Rough and Rugged: Shameless Southern Nights Novels

by Ali Parker

  Instead, I pointed to the cabinet above the sink. “Plates are in there. I think there might be a half bottle of wine in the fridge and maybe some beers. I was going to restock before you got here.”

  “A glass of wine is perfect.” She got two plates out of the cabinet and set them down before opening the brown paper bag. “I’ll just switch to water after that. You do have water, don’t you?”

  “I have ice cold water and coffee. It’s pretty much the only stuff I drink when there’s no one else here.” I didn’t really have a reason to keep much else stocked. When I first moved out of our parents’ house, my brothers came to my place all the time. After Dad’s trial, though, that changed.

  Even after everything eventually came out, which I knew it would because nothing stayed a secret forever, I didn’t know if my relationship with my brothers would ever be fully repaired. Now wasn’t the time to be melancholic, though. “Would you like that glass of wine with dinner, or would you prefer having it later?”

  “I’d love some now.” Eve piled our plates high with cashew nut chicken and noodles, handing mine over to me when she was done. “How’s it going with work? I’m assuming you’re busy with your dad’s new hearing.”

  “I am.” We carried our dinner to the dining room table and sat down. Before I tucked into the meal, I fetched the bottle of wine from my fridge and two glasses, filled them and pushed Eve’s across the table to her. “To be honest, it hasn’t been going very well. I’ve been working tirelessly, but I just can’t seem to figure out the angle these guys are taking. There’s nothing in old files, and the petition itself is quite vague for something that’s made it this far.”

  “You’ll find something eventually. You just have to keep at it.” She twirled some noodles around her fork—we’d both decided to forgo trying to eat with the chopsticks in the bag—and took a bite of her food.

  We ate in silence for a little while, but it was a comfortable silence. Neither of us were the kind of people who needed to fill every second with conversation. It made the time we spent together easy. There was no pressure, just two people who enjoyed being around each other.

  “How was your meeting last night?” I asked eventually, remembering that she’d begged off spending time together because she had to work. We talked about my work enough, but hardly ever about hers.

  Eve shrugged her thin shoulders, taking a sip of her wine. I noticed she didn’t meet my eyes when she answered. “It was fine. Nothing too important.”

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  “It’s not very interesting.” She deflected my question with one of her own. “Have you made any headway with trying to find out how whoever is behind the petition got it so far when it’s so vague?”

  I shook my head. “They followed some of the proper legal process, but not all of it. I wasn’t given notice of the new hearing date, for instance. There has to have been some corruption involved, but like with all underhanded dealings, there’s not a record of it anywhere.”

  “There’s always a record somewhere.” The words came out so fast, it was almost like she hadn’t meant to say them. If it had come out by mistake, she didn’t acknowledge it. She just laughed and took another sip of wine. “I’m a numbers girl, remember? If someone has been paid off, you’ll always be able to find the payment somewhere in their books.”

  “True, but you need to know whose books to look at and, in my case, I need to have grounds for a warrant to do it. People don’t hand over their books to me voluntarily.”

  Eve chuckled, the sound sweet and feminine. “Maybe you should pretend to be an accountant who’s really good at tax benefits. People will definitely open up their books to you then.”

  “That’s not a bad plan, but I also can’t pretend to be an accountant. It’s as illegal as going in and taking documents that don’t belong to me.” It would have made my job a lot simpler if I could have done that, but unfortunately, the law just didn’t work that way.

  Eve sighed, sympathy swimming in her eyes. “I guess I knew that, but it would make your job a lot easier if you could, don’t you think?”

  “It’s like you can read my mind.”

  “Maybe I can.” Eve lifted her hands and wiggled her fingers with a flourish. “Maybe I’m a magician.”

  “I’m not sure magicians or even people with superpowers need to do that with their hands to get their readings.” I laughed, then swigged the last of my wine. “But you look really cute doing it, so go ahead. Wiggle your fingers and read my mind.”

  She pushed her chair out, coming over to stand behind me. Leaning down, her lips brushed against my ear when she talked. “I don’t need to read your mind to know how to help you.”

  “Help me?” My heart rate sped up when she put her small, warm hands on my shoulders and started kneading the knots in my muscles. Having her hands on me, even for something as innocent as this, was making it hard for me to keep track of what we were talking about.

  I leaned into her touch, my eyes fluttering closed. Her fingers were surprisingly strong for hands as small as hers. “God, that feels good.”

  “I told you I could help you.” Her lips moved against my temple, and she planted a soft kiss to my skin before bending down further to suck my earlobe into her hot mouth.

  “You’re definitely helping. I really needed this.” I also needed to stop thinking about that hot mouth sucking on a different part of my anatomy. The massage really did feel good. I didn’t want her to stop.

  “Is there anything else I can do to help take the pressure off?” Her voice was husky and came from the crook of my neck now, her breath soft against my skin. “Push back your chair a little, would you?”

  The heat of her behind me disappeared for a second as she gave me space to do as she asked, then I felt her taking her spot again. Her hands started on my shoulders, kneading and massaging as they slowly made their way over my collarbones and down my chest.

  Taking a plastic button in her hands, she started unbuttoning my shirt. Her nimble fingers brushed against my chest and my stomach as she made her way down. My body tensed, eagerly awaiting every gentle touch. None of those touches were accidental, and I couldn’t wait to see where she was going with this.

  When my shirt was fully open, Eve came around the chair to stand in front of me. I pushed the shirt off my shoulders as her eyes dropped to the bulge in my pants. She hadn’t done anything overtly sexual yet, but her soft, sensual approach was just as fucking sexy.

  Without a word, she lowered herself onto her knees and tugged at the laces on my sneakers. Once they were off, my socks followed before she lifted her hands to the button on my pants, silently asking me to lift myself up so she could remove them. My mouth was dry, my cock straining against the fabric. I was already breathing hard, struggling to keep from scooping her up and fucking her right here on my dining room table.

  It would be a mess to clean up, sure. We hadn’t cleared our plates away yet, and I would have to swipe them off to make space for her on it, but I would happily clean up later if it meant getting inside her right now.

  Before I could make a move to do it, she put her hands firmly on my hips and looked up at me through hooded eyes. “Don’t you dare move. Stay right there. I’m going to help relieve some of the pressure.”

  “If you’re trying to relieve pressure, I feel like I should warn you that you’re only building up more.”

  She flashed me a devilish smile. “Yeah, but I’ll relieve that too. Promise.”

  I was still trying to come up with a clever retort when she pushed my underwear down and wrapped one hand around the base of my cock and lowered her mouth oh so fucking slowly over the tip. Fuck retorts. She can have this one.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Eve

  The sounds Tyson made while I went down on him were incredible. They would definitely be worth the carpet burn I was bound to get from being on my knees on the rug in his dining room.

  When I first wal
ked over to him, I was hoping to get to do this. I wasn’t sure if he’d be in the mood for it, given what he’d spent all day doing, but he certainly didn’t seem to have any objections.

  It was almost like the tension I’d felt coming off him in waves since I arrived melted away as soon as I touched him. I would have been perfectly happy just giving him a back rub, but the man needed to relax, and I couldn’t think of a better way to get him to do it.

  It didn’t hurt that I actually liked doing this with him. Oral sex wasn’t exactly something I usually liked. Blowjobs could be a chore, but not with Tyson.

  Again, the sounds he made were totally worth it. Besides, he tasted really good, and I loved that I could make him squirm and writhe and pant just like he could do to me.

  One of the problems I had with some of those books I loved reading was that it was always about the girls, but what about the guys? Tyson already had a terrible time behind him these last few weeks, and his fight was really only just beginning. If I could take his mind off everything for just a couple of minutes, I was going to do it.

  I knew him well enough to know I would get my own eventually, and I could wait. No matter how badly my body didn’t want to.

  Tyson moaned, and the sound echoed around the otherwise quiet room. He was really getting into it now. It was safe to say I’d achieved my goal of taking his mind off things completely. His hips started moving, and I peeked up to see his head hanging back over the top of his chair. His hands were in my hair, his grip tight at the nape of my neck.

  “Fuck, Eve. Don’t stop.” His breaths were coming so fast now that he was almost panting, unraveling much faster than I thought he would. Of course I wouldn’t freaking stop. I wasn’t a sadist. Games were fun and all sometimes, but this wasn’t the time for it. Later...

  Squeezing my fingers tighter around his thick shaft, I swept my tongue over his slit and reached for his balls with my free hand. I watched his face intently as I played with the rippled soft tissue and rubbed over them. Slowly moving my fingers over them and rolling them, I increased my pace and pressure.

  Tyson’s breathing changed, and he rocked his hips, his legs starting to shake. He was muttering incomprehensible things, the muscles in his stomach tensing. I tasted salty musk on the back of my tongue, and I knew he was close.

  Keeping my motions steady and rhythmic, I felt his cock twitch in my mouth. “Baby. Eve. Fuck.”

  His harsh voice broke the silence in the room; the only other sounds our breathing and the occasional slurp of my mouth on him. With one last loud groan, he tightened his grip on my hair and came.

  I opened my throat and swallowed down every last bit of his release before sitting back on my knees and grinning up at him. “Did I keep my promise or what?”

  Still breathing hard, he held out his hand to help me up. “Fuck yeah, but now it’s time for me to return the favor.”

  “You don’t have to do that.” I gripped his large hand and got to my feet, ignoring the ache between my legs. “If you have to get back to work for now, we can pick this back up again later. There’s a new movie out I wanted to watch anyway, or I can help you if you need me to.”

  “There is absolutely no chance I’m going back to work right now. What I need is to get you to my bed and keep you there until morning.” When he looked into my eyes as he got to his feet, I saw a spark of something in them that changed things for me.

  There was still that primal hunger, but there was also a very real need for me to stay. I could see it in the faint hint of vulnerability in his darkened eyes, feel it in the anticipation of my answer before he took my hand and led me to his bedroom.

  I should have left right then and there, made up some excuse and fled. Sleeping together and hanging out was one thing. Actually staying the night at his place and getting ready for work together in the morning was another. Yeah, then why do you have a packed overnight bag in your trunk?

  I couldn’t answer that question satisfactorily. When I’d packed the damn bag, I told myself it was just in case I needed a change of clothes. Why I would need a change of clothes, underwear and a toothbrush just in case was beyond me. I hadn’t stopped to think too much about it then and wasn’t about to now.

  I didn’t give Tyson an answer, only followed him silently to the bedroom. His eyes were smoldering on mine when he came to stand in front of me once the backs of my knees hit the mattress. He hadn’t bothered putting the clothes I’d gotten him out of in the dining room back on, for obvious reasons, and was still fully, gloriously naked.

  It was a magnificent sight to behold, but I didn’t have enough time to take it in. Then again, I could stare at his bare ass for hours and it still wouldn’t be enough. Taking a step closer to me, he kept his piercing blue gaze on mine and reached for the edge of my shirt.

  He removed it slowly, his eyes dropping away from mine so he could rake them down the length of my torso. My bra was a bright turquoise with black lace over it, but Tyson hardly seemed to notice it. He focused on the weirdest places: the curve of my collarbone to my shoulder and how my hips tapered up to my waist. He brought his hand up and dragged it down the valley between my breasts, and I noticed his fingers were trembling a little. Strange.

  The way he was looking at me, his eyes seeming to memorize every inch, and the reverent, gentle way he was touching me made my pulse quicken and my blood roar in my ears. It’s not supposed to feel like this between us.

  I forced the errant thought away, closing my eyes to return my focus to simply feeling his touch. One of his long fingers curled under my chin, lifting my head up. “Lie down on the bed, baby.”

  From the way he lifted my head, I had expected him to tell me to look at him. I opened my eyes anyway and nodded, my teeth catching my bottom lip and sucking it in.

  His mattress was hard and firm, the smell of him on the comforter. I briefly wondered if I could ask him to give me a sheet or something as a parting gift when the time came, but I quickly dismissed it as being too weird. Besides, as exquisite as he smelled, having it around me when he wasn’t anymore wouldn’t be pleasant.

  Tyson undressed me as slowly as I had done to him, communicating through gestures. He tapped my hips to get me to lift my ass so he could get my pants off and reached under me, putting only the slightest pressure on my skin to tell me to lift my back a little so he could unhook my bra.

  All the while, his eyes were locked on mine. It was only once I was fully naked that he broke eye contact again and let his gaze roam freely. “Christ, you’re gorgeous. I don’t think I tell you that enough.”

  “More than enough.” Tyson had told me that more than I’d ever heard it from anyone before. The best thing about it was that when he looked at me, I could see he really meant it. It wasn’t just something he was saying. “So are you.”

  I meant it, too. Tyson’s lips twitched into a smirk that lightened the oddly earnest mood between us. “Thanks, but you don’t need to flatter me. You’ve already gotten me in bed.”

  Smiling, I considered flipping him off. Before I could make my decision, he slithered down on the mattress and perched himself between my spread legs. His hands slid up my thighs, and his thumbs dug into my skin.

  With each upward stroke, he came closer and closer to where I ached for him. A chill ran through my body when he finally brushed his thumbs over me. My muscles clenched and my hips rolled of their own accord. I gasped. “Tyson.”

  “Eve?” Leaning down to kiss my stomach, his fingers continued their sensual assault down below. He drew wet circles around my clit, then dipped his hand down to cup my sex. Way too slowly, his mouth and tongue traveled over my body.

  “Just touch me, please.”

  His fingers curled into me as his tongue started to flick across my clit, keeping a steady rhythm to both. The pleasure center in my brain kicked into overdrive. It felt like electric pulses were firing from my nerves and exploding in my core.

  I was too close to the edge, and yet he wasn’t driving
me over it. Spreading me open with his fingers, he sank his tongue into me, and the surface of his tongue stroked me from bottom to top over and over again.

  When I was quivering and thrashing on the bed, one of his hands planted itself on my hip and kept me still. I grabbed the back of his head, holding him against me. “Come on, Tyson. Please.”

  My body shook, and my muscles were tense, my nipples so hard they could cut freaking diamonds. Forget glass.

  Tyson lifted his mouth away from me, and I moaned, thankful that at least his fingers kept doing what they were doing. “Are you gonna come for me, Eve?”

  “Yes.” The word escaped on a rattled breath as he placed his mouth over my clit and sucked it in. With one hand keeping me still, the other stroked me into a frenzy. He found a soft patch of tissue inside me and rubbed it hard and fast.

  My hips arched into him, my entire body taut as bright white light exploded behind my closed eyelids.

  "Yes. Tyson. Right there.”

  My body tensed and my head and neck arched back as my butt came off the bed. Red hot heat flowed freely through me as I surrendered to the sensations and came harder than I ever had before.

  Tyson wasn’t done with me yet, though. I’d barely come down before he rolled a condom over his shaft, fully erect again, and looked down at me with fire in his eyes. “You ready for this?”

  I nodded, reaching with a shaking hand for his cock and positioning it at my entrance. “I’m always ready for you.”

  When he sank into me, our moans bounced off the walls. The man had some serious staying power since he’d just come not so long ago.

  It had long since gone dark outside before his hips twitched, and we both went flying over the edge together one last time before collapsing onto the mattress side by side, our skin slick with sweat and his chest pressed up against my back.

  “So, I’m taking that as a yes that you’re staying tonight?” He hooked a strong arm around my waist and pressed a kiss to the back of my neck.