by Gemma Weir
“No one is that bad a driver,” I laugh.
“I am,” she says earnestly. “Three out of the four accidents were where I hit parked cars. I have zero spatial awareness, I’m easily distracted and no matter how much I try, I just can’t ignore my cell if it rings. I am a menace behind the wheel, plus I live in town so my feet can get me anywhere I need to go and Uber and buses can do the rest.”
“But we live up the mountain, I’d feel better knowing you could get yourself home if I can’t take you,” I say almost to myself.
“Sweetie don’t worry about it, I don’t expect you to chauffeur me about, if we’re having a sleepover we’ll just do it at my place,” she says nonchalantly.
Tightening my grip on the steering wheel until my fingers go white, I try to keep the scowl off my face. “I’ll give you some lessons, get you driving again.”
“No you won’t, and even if you did there’s no way I’d drive the mountain road, it’s one thing clipping a mailbox because I’m not paying attention, it’s a whole different ballgame if I get distracted and drive off the road on the mountain paths,” she says with a shudder. “I’m happy down in town, plus it’s not like we need to spend every night together, you can just stay over at mine a couple of days a week so you’re not driving miles each day for no reason.
My teeth clench together so hard I’m slightly worried they might crack. “No,” I growl.
“What?” she asks lightly.
“No, that’s not gonna fucking work, I’m not gonna only see you a couple of nights a week, that’s not how things are between us.”
“We’ve been dating for less than a week, we don’t know how things are between us,” she shrugs, pulling her cell from her purse and glancing down at the screen.
I drive the rest of the way to the store in stilted silence, trying to hide my anger from the infuriating woman at my side. Pulling to a stop at the curb, I kill the engine and climb out despite her protests that she can open up on her own and that she doesn’t want me to be late for my shift.
Following her into the dark shop, I wait while she turns on the lights then makes her way to the small staff room at the back. Once we’re out of view from the large glass windows, I curl my arm around her waist and haul her to me, uncaring that I’m behaving like a growling neanderthal.
“Peaches, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret,” I whisper against her ear. “I’m not a two nights a week sleepover kind of a man.”
Her eyes are wide, but she’s not scared of me, or worried about me losing my shit, if anything she looks amused. “Maybe you should get used to it.”
“Never going to happen. I need you all night, every night, I want every morning, hell I want all day every day. I want you all the time, your ass in my lap, your wet pussy grinding against my dick. I want to steal you away and take you to an island so I never have to share you with anyone ever again.”
A tiny shocked gasp falls from her lips and she blinks as she stares up at me, finally starting to comprehend how insane I am when it comes to her.
“You’re mine. I don’t share, I plan to be selfish with you and I want you in our bed, in our room every night for the rest of our lives and I’ll do whatever the fuck I have to do to make that happen.” Not giving her an opportunity to argue, I take her mouth with mine, kissing her until her body melts into me and we’re both needy and panting for breath. “I’ll be back to pick you up later,” I tell her, then I leave, willing my dick to calm down the entire way to work.
15
Cora
I spend the whole day off kilter and shellshocked, suffering the after effects of hurricane Huck. Every word that comes out of his mouth manages to both compel and repel me at the same time. He’s made it obvious on multiple occasions that he is one hundred percent all in. But for some reason I can’t seem to stop provoking him and pushing back.
When his family mentioned me moving into their house like it’s a foregone conclusion, I genuinely thought that were messing with me, but now I’m not so sure and I have no idea how I feel about that. My apartment has never really felt like home, but moving in with a guy like Huck just seems stupid, especially after such a short amount of time.
I don’t like feeling this out of control. I like Huck, I enjoy being with him and he understands my body better than any man has before, but this is all going so quickly and although I’m not ready to turn and run in the opposite direction, I’m not ready to jump on the crazy bandwagon just yet either.
My day goes quickly, but instead of being engaged with my customers, I feel distracted and introspective. At six, I flip the sign to closed and turn the lock on the door, cashing up quickly before I tidy up and get everything ready. Tomorrow is my day off and I like to make sure everything’s in order for when my mom’s working.
Rushing to the bank, I make it just before they close, depositing the day’s takings before I go back to the store and restock the rails and take note of the things we’ve sold out of. It’s after seven when I push open the door to my apartment and find a furious looking Huck pacing the length of kitchen. “Where the hell have you been?” he snarls, turning his tumultuous gaze in my direction.
“At work.”
“I came by the shop, it was locked up and you weren’t inside. I rang your cell and you didn’t answer.”
“What time did you come by? I deposit the takings at the bank so I was probably there, then I went back and restocked the rails ready for my mom tomorrow,” I tell him calmly.
“Fuck,” he hisses, closing the distance between us and pulling me into his arms. “I didn’t know where you were and I freaked out.”
“You think?” I say dryly, lifting one arm and curling it around his back.
“Why didn’t you answer your cell?”
“I didn’t hear it,” I say, pulling away from him and reaching my cell out of my purse and finding the screen black, the battery obviously dead. “My battery’s dead, but really, what did you think had happened to me? We live in Rockhead Point, it’s not exactly known for its crime rate.”
“I don’t know. I don’t… Fuck,” pulling at his hair with his fingers he looks up at me with this lost expression, and for the first time it dawns on me that maybe he’s as overwhelmed by his feelings for me as I am by the way I feel about him.
“Let’s order in and just chill out,” I say, pressing my lips to his as I take his hand and try to guide him over to the couch.
“No, just pick out some clothes and then we can go home. I already packed you a bag so you just need to choose something to wear tomorrow.”
“Home?”
“Yeah, home.”
“Tomorrow is my day off, I have stuff to do, you can stay here tonight if you want, or we can have dinner and then you can go home, either’s fine,” I offer.
“Peaches, please don’t fucking do this now. I just want to go home, crawl into our bed and snuggle.” Huck sighs.
“It doesn’t make sense for me to stay at your place tonight, you have to work tomorrow and I don’t, I want a lie in and a lazy day, I can’t do that if I have to get up early so you can bring me home before you go to work.”
“Cora.” He says my name like a warning, but I don’t heed it, he’s being unreasonable.
I don’t get a chance to argue because a moment later I’m upside down, over his shoulder and he’s carting me into the bedroom, picking up my small suitcase and then carrying me out of my apartment and down to his car.
“Huck,” I shout, pounding at his back with my fists. “Put me down, you’re being an asshole right now.”
Ignoring me, he unlocks his car and unceremoniously drops me into the passenger seat, before leaning over me, clipping my seatbelt in place and slamming the door. Enraged, I unclip my belt and reach for the handle to let myself out, just as Huck climbs into the driver’s seat and locks the door, preventing my escape.
“What the hell is going on with you?” I demand, “I know you’re all jacked up on sex and testoster
one, but behaving like an asshole isn’t winning you any favors.”
“Baby, please just stop. It’s been a long ass day where I haven’t even had time to text you to see if you’re alright, then when I come to fetch you from work, you’re not there and you’re not answering your cell. I’m hungry, I’m pissed and I just want to take you home, so you can you please just stop making things difficult when they don’t have to be.”
His voice is restrained anger tinged with a hint of desperation, and without even realizing I’m doing it I find myself nodding and agreeing. Exhaling wearily, he starts the car and drives us up the mountain to his house.
We’re both still quiet and subdued when we pull up outside the house and I follow him inside while he carries the case he apparently packed for me. Reaching back for my hand he holds me firmly as he makes a beeline for his room, barely acknowledging his family that are congregating in the living space.
I catch Bonnie’s eye as we pass and she raises an eyebrow at me in question, but I just shrug and let Huck lead me into his room, closing the door behind us. He releases me once we’re inside, but only long enough to place my case on the floor in front of the closet, then he closes the distance between us and sets about removing my clothes.
Fighting him seems futile, especially when he seems to need to be close to me for some reason that I don’t really understand just yet. When I’m completely naked, he quickly strips off his own clothes, picks me up and carries me to the bed. Peeling back the comforter, he places me in the middle of the big bed and climbs in after me, circling me with his arms and holding me close like he hasn’t seen me in years instead of just a handful of hours.
When I don’t fight to free myself from his grip, he exhales slowly and his entire body relaxes, his arms encapsuling me more completely as I turn my face and rest my cheek against his chest.
“What’s going on?” I ask after a few minutes of silence.
“I really fucking missed you today.”
Shocked, I tip my chin back and try to catch a glimpse of his expression, only I’m too close and his eyes are hidden from me.
“Did something happen today?”
“No, it was just long and busy. It’s okay now you’re here with me,” he confesses softly.
I don’t really understand what’s happening. Huck is overbearing and demanding, he’s sexy and funny, but this desperation isn’t something I’ve seen from him before. This need he feels for me is enlightening, it’s startling and also kind of wonderful. He isn’t afraid to show me how much he wants me, how much he enjoys having me in his bed, his home, his life. He told me he was falling for me, but this is the first time that I can really feel what that means to him.
The Barnett boys don’t fall easy, but when they do, they fall hard… and Huck is falling for me. The question I need to answer is, am I falling for him? I barely need to think about it before the answer is obvious, it’s impossible not to fall for him.
“You’re a lot to deal with, you know that, right?” I whisper.
His chuckle vibrates through his chest. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m a peach.”
“Yeah yeah, you’re a real peach carting me out of my apartment over your shoulder just so you could get your own way.”
“You could just move in, then I wouldn’t have to kidnap you, we’d just go home.”
Sighing, I push my hands against his chest and lean back until I can see his face. “I can’t move in with you after a week, what happens in a month if we get sick of one another, or we fuck each other out of our systems. Why can’t we just enjoy getting to know each other?”
“It’d be easier to learn stuff about each other when we’re together all the time. Makes more sense to do that here in our bed, in our home than in an apartment you just exist in.”
“I’ll think about it, okay? No promises, but I’ll think about it. But no carting me off tomorrow night, I have dinner at my parents’ house.”
“We can eat, then come back here afterwards,” he says, assuming he’s invited, even though I know I haven’t asked him.
“I don’t remember you being invited,” I smile.
“Gotta officially meet the folks at some point, it’ll be easier them knowing I’m your man, than just telling them you’re moving in with me out of the blue.”
“I haven’t agreed to move in with you,” I warn.
“You will,” he says confidently.
Parting my lips, I start to argue but his mouth collides with mine, and I’m lost and found by him all in a fraction of a second. Unable to resist, I let myself drown in him, knowing that he’ll keep me afloat.
By the time someone announces that dinner’s ready, my lips are kiss swollen and I’m a relaxed puddle of mush naked in the middle of Huck’s bed. “I’m not hungry,” I pout when he tries to untangle himself from me.
“Come on, Peaches, we can eat, then get right back into bed and make out for the rest of the night.”
Yawning, I let him pull me up, then dress me in a pair of comfy shorts and a vest he pulls from the new bag he’s packed me.
“Moving all my clothes here doesn’t mean I’m moved in,” I scold him playfully.
“Just means there won’t be much left to move when you say yes,” he shrugs, pulling grey sweatpants on, leaving his chest bare as he coaxes me out of the room.
“Everything okay?” Bay asks when we emerge from the bedroom hand in hand.
“Yep, just a long day and I needed some down time with my girl,” Huck tells his brother as he leads me to the table and pulls out the same chair I sat in last night.
I slide in, gratefully taking the plate of pot roast Teddy passes to me. “This looks great, whose turn was it to cook tonight?”
“Mine,” Penn says, smiling flirtily at me.
Growling, Huck slides his palm around the back of my neck, the move possessive. “Don’t flirt with my girlfriend.”
Laughing, Penn holds his hands up in front of him. “I wasn’t, douchebag, I was just being friendly.”
“Then be less friendly,” Huck warns.
“Calm down,” I whisper, placing my hand on his thigh beneath the table.
“Penn,” Beau says in warning.
Penn sighs, then shakes his head before focusing his attention on his food and starting to eat.
“So how much stuff do you have at your place? We can use the truck from the garage and load most of it up tomorrow night if you want,” Teddy says.
“I’m not moving in,” I laugh.
“She doesn’t have too much stuff, most of the furniture can go into storage in the barn out back till we get our wing built,” Huck says, not looking at me, even though I’m glaring daggers at him.
“We need to sit down and start making the plans so I can start pricing up the materials, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t go ahead and do a wing for each of us, might as well get all the construction done at once and we’d end up saving on labor in the long run,” Cody says matter of factly.
The guys start talking about the renovations and I force myself to block out the conversation. Instead, I glance to my best friend who is sitting on the opposite side of the table to me, barely holding in a fit of giggles. “I want a guy to lose his mind over me, to want me all the time, to become the center of his universe,” she chuckles, repeating back to me what I told her on our girls’ night out. “Looks like you’ve got exactly what you wanted,” she winks.
Once dinner is over, and the guys have spent an hour discussing the merits of calling in a blueprint guy this weekend to discuss what they each want for their add-ons, or wings as they’re calling them, I’m yawning and ready to be curled up in Huck’s bed again. Noticing, he pulls me into his lap and presses a kiss just below my ear. “You ready for bed?”
I nod, yawning again and making him chuckle. “Come on then.” Scooping me into the air bridal style, he waves goodnight to his family and carries me back into his room. Neither of us bothers to talk as we undress and two mi
nutes later, I’m happily snuggled against his chest, not hating the idea that we could have this every night.
When I wake up the next morning the sun is bright in the sky and the bed beside me is empty. Blinking past the sleep in my eyes, it takes me a minute to remember where I am and why I feel like I’ve slept for fourteen hours straight. I grab my cell from where it’s charging on the bedside table beside me, and realize it’s almost lunchtime and actually have been asleep for over fourteen hours.
Yawning, I rub my eyes then refocus on my cell, seeing I have two messages. When I click into them, they’re both from Huck.
Bossy Elf – Good morning, beautiful, it was so fucking hard to drag myself away from you looking all sexy and rumpled in our bed this morning. I need to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life. There’re pancakes wrapped up in the fridge for you if you want breakfast, but help yourself to whatever’s in there if you want something else. Please spend the time exploring your new home and know saying yes to moving in would make me so fucking happy.
Sighing dreamily, I try to remember why I shouldn’t move in, but I can’t think of a single good reason. Huck has this way of just overwhelming me either with sex or emotion, or like today with want for the picture of the perfect life he’s painting for us. There’s a second message and I click into it, seeing that it’s only from about fifteen minutes ago.
Bossy Elf - **Picture** I couldn’t help but take a picture of you this morning. You looked like a fucking angel, naked, tangled in our sheets. But tonight, I want you naked and screaming my name
