This was another of those situations where Blue knew she was supposed to be offended that her man wanted to set ground rules with her male friend, but she just couldn’t find it in her to be. She’d never had anyone other than Rosie care so much about her. That was exactly what it was: care. He cared about her, about their relationships, such as it was, that he was going to go about things the me Tarzan, you Jane way. She could live with that.
She’d just have to have a talk with Neil afterward. At the same time, did Cort’s comment mean he was going to be sticking around? She wanted to ask, but… “If it makes you feel better, I wouldn’t want to know you’re friends with a former lover either,” she offered.
“You wouldn’t, huh?” There was slight humor in his voice.
“No. I’d want to claw her eyes out.”
“My little wildcat.” He laughed, nipping at her neck.
“Yes.” She was proud of that fact, but not that she was actually jealous of all the women he’d been with in her absence. She had no right to feel that way as it likely could have been prevented had she not walked away, but it didn’t stop the feelings from rearing their ugly heads when she put any thought into it. “You’re with me now so I don’t have to worry about going to jail for assault, and I’m guessing there are no old lovers of yours here in Blue Ridge, so we’re all good.”
“No, baby. You’re my only old lover. Current lover.”
Blue sighed, happy, she realized. She might not have believed in love before, might not have wanted to embrace it, might not have needed him to love her back, but now… “Future lover?” she asked, trying to keep things light and not betray emotions.
“Mmm-hmm.”
The relief she felt was more intense than she’d realized it would be. “Thank you.”
“For what, baby?”
“For coming back.”
Silence fell, and she closed her eyes. She was content in his arms, with him in her bed. She was content to simply exist in the moment where he was concerned. He’d hinted at more than this weekend with her, and that was enough. She wouldn’t push; she wouldn’t question.
“I couldn’t stay away,” he said quietly.
It was all he said, but it was enough for now. She had only had him back in her life for less than forty-eight hours, but she already couldn’t imagine not having him. That connection they’d experienced in Savannah was still there, stronger even. It freaked her out back then because one of the only people in her world who had understood and loved her unconditionally had just died. That night with Cort had been an amazing experience of living in the present, taking what was offered and giving the same in return. She realized now how special it was, had realized it as she’d watched Rosie fall in love over the last months, and instead of fighting it this time around, instead of freaking about it, Blue was ready to welcome it. It was time and she’d let him in. With him though, she really hadn’t had a choice and she didn’t want one.
Cort was the only person to ever make her question what she felt, what she needed, what she wanted, what was good for her. She’d always followed her gut. Back then, her gut told her to stay and soak up the comfort and warmth he offered, but her head had said she needed to run, that she wasn’t ready to be involved.
She laid a hand on top of his which was wrapped around her waist and squeezed. “Come on,” she said, sliding from under his hold and out of the bed.
“Where?”
“Just come on.”
“Okay. Let me get my jeans.”
“No. Trust me, just come with me.”
She walked around end of the bed and waited for him at the door. When he got up and joined her, she laced her fingers through his and led him down the hall to the front door. They walked along the path from her porch to the back of the big house.
“I feel kind of ridiculous walking naked through the yard. What are we doing?” he whispered as she continued ahead of him.
“It’s not ridiculous. It’s sexy, a little naughty too. And it’s a surprise.”
They got to the back door, and she opened it, wincing when it creaked on its hinges. She needed to get the WD-40 out on it, but then again, the creaking meant it was used often, just as the staircase was and how she loved that some of the steps creaked when you stepped on them in certain spots.
Once inside, they walked through the kitchen to the front of the house. There was a back passage of stairs leading from the kitchen up to the second floor, but some of the wood had rotted, and it wasn’t safe to be used yet. It was one of the last things to be fixed on her list. She was considering hiring Buck for that job.
“You’ll need to watch your footing. The steps are kind of shallow,” she said as they started up the staircase.
“Would a light be too much to ask for?” he mumbled.
She knew these rooms, the corners, the hall, the stairs so well that she didn’t need a light. She knew the layout of the house as well as she knew her own body, but after he stumbled a little, after they almost fell backward, and after he stubbed his toe, she was reminded that no one else knew it as well as she did.
He sucked his breath in, then hissed it out, stopping on the center step. “Goddamn, that hurt.”
“I’m sorry.” And she was. She turned and found his face with her hands, luckily without poking his eye out with her fingers. “I thought it would kind of be romantic, but I guess not. Next time, I promise, I’ll grab a flashlight,” she said as she leaned forward to kiss him. He sighed into her mouth and opened for her, meeting her tongue in the middle for a little duel. “Does that make up for it?” she asked, pulling back.
“A little,” he offered grudgingly but not without a smile in his voice.
“Okay, well, I’ll make it up to you even more once we get to our destination.”
“Is it close?”
She nipped at his lips. “Just about seven more steps up and about fifty steps down the hallway. I’ll go slower.”
“Thank you.”
True to her word, she did slow down to give him a chance to step sure. At the top of the landing, she took a left and led him to the front bedroom she’d been in with Neil earlier in the day putting sheets on the bed. She tugged him forward and left him standing beside the bed while she went to the French doors and opened them to let in the night air. The sheers she’d already hung blew gently as a light breeze swirled in.
She turned, and he was there, his hand in her hair, his mouth devouring hers. She responded to the kiss, sucking on his tongue as it entered, drawing a moan from him. He tightened his hold in her hair and walked her backward onto the balcony, stopping only because she was now pressed to the railing. He bent her back until the ends of her hair brushed against her ass and his cock nudged at the junction of her thighs.
She shifted her stance to accommodate them both, and he moaned his encouragement, bending against the front of her body, his chest hair scraping against her nipples, his cock finding its home against her wetness.
“Close your legs now,” he muttered into her mouth.
“But,” she protested, angling her hips forward, trying to nudge him inside.
“Trust me.”
She did. Completely. She knew him and knew he was all about pleasure when it came to sex, his and hers. He wouldn’t do something that couldn’t give them both the greatest amount of it. She closed her legs, and it forced the length of him between the lips of her sex. He thrust against her and slid smoothly in her wetness.
Blue whimpered as he lifted her slightly on her toes and she was able to slide on him. “Oh God, Cort.”
“See? Now aren’t you glad you trusted me?”
“Oh… yeah…” Her voice broke as a breeze blew between their bodies, tightening her nipples to prickling points. She gripped the railing at her back for balance and bracing while he kept himself pressed to her.
“How sturdy is the rail?”
She tried to wiggle it but knew it wouldn’t budge at all. “Very. Just…reinforced.”
> “Good. You want to come for me?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Then what are you waiting for, baby?”
“Permission?” Hell, she didn’t know what she was waiting for, and why she’d said she was waiting for permission, she didn’t know either. But she did want to come, needed to come. The smooth slide, the heat, the sweat beginning to mingle on their bodies, the friction between them… She was so damn turned on. Sex outside with him, naked, in her most favorite place…
“You’ve got it. Always.” He sucked on her bottom lip and lifted her higher until her bottom rested on the edge of the balcony. He thrust with her, pushed forward through her slick heat and drank her cry when she came all over him.
The kiss was ravenous, and her legs would have given out had he not held her up, had he not pushed upward, entering her, seating her fully on the rail. She gripped his hips with her knees and held on as he fucked her, pulling her completely into his arms, his weight. He turned with her, and took measured steps until he had her pressed against the wall of the house. His cock slipped and slid inside her as he walked. She started to say she was too heavy for him, too much weight for him to carry, but she didn’t. She wouldn’t question his strength when his muscles weren’t even quivering beneath her. His lean appearance belied a strength that turned her on more than she already was.
“Fuck, baby,” he gasped.
“Fuck, baby” was right. She’d had the idea to have sex in the bed, but this was so much better, more raw and hot. She nodded against his shoulder and nipped lightly before biting down on his flesh as another orgasm worked its way through her body.
She whimpered and tensed as it crashed into her, squeezing him and fluttering along her nerve endings. Her toes tingled, and she couldn’t do anything but let it take her, let him take her. He had her pressed hard against the wall, still thrusting, still fucking.
He stopped moving and laid his forehead against the wall.
“No, Cort, please…”
“C’mon, baby. We’re not done,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear.
He gathered her weight against him again and rounded the doorframe to get them back into the bedroom. He sat down the edge of the high top bed, and for once she was glad that the thing stood a few feet off the ground. It was the perfect height for him as he held her on his lap.
Holding onto her shoulders, she shifted her legs until she was straddling him on her knees. She pushed herself up, then slowly lowered herself down, taking him back inside to fill her. Inch by inch, she took him, wiggling and writhing as she settled back against his thighs.
“You can do better than that,” Cort said, laying back on the bed, pulling her with him. He angled his head up and to the side, lifting one of her breasts with a hand, wrapping his lips around the nipple.
Sensation swirled in her belly and down to her clit. The harder he sucked, nipped, and teased, the more she ground against him in an effort to ease the clawing ache.
She pressed her hands into his chest, leverage to lift and lower herself in rapid succession, riding him hard. There was no finesse to this round of sex anymore than there had been through any other round. She wanted him, and she wanted him this way: frenzied and frantic.
He switched breasts, positioning her other nipple at his mouth. He took the tip between his teeth and lightly bit down. Pain made her suck in her breath. Pleasure made her sigh and moan. He bit harder, and each time he did, he’d tease the offended area with strokes of his tongue, soothing her.
When he grabbed hold of her ass and started guiding her into the rhythm he needed, she followed his lead. He surged upward hard, taking her breath away with each thrust. She lurched forward until her arms were planted on either side of his head, her tits swaying above his face, her back arching as another orgasm, this one smaller but no less powerful let loose from the inside out.
Cort grunted and stilled, his fingers gripping the flesh of her behind, his cock jerking inside her as he filled her with wet heat and hardness. She collapsed on top of him, her legs bracketing his hips, her arms now wrapped around his and her face buried in his neck.
On top of him is where she liked to be. Hell, she liked to be under him too. Okay, so she liked being in any position with him, as long as they were together, naked or at least very close to naked. She licked at the salt of his skin before lifting off him to curl against his side. “These sheets are going to have to be washed again,” she said, exhausted.
“Probably,” he said through a yawn.
She stretched like a contented cat. “But it was worth getting them dirty.”
“Is this part of your renovation?”
“Is what part of it?”
“Having sex in all the rooms.”
Blue laughed and pinched his nipple before crawling up the bed to get under the top sheet. Cort joined her and she snuggled into his side again. “It hadn’t been part of the plan before but as long as you’re around and willing, I think it would be a wonderful idea. Most of these rooms haven’t seen any action in more than fifty years.”
“We should definitely remedy that, then.”
He yawned again and kissed the top of her head. She’d wondered if he was going to comment further on what she’d said about him being around, but she soon heard his breathing even out and the slight snore that she’d been hearing in her dreams for the last five years.
She lazily swirled her fingers through the smattering of his chest hair and closed her eyes, willing sleep to take her.
Chapter Eleven
“What are you doing here?” Rosie pounced with the question as soon as Blue walked through the diner door. “I’d have thought you wouldn’t surface until tomorrow at the earliest when Cort is supposed to start on your house, and even then I wasn’t sure.”
“I need pie,” Blue grumped, walking past the counter, heading straight for her favorite booth: the one in the back corner.
“Uh-oh. That’s not a good sign. Dare I ask what kind?” she asked, following close on Blue’s heels.
She slid into the seat and pulled her baseball cap down low over her eyes and buried her face in her hands. “Blackberry?”
“That bad?”
“’Fraid so.” She always chose blackberry when it was man trouble. And it was big man trouble this time.
“With or without whipped cream?”
She never had whipped cream unless it had to do with a man and sex. She was turning into her own cliché. “With. But on the side.”
Rosie sighed but had already turned to head for the pie case behind the counter. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
Blue nodded. The only time she ever ate pie was when she was hurting, sad, confused, or frustrated. It was also the only time she ever drank herself into a stupor. Like she’d done a couple of nights ago. Instead of turning to the wine this time, she’d headed off to the diner for Rosie’s blackberry pie. It wasn’t too sweet, wasn’t too tart, and Rosie’s pie crust was the best pie crust ever.
She wasn’t hurting or sad really, but she was confused and frustrated. She knew it wasn’t the best thing or the wisest thing to eat or drink emotionally. It was one of those gluttonous things people were always warned against, but sometimes the situation called for alcohol or pie. Heck, sometimes the situation called for both at the same time.
She looked around. The dining room was nearly empty for a Sunday afternoon, but the clouds in the sky might have something to do with it. They were due for another rainstorm, much as they’d had yesterday morning, much as they were predicted to have for the next few days. She wasn’t sure how the electrical work on her house would go if there was a possibility of thunder and lightning.
Though given that he was gone when she’d woken up this morning, she didn’t know if that meant…well, she didn’t know what it meant.
She looked up when Rosie set the pie down in front of her, then took the seat across the table from her. “You didn’t have to bring the whole thing. One slice would be fine.”
Blue picked up the fork and dug into the center. “You know there won’t be any left,” she said around the mouthful of sticky fruity goodness.
“That’s fine. I’ll make more.” Rosie dug into the pie as well. “So, out with it. What happened? You were with Cort last night, right? Cause Decker said Cort’s bed had been slept in, but he wasn’t there this morning.”
“Yeah. He showed up in the middle of the night.”
“And?”
“Got any coffee?”
“Dammit. You’re stalling,” Rosie huffed as she slid out of the booth. She returned with the coffee pot, two cups, and the pitcher of creamer.
“I’m not stalling. I just don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well that’s crap. You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t want to talk.”
“You know how when something is bothering you, I just kind of stand back and let you talk when you’re ready? Why can’t you do that?” Blue asked around another bite of pie.
“Because I’m the impatient one, and if I don’t badger you to talk, you’ll keep it all to yourself, just like you did for five freakin’ years about Cort.”
“There was nothing to say about it, then.”
“But there is now. Look, if I don’t bug you to talk to me, you’ll work it out in your own head, and I won’t ever know shit. Besides, you always make me spill everything.”
Blue looked up from the pie plate. Rosie was so full of piss and vinegar. In her own way, she was a caretaker, and the look on her face—part pout, part irritation—made Blue laugh. “I never make you do anything. I just wait until you’re ready. There’s only one person in this world who can make you do anything, and I’m not him.”
“He has no control over me.”
“Yeah, okay. Who are you kidding?”
“Just shut up and eat your pie.”
Blue did. Three more bites exactly. “He left this morning. He didn’t wake me. He didn’t leave a note. He didn’t do anything other than leave while I was sleeping.”
Forever in Blue Jeans Page 15
