Chapter 60
CHAPTER 60
CHARLIE
S ex with Olivia was an experience unlike any I’d ever had before. Somehow, it always ended up being playful and fun, but also serious and intense. I’d never laughed with a woman in bed before, nor had I ever felt as much of an urge to possess someone’s body, claim it as mine and only mine, and mark every inch of her.
I felt all those things with her, though, every fucking time, and tonight was no different. She drove me to the edge of reason with her lips and her hands on my cock, my hips, and my abs, drawing these infuriating little circles with her tongue and teasing her fingertips along my balls.
Finally realizing that I couldn’t take anymore, I grabbed her hips and lifted her up, gripping her tight as I positioned her above me. In that same moment, it dawned on me that I still needed protection and I cursed, almost breaking my knuckles on my nightstand from the force with which I reached for the damn drawer.
Liv giggled and leaned over with me, her own ragged breathing matching mine, but she seemed a lot less frenzied as she found a package, tore it open with her teeth, and presented it to me pinched between two fingers. In the darkness of the room, she was a goddess bathed in silver moonlight, her lips swollen from our kisses and her nipples as hard as pebbles, that blonde hair tumbling over her bare shoulders. I felt the wet heat of her arousal against my skin and I almost lost it when I realized that teasing me had gotten her that turned on.
I’d promised her earlier that I was going to make her beg tonight, but it shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d turned the tables. As soon as the condom was on, she took mercy on me though, her gaze locked on mine as she braced herself with her palms on my chest and slowly lowered her hips down.
My brain clutched out at the first touch of her slick opening against my tip, the condom doing nothing to diminish the heat blazing from her. I thrust up as she moved down, both of us crying out and refusing to look away from each other.
All thought and logic vanished, and the only thing left in my world was her. Those green eyes glazed already as they looked into mine. The sensation of her warm palms on my chest. Her channel gripping me like a vise on every thrust in, like she was desperate to keep me there instead of ever having me withdraw.
Banding an arm around her hips, I brought her closer and then flipped us over, rolling us so that she was pressed into the mattress as I claimed her mouth for my own. Despite the almost relentless urge, I didn’t leave any physical marks of our lovemaking on her, but she sure as shit left a few on me. I felt her nails digging into my shoulders and her soul searing itself to mine like a cattle brand.
A brand I would wear with pride.
I lost track of time, holding her, and focused only on what brought her the most pleasure. Then I repeated those things until her lips formed a little “O” and her muscles started contracting around me. “Charlie!”
She tensed up, her muscles spasming as her eyes slammed shut and her juices flooded around me. My own climax hit in response, so intense that I even felt it in my stomach like I used to in my teens, tiny little flips of pleasure as I found my release. My very being felt like it’d been caught on fire and utterly consumed by pleasure, my hips thrusting harder as I chased that feeling through to the very end.
A groan escaped me as I collapsed back on the bed, bringing Liv with me and holding her in my arms like I couldn’t bear to let her go. And I couldn’t. The honest truth of it was that I cared about her a lot more than I’d told her outside at the fire earlier. I hadn’t wanted to come on too strong, but shit. Especially after that, I’m sure she knows.
I didn’t only want to be more than friends. I was falling in love with her. I wanted a life with her. A long and happy one filled with kids and the kind of marriage like my parents had, where we still looked at each other like we were one another’s whole world forty years down the line.
As I stroked my fingers through her hair, my heart still hammering against my ribs and my lips still parted, it occurred to me that we weren’t as different as I’d thought we were. She wasn’t too much of a city girl and I wasn’t too broken after my ex to trust someone again.
I trusted Liv. I wanted to build a life with her and I knew it all the way to my bones as we lay snuggled together without saying another word. Yet the silence was so comfortable and comfort ing that before I could even tell her the depths of my feelings, her breathing had evened out and mine followed very soon after.
The next morning, I woke up to my phone alarm blaring and my hand shot out to silence it. I groaned when I saw the time, blowing out a heavy breath before I decided that my brothers would survive without me for just one morning. I picked up my phone and fired off a text to Mason, letting him know that they needed to cover my chores. Then I dropped the phone quietly back on the nightstand and draped my arm across Olivia’s waist.
She was still naked and I fitted my front around her back, perfectly happy to be the big spoon as I drifted back to sleep. When I finally woke up again, sunlight was streaming in through the windows and Liv was still passed out next to me, her blonde hair spread across my arm and her long eyelashes sweeping across the skin under her eyes.
I smiled, taking a moment to stare at her before I carefully extricated myself from the bed. I’d rolled off the condom last night before I’d fallen asleep, but I disposed of it real quick, washed my hands, and then padded out to the kitchen to make her some breakfast.
It was turning into a beautiful day outside, not a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind in the air, the morning sun chasing away the chilliness of last night. I grabbed a pair of clean sweats from the laundry to cover up just in case someone dropped by. Then I set about making us some coffee and cooking omelets.
I was almost done with the food when I felt a pair of warm, slender arms wrapping around my waist from behind. I leaned into her, smiling as I twisted to glance down at the small part of her face I could see from this angle.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
“You’re not doing chores,” she murmured against the skin between my shoulder blades, making a pleasured shudder run through me. “Why?”
“I’m taking the morning off. We both are. We’re going to sit out on the porch, eat and drink our coffee, and we’re going to be lazy together.”
“Sounds like a dream come true,” she replied softly. “What can I do to help?”
“You can take the mugs out if you don’t mind. I’ll bring the food in a minute.”
“You got it.” She pressed a kiss to the spot she’d been speaking against, then let go of me and made for the mugs just down the counter from where I was standing.
When I caught sight of her in my periphery while flipping the last omelet for the last time, I nearly wound up burning my dang eyebrows off. Liv had put on the T-shirt I’d been wearing yesterday with her sweats, and a groan fell from my lips.
“How am I supposed to think about anything else when you’re looking like that?”
She turned to look at me, slowly and deliberately letting her gaze drag down the length of my bare abdomen, to my hips, and lingering on the tent growing fast below. “Right back atcha, Cowboy. Let’s get outside before we end up letting those go cold. It smells delicious.”
I let out another groan but swiped my free hand across my face in an attempt to clear my head. The omelet was done, so I slid it into a waiting plate with the other and got her plate out of the warming rack. When I had both in my hands, I followed her out to the porch, finding her on an armchair facing the fields, a thoughtful smile on her face and her fingers wrapped around her mug.
“I’m learning to absolutely love the slower life,” she said before I’d realized she even knew I’d come outside. Turning to set her mug down on the coffee table, she took her plate from me and smiled. “There really is something to living like this.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, taking the other armchair and cradling my plate carefully on my lap. “I would never have survived the rat race. It’s just not me.”
“I’m starting to realize it’s not me either,” she said as she cut into her omelet, bringing a small bite of it to her mouth. After she’d swallowed it, she glanced at me with surprise registering on her features. “This is really good. Did your mom teach you?”
“Yep. She insisted that all of us had to learn at least some basic dishes. I’m glad you like it. There are only a few other meals I’m good at that don’t involve grilling some kind of meat, so if we’re really going to do this thing, you’re going to be eating a lot of omelets for breakfast.”
She chuckled. “Between the two of us, I’m sure we’ll manage.”
My eyebrows swept up, my heart pounding as I let her words sink in. Between us. Us. Together. Cooking. Planning meals.
I grinned. “Yeah, I’m sure we will be.”
After finishing our food, we lazed around for the rest of the morning, but around lunch time, she finally went to grab a shower. I seriously considered following her, but when she shut the door firmly after walking in, I realized she might just need a minute alone to process everything that had happened between us in the last twenty-four hours.
We were together now. An item. We were in a relationship, and the way we were both talking, neither of us were interested in keeping it casual. When she walked out all dressed and ready for the day, I grimaced and she shot me an apologetic smile.
“I haven’t been home all week. I need to get my life together before a new week starts at the office. Otherwise I’m not going to have any groceries or enough clean clothes and the house is going to be all dirty.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. Give me ten minutes and I’ll take your things to the car.”
Rolling off the bed where I’d been waiting for her, I strode into the bathroom, and of course, by the time I emerged, she’d already packed her stuff and taken her bags to the truck. I pursed my lips at her. “We’re going to have to reach a compromise about this.”
She winked at me. “Eventually, I’m sure we will.”
At least I beat her to her door handle, opening it for her and shutting it once she was in. She also let me carry her stuff into her house once I got her home, but as much as I wanted to, I didn’t invite myself to stay.
Instead, I strode back to her door and took her face in my hands, pressing my lips to her much softer ones and kissing her deeply. “Bye, Cowgirl. I’ll see you at the meeting on Monday.”
“It’s only Saturday,” she protested against my lips. “Monday is too far.”
I didn’t respond with anything more than a wink and smile, slipping out of her house and shutting the door behind me. If I didn’t leave now, I wasn’t going to, and wanting to see me again before Monday didn’t mean she wanted me to stay until then.
As I got back into my truck, my phone rang and I groaned, expecting it to be Dad about to give me an earful for skipping out on chores. It wasn’t him, though. Dallas’s name was written across my screen.
“Do you want to come have some beers with me and watch a rerun of one of the Texans games?” he asked after I’d picked up.
I frowned. “We watched all of those live.”
“You know we miss the finer details the first time we watch the games, bud. Don’t act like you don’t want to watch the reruns.”
He had me there. “What time do you want me over?”
“Guys’ night,” he said. “Bring your brothers too. Whenever you’re ready. We’ll drink, watch a couple games, and hang out like we aren’t completely screwed for falling in love with city girls.”
I laughed, but he had me there too, so I didn’t argue. “Guys’ night. We’ll see you soon. Order in some snacks. I’ll call the boys, but I’m already in town so I’m on my way.”