparks of pleasure radiating through my body, building and building until I thought I might shatter.
He set a rhythm, and I wrapped my legs around his hips to pull him closer. The new angle made him hit something inside me that had me crying out with every thrust.
“That’s it,” he growled, deep and steady. “Let me hear you. I want everyone in this town to know you’re mine.”
Mine.
The word should have scared me.
Instead, it felt like safety.
His words pushed me higher, and I could feel my release building, coiling tight in my belly. He must have felt it too, because he picked up the pace, driving into me harder and faster until the sound of our bodies coming together echoed through the empty store.
“Come for me, Avery,” his voice was ragged and desperate as sweat slicked between us. “Come on my cock so I can feel you squeeze me.”
I shattered.
The orgasm crashed through me like a wave, and I cried his name as I clenched around him. He followed me over the edge with a guttural groan, spilling himself inside me with one final thrust.
We lay there afterward, tangled together on the floor, surrounded by fallen books, our breathing slowly returning to normal as our hearts raced together.
Flint didn’t rush away the way Sawyer always had. He stayed right where he was, his arm heavy around me, with no intention of letting me go.
His fingers traced slow circles on my arm while we caught our breath. His touch had become the most natural thing in the world.
The two of us fit together somehow, even if it didn’t make sense. And the tiny feather kisses he was dropping on my neck right now told me that Flint wasn’t done with me yet.
His weight was heavy on top of me, but I didn’t want him to move. I wanted to stay in this moment forever, where everything felt possible and nothing hurt.
But even as bliss thrummed through my veins, fear crept in at the edges.
I was falling for him. Falling hard and fast, the way I’d sworn I would never do again.
And I was absolutely terrified that Flint Campbell was going to break my heart.