by Mari Carr
Zac dragged his mouth along the side of her neck, licking her soft skin. Tacy tried to move her lower body, clearly ready to advance the game. He reached back and lightly tapped her upper thigh as a warning.
“Stop trying to control things, Tacy.”
She blinked rapidly, her eyes seeming to lose focus. God, she really did like the idea of being dominated in bed.
Zac’s sexual preferences and hers were in perfect harmony. There was no bigger turn-on than taking a strong, independent woman to bed and finding a sweet submissive lingering beneath the surface.
He scooted lower, caging her knees between his thighs as he released her hands. She started to lift them, but he shook his head.
“Leave your hands there.”
She studied his face, clearly trying to decide if she should test his limits.
He held her gaze and decided to test a limit or two of his own. “Disobey me and I won’t hesitate to flip you over and spank that pretty little ass of yours.”
Her eyes widened, then that same heavy-lidded look returned as his words soaked in. “New fan of dirty talk. Just sayin’.”
Zac grinned. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
He moved farther down then shifted until he was kneeling between her ankles. Tacy jerked slightly when he ran his tongue along her slit.
“Oh my God.”
Finding her clit with his thumb, he tasted her once more.
Tacy’s hips lifted from the mattress, seeking more. He dipped his tongue into her opening and applied more pressure on the tight nub of her clit. She came apart. Just like that.
He found it difficult to believe her assertions that her orgasms were hard to achieve. Every time he touched her, she went off like a bottle rocket. He glanced up her body to see her hands balled into fists, but still resting where he told her to keep them. Her face was flushed, her eyes closed, and her chest rose and fell rapidly.
Slow and steady be damned. He was staying the rest of the week and if he had his way, he’d spend every fucking minute of it right here. In this bed. Naked. Sweaty. Buried deep inside her.
He moved quickly, grasping a condom from the small nightstand drawer. Ned had pulled him aside when he’d handed him the keys for the RV and confided he’d stocked the drawer. At the time, Zac figured that nicety a waste of money. Now, he was grateful for the kindness.
Zac donned the condom as Tacy slowly stirred, as she returned from wherever her orgasm had sent her. “Ready for another?”
She blinked rapidly, and then nodded. “Does that make me greedy?”
He kissed her and placed the head of his cock at her opening. “No, darlin’. Not a bit.”
He pressed in with one steady, relentless push, not stopping until he was buried to the hilt. Tacy wrapped her legs around his waist, the position allowing him to go even deeper.
They groaned in unison and then, he gave up all semblance of control. He withdrew and returned, gaining speed with each thrust.
Tacy had asked that it be hard, rough. Thank God. Zac wasn’t sure he could have given her anything else. He wanted her too much. She was warm and wet, and she made the most adorable little sex squeaks he’d ever heard.
Over and over, he moved inside, until he felt her inner muscles clench, tighten, grip his dick almost painfully. Her orgasm triggered his own. He jerked roughly as he filled the condom.
Tacy’s cries filled the room as she said his name. “God. Zac. Yes. Holy shit.”
He held himself above her on his elbows, trying to keep his weight off her, as he fought to catch his breath.
“We’re doing that again,” he announced several minutes later.
Tacy’s laughed turned to a groan—her pussy clenching—when he slid out and fell to her side. “Amen.”
They lay side by side for several moments, both of them staring at the ceiling. He reached over to find her hand, linking her fingers with his.
He turned to look at her. “Stay the night.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Stay here with me all week.”
Tacy smiled. “Okay.”
Chapter Five
“Gotta say, Tace. When I suggested you hook up with Zac, the hot doctor, I had no idea you’d take me so literally.”
Tacy rolled her eyes as she sat on the tailgate of Travis’ truck, watching Zac and several locals from Sapphire Falls pass a bottle of Borcher’s Booze around the bonfire.
She’d spent the last three nights in Zac’s bed. Tacy had lost count of how many orgasms she’d had. They’d indulged in missionary, doggy, and 69, as well as sex against the wall, on the kitchen table, and even outside under the stars.
It was absolute insanity. She had known the man four days. Just four damn days, and he’d turned her world upside down.
“Earth to Tacy.”
Tacy looked over at Lauren and gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry. Drifted.”
“Yeah. Lost in a haze of good sex seems to be your standard state these days.”
“I’ve been a terrible guest, haven’t I?”
Lauren laughed good-naturedly. “I wanted you to come to Sapphire Falls to relax and enjoy yourself. To shrug off that anxiety that’s been following you around lately. I’d say you’ve done just that. So you’ll hear no complaints from me.”
“He’s amazing.” Tacy sounded like a lovestruck teenage girl with stars in her eyes, but she didn’t care.
“I hate to be the wet blanket, but you realize it’s Thursday, right? Time is sort of running out on,” Lauren waved her hands around, “whatever this is.”
Tacy couldn’t find a word to define the whatever, so she left it alone. “I know.”
“Do you think you’ll see him again?”
Tacy shrugged. “He lives in New Orleans. And I’m essentially homeless at the moment. Besides, we don’t really…” She was embarrassed to finish her thought. They’d connected that first night, sharing a little bit about their childhoods, but since then…well. Uncomfortable confessing that apart from some surface-y type conversations and a shit-ton of rocking-the-camper sex, she and Zac didn’t know each other as well as they should, given the way she was starting to feel about him.
“Talk?” Lauren supplied with an amused grin.
Tacy nodded. “I can’t really explain it. We have a great time, walking around, taking in all the festival events, but the second we’re alone, the clothes are on the floor and we’re going at it like he’s been away to war for ten years.”
Lauren handed Tacy her cup and she took a small sip of the Booze, the alcohol burning all the way down. She wasn’t sure how the locals could stomach the stuff. It packed a punch.
“So maybe the two of you should spend a little time getting to know each other—in a nonphysical way. You’ve clearly established you’ve got the sex thing in common. Might be a good idea to see if you’re compatible in other ways. Find out who he’s voting for in the next presidential election. Shit like that tells you a lot about a person.”
Tacy made a face. “Oh man. You’re not kidding.”
“I think he’s proven he’s worth the effort.”
He had, which prompted Tacy to speak her main concern. “I’m sure he is, but to what end? What am I working toward here?” Tacy worried part of her reason for not pushing to learn more about Zac was because she feared what would happen at the end of the week. What if she fell hard for the guy, but he wasn’t interested in more?
Neither of them discussed future plans. Why would they? They’d gone into this treating it like some fun weeklong summer fling. He hadn’t asked her for more than this week. And she hadn’t offered more. Now, she was starting to fear she might want more. She just wasn’t sure how much.
“If it’s just a shits-and-giggles thing, then by all means, ignore my advice and just keep having fun. But I’d hate to see you hold back from a really great guy simply because of geography. The last thing I ever planned to do was settle in a small town. Travis changed my mind about that. Like you s
aid, you’re free as a bird. And New Orleans is an awesome city. I wouldn’t mind having a friend to stay with there come Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest time.”
Tacy took another sip of the Booze, tipsiness be damned. “I’ll keep your future happiness in mind as I debate following some guy I just met halfway across the country.”
Lauren winked. “You’re a good friend. If it were me and the sex was that damn good, I’d be taking a closer look at the whole package. You don’t want to let a few years go by and find yourself constantly wondering if he was the one and you let him slip away.”
Tacy could totally see that happening. Maybe she did owe it to herself to see if this instant attraction had the possibility to lead to something more. “Great. As if I didn’t have enough questions to sort through in my life.”
After that first night, they’d sort of managed to talk about everything except themselves. And for Tacy, that holding back had been intentional. She thought it would protect her heart, but that clearly hadn’t happened. At all.
Lauren patted her knee sympathetically. “Look on the bright side. You could start talking and realize he’s a complete tool. That would make things really easy.”
Zac Lewis was not a tool. In fact, Tacy was fairly certain he had all the characteristics to be her Mr. Right. Which would really suck if he didn’t feel the same way about her. Regardless, Lauren was right about regrets. Tacy didn’t want any. Not with Zac. “Okay. So tonight, before happy naked time, I’ll initiate a conversation, get to know him on a deeper level.”
“You can start now.” Lauren hopped off the tailgate of the truck as Travis approached her. The party was starting to break up.
The river party was taking place on Lauren’s friend Phoebe’s property. When Phoebe had issued the invitation to Zac and Tacy to join them, she’d told Zac to just drive his RV out and park it in the field for the night, so they could enjoy the Booze and not have to worry about driving.
Since Tacy had given up her room at the B&B two days earlier, her suitcase was parked next to Zac’s bed. She was surprised how much she loved staying in the camper.
Zac was only a few steps behind Travis. “I told Phoebe we’d put the fire out before heading back to the RV. Thought maybe you’d like to hang out a little longer.”
She would. There was something very peaceful and romantic about sitting next to a bonfire. Even one that was dying down.
Add in the babbling of the river, the singing of the crickets and the gentle breeze rustling the leaves, and Tacy was fairly certain she’d found heaven.
“Sounds great.”
She and Zac bid Lauren, Travis and their friends goodbye, then reclaimed the two beach chairs they’d carried down from the RV.
“This place is incredible,” Zac said, mimicking her thoughts exactly.
“It is.” She paused, wondering how she should initiate the get-to-know-you conversation. Would he think it weird if she started asking a bunch of personal questions? Before she could chicken out, she just dove in.
“Tell me about your family.”
Zac tilted his head, his forehead creased in confusion. “The Lewises? What do you want to know?”
“You always talk about Mama Lewis. Was there a Papa Lewis?”
He nodded and his instant smile told her he adored the dad as much as the mom. “Yeah. Huge giant of a guy. He’d been a boxer in his younger days. Toughest man I’ve ever known. He was away from home most of the year. Worked on an oil rig for months at a time. Died of a massive heart attack about six, seven years ago. Damn. Can’t believe it’s been that long. It was a rough time for all of us, losing him so unexpectedly.”
“You said you went to live with Mama Lewis when you were fifteen?”
“Yeah.”
“Were you in the foster care system before that or with your parents?”
Zac fell silent. Tacy bit her lip, suddenly sorry for starting this conversation. The problem was she felt extraordinarily close to Zac. It was preposterous, considering their short acquaintance and how little she truly knew about him. Regardless, she felt like—deep down—she really did know him.
“I haven’t talked about my mom to anyone in years. Except for Mama Lewis.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“No,” Zac cut her off mid-sentence. “Don’t apologize. I’d like to tell you about it. We haven’t talked much about personal stuff, have we?” He gave her a wicked grin that let her know he was perfectly aware of exactly what had kept them virtual—and intimate—strangers.
“I guess I’m curious. I find myself wanting to know everything about you.”
Zac gave her a smile so genuine she felt tears sting her eyes. “I want the same. I’m fascinated by you, darlin’.”
She closed her eyes to stem the happy, touched tears. God, she was not the weepy type. Ever. She’d sat through P.S. I Love You and The Notebook without shedding a tear. Her teammates had teasingly called her a heartless bitch. Truth was tears had always been treated as weakness in her family. If she got a stitch in her side or a cramp in her leg, her father had scolded her for getting weepy and told her to play through the pain. After a while, she’d sort of forgotten how to cry.
“I’m hardly fascinating.”
Zac scoffed. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re interesting, funny, cute, and sexy as hell. If that doesn’t make you fascinating, Tacy Bradford, I don’t know what else would.”
“Damn,” she whispered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I really want to talk to you, learn more about you, but when you say stuff like that, it’s very difficult for me not to jump on board and fuck your brains out.”
Zac’s loud laughter filled the quiet night. “Standing invitation to hop on anytime, darlin’.”
“I like the way you call me darlin’. No one’s ever really given me a pet name.”
“I’m sort of glad to be your first on that…and the other thing.”
Zac still marveled at the fact she’d struggled to have orgasms with her past lovers. Probably because he only had to call her that sweet nickname with that sexy southern accent of his, blow in her ear twice and she was coming hard enough to shake the ground more than a stampede of cattle.
They fell silent for a few moments, both staring into the dying fire.
“My mom was a drug addict, crack, heroin, shit like that,” he started.
She had just decided she wouldn’t push him for the story, not wanting to make him uncomfortable or sad.
“Oh.” It was a lame response, but really…what else could she say to that? No child deserved to grow up around something like that.
“I only have a vague memory of our lives before she got addicted. It was just her and me for three years. Then my brother, Noah, came along. She’s never told either one of us who our dad is. Or I guess I should say dads. I’m pretty sure we don’t have the same one. She wasn’t always hooked on drugs. At first, she worked in a liquor store. A neighbor in the apartment next door looked after us. But then Mom lost the job and the woman who took care of us died. Someone introduced her to coke. After that, most of the years I can remember are of her strung out. Prostituting for money that she would spend on drugs. I learned to grab as much of the cash as I could without her noticing after she and the johns passed out. Used that to feed me and Noah.”
“Jesus. Zac.” She failed to keep the tears at bay. Her heart shattered as she considered how hard his life had been. It made it even more incredible to see the man he’d become today.
“Hey, it didn’t kill me, so no tears, okay?” He stood up, reaching out for her and Tacy went to him. He sat down in the sand and tugged her in between his legs so that she could rest her back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “That’s better. I missed touching you.”
“Was that really your life until you were fifteen?”
Zac shook his head. “No. Not exactly. The state stepped in when I was twelve and Noah nine. Teacher spotted a nasty
bruise on Noah’s side. He’d gotten hit by one of my mom’s boyfriends for breaking a glass in the kitchen.”
Tacy bit her lip, trying not to cry any more. “What an asshole.”
He chuckled, but the sound wasn’t a happy one. “Yeah. There were a lot of assholes in and out of our apartment. We got put in the system. First home they sent us to was almost as bad as the one they’d pulled us out of. I grabbed Noah after three months there and ran. Cops found us, put us back in foster care. That was when we met Mama Lewis. She was one of the few foster parents willing to take both of us. I’d made it pretty clear to the social worker that Noah and I were not getting split up.”
“But I thought you said you went to live with Mama Lewis at fifteen?”
“We stayed with Mama Lewis off and on for two years. My mom was trying to get straight, doing everything the court asked. It looked like she was going to pull herself out, get off the drugs. I’m no different from any other kid, I guess. I wanted to be with my mom, and I resented the hell out of the system and Mama Lewis for keeping me away from her.”
“What changed your mind?”
“My mom managed to convince the court to give us back. She stayed clean for exactly eight weeks.”
“Shit,” she murmured.
“Yeah. And when she fell off the wagon, she fell off hard. That was when she started doing heroin. The johns were back in her bed, the cabinets were empty and I stopped believing in…well…basically everything. I was an angry little prick blaming the world for all the shit in my life. Started smoking pot, stealing, drinking, doing everything wrong.”
“I can’t imagine you like that. Not even for a second.”
“It didn’t last long. We’d only been back with my mom about six months. She’d passed out after a party with some random guy. Always the same routine. Stoned and sex. I was feeling like a badass and thought I’d rob the guy. He woke up. Beat the shit out of me.”
