He couldn’t hold back—he had to taste her. His lips met hers, and together they created a spark so intense, so dangerous, he worried they’d ignite a forest fire.
When he pulled away, she was panting. Her eyes remained closed as she clung to his arms for balance.
“What do you have to say now, Freedom?”
She opened her eyes, piercing his heart with the heat of her gaze.
“I’m your girl.” She smiled. “Woman.”
“All woman.”
He reached around to cup her muscled ass.
“I do have to go now, though.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised, not quite ready to let her go.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for one more kiss.
The light in the truck went out, and the temptation to toss her back in and climb on top of her was strong.
He didn’t know how he found the strength, but he did manage to resist the urge to go all caveman on her.
“Reed, is that you out there?” A sing-song voice called out.
Reed pushed him aside, straightening her hair as she called back.
“Yeah. I’ll be there in a minute.” Then under her breath, “See? Can’t have a second of privacy.”
“Which sister is that?”
“That would be Simplicity. I’d love to know why she’s out here—it’s got to be after two in the morning by now. Probably out looking for unicorns or something.”
“Unicorns?”
“You’d get it if you met her. Which you won’t, by the way, because I’m sending them off first thing in the morning.”
“I’d love to meet your family.”
She tossed her head back and laughed maniacally.
“You can say that because you haven’t met them. Don’t worry—it’s not happening.”
“What’s not happening?”
The cheery voice snuck up on them, making Reed jump a little before collecting herself and replacing her cuddly spine with the iron one.
“Get back in the house,” Reed ordered through clenched teeth.
“Who is your gentleman friend?”
“House. Now.”
Rogan would have listened to her—she was getting scary with the red face and the wild eyes—but Simplicity continued flitting around like a firefly.
“I’m Simplicity.”
She held her hand out to Rogan.
“Rogan Douglas. Reed’s—”
“Contractor. He’s my contractor. Now get in the house and we’ll talk in the morning.”
“Your contractor, huh?” Simplicity giggled like a little girl. “She’s working you mighty hard, huh, Rogan?”
Rogan tensed. Why did she feel the need to introduce him as her contractor? Hadn’t they just established that this was a relationship?
“If you want a place to sleep tonight, you’d best get back into that house…”
“Okay, okay, silly sister. I’ll leave you two in peace. In case you want to continue ‘discussing business.’” She danced around while making air quotes with her fingers.
“I’m so sorry. I told you my family is a pain.”
He kissed her cheek. “Goodnight.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. I’m tired. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He could feel her eyes following him as he closed the door and walked back to the driver’s side. The ache in his leg reminded him that he had used it too much today. He’d need a hot soak in the tub to help ease the muscles before bed.
He didn’t wait for her to go inside like he normally would. He was too hurt to think.
Chapter Fourteen
She had hurt him. Or pissed him off. Or both.
She greeted him in the driveway before he could get out of his vehicle. Before her nosy sisters could swarm him. Before she lost the chance to apologize.
He opened the door with a bright smile on his face and a bouquet of wild flowers in his hand.
“For you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled back. Maybe she had read him wrong. “I thought you were mad at me.”
“Why would I be?” He kissed her forehead. “Did you stand out here all night?”
“No. I pulled all of the mattresses from the cabins.” She gestured to a giant pile with one hand and rubbed her lower back with the other. “The new ones are coming by the end of this week.”
“They would have done that, you know. Or I would have.”
He narrowed his eyes, glaring at her.
“I know, but I really wanted to finish painting the walls and sanding the floors. I can’t help with the structural stuff, but I can do my part of the manual labor.”
He nodded, his worry lines fading.
She took his relaxed facial expression as an invitation to clear away any potential awkwardness from the night before.
“I apologize for my strangeness last night. I don’t know why I introduced you as my contractor. I guess I just wanted to keep our budding relationship to myself. I’m not ready to share with my unwelcome guests, even though they’re pretty convinced of the truth, anyway.”
“Can’t hide that loving feeling, huh?”
He joked, but it was true. She had ducked all of their taunting that morning, but when she got out of the shower and caught a glimpse of her reflection, she surprised herself with her constant smile.
She couldn’t help it. Even though she knew she was stupid, she couldn’t stop thinking of him. And when she thought of him, she smiled.
She had been in a lust-drunk haze last night when she agreed that they were together in a semi-official way. She didn’t know how to undo that, or whether she even should.
For now, she’d go with the flow.
Like her mother would have advised her to do.
“What do you plan to work on today?” She hoped to get him alone at some point. She had tried to get her sisters to agree to leave peacefully, but they argued that they should stay for the Fourth of July festivities. She planned to keep very busy today in an attempt to avoid them.
“Working on that cottage down back—I’d like to get the roof patched up and the interior walls ripped out so we can fix the mold problem.”
She nodded.
“Okay, then. Thanks for the flowers.”
He paused, not moving away like she thought he would. He started to reach out to her, but then shoved his hands in his pockets instead.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but quickly closed it and turned toward the shed, where he’d retrieve his tools.
She closed her eyes and willed her heart to stop pounding.
A few hours later, Paisley whistled into the cottage Reed was working in.
“I’m taking Simplicity into town to get some burgers for lunch. You have a grill, right?”
“There’s an old one over there,” Reed gestured to the main house. “Don’t know if it works, though.”
“I’ll get you a new one.”
“Don’t you dare,” Reed warned.
“It’ll be my housewarming gift. Besides, we have to have a cookout on the Fourth. That’s one of the only traditions I’ve maintained over the years.”
“Do what you want.”
“You know I will,” Paisley said. “Just like you would.”
Reed threw her paint-soaked rag at her sister.
“That’s evil! You know how much I paid for this shirt? You’re lucky you missed.”
“Get out of here with your fancy clothes.”
Reed smiled, knowing she would have had the same reaction only a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe the fresh New Hampshire air really was changing her.
As soon as her sisters pulled out of the driveway, Reed rushed to the main house so she could freshen up and wash the paint from her hands. She pulled out an old piece of stationary from the ancient desk near the living room window, then created a simple do and don’t intimacy list. She couldn’t wait to share it with Rogan so they could move on to
the next level of this so-called relationship.
***
Rogan dropped his hammer as soon as he noticed Reed approaching. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked toward her.
“Everything okay?”
“Oh, yes, of course. My sisters just left—”
“Yeah? You won?” He grinned. Of course she won. She was the frigging CEO of the world.
“Not exactly.” She fiddled with a piece of paper in her hand. “They’re coming back. But since we had a few minutes alone, I wanted to…”
He closed the distance between them before she could finish her sentence. He’d been dying to sweep her up since he had arrived this morning, but he was trying to be respectful of her need for privacy.
After a moment of sweaty kissing—enough to make his southern friend stand up and holler for more—she brought her hands to the front of his shoulders and pushed away.
“Wait. I have something for you,” she said.
“And I have something for you.”
“Yes, well, I’m hoping to make good use of that something later on. After the fireworks. Don’t worry, I have it all planned out. But first, while I have you alone, I need you to review this.”
She held out the piece of paper she had been clutching.
He reached over to scrape a dot of dried paint off her cheek, then tucked an escaped tendril of hair behind her ears. Her ponytail wagged on the back of her head as she shook her head at him.
“Read it, please.”
He unfolded the musty-smelling paper, smiling at her perfect, artistic strokes of the pen.
His smile faded when he started reading.
“Are you serious?” He looked up from the paper, shocked beyond comprehension. What the bloody hell?
She crossed her arms over her chest, and he could tell she was nibbling the inside of her lip.
“Of course. I told you there were rules.”
“You don’t think I could figure out how to make you hot?”
“Actually, you’ve really amazed me with your perception. But I wanted to make sure to outline precisely what gets the job done. You know, so we have a good experience.”
He stepped closer so they were toe to toe. She stepped back, looking everywhere but at him.
“No oral sex?”
“Sorry, that’s where I draw the line.”
He ripped the paper in half and tossed it over his shoulder.
“What are you—”
He caught her outraged shriek in his mouth, swallowing her protests as he mentally planned to break every single rule.
He lifted her into his arms, ignoring the “no carrying me like a child” rule. He kissed her into compliance as he delivered her to the old carousel in the woods. He had cleared away all of the weeds in an attempt to get her to see that it could be rehabbed, and now it provided the perfect shelter for teaching her why her rules were idiotic.
“No tearing your clothes off?” he said.
Her eyes widened.
“Of course not. That’s a very important rule, because one time I—”
Carefully and deliberately, he ripped her shirt right down the middle.
“Are you insane?” she screeched, but he noticed the hardening of her nipples beneath her thin, lacy bra.
Her protests died as his tongue found her breasts and her glorious pink nipples. Her back arched, pushing her hips into him as her fingers dove into his hair.
His hand wandered over her flat stomach, toyed with her belly button, then hovered over the button on her jeans. He lingered there for a moment, not wanting to rush things, but wanting to build her heat.
He flicked the button open and unzipped, caressing her silk panties as he lowered the zipper.
He could feel her need. Could smell her desire. Could taste her passion.
Rogan brought his hand up to her other nipple, where he flicked and tweaked as she moaned and writhed on the dirty metal floor.
She was no longer the one in charge. He owned this moment.
“Oh my god, Rogan!”
His name on her lips was almost his undoing.
He wanted to plunge his way into her—had been wanting to do that for way too long.
But he wanted to torment her even more.
He wanted her to learn to live and love without all the rules.
He wanted to help her find the free-spiritedness she craved.
And he wanted to drag this moment out for as long as humanly possible. Until he exploded and drifted off into the universe, anyway.
After delivering some gentle nibbles to her breasts, he started kissing his way down, following the path forged by his drifting hand. Her skin was hot to the touch, and when he blew on it, goosebumps erupted.
“Rogan, kiss me.”
He didn’t answer, but that’s what he planned to do.
He yanked her jeans down, exposing her pastel pink panties. He wanted what was beneath them.
She didn’t tense or demand that he stop—thankfully. He would have had to respect her wishes, but he hoped she was ramped up enough not to notice he was breaking her big rule. The one she had written in all caps.
He kissed her through her panties, slipping his finger around the leg band to tease her senses.
Her pelvis rose to meet his touch, his kiss. An unspoken invitation. He couldn’t turn it down.
He ripped her panties off from the side, exposing her to the daylight.
He paused for a heartbeat, taking in the beauty of this woman. He slipped a finger into her, watching her reaction as he moved to the rhythm her body demanded.
She thought he needed a list? Her body knew exactly how to tell him what she wanted.
She opened wide for him, allowing him to see every soft, glorious bit of her.
Unable to hold back, he allowed his lips and tongue to join his finger.
Rogan brought her to orgasm. He wondered if she’d still be upset that he broke the rule.
As her body settled down and her muscles relaxed, he toyed with her in a more soothing way, eager to keep her fires burning enough to continue the fun.
She bolted upright, and Rogan thought he was in trouble. The after-orgasm glow had faded, in spite of his efforts, and now she’d ream him a new one about tearing up her list and blatantly violating her wishes.
Shit.
She surprised him by pushing him to the side, slipping her jeans and what remained of her panties off, and climbing on top of him, straddling him and cradling his erection between her thighs.
He closed his eyes for a second, trying desperately to maintain his cool so he didn’t come in his pants.
Her hair grazed his belly and her hands toyed with his button. When had she lost the ponytail? Why was he thinking of that when her hand was slipping into his pants and onto his—Whoa.
“Hold on one sec,” he growled, his voice so low, he wasn’t sure she heard him.
“That’s what I’m doing.”
He tried to sit up, but she pushed him back down with one firm hand on his chest and one still in his pants.
She was definitely in charge.
He happily surrendered to her.
Lost in the sensation of her hands on his pride and joy and her mouth kissing his chest and his belly, he hadn’t registered where she was going until he was in her mouth, with her tongue swirling like she was savoring him.
“Reed—Freedom.”
She ignored him.
“Holy Batman. Freedom. You don’t have to—oh god—you don’t have to do th-that.”
She must have been shushing him, but he only felt the vibration against his unthinking head.
If she didn’t stop now…
Though it was perhaps the last thing he actually wanted to do, he pulled her away, holding her arms over her head with one hand as he reached into his pocket to retrieve a condom.
“Let me,” she purred.
He opened his hand to let her have at it.
He shocked himself by not finishing as she ro
lled the condom onto him. Slowly. Deliberately. Licking her lips as she tortured him.
He struggled to kick off his boots, but they wouldn’t budge, so he left his jeans at his ankles and watched her climb on top of him.
Oh good god!
She guided him into her as she moaned and groaned and closed her eyes in what he hoped was ecstasy that matched his.
He had never felt so—
Ohhhhhhhh.
They cried out together, and he gripped her hips as she increased her pace, driving him mad with the friction and tightness.
He felt her tighten around him at the exact moment when he couldn’t hold back any longer.
She collapsed on top of him, slippery from sweat and exertion. He clutched her to him, unwilling to ever let her go.
This was the real deal.
She belonged to him.
He felt himself drift off to sleep, exhausted from holding back for so long. He hadn’t slept much the previous night. He smiled when he realized how much of an idiot he really was—how he had let something so small bother him.
She pinched his nipple and he bolted upright.
“Sleeping on the job, mister?” She smiled saucily.
“Can’t help it. You wore me out.”
“Ready to go again?”
“Are you trying to kill me? Has that been your plan all along?” He reached out to tickle her, but she dove backward with the grace of a gymnast.
“If you don’t get this work done on time, I might.”
He watched her slip her pants back on, leaving the torn panties on the ground.
“On second thought, I might kill you now. Am I supposed to go back to my house topless? See why there are rules?”
He hopped up and yanked his pants back on.
“As I recall, you enjoyed breaking the rules.”
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
Her smile lit up her face and made her eyes shine brighter.
“Freedom! We’re back!”
Shit. Her sisters. Heading toward them.
Her face lost all trace of color as she tried to piece her shirt together. He removed his and whipped it over her head, slipped the discarded panties into his pocket, and went back to work as if nothing had transpired.
Without a word, Reed ran up the path toward the house.
A Heart to Call Home Page 13
