Hope Falls_Off-Limits Love

by Elisabeth Grace

  Georgia’s arms snaked around his waist from behind, and she leaned her head against his back. He’d been so deep in thought that he hadn’t even heard her approach.

  “I’m sorry if I upset you,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just not a topic I’m ready to talk about.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, but he heard the disappointment in her voice.

  Everett spun to face her and looked down into her eyes. Her mouth was dipped slightly at the corners.

  “Don’t take it personally,” he said. “I don’t discuss it with anyone, least of all a girl I’ve become infatuated with in the short time I’ve known her.”

  A small grin played on her face. “Is that so? Infatuated, you say?”

  He wrapped his hands around her waist then let them slide down to cover the curve of her ass. “It seems that way.” Everett nuzzled the curve of her neck, peppering light kisses on the column of her throat. “You’re all I think about, Georgia. No matter how much I try to push you from my mind…there you are.” He ran his tongue up her neck and gently nipped her earlobe to punctuate his point.

  Georgia dropped her head back with a sigh, her hands in his hair. “I know we shouldn’t do this…” she said, her voice breathy as he continued along to the other side of her neck. “It could end badly and we’d still have to see each other because of Deanna…but I don’t want to stop.”

  Everett framed her face with his hands and, with a deep inhale, allowed himself to step off the edge of the proverbial cliff and into free-fall—falling into what, he didn’t know.

  “We’re not stopping,” he said. “Not this time.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Everett’s hands closed around her waist, and he lifted her up onto the edge of the counter spanning the small island in the middle of the kitchen. Looking at her with half-lidded eyes full of pent-up desire, he leaned in to take her mouth.

  She wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself against his body and wrapping her legs around his waist, while he ground his erection against her. His groan when they connected had her fingers flexing against his muscled back.

  “There’s no stopping us this time,” he said as he lifted her shirt over her head.

  Georgia sighed as he trailed his tongue along her collarbone. “Definitely no stopping,” she said, her voice sultry.

  He reached around and unclipped her bra. Then he dragged the straps down her arms before tossing it to the side. His gaze raked over her.

  “Beautiful,” he said with reverence.

  And, for the first time in a long time, she felt that way: beautiful, sexy, desirable. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d needed to feel it until now.

  Basking in her new found confidence, she slid off the counter and down to her knees in front of him.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.

  Georgia pushed the hem of his T-shirt up, and Everett took the hint and removed it all together, revealing his muscled torso while she unbuckled his belt and dragged the zipper down on his jeans.

  “Returning the favor from yesterday,” she said.

  Everett pushed his jeans and his boxer briefs down until his erection sprang free. Georgia looked up at him with a sly grin and gripped the thick base. Her tongue flicked out and snaked around the tip, swirling until she covered the head with her mouth and sucked gently.

  “Oh yeah,” he moaned and brought his hands to rest in her hair while she ran her tongue from the base to tip. Then she slid her entire mouth down the length of his erection, drawing in her cheeks as she went. Everett’s grip in her hair tightened, and he moaned his pleasure as he pumped into her mouth.

  She continued fondling, playing, and sucking for a while before Everett stepped back and out of her reach.

  “I need to be inside you.”

  “No argument here,” she said and rose from the floor.

  Everett spun to turn the oven off and took her hand in his, leading her to his bedroom, where he brought her to the edge of the bed and motioned for her to get on. She did, backing herself up until her head rested on the pillows at the head of the mattress.

  He pushed his jeans and his boxers all the way off, removed his socks, and then crawled onto the bed and stalked up to her. “I want to see you.” He undressed her so that she lay fully naked before him. “You’re even more beautiful in real life than I’d imagined.”

  Georgia wiggled under his inspection. “Stop staring at me and come here.”

  He grinned, took each of her ankles, and slowly spread her legs. His gaze dipped to between her legs, and his cock twitched. She was at a loss for words at the intensity of his stare. Everett licked his lips, shifted to drape her legs over his shoulders, and leaned down, opening her with his thumbs before running his tongue from her slit up to her clit, which he covered with his mouth and sucked. Her back arched up off the bed, but Everett held her there with his strong hands on her hips.

  He lapped at her some more, flicking her nub with his tongue to the point that she felt as if she’d splinter into a million fragments. Then he dropped lower, stiffened his tongue, and plunged it in and out of her. This alternating pattern kept up until she was damn near begging for him to finish her off.

  “Everett…no more… I can’t…”

  As if she hadn’t spoken, he continued tasting her like a man starved. He groaned as she ground her hips against him, desperate for orgasm. Every muscle in her body tensed, and her nerve endings tingled in anticipation through every part of her.

  She moaned and fondled her own breasts, wanting, needing more. At last, Everett inserted two fingers inside her, working her in a steady rhythm designed to make her crazy. His mouth covered her mound, and he sucked and flicked at her until she cried out his name, her back arching as bliss spiraled inside her. He slowly brought her down, gently tonguing her and sucking until she’d ridden her climax out and was sated, her legs spread in front of her.

  “You’re amazing,” she said in awe.

  No man had ever made her feel like that. She’d never known such pleasure.

  He chuckled, a self-satisfied grin on his face. “A guy can never hear too much of that in bed.”

  “It’s well deserved,” she panted, still catching her breath.

  “I’m not even close to being finished with you.” He reached to the side of the bed and opened the top drawer of his nightstand, producing a condom. “What kind of man would I be if I allowed you to leave here only having had one orgasm?”

  Georgia’s heart stuttered, missing a beat for a moment before picking up its regular cadence. He smirked as he rolled the condom onto his considerable girth.

  “What are you waiting for, then?” She spread her legs further in invitation.

  Everett crawled over and hovered atop her. “I’m done waiting,” he said, pushing into her.

  She gasped when he was fully seated inside her. The feeling of being so full of him obliterated everything else around her. The plush comforter pressing into her back, the ticking of the clock back in the living room, and how the air in the cabin smelled faintly of firewood. All of it no longer existed.

  “You’re so tight. Never felt anything like it,” he whispered as he held himself still for a moment.

  Georgia’s legs wrapped around his waist, and her fingernails dug into the muscles of his back. Everett began thrusting in and out of her in a delicious friction destined to have her coming apart again in short order. He pounded into her slick heat, and she was panting for air, loving the groans of satisfaction coming from him.

  He slammed into her, held himself there, and then swiveled his hips in a way that teased her clit with the perfect amount of pressure. After a few more times, the building tension burst within her and she came around him as he continued driving into her.

  Once she’d rode out her orgasm Everett stilled, and when she opened her eyes, he was gazing down at her.

  He was propped up on one arm
, and the other hand cupped her jaw. “You look so beautiful when you come.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks. She didn’t know why she was embarrassed about it. The man had just given her two back-to-back orgasms.

  “My turn,” he said with a slight grin, pulling out of her.

  She groaned at the loss.

  Everett dipped his head, took one of her nipples into his mouth, and suckled it. “On your stomach.”

  Oh, she liked where this was going.

  Georgia rolled over onto her front, and Everett’s hands gripped her waist and tugged her hips so she was ass up in front of him. She wiggled, wanting nothing more than for him to be inside her once again.

  He kept one hand at her waist, and the head of his erection prodded at her opening. Everett pushed into her, and she gasped at how deep he was—way deeper than before.

  Squeezing her waist, he pumped in and out of her, and there was nothing gentle about it. His grunts echoed out behind her as, thrust after thrust, he slammed into her. One of his hands snaked around her waist and settled on her mound, rolling in a circular pattern, leaving her on the edge of desperation again.

  “No, Everett…I can’t… Not again.”

  The way her entire body buzzed and her pulse roared in her ears was too intense. She couldn’t handle it. It felt as if she were seconds away from losing all control.

  “Sure you can, peaches.”

  And she did. Her third orgasm of the day obliterated any that had come before it. She screamed and bucked against him as he cried out behind her and, with a few final thrusts, found his own release.

  Everett pulled out of her and fell down beside her on the bed, dragging her over and forcing her to lay on his chest. The reality of what they’d done together gripped her as the post-orgasmic haze lifted.

  “We can’t tell Deanna about this,” she said, panting.

  “Agreed.”

  “She wouldn’t understand.”

  “Nope.”

  “She’d try to make it into something it wasn’t.”

  “What is it?” He dipped his face down to look at her—his eyes serious, his chest still heaving.

  “Two consenting adults who’ve chosen to fornicate for fun?”

  It tasted like a lie on her tongue, but what else could she have said? Everett wasn’t looking for anything serious, and she wasn’t going to, yet again, be the only one who wanted more.

  “I can live with that.”

  It stung a little that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to offer more, but she’d gone into this knowing what the deal was.

  “When are you leaving town?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

  “I have my second interview tomorrow. I’m scheduled to fly out next week.”

  He rolled over and pressed his hardening arousal on her. “So we have a little while longer to enjoy each other.”

  Georgia sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. Partly because her belly was swirling with mental images of what the two of them would be doing for the next week, and partly because the idea of not getting the job and leaving Hope Falls for good hurt more than she had expected.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  When Everett opened the door to the bunkhouse, Georgia was standing there with an eager expression. Once she’d stepped into the house and he’d shut the door, his arms were around her, his lips on hers.

  It’d been like this for the past several days. Deanna was feeling better, but still not one hundred percent, so if they couldn’t meet under the guise of Everett showing her around Hope Falls, she’d sneak out at night or tell her friend she was off for a walk on the nature trail—when, really, she ended up here with him. Something he couldn’t be happier about.

  As their tongues danced and swirled around one another’s he cupped her ass in his hands, and ground her into him. She had such a terrific ass. It was near impossible to keep his hands off it.

  Georgia drew back, and for a second, he was concerned that something was wrong. But, when he saw her expression, he knew he was off base. She smirked up at him. Then she pulled her coat off and let it drop to the floor before removing her boots. Without a word, she strolled around him and to the living area, where she dragged her shirt off over her head and rotated around to face him.

  “You coming?” she asked as she began to undo her belt buckle and her pants. She didn’t wait for his response, heading to the bedroom instead.

  “What are you doing?” he asked after her.

  Then he chuckled. Because really, did he care? She was in the process of getting naked so all was well in his world.

  “I’m eager to climb Mount Everett, and I can’t be gone long,” she replied, all sexiness and sass.

  He threw his head back and laughed. Everett was as eager, if not more, for her to climb on top of him, so he shed his clothes as he followed her to the bedroom. By the time they reached his bed, she was fully naked and he had only his boxers left to lose.

  Georgia nodded toward the bed, indicating that he should lie down on it. He was more than happy to oblige, plopping down in the middle of the mattress, his erection straining the confines of his boxer briefs and begging for attention.

  She crawled up from the bottom of the bed until she was straddling his waist. Her weight settled on top of him and he pushed his hips up, while reaching out to cup her tits. He massaged them, thumbing her puckered nipples back and forth until she sighed and ground against his pelvis.

  “I missed you today,” she said, letting her eyes close and her head fall back.

  He didn’t know how she meant it—whether she missed this or his company in general. One thing he’d come to realize, albeit reluctantly, was that he too missed their connection when she wasn’t around.

  Though they hadn’t known one another for a long time, Georgia had made an impact on his life. She had him thinking about things he hadn’t even considered being a part of his life in longer than he could remember. For so long, he’d been running—from himself, from the memories. She made him want to stop, be still.

  He was shaken from his thoughts when Georgia leaned in to place a kiss on his pec.

  “This body.” She sucked his nipple into her mouth. “It’s so perfect.” Then she tongued her way down the center of his chest.

  She’d just looped her fingers into his underwear to pull them off when his cell phone started ringing from his nightstand.

  “Are you kidding me?” he ground out.

  Georgia reached over to grab it off the nightstand and passed it to him. Dawn’s name lit up the screen, jerking him out of the perfect world he and Georgia had cocooned themselves in. One he needed to remind himself didn’t actually exist, because the past was always waiting for him once Georgia had left his side.

  “Do you need to answer it?” she asked in an unsure voice. His jaw tightened, knowing she’d seen the name on the screen when she’d picked it up.

  “Yeah. I’ll be a minute.” He hit answer on the phone. “Hey, Dawn. How’s it going?”

  “Things are okay here. How are you?”

  “I’m doing good. Still working the ski patrol in Hope Falls.”

  She laughed for a second. “I never know where you’re going to be when I call you. Half the time, I expect you to answer and tell me you’re on the other side of the world.”

  He ran a hand through his hair, hating that he felt so raw and exposed from having to speak to Dawn in front of Georgia. He was opening himself up to all kinds of questions—from both of them.

  “You know I’d never do that without telling you first. How’s Carrie doing?”

  “She’s good. Growing like a weed and learning something new every day.”

  Everett continued his conversation for another few minutes, but Dawn must’ve been able to tell that he wasn’t his usual self. Georgia quietly observed from the end of the bed, her arms wrapped around herself.

  “Did I catch you at bad time?” Dawn asked.

  “Actually, would you mind if I gave you a call tomo
rrow sometime? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

  A crease settled between Georgia’s eyebrows at the way he’d chosen to phrase his response, but he couldn’t very well tell Dawn that he had been seconds away from getting laid when she’d called.

  “Sure thing. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Night, Dawn. Give Carrie a kiss for me.”

  “Will do. Night.”

  The line went dead, and Everett shifted to put the phone back on his nightstand.

  Georgia’s eyes were narrowed as she waited.

  “Before you say anything, it’s not what it sounded like,” Everett said in an attempt to head off an argument.

  “It sounded like you took a phone call from another woman who you’re obviously close with when you were seconds away from sleeping with me.”

  Okay, maybe it was what it had sounded like.

  “I had to take the call. I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Why did you have to take the call, Everett? And who is Carrie?” Her arms shot up at her sides. “Do you have a child?”

  He sat up and cupped her face, willing her to understand. “Trust me. I have my reasons.”

  Georgia crossed her arms over her chest, which only highlighted her nakedness even more. “Not good enough. You’re hiding something. I’ve had this feeling all along that there’s something you’re not telling me, and now, I want to know what it is.”

  Her tone was firm and final, so if he didn’t open up to her, this would be it. She’d walk out the door and the connection they shared would be lost. It was inevitable in a few days anyway, but Everett wanted to delay it as long as possible. Even if it meant he’d have to discuss the single most difficult night of his existence.

  He breathed in deeply, not even sure where to start. He hadn’t discussed what had happened with anyone since that terrifying night three years ago.

  “Back in Sacramento, I used to work as a paramedic. Three years ago, I was on shift. It was late at night, and we got dispatched to respond to a nine-one-one call about an accident on the freeway. It was a three-vehicle crash with multiple victims. One of the victims was trapped in the vehicle. When we arrived, the fire department was already working on extracting the person with the Jaws of Life. When they freed the victim, I realized it was my best friend, Jake. I didn’t even recognize his car at first—that’s how mangled it was.”