Throwing his head back against the cushioned furniture, he closed his eyes as he gasped deep breaths into his lungs. It had been far too long since they’d taken time to play like this—even the other night at the pool had been somewhat different from the things they’d used to do, because they knew someone else was watching Addie. This was different, this was a side of his wife he hadn’t seen in a long time, and if he was honest, he’d missed it. Tangling his fingers in her hair, he grasped the back of her head. “Loosen up those jaws, sweetheart,” he instructed.
She did as he told her to, and immediately he slipped further back into her throat. Meredith felt tears gather at the corners of her eyes. She was out of practice and had to take a minute to breathe through the panic. When she felt the feeling subside, she slightly nodded, and Tyler began pumping his hips towards her, pulling her head down with the pressure on her neck.
Letting one hand slip from her neck, he reached down to where her unbound breasts hung and grabbed one. “Help me,” he begged her.
She used her hand to help him wrap her flesh around his.
This was something out of a wet dream he’d had once but had never been able to participate in. He wasn’t sure what had overcome Meredith, but he was not letting her back out of this. Below them, he could see cars driving along the main strip, but he knew they were far enough away that no one could make them out. It gave their encounter a forbidden and illicit feel, though. He hadn’t been this excited since he was a teenager.
“Can you take it deeper?” he questioned, his voice soft as he moved his hand from the nape of her neck to cup her jaw. His touch was as soft as his voice, and he groaned as she responded to him with a vigor she’d never had before. Apparently vacation sex was something that his wife approved of.
Moving his hand from her jaw, he put his hand over hers and gripped her tightly around his cock. The warmth of her mouth, the enthusiasm with which she was using to go down on him, and the mere fact that she was the one doing this for him was enough to send him over the edge. Before he could warn her, his body exploded like a body rocket and he was spilling into her mouth.
“Motherfucking son of a bitch,” he breathed out, his stomach and chest pumping to get oxygen in his lungs. She’d taken him. He couldn’t believe it. His eyes rolled in the back of his head and sweat poured down his neck as he laid his head back against the cushion of the lounger. It was difficult to catch his breath; she’d rocked his world that hard.
“You okay?” she asked, giggling when he moaned, not able to form words yet.
“I think you literally blew my mind. I’m not even sure what my name is. If anyone were to ask me pertinent questions right now, it’d be a whole lot of I have no idea.”
She was pleased with herself as she moved so she straddled his waist. It had been a long time since she’d left him with that smile on his face. It’d been a long time, period, since she’d thrown caution to the wind and not had one ear out for Addie. It was nice, focusing all her attention on him she realized now that she’d missed it. Obviously he had too.
“Give me a few minutes.” He was still breathing heavily, but the smile on his face was the best present she’d ever been given. Pulling her up his body, his lips met hers. Their tongues tangled together as he jerked her mouth to his and rolled them over so that he could pin her against the cushions.
“My turn to play,” he whispered as his dark eyes looked into hers.
There was something there that turned her mouth dry, it felt like sawdust coated it, and she wasn’t sure she could form words. After she’d taken a bath, she’d only put on a shirt and a pair of boy shorts. The shirt was gone, and the only thing that separated them now was the flimsy clothing of her boy shorts.
“Tyler…”
His name whispered on a groan like the one she let out could have been angels singing, the way it affected him. Wanting to hear more of that sound, he moved down her body so he could capture her beaded flesh in between his teeth. Going for broke, he moved his hand down her body and moved the cloth of her boy shorts to the side, dipping a finger inside her warmth.
Grasping his hair in her fingers, she pulled roughly. “God,” she groaned.
He knew he was getting to her when she spread her legs wider for him. It was a tell tale sign of hers that he’d learned early on in their relationship, and uninhibited Meredith was a sexy as hell Meredith. “What do you need?” Making her tell him what she wanted was sometimes the best part of what they did together.
“You.” She pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and thrashed her head against the lounger.
Pulling her flesh between his teeth, he tugged harder before letting her go. “Be more specific, baby. What do you need?”
“Make love to me,” she begged, threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him down to her.
“You sure you want me to do that?” he teased, moving back up to her lips. Sometimes they weren’t all pretty, they’d moved on from that at some point in their relationship. Gone was the woman who’d been battered and scared. She’d come out the other side a different person, one confident in her husband and in her sexuality.
“No,” she breathed, moaning as he slid his fingers deeper inside her body. “I want you to fuck me.”
He smiled against her lips. “It will be my absolute pleasure.”
There were times in their relationship when his wife tried his patience, and this was one of those times. She never knew how hot she was, never knew how sexy she could be. It was a mystery to him how she didn’t see herself through his eyes, but he loved to show her.
Somehow, before they even knew it, he’d entered her body and she’d wrapped her arms and legs around him, giving herself over completely to him. It did things to him, the way she tilted her head back and gave him free rein. There had never been another woman in his life who’d trusted him so much. There had never been another woman he’d wanted to trust him that much, and to know he’d been lucky enough to get it on the first try? Fuck, it obliterated him every time.
Tilting her head back up, her brown eyes met his, and he knew he saw forever there. No matter any arguments they had, any misunderstandings there were, he would never let her go. She was his until death or until the end of time. They had what it took to make it, and he would never do anything to jeopardize the life they had built with one another.
A small smile tilted the corner of her mouth. “You can move faster, move harder, do it like you mean it.”
When he growled, a giggle escaped and she shrieked, holding on tight as he did exactly what she’d asked of him.
Chapter Fourteen
They were both moving decidedly slower than normal the next morning, but they exchanged secret smiles and glances with one another—something they hadn’t been able to do in a while.
“Did you sleep well?” Meredith asked him as she poured some cereal for Addie.
Addie wasn’t a morning person, so they always put in extra time for her to have time to wake up. Normally by the time she’d eaten her breakfast and gotten dressed and had her hair done, she was good to go. She wasn’t one of those children who could hop out of bed and be in a great mood the rest of the day if they immediately left to run errands.
“Better than I have in a long time.” He grinned over his ever-present skull coffee mug at her.
They were only in their second day of their vacation, but she was excited that they’d decided to come on it. She truly hadn’t realized how stressed she was at home. There was no tension in her neck, no headache waiting to come on. This was exactly what she had needed. “Me too.” She smiled widely up at him.
In her high chair, Addie beat her fists against the tray.
“You done?” Tyler asked her.
She nodded and he unhooked the tray, grabbing her up out of it. “I’ll get her cleaned up, if you want to finish gettin’ ready.”
Meredith looked down at the shorts she wore from the night before and realized she did need to finish
getting ready. “Thanks, probably shouldn’t go out and about like this.”
“I’m not complaining.” He winked as he took Addie towards the sink to wipe her mouth and hands. “Look at you,” he playfully scowled at her. “Got such a big mess.” He leaned in, blowing raspberries on her cheek. It was her favorite thing for him to do to. She squealed happily and grabbed fistfuls of his hair, yanking. He knew he should scold her for it, she couldn’t go around grabbing everyone’s hair, but he didn’t. He let her do what made her happy.
“Da,” she squealed, giggling when he leaned in again.
Every time he heard that word, it made his chest swell, and he lost a piece of his heart to her. Bringing her into their lives had made an already full life even more so. Without a doubt, he knew he would lay his life on the line for her and do whatever it took to protect her from the evils of the world. “Love you,” he told her, scooping her up in his arms and hugging her close to him.
“Love you,” she told him back. One of the new phrases she’d learned and had taken to saying. She repeated it, just like she knew what it meant, and he prayed that she did, because there was no small amount of love in this household.
“You two ready?” Meredith asked, breaking up the moment.
He turned with Addie in his arms and wolf-whistled. She wore a tank top and a pair of capris with sandals and her hair in a ponytail.
“Stop.” She laughed as she reached for toddler in his arms. “We need to make sure and put some sunblock on her. She’ll be out most of the day, and not everybody in the world is blessed with your skin tone.” She quirked her lip up at him.
“I’m perfection.” He shrugged. “Not many can live up to this.”
As she finished spreading sunblock on Addie, Meredith snorted and grabbed up her diaper bag. “C’mon, oh magnificent one…we’re gonna have some fun.”
“This shit is a rip-off,” Tyler mumbled to Meredith as they stood in line to buy tickets for the aquarium. “We’re in the wrong damn business.”
“Stop.” She laughed, switching Addie over to her other side. “It’s a tourist trap, yes, but she’ll have fun and hopefully we will too.”
Reaching out, he grabbed Addie from her. No matter how much the child weighed, he easily shouldered it for hours; Meredith wasn’t sure how he did it. When it was their turn, she stepped forward and paid the entrance fee, shooting a look back at him.
They made their way into the building, and both she and Tyler watched Addie carefully. They hadn’t introduced many animals to her, but when she encountered them, she loved them, so they figured she’d love this place.
“Look at that, Addie.” Meredith pointed to a large glass enclosure that held a large fish. “Look how big he is.”
Addie’s mouth hung open, much like it had the night before on the Ferris wheel.
“I think we are totally rocking her world,” Tyler whispered, holding his hand up for a high-five.
“We’re high-fiving this?”
“Hell yeah! Anything that makes her speechless is high-fivable in my book.”
She giggled, slapping her hand against his.
They walked further into the aquarium, testing out how things were going before they’d fully show Addie what there was to see. It seemed like the more colorful the fish, the more she loved it. At one point, Tyler walked up close enough so she could touch the glass. When a school of brightly colored fish swam by, she squealed and slapped her hand against the glass, trying to catch one.
“I guess she likes it.” He smiled over at Meredith, who at that moment took a picture. It promised to be one of her favorites from this trip.
There was something about the way Addie could make Tyler smile. Not even she was able to make him smile so wide. Something about pleasing their daughter pleased him on such a different level than anything else did. She loved it and was happy they’d been blessed with the chance to experience this. Above anyone, she knew that it had almost never happened, and wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been meant to be.
“She does. Let’s go check out the sharks and see how she does with that,” Meredith suggested.
As they made their way to the conveyer belt that would take them through the glass enclosure, Tyler switched her over to his other hip.
“You okay carrying her? We can go get a stroller if she’s getting heavy.”
“Nah, just had to readjust. She don’t weigh anything.”
They stepped onto the conveyer belt and pointed out the animals to Addie. As a shark came towards them, her eyes got big, and she shrieked, burying her face in Tyler’s shoulder. “You okay?” he asked her, trying to bite back a laugh.
Moving her face from his shoulder, she looked again as another one came towards them.
“He ain’t gonna hurt ya,” he said, close to the little girls ear. “I got ya.”
This time, she didn’t look away until the very end, and there was no shriek.
“She’s getting brave.”
“She’s not getting there, she is brave. Watch,” he told his wife.
Again, another shark came at them. This time, she didn’t even flinch. She followed it with her eyes as it swam above them.
“Look at her. She gets that from you,” Meredith told him, as she, herself, watched one of the larger sharks swimming above their heads.
“Nah, babe.” He reached out for her hand. “That is definitely all you. I’ve never known anyone in the world braver than you are.”
Again, she felt emotional and had to blink back tears. Those words meant more to her than he could ever know, and she appreciated them more than he would ever know.
“You hungry?” Tyler asked her a few hours later as they walked along the shops that Gatlinburg had to offer. They’d already been in a few of them and bought touristy souvenirs to take back to their friends.
“I’m getting there.” She shielded her eyes and looked for a spot for them to eat where they could sit.
Addie had been walking on her own for a little while, and they could both tell she was getting tired. They were tired too; the heat of the afternoon was beginning to take its toll on them.
“How about over there?” Tyler pointed to a place that had seats on a covered patio. The sign promised corn dogs, French fries, and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
“Sounds amazing,” she told him as they went to the next crosswalk and crossed the street.
As he situated the two of them at a table that was completely covered by the shade, he leaned over on the table. “What do you want? I’ll grab it and you can stay here with her.”
“I’ll take all of the above that was on that sign. I’m starving.”
That sounded good to him too. “What should I get her?” He was never sure what he should feed Addie. It was the one thing that he questioned, besides fixing her hair. He always deferred to Meredith on that subject.
“Grab her a corndog too. If she doesn’t finish it, then you can. She’s never had lemonade, so get a kid-sized one to see if she likes it. Grab a bottle of water though, in case she doesn’t. I wanna save the juice I have in here for later, in case she gets hot. She’s drunk way more than I thought she would.”
“Alright, be back.” He leaned down, kissing first one and then the other on the forehead, before making his way over to place their orders.
Addie waved as he walked away.
“He’ll be right back, baby girl,” Meredith told her as she used a baby wipe to wipe off Addie’s face and hands. “Before we go back to walking around, we need to put some more sunscreen on you. You’re getting a little pink.”
Addie nodded, like she understood exactly what Meredith said. When she finished, Meredith balled up the baby wipe and set it aside for trash before leaning back against the chair. It’d been a long morning, but as she glanced at Tyler, who stood at the counter like he owned the place, she knew there was no other place she’d rather be.
Chapter Fifteen
“Welcome back from vacay,” Christine greeted Meredith wit
h a huge hug as she walked into CRISIS a few days later.
“Thanks.” She smiled ruefully. She already wished she was right back there. “Go ahead and fill me in. What have I missed?”
“Nothing huge. We didn’t really have any excitement while you were gone. We took in a couple of girls, a couple of girls left. Same old, same old.”
There was something that nagged at the back of Meredith’s mind. Nobody had mentioned Stephanie to her, there hadn’t even been a text from Travis when she’d turned her phone on and started to wade through the things she’d ignored while on vacation. “What about Stephanie?”
“She packed her stuff and left.” The way Christine said it was no-nonsense. She didn’t need to tell Meredith that the girl had made one hell of a scene and threatened everyone from the Pope to the President of the United States.
“There was no issue with her?” She wasn’t sure if she believed that or not, there was something in the way Christine had mentioned it.
“No issue at all.” Christine just knew God was going to strike her dead for being a liar.
For a long minute, Meredith held her gaze and studied her, much like she’d seen Tyler study people. Finally, she dropped her gaze.
“Okay, if you say so. What do we need to do today? Where do I need to start?”
Travis stood at Walker’s Wheels and watched Tyler pull into the parking lot. His heart beat double-time. He was going to keep a secret from the big man, and he just wasn’t sure he could do it. Tyler had already texted him three times since he’d been back from vacation.
“Stay strong, cuz,” Rooster told him as he came up beside him and slung an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t let him intimidate you into telling him something you don’t want him to know.”
“That’s easy for you to say. When he stands in front of you, you’re not in his shadow,” Travis mumbled.
Rooster chuckled—Travis had gotten the shorter end of the stick in the family genes, so to speak. “Remember, this is for the good of a young family, it has nothing to do with keeping secrets from people. It’s a need to know thing, and right now, Tyler doesn’t need to know. We’ve got the okay from Liam. This is going to be all good.”
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