20. Tucker
Tucker
I notice the moment the kiss changes. Gracie is still a willing participant, but something feels off.
There’s less passion when her tongue runs along mine, less enthusiasm in the way our lips meet.
I gently pull back to search her expression, but Gracie’s eyes remain closed.
“What is it, sweetheart?” There’s a soothing undertone to my voice—I want her to know this is a safe space, and always will be. “You seemed a little lost in thought.”
Gracie opens her eyes, biting back a smile. “You always were painfully observant, even as a young man. I’m glad to see you haven’t lost those signature Tucker observational skills.”
My lips pull into a smile of their own. “I made it a habit to know everything about you back then, Gracie. And it ain’t a habit I’m willing to kick.
” I stroke the back of my fingertips across her cheek.
“What is it?” I ask again, slowly withdrawing from within her.
She holds in a whimper at the loss. I help Gracie into a seated position before sitting back on my heels.
GRACE
How do I tell him, without sounding insane, that this—what we’re doing for the first time in over a decade—feels more monumental than anything I’ve possibly ever done?
Despite my previous commentary, I’m still so fucking nervous, and even more worried about what it’ll mean when all is said and done.
I drop my head, my eyes cast down, but Tucker is there to catch my chin and gently direct my gaze back to his.
When he does, I see everything I feel reflected back at me in his own eyes.
Of course it is, because this isn’t something I’m going through alone.
He’s right here with me, feeling everything I’m feeling.
It’s no longer a question of how do I tell him, but instead, how do we get through this unscathed?
“This can stop right here, right now. You just say the word. Tell me what you need, Gracie.” His soothing tone and his lingering touch on my cheek draws me out of my head.
The faintest of smiles pulls at the corner of my lips, immediately drawing Tucker’s attention.
The way he looks at me, the way he really sees me is something nobody has ever been able to replicate.
But to be honest, I probably never really gave anyone else the chance, convinced it would never be the same as this.
“You always were such a gentleman,” I say, reaching up to tuck away a stray brunette lock that’s fallen onto his forehead.
My body is so drawn to his, I can’t help but touch him.
The way his hand slides along my jaw and down the column of my throat indicates he feels the same. “No, I don’t want this to stop.”
I suppose most people would feel a certain level of embarrassment at admitting something like that in a situation like this, and I probably should feel that way, but I just don’t. Right now, there isn’t an ounce of embarrassment or regret.
“If I’m being completely honest, I never want this to stop.” Barely above a whisper, the words escape me so easily.
TUCKER
My fingers flex along the side of her neck, her eyes flaring at the movement. “Damn, you can’t be saying things like that right now.” A few seconds pass and for a moment, we just stare into one another’s eyes, waiting.
Gracie breaks the silence first. “This feels huge, right?”
“In what way?” I ask, stroking the spot where her shoulder meets her neck.
“Because it’s us.”
I don’t reply right away, assuming she has more to say, and instead continue to look into her eyes. It’s not exactly a hard job when they’re as beautiful as hers.
“What, you don’t agree?” she asks after a moment.
I drop both my hands to her bare thighs, anchoring us.
“Yes and no,” I say with a shrug before continuing.
“On the one hand, one might say sleeping together for the first time in twelve years is a mighty huge deal, but on the other, it’s the complete opposite of huge—it’s just us.
It might’ve been a long time ago, but we’ve been here an’ done this, Gracie.
Your body is still as familiar to me as my own.
Hell, maybe even more familiar. Time might’ve passed, and a lot of things might’ve changed, but that hasn’t. ”
Her eyes soften, but I can see she’s still got her guard up slightly. I want nothing more than to make her feel comfortable. As much as it might pain me, I don’t think I can go through with this if she isn’t completely at ease.
“Gracie,” I say, smoothing my thumbs across the tops of her thighs almost subconsciously. “If you’re not ready for this, I’ll wait for you. I’ll wait, for as long as it takes, until you’re ready. You’re worth it.”
She lets out a shaky breath, her head bowing down to stare at my hands on her thighs. Placing her own hands on top of mine, she interlaces our fingers. When she looks back up at me a moment later, her eyes are glistening. “I love that you’d wait for me, but there’s no need. Truly. I want this.”
I lift our intertwined hands to my lips, placing a featherlight kiss on Grace’s knuckles. “Promise me.”
There’s the faintest flicker of something I can’t quite place—distrust?
Uncertainty?—before it’s gone again. “Tucker.” Her voice is soft, and a small smile tilts up one corner of her lips.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, because I appreciate the hell out of your caring nature—but I’d really like you to fuck me now. ”
The way her eyes flare when she says fuck me has my cock standing at full attention, almost painfully hard.
It’s nearly distraction enough to make me forget that she didn’t actually promise.
There are things that need to be said, conversations we need to have, but they can wait.
For tonight, Gracie is mine again, and I am hers, as I’ve always been.
Her gaze rakes down my naked body, honing in on my cock. When she meets my eyes again, there’s a level of lust deeper than I’ve ever seen. “C’mon then, cowboy. Fuck me like you mean it.”
Any self-restraint I have left dissolves in an instant.
“Go on then, lie down.” The words are half spoken, half growled.
Gracie sucks in a breath and bites her lip, slowly making her way onto her back.
When she’s flat against the bed, she drags her knees up toward her and drops them apart, completely baring herself to me.
“That’s a good girl.”
I can practically see her pussy clench at the praise, and it’s fucking intoxicating.
Encaging her body with my own, I grab one of her wrists and bring it above her head.
“Keep that there,” I instruct before repeating the action on her other wrist. Once they’re both above her head and firmly in my grasp, I duck my head and kiss her.
Once. Twice. Three times, before nipping her bottom lip and drawing back.
The gasp that escapes her lips is a sound I’d like to hear for the rest of my life.
Being as careful as I can, I slowly ease my cock back inside her—deep, but still not entirely seated within her. “Fuck, Gracie, you’re so tight,” I grunt.
It’s as though I’ve let out a breath I’ve been holding for the better part of twelve years, a full-body sigh of relief as I slide into her. It’s hard not to let the pent-up emotion slip through the cracks. Instead, I focus on the way our bodies still know each other inside out.
Seemingly unable to form words, she just whimpers in response.
“Mo-more,” she stumbles over her words. “I need more. Please.”
“You’re sure?”
“Tucker,” she huffs, “we had a deal, remember?” She narrows her eyes at me in challenge.
We may have changed in many ways over the years, but somehow this, right here, nestled between the thighs of a sex-dazed Gracie, feels like where I belong. Where I should’ve been all this time.
Without another word, and without breaking eye contact, I draw out of her and slam back in with everything I have.
The vice-like grip she had on my dick before pales in comparison to how it feels to be fully seated inside her.
Gracie lets out the most beautiful moans as I do it again, and again, and again.
Her eyes roll back and her hands come down to grip my shoulders, her nails biting into my skin with painful pleasure.
During the rare moments I’d let myself imagine being in bed with her again, it was always slow and sensual, making up for lost time unhurriedly.
And it was the stuff of dreams. But this, what she’s asking of me now and what we agreed upon, is somehow so much more.
It’s making up for lost time in an almost animalistic way, and it’s fucking intoxicating.
A small part in the back of my head thinks maybe Gracie wants me to fuck her like this because it involves less emotion, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Regardless of how rough I am now, this is more than just sex.
As I ease in and out of Gracie, her eyes open again and lock on mine like she might die if she looks away.
When I intertwine my fingers with hers and place them back above her head, holding on as one might to a life-raft, we both know it was never just going to be sex between us.
It’s the culmination of years of heartbreak and yearning, making up for lost time.
It’s two people who were destined to be, coming back together in the most intimate of ways.
It’s Gracie and I, as we were always meant to be—together.
I can’t stop staring at Gracie as I continue to fuck her exactly the way she asked—with no self-control.
My movements are fueled by pure and unadulterated lust, and I can feel my release drawing closer with each thrust. Gracie’s getting closer, too; her breathing is shallow and raspy, and she has a beautiful, full body blush developing further by the second.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” I say as her moans morph into whimpers. “You’re taking my cock so well.”
She practically mewls at the praise, her hands roaming across my shoulders and down my back, trying to touch as much of me as she can. I’m obsessed with the way she can’t keep her hands off me.
On my next thrust, I lean down and place a chaste kiss on her lips—a kiss that’s far too sweet for the position we’re currently in.
“C’mere, sweetheart.”
We both groan as I pull out for a moment, climbing backward until I reach the end of the bed and slide off until my feet hit the floor.
With a tug on her hips, I pull Gracie to the edge of the bed with me.
I have to bite back a smile at how wild her blonde curls look, strewn across the bed from my manhandling.
If the wide smile on her face is anything to go by, Gracie didn’t mind it one bit.
Reflecting that smile back at her, I drag my hands from her hips to her ankles.
I place soft kisses on the inside of each ankle before sliding my hands back down to the backs of her thighs and push them toward her, holding them in place with one forearm until her knees almost reach her head.
She watches intently as I suck two of my fingers into my mouth.
When I thrust them into her dripping pussy without warning, she lets out a gasp that folds into a deep moan.
“Fuck me,” she says breathlessly.
I oblige, fucking her with my fingers for several pumps. I switch them out for my cock and hit a spot that makes Gracie quiver, releasing a guttural moan.
“You’re so fucking responsive, Gracie. I’m addicted to the sounds you make.” She draws her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down on a whimper. I couldn’t stop complimenting and praising her if I tried; she’s perfect.
I continue to fuck her, feeling that familiar building sensation in my spine.
Gracie meets me with every thrust, as well as she can in this position—and it’s the most delightful agony I’ve ever felt.
Her breathing becomes increasingly ragged, and I can feel how close she is.
When I slide a finger into the mix, I pinch and flick her clit the way that used to drive her wild.
Something between a scream and a groan comes from Gracie’s mouth as her whole body clenches.
Eyes closed, the sound dies down into whimpers as she tries to catch her breath.
Watching her come undone is beautiful, and the memory will be burnt into my brain for the rest of my life.
I barely have a moment to revel in my satisfaction. Unable to hold it in any longer, I let my own release take over not a moment later, filling the condom with a grunt. Despite my every effort to be gentle, we both wince when I pull out.
Gracie drops her legs flat against the bed and I roll off her, lying by her side with a sigh.
My head lolls to face her, and she gives me a satiated grin.
Our heavy breaths fill the air as we try to slow our heart rates and steady our breathing.
I feel the back of her hand against my own where they lay between us.
Gracie’s attention is drawn there when I lace our fingers together.
She gives me the tiniest squeeze before meeting my gaze again, her eyes soft and filled with twelve years of emotions.
“Stay here,” I instruct, running my thumb along hers before letting go and rolling off the bed.
Gracie gives me a sweet smile. “I don’t think I could move even if I wanted to.”
I laugh as I walk into my ensuite, disposing of the condom and cleaning myself up before returning to Gracie’s side with a wet cloth.
After I’ve cleaned her up, as well, I lie back down beside her, pulling her into my arms. When she nuzzles into the crook of my neck with her hand on my bare chest, my heart damn near explodes.
There’s an ache within my chest, just beneath the surface, one that I can’t explain.
I think it’s a combination of the sweet and sinful acts of this evening swirling within me and creating a turmoil I haven’t felt in years.
Before I can linger on the feeling any longer, Gracie lifts her head.
Our eyes meet, and she gives me the kind of smile that would bring me to my knees.
All the worries in the world fade away when she looks at me.
She leans in and kisses me, slow and unhurried, and the entire world melts away until it’s just us, here in my bed, kissing one another like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
And fuck, if it isn’t something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life.