25. Mack
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
mack
The door shuts behind us, and that’s the end of any pretending either of us was still doing.
I’d been patient all night. Took her out. Let her settle. Watched the tension slowly work its way out of her shoulders over bourbon, a game of pool she had no business winning, and a drive across the city where neither of us felt the need to force conversation just to fill the space.
And I couldn’t stop looking at her the whole night.
At the bar, trying to pretend she wasn’t smiling every time I got under her skin.
Across the pool table with her lower lip caught between her teeth and confidence about a game she had no business winning.
The way she’d not-so-subtly ground her ass back against me when I had her bent over the table, making me think, I’d take you right here if it didn’t risk catching a felony.
Standing outside her apartment door looking at me like she already knew where this was headed and was trying to decide how brave she felt about it.
Christ, she’s perfect.
Whoever let this woman walk away had to be the biggest idiot alive. And every time that thought crosses my mind, I like her ex-fiancé a little less and my own situation a little more.
I’ve seen a lot of pretty women. Been with a good amount too. But pretty’s never been enough to hold my attention.
Darcy does, easily.
She has this way of looking at you like she can see the parts you spend your life convincing yourself don’t exist. And then she laughs, and before you know it, you’re smiling too.
I’d been thinking about how tonight would go since Tyler sat across from me in the station kitchen the other night with that grin—the loose, pleased one he gets when he’s done something he wants to talk about—the one I wanted to wipe off his face.
That was new. I never felt suddenly territorial about a girl we’d both slept with, then again, we’ve never kept anyone around long enough to start making moves on our own.
“She came by the station.”
He’d shrugged it off, like it was just a passing thing. Like Darcy showing up at our firehouse while I was buried under paperwork less than thirty feet away was some unremarkable event and not the thing I’d been fuming over for the past fifty-six hours.
He hadn’t held my gaze after. Didn’t need to. I’d read everything in the way he’d said it, and that alone pissed me off enough that I didn’t wanna know the rest.
Cute.
They thought they could have a moment between themselves and leave me out of it. Like that’s how this worked.
I didn’t say any of it. Just finished my coffee, let Tyler think he’d gotten away with something, and came upstairs tonight with a plan.
The plan had been simple. Take her somewhere that was mine, let her relax, keep things easy and see where she went with it. I’ve done this before. I know when to move and when to let something come to me.
With Darcy, it always felt like she’d get here eventually. My job was knowing when to stop pushing and let her make the choice herself.
Then she opened the door and the whole plan fell to shit the second I saw the look on her face.
She pulled herself together as soon as she saw me, but for a split second she’d looked relieved to see me. I didn’t know exactly what she’d been carrying, but she wasn’t carrying it alone anymore.
After that, the rest of the night got real simple. Make her feel better. Everything else could wait.
Now she’s standing a few feet inside her apartment watching me, hair loose from the wind and the way she kept pushing it back behind her ear at the bar without realizing I was watching every time.
Somewhere between downstairs and up here, her sweater slipped off one shoulder, distracting me momentarily until my eyes drift to the pulse beating at the base of her throat and the bourbon-flushed pink of her mouth.
She’s not pretending she doesn’t know why she pulled me in here, and I’m not pretending I came up here by accident.
Good. We can skip that part.
I set my keys in the little bowl on the entry table beside hers and step toward her. Her chin lifts, her eyes never leaving mine.
There she is. The woman who’d walk into a burning building before she’d let anyone see her rattled. I respect the hell out of that, but it doesn’t mean I’m gonna make this easy on her.
“You good?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
Too quick. Her chin stays tilted up at me as I close the distance between us in two slow steps.
I let the silence sit for another second, just long enough for her to know I heard it. Her jaw tightens, then she squares her shoulders a fraction, digging her heels in instead of backing down.
I almost smile.
My hand slides up to her jaw, my thumb dragging slowly along the soft line of it as I hold her where I want her. When I lower my mouth to hers, she’s kissing me back before our lips are even fully together, melting into me like she’s been waiting for it all night too.
The kiss is rough and only gets more desperate by the second, every inch of her meeting me with enough urgency to strip away whatever patience I’d managed to hold onto all night.
Her hands fist in the front of my shirt, dragging me flush against her until there’s no space left between us, and the sound she makes against my mouth damn near finishes me before we’ve even started.
I grip her waist lifting her onto the island in one slick move and step between her knees before she’s even fully sat. Her giggle dissolves into a hard breath as I grind my heavy cock into her, taking every last bit of strength not to sink into her right here on the cold quartz.
Her hands find the back of my neck, pulling me down as our tongues swirl and we claw at each other like we can’t seem to get close enough.
“Clothes. Now.”
She peels off her cotton tee first, then her bra, taking her sweet ass time with both before hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her leggings and slowly shimmying them down her legs leaving her clad in nothing but a pink lacy thong.
Christ, she’s gonna be the death of me.
“You trying to get a rise out of me?”
One shoulder lifts.
“Is it working?”
I let my eyes drag over her, taking my time to enjoy the view before I meet hers again.
“You really gotta ask?”
Her smile widens.
“Just making sure.”
I shake my head, already stepping back into her.
“Careful, Darcy.”
“Or what?”
She pulls that full bottom lip between her teeth.
“You’re about to find out.”
Her smile widens at that, eyes dancing with heat and forcing me to bite back my own grin.
“Lean back and open wide for daddy.”
Her breath catches.
Never looking away, she leans back on her elbows, her tits swelling forward as she opens herself to me.
I take her in as I nestle myself between her dangling legs, ghosting my palms over her smooth flesh before stopping on her hips.
I run the bridge of my nose along her inner thigh, catching a whiff of her Marc Jacobs perfume, something softer underneath that’s just Darcy before I sink my teeth into her thigh.
Her head falls back on a sharp breath.
“When I’m done with you, everyone will know whose pussy this is.”
Soft exhales fall from her lips as I bunch her thong to the side, running my nose along her clit with a low, satisfied sound.
“You’re stunning, Darcy. You know that?”
“Oh.”
I reach up and guide her chin back down toward me when she tries to look away.
“Eyes on me.”
She does.
“That’s my good fucking girl.”
I drag my tongue from her ass to her pussy, parting her with my tongue and tasting every bit of her.
“Mack…” she sighs, her hips rolling into my mouth.
The sound completely unhinges me.
Curling them the way I’ve already learned she likes, and she clamps down around my hand so hard it nearly knocks the breath out of me. Soft mewls spill from her as her fingers bury themselves in my hair, yanking me closer.
“Greedy little whore,” I grumble against her, feeling her tighten around me. “You like that, baby, don’t you? You like being my perfect little cum slut.”
I keep working her with my mouth and my hand, alternating between the two until I can’t tell who’s chasing the release harder.
“Ooh my god…yes…”
I hook one of her legs over my shoulder, opening her wider for me before burying my face in her slick center.
I feel like a fucking animal.
I want to taste her. Bite her. Mark her up until anybody who looks at her knows exactly whose hands have been on her.
Her body. Her pussy. All of it.
I press down on her lower belly with the hand that’s not currently fucking her brains out, feeling her coiling around my fingers. I seal my mouth over her swollen clit and continue pumping into her until her legs start to shake.
“I’m gonna—”
“Yeah, you fucking are.”
I pull my hand out from between her legs and grip her ass with both hands, eating her like I’m going to the electric chair and she’s my last meal. She clings to me like a lifeline, tugging my hair until she falls apart on my tongue, and I savor every last drop.
“Mack—”
Hearing her cry my name as she unravels does something dangerous to me.
I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of her. The way she came all over my face with nothing but my name falling from her lips made me wanna bend her over right here and fuck her til she’s pregnant with my seed.
I lift my head just enough to look at her—chest heaving, hair tussled, and an elated look across her face.
Beautiful.
“We’re not done yet.”
I stand, hauling her toward me and lifting her off the counter in one easy motion.
A laugh escapes against my neck as her legs wrap around my waist, and I carry her through the French doors toward the bedroom without ever taking my mouth off her.
I kiss my way down her neck, sucking marks into her skin before dragging my mouth lower.
Her nipples pebble beneath my tongue, and I catch one between my teeth just hard enough to make her hiss and arch off the edge of the bed.
I could listen to her all day.