One brow cocked up. “You promise?” The sultry grin she shot his way sent a current of lust rushing through Sam’s veins.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. He hurriedly ushered her into his room. Once he had her there, he made quick work of stripping their clothes off and getting them horizontal. Sam dove for her lips, but Aubrey turned her head, her brown eyes wide with excitement.
“It came,” she said with an overjoyed squeal.
“What?”
“The comforter.” She spread her hands across the dark gray comforter she’d helped him pick out from an online décor shop. “It looks great in here. I can’t believe it came so fast.”
“You mind turning around so I can make you come fast?” Sam said.
Aubrey burst out laughing. “Not too fast I hope.”
He stood up next to the bed, grabbed her by the ankles and tugged her toward him.
“That’s up for me to decide,” Sam said. He dropped to his knees and pulled her legs over his shoulders. Aubrey’s deep moans started even before his tongue reached her. Once it did, her moans turned to loud groans.
Sam grasped her hips and held her in place as he slid his tongue along her moist flesh. He ignored his painful erection, centering all his attention on her pleasure. With measured strokes he licked up every bit of her flavor, zeroing in on her clit and drawing it between his lips.
Aubrey’s feet dug into his shoulders as her back bowed. If it wasn’t for him holding her down, Sam knew she would have lifted herself off the bed.
“Right. There,” she said with a breathy sigh. “Stay right there.”
Sam had no intention of going anywhere. He picked up the pace, sucking hard on her clit while sinking two fingers into her tight, wet body. He pumped in and out, quickening his strokes, until a scream loud enough to wake all of Maplesville erupted from Aubrey’s lips. She collapsed on top the plush comforter, her limbs trembling.
Sam quickly grabbed a condom from the nightstand and rolled it on before diving onto the bed, swooping Aubrey into his arms and twisting around so that she lay on top of him. She braced her palms on his chest and straddled his thighs.
“Give me just a minute to recover,” Aubrey said, her breaths still labored from her orgasm. A sexy, lazy smile broke out across her face. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”
Sam’s chuckle turned into a pleasurable groan when she lifted her hips and sank onto his hardness. His breaths hissed between his lips as he nearly died from the pleasure rushing through him.
Nothing compared to this. Nothing. As long as he lived, Sam knew he would never find anything as amazing as Aubrey Laurent riding him in unabashed, naked glory. Her head tilted up to the ceiling as her full, dark brown breasts enthusiastically bounced with every buck of her hips.
Sam pushed up on his elbows to take one plump nipple into his mouth, rolling his tongue around it and sucking hard. He switched to the other one, loving the sexy whimpers that escaped her mouth with every tug of his lips.
“Oh, Sam. Oh, Sam. Oh, Sam.” Her desperate cries fueled his determination to bring her to another crushing orgasm as quickly as possible, but he held back. She was in charge this time. She knew how to take what she needed.
Aubrey pumped up and down in short, tight strokes, milking him, testing his self-control with every delicious rise and fall of her body. When she fully impaled herself on his cock and ground her pelvis against his, Sam lost it. He clamped onto her ass and held her in place as he thrust over and over again, driving his hardness inside her until they both came with twin shouts that ricocheted off the walls and ceiling.
Aubrey crumpled on top of him in a boneless heap of satisfied woman, her sweat-slicked breasts rubbing deliciously against his chest.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said.
“You can say that again.”
She looked up from where she lay on his chest, her lips twitching with a smile. Sam knew what would come next.
“Oh, my goodness,” Aubrey repeated before she burst out laughing.
Sam shook his head. “Still laughing at your own corny jokes.”
“You used to laugh at my jokes,” she said.
“Of course, I did. I was seventeen and horny and I wanted to get laid. You could have told me to eat dirt and I would have done it.”
If he was still seventeen he would just throw the used condom on the floor, but he was a grown up now.
“Give me a sec to get rid of this.” Sam eased from underneath Aubrey’s prone body and went to the bathroom to properly dispose the condom. When he got back to his bedroom, he found her spread across the bed, her hair fanned out around her. She was sound asleep.
He grinned at her peaceful, satisfied expression. And, yeah, he was cocky enough to feel his ego growing at the thought of being the one to put that look on her face.
Sam had every intention of giving her just a few minutes to rest before going in for Round Two, but once he snuggled up next to her warm body, the exertion of the past half hour caught up with him.
He woke to find Aubrey looking down from where she lay with her elbow on the bed, her head cradled in her open palm.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he answered. He reached for her, but she pulled back from his touch.
“That was a very good distraction,” she said. “And I am totally up for doing it again, but not until we finish the conversation we were having earlier.”
He frowned. “What conversation?”
She didn’t answer. She just continued to stare with that obstinate look, that one that said she could wait all day until he finally caught a clue.
Sam thought back to what they were talking about before, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember. Apparently great sex with the woman of his dreams made him a bit of an amnesiac.
“Okay, I give up,” he said. “I don’t remember the conversation so you’ll have to ask whatever question is burning up in that gorgeous brain of yours.”
“What makes you think my brain is gorgeous?”
“I figure it matches the rest of you.” He leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose, loving the way her skin darkened with her blush. “What do you want to know?”
“Why do you think you’re a coward?” she said.
He groaned in exasperation. Damn. He’d thought a half hour of multiple orgasms would be enough to distract her from that confession he’d let slip. Apparently he’d put too much confidence in his bedroom skills.
Sam nestled more comfortably on the plush bed covers, reached over and tugged Aubrey until she lay on top of him once more. Probably not the smartest move since he already felt himself growing hard again. He drew a long lock of her straight, dark-brown hair between his fingers before tucking it behind her ear.
“The longer you stall, the more worried I get,” she said.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Sam said. He stared into her eyes, still amazed that they were here together, loving each other again. He never wanted it to end. Ever.
Yet, it could end just as quickly as it had started. If he accepted the job with Noah and moved to California, and Aubrey maintained her vow not to return to the West Coast, they could find themselves right back where they’d been for the past ten years.
He could choke on the fucking irony.
“I got a job offer,” Sam finally said. “But I’m too coward to make up my mind about whether or not I want to take it.”
“Why? Is it something you don’t think you can handle?”
He shrugged. “I’d have more responsibilities than I do now, but I can handle them.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
Long moments stretched between them as he debated whether or not to tell her the truth. If he told her the job was in California, what would she do? Would she change her mind about how she feels about the place? Would she tell him to leave while she remained in Maplesville, and in doing so break his heart worse than he ever thought it could break?
He needed
to know that Aubrey had fallen just as hard for him again. If she didn’t have a problem with him leaving, Sam knew it would mean that she hadn’t.
And that, he realized, was what he truly feared. Forget the job. Learning Aubrey’s true feelings scared him more than anything.
But he had to know. Before he could even consider giving Noah an answer, he had to know how Aubrey felt about him.
He trailed his finger down her soft cheek. “Do you love me?”
“Yes.” She said it with such resolve that Sam had no doubt she was saying what was truly in her heart. “I love you, Sam,” she repeated. She leaned over and pressed her lips to his. “Not only do I love you, but I believe in you. Don’t let fear hold you back from accepting that offer. Who knows, you may not even like the job, but you’ll never know if you don’t at least give it a try.”
He brushed his thumb back and forth across her smooth skin. The thought of giving her up again sent a thread of repulsion twisting through his gut. Could he do it? How could he possibly make the choice?
“I love you, Bree.” He kissed her again. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Any time you need me.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Sam said.
She climbed up his chest, stopping once her lips met his.
“You’d better,” she whispered before taking his mouth in a long, slow kiss.
Chapter 9
“Can you hand me the socket wrench?” Sam called from inside the cabinet underneath his mom’s kitchen sink.
A moment later his dad’s battered socket wrench landed on his stomach. Sam added a layer of Teflon tape to the pipe thread before tightening the brass fitting and securing the seal.
He climbed out from under the cabinet, wiping his hands off on his jeans.
“That should do for now, but we’re going to need an actual plumber to come in and change these to PVC. Should have done that a long time ago,” he said.
“Your dad promised to renovate the kitchen for our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary,” his mom said. “Missed it by just a year.” Her sad grin was like a blow to his chest.
“Mom, are you doing okay?”
She looked at him as if he’d grown an extra head. “Of course I am,” she said. She waved him over. “Here, have some cake. It was left over from book club last night.”
A crack of thunder rang out, rattling the windows. Sam sat in front of the huge slice of chocolate cake she’d set at his favorite chair. She poured him a glass of milk and, for herself, a cup of coffee. Then she sat in the chair next to his.
“So, are you almost done with all the props for the show?” she asked, using her finger to scoop up some icing from his slice of cake.
Sam nodded. “I delivered the last of the props this morning just before it started storming. Taylor’s excited that they’ll be able to practice all week with the complete set before opening night on Friday.”
“Good thing you made it in time. This rain doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. Speaking of Taylor, I have to thank her for saving me tickets for opening night. I wasn’t always a fan, but Porgy and Bess has become one of my favorites. And I’m hearing great things about the cast, especially Felicity Martin. Folks say she has a voice just like Aubrey’s.”
“She’s good,” he said with another nod.
His mom picked up a dishtowel and slapped his arm. “Samuel Aloysius Stewart, if you don’t stop playing around with me, I’m going to hurt you.”
“What?” he asked.
“You know what. What’s going on with you and Aubrey? I know the two of you have been seeing a lot of each other lately. Are you back together again?”
“Yeah,” he said, unable to stop the grin that traced across his lips. “We’re seeing each other again. She came over last night and—” He stopped.
His mom waved her hand. “Oh, please. Like I didn’t know what happened between you and Aubrey when she ‘came over.’” She used air quotes, and Sam could feel his face heating like a damn teenager who’d been caught with a girl in his room. “Do you really think the two of you were pulling something over on me and your dad? No high school kids study that much.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. Then he hunched his shoulders. “It’s been…nice. No, it’s been a lot better than just nice. I now remember why she used to occupy every damn bit of my life.”
“You two were like glue,” his mom said. Sam thought she was going for more cake, but she captured his hand instead. “I know you were hurt when that video came out, although I think it was your pride that was hurt more than anything else.”
“It was more than just my pride,” Sam said. “I loved Aubrey.” He looked over at his mother. “I still love her.”
“Oh, Sam.”
“I don’t care about that video anymore. I don’t care about any of that stuff that happened when Aubrey and I first broke up. That’s done. I’m focusing on now—on today.” He met his mother’s understanding gaze. “I love her so much, Mom. More than anything.”
His mom clasped her hands to her chest. “Do you have any idea how happy that makes me? So many people allow past wrongs to get in the way of today’s happiness, Sam. I’m happy I raised you to be smart enough to recognize that when you have something as special as what you and Aubrey have, you don’t let it go.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I promise.”
Sam pulled out his phone to check the time and saw yet another text from Noah.
It doesn’t rain in Southern California.
As if to punctuate his friend’s text, another loud crack of thunder rumbled outside.
“Great,” Sam muttered.
He tossed the phone on the table and sat back in his chair, thinking about the texts he’d exchanged with Noah just before coming over to his mom’s. His friend was pulling out all the stops, shamelessly sweetening the incentives pot by adding a fully furnished apartment and a leased vehicle of Sam’s choice—as long as Sam didn’t choose a Tesla. Then he came back to say that he’d spring for the Tesla if that’s what it would take to get Sam to come out to the West Coast.
“You’re not hungry?” his mom asked, gesturing to the barely touched cake.
Sam picked up his fork, but set it down before taking a bite.
“Okay, what’s going on?” his mom asked.
“How are you really doing?” Sam countered.
“I already told you—”
“Yeah, I know what you told me, and I know that things look okay from the outside. You’ve been going out with Aunt Elizabeth and doing all the things you normally do, but I don’t know if you’re doing that because you really are okay, or if you’re trying to convince yourself.”
“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Samuel. I’m fine.” She reached across the table again and squeezed his hand. “It’s not as if widowhood was sprung on me out of nowhere. I’ve had more than two years to prepare myself. Your dad and I talked about this often, even when he could no longer speak. I’m not smiling through my tears or trying to put on a happy mask for anyone.”
“I miss him,” Sam said.
“I will miss him for the rest of my life.” Her smile was wistful. It broke Sam’s heart. “And I’ll curse that awful disease for eternity, but I won’t allow it to take more from me than it already has. I still have a lot I plan to do.”
Sam’s brow arched. “Such as?”
“Well, those trips your dad always promised to take me on, for one thing.” She grabbed a stack of mail from the table and shuffled through it. She handed him a brochure with pictures of lush green forests and rushing waterfalls. “Some of the ladies in book club—those who are close to retirement—have been talking about branching off into a travel club. We’ve decided that this three-week trip to Costa Rica will be our first vacation.”
Sam’s head snapped back. “You’re going to Costa Rica?”
“What’s with that look? It’s not as if I’m going tomorrow,” she said. “We’re thin
king maybe later this year, when it isn’t as hot.”
Well, that settled that. He could no longer use the excuse of not being able to leave Maplesville because his mother needed him, not when she was planning trips around the world.
Sam rubbed the back of his neck.
“Mom, I…I need to talk to you.”
Her forehead immediately furrowed with worry. “I knew there was something wrong. What is it, Samuel?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said. “I just need…I need to talk some things over with you.” He dropped his hand and picked up the mail from the table. He toyed with the edge of the water bill. “You’ve heard me talk about my friend Noah Bankston, right? We went to Tulane together.”
She nodded. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” Sam said. “He’s actually kicking ass out on the West Coast. He has a mobile app company that’s on the verge of going public.” He paused for a moment and looked up at her. “Noah’s been trying to get me to move out to California for a while now. He’s headquartered in the San Francisco area, but he just opened up a second office in Los Angeles. He wants me to run the software development team in L.A.”
“And you don’t want to?”
“I do,” Sam said. “I’ve been telling myself for the past two years that this isn’t a good move for me, but it’s actually the perfect move for me.”
“Then why are you even questioning it?”
“I didn’t want to leave you here by yourself,” he said.
Her eyes went wide. “Am I ready for the old folks home or something? You do realize I’m only sixty-two years old, don’t you?”
“A young sixty-two at that,” Sam said with a grin.
“You got that right.” She pushed up from the table and came over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “I love you for being so concerned about me, but when it comes to making this decision, my well-being is the last thing you need to concern yourself with. I’ll be just fine. In fact, I’m considering going to Atlanta to visit with your sister for a while. Maybe as long as a couple of months.”
She patted his shoulders. “Of course, I’m not the one you need to consider.”
Any Time You Need Me Page 13
