by Josie Kerr
“Tally, stop.”
She froze, handled scrubber in her hand, ready to do the dishes, as Rob stalked over to her. “What?” He plucked the scrubber out of her hand and got in her space. “You don’t want the food to cake on. It’ll be harder to get off . . .” Her voice trailed off as Rob pulled her against him. Tally’s fingers drifted over his cheek, and Rob closed his eyes under her soft touch.
“Rob.” The pressure of her fingers grew firmer. “Rob, look at me.”
He opened his eyes, and Tally leaned closer into him.
“What do you need?” she whispered. “Rob, what do you need from me?”
He hesitated, just for a moment, and then he lowered his lips to hers. He was relieved when she opened her mouth as he touched his tongue to the seam of her lips and when she sank into his embrace. They stood in the kitchen, kissing, for he didn’t know how long. When he finally broke their kiss, Tally gave him a tiny smile and tugged on his hand as she headed toward the stairs.
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Tally didn’t say a word as she led Rob up the stairs. She paused at the top landing and looked at him to lead her to his bedroom. He stroked her cheek with his index finger, dragging it across her jaw and down to rest on the pulse that thrummed in the hollow of her throat. She covered his hand with hers and cocked her head at him, not moving until he stepped in front of her and led her into a bedroom. The room was too small to be the master bedroom, but it was obviously where he slept, because there was an alarm clock, a paperback, and a water carafe on the nightstand.
Now Tally stepped into Rob’s space and began unbuttoning her blouse as Rob watched. When she had rid herself of her shirt and her bra, she began working the buttons on Rob’s shirt. He let her remove his shirt, and then she stepped close to him and pressed her lips to his chest. She ran her hands over his arms, his pecs, and down his flat stomach to his belt. He stood as still as a statue as she worked the buckle, loosened his belt, and then unbuttoned his jeans. She slid a hand down his belly, under the waistband of his boxers. Rob exhaled as her hand wrapped around his erection, and she began to stroke him. Rob moved a hand to her bare breast, brushing his thumb over the tightening nipple. Tally laid her free hand over his hand on her breast as she kissed the space over his heart again. Then she stepped back, shimmied out of the rest of her clothes, and finished undressing him.
Rob sank down onto the bed and pulled Tally to him. She twined her hands in his hair when he rested his head on her belly. Tally didn’t know quite how long they stayed like that, him holding on to her, her hands cradling his head. She felt his lips brush her abdomen as his callused hands stroked her back, her rump, and the tops of her thighs.
She tugged on his hair, and he looked up at her. “You need this, Rob,” she whispered.
He blinked at her, swallowing hard. “I . . . want it.”
“Good.” Tally leaned down, brushed his lips with hers, and pushed him backward as she crawled over him. She settled down over him, her wet heat nestling his hard length. She began to slowly rock her hips. Rob never took his eyes from hers, until she gave him a little smile. Then he closed his eyes and began moving with her. His hands went to her hips, holding them still as he ground up harder against her.
“I want inside,” he whispered, breathless. “Tallulah.”
Tally pressed her breasts against his chest, still moving against him, and whispered back, “Yes.”
Rob rolled her underneath him, pressing her back into the mattress, and kissed her hard. Tally grasped at his back, pulling him closer, their kisses growing more desperate and fervent.
“Yes,” Tally repeated. “Rob, yes.”
He broke the kiss, fumbled in the nightstand, and came away with a condom. Tally let go of him long enough to pluck the condom from his hand and tear open the wrapper. Rob sat up and watched Tally roll the condom down his length. She blew out a nervous little breath, and when she caught his eye, he gave her a small smile before settling back down into her embrace. Tally smoothed his hair, stroked his cheek. Rob’s lips found their way to the soft spot between her jaw and her ear.
He nipped her softly and whispered, “Ready?”
She nodded.
Tally exhaled as Rob slowly slid inside her. He stilled, breathing hard. Rob smoothed her bangs back from her forehead and lowered his head to kiss the side of her mouth.
“You okay?” The little smile reappeared on her mouth as she asked the question.
Rob chuckled against her neck. “Yeah.” He raised his head, looking her in the eyes. “Yeah, I’m good.”
And then he began to move, rolling his hips against hers, their bodies moving in matched rhythm. Tally kept her eyes open, watching a myriad of expressions drift across Rob’s handsome face. She let him adjust her legs and the angle of her body, so that each thrust was perfectly placed to bring her the most pleasure possible. Her orgasm coiled, building as his rhythm increased, until she was thrumming.
Rob stopped moving. He panted and swallowed hard. Tally dragged her fingers over one side of his face, and Rob kissed the palm of her hand. She smiled at him and nodded, and, giving her his whole weight, he began to move again, faster and harder, until they both called out, shouting with their pleasure.
“Tally,” he whispered in her ear. “Sweet Tallulah.”
Tally pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, tasting the salty moisture of his sweat.
“Better?” she asked, prompting Rob to chuckle.
“Yeah. Much. Thank you.” Rob rested his head against the curve of her neck. “Much better.”
“Good.” She licked her lips. “So.”
She felt Rob’s laugh rumble against her skin before he pulled his head up to look at her. “So, as far as our plans for tonight—”
“Why don’t you come over to my place for dinner?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, I saw the frozen meat in the fridge, and I don’t necessarily want a meatsicle for dinner. You’ve had a wild day. You don’t need to worry about cooking.”
“I’d love to.” Rob kissed Tally again. He glanced at the clock. “Wow. It, uh, is later than I realized.”
“Oh, shoot. The bus will be dropping Chloe off soon.”
“You need to get going?”
“Yeah, I do. I need to supervise Chloe before her big date. Prepare a speech to mortify her and whatnot.” Tally chuckled. “See you around seven thirtyish?”
“Okay.” He kissed her again. “Thank you, again.”
“My pleasure.”
“Oh, darlin’, the pleasure was all mine.” Rob laughed, a full-throated sound that made Tally’s stomach flip-flop.
“Rob, it wasn’t all yours. Not at all.” Then she snorted, and Rob kissed her hard, with a smile on his lips.
Tally made it home from Rob’s about five minutes before Chloe was due to get off the school bus. She examined her face and neck in the hall mirror, looking for any signs of recent amorous activities. Other than a tiny bit of beard burn on her jaw, she thought she looked as if it were business as usual. Tally snorted. Yeah, they’d definitely done “the business”.
Truthfully? She would like to do some repeat “business” with Rob McFerrin. Repeat repeat business.
“Good grief, Tally. You need to get a grip.” She also needed to figure out what she was doing for this dinner that she brilliantly suggested.
She had her head deep in the refrigerator when she heard the front door slam.
“Mom! I’m home!”
“In the kitchen, Chloe,” Tally called, though the house was small enough that it wouldn’t take her very long to figure out where Tally was.
“What are you doing?” Chloe eyed the hodgepodge of ingredients on the counter. “I thought you were going to Robbie Mac’s for dinner?”
“Oh, there’s been a change of plans. There was an incident at the orchard, so he’s coming over here.” She gave Chloe the short, G-rated version of what had happened at the Owl Creek Orchards a
nd Vineyards.
“So you didn’t go to work today.”
“Well, I did, but then Barrett Hayes came in to help Bunny with a delivery and was talking about the fire. I . . . we talked and, with all the mess over there, decided to move the dinner here.” Tally stopped rummaging through the pile of produce on the counter. “Why?”
“Because your shirt is on inside out.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “At least you didn’t have a meeting or anything, like when you had your sweater on inside out and backward during Curriculum Night.”
Tally looked down, and sure enough, the seams of her T-shirt were on the outside. So much for putting herself together afterward.
“I’m gonna start getting ready.” Chloe kissed her mom on the cheek. “You sure you’re okay? You look . . . funny again.”
“I’m fine. Just trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to fix. I wasn’t thinking when I invited him over; it just came out.”
“Duh, Mom—ravioli lasagna! Then a salad and some bread. Boom.” More eye-rolling. “I swear, Mom. You are not very good at this dating thing.”
“Well, I’m a bit out of practice.” Tally fidgeted with the hem of her T-shirt. “Chloe, I need you to be completely honest with me. Is this okay with you? Me dating?”
“It’s weird, but not being in California is weird, and you and me not living with Daddy is weird.” She shrugged. “So I guess it’s not any weirder than anything else around here. I mean, this school has a competitive fishing team, Mom. A fishing team. How do you fish as a team? This place is so bizarre.”
Tally couldn’t help but laugh at Chloe’s obvious disapproval. “Well, we do live where there are tons of rivers and lakes. It kind of makes sense.”
“Kind of.” She threw up her hands. “Okay, I’m really gonna go get ready.”
Tally leaned against the cabinet and closed her eyes. Was this dating? Was this just sex? Friends with benefits? A mistake? No, what happened earlier at Rob’s wasn’t a mistake, at least she didn’t think so. Whatever it was, she and Rob would talk about it, and hopefully, they’d end up on the same page.
“Okay, Tallulah. Time to get to work,” she murmured to herself. She pulled out the cutting board and got to chopping vegetables.
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Tally eyed Chloe’s jiggling knee. “You nervous?”
“A little.” Chloe grinned. “Okay, a lot.”
“It’s exciting.”
Chloe nodded. “Yeah, it is.”
“You look very pretty.”
“Thank you. And thanks for doing my braid.” Chloe’s hand drifted over the complex plaiting. “It’ll definitely stay put.”
“I hope I didn’t pull it too tight.”
“No, but Botox hasn’t got anything on you. My face doesn’t move.” Chloe pressed her fingers to her temples.
Ding dong.
“I’ll get it, Mom.”
“Oh, no. I’ll get it.” Tally patted Chloe on the knee and got up from the couch. She took a deep breath and opened the front door. “Hello, Court—oh.”
Rob stood on the front porch, a bouquet of bright flowers in his hands. Next to him stood a nervous Courtney Masters, also with flowers.
Rob grinned.
Courtney squirmed.
And then Chloe stepped up behind Tally and huffed out an irritated snort. “Mom! Are you going to let them in?”
Tally stepped aside and motioned for the men to come inside. Rob nudged Courtney, who stammered a greeting as he crossed the threshold, before thrusting the bouquet at Chloe. Chloe beamed and went to the kitchen, Courtney trailing behind her.
“Hi,” Rob said before grinning even wider at Tally and stepping inside the door. He offered up the bouquet. “These are for you.”
Tally inhaled the heady scent of the flowers. “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”
Chloe, who had silently reappeared in the living room hissed, “Mom! We’re going to be late!”
Tally treated Rob to a Chloe-worthy eye-roll. “Let’s send these two off, and then we can do our thing.” Rob’s lip twitched, and she hissed, “Don’t be dirty.”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” Rob replied with barely contained amusement.
“So . . . you’re off to dinner and the movies, huh?” Tally smiled brightly, probably too brightly, at the young man.
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll be at Hearth on the Square, and then we’re going to Ellijay to check out the new cineplex that just opened.”
The two locked eyes for a minute, and then Tally nodded. “That sounds fun. Okay, you two, I guess I’ll see you later?”
“Finally. Bye, Mom,” Chloe kissed her mother’s cheek. “Bye, Rob.”
“See ya, Chloe. Good to see you again, Courtney.”
“You, too, Mr. McFerrin.”
The two teenagers practically ran from the house. Rob, who was still standing in the entryway, stood on his tiptoes and peeked out the window at the top of the door.
“What are you looking at?” Tally asked.
“Making sure that knucklehead opens the car door for her and whatnot.”
Tally heard a car door shut and then a pause, long enough to walk around a car, before she heard another door shut and the engine roar.
Rob nodded. “Yeah, he did. I figured he would, but you never know.” Rob stepped away from the door and crossed the living room to stand directly in front of Tally.
She sniffed the flowers again and gave him a shy smile. “I’m going to put these in water. Come with me to the kitchen?”
As Tally moved around the small kitchen, retrieving a vase for the flowers, she was very conscious of Rob’s big body standing next to the counter. She wanted to talk about what happened earlier that day, but then again, she didn’t, because what if he said it was a mistake? But on the other hand, what if he didn’t think it was a mistake but didn’t want them to date or whatever it was that they were doing? What if he just wanted a friend with some benefits? Would that necessarily be a bad thing? After all, they were both busy, and, heck, technically, she wasn’t even single.
“Whoo, girl. Do I need to go, because you’ve apparently got all the company you need inside that pretty head of yours?”
“Rob, I am a crazy lady.” There. She’d put it out there. She braced herself, even closing her eyes in preparation for his rejections, but all she heard was . . . laughing?
Tally opened one eye and found Rob leaning on the cabinet, grinning at her. “I said, I’m a crazy lady.”
Rob shrugged. “And?”
“I’m a lunatic!”
“Do you think I don’t know that?”
Tally spluttered. “Well, uh, wha—”
He caught her mouth with his, effectively shutting down her protests, before releasing her and giving her a look of smug satisfaction. “Ask me anything you want,” he said. “No holds barred.”
“What’s the deal with you and Courtney? Is he a horrible person? Someone I need to discourage Chloe from seeing? Not that it would work . . .”
“Nah. He . . . is kind of a pushover. Back in the spring, before you got here, I’d hired some guys to work for me. Picking fruit, labeling product, that sort of thing. I never let them handle any of the spirits, of course, but I didn’t see a problem with the ciders and the syrups.”
“But . . .”
“I caught Courtney labeling ’shine as cider and sneaking it out. He took just a few gallons, but, you know, the ’shine retails for fifteen, twenty bucks a bottle, and you can get five bottles from a gallon. That adds up.” Rob shrugged. “I fired him, but I’ll tell you what—he didn’t rat on his friends or tell who put him up to it.”
“Oh, you think someone dared him or threatened him?”
“Oh yeah, no doubt in my mind. As far as I know, he’s not a partier.”
Tally dropped her head back. “Oh, thank goodness. I was dreading this conversation.”
“Darlin’, if I were truly worried about Chloe hanging out with him, I would have told
you about it and told him to fuck right on off and to never talk to Chloe again.”
“Like you did with Chad.”
He leaned close to her. “Exactly like I did with Chad,” he said, his voice low and serious.
“I’m still not one hundred percent happy with you about that.”
“I know, but that’s too bad. The dude’s a prick, and a bully, and I wasn’t gonna have him anywhere near her. Or you.”
“Thank you. But don’t do it again. Tell me, and I’ll handle it.” Tally couldn’t keep herself from running her hand across Rob’s broad chest. “Okay?”
He grasped her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “Okay.”
“Can I get you something to drink while we wait?”
“I brought wine.”
“Oh, of course you did,” she said, just noticing the cooler that Rob had set on the table.
“If you’ve got a wine opener, I’ll get started.”
Tally handed him a bottle opener, and Rob got to work opening the bottle. While he was doing that, she got some wineglasses out of the cabinet and put them on the table next to the cooler. He filled each glass generously and handed one to Tally.
“To friends and dinner dates,” he toasted.
“To friends and dinner dates,” Tally repeated and brought the glass to her lips.
Okay, Tally. You cannot spend the entire evening analyzing every word that comes out of this man’s mouth. You’ll drive yourself nuts.
“Tally, babe, talk to me. There’s something bothering you.”
Tally blew out her breath but gave him a shy smile. Here goes. “Well—”
The timer buzzed, causing Tally to jolt. “I need to get the food out of the oven.”
Whew. Talk about being saved by the bell.
Rob could feel Tally’s eyes on him as he did the dishes.
“What? You’ve never seen a man in an apron before?” Rob winked at her and pointed at the frilly thing he’d tied around his waist just to lighten the mood.
“Actually, I can’t say I have. Dad and Greg wouldn’t be caught dead in an apron.”
“Not even one of the manly grilling ones?” Rob snapped a dish towel in her direction and commenced drying off the now-clean casserole dish.
