"That one. I haven't looked into costing it, and I'm not sure how it would work with the rest of the house, but what if we made the doors into the courtyard the feature?"
Fiona pushed her glasses up her nose and steepled her hands on her desk. "I'm listening."
Rex was already home when Alannah pulled into her driveway. His car was parked at the curb, halfway between his parents' house and her own as it had been every night. From the outside, the buildings looked unoccupied. But there was some kind of electricity in the air, something that told her without question that he was home—in her home—and her body responded to the energy like she was a bloodhound picking up his scent. A shiver ran down her spine. You can't drool over him like that, she told herself firmly. Get a grip on yourself.
Stalling, she slipped off her high heels and stockings before climbing out of the car barefoot. Shoes in hand, she surveyed the vegetable garden, which seemed to have sprouted overnight. This year, as usual, she was faced with a crop of tomatoes she couldn't possibly consume alone. Perhaps, Al mused as she collected the hose and began watering, she subconsciously planted too many as a push to find someone to share them with her. She'd cooked for Harry hundreds of times, but he didn't love food the way Al did, the way her mother had. When she mentioned she needed to harvest the enormous crop that her small patch miraculously produced, he saw it as a landscaping challenge rather than something to be shared with those one loved. Al and her mother had spent countless afternoons sharing the task of picking tomatoes. They prepared them together too—drying some, pickling others, cooking more into quiches and pasta sauces, and eating, always eating as many as they brought inside. Their garden, as their kitchen, was a place of solace and solidarity for the Green women after the death of Alannah's father. Once, when Al asked why they'd placed the vegetable patch by the footpath instead of around the back of the house, where their crop couldn't be pilfered, her mother had given her a long look then a short shrug. Her thoughtful gaze belied her purposely casual tone when she said, "If anyone needs to steal vegetables, my love, they'd best have ours, since we can spare them."
Looking back, she could count on one hand the number of times she and Harry had worked in this garden together, even after she'd tried to explain what it meant to her. "I just don't see it the way you do, Allie," he'd said, not unkindly. That was the first year after her mother's death, when she had neglected the watering, and the vegetables she and her mother had kept alive year after year withered away. Manual labour was a nine-to-five job for her former fiancé, not a way to share affection. He would help her mulch and prune if she asked, but it was clearly done as a favour, not because he wanted to be part of it.
She would miss her little patch when she left. Maybe she could ask the real estate agent to find a tenant who would keep it for her or at least collect seeds so she could replant when she came home. If she ever came home. Or, if she found a new home elsewhere, she could start another garden there.
With a strange shifting in her chest at the idea, Alannah left the hose coiled by the tap and let herself into the house. "I'm home," she sang out, feeling foolish.
"Over here," Rex's voice called back, and Al rounded the wall to find him sitting in the living room with a book abandoned on his lap. He was looking out over the garden toward the slowly setting sun.
"When I was designing the house, the other architects I talked to said it was silly to have this many west-facing windows," Al found herself admitting, trying to tamp down on the part of herself that purred electric shocks down her spine at his presence. "I love the view, though, how it opens up the whole house to the light. And if a family with kids lives here someday, it'll be good for the parents to be able to see the garden from anywhere on this level."
"Not sure the kids would be too keen on that," Rex said. "Remember when your mum found us playing Aztecs, and you were the priestess sacrificing me to the sun god? She thought you were attempting some kind of satanic ritual on me."
"The night is young. Don't tempt me." She looked out toward the bright sunset to avoid making eye contact as a blush spread across her cheeks. Or… do. Do tempt me, because more than anything, I want to say yes. "How was work today? Awkward with your mum dropping by?"
He barked out a laugh. "Yeah, a bit. I like the work, though. I don't think I realised how much I missed using my hands like this. Building things."
"I know the feeling. I get it from cooking, in a way. Creating something." Distantly, Al wondered whether this would be the time to lay all her cards on the table. To mention that she was soon leaving Shepherd's Creek. That she'd harboured half a hope in the back of her mind that Rex's choosing to stay with her might mean he felt the same attraction she did. That he was open to exploring it, even if only for a short time. The possibility had an ache stirring in the pit of her stomach.
Instead, she said, "One of my favourite parts of my work is seeing something that I helped create come to life."
Rex turned away from the view. "Helped create? Don't sell yourself short; you come up with the plans."
"That's not all of it, though. Sure, I put ideas down on paper for someone, but I don't come up with all of it myself. It's more collaborative than that. I'm helping to turn someone's ideas into something concrete, something real. A school, an office, a home, I get to be part of it, but it's far from all me."
"I think that's pretty fucking special." Rex's gaze, now trained on Al rather than the view, made emotion unfurl in her stomach. "Look what you did with this place. It's beautiful, and it's all you."
"We'd make a good team, then," she murmured, focusing so hard on the sunset that her eyes started to water. "I'll plan. You build."
They fell silent for a long moment, and though she could feel him still watching her, Alannah shifted her gaze between her garden and the lit-up sky. When he shifted to stand behind her, watching the sunset over her head, she felt his proximity like fingertips tracing down her spine. The heat of his body had her skin humming, and he seemed to have once again used up all the oxygen in the room, because her breath was coming fast and shallow.
"Al," Rex said, quietly enough that the golden stillness lingered over and around his words, not breaking, "the other night—"
"We don't have to talk about it," Al said, not daring to move for fear of breaking the moment. "We can just pretend it didn't happen."
"I don't want to." She felt him heave in a deep breath. "I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. Shouldn't have touched you like that. I'm sorry I upset you."
"What?" Stunned, Al turned, finding her face just inches from his. "You didn't upset me. I, well, I upset me."
His eyebrows pulled together. "You ran, Alannah. You ran away from me."
"I was embarrassed. What we did, I didn't… that wasn't normal for me."
"And you didn't like it?" he asked.
"I came on your leg, Rex. I think I made it pretty clear I fucking liked it." Her cheeks heated further and she dropped her eyes, unable to maintain his gaze any longer. "I was just… it wasn't you, okay? It was me. I felt… dirty."
One finger caught her chin and forced it back up. "Hey, look at me. Did I make you feel that? Did someone tell you that?"
She nodded almost imperceptibly, scrunching her face in an attempt to keep the tears filling her eyes from spilling over. "Wasn't you. Someone else. I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh, baby." Rex closed the distance between them, holding her to his side in half a hug that allowed her to keep watching the view, as though he knew she would break down from even a hint of eye contact. "I'm so sorry. Whoever did that—I'm presuming a man?" At her nod, he continued. "Whoever it is was a fucking idiot."
"You don't have to say that," Alannah whispered.
The one-armed hug fell away, leaving her blinking up at him as he turned her body so it was aligned with his. "Don't I?" He gripped her hips and tugged her closer, and she stifled a gasp at the sudden contact with his hardness, so hot even through their clothes. "I've been l
ike this for fucking days, Alannah. You made me so hard, and I can't get you out of my head. Every time I see you, it just gets worse, because I already knew that ass was a dream, and now I know how hard you like it slapped before you start to come. Nothing but you can take this ache away." He paused, breathing hard. "So say it again, Al. Say I don't need to tell you that anyone who had the chance to make you come like that and chose to make you feel dirty for wanting it was a fucking idiot."
Heat throbbing between her thighs, breath coming in gasps, Alannah stretched on to her tiptoes and stamped her mouth over his. His kiss was rough, claiming, one hand tangling in her hair, the other yanking her close as he backed her against the floor-to-ceiling windows. She felt a shiver roll outward from her core, shuddering up her spine and undulating her body in his grasp. Rex growled low in his chest, and her thighs clenched.
"Got any other naughty secrets you think will turn me off? Think that's enough to make this go away?" As he held her gaze to him with the hand in her hair, Rex gripped her hip and ground himself against her, the heat of his erection through their clothes making her gasp in another breath. Her face tucked against his neck, and the scent of him intoxicated her. He would fill me so perfectly, she suddenly thought. I want him inside me.
"Don't want it to go away," she gasped between planting kisses up the side of his throat, tracing a line down his neck with her tongue. "Just want to make it better. Tell me how to make your ache better, please."
"You want to know how to make it better? Me too, sassy girl. I've been fucking my fist to thoughts of you all week, and I'm still aching. Hard as a rock every time you cross my mind." He finished on a slow grind that pressed his length up against her core, and Al felt her hips start to quirk forward and backward just slightly.
"What are you doing there?" Rex asked, voice hoarse as sin. "Trying to grind that sweet little clit on my cock, Alannah?"
"No. Yes." She bit her lip and did it again.
"You want to work out this stress on my thigh again, don't you? How badly do you need it? Have you been playing with that pretty cunt for me all week?"
"No," she tried to say, but it came out like a whine, a pleading moan, and she avoided his gaze as she added, "I wanted to, but I couldn't. Not on my own."
"Did you need me to do it?" Rex asked.
This time, her moan was affirmative, punctuated by sharp nods as he bit lightly at the sensitive skin of her throat.
"Yeah, you did. Three feet away from me on the other side of the wall, working for the orgasm that I earned? Not a fucking chance you were going to take that from me. It's mine."
He stepped back, leaving Alannah momentarily cold from the loss, but she flashed lightning-hot again when he dropped to his knees and shoved up her skirt. He peeled her soaked panties away from her skin, and Al was so desperate for his touch that she didn't protest when he positioned one of her legs over his shoulder so he was inches from her centre.
He nipped at her inner thigh. "Glad you took off those stockings, or I'd shred them with my fucking teeth. Nothing keeps me from this."
"Rex, please," she sobbed, desperate. "I need it. I need you."
She'd never had his mouth before, but when his tongue darted over her, it felt like a homecoming. He rolled his tongue over her clit, and the noise she made could hardly be described as human. "Oh God, oh God, oh God."
Rex raised his head and that wicked grin was back, his teeth flashing white as her wetness dripped off his chin. "He's not here, honey. Just me."
He spread her for his tongue once more, a hard suck that ended with her hands tangled in his hair and more shouted prayers echoing in her ears. When his fingers entered her, she clamped down, clenching around the invasion she hadn't realised she was craving.
Rex bent his fingers to stroke deep. "You want to call out someone's name," he growled, "you better keep to mine."
She was going to come. She could feel it building, hard and loud and unmanageable, a ripping-out-his-hair kind of orgasm that would echo around her body for hours. "Rex—"
"That's better," he growled against her skin. "Think you could run away from this because you like a bit of pain with your pleasure? Bring it on, baby. I'll show you what dirty really feels like."
"I'm going to—"
"Yes," he grunted again, and the vibrations of the word pushed her over the edge.
Fireworks. She'd heard about fireworks, the kind of orgasms that rocked your world and left you shaking, but she hadn't ever felt them before.
But this. This was something entirely different. Rex still had his head between her legs, his fingers inside her, like he was petting her as she calmed, leaving kisses on her shaking thighs. She gently untangled her grasp from his hair, stroking down the mess she'd made of it. When he withdrew his fingers, the drag over her swollen walls brought another guttural moan from her lips. He stood and gathered her close, his arms wrapping around her shoulders and holding her spent body tight against him as she came back to earth.
"Holy shit," she managed, boneless and breathless. "Holy shit, Rex."
"You can go back to calling me 'God' any time." He smiled into her hair.
She elbowed him, to no effect since he was still holding her against his chest. "Just give me a second."
"Take as long as you like. We are due next door in twenty minutes, though."
Alannah's spine seemed to suddenly solidify once more, and she jolted backward. He allowed her a brief moment of distance before bringing her back to him, bringing her up against his still-throbbing dick, and their moans mingled in the space between them. Rex tugged her closer and kissed her, gently this time, in contrast to the pressure of his erection against her centre.
"Do we have time?" Al asked, quirking her hips against him once more.
"For this?" Rex gave her one hard thrust then pulled back again. "In twenty minutes? Not even close. Once I get inside you, baby, I'll be there until you can't walk."
"Won't you be hurting all evening?" She wrapped her arms around him once more, drawing him close so she could rub against him.
"Yes, goddammit," he ground out.
"I could use my mouth." Al heard the pleading in her own voice, felt the rush of need to take away his ache the way he'd calmed the storm of her own. "Please, I'll be quick, I promise. I don't want you in pain."
"Fuck, Alannah." Neck cording as his muscles bunched, Rex dropped one hand to squeeze his bulge. "You can't talk like that. It's been too long. I'll embarrass myself."
"I want, I-I want—" Al stammered.
"You'll get it." At odds with the storm of newly roused need in her body, Rex dropped a kiss on her forehead, keeping his face close to hers so she couldn't escape his gaze. "It's all for you, baby. I'll hurt like a motherfucker waiting, but that just means I can take the frustration out on your ass later."
Woosh. Faster than she could think, heat raced along Alannah's nerve endings like a grass fire at summer's end. Her thighs trembled, and he shifted his grip to her ass, big hands squeezing just tightly enough to teeter along the line between pleasure and pain.
"Holy shit," she breathed again.
"You like that, baby? Like the idea of keeping me in suspense all night for this body?" He squeezed her ass again and groaned. "Got a dirty little tease under these good girl clothes, haven't you?"
"Yes. Yes, I want that."
"Good." He heaved in a breath, loosening his grip on her and hearing her quiet moan of pleasure in reply. "Christ. Do you mind giving me a second? I need a few minutes of not looking at you all sweet and satisfied before I can face my family."
Alannah leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek before she floated away.
Given that he had actual experience being in a war zone, Rex wasn't sure he should describe dinner with his family as hellish. But then, he hadn't been fighting an erection in front of his relatives on deployment.
If he'd known when he stopped censoring his speech in front of Alannah that she'd take to heart the comment about k
eeping him in suspense… well, he still wouldn't have censored himself, but at least he'd have been better prepared. Prepared for the sight of her after she'd changed from her work clothes into a soft yellow sundress, hair curling around her shoulders, staring at him with her expression going soft when she didn't know he was paying attention. He'd spent a good ten minutes thinking about rotting fish and calculus in an attempt to deflate his excitable dick, and she'd undone it all in the instant she took his offered hand as they walked out the door, Alannah holding an enormous container of chocolate chip cookies.
"How did you know to bake these before tonight?" he asked. "I messaged you as soon as Mum invited us over."
"Oh, I was inspired to do some baking the other night," she said, blushing and avoiding his eyes, but then they were at his parents' door and his mother was there, so he couldn't push for more.
Jared and Ivy had already arrived, and Rex had to admit he didn't expect the easiness between the two of them and Alannah. It was easy to forget that he'd been gone for eight years—that Al had relationships with the rest of his family that spanned the time he'd been away. They probably knew her better than he did at this point, biblical familiarity notwithstanding. He was surprised at the jealousy that simmered in his belly—not just with regards to Al's biblical knowledge of anyone else; he'd had his share of fun, after all, so he knew full well it was hypocritical, though that didn't stop him—at the ease with which she slotted into his family unit. Eric and Nate arrived together shortly after Rex and Al, Nate dropping a kiss on her cheek and ruffling her hair with a familiarity that had Rex draping an arm over the back of her chair possessively.
By the time they settled in to eat, he'd manoeuvred his chair up close to hers, so they brushed each other with every movement. Every time the back of her hand touched his arm, a hot pulse shot to his dick. And once he started with those thoughts, it was a downward spiral directly to the kind of hell that had him hard at the dining table.
As though she could sense the lust simmering beneath his skin, Alannah dropped one of her hands to his thigh, her fingers tracing patterns on his leg until he had to pull away from her or lose his sanity. And if he stole a moment or two with her hand held tightly in his, who but them was going to know?
He Comes Home Page 7
