Call Me, Irresistible

by Jess Bryant

  He nibbled his way down her neck and licked her nipple. Lemon gasped and clutched at his hair. God he loved her breasts. Loved the way she reacted whenever he touched them. Loved the way she screamed his name when he used his teeth and scraped the tight bud before laving it with his tongue. His girl liked it a little rough, just like he did, and even if he wasn’t going to spank her or fuck her hard tonight, he could give her this.

  “Shane, please.” She begged, arching her back and pressing her other breast toward him.

  He took the hint and tortured her other breast in the same way. She cried his name and writhed against him. He kept his mouth there, licking and sucking and biting at her nipples as he worked her into a frenzy. He slid his palm down her belly and between her legs and snarled when she wet his hand.

  She was soaking, hot and inviting and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to bury himself inside her. But not yet. He wanted something else from her first. Wanted something more.

  He pushed a finger inside of her and she gasped his name. He worked her hard, rubbing her deep and then adding another. He hooked his fingers and found that spot that made her entire body shiver and then he paused and raised his head from between her breasts.

  “Say it.”

  Lemon whimpered, “Shane, please… I’m so close.”

  “Say it.” He growled. “Say you’re mine.”

  “God, yes. Yes! I’m yours.” She was trembling and biting at her lips but her glassy eyes met his, “I’m all yours.”

  “Damn right you are.”

  He smashed his mouth against hers and thrust his tongue inside at the same moment he pumped his fingers. Her body instantly squeezed him tight and he groaned as her climax took hold. He didn’t let up. Not even a little. He pushed her through it until she was panting. Sweat glistening on her gorgeous skin and her chest heaving, he pulled his fingers away and slid down her body.

  “Mine.” He licked her clit and felt her shudder beneath him, “This is mine.”

  “Yours, Shane. I’m yours.” Her fingers twisted in his hair as he licked up the proof of her orgasm.

  He’d given her that. And she was giving him so much more. His chest felt hot. His skin was too tight. He was close. So damn close. But this wasn’t about him. He licked and lapped at her until she stopped cringing away. Until her oversensitive nerves began to react and pulse and squeeze around his invading tongue. She was sweet, so damn sweet all over. And she was his.

  “More.”

  He hummed at the order and glanced up her lean body, “What do you want, baby?”

  “You.”

  “You’ve got me.” He slid up her body, “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Her bottom lip trembled slightly and he kissed her softly. He kept kissing her as she wrapped herself around him. When her small hand wrapped around his cock this time, he didn’t stop her. She stroked him a couple of times and he dropped his head forward at the pleasure that raced up his spine. He was close but she didn’t make him wait. She positioned him where she wanted him, right where he belonged, and he drove into her in one hard thrust.

  “YES.” She gasped, her eyes squeezing shut and her body arching against his. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  He’d sworn to himself they were going to go slow but as her body pulsed and pulled at him he couldn’t help but jerk almost all the way out and slam back inside her. They scooted up the bed and she chanted his name. He gripped her hips, holding her steady for his thrusts. She begged for more, for harder, for faster, and he could do nothing but give it to her.

  He’d give her the world if she’d let him.

  “Mine.” He growled when her body began to squeeze him again. “Tell me you’re mine, Lemon.”

  “I’m yours.” She gasped out as her body trembled, “I’m coming. Oh God, Shane…. I’m… coming.”

  He felt her walls clench him, trying to hold him deep and he was a goner before she ever finished her sentence. He slammed into her a few more times and then held himself deep. His climax pulsed out of him and for a tiny split second he wished that he could get her pregnant. She wouldn’t leave him if he could give her a baby. And that’s when he knew for certain that he was gone in more ways than one.

  He was in love with her. He’d known he was falling. Hell, he’d known he was falling for her since that night in the rain. Since their first jog when she’d teased him and talked to him and intrigued him. But he wasn’t falling anymore. He’d already hit rock bottom. He was in love with her.

  He couldn’t give her a baby. Not this way. But he could give her what she wanted. What she needed. A home. Love. Support. A family. He could give her this and all she had to do was stay.

  Only he knew it wasn’t fair to ask that of her. She had a life in Nashville. She was a huge superstar. She toured the world. She wrote her own songs and made her own music. She was living her dream in Tennessee. And he wasn’t willing to give up his life here, hadn’t even thought about it. Holly was here and the girls needed their mother. He needed his girls. He needed his family and the security of this place. So it wasn’t fair to ask her to do what he wasn’t willing to do.

  Was it?

  Shane collapsed beside her on the bed and immediately pulled her into his arms. He couldn’t let her go. He had no idea how to let her go. But he couldn’t ask her to stay forever either. Not yet. Not until he figured out a way for this to work where they both got what they wanted.

  Compromise. He would have to find a way to compromise. His life here and her life there. Could it ever work? Or was he setting himself up for heartache? If he was, then he was already there because his heart was in this, full stop, full throttle, fast and crazy and completely out of character for him.

  He’d taken a chance for the first time in a really long time and he could only pray it wouldn’t blow up in his face.

  Lemon nuzzled her head into the space between his shoulder and chin where she fit just right, “Shane?”

  “Hmm?” He stroked a lazy finger down her back.

  “I want to hear you say it too.”

  “Say what?”

  “If I’m yours, that makes you mine, right?”

  He smiled up at the ceiling and hugged her closer. He held her tighter. Because that was all it took to melt away all of his doubts and fears. She felt the same way he did. He knew she did. They may not have said the words but their bodies had. They would figure this out because they had to. She was his and that meant…

  “Yeah, baby. I’m yours.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Once in a lifetime, you get a second chance… for something better than a third rate romance.” Lemon hummed out the next bar and then stopped to scribble in the notebook where she’d been jotting down lyrics.

  The words had been coming to her one after another recently, flowing out of her with an ease that had been missing from her work for a very long time. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d written so fast or easily. In the past month she’d written nearly an entire album worth of new music and she couldn’t seem to stop. Every spare second she had was spent scribbling in her notebook or edging out her mother on the piano or picking up the nearest guitar.

  She hadn’t written an album this fast since her first one. That first album had been full of heartfelt words and melodies that still felt like pieces of her soul laid bare when she heard them or played them even all these years later. The other albums, the ones since, all had songs that felt deeply personal but none of them had come this easily. This album was going to be different from anything she’d done in years because for the first time in far too long, her heart was in it again.

  She felt… happy. God, it had been so long since she could say that. She was happy.

  She could write again without having a panic attack. She could pick up an instrument and just play for the fun of it. It felt easy and natural and right again in a way that it hadn’t since before she lost the baby and Alec and her hopes for a future. And she knew that the
reason her passion for the music had come back was because her passion for life had come back, because she thought there might be a future for her after all, because she had Shane.

  It was all Shane. She knew that. The happiness she’d found over the past month. The contentment. The acceptance and peace she’d begun to feel about her decision. It was all thanks to Shane and the way he made her feel.

  Hopeful.

  Lemon hummed another bar or two, “Keep the faith. Have hope. And someday you’ll get what it is, that you need most.”

  She scrunched her nose up, hating that last line. It wasn’t strong enough. Not by a longshot. She starred it to go back and rework it later. She’d learned a long time ago that if she got hung up on one line that she’d never finish a song so she pushed forward. She already had the hook for this one. It had been buzzing in her head for two days but she’d been so busy she hadn’t sat down to work it out.

  Now wasn’t really the time either but she’d seen the guitar sitting in the corner of her sisters living room and picked it up. Lydia had gone to put the boys down for bed half an hour ago. Lemon had been waiting to get her sister alone all day and she was still waiting so she’d decided distracting herself with music was a fine idea.

  She’d come to have a talk she didn’t really want to have but that she knew was necessary and she wouldn’t run away. She thought she might actually be done running away. Crazy, impulsive, impossible Lemon Kelly was ready to take a chance on settling down, on trusting someone, maybe even loving someone. But if she was going to do that, she had to talk to her family first. Shane had convinced her of that and she knew he was right. Knew she couldn’t keep burying everything and hiding it inside her. If she was ever going to have a chance of a family of her own, and oh how she wanted that chance, she needed to make things right with her family.

  “Once in a lifetime, you get a second chance… for something better than a third rate romance.” She started over, playing through the first verse and when she finished she heard gentle clapping and blushed as she looked up to find her sister watching her. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough to hear what you’re working on.” Lydia pushed off the doorframe and strolled into the room, curling up on the other end of the couch, “Is that a love song?”

  “Uh, well, yeah.” Lemon avoided her gaze.

  “Thought so.”

  Lemon felt the heat flush her cheeks, “It’s nothing.”

  “Sounds like something. It’s beautiful.”

  “Thank you.”

  “That’s the first love song I’ve heard you write in… years.”

  “That’s not true.” Lemon focused on returning the guitar to its stand in the corner, her eyes on her floor so she didn’t have to see Lydia’s knowing gaze, “The last album had a couple of love songs.”

  “No, it had a couple of lovesick songs maybe but… nothing like that.” Lydia nudged her with her foot as she sat back down on the couch, “That sounded sweet and hopeful. It’s about second chances?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  Lemon waited for her sister to prod her about the song, about the music and about the man that was inspiring it all. Lydia never let her get away with anything. She knew the fact that she’d managed to go this long without getting the third degree was a miracle unto itself but even still, with this opportunity, her sister didn’t press. She gave it a couple more seconds and when Lydia remained quiet, she let out a breath of relief.

  They had bigger issues to deal with right now than whether or not Lydia knew she’d moved in with Shane. She doubted that Lydia was in the dark about that. The whole town seemed well aware of their involvement by now. It wasn’t as if they’d been hiding. They’d gone out for drinks and dinner, dancing at the Roadhouse once just because she’d promised karaoke in return. They’d become a couple in every way these past few weeks and if Lydia wasn’t asking about him, about them, then she must know that Lemon was here to talk about something even more important than her love life.

  “Lem?” Her sister finally yawned, “If you’re here for a reason you can get around to it any time now. Tony’ll be home soon and I get a feeling whatever this is, you don’t want him present for this conversation.”

  She leaned forward and swiped a hand over her eyes because Lydia still knew her better than anyone. She’d barely spoken fifty words since she arrived hours earlier. She’d played with the kids and made small talk. She’d helped around the house. But her sister still knew she was lost in her head and needing to talk about something important and that she wouldn’t want an audience for it.

  All day she’d tried to think of the best way to do this. She tried to remember how it was that she’d told Shane but the words had just fallen out of her mouth that day. She couldn’t even really remember making the conscious decision to tell him. All she’d known was that she couldn’t lie to him and then, once she’d started talking she hadn’t been able to stop. That wasn’t going to happen this time so she figured she would simply start at the beginning and get as much of it out as she could before she broke down.

  “I know you’ve all been wondering why I’m here.” She finally cleared her throat, “I know you hate how secretive I’ve become over the past few years and I am sorry for that. I’m sorry that there were things I couldn’t tell you.”

  “Lem…”

  “No.” She cut her sister off with a shake of her head, still refusing to look at her, “Let me get this out, okay? Please?”

  “Okay.”

  “The thing about my life is that I’ve given so many pieces of me to so many people, to my fans, that I keep my personal life private. I never made a conscious decision to keep it from you though, at least that’s what I told myself.” She rubbed her eyes again, “But lately, it’s been pointed out to me that, maybe I did. I mean…. No. I definitely did. I kept things from you, from Mom and Dad and I did it on purpose because I thought it was better that way. Easier. I didn’t want to make you all hurt but in reality I didn’t want to think about it or talk about it so that I wouldn’t have to hurt.”

  She felt her sister shift beside her, sitting upright, but she shook her head when she felt Lydia reach for her. She couldn’t touch her. Not right now. If she touched her, Lemon would shatter and break apart and never get through this. She jerked aside and though Lydia winced she dropped her hand and stayed where she was.

  “The reason I came home is because I was running away. I came home because it felt like somewhere safe, because you’re here, because no matter how long I’ve been away Fate is still home.” She swallowed past the knot in her throat, “And I really needed to feel the comfort of home that day I decided to leave Nashville because my doctors had given me some really bad news.”

  “Oh my God…” Lydia breathed out a gasp, “Bad news? Lemon? Are you sick?”

  “No, it’s not…” She blew out a shaky breath, “I’m not sick it’s… they confirmed something I’ve feared, that I’ve known, for a while now, but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less hearing it.”

  “Lemon, what’s going on?” Lydia abandoned all pretense of giving her space or time to work out what she needed to say, worry clear in her voice as it rose anxiously and the only way to fix it was to come clean.

  “I can’t have kids, Lydie.” The words were rough and full of emotion but they didn’t cut at her throat the way she’d expected them to. Not like they had when she’d told Shane. When the pain of them had caused tears. And maybe that was just because she’d already said it aloud once before but she didn’t think so.

  She thought it was easier because the man she’d told had been so understanding, so accepting. She thought, just maybe, it was easier to say it now because with Shane she was beginning to see a different future for herself than the one she’d painted in her head only to lose.

  “What?” Lydia’s voice was soft, cautious, and when Lemon finally met her gaze she saw concern and also confusion there.

  “I can’t have kids
. I can’t get pregnant again. I…”

  “Again?” Lydia’s big blue eyes widened in surprise, “What are you talking about? When were you pregnant before?”

  Lemon groaned, because she hadn’t meant to say that part. She’d known it would come up eventually. That she would have to go there during her explanation. But she hadn’t meant to just blurt it out like that and of course Lydia couldn’t have missed it.

  It was time to come clean. Once and for all, it was time to put it out there. Time to tell the truth and stop letting it eat away at her from the inside out.

  “I was pregnant once, when I was with Alec. I miscarried. I lost the baby and…” Her voice cracked and she had to take a deep breath to continue, “I lost the baby really early on but there were complications. Scar tissue. The doctors said then that I’d probably never conceive again.”

  “Jesus.” Lydia looked shell-shocked, pale and shaky, “You were pregnant?”

  She nodded.

  “When you were married to Alec?”

  She nodded.

  Lydia’s face twisted with pain, “And you miscarried? You lost the baby and… and… and you never told anyone?”

  Guilt and shame made her lower her eyes back to the floor and shake her head, “It was a really bad time for me. Things with Alec went to hell. The baby was gone and then so was he and… what good would it have done to tell you then? Just so you could hurt with me?”

  “Yes!” Her sister yelped. “Yes you should have told me so I could hurt with you! So you wouldn’t have had to hurt alone! Jesus, Lemon, you’re not alone. How could you have kept something like that from us? It is us, right? Mom and Dad don’t know any of this either?”

  She shook her head.

  “Oh, sis…” Lydia’s voice broke and she realized her sister was crying and felt her own tears well up in response, “I’m so sorry.”