Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Francine isready and waiting as soon as I carry a sleepy Lucy inside. On our way home, I called and asked if she wouldn’t mind watching Lucy for a bit while I said goodnight to Evie. Of course, she was more than eager to give me that time.
Francine waits by Lucy’s bedroom door as I place my daughter on her bed then kiss her squishy, painted cheek. I’ll clean her off tomorrow. “I love you, Lucy,” I whisper.
“I love you, Daddy,” she says with a yawn so big that tears begin to leak from the corners of her eyes.
I smile. “Today was so much fun.”
She nods, her eyes still shut. “Best day ever.” A smile lifts her cheeks, and she takes a deep breath, her chest rising and falling.
“That’s what I love to hear.” I pull the light-pink blanket up to her neck and tuck it around her. “Sleep tight, goose.”
She yawns again, this time while saying, “Night-night.”
I stand, giving her one more glance before I make a move to leave.
“Daddy?” Lucy asks, stopping me in my tracks.
I turn around to find her eyes still closed. “Yeah?”
She sighs with her entire body. “I’m so happy you’re my daddy.”
My chest and throat tighten with emotion, overwhelmed as I so often am by the amount of gratitude I feel for Lucy being mine. “I’m the lucky one, sweet girl. I’ll see you in the morning.”
When I walk back out into the hallway, Francine regards me with a smile. “Good night, I take it?”
I nod, fighting off a sleepy yawn of my own. I’m not about to call quits for the night just yet. “Great night. Thanks for watching her. I’m sorry I’ve been asking for so much lately.”
Francine makes a face. “You barely ask for a single thing, Linc. Stop with the guilt already.” She smiles. “Now, go get that pretty girl of yours home safely. I’ll take the guest room tonight.” She holds up the baby monitor to let me see that it’s on and fully charged.
I wrap my arms around Francine. “You’re an angel.”
When I climb back into my car, I turn to Evie and smile. “Thanks for letting me kidnap you.”
She laughs. “You’re the worst kidnapper in the world, you know that?”
I shrug and raise my eyebrows. “I have you strapped into my car, don’t I?”
She raises her brows in an amused challenge. “Is that what you call this?” Her finger glides down along the edge of the seatbelt. “I recall putting this bad boy on myself.”
“Because you were afraid of what would happen to you if you didn’t.”
Her smile widens. “Maybe so. You should have seen me tonight before meeting up with you. Armando forgot to close the door completely when he left, and it gave me a bit of a scare when I noticed.” She laughs. “Thought maybe Jimmy got desperate and broke in to get himself a drink.”
The fact that I’ve only lived in this town a little over a month and have already heard about Jimmy’s drunken reputation at Firefly says something. “Has he been back since Gabe tossed him that night?”
Evie’s eyes widen. “Oh yeah. Are you kidding? Nothing can deter that man. He’s a regular, through and through.” Then she frowns. “I know he can act up from time to time, but that never happened before Lilith’s mom left him. I think he’s just having a hard time.”
Ignoring that interesting fact about Lilith, I focus on how Evie can see the good in people even when they’ve been ugly to her. I love that. “Maybe so,” I say, starting my car and backing down the driveway.
She sinks back in her seat, and her lips twist. “If you think about it, he’s not getting any younger, and the odds of meeting someone new in a town this small is close to impossible.”
Something about the way she says that makes me smile. “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
Evie laughs, music to my ears. “We’re talking about Jimmy here.”
I make a face, not hiding my sarcasm. “Of course.” Biting down on my lip, I consider not adding to my thoughts, but I can’t help myself. “Just because someone is going through a hard time doesn’t excuse their behavior toward you. You don’t have to accept it.”
She blinks at me once, twice, and I wonder if I did, in fact, cross the line giving her unsolicited advice. “You’re right.” A smile blooms on her face. “I just know I could take him if things got heated again.”
I chuckle and tilt my head. “Well, that is very true.” My hand slides over the center console to her leg, a gesture that fills her cheeks with that perfect shade of pink I love.
We have to drive around Main Street to get to the small parking lot behind Firefly. I jog around the car to help Evie out and slip my hand in hers before walking her to the bar’s entrance. Just like I do every single time we’re together, I search my thoughts for any possible reason I can find to get more time with her.
“Thank you for driving me home,” she says lightly, “even though I could have walked from the market.”
Her teasing eyes linger on mine as she backs through the doorway to Firefly. I step forward, too, resting one hand on the open door and the other on the door frame. “What can I say? I prefer scenic detours.”
She takes another step back, but it’s too far. I lean forward and take her hand then pull her back to me. My arm slides around her waist to hold her as close as physically fucking possible as I crush my mouth to hers. A soft, sexy moan vibrates from her throat.
Evelyn Vaughn is the perfect match to my every need. She’s intoxicating, imaginative, fiery, and resilient in the way she blazes through life despite all it has thrown at her. Goodness pours out of her, the brightest light in the darkest day. She’s a firefly, through and through. My firefly. The only light I’ll ever need in the dark, cruel world.
When I finally pull my lips from hers, my eyes are blurred, my head buzzing, and my resolve to leave dwindling. “How about a tour?”
My bold question is met with a look of shock, and I start to second-guess my confidence. This is all still so new. I don’t want to fuck anything up.
“I’m not inviting myself in to… I mean—I was only curious, that’s all.” I take a shaky breath. “I always wanted a secret room as a kid.”
Her lips curl into a smile. “Didn’t we all?”
Her gaze burns into mine as she pulls me into the building. I lock the door behind us and follow her to the aluminum spiral staircase. She plants one foot on the second step, her ass stretching the soft fabric of her skirt. She looks over her shoulder, catching my inappropriate stare, and a smile teases her lips. “Follow me to my lair, Doctor Reed.”
Losing all sense of control, my arm shoots forward, hooking around her middle. I pull her back, her height on the stairs now matching mine. I bury my face in her neck and take in her delicious scent. “You drive me so damn crazy, you know that? I’ve been wanting to hold you close all night.”
She relaxes into me, her body warm. “Just imagine how close you can hold me when we get upstairs.”
A growl rumbles in my chest, and I let her guide me the rest of the way. She turned out to have been joking about a secret book to pull to enter her apartment—instead, there’s an actual door handle on one end of the bookshelf that she unlocks with a key.
When we’re inside, she swings her arms up, gesturing to showcase her place. “Here it is. The infamous upstairs apartment.” She smiles and turns around to catch my reaction.
I tear my eyes from her long enough to get a full view of the whole place. It’s just one big room, for the most part. The bookcases from the outside flow naturally into the room, and a small brick fireplace takes up the same wall as her bed, with closet doors on the other side. There’s a small kitchenette on the opposite wall with a pantry next to it, and on the other side of the door is a bathroom.
None of the decor matches, but somehow it all looks perfect together. The living quarters are small but cozy, and the vibe fits Evie perfectly—simple and rich with what I’m guessing is her favorite literature.
“Originally, this was just a nook in the upstairs library, but Patrick converted it to a bedroom while he was between homes. After he bought the house you’re living in now, he turned this into an office, but he never used it. When I moved here for good, it became my home. He thought I should have a place of my own, and I was secretly so happy.” She smiles proudly. “Is it silly that this is all I’ve ever dreamed of? To own this bar and live in this little apartment behind a hidden bookshelf?”
I shake my head, fascinated even more with the woman who has completely stolen my attention. I would have never thought I could possibly be even more into Evelyn Vaughn than I already was, but she’s so far beyond that—she’s the lifeline I never knew I needed.
When her hand slips into mine and she walks me to the edge of her bed, I almost can’t believe it. I’ve taken my time, letting Evie warm up to me, hoping she will one day trust me, praying she will finally admit what I’ve already realized. I’m hers. She’s mine. Not a single fucking thing on this Earth could be more certain.
So when she reaches for my shirt and starts to slip it up and over my arms, my dick instantly begins to harden.
She tosses my shirt onto the floor then starts on my jeans, never taking her eyes from mine. “Aren’t you going to ask me to say it?”
My heart thunders in my chest, desperate for me not to fuck up. “Only if you’re ready to.” I swallow hard, hating my trickle of fear that she’s messing with me right now, working me up to just let me down. I’ve been taking care of myself for years at this point, but the past month has been the fucking worst. I never knew my balls could ache for release like they do when I’m thinking about Evelyn Vaughn.
She’s got me naked now, save for my green boxer briefs that leave little to the imagination. I’m hard as a rock, tent pitched and ready for the long night ahead.
Her hands move to my chest then slide down like she’s examining every inch of my body’s terrain, then she grips the elastic of my briefs and begins to tug. “What do you want to know, Lincoln?”
I growl at her teasing fingers as they slowly peel down my underwear. “Tell me you’re mine,” I say, and my cock springs free.
Her eyes open wide. “Oh my,” she says, practically salivating. She’s felt me before, but she’s never seen me bare. Now she can witness firsthand how happy I can make her.
Her gaze flutters up to mine, her doe-eyed look only making me swell even bigger. But she doesn’t respond. Instead, she continues peeling down my boxer briefs, kneeling as they hit the floor. Then she takes my cock in her small hands, pushes it up so it almost hits my stomach, and licks me from the base to the tip in one slow, confident move.
My cock jumps in her hands, making her bat her lashes up at me again. She’s doing this on purpose. Teasing me. Tempting me while purposely not saying the words she knows I want to hear.
“Evie.” Her name is a warning through gritted teeth.
A hint of a smile tilts her pretty pink lips before her tongue circles my tip, but when her mouth wraps around my crown and her eyes roll back into her head, I’m completely done for. There’s no fucking way I’m stopping her now.
My jaw hangs open, watching it all play out, not wanting to pinch myself awake from this dream. I’ve almost forgotten the feeling of having a beautiful woman on her knees, worshipping me. Then again, there has never been a woman like Evelyn Vaughn.
“You have the sexiest mouth.” I manage to squeeze out the words through my tightening throat.
As if in reward, she wraps my cock with her dainty fingers, surprising me with their strength. Then she strokes me slowly, rolling my skin toward her mouth as her lips stretch wider the deeper I go. Once she gets started, she’s seemingly relentless in her mission to kill me, taking me toward the back of her throat until I feel the collision.
Her hands work my shaft, fast and furious, while she slides me in and out of her mouth. The closer she brings me to the peak, the more my brain fogs and my muscles tighten. As much as I want to throw her on the bed and fuck her raw right now, I’m terrified any sudden movement will ruin the entire thing. So I let her gag on my cock until my orgasm breaks free.
Evie releases me from her mouth as streams of liquid sex coat her lips, chin, and neck. I reach for her stretchy top and yank it down along with her bra, boosting her breasts. Then my other hand covers hers and guides my cock down to her heaving breasts, decorating her with every ounce of myself.
When I’m done, I reach for the back of her neck and help her to stand, then I crush her mouth with mine. Fuck, if I don’t get inside this woman soon, I might just die.
“What are you doing to me?” I whisper against her lips.
Her body quivers. “I wanted to thank you.”
I raise my brows, confused. “For?”
“For giving me an emotional connection I never thought I deserved.”
She lets out a shaky breath, and I hold her tighter. When I find her lips again, I take my time sinking into them, appreciating them, committing the feel of them to memory.
Once I’ve worshiped her mouth enough, I slide my lips to her ear. “Get on the bed, Evie.”
I’m still half delirious with pleasure, but there’s no way I’m not repaying the favor. She obeys, getting on the bed and leaning back on her elbows, her beautiful nipples stiff with arousal.
Now it’s my turn to get on my knees. I situate myself between her legs and reach for her skirt. As I peel it off and throw it to the floor, I take a long, appreciative look. Her pussy is already glistening, her arousal unmistakable, and I don’t waste a second before I lean down to take a sweeping taste.
Landing on her clit, I flutter my tongue and wrap my arms around her legs. With a gentle push, I spread her wider, forcing her open in the most vulnerable position. My flicking pauses while I lap her up, and when I find her clit again, I suck it into my mouth. Her moan is soft but oh-so-guttural. I look up to find her lids half closed and her abs clenching, then her hips begin to move up and down, bringing her closer to my mouth.
She loves when I devour her. I learned that in the bounce house. And while I thought she was being timid then, those moans and that orgasm left a lasting impression. They kept me up late into the night while I pleasured myself to the memory. But that night had been dark, unlike now. Now, I get to witness her body come alive at my touch, and it’s the best fucking thing in the world.
Her hands feather up her body and slide over her breasts. She plays with them roughly as her hips gyrate, her pussy slipping and sliding against my tongue. Her nipples are so hard that when she takes them between her fingers and pinches, my cock instantly begins to harden again.
“You’re s-so g-good with your t-tongue,” she moans through stuttered breaths.
If she only knew what that compliment just did to my cock. I cover as much of her pussy as I can with my mouth before flicking my tongue against it, licking her clit until her breaths become pants and her moans become groans. Then I flip my wrist and sink two fingers deep inside her, hooking inside in just the right spot to bring her to the edge.
Her hips buck and her palms flatten against her breasts. A half moan, half scream slips out into the air, making me wonder how much a full bar of patrons below would hear if Firefly were open at this hour. But I don’t have much time to think about what-ifs before Evie’s pussy pulses, tightening around my fingers so hard she just might leave bruises.
When she starts to relax, I slip my fingers out. My jaw drops when I see her fluids soaking my hand while more spreads out around her cunt. So fucking hot. And just when I’m thinking about how I can relieve this new ache between my legs, she sits up, grabs my hand, and tugs me onto the bed.
“I need you to fuck me now, Linc.”