“If I’m a good person at all, it’s because she instilled in me a good moral grounding. She introduced me to God, and made sure I attended church when I was little. I can’t think about the idea of abandoning any type of relationship with her, without remembering everything she did for me as a kid. But waiting for her to learn how to cut the apron strings is wearing on me. I guess I’m just avoiding confrontation for the moment in the hope that a bit of distance apart will help to bring us together.”
“Have faith, Evie. It will happen,” he assured me. “I bet all Mams feel a bit lost from time to time. They just don’t always know the best way to handle it when their kids grow up. God knows I’ve given me own Ma enough grief over the years. I did shite at school, got into a ton of fights and shagged my way round half of London.
“Despite all that, I always knew that Ma and Da loved me more than anyone in the world, and I’ll bet your Ma feels the same way. She just has a shitty way of showing it. Me and you were the total opposites as kids. All the hassle I threw my parents’ way gave them time to deal with it. You grew up exactly how your Ma wanted you to, and now you’ve flown the nest she has no idea how to handle it. But she loves you. And love trumps everything else, including pride. So give her a chance to miss you a little bit and learn how to swallow her pride, and she’ll be back, I promise. No way in hell she’s gonna miss out on the chance to lecture me on what a shite job I’m doing of raising her grandkids.”
“Grandkids?” I squeaked.
“Oh yeah. A whole fuckin’ rugby team of ’em. Shit babe, from the way I’ve been rubbing myself up against you, I’d be surprised if you weren’t pregnant already. My sperm is pretty potent stuff,” he replied, rubbing my belly gently and getting hard. No doubt at the idea of filling it with little Riordons.
“Pregnant without sex. Really?” I said, laughing.
“These things happen Evie. Just ask the Virgin Mary,” he replied.
“Aside from the fact that you just compared yourself to God, thanks for that. I figured, after all the awful things my mother has said about you, you’d have every reason to hate her.”
“Nobody who gives birth to someone this good, can be all bad,” he said, squeezing me to him as he kissed the top of my head. I cuddled into him and we went back to watching the movie. I must have drifted off, because when I woke, he was carrying me.
“I’m so sorry. I feel so rude falling asleep on you.”
“I’m not,” he replied with a snort. “I love it that you feel so comfortable with me. Besides, I totally copped a feel when you were out for the count.”
“You did not,” I replied, laughing.
“Okay I didn’t. I was too good to let my hands wander, but just bad enough to sneak a peek,” he answered.
“I don’t believe you,” I said, unconvincingly. I linked my hands around his neck, but made no move to get down and walk.
“Oh baby, you don’t know me at all. If you did, you’d know that black really is my favourite colour.”
“You did look! You totally looked at my underwear while I was asleep!” I replied.
“Told you. I may be a pervert, but at least I’m honest,” he admitted.
“Not that I approve, but I guess I did wear it thinking of you.”
“Now messing with me like that is just mean. If I’m supposed to hold out for wedlock, the least you could do is wear them big, cotton, granny knickers like Ma wears,” he said.
“With the really unflattering, wide strap bras that look like chest plates,” I suggested.
“Yep, a full on sand bag sling and a pair of chastity knickers please,” he replied.
“Done. After that beautiful book case you made me, it’s the least I can do. I’ll go shopping in my lunch hour tomorrow and I swear you’ll never be horny around me again,” I said.
“Fuck it,” he whispered, taking the lobe of my ear between his teeth and nipping on it teasingly. “You could be wearing my mother’s actual underwear and still have me coming in my shorts.”
“Well that’s the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received,” I admitted.
“Fact of life, baby,” he said, unapologetically. “Besides, I’m betting it works both ways.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, laying me gently down on the bed and bracing himself above me. “The fire fighter uniform really does it for women, but I reckon even wearing my sweats and t-shirt, you’re still creaming your pants.”
“You say the crudest things,” I pointed out, without admonishment.
“Doesn’t make it any less true. Wanna test my theory?” he asked.
“Tommy,” I warned, as he went up on his knees and slowly unbuttoned the top of my jeans.
“Trust me Evie,” he whispered, the expression on his face one of complete sincerity. “I won’t cross any lines, and you tell me to stop and I’ll stop. I promise. I just want to make you feel good. Test your boundaries a little somewhere you feel safe.”
After a beat, I nodded my head in agreement, excited, but more than a little nervous. He was the first man I’d kissed and now, he’d be the first man who’d see me in my underwear. It took an incredible amount of courage for a woman, any woman, to strip down naked and own it. I didn’t think I’d ever have that kind of confidence in my own body.
Like he was unwrapping a present at Christmas, he peeled my jeans down my legs achingly slowly, as though he was savouring the experience.
“You too,” I said, breathlessly. “If I’m going to bite the bullet and do this, you need to take something off as well.” He gave me that cocky smirk, the one I had no doubt was responsible for many girls dropping to their knees in worship. Reaching back behind him, in a way that bared his ridiculously cut abdominals and razor sharp obliques, he pulled his t-shirt over his head and threw it to the floor. It was ludicrous just how perfectly sculpted his body was, and his tattoos added an extra edge of deliciousness to what was already an irresistible package.
“I’ve changed my mind. You’re perfect and it’s going to make me even more self-conscious,” I said, struggling against the urge to cover myself with the comforter. He grabbed my hand and pressed it against his side.
“What’s this?” I asked, feeling the puckered scar beneath my fingertips.
“Appendix scar. And this one is from an operation I had to repair my shoulder. Over here is where I was fucking about with Kier as a kid and fell through a plate glass window. Ma shit bricks when she saw that one,” he replied, moving my hand from scar to scar over the roadmap of his body. “See? Not so perfect after all. Not like you.”
“I’m not perfect Tommy. Far from it.”
“Babe, I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. You’re everything,” he said, so confident and sure, it was impossible not to believe him.
If I lived to old age, I prayed I would never forget the look on his face as he stared down at me. Joy, wonder, contentment and love. It shone through his eyes like sunlight, and I basked in the warmth. Tommy thought me so smart, but I knew right then how ignorant I’d been. Sonnets, soliloquies, poems and novels. They’d all been a woefully inadequate and misunderstood education in love - something that only truly made sense when I felt it for myself. He was the culmination of the best books I’d ever read, brought to life in glorious technicolour. Not just because of who he was, but because of what he made me feel.
“I love you, Evelyn Danaher,” he said, placing my hand across his heart. I couldn’t control the solitary tear that slipped down my face, but it marked just how important the moment was for me.
“I love you too, Thomas Riordon,” I whispered. My eyes drifted closed as he leaned down to capture my tear with his kiss, his lips trailing a leisurely path across my jaw until they met mine. Weeks of pent-up desire exploded like fireworks inside me and what started out as gentle, quickly became intense and almost animalistic. Never in my entire life had I wanted anything as much as I wanted him.
My top was over my head
and quickly thrown to the floor, closely followed by my bra. Only a tiny scrap of black lace separated us, and when he dragged a calloused finger down the edge of my underwear, I couldn’t control the moan that escaped me.
“So beautiful,” he whispered to himself as he sucked my nipple into his hot mouth. It was the sweetest torture and I thrust against him uncontrollably, desperately seeking more. His fingers brushed over my clit in the barest of caresses and I arched my back so hard I thought it would break.
“Tommy,” I yelled, my fists clenching the covers of his bed in absolute ecstasy.
“I’ve got you, Evie. You feel so fuckin’ good,” he replied, his breath warm against my skin as he moved down my body. His broad shoulders held my thighs open, in the most vulnerable of positions. Had he waited a moment longer I might have felt embarrassed, but the second his tongue slid across the seam of my underwear, I swear my soul left my body. There was no other way to describe it. Hooking his thumb into the side of my panties, he looked up at me for permission. At my nod, he peeled them down my legs, and then I truly discovered what Heaven was.
Chapter Nineteen
TOMMY
My thumbs skimmed the outside of her thighs as I slid down her lacy underwear, and her body shivered with pleasure. I knew she was anxious, but she had nothing on me. I’d slept with more women than I could ever hope to remember. Done it in positions that probably ain’t even in the karma sutra, and yet I was so fuckin’ nervous my heart was beating out of my chest.
I knew what I’d found with Evie was precious and fuckin’ rare and there were plenty who’d get a kick out of breaking us up. The sort of arseholes who trolled other people’s relationships, constantly looking for the cracks to appear. Human nature was what it was. There’d always be people throwing my past in her face or sowing the seed of doubt in her mind about how faithful I’d be. So I had to save moments like these. Make a million more of them. Maybe then, when the time came, she wouldn’t doubt me. She wouldn’t doubt us.
She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Like a fuckin’ redheaded angel. Every kiss. Every touch. Every time she let me lay my hands on her, knowing I was her first, was a fuckin’ gift. For all my experience though, I was completely out of my depth. Fucking was like second nature. I was as good at getting a girl off as I was at fightin’, and that was saying somethin’. If you needed an expert guide to the G spot, I was your man. But this wasn’t sex, it was making love, and in that I was as much a virgin as she was.
Dropping her panties over the side of the bed, I looked up at her face in time to see her lip tremble. I knew how vulnerable she must be feeling, but I was going to change that. I vowed that one day, she’d lie before me naked, confident and happy and I’d know that I did it right. That I loved her so hard, she couldn’t help but love herself too.
She looked so fragile, lying there with her heart wide open. Her face a crazy picture of fear and arousal. But underneath all that I could see the trust in her eyes.
“Kiss me?” she asked, her voice sounding small and a little scared. Any other girl and I would’ve asked where? But she didn’t need my cocky, immature bullshit. She needed me to step up and be a man. Her man.
A year of dreamin’ about her, of imagining her laid out in my bed, and now there she was. I wanted to smash my lips against hers, thrust my tongue in her mouth and relieve the agony of wanting her so bad that some days I felt like I couldn’t fuckin’ breathe without her. But I wanted something else more. I wanted to see the look on her face when she came for the first time. I wanted her to know that everything we shared together was fuckin’ sacred and nothin’ like I’d ever done with anyone else. Sex felt good. But it was like scratchin’ an itch. It was cold and impersonal and fuck all like what we were doin’ with each other. Because I was about to give her a little piece of my soul in return for one of hers, and I’d do the same thing every time we were together. She owned me, and it was time I made sure she knew it.
“I’m all yours Evie,” I whispered, brushing my mouth across hers. Her hand caressed the back of my head as she pulled me closer. Laying down on my side, I rolled her into my arms, cradling her protectively as I nipped at her lips. Long, lazy kisses that had us drugged with lust. When my tongue touched against hers, I wasn’t prepared for her answering groan that vibrated straight through to my dick.
“Fuck, we need to calm this down baby. You are so fuckin’ hot and I’m about five seconds away from jizzing my jeans like some wet behind the ears teenager.” Not the most romantic thing to say, but I wasn’t lyin’.
“Nope,” she replied. “Jizz away. This kiss is too good to stop.” It was such an un-Evie thing to say that I chuckled. But when her tongue invaded my mouth, replicating the things I’d done, the connection between my brain and my balls was lost.
“Jesus H. Christ” I muttered as her exploration moved down my body. Her delicate little hands mapped every muscle of my torso, her tongue gently flicking my nipple as she became more confident. I willed myself to keep still, knowing she needed this as much as I did. But when she ran the palm of her hand along the length of my diamond hard cock, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Surprising her with my speed and strength, I flipped her onto her back, and raising one leg over my shoulder, settled my big body between her thighs.
“What are you doing?”
“This,” I muttered in reply, and flattening my tongue against her channel, I took a long, deep lick of her beautiful clit.
“Tommy!” she screamed, then bucked so hard I drew back in surprise. Just as her thighs clamped instinctively together, her knee rose to hit me full in the eye.
I grunted, as the shock of her bone making contact with my eye socket had me losing my balance and falling off the bed.
“Oh my God! Tommy, I’m so, so sorry. Are you okay?” Scrambling down to join me, she lifted my head into her lap as she checked my face for damage.
“Did the earth move for you too?” I asked, drawing a reluctant smile from her.
“Seriously, are you alright? I can’t believe I did that. I’m so sorry, I just...wasn’t expecting it. And, well it was so much more intense without my knickers on.”
“It hurts a little, but the view from down here is making me feel a whole lot better,” I replied, gazing at her gorgeous tits as they rested close to my face.
She rolled her eyes, and covered her breasts with her arm since I’d drawn attention to them.
“I’m sorry. I’m so bad at this,” she said, sounding disappointed with herself.
“No fuckin’ way are you thinkin’ that shite.” Slipping out from under her, I hooked my hands around her and stood as I lifted her in the air. She shrieked in shock as her pussy landed on my chest, and wrapped her legs around my back for support. Taking full advantage of the position, I covered the peak of her nipple with my mouth and sucked. Gently at first and then hard enough that I could feel the pulse of her core tightening against me. When she started to relax, I moved onto the other neglected breast.
I don’t think she even realised what I was doing as I gently lowered her onto the bed, until she was laid out once again. Her hair a shock of fire against the white bed. Her small, pert tits, shiny with the moisture of my saliva. Knowing how sensitive they’d be, I blew gently across them as I slid the tip of my thick, calloused finger inside of her.
“Tommy,” she gasped. She was so tight and wet I could only imagine how amazing it would feel when I was finally inside her. Hard and fast had always been my mantra, but having the patience to give Evie what she needed was the sweetest form of torture. Taking it slow and steady. Learning the feel of her body and what turned her on. How to touch her to make those hitches in her breath higher. It was the difference between having sex and making love. Getting my rocks off as quickly as I could was no longer my goal. I wanted to savour this. To learn what drove her mad, until I made her as addicted to my body as I was to hers. And I was totally addicted. The scent of her arousal; the noises she made. Know
ing I was the only man who had ever had that with her. It made me crazy. I could spend all day feasting on her body and never get enough. This girl was in my blood, and I didn’t want it any other way.
“You see this,” I said, reaching for one of her hands and pressing it against my cock. Fuck if I didn’t love tormenting myself.
“If it was bad, would I be this fuckin’ hard for you? Everything we do together has me burnin’ so hot I’m like the motherfuckin’ sun. Tonight is going to be epic. And I swear to God Evie, I’m gonna made you come so hard, after you’re gonna swear you can hear angels singin.’
“Now, in the interest of saving my sight,” I said, my thumb gently strumming her clit as the tip of my finger moved in and out of her slowly. “I’m giving you advance warning by laying out my plans step by step. First of all, I’m gonna eat your pussy, long and slow. Then I’m gonna use my tongue to tease your clit as I fuck you with my finger until you come so hard you see stars. After that, I plan on a little cuddlin’ if that’s alright with you. If you want me to stop at any time, just say the word and I’ll move back up to that gorgeous mouth of yours. Ain’t a single moment of pleasure in this for me if you ain’t with me all the way. Got it?”
She nodded, but I wasn’t sure she was giving me her full concentration. She was too drunk on the potent power of my magic hands. Giving her nipple one last goodbye, I moved my way down her body, tasting as I went. By the time I reached the promised land, I was as worked up as she was. Those breathy little moans doing a real number on my dick.
“Ready?” I whispered, blowing warm air over her already sensitised flesh.
“Yes!”
The flat, wet of my tongue streaked across her before the word had even left her lips. Her strangled cry music to my ears. A shiver ran through her body, and I couldn’t believe how responsive she was. But I didn’t let up. Not even an inch.
After that long, slow, slide I pulled back slightly. Licking tiny circles around her clit without actually touching it, I eased her closer and closer to the edge without pushing her over. From the rhythm of her body, I knew she was close. Her back arched and bowed with each undulation.
The Fire (Hurricane Book 4) Page 17
