by Cindi Madsen
She undid her ponytail and shook it out, and he continued to stare.
She heard every one of her thundering heartbeats, and right as self-consciousness started to seep in, Tucker stretched out his fingertips and swept them over her collarbone and down between her breasts. “Holy shit, Addes.”
“I know I’m not like, overly sexy or girlie, or—”
He cut her words off by pressing his mouth to hers. “You’re effortlessly sexy.”
She curled the bottom of his T-shirt in her hands, and he assisted with a tug to the back of his collar, pulling it up and over his head.
Then he drew her to him, the skin-on-skin contact enough to send the world spinning again. He moved his lips to her neck, kissing and sucking and driving her wild with desire.
She fumbled with the button of his jeans for a second, and he groaned as he sprang free of the tight fabric. His hands skimmed down to her butt and he boosted her in his arms.
They knocked into just about every surface on their way to the bed—counter, cupboard, table, chair—and then he laid her back on the bedspread and took another long look at her as he ran his hand over her stomach.
He reached around to unhook her bra, and when she felt the clasp give, she placed her hand on the center of his chest.
“It’s…it’s been a while,” she said, heat crawling up her neck and settling in her cheeks.
He covered her hand with his, his gaze catching hers. “For me too.”
She didn’t want to say it, but she felt like just in case this went wrong, she should put it out there. “I don’t think I’m very good at this. I might even need some practice. Think of this as, like, warm-up. Or preseason.”
Tucker gave her a crooked grin that held a hint of you’re-a-little-crazy. “Don’t worry. I’m good enough for the both of us.”
She smacked his arm. “You cocky—”
He cut her off with a kiss, his weight pressing her into the mattress. She moaned and arched against him, wanting more friction, more of his weight, more of him on more of her.
He arched an eyebrow as he toyed with the strap of her bra. She nodded, and he slowly slid it off her shoulder, dragging his fingers over her skin as he did.
The other strap received the same treatment, and then he tossed the bra aside.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, and when he spoke, his voice came out deeper and huskier than usual. “In case I haven’t made it clear yet, your body is insane. Like I said, effortlessly sexy.”
Her heart swelled, and he moved his lips over the fluttering pulse point in her neck.
“I’d say I’m worried this is all a dream, but I’m afraid you’ll pinch me again,” he said, and while she meant to come up with a clever retort, he began kissing his way down her body and words didn’t seem to matter anymore.
He slipped off her panties and put his mouth on her, and then she was adrift in a sea of bliss. He drove her right to the edge, torturing her for amazing eternal minutes.
She twisted her fingers in his hair and whimpered his name, a combination of a threat and a plea, and just when she didn’t think she could take it anymore, he finally gave her exactly what she needed to experience that euphoric free fall her body had been begging for.
As he rolled on the condom, all she could really do was make unintelligible mmm noises.
Tucker laced his fingers with hers, kissed her, and pushed inside her. For a moment they remained like that, breathing as one, basking in how perfectly they fit together.
Then he began moving, gradually bringing her higher and higher. She wrapped her legs around his waist, anchoring her entire being to him.
A shudder racked his body as he struggled to keep a grip on his control. Watching his powerful body move over hers, seeing the way every muscle flexed and tensed—it took her breath away, and now she was the one worried she was dreaming.
“This right here. You and me…?” He swept her hair off her face and locked eyes with her, providing a lifeline in the swirl of emotions currently overtaking her. “This feels right, Addie. More right than anything ever has.”
His words sank in, washing away her earlier concerns.
She was naked and underneath him, and it felt amazing and full of possibilities, and as he’d said, it did feel right.
She completely let go, crying his name as she let the incredible sensations she’d never experienced so strongly before wash through her, and he followed right after.
They’d crossed a huge line, but instead of it feeling like the end of anything, it felt like the beginning to something even more amazing.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tucker curled Addie onto his chest and ran his fingers up and down the line of her spine, basking in the glow of having her warm, naked body pressed against him and her smooth skin under his fingertips.
It’d taken him longer than usual to catch his breath, and he still wasn’t sure he’d totally caught it.
“You good?” he asked, knowing she’d feel better with a check-in.
Her eyelids drifted halfway closed as she smiled and sank her teeth into her lower lip, and he felt a hundred feet tall. “I’m amazing. You?”
“Also amazing. I do have to call you out on something, though. You lied.”
She lifted her head off his shoulder, her forehead crinkle in full effect. “Okay, I think your ratty old baseball hat is sexy as hell on you, even though I maintain the Saints logo needs to go.”
“And I’ll be fantasizing about you wearing those damn overalls, although I won’t bother with the shirt underneath. But I wasn’t referring to that. I’m talking about when you said you weren’t good at sex. You’re really fucking good at it.”
A blush crept across her cheeks, and she brought her hand to her mouth. “Yeah?”
“Hell yeah. Now that’s not to say I couldn’t use more demonstrations on how good you are at it. Just to, you know, make sure I can fully attest to it.”
“Oh? Are you gonna be my witness in court?”
“If it means bragging about tonight? For sure.”
She laughed. “I think you’re crazy. We both might be crazy.”
“And after sex that good, we should be.”
He dragged his hand down her back again. He was never going to get enough of touching her.
He guided her mouth to his because he was never going to get enough of that, either.
A canine whimper carried through the silence, followed by scratching at the door. “Looks like Flash’s patience for our alone time is up.”
Addie sat up, her hair mussed, holding the sheet over her breasts. “I still can’t believe you named your dog after one of my most embarrassing moments.”
“Can’t say as I’m sorry, considering it was one of my top five moments.” He tugged on the sheet, getting another peek, since he’d been in too much of a hurry earlier to get his fill. “A few minutes ago is number one, in case you’re wondering.”
She tugged the sheet back up. “What’s number two?”
“Flash pulling down your shirt. Three would be movin’ back to Uncertainty and seeing your legs sticking out from underneath that truck—totally countin’ that as one amazing day—and four would be passing the bar.”
“And five?”
“Not sure. Probably the other night on my boat.”
“I think you’re buttering me up.”
“No, but I like where your head’s at. Some people go for whipped cream and chocolate, but if you like butter, I’ll do whatever kinky thing you like.”
Addie rolled her eyes, but she was also fighting back a smile.
As if he sensed whatever was going on might leave him outside for even longer, Flash renewed his pawing and whimpering, putting more volume behind it, and Tucker reluctantly forced himself out of bed.
When he turned to
find his underwear, Addie was unabashedly checking him out, and it made him want to dive back in bed with her all over again.
While he’d tried to play it cool, a tiny part of him had been worried it might be weird afterward. Luckily they transitioned right back to friends, but with more ogling.
“If you want, I have ice cream in the freezer.” He took a few steps and then spun around. “Not that I’m opposed to dripping it over your body and eating it that way, but I more meant you could grab a couple of spoons and we could watch a movie or somethin’.”
“Well, my truck is back at the bar, so I guess I am sorta stranded. Might as well make the most of it and watch a movie with you.”
“I’ll take it,” he joked, and then he went to let Flash inside.
By the time he’d opened the back door and semi–calmed down his puppy, Addie had moved to the kitchen. She stood in front of the freezer, sheet wrapped around her like an extra-long toga as she peered inside.
Flash bounded across the floor, nails clicking against the hardwood as he went right for Addie. She’d reached inside for the ice cream, and with only one arm to secure the sheet and Flash sinking in his teeth and tugging on the other end, she didn’t stand a chance.
She squealed, and then she was standing buck naked in the middle of his kitchen area. An area that was way too small for everything he wanted to do to her.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” she said.
Tucker gestured toward the puppy, who was now happily fighting the sheet. “See? His name practically chose itself.”
She had one arm covering her breasts and the other covering his own personal heaven. “Some assistance, please. There’s naked and then there’s bent-over naked, and it’s way too soon for the latter.”
“I don’t see a problem with you just staying right there for a while.” He leaned a hip against the nearest wall. “I might suggest dropping the arms, though.”
She fired a dirty look his way, and he didn’t have the heart to tell her it was hardly effective while she was standing there with all that tempting skin on display.
He snagged his shirt off the floor, stepped over the best dog ever, and pulled it over Addie’s head. If she had to wear clothes, they might as well be his.
Bonus, it left her killer legs nice and bare.
“I’m starting to think it’s a conspiracy,” she said. “You trained him to do that, didn’t you?”
He gave her a crooked grin. “I plead the Fifth.”
The cold ice cream carton hit his chest and the drawer opened with a rattle of silverware.
Addie grabbed two spoons and they retreated to the bed, where he arranged the pillows against the headboard so they could face the flat-screen TV he’d recently installed on the opposite wall. He brought up the menu to order a movie and typed in Lake Placid to mess with her.
“That’s it, I’m outta here.” She acted like she was going to hurdle over him and leave, and he caught her around the waist and tugged her back to him.
“Wait. I was going for guaranteed clinging and cuddling, not fleeing.”
“What if I guaranteed those things if we don’t watch a movie with killer alligators?”
Tucker relinquished the remote, figuring whatever she picked, he’d enjoy. “Choose whatever you want.”
She resettled into the spot next to him and aimed the remote at the TV. “I feel so drunk on all the power.”
As she scrolled through movies, he dug into the ice cream. When the first bite was loaded with the mini peanut butter cups Addie mined for whenever they had Moose Tracks, he extended it to her.
Her eyebrows drew together, and then with a shrug, she leaned forward and ate it off the spoon.
“Was that weird?” he asked.
“Weird. Delicious. I kinda dig it. Saves me time from unearthing them myself and”—she patted his arm—“gives you something useful to do with these biceps. I was starting to worry you were strictly eye candy.”
Now he was the one rolling his eyes. “Stop or you’ll make me blush.” He ate a bite and extended the next one to her.
“So…” Her lips wrapped around the spoon, and he got lost in that for a second or two. “Since you know my secret fear, I think it’s only fair that you tell me yours.”
“I fear nothing,” he automatically said, puffing out his chest, and she tilted her head.
“At least tell me one of your secrets—something I don’t already know.”
That narrowed it down quite a bit.
He also didn’t want to say anything too deep or too real that would ruin the happy mood, and he searched his brain for a tidbit to satisfy her.
“I mentioned I love working with my hands and fixing up the boats…”
She nodded.
“Once in a while when I’m out in the shed, I wonder what it’d be like to do that to a whole house. To either take an old one and breathe new life into it or to build one from the ground up.”
That’d make it harder for someone to take away, too, right? Or maybe it’d leave him with more to lose, but he wasn’t going to think about that.
Part of him simply wanted to prove to himself he could do it. Then, sure, he’d love to plant a flag and claim it as his forever.
Addie picked up the hand not holding the spoon and ran a tingly line down his index finger and palm. “A house built by these hands? I have no doubt it’d be incredible.”
Her unwavering faith in him sent the zipping sensation from the center of his palm to the center of his chest.
He lowered his voice. “But I might need the tiniest bit of help while working on the roof—I’m not a fan of heights. My office had that nice view, and I couldn’t get too close to the windows or I’d think about cracking the glass and falling two dozen stories.”
She beamed at him. “Not to rub it in or anything, but statistically, gators are responsible for more deaths than people falling through office windows.”
“And where are you pulling these statistics? From your ass?”
“Possibly,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, I’ll give you some statistics that came from a reliable—if not as nice to look at—source. You’re way more likely to be attacked by a cow, horse, or some other mammal than a gator.”
“I’ll still take my chance with the cows, thanks. Now, stop hogging the ice cream.”
She reached for the spoon, and he quickly dug a bite out and shoved it in his mouth. But he offered her the next one.
A few minutes later, they were cuddled up watching a movie with gratuitous explosions over mini peanut butter cups, and he couldn’t speak for her, but he was experiencing the best slumber party of his life.
…
Gentle shaking accompanied her name. Addie clung tighter to the warm body she was wrapped around, not yet ready to let go or open her eyes.
“Isn’t that your alarm?” Tucker asked, and now she heard the familiar chiming sound that woke her every weekday morning, a good hour or so before she preferred to climb out of bed.
Addie nuzzled his neck, taking a moment to inhale the scent of cedar and musky cologne and all things Tucker. “Nuh-uh.”
“Funny…” The roughened pads of his fingertips dragged across her skin, waking up her libido as the rest of her body fought to stay asleep and immobile. “It’s not my alarm.”
“It’s cool,” she said. “My boss is super chill about me being late.”
“I thought he was an asshole.”
“Yeah, he is. An old school, misogynistic one at that. I made up the super-chill part so you’d let me sleep.” With a sigh, she stretched, gradually forced her eyelids up, and found herself peering into stormy blue eyes.
She ran her hand down Tucker’s scruffy face, enjoying the way his whiskers tickled her palm, and he gently pressed his lips to hers.
“Morni
ng.”
“Morning.” Gathering her strength and what little motivation she’d managed to summon up, she slid over him, planning on silencing her alarm and climbing out of bed. But then she felt his erection pressing into her, awakening all the places that were pleasantly sore from last night, and she only made it halfway off.
Or all the way on, depending how one looked at it. “Oh, um. You’re…”
He rocked against her, and she shuddered, bracing her hands on his firm chest so she wouldn’t fall right back to the mattress. “Yeah,” he said. “I woke up next to a hot naked brunette.”
A ragged moan escaped as he rocked against her again, and her oddly happy alarm still chimed out, now on to its loudest setting. “But we don’t have time for—”
He tugged on her arm, bringing their bodies flush together, and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth.
“Mmm, that is a rather compelling argument. Just a sec…” She scooped up her phone and tapped the screen. “You’ve got till the snooze goes off.”
The next thing she knew, she was on her back, Tucker’s delicious weight pinning her down. He peppered kisses across her jaw and her neck and then lavished attention on her breasts, while she arched against his hard length and grew hotter and wetter.
Tucker made quick work of a condom wrapper, and then he was moving inside her, hitting that spot that drove her crazy. It was fast and furious, intense and euphoric, and when her muscles tensed, her release so close, he reached between them and pushed her right over.
His orgasm came on the heels of hers, and for a quickie, she felt very thoroughly satisfied.
Chiming music rang out again, and she fumbled around for her phone and shut it off. She desperately wanted to sink back into Tucker’s embrace, but since she’d never have the strength to leave again, she forced herself to sit up.
Soft lips brushed her bare shoulder. “As much as I’d like to hop in the shower with you, I don’t think I could behave, so you go ahead, and I’ll make you breakfast.”
“If you feed me, you might never get rid of me.”
