26. Good To Be Home #2
While I was snapping some shots, a few patrons came in and stopped to chat. Those I knew told me about their kids and grandkids, how they stayed close by and kept in touch. I smiled at them, happy for them and also a little jealous.
The most surprising part was how everyone I spoke to seemed disappointed when I said I was only here on a visit. I hadn’t expected anyone to miss me when I left.
When I was finished, I thanked Mrs. Gruber again.
“Good to see you.” She turned, then hesitated. “Sure have missed seeing you ‘round here. Hope you’ll be visiting for a while.”
That lump in my throat returned. “Thanks. It’s been nice to be back.”
In my desperation to move to Chicago right after high school, did I manage to miss how many lives I’d affected by leaving?
When I was a kid, I knew the shop owners and townspeople.
I’d attended church with almost all of them at one point or another, spending time with them on church picnics, Sunday school, and funerals.
I was a part of this town in every way, so even those who didn’t attend church I saw in school or at Newcomb’s Market.
Sure, the town knew me, but I never thought they’d miss me when I left. It hadn’t even occurred to me.
A huge sense of guilt washed over me. Was I that self-absorbed?
Was I so focused on what I wanted that I let a whole town down in leaving?
It seemed a little egotistical to think so, but as I continued moving throughout the downtown area, photographing the shops and greeting people, I found more and more people who stopped to chat.
Some even hugged me, happy to see me back home.
And I found myself happy to see them, too.
Maybe Mom was right. Maybe my happiness was here.
The only one who stood out as not being excited that I was back was Jo Ellen.
When I stopped at Steeplegate Diner to pick up lunch, she barely spoke to me unless she was obligated to say something about payment.
The glares she shot my way, however, spoke volumes.
We’d never been particularly close, so I tried not to let it bother me.
Part of me wished that I could spend more time with Mom.
Now that she was sleeping more in the daytime, I wasn’t with her for as long.
Father also wanted his own time with her, which I understood, so I read to her in the late morning and after dinner, leaving the rest of the day for me to find something to do.
Selfishly, I hoped I could see Paul when I wasn’t with Mom. I knew he had to work during the day, but maybe for a week or two he could find some extra time for me.
As I let my mind wander, I tried not to think ahead to after Mom died and I went back to Chicago. That was too far in the future. The only way I could get through this was to focus on the present.
I strode to the hotel room for a blanket, my heart racing with anticipation. Memories of last night made my inner muscles clench and a rush of heat hit my cheeks. By the time I grabbed a blanket and drove to the far side of the park, my body was vibrating with need for him.
Once I spread out our lunch and drinks, I heard the growl of his truck engine. He was here right on time. My heart skittered knowing he was near.
As usual, Paul approached with pronounced footfalls. Deliberate. Commanding. It made me think about the way he instructed me our second time last night.
“Hey, Mags.”
Holding my hand over my eyes to shield them from sun behind him, I smiled. “Hey, yourself. Hungry?”
He approached me with one thumb hooked on his belt looking like a predator assessing his prey.
“Starving.” With his hand held out to me, I instantly accepted it.
With a swift motion, he yanked me up to my feet where we stood chest-to-chest. “Ain’t for food, though,” he mumbled as he leaned down, gripping my neck as he pulled me in for a deep kiss.
With one hand holding me to him and the other sinking down my back until he squeezed my ass, his lips overpowered mine.
His scent had me trembling. His rock-hard body had me gripping his arm just to stay upright.
In only a few steps, he had my back plastered against the far side of his truck, hidden from the road.
“You been thinkin’ ‘bout this?” Paul murmured between kisses.
As his lips wandered down my neck, I sighed. “So much.”
One of his hands wandered down between my thighs, reaching up my skirt to tease me over my panties. I sucked in a breath that made his chest vibrate against mine.
“You wear this little skirt for me?”
Not sure I was ready to admit to it, I played coy. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Before I knew what was happening, he lifted me, pressing my back against the truck as his jean-clad shaft nestled against my mound. From the way he was kissing me, his hands explored my body like he owned it, and he talked in a way I’d never heard before, I was verklempt.
He hadn’t talked like that last night. Was that dirty talk? I didn’t care what it was called, but I didn’t want him to stop. A whimper escaped my lips at the feel of him so close and still so far away.
“Where can we go?” I asked, surprised when he lowered me to the ground.
I clutched his arm, worried my legs wouldn’t hold me, especially when his thick, calloused fingers easily pushed past my panties. With a few small circles in my arousal, his finger easily slid to that place inside me that he’d found last night.
My hips jutted, seeking more as my breath came out in desperate pants.
His fingers swirled my clit. “Damn it, you’re so wet for me already. You been this way for long?”
I panted through the magic his fingers were causing. Heat swirled in my belly, my toes curled, and a climax was already racing right for me.
“Since I drove here thinking about you,” I admitted as I clung to him.
Lowering his head to my neck, he kissed me with desperation. “The things I want to do to you are indecent for a place like this.”
“Don’t stop,” I begged, gripping his face to pull him into another steamy kiss.
My mind raced. I wanted him to do every indecent thing to me he could think of, all of them, I thought, as my body spasmed around his fingers.
Easing me through it, he lightly kept his fingers moving, keeping me on edge.
“S’pose we could try in the truck,” he offered.
“No, come with me,” I insisted. “Leave your truck here. I’ll drive you to my room.”
When one of his hands snaked up under my shirt and bra, rolling my nipple, I fisted his shirt as I came all over his hand again. When he pulled his fingers out, I watched in fascination as he lifted them to his mouth, licking them clean.
He then leaned in close. “I’d rather eat you than lunch anyway.”
Leaving me plastered against the truck, he swept up the blanket to gather lunch, and tossed it into the back of my rental sedan.
Using his truck to steady myself, I stumbled to the car, falling into the driver’s seat.
The intensity of his eyes and the way he placed his hand on my bare thigh made my heart leap.
Needing him so much, I started driving, but immediately, his thick pinkie finger crept under my hem and pushed past my panties.
Jutting my hips forward, the car jerked as I sought for him to get deeper.
“Can’t distract you too much. We can’t crash,” he said as he teased me. “Don’t mean I don’t want to do more, though. Can you drive safely while I distract you?”
My pulse throbbed in my ears. The fire between us was lit, all I wanted was him, so I did what any girl would do.
“Mm-hmm,” I lied, not wanting him to stop. It probably wasn’t the truth, but with the way he reached his other hand across the console, allowing it to take over, he slowly thrust into me. His finger just barely brushed my clit with every movement. Opening my legs wider, I allowed him more access.
While somewhere in my head I was afraid I was the only one enjoying this, from his erratic breathing and the bulge in his pants, that was just not true.
As I turned onto the main street through town, I saw one of Father’s parishioners and clenched my thighs with his hand still between them.
Paul chuckled, never once attempting to move his hand away from me or lean back in his seat.
In fact, with the extra pressure of my thighs, he had a better angle and focused on my clit, which had me panting by the next block.
But the inn was only two blocks away now. Surely, I could make it that far.
Paul had no intention of making it easy, though.
With his dominant hand teasing me, he licked my arousal off the other hand.
Seeing him taste me like that had me beyond crazy for him.
My thighs fell apart, he increased the intensity of his movements and speed of his finger, and I was losing control.
Just as I pulled into the parking spot with a jerk of the steering wheel and a clomp on the brakes, my climax slammed into me.
When he pulled his hand back, I watched him lick his fingers again. “I’ll get lunch. Can you move? Or do I need to get you, too?”
I blinked a few times, still in a daze. “I’m, ah, good.”
He gave a low chuckle, leaning over to kiss my neck as he complimented me, “You sure as hell are, Mags.”
My body hummed with anticipation. Since I was new to this, I didn’t know what I did or didn’t like yet, but everything Paul did left me feeling incredible and wanting more. I had every faith in him that whatever he planned to do to my body in my room would leave me breathless and satisfied.