Then came… him.
His right hand touching the inside of my left leg, making sure I was ready. The graze of his fingertips against my core, curling them against my tender bud, leaving my hips bucking up at him, wanting more.
That happened a second later when he touched me.
I felt the swell of his hardness against me.
I gasped, and he paused kissing for a split second.
“Are we okay?” he whispered. “Like this?”
“Yes. We’re more than okay.”
Ramsey growled.
He kissed me again and came forward, breaking my threshold.
The back of my legs tightened hard and my toes curled. He was there… inside me… sinking deeper by the second. Going impossibly slow, allowing my body to get accustomed to him, feeling every amazing inch of him.
His body pressed hard to mine when there was no more to give.
I couldn’t find a breath to inhale nor exhale.
He held there and drove forward, forcing me to put my head back and cry out, begging for relief. And begging for more.
He started to move at me, pulling and pushing, chasing away anything that could hurt me or fuck up the rest of my night.
My hands grabbed at the back of his wide shoulders. I sank my nails in hard and held there, slowly looking down, watching the muscles of his body working hard to take care of me. Watching his body with my body. Seeing it, hearing it, and feeling it all at the same time. My legs wrapped around his body, pulling at him, already craving more. Instantly addicted to the feeling of him taking and having me.
He grunted as he jolted forward, burying himself, holding there, pumping with force. Lowering the top half of his body down to mine. His warm and hard chest pressing against my breasts. Driving himself with purpose as his mouth began to kiss and tease parts of my body where I didn’t know it felt good. Starting at my left shoulder, kissing so perfectly, dipping down to where my chest began, but not going down to my breasts. Teasing me while pleasuring me. Working across the top of my chest to my other shoulder and finally across to my throat. Rubbing the tip of his nose against my throat, growling as he did so. Moving harder, faster, bringing me to climax.
My body clenched tight as I gasped and scratched at his back.
“Fuck, Rams,” I groaned. “Oh, I’m…”
“I know, darling,” he whispered, his voice and breath tickling my throat. “Keep going. Keep coming.”
I bit my lip as the pressure continued to build and crest. This wasn’t just a large wave crashing. This was a tsunami happening. Wave after wave of pleasure hitting at once. My hips rocking with relief as Ramsey moved at his own pace, never giving me a chance to ease up.
Taking me through my first climax and throwing me into a second one.
My hands slipped from his back to the bed. I pulled at the covers as though they were going to do something. I pulled them tight to my sides as I cried out. Ramsey was perfect, moving with precision as though he were inside that little spot in the back of my mind where I wasn’t a struggling mom, and knew exactly what I wanted from a man like him. It had always been a wild fantasy, but the reality felt so much better.
So much fucking better.
He kissed down to my breasts once more, taking his time with each one, never missing a motion of his lower half. In some wild way, it was like two people were with me. I never knew it could feel this good.
As he settled back to kissing my neck with the tip of his tongue, writing in a language I could never read but only feel, he lowered himself back down to me. His right hand began a quick descent down the side of my body, stopping at my hip. With a strong hold, he kept me there as he drove himself harder and with more speed. I couldn’t contain myself as the next wave began to crest and crash. I fought against him to lift my hips for relief, but he was in full control.
“Be ready, darling,” he whispered, with a warning into my ear.
He grunted like a wild beast as he moved himself with greater strength. I felt him readying with a swell that made me bite my lip again. I told myself, if I kept that up I was going to literally bite my bottom lip off my face.
Ramsey kept his lips against my ear, letting me listen to the soundtrack of his pleasure. Growling sighs, deep breaths, grunts, and finally a hiss that had him pressing forward with the sole intention of finishing.
My hands quickly released their hold on the covers, feeling everything Ramsey had to offer. I reached as far down his body as I could, wanting to grab his ass, but only managing to feel his lower back. Those muscles pulling tight, working hard as he ended what was the hottest moment I’d had in a long time. Maybe in all of my life.
Ramsey went from beast to gentleman in a split second.
He pulled the covers over me and traced a line across my shoulder. I turned my head and shut my eyes, feeling his fingertips against my neck and down along my jawline. His thumb grazed my bottom lip and I tried to kiss it, but he was already gone.
I opened my eyes and knew there was no way in hell Ramsey would actually be there.
Right?
This was all a crazy dream.
But there he was, staring right at me.
“I don’t know what to say right now, Rams,” I whispered.
“Then say nothing. Shut your eyes. Sleep, darling. Live in this moment.”
“I want to stay here as long as I can,” I said and smiled. “Oh, God, that was…”
He grinned, and I shut up, heat rushing to my cheeks.
“I’m pathetic,” I said.
“Not a chance in hell,” he said. “You’re real, Jordyn. As real a person as I’ve ever met. I couldn’t stop myself tonight. Waiting outside for you.”
“I’m so sorry about that,” I said. “How messed up it keeps getting.”
“Stop apologizing for your life and who you are, darling. You’re amazing at what you do.”
Ramsey leaned forward and kissed me.
It was a short-lived kiss as he moved from the bed and grabbed his jeans.
I sat up, holding the sheets against my chest. “What are you doing?”
“You don’t want me to stay over.”
“Says who?”
“Says me, Jordyn. I don’t want to mess anything else up in your life.”
“So, you’re just… here and gone?”
“Tell me that’s not what you wanted or needed?”
I swallowed hard. “Okay. Fine. I needed that.”
Ramsey turned, now in jeans, and he touched my face. “You know what’s important to you and your life. I can’t get in the way of that.”
I touched his hand at the last second. “I hate this. Everything that…”
“Stop,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for what you had to go through tonight. At dinner and at home. And for the record, what we just did wasn’t out of need for me. The way you felt in that moment, you deserve to feel all the time.”
He broke away and wished me a goodnight.
I watched him walk out of my bedroom and listened to him leave the house. It took me a few minutes to get out of the bed, the sheet the only thing covering me, and walk downstairs.
I could have stopped him from going if I really wanted to. But this house wasn’t just my house. There was so much more…
The way you felt in that moment, you deserve to feel all the time.
I opened the door and looked out to the dark night. A breeze scattered some leaves across the porch.
I shivered.
My insides were warm.
My toes curled.
My head replayed Ramsey over and over.
And his words echoed around me.
I blinked fast, feeling the emotion of the night catching up to me.
How could my heart hurt so much, and my body feel so good at the same time?
14
All the Last Times
Ramsey
I sat outside on the back porch well into the night. Hell, well into the morning. Watching the moon move o
ver my head, time creeping forward, another day just waiting to begin. The autumn breeze rustling the leaves, a cool chill on my face as I stared into a small fire that eventually died out. Then I just sat there in the dark.
Things had taken a turn with Jordyn. A turn I fully expected and had been waiting for from the moment I met her. I’d stepped into her life and she let me stay. My reason for going upstairs had been true to what I told her. When I heard her cries echoing from the hallway, I couldn’t help myself but check on her. And then to see her sitting there on the floor in her son’s room, missing him the way she did, it really got the best of me.
I refused to think that Jordyn and her personal life could do that to me.
But it had happened.
And it wasn’t even as though our lives and pasts paralleled each other.
It was just about feeling the way we did. Having every second weekend to leave everything that caused pain behind. Only the lines were crossed now. I still felt my body against hers. I could still smell her skin. My lips had been given a taste of something, maybe forbidden, that made my heart do things it hadn’t done in a long time. I wanted more in a way she’d never understand. That’s why I left. To let the night cool me down a little. Because if it were up to me, we’d be in bed until Sunday. Then I’d be chasing myself out of there before her reality came back.
Chasing myself away with a heavy heart because of everything she had. Everything I could have had. Everything I ran from. Everything I lost. Everything she lost.
I finally dragged my ass from the back porch and went to bed.
The old country house I had bought with a broken heart was still beaten up and in need of love, which I chose to ignore. I kept my head down as I walked up the steps and to the master bedroom at the end of the hall. I kicked off my shoes and sat on the bed. I took my shirt off and fell back to the bed, staring at the dark ceiling, curling my lip.
I could have stayed with Jordyn. I could have been holding her all damn night. I could have continued to explore every inch, every curve, every spot she kept secret, all of her.
My eyes shut with the vision and sounds of Jordyn beneath me.
She kept her son, Sam, protected from me, which I understood.
Because sometimes things were best left hidden.
I opened the back door of the house and the smell of breakfast overtook me.
There was Aunt Millie, dressed in different clothes, same curly and puffy hairdo that she had always had, standing at the stove, cooking eggs and bacon.
“Knock, knock,” I said.
She turned around. “Ramsey.”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
Aunt Millie raised an eyebrow. “Someone else with you?”
“No,” I said. “I’m a gentleman. I took her home last night. Made sure she was tucked in and that there were no monsters under her bed.”
“I don’t want to hear anything else,” Aunt Millie said. “She seems like a lovely woman.”
“Yeah,” I said.
I opened a cabinet and got out an old coffee mug and helped myself to a cup.
“Where’s Uncle Tom?”
“Sleeping it off,” she said. “He and Doc were up until after two. They talked about thirty years ago. Then they started arguing.”
“As always,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said. “I had to separate them. Like two children. I put Doc on the couch and I made your uncle go upstairs to sleep.”
I patted Aunt Millie’s back. “You’re a saint. Believe me. Everything you put up with and have put up with.”
“It’s worth it,” she said. “If you find the worth in it.”
“And this is worth it?” I asked, grinning.
“Of course it is. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
“Once again, you’re a saint.”
Aunt Millie scrambled the already scrambled eggs. “You get first helpings here, Ramsey. Since you’re awake and not drunk.”
“I’m awake,” I said.
“You were drinking all night? With Jordyn?”
I laughed. “No, Aunt Millie. I went home and did some thinking.”
“About what?”
“Did I really almost ruin your marriage?”
“Oh, jeez, Ramsey. Stop it. We talked about this. Your uncle had some problems. You were rebelling. It was a hectic time. But it worked out.”
“I never asked for this,” I said. “For what you and he did for me.”
“I know that.”
“You did your job for everyone else in the family,” I said. “Even though most of it fell apart.”
Aunt Millie cleared her throat. “Ramsey, it was a hard time. For all of us. You know, your uncle and I dreamed of big family dinners here. Big holidays. Big everything. And it never worked out. But one thing we always did was accept the present. Because if you fight that, Ramsey, you’re going to get hurt. You can always learn from your past. You can think about the future. But must live right now.”
I sipped my coffee and put the mug down. “She’s got a kid.”
“Who does?”
“Jordyn.”
“Oh,” Aunt Millie said.
“She’s got a son. It’s a tricky situation. He goes every other weekend with his father. That’s the only time I really get to see her. It’s sort of our arrangement. A casual thing. Fun. You know?’
“Is that what you both want?”
“Yeah. It works.”
“You know, you were a better liar when you were a teenager.”
Aunt Millie went back to cooking.
A few silent seconds later, Doc came shuffling from the living room into the dining room. He looked like a Halloween monster, which was fitting for the time of the year. Tall, lanky, his gray hair a mess, his head down as he lumbered toward the kitchen.
Aunt Millie got him a cup of coffee and had some medicine for the headache he’d never admit he had. That, along with some heavy bacon grease was the best cure for a night of drinking.
Then Uncle Tom woke up, like a bear out of hibernation, pissed off at the world until he got his coffee and breakfast. He and Doc barely spoke a word to each other. I stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, thinking about everything with Jordyn.
I had caught her out of the corner of my eye long before the guys said anything about her. I chose that spot to order another beer from Wendy on purpose. I stepped into her life before she looked at me, or attempted to step into mine.
I distracted my thoughts by talking to Uncle Tom.
“How’s the head?” I asked.
“Fine,” he said. “What are you doing here? Thought you’d be busy.”
“Where’s your friend?” Doc asked.
“I’m a decent guy,” I said.
Both Uncle Tom and Doc laughed at the same time.
“I’m sure we can find a few people to challenge that,” Doc said.
“I know one right off the top of my head,” Uncle Tom said.
He would forever take shots at me for a decision I made that nobody else seemed to quite understand.
“What’s going on today?” I asked.
“The usual,” Uncle Tom said. “Working from behind because of that fucking plumbing issue over on Walnut.”
“Tom, the language,” Aunt Millie said.
“My apologies, dear,” Uncle Tom said.
“Did the plumbing get fixed?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You can shit and flush with ease,” Doc said.
“Language,” Aunt Millie yelled from the kitchen.
“You two are pushing it,” I said. “She’s going to take your plates away.”
Uncle Tom looked up at me. The family resemblance was obvious when it came to me and him. Hell, he could have passed for my father any day of the week.
“I have Ed and Chris heading over to do what they can,” he said.
“I’ll go over there too.”
“You? I’m sure you have better
things to do.”
“I’ll supervise,” I said.
“Meaning you three morons will sit there and drink,” Doc said.
“But the work will get done,” I said.
“Ramsey, don’t worry about it,” Uncle Tom said. “They needed to make up a few hours from last week anyway. It’s just to catch up on some things.”
“I’ll be there,” I said.
Uncle Tom knew that arguing with me was dumb.
I moved back to the kitchen and kissed Aunt Millie’s cheek. “Thanks for the breakfast.”
“You didn’t eat enough,” she said.
“I have to get to work now.”
“No, you don’t. I know what you’re doing.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
She pointed a spatula at me like it was a knife. “You’re going to try and mess things up, Ramsey. I don’t know what happened last night, but don’t do stupid stuff. Not with that woman’s heart. And especially if she has a child.”
“It’s casual,” I said. “We have rules.”
“You never follow rules.”
“I know,” I said. “Thanks again for the food.”
“Take a plate to go!” she yelled as I charged toward the door.
Work on the weekends was only for new guys and whoever pissed off Uncle Tom during the week. I had worked my fair share of weekends a long time ago.
There was no need for me to be at the site.
When I pulled up and climbed out of my truck, Chris flicked a cigarette as far as he could.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m here to fire you,” I said.
“Oh, shit. Really?”
“No,” I said. “Get back to work.”
I walked up the porch steps and didn’t bother to go inside. I stood there and took in the late autumn morning.
My mind decided to throw some dusty memories at me.
“Do you think we’ll be like them?”
“I don’t know. That all depends on time. She always tells me to live in the present.”
“And you are. Look where we are.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
Every Other Weekend Page 14
