Chapter 13
13
Ethan paced the parking lot of Patterson’s while Austin leaned against his cruiser, arms and ankles crossed.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Austin said. “Do you want her raising that bar again? Do you want to drive a wedge between yourself and the entire family again?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Ethan yelled back. “Do you want to lose your fucking job? Do you want the department to get sued for harassment?”
Austin just shook his head, that superior attitude radiating disgust. “Dude, you’ve got to shut that bitch down. Dad’s going to pop a blood vessel.”
Ethan felt sick. Physically sick. Like he was going to lose the acid churning in his stomach any minute. He wanted to knock some serious sense into Austin, but if he did, Austin’s suspicion would peak. And if Austin’s suspicion peaked, he’d stir the shit by dropping innuendos with the family and pulling shit like he’s just pulled.
Delaney had enough trouble with his family.
“Sometimes you’ve got to get your hands dirty to put change into motion,” Austin said. “And I know how fussy you are about getting dirty. I’m just stepping in to do what I know you won’t. Hell, you’ve already got enough problems with Dad and Uncle Wayne as it is.”
“They make their own goddamned problems, then try to blame them on everyone else. She only came back because he forced her into dealing with that dump.”
Austin’s eyes narrowed. “Dude.” He laughed the word with surprise. “Dude, you’re hot for her.”
Fear stung the pit of Ethan’s stomach. “Don’t try to deflect the conversation from your screwup. You always do this when you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong. And, hey, I don’t blame you. She was a hot little piece back in high school, but now...” He whistled long and low. “That bitch has aged to perfection.”
Ethan needed—needed—to put his fist in Austin’s gut.
A dozen goddamned times.
“God, you’re such an idiot.” Ethan threw a hand toward him in a “whatever” gesture, and started for his truck.
“You’d better think about what you do before you do it from now on, bro,” Austin called after him. “We both serve at the pleasure of the almighty Jack Hayes, who happens to be indebted to Wayne Ryan because you didn’t do what you were told. And don’t expect Mom to take your side against Dad either. Aunt Ellen’s face-plant has her all wound up.”
Ethan pulled open his truck door and froze, halted by that punch of guilt.
“If you think you fell from grace when you bailed on Ian’s last birthday hurrah, how do you think the family will feel about you letting Hart restore that building?”
He turned on Austin. “It has nothing to do with letting her. It’s about following the law, Austin. You know, that thing you swore to uphold and protect? That thing you make a living enforcing?”
“Hard to imagine miser Wayne parting with his gold nuggets to fund the reelection of a man who can’t even control his own son. When Jack’s happy, everyone’s happy. Shut her down, bro, or I will.”
Ethan dropped into the driver’s seat a hundred pounds heavier than when he’d stepped out and turned over the truck’s engine. His drive home took only a minute, but in that sixty seconds all his problems tangled into knots.
That badge gave Austin a God complex. Where Jack knew when he was crossing the line or pushing the limits, Austin didn’t believe either lines or limits or, evidently, laws applied to him.
He would jump at the chance to drop innuendos about Ethan and Delaney to their family, because Austin held a long-standing grudge over Ethan’s star status growing up. He’d reveled in Ethan’s fall from grace over Ian’s death. And relished any chance to both rub the event in Ethan’s face and remind everyone why Austin deserved to be the favorite son.
After pulling into the driveway, Ethan shoved the truck into Park but didn’t turn off the engine, still arguing with himself about going to Phoebe’s to check on Delaney. Man, talk about a shitty day. He wanted to be there for her, even if that meant getting the brunt of her anger.
But she’d never agree to see him. And then he’d be stuck explaining himself to Phoebe. And the whole idea went downhill from there.
He slammed a fist against the steering wheel. “Fuck.”
God, he was so over this family bullshit.
He turned off the engine, climbed from the car, and rounded the back, cutting across the lawn toward the front door, hoping he still had a few beers in his fridge. He seriously needed to alter the alcohol-to-red-blood-cell ratio pumping through his veins.
Movement near the house drew his gaze and halted his feet. The motion-activated porch light flipped on, drenching Delaney in light where she sat on his front steps. His heart jumped toward his throat.
She stood slowly, her gaze holding his, her expression unsettled. Holding a porch column with one hand, she fisted the other by her side, but she said nothing. The silence felt heavy with uncertainty and secrets, desire and need, frustration and guilt.
This mess was an insanity-inducing cocktail that made Ethan feel reckless, as if he wanted to chuck it all and move somewhere no one knew him. Somewhere with beaches and bars. Forget all about his screwed-up family. Dump the job that ruled his life.
Just like Delaney had.
She’d walked away from her unhealthy life with nothing. Started over at eighteen in a new town. No family. No friends. Built herself up to a great position in a great company all on her own. Then come back to face her ugly past when it was the last thing she wanted.
She had such strength. Such guts. In comparison, he felt like an absolute coward.
He planted his hands at his hips and set his feet. “Okay. Let me have it.”
“Have what?”
“Whatever you need to unload.” He lifted his arms out to the sides. “I deserve whatever you’ve got.”
Her brow pulled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He glanced over his shoulder and around the street. “Where’s your car?”
“I, um, I parked a few streets away. Paralleled between two cars so my license plate wasn’t—” She stopped and let all her air out, but she kept her voice down, as if she were aware of the lights on in the houses nearby. “Never mind. I’m just here to tell you that what happened between us will stay between us. I won’t tell anyone. So it won’t get back to your family through me.”
“What?” He shook his head as he took a few steps closer. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you care?” His voice sounded strained as he tried to keep it low. “First my father attacks you, then my brother. Neither of which you deserved. And both in public. You should be raving mad, screaming about lawsuits against the city, not trying to protect me from my own damned family.”
“Don’t ask me why I care.” The first hint of anger touched her voice, and she came to the edge of the porch with a stance he was beginning to recognize—spine a little straighter, chin a little higher. “That’s demeaning. What kind of person do you think I am? Why wouldn’t I care? You’re not your father or your brother. I certainly know how far an apple can fall from the tree, how quickly family members can turn on each other, and how easily they can abandon you when you need them most.
“I also know how badly that hurts. How it can leave an empty space inside a person. Make you feel like you don’t belong, even when you do. I don’t think anyone deserves that. I think family should stick beside each other. I realized all that too late and lost my sisters because I was young and selfish and left too soon.
“But I was only eighteen. I didn’t know any better. Your father and your brother do know better, and the way they treated you today is total bullshit. So yeah, I’m pissed, but not at you.”
His stomach seemed to squeeze and float at the same time. He didn’t know how she said so much so quickly. He was dumbstruck at her insight into people, relationships, and human nature. Awed at how open and forgiving she was after all the shit she’d been through.
He put one foot on the stair and gripped the railing, looking up at her. “You impress the hell out of me.”
She looked at her feet and shook her head. And then they stood there in the warm night, with the rhythmic chirp of crickets and the occasional hum of a car engine in the distance.
Ethan’s overwhelmed brain cleared, like his body hit the “Reset” button. Without the tangle of problems clouding his mind, he really saw Delaney for the first time all night. Saw the way her pretty little yellow sundress followed the curves of her body, the way her hair fell forward over her shoulder and framed her face, the way her legs seemed to go on forever before they ended in sparkly little sandals.
And he suddenly ached all over. He didn’t understand how he could still want her so badly. He’d never been addicted to anything, but just looking at her standing on his porch made a claw-like craving sting in his gut. Made his mouth water. Made him want to take risks he’d never contemplated before.
“Delaney—”
“I know it might be hard to believe,” she said, starting down the stairs, “but Jack and Austin aren’t the biggest pricks I’ve ever dealt with. I’m a big girl, and I may not always win the war, but I can hold my own in the battles. I know how to handle guys like this. Guys that thrive on power and authority. And I know how to do what needs to get done. I’m a survivor, Ethan.”
She stopped on the last step, putting them eye to eye. “What I don’t know how to do is make sure others survive. I don’t know how to save anyone else. So stop worrying about me and start worrying about you. If you don’t put up some walls and protect yourself from their manipulation, that light inside you will eventually go out.”
Light? She saw a light inside him?
She lifted a hand to his face and cupped his jaw. “You’ve been through enough. You have a great life here. A good job, great friends, everyone in town respects and likes you, all the single girls can’t wait for the day you look their way. I’m not going to come into town for a week, or a month, turn everything upside down, and leave. That’s not right.” She ran her thumb over his cheek and smiled. “So we’re good?”
Panic blipped through his chest. He covered her hand with his to keep her from leaving, while he fought for something to say that would fix everything and make her stay. But she was so freaking rational, so goddamned logical, he was having a hard time finding anything to work with. And with the bar, his grandfather, his family, his aunt, and his job in the middle of this, he didn’t even know if he should.
“Delaney, let’s?—”
“It’s not a big deal.” She curled her fingers around his and lowered their hands. “And I’m not going to make it one. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t worry. I’m good, so we’re good.” She nodded. Smiled again. “Okay?”
Say okay and let her go.
He shifted on his feet.
One little word.
Let her go. Right your world.
“No.” He heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes. “No, it’s not okay.”
“Ethan . . .”
Her goddammit-I’m-barely-holding-on-here plea was lost on him. He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her warm little body against his.
She pushed at his shoulders, leaning away. “You know I’m right. You know it’s what you need.”
“No.” He lifted a hand and cupped the back of her neck. “You are what I need.”
He pulled her mouth to his and kissed her. She mewled, the sound frustrated, but her hands fisted in his shirt and held him close.
Ethan softened his mouth, tilted his head, and kissed her again. This time, she whimpered and her body loosened. The feel of her melting against him pushed heat through his body. He moaned and slid the hand at her neck into the silky strands of her hair, and when she parted her lips to gasp, he pushed his tongue into her mouth.
She opened to him immediately, hungrily, and met the stroke of his tongue. The warm, wet slide made everything Ethan had been holding back—the lust, the confusion, the fear, the anger, the want, the longing—break through his barriers like a flood. The wave wiped everything from his mind but Delaney and brought profound relief.
With nothing else invading his thoughts, he focused on the luscious cushion of her breasts against his chest, the soft mound of her pussy against his cock, the feel of her small waist beneath his arm.
And, God, her mouth. Wet. Warm. Wild.
He tore out of the kiss, lifting her into his arms and starting for the house. “Fuck, I need you.”
She bit her way down his neck, and tingles spread across his skin, but at the same time she murmured breathless attempts at logic. “We can’t keep doing this. Too complicated. If anyone finds out...”
He pushed his door open, covered her mouth with his, and let his tongue talk her out of leaving. By the time they were inside, she had her legs wrapped at his hips, one hand deep in his hair, the other working his belt open.
The thrill of winning her over spread through him like fire. He kicked the door closed, and Delaney pulled out of the kiss, breathless, both hands moving to the buttons of his shirt.
Turning a circle, he searched for the closest horizontal surface. But his kitchen was a mess, his sofa was covered with laundry, and his dining room table was strewn with paperwork.
Then her mouth found his again, licking and biting and sucking, while her hands worked on his shirt, and his desperation mounted.
“This is the last time,” she murmured between kisses. “Not happening again.”
Fuck that. He turned a half circle and rested her butt on a wide, deep windowsill. Her thighs opened, and she pulled him between her legs.
Ethan grabbed her wrists and held them still. Her eyes lifted to his, floating with questions.
“What if I don’t want this to be the last time?” he asked even while a small part of his brain screamed, What are you thinking?
“Ethan.” His name came out as part reprimand, part where-the-hell-did-that-come-from?
“We have something, and it’s not going away.”
“Neither of us wants anything more than this. I’m not staying. Regardless of what I decide to do with the bar.”
“Whatever this is will burn itself out by then, right? There’s no point in making ourselves miserable when we both want each other.”
“Yes, there is.” The sexual haze cleared from her eyes. “There’s a definite point, and it’s called keeping your job, keeping peace with your family, holding on to the respect you’ve built here.”
Something stirred deep in his heart. Something he’d never felt before. Something he couldn’t ignore, couldn’t just will away.
He cupped her face with both hands and caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. “You’ve always been the caretaker. A lot of years with no mom, an alcoholic dad, and two younger sisters. You’ve always taken care of everyone else, haven’t you? The way you’re trying to take care of me now.”
Surprise flashed in her eyes before her gaze fell away and she shook her head. She pulled her hands from his shirt and pressed them against the ledge. “Maybe I should go.”
“Maybe you should just admit how much you like me.”
She huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes.
“Maybe you should just admit how much you want me.” He tipped her head back, looked directly into her eyes. “Maybe we should both just admit that we care about each other. That for however long we’re in this, it’s happening because there’s more between us than a physical need to hook up.”
“You don’t know me well enough to care.”
“I know you better than you think. I know the girl you tried to hide from everyone back in high school. And I still see her in you now.”
She laughed as if the idea were ludicrous. “I didn’t try to?—”
“Wildwood Vineyards Convalescent Home.”
Her smile froze, then fell in confusion. “What?”
“You were there doing community service work for an underage drinking charge.”
“How did you?—”
“Because I was there at the same time doing the last of my community service work to earn my Eagle Scout.”
“You really were a Boy Scout?”
He grinned. “And I watched you with those old people. People who never judged you. People who loved your company, appreciated your time, and thrived on your attention. You stayed longer than you had to. You went in on days you weren’t scheduled. You continued going even after your sentence had ended.
“You loved those people, and they loved you. You listened to their stories and laughed with them. You played games with them and read to them. You brushed their hair and painted their nails. Even when you weren’t there, they talked about you.
“Outside the home, you might have been the town bad girl, doing everything you shouldn’t. But you also managed to get your sisters to school and keep your father’s bar running when he was laid out drunk.”
She started to shake her head again.
“I read the police report, Delaney. I know your father was passed out behind the bar when Ian was killed. I also heard after the incident that was a regular occurrence. What I can’t figure out is how in God’s name Phoebe let you work the bar alone.”
Delaney’s gaze lowered to his chest again. “She didn’t know. I told her I was staying the night with a friend. She wouldn’t have let me, and I knew we needed the money.”
He sighed and kissed her forehead again. Then her lips. “So I do know you enough to care. If we have to keep things between us a secret, fine. I’ll do what I have to do to get these stolen moments with you, because I don’t want this to be the last time.”
Her eyes scanned his face, her expression a mix of longing and concern. Maybe some fear. She scraped her lower lip between her teeth, lifted her hands to his shirt, and curled it into her fingers. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you. It...scares me.”
His chest filled with excitement, with happiness, with so many emotions that they pushed the air from his lungs. He kissed her hard and deep. Tasted her until her fingers were clenched in his hair, holding his head down.
And just like that, the fire between them flared back to life, fueled with a new understanding and new emotions.
He slid his hands up her thighs and let his fingers drift between her legs. Hooking his fingers in her panties, he shimmied them down and let them drop, then moved his hands up her thighs again. But this time he pushed her skirt up, too, revealing her gorgeous thighs and, finally, that pretty pussy he craved. The thrill this woman could whip through him without even trying was absurd.
“So beautiful,” he murmured, letting his hand slide between her thighs.
Delaney’s breath quickened, and her body stiffened. The look she gave him made her seem innocent. One of those God-that’s-naughty-but-it-feels-so-good looks that made Ethan want to eat her alive.
“Like that?”
She smiled, one of those naughty smiles, with her lip still between her teeth.
His own lips turned to match her grin. “Spread your legs, naughty girl. I want to touch you.”
With her gaze holding his, her thighs opened into a wide V, pushing her forward on the ledge, and giving Ethan full access.
“Mmm, perfect.” He stroked his fingers through her hot, wet pussy, let them drift farther back and over the tight pucker. Her nipples turned to hard peaks beneath her dress. Ethan’s cock pulsed with heat.
He tipped her chin up, kissed her gently, brought her tongue out to play without the kiss while he swirled his fingers in her slick heat. She moaned and arched for more, but he pulled back and focused on the buttons on her dress, slipping the six of them open, one by one.
“Did you think about me the last few days?” he asked, plunging his index finger deep to tease the walls of her sex.
“Yes.” One of her hands gripped the sill at her hip, the other was clenched in his shirt at his ribs.
He added his middle finger and pushed deeper. Her eyes closed, lips parted, back arched. “Oh...”
“Did you think about this?” He soaked in the sight of moonlight accentuating the pleasure drenching her face. Wished he could save the moment somehow. “About me touching you, kissing you? About me inside you?”
With her head against the glass, she opened her eyes. “Yes.”
Ethan leaned in and kissed her, whispering against her lips, “Did you miss me?”
He didn’t expect to get an answer, but she surprised him by murmuring a soft, “Yes.”
He pulled back and looked into her eyes. They were clear, vibrant, hot. And honest.
She’d missed him? Or she’d missed fucking him?
He wasn’t venturing there.
“Because I think about you all the time. About how wet you get for me. How I glide inside you. How tight you grip me. I think about how you smell right here.” He tilted his head and pressed his face to the hollow between her jaw and her neck and opened his mouth against her skin. He kissed his way down one side of her neck, then back up the other, continuing his whispers. “I think about your pussy tastes. How you feel against my tongue, all plump and soft and juicy.”
“God...” A shiver coursed through her small frame, and her thighs spread wider.
Ethan repositioned the hand between her legs so that with each thrust, his thumb rubbed her clit and his ring finger brushed her backside, pushing her toward the peak with methodically steady strokes.
Delaney moaned and writhed with the new friction. She released his shirt and gripped the sill with both hands, trying to leverage herself into the thrust.
“Relax, baby.” He cupped her breast still covered in the soft, thin fabric, and caressed, massaged, and pinched her nipple. She arched into his hand. “I’ll give you everything you want.” He brushed the strap off her shoulder and pulled a corner of the dress down to expose her tit, which he cupped, brushing the nipple with his thumb. “You just have to let go and enjoy.”
He lowered his head and covered her with his mouth. And since he knew she was so needy, he skipped the soft foreplay and bit down—hard enough to make her take notice, but not hard enough to hurt.
She gasped, and one hand grabbed a handful of his hair. But her hips continued to rock to the rhythm of his thrust, and she wasn’t pulling away as he licked and sucked to soothe the area he’d bitten.
In fact, another shiver racked her body, and she lowered her head to his with a whispered, “Don’t stop. So good.”
The fire inside his body flared. His thrusts grew harder, his passes over her clit and her anus more deliberate and drawn out, his assault on her nipple harsher.
And she thrived on it. Her fingers opened and closed in his hair, creating a thrilling burn along his scalp. Her body writhed and shivered, growing as taut as a wire, her sounds of pleasure audible aphrodisiacs.
She cupped his face, turned his head, and took his mouth in fervent, wet, erotic kisses that amped his fire, while her other hand found its way inside his pants and stroked his cock beneath the cotton boxer-briefs.
She broke their kiss, pressed her temple to his. “Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Jesus . . . so good. Ah . . .”
Her pussy clamped down on Ethan’s fingers, and he shook his hand hard, rocking her whole pelvis and drawing a short scream of ecstasy.
Ethan basked in the silent moments of her aftermath—her heavy breaths, the quick beat of her heart, the way she leaned on him with abandon. But he breathed deep of her musky, thrilling scent of arousal and couldn’t keep his fire banked for long.
As soon as her grip on him eased, Ethan pulled back. Delaney’s face was flushed and sated, her eyes heavy-lidded, her body lax. Her pussy was full and plump, glistening and gorgeous.
And Ethan was starving.
He dropped straight to his knees.
Delaney gasped. “Eth?—”
He scooped his arms beneath her thighs, pulled them wide, and covered her with his mouth. A high-pitched sound vibrated in her throat.
He licked her soft skin, sucked at her, lapped up the excitement he’d just created, loving the way she gave him such intimate access.
“Oh my God.” Her hand slid around his head, pulling him in as she spread her thighs wider. “Mmm...So good...”
Ethan opened his eyes and looked up at her. She looked gorgeous in the shadows, body tense, head dropped to the side, hair spilling everywhere, her other hand gripping the edge of the wooden ledge beneath her.
He pulled back and drew her thighs over his shoulders to free his hands. With one hand, he parted her folds to expose her plump clit. With the other, he stroked her opening, teasing her with shallow thrusts.
She mewled and lifted her hips.
He licked at her fully exposed clit, so swollen and sweet.
“Ethan,” she begged.
Oh, the rush. The woman gave him an honest to God head rush. The whole light-headed-dizzy-blurred-vision package. And it only made him want to go that extra mile to give her all she was begging for.
He pulled his mouth from her pussy and blew on her wet tissues. Her body sagged, and she dropped her head back against the glass with a sound of both pleasure and frustration. As her hand combed through his hair, Ethan flicked his tongue against her clit and slowly pushed two fingers deep into her heat. Deep, deep, deep. Delaney’s body tensed up again.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
She brought her other hand to his head and tried her best to pull him into her pussy, which only made him wish he were in a position to roll her over and let her ride his mouth to orgasm. For now he’d have to bring the orgasm to her.
His fingers slid over the swell inside her, and she caught her breath. God, he was so hungry. Hungry for her pleasure. Hungry for his own.
He covered her pussy with his mouth and worked her from the inside out and the outside in. Licking and sucking, rubbing and flicking. Exciting her slowly, lifting her to a peak where she could see forever before he let her fly. And he lost himself in the erotic thrill of pleasuring her into a frenzy of writhing hips and tense, needy sounds.
Ethan ate it up, every last rock of her hips, every last sip of her juice, until she was shivering on the edge of orgasm, and her big eyes looked down at him, heavy with need and lust. She uttered, “Please...Ethan. Need...it. Need...”
And all it took to get her there was taking her clit between his lips and her G-spot beneath his fingers.
“Ah...” she cried out and bowed with the orgasm’s intense rush. One hand dropped back to the sill, giving her leverage to lift into him, and she rode out the rest of the climax against his mouth, where he continued to lick and suck while Delaney bucked and shivered through orgasm after orgasm after orgasm until he’d lost count.