Chapter 13
teddy
“Oh, fuck,” she exhaled, her whole body jolting at the contact. One hand flew out to brace herself, sending the rolling pin tumbling to the floor with a clatter.
I flattened my tongue and alternated long, slow laps with tighter, back-and-forth flicks, working her open slowly and carefully, the way she liked best, even back then.
Kelsey was soaking wet, the taste of her taking me back to that first time, in my Bronco, out on some country road.
I’d shoved her teal homecoming dress up around her waist and crouched just outside the open driver’s side door, with no fucking clue what I was doing.
I just remember trying to move my tongue like I’d seen guys at the clubhouse do with the club whores, using her sounds to guide me.
Her fingers threaded through the still-damp strands of my hair, roughly tugging it loose from the leather tie. The pain grounded me, reminded me this was real—not another dream where I woke up alone, reaching for someone who wasn’t there.
I slipped two fingers inside her tight pussy, curling them up to find that spot that had always made her lose her mind. Her nails bit into my scalp as she pulled my face closer, her thighs snapping around my head like a vise.
She tried to bite down on the sounds she made, but the combination of my tongue and fingers coaxed little gasping moans from her throat.
“That’s it, Kels. Been too fucking long since I heard you make that sound,” I murmured, pulling back just enough to speak before diving back in.
The combination of my tongue and fingers had her riding my face, her hips moving in desperate little circles. Several times, I had to grip her leg with my free hand to keep her from sliding right off the island.
Less than a minute in, and her thighs were already shaking, the telltale tension a sign that she was close.
But I wanted to draw it out until she was desperate for it, until the counter beneath her was flooded. Until she knew without a doubt that she was the center of my whole world.
Always had been. Always would be.
I eased back, blowing a cool stream of air over the lips of her pussy, watching her jerk in response. Her fingers tightened in my hair, trying to guide me back, but I resisted, pressing soft kisses to her inner thighs instead.
“Teddy,” she whimpered, and Christ, the desperation in her voice nearly undid me. “Please, I need—”
“I know what you need, baby.” I traced lazy circles around her clit with my thumb, not quite giving her what she wanted. “But we’re not rushing this like you do with everything else.”
“I don’t—” Her protest died when I dragged my tongue through her folds again before pulling back.
“You do,” I insisted. “Always moving on to the next thing before you’ve finished the first. But not this time. This time, you’re gonna take what I give you when I give it to you.”
Kelsey growled in response, bucking her hips to try to chase the friction. I held her down with my forearm across her lower belly, keeping her pinned while I worked her with deliberate, maddening slowness.
“I hate you,” she panted, but her fingers tightened in my hair, holding me exactly where she wanted me.
“No, you don’t.” I pumped a single finger into her before bringing it to my lips. “God, you taste so fucking good. Could keep you like this all afternoon. You’d love that, wouldn’t you, baby?”
Instead of answering, she slid a hand up over her belly to cup her breast, hissing out a breath when her fingers closed around the peak of her nipple.
My dick throbbed painfully against my zipper, demanding attention I wasn’t about to give it.
Not yet.
This was about her—about making her feel cherished, desired, worshipped in a way I’d failed to do for far too long.
“Whatcha doin’, Kels?” I asked, palming myself through my jeans in an attempt to talk my dick down.
“Playing,” she said innocently.
“Keep going,” I rasped, my voice barely recognizable.
Her eyes met mine, heavy-lidded and glazed with lust, before she rolled her nipple between her thumb and index finger. A low moan spilled from her lips, vibrating through my entire body.
The need to kiss her again burned through me, but I held myself in check, content to watch as she touched herself for me.
If I’d had any lingering doubts about whether she still wanted me, the way she touched herself—open, unafraid, a little smug about it—obliterated them. Before the kids came along, she’d always liked putting on a show, knowing nothing brought me to my knees faster.
It didn’t matter where we were, either. She’d once climbed onto my lap during a 4th of July cookout at the clubhouse under the guise of watching the fireworks.
The woman had spread her pretty little gingham sundress across my lap and chatted away with some of the other Ol’ Ladies seated nearby, all while working the head of my dick in and out of her pussy just to see how long I’d last.
I plunged three fingers back into her body, and she released a string of words, bucking wildly against my hand.
Nothing in the world quite like hearing your ex-wife, the woman who’d had you by the balls since high school, moaning your name.
My thumb circled her clit while my fingers kept up a rhythm I’d perfected over three decades of loving her,
“God, yes, Teddy—right there,” she gasped, the wet sounds of my fingers pumping in and out her body mixing with her increasingly desperate whimpers and the soft strains of “Santa Baby” to form an erotic soundtrack I could listen to forever. “D-don’t stop, please don’t stop—”
Fat chance of that. I had no intention of stopping. I’d die between her thighs if she’d let me.
The taste of her, sweet and salty, fucked with my brain so hard that I almost lost the plot for a second—almost forgot that I was supposed to keep her on edge, not just get myself off on the needy sounds being ripped from her throat.
I doubled down, focused entirely on her pleasure, on giving her what she needed. My shoulder protested the angle of my hand, but I pushed past it.
“That’s my girl.”
Her breathing turned ragged, the little gasps coming faster now. I could read her body like a book I’d memorized cover to cover—knew she was right on the edge, just needed that final push.
I sucked her clit between my lips and hummed, the vibration sending her flying.
“Teddy—oh God, I’m—” Kelsey’s body locked up before she began pulsing around my fingers in shuddering waves. She bit the back of her hand to try to silence her scream, but I caught it anyway, etching the sound into my memory for the inevitable moment she was gone again.
I kept going, drawing it out until she was shaking, trying to push my head away from oversensitivity. Only then did I pull back and let her catch her breath.
My knees cracked and popped when I finally stood, reminding me that I wasn’t twenty anymore.
Still, the sight of Kelsey sprawled across my kitchen island—flour in her hair, dough stuck to her elbow, a star-shaped cookie cutter somehow wedged under her left butt cheek—made every ounce of pain worth it.
For the first time in years, she looked wrecked—in a good way. Satisfied, maybe even peaceful. For a split second, I let myself believe I could give her that steadiness again, that I could be the man who made her world safe instead of dangerous.
A full minute passed before sense returned to her eyes, and a slow grin spread across her lips. “You trying to kill me, Riggs?”
“Nah,” I said, brushing flour from her shoulder as I helped her sit up. “Just helping you relax. Not to yank my own dick or anything, but I’m pretty good at it. I mean—” I waved my free hand over her body. “—the results clearly speak for themselves.”
She rolled her eyes at the comment and pulled me down for a deep and dirty kiss. I let her taste herself on my tongue, let her hands drift under my shirt, let her feel every inch of me straining against my old Levi’s.
“Speaking of your dick,” she said, squeezing me through the denim.
I caught her wrist with a barely restrained groan. “This wasn’t about me.”
Her brow furrowed. “But—”
“Didn’t do it to get something back, Kels,” I insisted. “Shit, I get off on getting you off. Always have”
“I know you do,” she whispered, her voice cracking like it did when she was about to cry. “But I wanna make you feel good.”
“This was for you.” I lifted her arm, pressing my lips to the inside of her wrist. “Just for you. You don’t owe me anything.”
I meant it, too. Needed her to understand this wasn’t some transaction where she had to balance the books. “I wanted to do that. Wanted to watch you come apart. That’s all I need.”
Kelsey stared at me like I’d grown a second head, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Since when does Theodore Riggs turn down a blow job?”
I held her gaze, my jaw working as I tried to find the right words. “Since I realized we’ve been using sex as a Band-Aid for years. And I’m trying real hard not to fall back into old habits.”
Her expression shifted, something vulnerable flickering across her face before she shuttered it. “Right. Old habits.”
“Not saying I don’t want it,” I added, my thumb stroking the inside of her wrist. “Christ, Kels, I’m so hard right now I can barely think straight. But I don’t wanna go there unless it means something.”
Not if it’s just another way to avoid talking about the hard shit.
“Teddy—”
The timer came to the rescue once again, its shrill beeps saving us from whatever emotional minefield we’d been about to walk into.
I adjusted myself again and tried to think about literally anything other than how good her hand had felt for those few brief seconds. It would have been so easy to give in to what she was offering. Pretend it was just sex. Just two bodies remembering what they were good at.
But it wasn’t that simple. Nothing between us ever had been.
Kelsey scrambled off the island, nearly taking me down with her when her knees buckled. I caught her around the waist, steadying her while she found her footing.