Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Dutch
Judy had been right about the bourbon. Unfortunately, it didn’t help me sleep better. It did taste good after my stew though.
I made an extra large batch and packed some away in the freezer and a few for the next few days for myself. The snow left me feeling hemmed in, especially since I kept staring at my damn cursor on my laptop.
I went back to researching about the kids who had gone missing on Providence Lake. Thankfully all my library credentials got me into the digital archives. Unfortunately some of the newspapers were still on microfiche, so I’d have to go into town if I wanted to read the original newspaper articles.
It probably wouldn’t help.
The details were slim, but I didn’t know what else to do to spark something for this book. I knew there was something there, I just had to find the nugget if my stupid brain would work.
The morning came with blue skies, glaring sun, and a mountain of snow. Deciding a bit of manual labor might help clear my head, I shoveled off the porch and made my way down the driveway.
Dylan and his brother had been through with the snowplow, but they’d been too busy to do our individual driveways. Eighteen inches had turned into two feet on the overnight. When I finished making a walkway, I trudged over to Phoebe’s place and started on her winding stone steps.
When I was halfway to her front porch she opened her door. “What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like?” I huffed and threw a shovelful of snow onto the hill.
“I can take care of my own stairs.”
“Yeah, well, I wanted the exercise.”
She stood in the doorway wearing purple snow pants with a ridiculous hot pink sweater. Her hair was in those messy twists that made her look far too young for me.
“I’m helping.” She opened the door wider and Mouse shot out like a cannon, coming right for me.
“That’s not helping,” I said and braced for impact.
I went down with the dog on top of me as we landed in all the snow I’d painstakingly shoveled. Her delighted laugh was followed by the muffled swish of her snow pants, then she landed on top of me too.
I grunted. “Definitely not helping.”
She rolled off me and into the fluffy snow then scissored her arms and legs making a snow angel. Mouse wiggled next to her making his own version. She looked over at me. “C’mon. You too.”
“I am not making a snow angel.”
“For me. Please?”
“I have a walkway to find.”
“You can find it afterward.” Snow dotted her face, flushing her cheeks a ruddy pink.
“Fine.” I dropped next to her and felt ridiculous as I swiped my arms and legs through the packed snow.
Her laughter turned into a squeal as Mouse trampled over both of us to land in between us. It was so absurd, I couldn’t help but laugh. I glanced over at her and the joy that shimmered off her punched me in the chest.
She rolled onto her side and reached over to brush the snow out of my beard. “How long have you been out here?”
“I don’t know. A few hours.”
“Well, then I guess that deserves a pizza. I made some dough last night. Come inside and I’ll feed you.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I do. Don’t worry, I won’t read anything into it. It’s just lunch.”
I huffed out a breath. “Phoebe.”
“What? It’s okay to just be friends, right?” She shook snow out of her hair.
“I don’t want to be friends.”
Her smile slipped away. “You don’t?”
“No. Being friends is not what I’m thinking about, dammit.”
The hurt melted away. “Oh.” She licked her lips. “Well, that is different. Your moods are as mercurial as the weather lately.”
“Which isn’t fair to you.”
“Maybe what you need is a little happiness. It doesn’t have to come with strings, you know. It can just be naked happiness with a side of research.”
I frowned.
“You want to know about the lake right?” She inched over, pushing Mouse out of the way with a laugh. “Move, you moose. I think you got the letters wrong when you named him.”
“Mouse is stuck to him now.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is.” She pushed his big butt out of the way, then threw her leg over my middle.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to kiss you. Then we’re going inside for pizza. Then I might let you take me to bed.”
My hands went to her thighs. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Phoebe. I’ve got a 747’s worth of baggage right now.”
“Then put it down for a few hours. The baggage will still be there after lunch.” She braced herself on the packed snow and lowered her mouth to mine. “Now shut up and kiss me.”
I lifted my cold hand to cup the back of her neck and dragged her down to me. “Yes, ma’am.”
Her cool lips touched mine and that was the last bit of softness I could find. I’d wanted her for days. The sounds of her breaking apart for me a week ago still stayed in my memory banks on a loop.
I wanted to hear it again.
Taste it this time.
And God, I wanted to do anything but think about my own fucked-up problems. The secret that was sitting in my chest, spreading like a cancer.
“Put it away, Atticus.” She said between kisses. “Put it away.”
I rolled her under me. The layers of snow and clothing made me get creative. I poured it into the kiss. Infusing each stroke of my tongue with concentrated effort. And with each taste, I disappeared into her.
I let go of the heaviness until we were both panting.
A cold nose bumped the back of my neck.
Phoebe laughed. “Can we go inside and continue this?”
I struggled to my knees with a groan. “If I’m not in traction.”
She wiggled out from under me and helped me to my feet. I hooked my arm around her shoulders. “Maybe some water and Advil first?”
“I think we can make that happen.”
We stumbled our way to her porch, snow up past our knees. I crowded behind her up the stairs and she used her butt to push the door open, dragging her mittens off before fumbling with her zipper.
My fingers were frozen and shaking as I stripped off my own layers. Snow crusted my jeans and boots, melting around my feet.
She flipped her sweater over her head, showing white long johns with little pink flowers under her ski pants. Her eyelashes were starred with snow crystals, making her green eyes look huge.
“You’re ridiculously beautiful.”
She laughed. “Thanks, I think.”
I bent and ripped at my laces then straightened and toed off my boots. I reached for the plastic buckle of her snow pants, flicking it open so the strap slithered behind her. I jerked up the layers of cotton and silky thermal and whipped them over her head.
She gasped when I lowered my mouth to her cotton sports bra and sucked her nipple through the material. Her fingers sunk into my hair. “I thought you needed Advil.”
“After,” I said against the cotton. “I need this first.”
“Okay, I’m not arguing.”
She stepped back into her living room kicking off her heavy boots toward the door. She pushed me back enough to roll down the winter pants and step out of them leaving lemon yellow long johns with little blue flowers.
“I’m going to have the strangest fantasies after this.”
Phoebe laughed. “I’m short, what can I tell you.
I end up in the juniors section for my winter clothes.
” Then she wiggled out of the thermals and the high cut blue thong was anything but adorable.
It showed off her legs and curve of her hips.
She kept walking backward and curled her finger in a come to me gesture.
I shucked my crusty jeans and left them with our winter gear.
Her eyes widened. “My, my you are proportional.”
I reached behind my head and dragged off my Henley and sweatshirt, tossing it on her bright teal couch. Distantly, I noticed that her room was just as bright and cheerful as the woman herself. Completely different from my own neutral colors. She was vibrancy and life and I was starving for it.
For her.
I followed her down the narrow hallway to the sunny room at the back of the house.
She had a prefab square house, but the add-on she’d created was like nothing I’d seen before.
The walls were a deep dark green like her eyes with a lush bed full of blankets and pillows in various tones of warm honey gold and dark emerald.
But the windows were the real star of the show.
They curved up from the floor to cover half the ceiling much like her studio.
The trees behind her house left the room dappled in diffused sunlight.
My mouth dried at the simple beauty of her in the space.
I was used to the chaotic color of her clothing and art space, but this was a calm oasis and instantly evened out my own riotous emotions. I stepped into her space, curling my arm around her waist to draw her into me.
Her hands rested on my chest, her fingers instantly smoothing through the hair then lightly scratching over my pecs and up to my shoulders.
I lifted her into my arms and her legs went around my waist. She propped herself on my shoulders, her lids heavy with desire as she met me halfway. The kiss was open mouthed and drugging as my arms banded around her. My knee bumped into the end of her bed and I stretched her out on the soft duvet.
I dragged my mouth down her chin, nibbling my way over her neck to her shoulder then down her arm to fingertips.
I knelt between her thighs, kissing the center of her palm before I nipped at her wrist, then raised it over her head.
I laced our fingers together as I covered her, raking my fingers of my other hand over her thigh and opening her wider for me.
She arched her back as I rubbed my shaft over her center, then moved over enough to get my fingers under the cotton panel covering her.
I didn’t have pretty words for her, they were lodged in my head under the need.
I dragged my knuckle through her slick folds then turned to slowly push two fingers into her heat.
Her mouth parted on a groan.
I caught it with my lips, mimicking the slide of my fingers with my tongue. My sole focus was her pleasure. Taking it from her and wrapping it inside me like a balm. Infusing my cold darkness with her vibrant color.
She had an endless tide of passion and I rode it with soft strokes until she was writhing underneath me.
I held her open, my fingers ruthlessly driving into her until my muscles burned and her back arched off the bed. “Atticus.”
I buried my face into her neck. My name became a sob in her chest, clawing out of her throat. Her legs quaked as she flooded my hand. I raced my lips over her breasts down her ribs to her belly. I didn’t even bother taking off her underwear, just pulled it over enough to get my mouth over her.
The rich taste of her filled my senses.
Her fingers tunneled through my hair, holding me there for her pleasure as much as she tried to push me away.
I drank her down, my beard wet with her as I chased the orgasm that I’d been edging her around. I lifted my gaze, lost in the pleasure I gave her. I ground my aching cock into the mattress. Just a little longer.
Her taste was spicy and warm, her body so fucking giving.
Just like the woman.
I gripped under her ass, rolling her underwear off and down her legs before I splayed her even wider, finding every place that made her shudder and shake.
“Fuck.”
Her voice was guttural with the need to come. I thrust two fingers deep inside of her and sucked on her clit, and she froze in the thrall of it. Her whole body locked down then she gasped out my name.
I wasn’t fucking prepared to get into her bedroom.
Into her bed.
Into her body.
She dragged me by the hair, up her body until I covered her.
I hissed as my pulsing dick notched exactly where it wanted to be. I ground against her and she shivered.
“Inside me.”
“I don’t have anything with me. This wasn’t the plan.” I kissed her neck and rutted against her, my body relentless with the need to come. For fuck’s sake I’d come on her belly in a second.
She reached between us, her strong hand slipping between the gap in my boxers to draw me out.
I hissed. “Phoebe.”
She rubbed me along her swollen pussy, hugging the underside of my shaft with her heat. She looked up at me and rode against me. “Come on me.”
I swallowed as she twisted her finger over my sensitive head to catch the drop of come. She brought it up to her mouth, then licked her hand and twisted the tip as she stroked the shaft, milking me and trapping me in her slick heat at the same time.
I dragged my length over her again and again, watching her hand shuttle over me.
“Fuck, Phoebe.”
“I’m going to come again,” she said shakily. “Right there. Right there.”
Her body shuddered as the friction between us intensified just this side of painful.
I pushed her hand away and fisted my hand brutally over the top half of my cock until my release was strangled out of me. Her hips lifted up rubbing her swollen softness against my shaft. My come splashed against her belly and ribs, striping her golden skin.
I almost collapsed on her, but crashed along her side at the last minute, my breath coming in gasps.
She flung her arms above her head with an exultant laugh. “Holy shit.”
“That about covers it.”
She looked down at her stomach. “We made a mess.”
“That we did.”
She stretched. “God, I feel amazing.”
I was pretty sure my brain was fried.
She kissed me and rolled off the bed.
I face planted into her pillows, my whole body screaming from the shoveling and sex that wasn’t quite fully sex. Still somehow, it had positively rewired my brain. Instead of the anxiety ridden void, it was blissfully quiet.
She came back a few minutes later wearing a robe, the promised Advil and a bottle of water in hand. “I’m starving.”
“I’m a husk of a man.”
“I’ll take care of the food. Have a nap if you want.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is this a regular thing for you?”
She grinned. “I’m pretty hyped after sex on the regular. I’m used to being the only one.” She patted my cheek. “It’s okay. You did way more work than I did today.”
I didn’t even know what to say to that.
Instead, I sunk into her honey-scented sheets. “I just need five minutes.”
She kissed my forehead. “Take all the time you need.”