by Jami Alden
Damon climbed stiffly out of the cab and walked over to join Dylan in the meager shade offered by his truck. "Christ, who knew driving around could be so damn hard," he said, swiping his hand across his sweat-soaked face.
"Tell me about it. After the first day of mowing, I could barely walk." Though in theory it seemed like it should be easy—if tedious—work, between the hot sun baking the interior of the cab no matter how high he turned the AC, and hours bouncing around uneven terrain on the squishy suspension, he felt almost as wrecked as if he'd hiked twenty miles wearing an eighty pound pack.
He grabbed two bottles of Gatorade and handed one to Damon, who downed it in seconds.
"So what's up with you and Sadie?"
"What makes you think there's anything up?" Dylan said, avoiding his brother's gaze under the guise of retrieving their sandwiches from the cooler.
"Don't bullshit me, I know there's something going on. Mom told me you brought her to dinner the other night."
"We're friends."
"Uh huh. Friends who fuck," Damon said. He unwrapped his sandwich and took a huge bite.
Dylan dug into his own lunch, grateful that his brother's mouth was too full to talk for the moment.
"Girls tell each other everything, you know." Damon said as he finished off the last bite.
"So?"
"So, Sadie and Molly are best friends. Molly and Ellie are sisters..."
Dylan sighed. He'd never been great at algebra but in this case he understood the transitive property. He got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, wondering exactly what was being said. "So if you already know everything, why not say so?"
"I was waiting for you to tell me yourself."
"Not like you to be so passive aggressive," Dylan said as he crumpled up his sandwich wrapper and stuffed it back in the cooler.
"Not like you to be so secretive, especially with me," Damon replied, a hard edge creeping into his voice.
"What's wrong with keeping my sex life private? It's not like I'm asking you for details about you and Ellie."
"I'm not asking for details about your sex life, I'm asking about your life. Ever since you've been back, you've been distant. Not just with me, with all of us."
"Mom put you up to this, didn't she? She told you about my fight with Dad?"
"She's worried about you," Damon said. "We all are. Ever since you moved out here, we barely see you. We barely talk to you. I swear, I talked to you more when you were deployed than I have since you've been home."
"I've been busy," Dylan snapped. "Busting my ass, helping Sadie make sure this place doesn't go under." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry if it seems like I'm avoiding you. You don't need to worry about me. I'm fine, just ready to get back to work."
"Yeah, well you might want to make sure no one gets hurt when you do go back."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Damon took off his ball cap and scrubbed a big hand through his hair. "Sadie's not like the other girls you've hooked up with."
"I don't need you to tell me that." No, he was well aware that Sadie was different in so many ways, not the least of which how she made him feel. "But you don't have to worry. We're both grown ups. She knows what she's doing." Unfortunately he wasn't quite sure he did anymore.
Damon gave him a wry grin and shook his head. "You're probably right. Ellie and Molly keep clucking away, worrying Sadie's going to get her heart broken when you leave, but I told them she's way too smart for that. Like you said, she's having a rough time. She can use the distraction."
Dylan offered up his own feeble smile and climbed back into the cab of his truck. A distraction. Is that how she'd described him to Molly?
The word echoed in his head, making his stomach tighten up around the turkey and swiss he'd just devoured.
Chapter 14
Sadie watched anxiously as gunmetal gray clouds settled over the mountains. Off in the distance lightning streaked across the sky. She counted to ten before the rumble of thunder followed. The storm was still a ways off, but she knew from experience that it could blow right over them in a matter of minutes.
More lightning crackled, and as anxious as she was about Dylan and Damon getting the last of the haying finished, she was even more worried about the men getting caught in an open field during a thunderstorm.
She'd texted Dylan half an hour ago, when she'd seen the thunderheads gathering in the distance. Come back in.
Either he hadn't seen it or had chosen to ignore it, because she hadn't gotten a reply.
"They should come in." Her father echoed her thoughts as he sidled up beside her.
A bolt of lightning streaked from the sky as if to drive the point home. This time she only got to five before the boom of thunder.
The wind kicked up suddenly, sending her hair whipping around her face, and she knew the storm would be directly overhead within minutes.
Moments later, a bolt streaked down, directly over the hay meadow. The sky opened up, rain falling in sheets so heavy she and her father were soaked before they could duck into the barn.
Sadie lingered by the door, peering through the rain for Dylan's truck. She almost wept in relief when she saw it coming up the drive.
She waved, and he pulled the truck up in front of the barn. He and Damon got out and mad a dash for shelter.
"How much did we lose?" Jim asked.
"None. We got the last of it baled just before it started dumping on us." Water dripped down Dylan’s grinning face. He and Damon were both soaked, their shirts clinging like a second skin.
"So we did it?" Sadie asked, almost afraid to believe.
"We did it," Dylan said.
Without thinking, Sadie threw herself into his arms and pulled his head down for a kiss.
It took a few moments of her father's uncomfortable throat clearing for her to remember they weren't alone.
Cheeks flaming, she stepped out of Dylan's embrace. Her father's eyebrows disappeared under the brim of his hat. Damon just shook his head with a knowing grin.
Dylan coughed. "I, uh, sir," he stuttered.
"Nice work," Jim said, and gave Dylan a clumsy pat on the shoulder.
To Sadie's shock, he pulled her in for a hug. She froze for a moment, then awkwardly wrapped her ams around his broad back.
"I'm proud of you, Sadie," he said, his voice rough. "I always knew I could count on you."
He let her go, leaving her off balance. Before she could process the unexpected praise, her father said abruptly, "I have some phone calls to make."
"Stay for a beer?" Dylan asked Damon.
His brother shook his head. "I need to get back to town. Ellie woke up feeling sick this morning and she couldn't get the sitter to come, so I promised I'd get back as soon as I could to help."
"I hope she feels better soon," Sadie said with a pang of guilt that Damon had left his sick fiancée to help.
"Nothing that won't eventually pass," Damon said.
"I can't thank you enough for helping," she said and gave him a quick, fierce hug. "You saved us."
"Hey, don't give him all the credit just because he swooped in at the last minute," Dylan said and gave his brother a friendly punch on the shoulder, followed by a slap on the back.
"You know we couldn't have done it without you."
Damon said goodbye, but first elicited a promise from Dylan to join him and Ellie for dinner soon.
As soon as his truck pulled away, Dylan settled his hands on Sadie's hips and drew her close. He bent his head, his mouth settling on hers. She tasted rain, the salt of sweat, and Dylan's unique, earthy taste that never failed to make her heart beat double time and send heat pooling between her legs.
"How about we go back to my cabin so you can thank me properly?" he said when he lifted his head several moments later.
They ran across the yard, rain pelting their skin. The temperature had dropped several degrees and by the time they made it the short distance Sadie was shivering.
"Shower," he said. He s
hut the front door and slid the bolt lock in place. He reached back and hooked the collar of his shirt in his hand to tug it over his head.
The sight of him, half naked, rivulets of water running down his chest, was enough to make her forget her discomfort.
"Get moving," he said as he bent to unlace his boots. "Your lips are turning blue."
Sadie used the bootjack to remove her own boots, barely slipping her foot out before he grabbed her arm and tugged her toward the bathroom.
He turned on the shower, quickly filling the small space with steam as his fingers plucked at the buttons on her wet shirt. Together they managed to peel the wet cloth from her body and then her bra joined her shirt on the floor.
He pulled her against him, her cold, goose-bumped skin flushing with heat as her breasts met his hair-roughened chest. He threaded his hands in her wet hair, tipping her head back to meet his hot, hungry kiss.
The last of her shivers fled as his tongue plunged eagerly into her mouth, stroking, tasting, as his hands slid over her back and hips. Her own hands spread against his back, luxuriating in the feel of all that smooth, hot, skin stretched tight over muscles.
She felt a tug at her waist and then he was shoving her wet jeans down her legs along with her underwear before tugging off his own jeans.
He grabbed a condom from the vanity drawer, stepped into the stall shower and tugged her in after. The space was barely big enough for one person, forget about a six foot four soldier with shoulders a mile wide.
Not that she was complaining. Not when it meant that she was pressed up against his slick, hard body, his jutting cock brushing against her belly as he reached past her to place the foil packet in the soap dish mounted on the wall.
Not when every move sent her nipples brushing against the coarse hair on his chest, sensitizing them so much that when he reached up and cupped her with his big, soapy hands, she felt an electric shock go straight to her sex.
He covered her mouth with his as he slid his hands down her back, over curve of her hips, down to cup and cover her ass.
Though his touch was urgent, hungry as always, there was something else there. Almost like he was savoring her, memorizing each patch of skin.
One hand dipped between her thighs, his fingers brushing against the slick folds in a gentle, almost teasing caress. Her sound of pleasure was muffled by his lips as she shifted her hips, trying to encourage his fingers to go right were she needed it.
Instead, he drew his hand away, slipping down to caress the inner curves of her thighs as his other hand slid up to her breast. The rough pad of his thumb circled the outer edges of her nipple, almost, but not quite touching the sensitive peak in the center.
He wanted to tease? Two could play at that game.
Sadie reached back for the soap and worked the lather between her hands. Reaching around, she slid her hands up and down his back, down the tight muscles of his ass before moving to his chest. She soaped him up, her fingers tracing every ridge of muscle as they followed the arrow of hair bisecting his abs down past his navel.
She could feel his cock flex against her stomach, almost like it was begging for her touch.
She could relate, as his own torment had her pulse pounding between her legs, the knot of desire tightening almost to the point of pain.
But she wasn't about to give in, no matter how her fingers itched to wrap around the thick, hard column, feel him pulsing in her hand as she pumped him with her fist.
She sucked his tongue into her mouth and slid her hand between his legs. He shifted, widened his stance so she could stroke the rigid muscles of his inner thighs. She moved her hand a millimeter higher so her knuckles just brushed against his sac, and felt his chest jump with his sharp inhale.
As much as she loved feeling his hands on her skin, she loved the power she seemed to hold over him. The way she could make every muscle in his body pull tight, his hands shaking a little now as his touch became firmer, hungrier.
"Sadie, you make me so fucking hard," he murmured, rocking his hips until his cock was nestled even more firmly against her belly. Unable to resist anymore, she slid her hand up between them, fisting it around the granite hard column of flesh.
Felt her own sex throb as he tipped his head back and squeezed his eyes shut as though it was almost too much to bear.
Apparently done teasing, he dipped his own hand between her legs, and this time she was the one who bit her lip and cried out as his fingers moved over her clit in sure, firm strokes. He bent his head and took a nipple in his mouth as she pumped him with her fist.
His groan vibrated through her, joining the pressure between her legs to send her hurtling towards the edge.
"Dylan," she gasped, the hot spray and his hotter touch making it hard for her to breathe, "I'm don't want to come yet. Not without you."
One last stroke of his fingers and he slowly, almost reluctantly, pulled his hand away, then reached for the condom he'd stashed.
He quickly slid it on and turned her so her back was against the tile, his wide torso protecting her from the spray. Bracing his big feet, he hooked her knee in his hand and drew it over his hip. Knees bent ever so slightly, he guided his cock home.
She moaned at that first thrust, the thick intrusion as her body stretched to accommodate him. One smooth stroke had him buried deep, and immediately she felt herself start to come. She tried to hold it off, tried to make it last, but with him so deep inside her, the base of his pelvis grinding so deliciously against exactly the right spot, and she was a goner.
###
Dylan marveled at the fierceness of her response even as he struggled not to come at the feel of Sadie quivering and pulsing around him. He kissed her, tasting her cries, absorbing her pleasure until it almost felt like his own.
He'd never been with a woman like Sadie, so immediately responsive to his touch. Never had a woman hold him, touch him, like she couldn't get enough of him.
Like she'd never get enough of him.
And unlike with any other woman before her, he wanted to give her as much as he possibly could.
He waited for the last tremors to fade before he started to move. Shallow, grinding thrusts that soon had her moaning and squirming against him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders as she tried to steady herself.
He bent his head, sucked a nipple into his mouth with a hard pull. He flicked the sensitive flesh with his tongue and felt her try to flinch away.
But there was nowhere to go.
"Dylan," she said on a moan. "I can't, I need..."
"You need to come for me again," he said tightly. "I need you to come for me again," he said and rocked his hips harder against her.
He could feel her standing leg trembling against him, and he gripped her hip to steady her as he swung his hips harder, withdrawing almost all the way before sinking back inside. "I've never felt anything better than you coming around my cock, your sweet, tight pussy squeezing me like you don't ever want to let me go," he growled against her cheek.
Sadie gasped and moaned as he continued to whisper in her ear, telling her how beautiful she was, how hard she made him, how when he was with her he almost didn't want to come because he didn't want it to end.
Oh, God, if he only knew how closely he echoed her feelings, but not just about the sex.
Never want it to end. Never want it to end.
The words echoed through her head in rhythm with his hard, heavy thrusts. As her body strained for the release he was so determined to give her.
One last hard, grinding thrust and her orgasm hit her with the force of an avalanche. Blowing her apart, scattering her in a million pieces as every nerve pulsed with light.
This time he came with her, his shout of pleasure echoing off tiles as his cock jerked and trained inside of her.
His breath coming hard, he let her leg slide down his. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her so tenderly that when he lifted his head, she hoped the shower would disguise the fa
ct that there were tears in her eyes.
"I thought I was supposed to be thanking you," she said shakily, trying to banish the echo in her brain.
Never want it to end.
His own eyes were shining with satisfaction as he smiled down at her. "Believe me, I felt your gratitude." He bent and kissed her again, and when he lifted his head there was so much affection in his eyes she could almost believe...
"You are something else, Sadie Thornton," he said and turned away to shut off the water.
Maybe so. But she knew that wouldn't change a thing when it was time for him to leave.
###
"So once you're cleared for duty, how long before you leave?" Sadie asked around a bite of the sandwich he'd made. As busy as they'd been, there hadn't been time to stock up on groceries, so they'd had to settle for grilled cheese to go with their beers.
"A few days, most likely."
"That soon?" She said. Though she tried to hide it, he didn't miss the dismay.
He took a swig of beer to hide the discomfort bubbling up in his gut. In the past, when a woman had expressed even the slightest upset that he was leaving, the only thing he'd felt was annoyance. An obligation to extricate himself as gracefully as possible, without making it obvious to the other person how eager he was to get away.
Right now, it wasn't Sadie's obvious upset that made him uncomfortable.
It was the fact that, as much as he was ready to get back to active duty, he didn't want to leave Sadie.
For a split second, he imagined what it would be like to life a civilian life. A life where he didn't have to leave for parts unknown at the drop of a hat.
A life where he got to go to bed and wake up with Sadie every single day. A life where instead of being a soldier he would... and that's where his mind hit a brick wall.
There's nothing else for you, he reminded himself harshly. You've worked so hard to get back to where you need to be. Don't lose your focus now.
While his heart pounded and his stomach twisted at the prospect of not going back to his team, that didn't mean his heart didn't twist at the idea of not looking across the table at Sadie as she was right now. Dressed in one of his t-shirts that fit her like a dress, her hair rumpled, lips swollen from his kisses.
