Sweet Hill Homecoming

by Ryan, Joya

  “Are you leaving?”

  He looked her in the eye. “I just wanted to make sure you got fed.” There was something so sincere in his expression she wanted to kiss him right there.

  “What if I wanted you to stay?”

  His eyes smoldered and she didn’t miss it. It made her bolder. For whatever reason, Tatum West either had her spitting fire or second guessing and right now, she wanted to just feel him.

  “Whatever you want,” he said. “But I don’t want to overstep.”

  She shook her head. “You’re not. I just…” she glanced over her shoulder and Tate looked in, likely seeing the open door to her bedroom in chaos and her closet on her floor.

  “I was having trouble figuring out what to wear,” she admitted.

  He looked her up and down with such heat it made her melt. When he took in her tee-shirt and grinned, “Well, I think you nailed it.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh a little and stepped aside. “Will you please come in, Deputy?”

  He did and Mia put the dish on the counter. Realizing right away she was hungry for something else.

  ~

  If Tate didn’t know before, he was certain now, Mia Blake couldn’t look bad. Her eyes were bright and her skin glowed. Even from several feet away he could smell her hair. Strawberries and mint. He even kind of liked that she was nervous. It made him feel like they were closer to level playing field because all damn day he’d been on the brink of cold sweats from nerves.

  Judging by the tornado that hit her bedroom, she’d been trying on different things for a while. He stepped inside and couldn’t help but get spellbound by the look in her eyes.

  “I’m glad you came over,” she said, taking a step toward him.

  My god so was he. Because she looked at him like he was edible and it made his cock rise to attention and everything in his body pulse with the urge to touch her.

  He wanted to say something. Something about expectations, rules and tomorrow. That would obviously come up. Especially since until just recently, they hadn’t been on speaking terms, much less dating.

  Was what they were doing, what he was hoping they were on the brink of doing, dating? Before he could ration through that, he stalled. Because Mia ran one dainty hand up his chest and licked her lips. And the only thing his mind could churn out was images of those lips on him.

  Fuck it. He’d deal with tomorrow, tomorrow.

  And all the logic, reasons as to why this wasn’t a good idea, how they were a bad match, and the future didn’t matter. His brain shut off, and instinct took over.

  Just like it had the night at the bar.

  Her hand snaked lower, so slowly that it made every muscle in his stomach tense as she fluttered her fingertips over the ridges, stopping once she reached his belt. Brushing her fingers along the clasp she gripped it, turned toward her bedroom and pulled him.

  “I thought you were hungry,” he said as she walked backward, leading him damn near by the cock.

  “I am,” she said and kept her eyes on him.

  His pulse was beating in his temples and his skin buzzed. His clothes felt too restrictive and she was definitely wearing too many garments. Once she got him into her bedroom, she kicked the door shut.

  He raised a brow. “On another mission tonight, Miss Blake?”

  She gave a sultry little smile. “I am. Take off your jacket.”

  Tate was never one to take orders, however something shot to life when Mia took over and he saw the stubborn strong woman he was coming to admire. He took off his jacket and tossed it on the ground.

  “Now what?” he challenged.

  “Now the shirt,” she said.

  He reached behind him, gripping the collar of his shirt and tugged it over his head and off.

  When her lips parted and her gaze drifted from his chest to his stomach and back, he fought the urge not to flex. Because her eyes on him was a drug of its own. She just stood staring and Tate would have been fine with that, other than the fact that he couldn’t read her thoughts.

  “This hardly seems fair,” he said and her gaze snapped up to his.

  “You’re right, I’m sorry.” She yanked her shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor, leaving her in a short skirt, heels and red bra. He couldn’t help but wonder if the panties matched.

  “I was just going to say that staring down a man without a word wasn’t nice, but I like where you’re going with this.”

  She grinned and glanced down his body again. “And what word were you hoping I’d say, Deputy?”

  He shrugged a shoulder and looped his thumbs in his belt and her eyes shot to the movement. Something he was picking up on that she seemed to like.

  “Awesome. Impressive. God-like. Any of those would suffice,” he joked.

  She smiled and the sight made his skin heat another degree. “Oh, they would huh?”

  He nodded.

  “And what if I had a different word to describe you?”

  “Being a public servant, I value your feedback, ma’am.”

  “Oh, my. Sounds like someone has been prepping for an election.” She took a step closer until her lace clad breasts almost brushed his chest. “Wow,” she said and Tate suddenly felt like he over played his hand.

  Their sparing threw him off and damn it, part of him did want to impress her. Just before he took a step back she gripped his cock through his jeans and he choked on his own exhale.

  “That’s my word, Deputy…” She stroked him hard once then unclasped his belt. “Wow.”

  The way her breath skated over his neck made him close his eyes and groan. He couldn’t hold out anymore. With her hands on him, shoving down his pants, he cupped her face and did the one thing he wanted to do since he saw her standing at the door. He kissed her.

  Melding his lips over hers, he took a hard and deep drink, causing her hands to only work faster. Cool air hit his thighs as she worked his pants and boxers down. Refusing to give up her sweet mouth, he toed off his boots and stepped out of his pants.

  Gently biting her lip, then plunging his tongue to savor every taste of her had him skyrocketing to the clouds. He tangled his fingers in her hair until he finally just unwound the long tresses from the band and let them fall wildly over her shoulders. Just as his palms moved down to her neck, she pushed him enough so that his knees buckled and he sat on her bed.

  She knelt in between his knees and kissed his chest while her hands splayed over his abs, as if loving the feel and taste of him.

  Christ, he hoped she loved it. Because she was making him feel like some kind of man worth this treatment. When that sweet mouth trailed a little lower, the destination unmistakable, he finally found his voice.

  “Sweetheart…You don’t have to—”

  She snapped her head up and glared at him. “Do I look like the kind of woman who does something I don’t want to?”

  He grinned. “No ma’am, you don’t.”

  She nodded once. “Then I’d appreciate it if you’d just shut up please, Deputy. I’m enjoying myself.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Her tongue ran along the top two torso muscles and Tate tilted his head back a little and tried to remember how to breathe. Something he’d done a million times before but somehow tonight seemed impossible. But what caught his eye made him nearly come right then.

  Their reflection.

  Mia’s closet had a full length mirror and Tate saw firsthand the most erotic thing he’d ever witnessed:

  Mia loving on him.

  Her skirt was riding up and he saw the cleft of her ass and sweet Jesus the panties matched the bra. Her golden hair was draped over his thighs and her hands splayed on his chest as she kissed lower…

  “Fuck, Mia,” he said.

  The sight of her and the feel of her hot mouth on him was going to end this before it started. He gripped her shoulders and raised her up.

  “I thought we went over this,” she said in that sexy boss kind of tone.

&
nbsp; “I hate to admit it sweetheart, but you have me on edge already.”

  He helped her to her feet and good lord the woman was perfection. He hadn’t gotten a chance to really enjoy her at the bar, really see her and appreciate her the way he wanted.

  He ran his palms down her flat belly and she shivered a little, but he didn’t stop. Instead kept going down. Feeling the smooth tone skin of her thighs, knees, then came back up to grip that perfect ass of hers.

  “I-I know what you mean,” she whispered.

  When her eyes fluttered shut, Tate couldn’t help but touch her more. Especially when she responded to him the way she was. With his hands under her skirt, he gripped the band of her panties and eased them down until they fell to the floor. She stepped from them and threaded her fingers through Tate’s hair.

  He kissed her bellybutton and skimmed his hands up her thighs once more until he came to the juncture.

  Lingering, he glanced up to find her looking down at him with lust and want in her eyes. She sighed softly. “Please.”

  Running his mouth from her stomach to hip, he teased her entrance. She was hot and wet though he barely touched her.

  She arched her back, reaching with her hips to deepen contact. So he gave it to her. Slowly, he eased his finger into her core.

  She gasped and swayed on her feet, but when he found that sensitive spot inside, he hooked his fingertip and stroked.

  “Oh, god, Tatum.” His name on her breathy little moans was tearing at his self-restraint. He wanted to take his time. To explore her the way he didn’t get to before. But she kept pushing her hips toward him, urging him to take her farther.

  He withdrew and returned with two fingers and watched as her breasts rose on a deep breath and her creamy skin pricked with chill spots. She was tight and wet and Tate was about to lose himself in the moment. But his focus was on her.

  He covered her swollen clit with his thumb and pumped his fingers in and out. Her grip on his hair tightened and her breathing grew faster and she trembled. A fresh surge of her pleasure coated his fingers and he knew she was close.

  “Tatum…” she gasped his name.

  He’d waited his whole damn life for a woman like her to say his name like that. Waited for her. Something so primal came alive and he needed to take her in every way until a gasp would no longer suffice. No. She needed to scream it.

  “I’ve got you,” he said and wrapped his free arm around her, holding her while he stroked her with the other.

  “Oh, yes,” she moaned and her inner walls clamped around him as her entire body shuttered.

  With his chin against her belly, he looked up and watched every emotion play over her face as she came apart in his grip. Eyes squeezed shut and sweet lips parted, she gently shook and moaned as she flooded his fingers. She was so fucking beautiful it actually hurt to look at her.

  Slowly easing out, her eyes opened and she looked down at him. Without warning she cupped his face and mashed her mouth against his. He didn’t have time to grin with pride, because she climbed up on his lap, straddling him.

  “Condom,” she said between fervent kisses. “Now.”

  Blindly reaching for his pants on the ground, he finally found them and pulled a condom out of his back pocket. She was kissing his neck, then bit his earlobe. Making it really difficult to unwrap the thing and get it on, but finally he reached between their bodies and accomplished the task.

  He barely had his hands out of the way when she sank down on him, impaling all her sweet heat on his cock.

  He hissed and clutched her hips, his idea of going slow good and gone.

  She gasped and stilled for a moment. Wrapping her arms around his neck she smiled.

  “I owe you another ‘wow’, Deputy.”

  He grinned and flexed his hips, thrusting deeper. “Careful, you don’t want to inflate my ego too much.”

  He thrust again, bouncing her in his lap and her turquoise eyes glimmered and widened. Hugging him closer, she kissed down his neck, to his collarbone and out to his shoulder.

  Once again, he saw their reflection. Mia’s perfect body moving around his. Reaching up, he unclasped her bra and dragged it off.

  She arched back and he took full advantage. Sucking one rosy nipple into his mouth, and she clutched him closer.

  Licking and nipping her breast, he continued to surge up, pumping in and out of her while she whipped her hips in his lap. He latched on to her other breast, flicking the little bud with his tongue then gently biting.

  “Oh…Tate.”

  He felt her tense with another coming release and this time, he was determined to hear his name in her cries. Wrapping an arm around her ass, he anchored her movements to take him deep.

  She gasped and dug her nails into his back which only spurred him on.

  He sucked harder.

  Thrust deeper.

  “Tate!” she threw her head back and screamed and her entire body quaked in his arms.

  On a strangled breath he let go of all the control he’d been clinging too and followed her over the edge of the abyss.

  Pleasure shot from the base of his spine, surging through every muscle like wild fire. He came hard. Harder than he ever had before and all he could hold on to was her.

  Struggling to regain his senses and still buried in paradise, he wrapped both arms around Mia and hugged her close. Kissing her shoulder, he looked and saw his own dark eyes staring back in the mirror and the soft, strong woman wrapped around him.

  Not a thing on the planet could have pried him away from her.

  Chapter Nine

  “That is a big hose,” Mia said with zero amusement at the fireman currently leaning against the big red truck.

  She was trying to be nice but the guy just reeked of douche and had been dishing line after stupid line for several minutes now.

  “Yeah, takes a lot of muscles to haul this around,” he said with a wink.

  Mia had been waiting for Abby for the past fifteen minutes and all she got accomplished was having her breasts stared down.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Abby said, walking into the main area from the office. “I see you met Greg.”

  “Just getting acquainted,” Greg said with another stare down of Mia’s chest.

  And here Mia thought her black slacks and red turtleneck were conservative. Apparently this guy still just saw tits, ass and didn’t bother to ask about a brain. Something Mia was determined to change.

  Greg walked back into the office. “I’ll get your number from Abby and call you,” he told Mia and she just shook her head.

  “Nope.”

  As if he didn’t hear her or didn’t understand he just smiled and waved. Idiot. Was there a stamp on her head that said, EASY?

  Maybe it was the fact that a man recently seemed to take an interest in her and her family. Actually had ambition and seemed to like talking with her.

  She kept thinking about the other night with Tate. It was intense, something she’d never felt before. Like he was content to hold her and he had. For a long time. She felt like things went beyond the purely physical.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Noelle said rushing in. She had pink scrubs on and looked like she just came off a twelve hour shift.

  “If you’re sorry then so am I,” a deep voice came in right behind her. Tate. In uniform. Today was looking better and better.

  They walked toward Abby and Mia, and Mia couldn’t take her eyes off of the Deputy. She’d only just seen him the other night, but man, Mondays sure did treat him well. And his dark eyes stayed zeroed in on her.

  She smiled and took a step toward him and the look that came over his face froze her in her path. A “don’t touch me because no one can know we’re sleeping together” flashing sign would have been more subtle than the look he gave her. But the effect was still the same.

  She stalled and felt like the world’s biggest loser.

  Then Tate saw Abby.

  “Thanks for coming, Deputy,” Abby sai
d sweetly. “I hope we aren’t pulling you away from your shift?”

  He smiled. “Happy to swing by and talk logistics.”

  “I tried calling you Saturday night,” Abby said and Mia’s eyes flashed to Tate. A muscle ticked in his jaw and he didn’t make eye contact with Mia.

  “I was busy,” he said.

  Busy? It was a verb but for some reason, he crushed a little piece of her heart. Yes, he was busy with her. Not that she expected him to admit that or that it was anyone’s business, but he didn’t even look at her. His message was clear, and it looked like Mia got her answer to the one thing she’d been wondering.

  The Deputy was going secret rather than public with her.

  “I can’t stay,” Noelle said, “But I wanted to give you all the forms I have.” She handed them to Mia. “We have food donation boxes set up at these locations,” she pointed at the small list of local shops and stores.

  Mia forced herself to snap out of the momentary stupor Tate’s silent insult put her into and focus on her job.

  “This is great, Noelle.” Mia looked over the list. “I spoke with Sammy over at Sammy’s Shake and Malt Shack and he said that for every pound of food, he’d donate a dollar to the hospital.”

  Noelle’s eyes went wide. “Really? That’s incredible! Sammy’s shakes are great but he’s…”

  “A grouchy middle-aged man,” Abby said.

  Noelle nodded. “He’s never participated in this event before. Let alone donate. How did you pull that off?”

  Mia was about to say that Sammy wasn’t such a bad guy when Abby cut her off.

  “I know how,” Abby said with a little sharpness in her voice.

  Mia clamped her mouth closed and if looks could burn, Abby’s would scorch. Mia knew what she was insinuating. That Mia used her “assets” to get what she wanted. But she was wrong. However when she looked to Tate, he had a stoic expression. She couldn’t read him but he certainly didn’t look inclined to defend her.

  Mia cleared her throat and started again. “I think the fact that we’re getting donations is a good thing.”

  “Indeed,” Abby said. “And what did you get from Greg earlier? Other than his number?” Abby smiled.