Chapter 21 #2
Her shit day had only gotten shittier.
That was confirmed when she spun the chair around and looked up at me. Her face was clear of makeup, her hair piled in a knot on top of her head. She wore one of my T-shirts and nothing else as far as I could tell. And she looked exhausted.
Chuck jumped up in her lap with the kind of exuberance only a dog could muster, even though she’d probably just been sitting with Everly before I came home.
“Hey,” she said to me as she ran her hand softly down Chuck’s body.
And, yeah, this wasn’t going to do.
I snapped my fingers and pointed to Chuck’s luxury bed in the corner—yeah, it was a little over the top, with its platform feet and tufted cushions, but her house burned down, too, and I wanted her to feel comfortable in my place, so I’d bought it for her.
The dog leaped down, trotting over and jumping up to her throne, then she proceeded to walk in four full circles before curling into a ball with a sigh.
Squatting in front of Everly, I rested my hands on the outsides of her bare thighs, thumbs brushing along her soft skin.
“Hey.” I studied her eyes, which were usually so bright and full of life.
But not now. Now, though they were clear of tears—thank fuck because I wasn’t sure I could handle another crying situation so soon—there was no denying they weren’t as vibrant as they usually were. “What’s wrong?”
She lifted a single shoulder. “I’m… It was just a really long day.”
“Yeah? You want to tell me about it while I eat your pussy?”
That startled a laugh out of her. “Beck.”
“What?”
“I’m pretty sure going down on me isn’t the answer to every problem.”
“But I’m pretty sure it could be the answer to this one. You think you’ll be able to remember what was so bad when my tongue’s inside you?”
She closed her eyes and breathed out a laugh, shaking her head. “Oh my God.”
I pressed a kiss to her knee. “Tell me how your day went from amazing this morning when I kissed you goodbye to bad enough that you’re watching Gossip Girl and mainlining Starbursts and wine.”
She blew out a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumping. “The house calls were a complete disaster.”
“It was your first day. I’m sure it’ll take some time to iron out the kinks.”
“I hope so, because who knows how long I’m going to be doing this.”
“It won’t be forever. Just until you can get the clinic rebuilt.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Well, that’s the thing.
I got a call from the insurance adjuster today, and the amount they quoted will barely cover building a new structure, let alone filling it with all the equipment and furniture and everything else I need to replace.
And the real kicker is it’s my fault because I never updated the policy to include all of my belongings and the new equipment I bought for the clinic. ”
Her voice grew shaky at the end, and I could sense her panic. And…fuck. I was trying to flip the script and be the sunshine to her gloom, but I didn’t have an answer for this one.
“And then Ash called today, and this house I love is for sale, and he was going on and on about it. And about how Mom and Dad can’t wait for me to move back. And Mom’s already planned out the freakin’ menu for when I do.”
It felt like the entire floor dropped out from under me, my heart leaping into my throat at the same time my stomach dropped out of my ass.
“You’re moving to Washington?” I could barely get the question out, the words like broken glass in my throat.
“No, I’m not.” She paused for a second, then bit her lip, lifted a single shoulder, and blew out a heavy sigh. “Or, I don’t know if I’m not. I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know what I should do or where I should live. Or if Starlight Cove is right for me.”
“I thought you loved it here.” I thought she loved it with me.
“I do. I just… I don’t know if it loves me back. I’ve been here for two years, and I still don’t feel like I belong.”
Hearing her say that, hearing the pain laced in her words, cracked my heart in two.
But I didn’t know what I could say to make her believe she did belong.
That she was as much a part of Starlight Cove as me or any of my siblings, as much a part of it as Mabel with her Facebook Lives, or Esther running bingo on Mondays.
That was easy for me to see—I’d seen it every day for the past two years, how people gravitated toward her—but I had no idea how to make her see it, too.
“Maybe moving home would be for the best,” she said, her words barely a whisper, and my entire world seized up.
This was her home—I was her home—and it killed me that she felt like she didn’t fit here.
Like she’d be better somewhere else. The thought of her gone…
of her moving to the other side of the country after she was finally mine was a huge, gaping wound in my chest, and I had no idea how to fix it.
No idea how to make someone stay if they didn’t want to.
No idea how I’d let myself fall for someone, open up completely, when this was the inevitable outcome.
“It was just a bad day,” I said, as much for her as for myself. “Give it some time. Things will work out.”
They had to. Because I didn’t know what I’d do if they didn’t.
She shot me a small smile. “Isn’t that my line?”
“Yeah, which means shit’s gotten real weird.” And I knew one thing that would take both our minds off everything. “How about you tell me all the reasons you love Starlight Cove while I eat your pussy?”
She blew out another laugh—this one sounding much more real—and shook her head. “Someone’s got a one-track mind tonight.”
“That’s not a no.”
She looked at me, her lip caught between her teeth, and slowly shook her head. “No, it’s not.”
I slid my hands up the outsides of her thighs until I gripped the sides of her panties, one brow raised.
She shifted in her seat, lifting her ass up from the chair, and allowed me to pull them down her legs and off her completely.
I tossed them behind me—hopefully avoiding Chuck—and pushed my T-shirt up and over her tits, exposing her to me completely.
I cupped one of her breasts in my palm and leaned forward, circling her nipple with my tongue before pulling back and blowing a gust of air against it.
“Beck,” she whispered, her eyes full of heat as she watched me.
“I’ve got you, sunshine.” I gripped her hips, tugged her to the edge of the seat, and hooked her legs over the arms of the chair, spreading her wide open for my hungry gaze.
Jesus Christ, she was gorgeous, all soft and pink.
I ran my nose up the inside of her thigh, inhaling deeply—her scent a mix of us both, my soap and her Everlyness, that made my mouth water, demanding a taste.
“Here’s how this is going to work,” I said, ghosting my breath over her pussy. “You’re going to tell me all the things you love about Starlight Cove, and I’m going to lick your pussy. You don’t talk, I don’t lick.”
“That’s mean.”
I shrugged. “Those are the rules. Take ’em or leave ’em.”
She sighed, pulling my hat off and tossing it to the side before running her fingers through my hair. “Guess I’ll take them.”
I raised a brow. “Then you better start talking.”
“Okay… Um…well, I love that it’s on the ocean.”
Humming, I pressed an openmouthed kiss to the crease of her leg and raised a brow.
She exhaled a deep breath and relaxed back into the chair. “You said you’d lick, not tease.”
I licked a path up the inside of her thigh. “Never said it’d be your pussy.”
Her mouth dropped open as she huffed out a gasp. “That’s not fair.”
“The more reasons you give, the more licking I do. Better start thinking.”
Shifting her hips, she attempted to get closer to my mouth before finally giving up with a sigh. “Fine. I love that people greet me by name at the store.”
Rewarding her for playing the game, I grinned and swiped a long line through her slit, licking her from her entrance to her clit before sucking it into my mouth.
She moaned, and the sound shot straight to my cock, making my already hard length throb.
I pulled back and blew a gust of air across her clit. “Keep going.”
“Right. Sorry. Um… I love Mabel’s Lives…usually.”
She arched into me as I swirled my tongue around her clit, then sagged back on the chair with a huff when I pulled away. With a groan, she said, “What do I need to do to keep your mouth on me?”
“Just keep talking, baby.”
“Oh God. Okay, I love that I don’t have to lock my doors…and that I can walk on the beach at midnight…and that everyone here takes care of each other.”
With each item she listed, her words got a little breathier, her sentences coming out choppy as I did as I promised and kept my mouth on her pussy.
I rolled my tongue against her, sucked her clit, and slipped two fingers inside her, all while she rocked her hips against my face, seeking her pleasure.
“Fuck, you’re dripping down my fingers, sunshine. You needed my mouth, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she breathed, tightening her fingers in my hair as she stared down at me with hooded eyes.
“You forgot something on your list.”
“What?”
“I’m here to eat this sweet cunt when you have a bad day and make you come hard enough to gush all over my tongue.”
“Oh my God, Beck. Please.”
Glancing up at her from between her legs, I scraped my bottom teeth over her clit, and a shudder racked her body. “Tell me.”
“You know you’re the best part of Starlight Cove. My favorite part.”
I hummed against her, those words filling my chest in a way that nothing else had.
I was so fucking gone for this girl, and there was no way I was losing her after I’d just gotten her.
So I’d give her what she needed. I’d make her come hard against my mouth before taking her to bed and reminding her why we were so perfect together.
And then I’d figure out what the fuck I needed to do to make sure she stayed in Starlight Cove, right where she belonged.