Chapter Heirloom #3
Another of Nolan’s moans rumbles through my chest, and I make a mental note to turn the tables and start ordering him around more, because something makes me think he just enjoyed that little command.
His thrusts become punishing, even desperate.
He sucks hard on my nipple. I work my clit harder, my motion feverish.
I beg him not to stop as every nerve in my body ignites and then unravels in a blinding burst of pleasure.
Nolan slows but doesn’t stop, maintaining just enough rhythm to draw out my orgasm. When I try to withdraw my fingers from my over-sensitized clit, he puts them back, and I meet his eyes. “We had a deal,” he grits out on a deep thrust.
I can see the struggle for restraint written across his face.
The desperation to unleash his orgasm lurks beneath his lowered brows, in his clenched jaw.
But he takes his time to bring me back. He builds a new rhythm.
He trembles beneath my touch when I map his scars.
He whispers dark thoughts. Dangerous demands. Depraved promises.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Harper. You’re all I think about, every night and every goddamn day. You fucking consume me,” he says, his voice a gritty imprint on my unraveling mind. “I want to make you suffer for what you’ve done to me.”
The thrusts of his cock. The stroke of his fingers.
My own swirling touch. Pace and pressure intensify.
Mindless desperation takes hold. And only one clear thought remains: That he’s right.
We do fit perfectly together. He was made for me, just like I was for him.
I already knew there was no one in all of hell or on earth like Nolan Rhodes.
But it’s the first time I realize that maybe I can’t keep him out of the core of me.
Maybe he’s already there, rooted in the lightless dark.
I come hard, looking down just like he wanted. He drives into me as deep as I can take him, filling me with his cum. I watch every stroke. Revel in every caress. I bask in every whispered chant of my name and every gentle glide of his fingertips over my sweat-slicked skin.
“I thought we just covered the subject of our deal,” Nolan says when I tilt my head back and close my eyes, steadying my breath.
When I open them again, his gaze drops to where we’re joined.
With a few long, slow strokes of his cock, he withdraws, but keeps his fingers in my ass.
A moment later, he catches the cum dripping from my pussy and pushes it inside. “Next time, you’ll be taking it all.”
Another burst of need is already blooming in my belly as he slowly fucks the cum into my ass. He’s just guided my hand back to my clit when my phone buzzes next to me on the counter.
“Answer it,” he says when I frown at the Unknown Caller contact on the screen. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. And neither are you.”
I swallow and nod, then swipe to accept the call. “Hello?”
“Hi there, Harper,” Sheriff Yates says in his usual affable tone. “Having a good time?”
My brows furrow. I glance around as though he could be lurking in the shadows of the small building. “Umm . . . I’m sorry?”
Sheriff Yates laughs. “With Lukas. Irene mentioned you were helping him set up for the grand opening next week. I assumed you might be taste-testing some of that Lancaster Reserve that Irene said he recovered from storage.” He lets out a low whistle on the other end of the line.
“Wouldn’t blame you, either—I hear it’s great. ”
“Right . . . I guess I’ll keep that in mind next time Lukas complains about how slow the work is going,” I say, fighting off a moan as Nolan’s touch glides deeper, as though maybe he’s a little jealous too but refuses to admit it. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m actually looking for Mr. Rhodes. I heard he headed out to check on the distillery search party but I can’t seem to reach him on his phone.”
“Sure. I saw him a minute ago.” I meet Nolan’s eyes in a silent communication that the phone call is for him, but he doesn’t give a shit about that.
He drives his fingers into me with a harder thrust for his own message: Look down.
I refocus on the motion of his hand and mine above it as I continue swirling my touch over my clit.
“Just hold on a second and let me find him.”
“You’re a peach,” Yates says. “Thank you, Harper.”
My jaw clenches as I pull the phone from my ear, but I don’t put it on mute in case Yates might find it suspicious.
I break my attention away from my body just long enough to mouth the words Sheriff Yates.
Nolan’s eyes darken, but he merely nods once, changing nothing at all about the pace of his thrusts or his singular focus on me.
When it seems like an appropriate amount of time has elapsed, I pass him the phone, managing to keep my voice together just long enough to give him some bullshit line about Sheriff Yates as I do.
“This is Nolan,” he says, putting the call on speaker as he pumps another smear of cum into my ass. I choke on a whimper. “What can I do for you?”
“Hi, son. Hope I’m not disturbing you out there at the distillery,” Yates says.
“Nope, not at all.” I slow the rhythm of my fingers over my clit and receive a sharp glare from Nolan in response. It dissolves into a wicked grin when I resume my efforts.
“Something happen to your phone? I tried calling.”
“Yeah, I dropped it. I’ll order a replacement in a minute. Anything I can do for you?”
“Afraid so. Sorry to keep taking up your vacation like this,” Yates says, though I’m not sure how much it even registers with Nolan when his tongue is diving into my mouth in a searing kiss.
“Anyway, if you wouldn’t mind making sure Selma’s all set with her team at the distillery, I’d like you to pop by the station. I’ve got a few questions for you.”
Our kiss breaks. Nolan is close enough that I could count every shade of variegated green and brown in his eyes. But I don’t see fear in them. I don’t feel it in his touch, his rhythm still unbroken. “Sure thing,” Nolan says. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Take your time, son. Say, if Harper is still around, can you pass the phone back to her, please?”
“Will do. See you soon.”
Nolan keeps the phone held aloft as I give a breath of a pause, and say, “Hey, Sheriff, what can I do for you?”
“I’ve got a bit of a strange request for you.”
“Oh?” I reply as Nolan drives his fingers into my ass with harder strokes. When the motion of my hand on my clit stutters again, he shoves the phone into my free hand and takes over. It’s a battle to keep a gasp from escaping. “What’s that?” I manage. Barely.
“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind stopping by my house some night for a barbecue.
Maxine, she’s . . . well, she’s finding it a little tough to settle back into Carnage.
A lot of her friends from childhood have left, and those who are here have different lives now.
You know how it goes. It can take a while to settle back in.
She mentioned meeting you the other day, and I guess I was thinking .
. . ” Yates trails off and chuckles. “I sound like I’m arranging a playdate.
You’re two grown women. I’m sure you’ll see each other around.
Sometimes, it’s hard to stop being a dad, forget I asked—”
“It’s no problem,” I struggle to grit out as an orgasm builds deep in my center. “I’d be happy to pop by. Just name the date and let me know if you want me to bring anything.”
“That’s so great. I’ll figure out her schedule and let you know. And you can just come as you are, no need to bring anything. Appreciate it, Harper. Have yourself a wonderful day.”
I mutter a half-assed goodbye and disconnect the call just as Nolan surges forward to claim my lips in another brutal kiss.
He takes everything from me. The air from my lungs.
The thoughts from my head. My control of my body.
He strips it all away, leaving me with a single fear.
What happens if Nolan’s obsessive need to consume my body and soul eclipses his rational thinking—or has that already begun?
I shove that question somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind to excavate later.
And then I come apart in blinding stars, my eyes press closed, my whimper lost to Nolan’s lips.
When the aftershocks of the last orgasm subside, he finally pulls free.
I hardly recognize myself in my own body.
I’m a mess of sweat and trembling muscles and fractured thoughts.
And I’m suddenly worried that my obsession with Nolan is becoming as deep as his with me.
Because the lack of fear I saw in his eyes a moment ago didn’t make me want to run or hide. It was intoxicating.
“I guess I’d better go,” Nolan says. He walks over to the old utility sink, washes his hands in the rust-colored water it spits out, then dries them on a rag.
Once he’s done, he takes care of me, cleaning me off with fresh tissues from his pocket, kissing my neck to soothe a bite that left a mark, carefully setting me down and helping me dress.
He borrows my phone just long enough to order himself a new one, then gives me a smile, the first hint of worry rising in his eyes. “Everything’ll be fine, okay?”
I nod, but I can’t force any lightness into my expression. “Okay,” is all I can manage. “See you tonight, right?”
“Of course.” With a final kiss, Nolan turns away and stalks out of the shed. I wait, moving to the desk beneath the window, and brace my hands on its edge as I watch Nolan cross the field in search of Selma Dayton.
When he’s gone, I hang my head. Close my eyes. I swear I can still feel him out there. Like I could find him even in the dark. I’m no longer sure anymore where he begins, and where I end, as though that line has been smudged and can’t be remade.
A long breath trickles from my lungs. When I open my eyes, the papers on the desk are stirring from the final currents of my exhalation.
Yates’s call. Nolan’s kill. Even Arthur’s recent volatility.
Everything feels different than how it was supposed to be.
My little world here in Cape Carnage has tilted on its axis.
Like the gravitational force of a hidden star is dragging me into its orbit.
Would I even be able to fight myself free of its pull? Or is the crash inevitable?
I pause, turning over these spiraling fears before I finally leave the shed and lock up behind me.
But it isn’t until later that night that I realize that something was missing when these questions swirled without answers. And I’m not sure if it’s a trick of memory, or if it was really true.
When I opened my eyes, the papers stirred on the desk beneath me.
But the almanac was gone.