Chapter 20
TWENTY
Anson
My heart stops when I open the door and see her on my bed, lit up like an angel from the soft glow of the lamp in the corner. She’s on her knees, watching me warily. I can tell she’s on edge. Worried she’s done the wrong thing. Picked the wrong thing. Disappointed me somehow.
But I’m fucking in love with it.
In love with—no.
Fuck.
Not now.
I’m not getting in my head right now. I can’t risk ruining this. I need it too badly. And apparently, so does she. At least if the look on her face is any indication.
“You forget your costume, darlin’?” I shut the door behind me out of habit.
I know we have the house to ourselves, but I want our bubble.
I want this space to be just ours for tonight.
Seared into the memory of the sheets and the walls.
Fuck knows I’ll need those memories for the long winter I’m gonna face when we call this quits on Halloween.
“No. I thought…” Her words fade as I approach the bed and reach out for her bare thigh. The corner of the fabric brushes against my palm, and I swear I feel it wrap around my heart. Shrouding me in hope I have no business having.
But she’s in my shirt. One of my Briggs Construction button-downs with half the buttons undone.
It’s too big for her, pooling over the tops of her thighs and hiding all her soft curves underneath the drape.
The sleeves are unbuttoned and hide her hands; only her pretty little manicured nails are peeking out beyond the cuffs.
She’s in my shirt. And nothing else, if I had to guess.
“I was expecting some of those fishnets or some angel wings. Wondering how long it was gonna take me to get the glitter out of here.” I drag my knuckles over her soft skin, and her eyes follow the motion. “What do you call this?”
“Yours.” Her lashes lift slowly, and her eyes meet mine the way a nervous wild animal does when you stumble into each other out in the woods, vulnerable and a little wary, measuring up how you’re gonna handle them, showing you something real in the middle of a day flooded with artificial deadlines and blinking screens.
“Mine?” I echo her, wanting to be sure I’m not reading more into this than I should.
“Your bed. Your shirt.” She reaches up to unbutton another button.
This one brings the deep vee of the open shirt even lower, letting it gape to give me a glimpse of her breast. “Yours.” She breathes the word more than speaks it, and it brings my attention right back to her eyes from where it’s wandered.
Fuck me. Those eyes.
The way she holds my gaze has me getting so hard I’m pressing against the zipper of my jeans.
I want them trained on me when I take her.
I want them rolling back in her head when I make her come—messy all over these sheets.
I want her so fucking sated by the time I finish with her I can barely see them for how heavy her lids are.
I reach for her wrist, stopping her when she goes for the next button. I’m stuck staring at it for a long moment, willing myself to slow this down. I want to enjoy every single moment of her. I grin at how perfectly she chose and grimace a little when I realize what that’s gonna mean.
“I can change if you want.” Her eyes dart between mine as she tries to figure out what I’m thinking. “If I picked wrong.”
“No, darlin’. That’s my favorite shirt. I’m just sad I’m gonna have to burn it after we’re done here.”
“What? Why?”
“Can’t have anyone else’s eyes on it, remember? Not to mention there’s not gonna be any way for me to wear it without seeing this in my head from now on. You picked perfect.”
“Oh.” She lets out a small sigh of relief before a smile forms. “Good. ’Cause I like this bed.” She lies back on it in front of me, practically taunting me with the way she uncrosses and recrosses her legs.
“I like the look of you in it.” In fact, I could get used to it. Forever sounds fucking good to me. Thankfully, I manage not to say the last bit out loud.
“Yeah?” She gives me a mischievous look from her sprawled-out position over the comforter like she owns the place. “What else do you like?” The tone of her voice tells me she’d give me anything I want.
“You spreading these pretty thighs and letting me take my time. We were too rushed at the store.” I wrap my hands around her legs and pull her down to the edge of the bed. “But I’ve got all night now.” I nudge her legs apart and hit my knees, bending to kiss the tops of her thighs.
“I want tonight to be about you. All this has been you making me feel more confident. I want to repay the favor. Make sure you know how wanted you are.”
“I like how you think this isn’t about me, darlin’.
If I got my wish, I’d start my day and end it this way.
” I kiss a path up the inside of her thigh, pushing the shirt back to find her bare underneath.
“No panties either?” I press a kiss before I part her with my tongue and take a taste.
She’s already so wet from the anticipation.
“Wasn’t sure when you’d be home. How tired you’d be. Figured I’d make things easy on you.”
“You’re saying all I had to do all this time to get you to go easy on me was promise to eat this pretty fucking pussy?
Fuck. I’ve been doing it all wrong. Would have done that a long fucking time ago.
” I circle her clit with my thumb while I talk to her, working her up.
Bending over again, I tease her with a slow lick before I suck on her clit and slip my fingers inside her.
Her hips roll up to meet the new sensation, and she moans like she doesn’t care who hears.
“That’s right, gorgeous. Be fucking loud for me. ”
I take my time, working her up with quick strokes of my thumb and slowing her down with longer licks of my tongue until she’s writhing underneath me. Every gasp feels like a little stamp of approval and her praise is the only thing I want tonight.
“Oh my god, Anson,” she calls out for me, spreading wider to give me better access and rolling her hips in tandem with my fingers as she murmurs softly. “I’m gonna come. Fuck. I’m gonna come already.” It only takes a couple minutes more before I hear her curses turn into cries of praise.
She’s a mess as I fuck her with my fingers and tongue, coming undone and whimpering my name over and over. I let her drift down from the high just long enough to do it again. I start a third time before she begs for my dick.
“Please. I need you to fuck me now. I can’t take anymore.”
“You sure? I think you could go one more.” I kiss the inside of her thigh. “Finish soaking these sheets for me.”
“No. Please.” She gives me the softest look, and then sits up slowly, pushing me back from the bed and urging me to stand. “I want you on top of me. I want to feel you coming inside me.”
Well, fuck. I don’t think I can say no to that.
Her fingers are deft, making quick work of my belt and zipper, stripping me down until she has me half-naked in front of her. Her eyes drift over my body, and her fingers follow the path they take.
“You’re so damn hot, Anson. There have to be better words but just… Wow. You know?” She lifts her lashes, and her eyes meet mine—a look of admiration that I feel in my fucking soul. She makes me feel so fucking wanted in a way I’ve never felt in my life.
“I think I’ll take wow just fine, darlin’.
” I lean down to kiss her, slowly unbuttoning my shirt and letting it fall open to expose her body.
“You already got perfect. Exquisite. Smokeshow.” I punctuate each word with a kiss until she giggles and drags me down on top of her.
My dick settles between her thighs, but I pull back, remembering myself.
“You sure you don’t want me to get something? I can—” She stops me by putting her fingers to my lips.
“I’m sure. I don’t want to be just someone you play with tonight.
I want to be yours. This shirt. This room.
Nothing else between us.” Her words make me desperate to confess how I really feel.
How much I’d give anything to have it every night.
“Besides, if things went that way, I already know you’re an amazing dad. That you’d take care of us.”
A flash of Bristol pregnant with my kid crosses my mind, and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more in my fucking life.
I don’t know what she’s done to me in the last couple of months.
Taken whatever ideas I had about just wanting a shot with her into wanting forever. But I want it. All of it.
“I’ll take such good fucking care of you if you let me” is all I manage to say in response. Too afraid to ruin this moment to confess more.
“I know. You already do.” She kisses me softly, answering like she knows my mind.
She wraps a leg around me as I slide inside her.
I fuck her slow, taking my time kissing her and listening to every soft sound she makes.
She’s already so ready for me, so perfectly fucking ready that when I circle my thumb over her clit, sensing my own wave of pleasure building, she comes so fucking hard.
Her sweet pussy pulses around my dick with each ripple of her own orgasm, taking me with her as she cries out.
I fuck her until I’m spent and then kiss my way down her chest as I pull out of her. I roll over to my back, with her at my side, and she curls up against me. I wrap my arm around her as she buries her face in my chest.
“Could we talk about something beyond Halloween? Extend the deal through Christmas maybe?” she whispers.
“No,” I admit. “No more deals. I don’t want to sneak around anymore. I can’t hide how I feel about you, Bristol. I can make it to Halloween if that’s what you need but after that…” I can’t help the confession. I have to tell her. My heart will fucking burst if I don’t.
She jolts up from my chest, her head turning so her eyes meet mine, searching them in the low light of the room for what feels like an eternity before she meets me right where I am.
“Me too.”
I’m not sure anything is better than how I feel right now.
“Don’t get me wrong. I like our bubble. Not having this whole fucking town meddling and commenting on what we do or when and how we do it. But I want our friends and family to know we’re together. Ford especially.”
“Me too,” she agrees, and her eyes turn glassy like she might cry.
“What’s wrong?” I run my thumb over her chin, my brow furrowing.
“I’m happy. For the first time in such a long time. I guess that means I have to cry. Everything’s still very mixed up from all the toxic, stressful mess I’ve put myself through. But I feel like I’m finally unraveling from the knot I’ve been in. Like you give me what I need to make that possible.”
“Same, darlin’. I feel the same way about you. I haven’t been this happy in…” I make sure I have her eyes on mine when I tell her what I need her to understand. “Ever.”
She melts into my embrace in response, wrapping an arm around me and tightening her grip. I can hardly believe I have everything I never thought I would right here, right now.