by Em Petrova
His chest swelled with more love. The fact she understood him—and that he also came as a package deal—made his affection for her so much stronger.
She drew her against him tighter and wound his arms around her. She rested against his chest and listened to the conversation. The guys were talking about their families. In the field, they rarely had time to discuss anything about their personal lives, so it was good to catch up like this.
Talk turned to mommas, and Linc and Lennon started talking at the same time. Their wives laughed, and Edie said, “Twins.”
They said they’d seen their mother just weeks ago, taken her out to dinner and Lennon had done some yard work for her while Linc fixed her old clothes dryer.
“Gotta keep the women who raised us taken care of,” Jess said, squeezing Avery’s hand.
“Cav, when was the last time you saw your momma?”
He thought for a moment—and that meant it had been too long.
“Guess it’s been two months. She doesn’t live close, and I can’t exactly take off.”
A couple of the guys nodded.
Arielle sat up in his lap. “Then you need to invite her here to stay.”
“You’re right. I do.” He skimmed his knuckles over her arm, and she gave a small shiver. God, he loved all the little reactions she had to him.
Woody shook his head slowly, and Cav caught the action.
“What’s that about?” Cav asked.
“I never thought I’d see the day when Cav Wraggs was smitten by a woman.”
Arielle threw Cav a look, brow lifted.
“It’s true, Arielle. Cav here’s never been in love.” Jess grinned.
“And Arielle isn’t even jailbait,” Woody added.
“What?” Arielle’s exclamation had everyone laughing. Cav held her closer so she couldn’t scramble off his lap. “Are you telling me you’ve been dating really young women?”
“I think the last was sixteen,” Woody quipped.
“Now that’s a bald-faced lie.” Cav pointed a finger at him, a laugh on his tongue.
Arielle screwed up her face. “Just how old was she, Cav?” A teasing note came into her voice.
He dropped his gaze. “Twenty-one.”
“Dear God, you do like them young, don’t you?”
He gripped her waist so she couldn’t go anywhere. “I like you.”
“You guys are getting him into the doghouse,” Avery said, poking a stick with a marshmallow along the edge of the flames.
“No, really, Cav’s crazy about you. We’ve never seen him like this,” Jess spoke up, holding out his own stick and marshmallow.
Cav squeezed Arielle’s waist, feeling the need to be alone with her. “Let’s take a walk,” he rumbled.
Her gaze lit on him, eyes burning with understanding. She nodded, and they stood, hands linked.
Sully looked up. “Nevaeh and I are heading out soon, if you’re not back by the time we go.”
Cav walked over and held out a hand. Sully gripped it hard. “Guts and glory, man.”
“Guts and glory,” Sully echoed.
Affection welled in Cav’s chest. With Arielle at his side, he couldn’t be happier as they headed out along the trail. The air was warm and crisp with the pungent scent of pine and tree sap. As they descended the slope, the babble of the stream greeted them.
Suddenly, he turned to Arielle and plucked her off her feet. She squealed and anchored her arms around his neck. He carried her to the footbridge and settled her on the railing. Looking deep into her eyes, he said, “I can’t imagine not having you in my life now.”
She blinked up at him. “Oh Cav…”
“I mean it. It’s been a short time, but it’s like we’ve known each other always. I want you to know I’m in this for the long haul. I don’t want you getting scared and trying to run from me. I don’t think I could live with that.” His voice broke with emotion.
She cupped his jaw in her soft hand and smoothed a thumb over his cheek. “I made up my mind last night that I’m in it too. I won’t walk away, though I might get scared at times.”
“We’ll face everything together, right?”
She drew him down for a kiss. “Together.”
Her sweet taste seeped into his head, and he growled, deepening the kiss. The fire of desire fanned over him, making him remember the night he’d fingered her ass and how excited she’d been at the unexpected invasion.
His woman was more adventurous than she let anyone see on the surface. She wasn’t an all buttoned-up schoolteacher.
He tore his lips away. “Damn, I wish you had on one of those sexy pencil skirts you wear.”
She giggled. “Is that a turn-on?”
He nodded slowly. “I have a fantasy of bending you over and taking your ass.”
Her eyes popped wider. “My… Oh my.” Her words ended on a breath.
“Come on.” He pulled her down from the railing and let her slip to her feet. Then he took her by the hand and circled around the trail, angling them toward the back of the cabin where they wouldn’t run into any of the others still sitting out by the fire.
He took her in through the back door and locked it. Twisting to her, he yanked her into his arms.
“Cav!”
He swept them off to the bedroom, closed the door and locked it as well. He started with kissing her, long and slow passes of his tongue through her mouth that soon had her boneless in his hold. Then he gently lay her on the bed and began stripping her.
She reached up for him.
“No, I’ll take off my own clothes—I won’t allow you to do any of the work, only feel.”
Her lips fell open on a quiet moan. Once they were bare, he reached for his bag. In the bottom, he’d stowed away a just-in-case-things-get-frisky kit. He held this up.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Lubed condoms and an extra tube of lube. For…” He cocked a brow in question.
Her breaths came faster, breasts rising and falling with each inhalation. “For my ass.”
He nodded. His cock bobbed on his abs at the very thought of getting inside her virgin ass and giving her a whole other level of pleasure.
“What do you say, baby?” He watched her face closely, prepared to abandon the idea if she gave the slightest hesitation.
To his shock, she pushed onto her elbows and rolled onto her stomach.
Jesus.
He had to clench his hands into fists to keep from grabbing her and sinking into that round ass of hers right this second. But she needed warming up, and he couldn’t wait for that as much as the final taking.
He slid the condom in place to get the task out of the way and knelt over her. Beginning at her neck, he kissed her, moving aside her hair to taste the most delectable spots. He slid down her shoulders and from one side to the other, pressing soft kisses to each location. Then he began to massage her back, finding any tight spot and spending several minutes loosening them before moving on.
By now she was arching up to meet his touch, and he was aching for her. If he glanced down at her ass, he’d blow his load, so he kept his gaze riveted on the body part he was paying attention to.
He stroked each arm to her fingertips. Her fingers lay curled on the sheets, and her eyelashes brushed along her cheekbones.
As he continued to explore, he grew more aware of how much he loved this woman. Leaning in, he kissed her spine. She sucked in sharply and writhed under his lips. He quickly spread those kisses along the curve of her ass cheeks, one then the other.
“Cav…” Her plea was evident in her voice.
Grasping her by the inner thighs, he spread her to him. Kneading her inner thighs up to her soaking center. When he slipped two fingers into her channel and pressed down on her clit simultaneously, she rocked onto her knees.
The view of her pink slit and the pucker above that he planned to fill soon was driving him fucking crazy. Juicy noises of him fingering her combined with her throaty cries. The sou
nds grew in strength till he knew she was about to come.
“That’s it, baby. Take it.”
She stiffened and then thrashed backward, taking his fingers to the knuckles while her body clamped down on him, almost sucking on his digits with each pulse of her orgasm.
A low groan escaped her lips, and he added one of his own. Taking her down nice and slow, still brushing her quivering clit and finger-fucking her with deliberation, he kept her on a high and needy for more.
She shook and pushed backward.
He took that as his cue. Grabbing the lube, he squirted some onto his finger. With his fingers still buried in her pussy, he strummed the outer rim of her ass. At first, she tensed but soon was bucking for more.
That was when he added a fingertip. Guiding with ease through the well-lubed opening and then sinking inch by inch till he filled her with one, then two fingers.
With each withdrawal, he spread her farther, giving her time to grow accustomed to his invasion, because soon she’d be filled with his cock.
Fuck, it was the ultimate turn-on to take what she’d never given another. And at the same time, he was losing himself in her pleas not to stop. She was owning him right back—and probably more.
She twisted her face on the bed, cheek pink. “Cav, I’m ready. Please, just…”
He knew how to satisfy the lust in her voice but he took a bit longer to tease her into a frenzy. Only then would he breach her.
And when he did, he knew he would never even look at another woman.
* * * * *
By the time Cav pushed a pillow beneath her hips and drew her ass up in the air, she’d stopped worrying about pain of what was to come. She was so ready, primed by his fingers and her orgasm, that she was shaking with need.
His grasp on her hips was driving her crazy. Rocking, she gave a little mewl of desire.
When she felt the swollen head of his cock running over her pucker, she gripped the sheets in anticipation. He ran it over and over, till she was about to take matters into her own hands.
He settled the tip at her entrance, applying pressure. “Okay, baby. Bear down on me.”
She did, and he slid in much easier than she’d ever imagined. A low rasp tore from him, and she added one of her own in answer.
“All right? Am I hurting you?” He sounded as though he had a noose strangling him.
“No. It’s just… fullness.”
“Not pain?”
“No.” In fact, the pressure was growing too much for her, and she had to move. With a test swish of her hips, she pulled him all the way inside her.
“Holy fucking hell,” he ground out, fingers digging into the flesh of her hips. He went dead still, but she would have none of it.
She moved again, forward this time so his cock slipped out.
“Christ. Baby… I want to fucking pound into this sweet ass of yours, but I’m going to let you move and do what feels good to you.”
She wished she could see his face right now, and the self-control gripping the hard man of action, but she soon stopped thinking at all with every twitch of her hips, taking him shallow at first and then deeper, till she was dripping wet and on the edge of something so monumental she couldn’t even breathe.
Her body shook. The bed shook. Cav’s unearthly growls rumbled through her.
“Fuck, baby. I can’t. I’m gonna.” His sentences stopped short, but she understood because she was… she was…
She came harder than ever before. Her ass clamping around his cock and a scream leaving her as her release hit.
Liquid warmth flooded her, and she knew by the way he grabbed her up around the waist and pulled her into his body that he had given up trying to hold back too and was pumping cum into her.
He reached under her and pressed down on her clit. The second release hit out of nowhere.
* * * * *
Cav’s mind zeroed in on everything his beautiful woman was feeling as she drenched his fingertips and contracted around his cock. He couldn’t resist adding a finger to her pussy.
A sharp rasp left her, and she went wild, coming for a long minute in what he hoped was a triple orgasm, the trifecta guys talked about wanting to give their ladies but he never had gotten the chance—or wanted to with any other woman, for that matter.
But if he could give Arielle more pleasure than even this, he would damn well attempt it.
She collapsed, and he remained bedded inside her ass for only a moment before slowly drawing free. He swirled his thumb over her clit, though, and she gave a final jerk.
“Cav!”
He rolled her over and claimed her mouth this time, still panting from his own mind-numbing orgasm and the high of giving her several.
She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, breaking the kiss and resting her head on his chest. “I can’t… I don’t even know how to process what just happened to me.”
A grin spread over his face. She opened her eyes and then responded with her own.
“Does that mean I get to do that again?” he asked.
She pinched him. “If you don’t, then I’ll be really mad.”
He chuckled and seconds ticked by with them just enjoying each other’s arms.
“The guys love you,” he said. “Not that I had any doubt they would.”
“I know they’re like your brothers and it’s important to you that they do. I like all of them as well—and their girlfriends and wives are amazing. It makes me think…”
She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. He waited a moment and then prompted her to continue.
She met his stare. “I just realize how women are dragged through the trenches along with their military men. And that maybe starting a support group could benefit some of us. But of course, the invitation could be extended to all spouses of those whose loved ones have dangerous occupations. Firefighters, police officers…”
He nodded slowly. “I know Jess worries equally about Avery being in law enforcement as she does about him. Your idea is a really good one.”
“It could start with just weekly sharing and having a list of numbers to call if we’re really in need of support. But we could do things together as well—have fundraisers to keep busy or—”
He silenced her with a swift kiss as she got started on a tangent. “Not too busy. You overschedule yourself as it is, baby.”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “That’s true, but there’s merit in staying busy and having friends to do things with. But don’t worry—you’re important to me, Cav, and I want to spend as much time with you as possible.” To prove the truth of her words, she wrapped her arms around him and held him close.
Drawing her tight against his chest, he breathed in her sweet, feminine scent and held on to the moment.
Chapter Nine
Returning to her routine of waking early and teaching would have been easier if Cav hadn’t spent the night at her house with her. At the sound of her alarm, Arielle didn’t want to leave the warm cocoon of his arms. But after she showered and dressed, she entered the kitchen, thinking to grab her travel cup of coffee and go, but found Cav wearing only old sweats, his carved back to her as he scrambled some eggs.
She risked being late and sat with him to eat. And his kiss goodbye as he saw her off melted her that much more.
Monday mornings were difficult enough, with unruly kids and a long week of lessons ahead of them, but she put her energy into raising spirits and sandwiching knowledge between silly puns and stupid jokes.
She had a period of lunchroom duty, watching out for fights and making sure nobody sneaked off to the bathroom without permission. As she strolled through the aisles between lunch tables, she caught bits of what kids talked about.
Not much new—the girls’ tables talked about boys. And the boys’ tables talked about girls and sports.
She smiled to herself, thinking nothing could be as rewarding as being a teacher, and here in Rose too.
Jason approached, and she sm
iled in greeting. She hoped he and Sarah didn’t fall out—it would make for a really awkward work situation for them both, and she’d hate to see either leave the school for that reason.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked him.
“Did you hear the museum trip might be back on?” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his Dockers.
Surprise drew her brows upward. “No. What happened to persuade the board to consider changing their minds?”
“It was the history staff. They said this trip is a rite of passage as much as an educational trip. They’ve got the board members sitting on the fence about giving the go-ahead.”
She grinned. “That’s fantastic. I remember going as a teen here, and you’re right—it was something to look forward to and a dear memory too. Any word on when we’ll know for sure?”
He shook his head. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you and Sarah know.”
She smiled wider, knowing he wouldn’t mention Sarah if things weren’t going well. “I’ll do the same for you if I hear anything.”
He nodded and walked off at the sound of raised voices coming from one side of the room. She continued to revolve through the room, and a conversation stuck out to her.
Ears pricking up, she moved toward the two boys seated at one end of a table. Without standing too close, she was able to overhear what they were saying.
“They’re saying we might have the school trip to the museum. But if they’re smart, they won’t,” a kid named Jordan said.
His buddy Heath screwed up his brows. “Because of what you told me about the…” he lowered his voice a notch, “bomb?”
Jordan nodded. “They don’t think I’ll do it right this time, but I will.”
Her blood turned to ice. Inching a step closer, she purposely looked in another direction as she listened closer.
“They’re lucky only those hikers got it. Next time I’ll make sure nobody walks away from this crappy place.” Jordan’s voice was cold and sterile, detached in a way that had her heart sinking even lower.
That event couldn’t be something a child could mastermind. But if he had resources—family members who knew how to make bombs and enough anger built up… well, she couldn’t ignore this.
