Heron's Landing: The Complete Series

by Iris Morland

  He palmed her ass. A flush had darkened his cheekbones, and his chest rose and fell in heavy breaths. As he watched her, she pulled the crotch of her panties aside and fitted his length against her sheath. And then she slowly sat back and impaled herself on him. It was pure ecstasy: full and hot inside of her, and she flexed herself around him just to hear him groan.

  “God, Kat, you’re going to kill me,” he said again as he reached behind her and unhooked her bra, freeing her breasts to his hungry mouth as he sat up against the headboard. He sucked her nipples as she began to ride him, her hands on his shoulders as she used him as leverage.

  “Gavin, Gavin, Gavin.” She couldn’t stop saying his name, couldn’t stop moaning as she rode his cock, feeling him impale her over and over again, his hot mouth still playing with her breasts.

  Another orgasm coiled in her belly, and she picked up her rhythm, which caused him to grab her ass and move with her. The combined effort sent her into a tailspin, and she was so close to catching that second climax that she could taste it on her tongue.

  “I’m so close.” She gripped his shoulders as she ground against him.

  He reached between them, and he rubbed her clit with his thumb. She groaned to the ceiling. “Come for me,” he breathed against her neck. “Come for me, my beautiful Kat.”

  That was all she needed. Her climax exploded over her, and she milked his cock with every spasm. He moaned as he started to come with her. Her vision filled with stars, and she had to grip his shoulders to keep herself from floating away entirely.

  When she collapsed against him, both of them panting and sweaty, her mind felt strangely, blessedly empty. She breathed and kissed his neck, not wanting to part from him or even leave this bed. If she could, she’d stay here for the rest of her life.

  But reality always came calling, and eventually, he nudged her off of him. She complied with a sigh, rolling onto the bed as he got rid of the condom. When she realized that her glasses had steamed up, she couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Do I want to know why you’re laughing?” He lay down next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I was laughing because that was the most ridiculous sexual encounter I’ve ever had.” She poked him in between his furrowed brows, and couldn’t help but laugh again.

  “If by ridiculous you mean fucking amazing, then I agree,” he said as he grabbed her ass. “If I were ten years younger, I’d do it all over again.”

  She released a heavy sigh. “I guess I could endure it a second time…”

  That earned her a smack on her ass, which made her squeak and then burst out laughing. He looked rather like a bear now, instead of a rumpled lion. Definitely a carnivore, she thought to herself, and quite liable to eat her up in one gulp if she weren’t careful.

  They cuddled for a while longer before Kat got up, mostly because she needed to take a shower. Gavin sighed as he let her rise, and then he sighed again when she made a point to bend down in front of him to pick up her discarded bra.

  “Go take a shower, otherwise I’m hauling you back into this bed,” he growled.

  She winked at him over her shoulder. “Promises, promises.”

  After she took a quick shower, she went into the kitchen to find Gavin stirring something. She sniffed the air, then wrinkled her nose. “Are you making ramen?”

  “Yep.” He flipped off the burner knob and doused the noodles and water with the sodium-packet flavor packets. “I made you some, too. Gourmet and all.”

  It was so stupid, but her heart fluttered at the gesture. The man was making her a heart attack in a bowl, and she was getting gooey feelings over it? She wanted to slap her own forehead. Hadn’t she just told herself she wasn’t going to do this? And look what had happened. She’d had the best sex of her life and was about to profess her undying love because Gavin had made her chicken-flavored ramen noodles.

  She stilled at the word love floating through her mind. She refused to think she was in love with him. Infatuation? Yes. Desire? Absolutely. But love? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

  But as he kissed her and made her laugh the rest of the evening, his hands roaming everywhere, she knew her arguments against the idea of loving Gavin Danvers were flimsy at best. And that was what scared her the most: that she’d given her heart to him without even putting up a fight in the first place.

  “PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS?”

  Kat jumped, and Silas laughed at her expression. “Jesus, you scared me!” she said.

  He handed her a cup of coffee. “Sorry. I know you’re on edge lately, and for good reason.” He looked her over. “How are you doing?”

  Instead of answering, she sipped her coffee. Oh, fine. Someone’s threatening me, I slept with a man who’s a hotter mess than I am, I want to sleep with him again even though it’d be a bad idea, etc.

  “I’m doing all right. I got the window boarded up at the house, and they were able to clean off the paint.” She sighed. At the moment, she was on her lunch break at school, and she’d rather hoped to keep to herself. But Silas was her friend, and she knew he was worried about her. He also knew about her predilection for coffee in the early afternoon, bless him.

  “Are you still staying at Gavin’s place?” He didn’t look at her when he asked the question, which made Kat tense.

  “For now, yeah. I’d rather not be alone if something else should happen.”

  Silas grimaced. “Just thinking about what could’ve happened to you.” He turned toward her, his gaze serious. “You know you can always stay with me, right?”

  “I do. Thank you.” She pressed his hand. “Seriously. You’ve been a lifesaver these past few weeks.”

  “Kat…” His knee brushed hers, and then his hand was on her elbow. “Have you thought about what I asked? I mean, about us?” When she didn’t reply, he added, “I know it’s a bad time. I do. But I’m worried about you. I could help you. Take care of you. And I’m not sure Gavin Danvers is the best man to do it.”

  That caused her to bristle. She set her coffee down on the bench. “Do you even know Gavin?”

  “I know enough about him. I know that he’s messed up from his marriage, and that he’s not going to commit to anyone. Not right now. And not with his daughter having issues.” Silas’s eyes were beseeching, and Kat couldn’t find the strength to argue with him. “I care about you, Kat.” He made a noise in the back of his throat. “That’s not true—I mean, I love you. I love you, Kat.”

  Kat sat there, stunned. She’d known Silas was interested in her and cared about her, but love? It was too much, and with everything going on. She slumped next to him, so exhausted she couldn’t even move away.

  “Kat, say something.”

  “I can’t, Silas.” Her voice was a whisper, and he had to lean toward her to hear her. “Not right now. I’m sorry. I do care about you, though. As a friend.” She grimaced at that, but it was true. He was a friend, and had always been just that.

  Silas took his hand from her elbow. He stared off in front of them, and she wondered if he was angry. But when he spoke, it wasn’t anger lacing his voice. It was resignation. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

  Her world tilted on its axis. She almost blurted out a denial, but she bit her tongue. “I don’t know,” she answered, her heart pounding in her chest.

  “I think you do know, and I wish you weren’t. Not just for me—although I’m selfish enough to admit that’s part of it—but because I think you’re going to get your heart broken.” He rose from the bench, but not before adding, “Just, watch yourself, Kat. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

  Her emotions were so snarled that she couldn’t figure out how she felt. Part of her was angry at Silas’s warning, while another part of her was terrified he was right. Did she love Gavin? Maybe she did. Maybe she’d fallen for him the first time they’d kissed, or when she’d seen him taking care of Emma.

  She took a deep breath and finished her coffee, almost laughing at everything
that had been happening. Maybe I should message Marcus and tell him my life is fucking crazy right now, she thought dazedly. Her ex had been messaging her on and off, but his replies had only reminded her of why she’d broken up with him in the first place. Because every time she saw his messages, she compared him with another man, a man who’d gotten under her skin and, she was afraid, deep inside her heart that she was only going to get hurt in the end.

  11

  “Dad, I can’t wake up Mom. Please come home.”

  Gavin had been at work when Emma had called him after finding Teagan unconscious on the bathroom floor. As he’d left work, he’d called 911 and prayed to every deity he could think of that his wife wasn’t already dead.

  “I’ll be there as fast as I can. Can you go to the front door and make sure to open it if the police get there before me?”

  He didn’t want to think about how calm his seven-year-old daughter was in the face of this trauma, or how he had to ask her to be there to let the paramedics in to help Teagan. He didn’t think about anything as he drove home. Anger roiled through him with such intensity that at a stoplight, he had to lay his forehead on the steering wheel to catch his breath.

  How could she do this? he couldn’t stop thinking. It was the mantra running through his mind when he arrived home to see an ambulance with its lights flashing out front and a fire truck not far behind. It was the thought that wouldn’t leave him when he found Emma in the living room, waiting for him. They were the words he couldn’t shake as he watched the paramedics take Teagan out of the house on a stretcher after they’d told him she was alive but needed to have her stomach pumped.

  Gavin didn’t like to leave Teagan alone with Emma, but she’d been doing better lately, so he’d given in when she’d told him to stop hovering. He’d gone to work like it was any other day. But that had all ended when Teagan had decided she’d prefer to take a bottle of painkillers in her suicide attempt, leaving her own daughter to find her.

  Gavin had kept those memories at bay recently, but Teagan had called him this morning to talk to Emma. Everything had come rushing back, and as he worked at River’s Bend today, all he could see was Teagan’s lifeless body on that stretcher, and the wide eyes of his daughter, who’d never been the same since.

  He knew, logically, he shouldn’t blame Teagan for what she’d done. She was ill. But anger still roiled in his gut anyway, and today it came back in a flood of resentment and fury. Not so much for himself, but for Emma. How could a mother do that to her own daughter?

  He leaned against the wall behind the vineyard’s main building, closing his eyes. He tried to get himself in check, but he could hear Teagan’s voice teasing his senses. I hope you guys are doing okay, she’d said in that voice he’d gotten to know better than his own. I miss you. Both of you. But I’m doing better now.

  He was glad she was doing better, but it was too late to feel anything but an exhausted kind of gratitude. Teagan was no longer his wife, and until she was really better, she wasn’t a mother, either. She loved Emma—he knew that—but her absence still hurt them both.

  The worst part of it was the feeling that he’d failed them. He couldn’t save Teagan, and now, he wasn’t sure he could save Emma, either.

  “Gavin.”

  He looked up to see Kat walking toward him, and he blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. For some reason, seeing her here seemed out of place. Today she wore black jeans and a bright yellow top, her hair in her usual afro. He swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. Had it really been only half a day since he’d had her in his bed? He hardened instantly just from sheer proximity, and it took all his strength not to push her up against the wall behind him and take her again.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I tried to find some kind of excuse, like you’d left something at the apartment, but there’s no point in lying. I wanted to see you.” She stepped closer, her hands in her pockets. “Stupid, right? It’s not like I wasn’t going to see you later this evening.”

  “Not stupid at all.” His voice was hoarse, especially when she pressed her hands against his chest.

  “Sometimes I wonder if this is all a dream,” she murmured. “If I’ll wake up and be alone again, if I’ve conjured you into being.” She gazed up at him, her dark eyes wide. “You are real, right?”

  He laughed a little. “As far as I know, yes.”

  It was inevitable that he’d kiss her. She stood on the balls of her feet as they kissed, and he wrapped his arms around her. She tasted like sweetness and light, her lips silky and soft. He pressed his hardened cock against her, just because he wanted her to know how he felt every time she was near.

  “I want to take you until you forget your own name.” He licked her jaw, and she shuddered. “Make you come until you scream.”

  “Then do it.”

  It was like something burst inside of him. With a groan, he moved so she was against the wall behind them, knowing that everyone had gone home for the day. But that didn’t stop a thrill from running through him at the idea of getting caught. For Kat, it was worth it.

  He scattered kisses across her cheeks and down her throat, tonguing the indentation between her collarbones. She ran her fingers through his hair and her hands moved up his shoulders as he feasted.

  He kneeled in front of her, and she looked down at him with heat in her eyes. “Let me taste you,” he muttered, unbuttoning her jeans to get to her wet center.

  Her head thunked against the wall behind her when he pulled her panties down to her knees. “Gavin, are you sure? Outside?”

  “Nobody’s around.” He kissed her hip, fluffing the curls hiding her core. “Let me do this.”

  She sighed. “Don’t let me be the one to say no to having a guy go down on me.”

  He laughed. Parting her, he took in her musky scent, laving her with his tongue. She let out a moan that turned higher pitched when he licked her over and over. Her wetness coated his tongue, and God Almighty, he couldn’t get enough. When he inserted the tip of his tongue inside of her, she shivered. He held her to his mouth, not letting her get away.

  He played with her, building her climax, and when he only circled her clit, she swore at him. He smiled. Just as she was about to throttle him, he sucked her clit into his mouth and drew on it, the bud swollen and begging for his touch. She said his name over and over again as she clutched at his head. When he pushed a finger inside of her as he tongued her clit, she shimmied and shook, and he felt her sheath contract around his finger before her orgasm burst upon her.

  She arched against him, but he didn’t let her go until he’d milked every contraction from her. “Jesus Christ,” she kept muttering, breathing hard. “Jesus motherfucking Christ.”

  He stood up and fumbled with his clothing, but not before pulling a condom from his wallet. Her lips quirked into a smile as she took it from him. “Somebody was prepared,” she said.

  “Thank God for that.” He groaned when she rolled the latex down his cock, and then he groaned again when he pushed at her entrance. She took hold of his cock and then he was sheathed inside of her wet heat. “Fuck, you feeling amazing.”

  “So do you.” Her breath warmed his throat. “Take me, Gavin.”

  He didn’t need to be told twice. He hooked his hand underneath her leg for leverage, pumping inside of her in a ruthless rhythm. Licking her throat, he felt his cock get even harder as he fucked her. She moaned and dug her nails into his shoulders, and the sound of their lovemaking only heightened his arousal.

  When he felt her squeezing around his cock, he thrust harder, brushing against her clit with each movement. He saw her pupils dilate right before she reached climax, her nails digging even harder into his shoulders. She’d probably drawn blood, but he didn’t care. As her sheath contracted around his cock, that sent him over, and he flooded her with his own release. He kissed her wildly, his tongue tangling with hers as they came together, their mutual orgasms sending them
both into a tailspin of pleasure.

  The words I love you flashed in his head, and he almost blurted them out. But he bit his tongue, not wanting to ruin this moment. He didn’t know if he could love someone else again. But as he withdrew from her and she kissed him so sweetly, his heart clenched despite himself.

  They righted their clothing, laughing a little, and Gavin took her to a nearby bench so they could catch their breath. Sweat had beaded on their foreheads despite the cool weather. He went inside the vineyard’s main building to fetch them bottles of water, and he handed her one with a smile. “Don’t want to get dehydrated,” he said by way of explanation.

  She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, I think.” She lifted the bottle and took a long drink, her throat moving as she swallowed. “Most guys just like to spoon, but I think this is the best after-sex gift I’ve ever gotten.”

  He grinned. “Told you you’d get thirsty.”

  After they had drunk their fill, Kat leaned against his shoulder, and he placed an arm around her. He knew this little idyll couldn’t last, but he stupidly hoped it would. Those treacherous words filled his mind again—I love you—but he refused to let them free.

  God, he’d never acted like this before. He’d only ever had sex in a bed, yet with Kat, he couldn’t control himself. The scariest part was that it wasn’t just that he desired her: it was that he wanted to be with her every hour of every day.

  In a world all his own, he didn’t hear Kat’s words at first. “What did you say?”

  “I asked what we’re doing.” She sat up so she could look him in the eye. “Or more specifically, what do you think it is?”

  He rubbed a hand against his beard. He wasn’t stupid enough not to know what a potential minefield that question was. He weighed the pros and cons of honesty versus softening the blow. Remembering their conversation last night—about how Kat didn’t want to be some “rebound chick”—he finally replied, “I don’t know.”