Chapter 14
SCOTT & HARLOW
HARLOW’S POV
Nearly ten years after they married
I wake to a crack of thunder that scares me because I wasn’t expecting it. It was a loud crack, like the thunder we had last night during the storm that finally helped ease some of the god-awful heat that’s been stifling Brisbane for days.
The curtains are drawn but even so, I can tell it’s dark outside.
Usually, by this time of morning, the sun is streaming in through the cracks, right alongside the unbearable heat that seems to know no end.
The sun may not be out this morning, but the heat has returned.
It’s not as hot as it has been, but it’s still warm.
I push the bed covers off when I realise Scott’s already up and walk into the bathroom.
I’m just finishing in there when more thunder rolls in.
When I make my way out into the kitchen, lightning lights up the dark sky.
I stand at the kitchen sink and watch the show through the window.
Morning storms are so rare. Whenever we have one, I can’t help but just watch.
I’m in the middle of that when a text comes through for me.
Madison
Have you guys got power?
Me
Yes. Have you lost it?
Madison
No, but a lot of Brisbane has. The storm last night was wild. I was worried that tree in our front yard was going to end up through our roof. How did you guys go?
Me
I was so tired that I passed out and missed the wild part of it.
I glance up with a frown. I was so entranced with the thunder and lightning that I haven’t paid attention to the fact Scott is nowhere to be seen. It makes me wonder if we’ve had trees come down. Maybe he’s outside dealing with that.
Me
I’m gonna go find Scott. Are the kids behaving?
After celebrating Christmas at Madison and J’s yesterday, we left Aurora and Keaton there for a Christmas sleepover with their cousins.
Madison
Yes. They all slept through the worst of the storm thankfully. Okay, go find Scott. Let us know if you need anything xx
I don’t find any trees down in our yard. I also don’t find Scott in our yard. However, our neighbours haven’t been so lucky, and our street is a mess of tree branches and debris. Scott is in the middle of it taking charge of the clean-up.
I quickly duck back inside and change into shorts and a T-shirt before heading out to help with the clean-up. The further down our street I get, the more of the damage I can see. Trees are down everywhere, and debris is piled up all over the place.
Scott’s talking with two men I don’t recognise when I reach him.
They’re deep in conversation, making a plan to clear all the trees.
When they finish talking, Scott comes to me and slides his hand around my waist so he can pull me close and drop a quick kiss to my lips.
“This isn’t quite the Boxing Day we had planned,” he murmurs.
“How long have you been out here?”
“A few hours.”
I blink. “What? Since three a.m.?”
He nods right as another clap of thunder sounds overhead.
“Yeah.” He looks up at the sky, a frown creasing his forehead.
Then, giving me his attention again, he says, “Jimmy had a tree come down on his roof and called me just after three this morning asking for help. We’ve cleared it and tarped his roof, but it’s a fuckin’ mess over there. ”
He’s talking about the next street over. Jimmy’s a seventy-five-year-old man we both have a lot of time for. I hate that he’s had this happen.
“Where is he now?”
“He’s safe at Vera and Fred’s place.” He glances at the sky again. “Baby, go inside. It’s about to fuckin’ bucket down and I don’t want you out here in the storm.”
I grip his arm. “I don’t want you out here in the storm.”
The first drops of rain splash my cheek. By the ominous dark clouds and the wind that’s lifting leaves up into the air, I know Scott’s right. The sky is about to open right up.
“We’ve got trees down in all the streets surrounding us. I’m gonna keep going until it’s not safe.”
“Scott,” I start to argue over that, but he cuts me off.
“Go inside. Start making food for everyone. It’s going to be a long day.” With that, he turns and strides to where our neighbours are chain-sawing fallen trees.
I stare after him, knowing I’ve got no chance at changing his mind.
We’ve lived on this street since just after we were married.
It’ll be ten years in a few months. Scott cares for the people who live here with us like they’re our family.
He would do anything for them. Has done anything for them.
Today won’t be any different. He’ll stay out here however long it takes to help clean up.
Right.
Food.
That is how I can help.
As the rain begins falling hard, I go back inside our home and start making enough food to feed an army.
It’s a long day. The longest one I can remember in a long while.
After the early storm, Scott calls on his club for help and spends every minute of the day directing the clean-up of three streets. Our street and two either side of ours. Fifteen club members come and help, for which I know all our neighbours are grateful.
I spend every minute of the day checking in on people, feeding them and helping in any way I can. Madison keeps Aurora and Keaton for the day, telling me that they can stay tonight too.
By the time Scott comes home for the night, it’s just after eight p.m. I’m sitting in our bed reading while waiting for him. The minute I hear his boots in the hallway, I’m out of bed.
I meet him at our bedroom doorway. “You’re finished?”
“Yeah.”
“Is everyone okay?” A few people needed to find places to stay, and I know Scott was helping them do that.
He nods. “Yeah. And the weather seems to have settled.”
He’s right about that. The heat has eased, and a cool change has come in. Thankfully.
I run my eyes over every inch of his face before dropping my gaze to his chest where his T-shirt clings to his muscles. This shirt used to be white. It’s now all shades of brown.
Lifting my eyes back to his, I say, “The next time you run a mission like this, don’t wear white.”
His eyes crinkle. “Run a mission?”
“Yes.”
More eye crinkling. “Got it. No white.”
“Good. I’m glad we’re in agreement over that.” I hold out my hand. “Now, give me your shirt so I can soak it.”
He lifts his shirt over his head and hands it to me. “Are we also in agreement over the fact I need a shower now? Or have you got something else you wanna boss me into first?”
My free hand is instantly to his body, grasping his hip while I move into him.
“I’ve been worried about you all day, Scott.
It’s been storming on and off. You’ve been out in it.
You’ve been on the roads driving to the tip.
I know people needed your help, but I hate that you had to do that in unsafe conditions. ”
He puts one arm around my waist and brings me all the way in while curving his other hand around the back of my neck to take hold of it.
His eyes flash with love and concern while they search mine.
Then, he bends his face and kisses me. Slowly and deeply.
I feel his love and concern in the kiss.
He ends it just as slowly and finds my eyes again.
“It was a fuck of a day and I’m glad it’s over.
I’m sorry you were worried, but you know I won’t ever put myself in danger. ”
I arch both my brows at that. I mean, the man lives for putting himself in danger.
A smile teases his lips. “Let me rephrase that. I won’t put myself in danger in a storm.”
I keep my brows arched as I say, “Care to rephrase that again? Maybe to, oh, I don’t know, ‘I won’t put myself in danger while I’m sleeping.’”
That smile of his makes its way across his entire face. “This is why I need you in my life.”
“Why? Because I’m the only person who calls you on all your bullshit and stops you from believing the lies you tell yourself?”
“Yeah, baby, that.” He brushes his lips over mine again, taking another kiss, before smacking me on my ass and saying, “I want you in the shower with me.”
“I have a T-shirt to soak. And you’re way too exhausted for whatever you think you want to do to me in that shower.”
“Are you calling me an old man?”
“Well, you are forty-five, so there is that.”
“And we both know I could go all fuckin’ night while you’d be the one begging for me to stop so you could sleep.”
I open my mouth to argue that, but before I see it coming, Scott’s got me over his shoulder and is striding towards our bathroom.
When we reach his destination, he puts me down and lifts his chin at me. “Take your clothes off and get in the shower.”
I can’t deny how much his bossiness turns me on. It always has. However, I have things to do. I hold up his shirt that is still in my hands. “I have to soak this.”
Scott takes the shirt and places it on the vanity. “It can wait.”
“Scott—“
He invades my space and reaches for the hem of my T-shirt.
“Harlow.” My name on his lips is a growl and it gets all my attention.
“I want your clothes off. I want you in that shower. And I want your mouth around my dick.” He’s got my shirt off fast and then my bra, shorts and underwear.
And the way his eyes are then all over my body is everything.
I reach for his shorts and strip them and his underwear from him. His growl of approval as I wrap my hand around his dick turns me on more than I already am and has me crushing my mouth to his so I can show him with a kiss how much I love that growl.
Kissing Scott is maybe my favourite part of sex.
I crave connecting with him in this way because this is Scott being completely vulnerable with me.
This is him sharing his feelings with me.
This is him saying, “Here I am. Know every part of me. Take every part of me. I am yours.” And it’s me saying all of that back to him.
Scott knows what a kiss means to me and always gives me however long I want with each one we share. Today is no different. Even though I can tell he just wants to be inside me right now, he gives me every second I need.
When I finally pull my lips from his, he takes charge and backs me up against the wall before dropping to his knees and putting his mouth to my pussy. I arch my back, grip his hair, and thank the Universe for giving me a husband who would love to spend every hour of his day doing this.
He sucks and licks and devotes himself to my clit until I don’t even remember what day it is, what hour it is, what minute it is.
When I start moaning his name, he pushes two fingers inside me and finds my G-spot.
After all these years together, he knows exactly what I need.
By the time I come, my legs can barely hold me up.
But that doesn’t matter because Scott’s back on his feet fast and lifting me into his arms.
“I thought you wanted my mouth around your dick,” I say while wrapping my legs around him and taking in the desire blazing in his eyes.
“It turns out I can’t wait to fuck you.” His fingers dig into my ass. “Hold on tight,” is all I get before his mouth crushes to mine and he thrusts inside me.
Oh, holy god.
The guttural sound he makes on that first thrust is a sound I live for. He doesn’t make it every time he fucks me, but when he does, I almost come straight away. I hope I’m still causing that sound when we’re old and grey.
When Scott told me to hold on tight, he meant it. God knows where he gets his energy from, but even after a long, tiring day, this man has it in him to fuck me good. He pounds into me while kissing me and losing himself in the pleasure.
I come again, and as my pussy clenches around his dick he makes another purely masculine noise that I will never tire of hearing and then comes.
He pulls his mouth from mine and bends his face to kiss my collarbone. He stills, burying his face in my neck and pressing his mouth to my skin.
I curve my hand around the nape of his neck and thread my fingers up into the back of his hair. God, I love this man. With every fibre of my being.
“It turns out I love banging a forty-five-year-old,” I say.
He kisses my neck one last time before lifting his face to mine and giving me more of those eye crinkles. “Banging, huh?”
It’s not a word I’ve ever used. I make a mental note to find all new words because I love amusing him.
“It seemed fitting for what you just did. You wanna go again? I mean, you said you could go all night, right?” I also strive to help ease the tension that lives in Scott’s mind and body. Making him smile always helps.
“I may have been wrong about that.”
“Oh, no. That’s awful. What do you think will be the next to go after your penis?”
This earns me a chuckle and a shake of his head. I’ve also never used the word penis when referring to Scott’s dick.
He lets me down and says, “Get your ass in the shower and we’ll see if my penis has it in him to go again. And Harlow?”
I smile sweetly at him. “Yes?”
He grips the back of my neck and pulls me in for another rough kiss. “I fuckin’ love you but if you keep this old shit up, we’re gonna have some trouble to sort out.”
And there goes my heart and my body and my entire soul.
I grip his biceps while staring into the eyes I could stare into for every second of the rest of my life. “I love you too and I hope we have lots of trouble for you to sort out. You’re my favourite type of trouble.”