Chapter 39
— Remmy —
Scout faded to sleep before my eyes with a lazy smile still on his mouth until it faded into oblivion with his consciousness. His arm around my shoulders relaxed and fell away, and even in sleep I was utterly at his mercy.
To see him so exhausted and vulnerable—not only bringing me to his home for the first time, but to fall asleep within the first twenty minutes of me being here—tugged on my heartstrings. Then knotted them. Then hauled on them until they constricted my lungs.
Which made my dilemma worse: I had to tell him about my past. More of it. The worst of it. I’d busied myself as he took his meds but that wasn’t the problem. It was the niggling devil whispering his honeyed words down the column of my neck.
What’s the harm? Just one to remember. For nostalgia’s sake.
I physically shook off his shadows and silently bared my teeth. I’d stay strong. I’d overcome too much to fall back into the terrifying void I’d once loved.
As with anything, freedom wasn’t exactly free. It looked liberating, but on the inside, invisible chains still held their bounds; still lingered with the residual power they once had.
When Scout’s breathing fully evened out and his leg had become a dead weight over mine, I carefully maneuvered out from under him. With one last longing look from the doorway, I quietly pulled the door shut as I left his room and padded down the stairs. I didn’t bother snooping around the other bedrooms upstairs, but downstairs was fair game. The second lounge was set up with cozy couches and a massive TV mounted on the wall, and off the other living space and adjoining kitchen was a stunning covered outdoor space with a beautiful pool.
It immediately drew me outside into the private oasis surrounded by high stucco walls, olive trees, and flowering shrubs. I reclined on one of the outdoor loungers while contemplating just how I’d tell Scout about the finer details of my past.
~
Hours later, scuffing pulled my attention up from the chopping board to find Scout groggily shuffling into the kitchen, hair mussed and rubbing one eye with his palm.
“How long was I asleep for?” he asked, voice still thick and gritty.
“Hours. I’ve started prepping dinner.”
A frown pulled his brow lower. “Did Cillian not turn up?”
I smiled while gesturing at the array of vegetables on the counter. “Who do you think told me what to do with all this?”
“Is he still here? I hired him…” Scout asked, sliding onto a bar stool.
“He was, but I wanted to cook your first homemade meal in weeks, so I sent him home. Kindly of course, after he’d given me a detailed plan.” I tapped the handwritten notes with the tip of the paring knife I wielded—the notes I followed to the letter out of fear of fucking up dinner.
A glint flashed in Scout’s brown irises. “You look good making yourself at home.”
I scoffed and pointed to myself with my non-knifed hand. “Trust me, I’ve looked far better than this.” Barefaced with my long hair bundled haphazardly on the top of my head after a swim was not my idea of beauty, but whatever.
Scout’s snicker faded into a grunt under his breath. “Do you know where my meds went? I’m getting sore again.”
I checked the clock, doing a mental check of how many hours had passed, hyper-reluctant to allow him to take them too soon. I had, after all, experienced firsthand how easily those little pills destroyed lives.
“It’s not time for more yet, and I didn’t know where you keep your medicine, so I stored them in here,” I explained, opening a miscellaneous drawer filled with papers and pens. Out of sight, out of mind. “I hope that’s okay?”
Affection shone clearer in Scout’s eyes. “Of course. Thank you. I must have slept on it a little—it’s aching like a bitch.”
I hummed in sympathy. I understood. I really fucking did. That last hour or two in the lead-up to meds being due was a slog after an injury.
I rounded the counter and hugged him from behind. The weight of his head tipping back against my shoulder immediately removed the woes of the world. I had purpose again. A love worth fighting for. A man who gave me freedom without fearing the demise of his masculinity.
“How can I help?” I murmured, kissing the side of his jaw.
The smile it brought to his face made my heart skip. “You’re already helping.”
A wash of minty breath hit me, making me pull back quickly to study him at close range. The smile froze on Scout’s face. A second later, his expression morphed into confusion.
“What?”
“You’ve brushed your teeth,” I said.
“Uh, yeah. I’ve just woken up, and my breath was horrendous.”
I nodded a little as worry gnawed in my gut. “You didn’t… you weren’t sick, were you?”
Scout bristled. Sitting forward to escape my embrace, he then set his uninjured elbow on the counter and twisted at the waist to face me.
Indignation bit in his tone. “Are you serious?”
“I’m not teasing you, I’m genuinely worried.” I set a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Huh,” he breathed out as if it was nothing but a wisp of a thought.
The more he stared, the more I shifted on my feet. It took no longer than a few seconds before my spine snapped straight, and I folded my arms across my chest.
“What?”
Scout cracked a smirk.
I raised my voice a fraction. “ What ?”
His mouth twitched. “You’re cute when you’re caring.”
Throwing my hands up in disbelief only made him chuckle.
I rounded the counter again, picked up the knife, and pointed the tip at him. “I’m never cute, and I’m seldom nice, so I wouldn’t mock me if I were you.”
Walls deep inside me poised to slam up and shut him out. All I had to do is give them silent consent and they’d be in place.
Scout’s expression softened. “I wasn’t mocking you, honey. I’m admiring you. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the badass side of you, but I’m loving this side of you too.”
He stood and stalked around the counter with far too much swagger of someone who a) had just woken up, and b) had surgery yesterday. His solid chest gently connected with my back, and one muscly arm snaked low across my belly.
My chopping halted as the first series of tender kisses peppered along the arc of my neck. I angled my head to the side to allow him better access, and my eyes drifted closed with the soft sweep of his mouth across my skin.
His deep inhale at the juncture of my jaw sent a shiver of longing down my spine. I couldn’t fuck a guy who’d just been cut open. I mean, my morals weren’t overly strong at times, but Scout’s entire career depended on this injury healing quickly and properly. I was already responsible for the recent media storm—I wouldn’t be responsible for sealing Scout’s baseball fate too.
He hummed, kissing his way back down my neck. “You’ve been in the pool.”
“Yeah?” I whispered, hands now pressed flat to the counter as I fought for control—as I tried to ignore the pulsing growing stronger between my legs.
“Your skin smells different.”
“Does it?” Damn my breathless tone.
His fingers teased lower, tickling over the band of my shorts, then down the front seam. As much as I craved his touch, the pleasure he could lavish, I tipped my chin forward and squeezed my eyes shut.
A chuckle, then a kiss touched the back of my neck. Chastising him only made his fingers venture a little further to where I loved them the most.
“You need to stop,” I panted. “Your injury…”
Another low chuckle skated across the base of my neck. “I’m not fucking you with my elbow, Remmy. Christ, I need you though.”
His fingers retreated, only to flick beneath the waistband of my shorts and slide straight to my core. Panting, I tipped my head against his shoulder, feeling the muscles in his arm shifting as he slid his fingers through my arousal.
“God you drive me crazy,” he growled, almost sounding pained.
Hunger ignited my nerve endings. “Good, because you drive me crazy.”
I felt the desperation in his touch against my sensitive flesh. Vibrations of barely there restraint had him fumbling ever so slightly, and it was enough to make me giggle.
“Not so coordinated with your non-dominant hand, hmm?” I teased.
A puff of humor breezed against my ear, followed closely by a sharp nip. “I’m ambidextrous.”
Another snicker passed through my smile as I angled my face toward his. “Is that so?”
“Mmhmm,” came Scout’s confirmation before his mouth claimed mine in a punishing kiss I had no intention of pulling away from.
The instant his fingers glided through my arousal and circled my clit, I gasped.
Scout chuckled again, full of smugness. “Told you I was ambidextrous.”
“Ambidextrous is not the same as multitasking, Ace.”
“Shhh, woman.”
I laughed. Loud and unbridled in the otherwise silent kitchen. Though my laughter died when he turned me to meet the wicked look in his gaze.
“I need to keep this mouth of yours busy. Get on your knees, Remmy.”
My chin lifted in defiance. A little show of don’t fucking tell me what to do . But as soon as a little smirk tugged at one corner of his mouth, I smirked back and dropped to my knees.
The ache between my legs gathered to levels I almost, almost , picked up where Scout left off with his fingers. As I freed his erection from his shorts, his fingers shoved into my hair, gripping hard against my scalp. He tugged a little to test the hold.
I giggled and looked up at him while slowly circling my tongue around the pierced tip, then flicking the barbell. “Happy now?”
“Always. Now suck me, honey,” he commanded gruffly with a little jerk of his hips.
After teasing the silver jewelry a few more times, I licked along the underside of his erection from root to tip, smiling when I heard a long groan from above. Changing tack in a move that Scout wouldn’t see coming, I wrapped my mouth around him and took him as deep as I could, pulling a hiss of approval from between his teeth.
Scout’s murmured curses filled the kitchen as the hold on my hair tightened, increasing the sharp tug on my scalp. His hand moved with my head as I sucked him off, lavishing his length with my tongue until he jerked me away without warning.
“I need you to stop before I blow my load down your throat.”
With his fingers now gently trailing through my hair with tenderness that wasn’t existent ten seconds ago, I rose to my feet with a coy smile.
“And where do you want to come?”
“In that pussy of yours. Turn around.”
The commanding words turned me without physical touch, and Scout kept his hand to himself as I made a show of shimmying out of my shorts and underwear.
“Like this?” I asked, bending forward a little and spreading my ass cheeks, shamelessly showing him everything.
Another sharp hiss passed through his teeth. “Fuck that’s hot.”
His deep groan had me smirking over my shoulder, empowered by the pained desire pinching his expression.
“Do it,” I whispered hoarsely.
Wickedly, I watched Scout cursing at the arm strapped to his chest while he kicked out of his shorts. The instant he was free, I arched against the feel of pierced dick smoothing through my wetness, teasing my opening and sending my arousal skyward. My core pulsed with need. The same heady need that burned in my belly and tightened chest. And the moment he slid into me in one swift movement, filling me then stilling, had us both releasing a long, tortured groan of relief.
His large hand met the center of my back, forcing me flat against the counter. To hell with the vegetables half-chopped. My tits pressed the chopping board, dangerously close to the knife.
With my hands still holding my ass cheeks apart, I braced my knees against the under-counter cupboard doors as Scout started thrusting into me with long, slow shunts.
“Harder,” I demanded.
The next thrust was marginally harder.
“Harder,” I repeated.
Scout shushed me, then thrust in hard, which evaporated my snappy comeback right off the tip of my tongue.
I could only gasp, completely at his mercy even with his injured arm. He set a slow yet punishing rhythm that had my entire body igniting and needing more. As I reached between my legs, Scout’s groan of approval stole the last of my patience.
I slid my fingers through the slick wetness gathering where he worked in and out of me, then smoothed them over my clit.
Scout hissed. “Fuck, I felt that; your pussy squeezed around me.”
I grinned sinfully as I circled my clit again, barely managing to hold back long enough to tease him for a few more moments.
“You’d better keep going, babe, because you keep doin’ that, and I’m gonna blow.”
He pressed me harder against the counter and leaned back a little as I widened my stance. Without so much as a few more circles around my clit, I felt the first sparks of orgasm strike. Scout felt it too. He groaned as his fingers bit into my back.
I panted as I worked myself higher, past the point of no return. And I was there, right fucking there, when Scout couldn’t hold back any longer. He thrust faster, then pulled out abruptly, blowing his load onto my lower back while I kept chasing my own orgasm. I cried out when it finally hit, and lay panting on the counter.
Scout pinned me against edge of the counter with his hips, rubbing circles between my shoulder blades while we fought to catch our breath.
“Oh my god,” I whispered.
“Yeah?” he drawled from behind me, then laughed when I blindly waved him away.
He had me snickering like a fool until reality brought a bite of guilt with it. “Is your arm okay? Did we hurt it?”
“Nah, it feels okay. Getting niggly though.”
He bent to pick up his discarded shorts but glanced up when I stood and started laughing again.
“What’s funny?”
I pointed to my chest; at the little green beads of pulverized broccoli clinging to my tank and scattered down my cleavage. “Dinner is served.”
His loud laugh filled the kitchen. “We’ve just had dessert, but it would be rude to skip dinner,” he drawled, ‘helping’ to remove the florets from my boobs by thoroughly brushing down my chest.
I snorted. “Thanks for that, but I’d really appreciate some help cleaning your cold jizz off my back.”
Turning me, he continued to chuckle while wiping me down with his shorts.
“There you go, babe. Good as new.” He balled the soiled shorts and tucked them under his arm while turning to the drawer I’d stored his pain relievers in.
“I need to get some meds on board. I can’t leave it any longer, especially after that.” He added a naughty little waggle of his brows over his shoulder.
And that was how I ended up standing in his kitchen—buck-ass-naked from the waist down—watching Scout drink the meds down with a large glass of water, reaffirming to myself that having painkillers so readily available wasn’t going to be a problem.