One Long Hot Summer

by Antonia Adams

  ‘Fuck, Darrin,’ she groaned, and that was that desire again, rising up inside him, making him growl low in his throat as he leaned up to kiss her mouth, letting his tongue meet hers, sucking her lip in between her teeth.

  ‘Please,’ she said. ‘Pleasepleaseplease.’ Her words running together, her breath and speech against his mouth, her cool hands reaching down to open his jeans, to take his cock in her hands, to go down on her knees, naked before him, sinking his length slowly into the heat of her mouth. Now it was his turn to sigh and moan, to growl low as want became pleasure and pleasure became want and the two intermingled until he couldn’t breathe, until he could barely stand, even his good leg shaking, threatening to give way.

  ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Kallie, wait ... I want to ...’ So many things he wanted to do, but as he looked down at her, the dancing light in her eyes as she continued to stroke him with her mouth, the way her cool hand tightened around the base of his cock, lightly joining in the rhythm, he knew she wasn’t going to let him do any of them. At least not yet.

  So he gave in to the pleasure she was giving him instead, let it build inside him.

  Until she pulled away, grinning up at him and licking her lips. He tried not to fall over at the unexpected release of her mouth.

  ‘Hot chocolate time!’ she yelled, getting up and running toward the kitchen. He’d never seen her run so fast, the white curves of her ass bouncing deliciously as she ran.

  ‘Tease!’ he yelled.

  ‘Yes!’ she yelled back.

  ‘Just wait until I catch you,’ he said. He was trying to figure out how to follow her with an erection, unbuttoned jeans and an ache in his calf.

  ‘Oh, trust me,’ she said. ‘I am so waiting ...’

  When he finally got to the kitchen, she was sitting on the counter, her legs spread and hanging over the edge. ‘That doesn’t look like hot chocolate,’ he said.

  ‘Just as tasty.’ She grinned at him, which nearly made him laugh. Drawing close to her, ignoring the pain in his leg, he bent his head to taste her, to savour in the sweet scent of her, in the way her clit grew tight and wet beneath the brush of his tongue. He could, he thought, do this forever. If only he could figure out how.

  Chapter Nine

  BY THE TIME DAWN broke the next morning, bright and cold, Kallie had fed all the animals and was reworking her way through them, giving special attention where it was needed. Gauntlet had made it clear he was coming with her and so she’d brought him along with her on the tongue-promise that he wouldn’t chase the ducklings or any of the other animals. So far, he’d made good on the promise, occupying himself by attacking the shifting bits of straw or by chewing on the rope toy she’d found earlier.

  She was just finishing up grooming the long-haired rabbits when she heard someone clear their throat.

  ‘Morning,’ Darrin said. He was leaning against the barn door jamb, dressed in a pair of jeans that looked like they’d come out of his backpack pre-pressed and a white button-up shirt. It was the stupidest thing to wear to a barn that Kallie had ever seen – he’d be dirty and rumpled in no time flat – but it was also so sexy that it made her heart beat as quickly as the rabbit’s in her lap. The sun was coming up behind him, highlighting his dark curls and his wide shoulders beneath the white shirt. She remembered last night, the way he’d slipped into the shower after her, gone down on his knees beneath the spray of water, tongue and fingers worked her into an orgasm that had left her shaken and unsteady. Her body gave a silent moan of want, which she desperately tried to ignore.

  ‘Morning,’ she said. ‘How’s the bite?’

  ‘Actually, it feels pretty good. I thought I might try getting back on the bike today, see how it feels.’ The revelation made her heart slow back down, ponderous thumps that thudded against her breastbone. You’re supposed to be happy he’s leaving, she thought. That’s the plan, right?

  She slid the rabbit back into his cage. He thumped his hind legs once, a noise loud enough to pull Gauntlet’s head up, both ears pricked. Kallie refused to voice how cute he was. How cute they both were. How at-home they looked wherever they were in Safe Haven. The barn, the house, her bed ...

  Well, if he was going, then she was going to take advantage of him before he was gone. Wasn’t that part of her plan too?

  She slipped forward until she nearly reached Darrin, the dawning light warm on her face after the coolness of the barn. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, to feel the insistent press of his lips to hers. Leaning in, she told herself that one more time wouldn’t mean anything. It was just a kiss. A sexy kiss that usually left her breathless and wanting.

  Just as her lips touched his, he pulled back suddenly. She barely caught herself as she pitched forward, her cheeks burning with sudden embarrassment and confusion.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, turning away, her face already burning. Maybe now that he was feeling better, he was already ready to leave. She’d just assumed he wouldn’t go so fast ...

  ‘No,’ he said quickly as he took hold of her arm. ‘It’s just the uh ...’ He fumbled, pointed at her shirt.

  Kallie looked down and realised she was covered in rabbit hair. Big fluffy tufts of orange-white hair hung from every fold of her shirt. ‘Oh, shit,’ she said.

  ‘This is the only clean shirt I have left,’ he said. ‘It’s not that I don’t want to kiss you – because I do – it’s just that you look like you’re growing yellow hair.’

  ‘I can fix that,’ she said. She grabbed her T-shirt at the hem and pulled it up over her head, then let it fall to the ground next to her. ‘Better?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, there is that other odd fur in the way ...’

  ‘Odd ... what?’

  He ran his fingers over the lace at the top of her bra, sending shivers through her. ‘This stuff. In the way. Bad joke. It’s not fur. Clearly.’

  ‘I can fix that too,’ she said, reaching behind her to unsnap her bra. In the cold air and the proximity of him, her nipples tightening into sharp points.

  The very act of him reaching out to touch one made her gasp.

  ‘What about your pants?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, I’m going to let you fix that,’ she said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. She leaned in and kissed him, teasing his tongue with her own. This morning, he tasted of coffee and cream and sweetness. She wanted to drink him up.

  ‘Won’t someone see?’ he asked, but the question didn’t stop his hips from meeting hers, the already stiffening length of his cock nudging her through the fabric.

  ‘The horses couldn’t care less,’ she said. ‘And clearly Gauntlet doesn’t.’

  ‘I meant, like, out there ...’ He was nipping at the side of her neck, exploratory bites that made her crazy with want.

  ‘We’ll hear the doorbell.’

  The quizzical look on his face was almost enough to make her laugh. ‘Later,’ she said by way of explanation. ‘For now, how about you just come with me, Mr fuzzy butt?’

  ‘I’m not the one who’s fuzzy!’

  ‘Have you seen your butt lately?’

  His face scrunched up in the most amusing way when he was thinking. It made her want to run her fingertips over the little wrinkles that lined either side of his nose.

  She took his hand and led him to the wooden ladder that ran up the middle of the barn. ‘Up,’ she said.

  ‘The hay loft?’ he asked, giving her a raised brow. ‘How gauche.’

  ‘I’m all about the clichés,’ she said.

  ‘What about Gauntlet?’

  ‘He’s hardly looking needy at the moment.’ They both looked at the puppy, who had fallen asleep on a pile of straw, his big full puppy belly rising and falling in time to his little snores.

  She moved behind Darrin and put her hands on his denim-covered ass, giving him a soft push. ‘Up?’

  ‘I’m scared of heights,’ he said, but it wasn’t believable, especially since he was already taking the
ladder in his hands, climbing upward. She followed him quickly, unwilling to lose the beautiful sight of his ass moving upward along the ladder. She wondered if that ass – most men didn’t have one, and the ones who did, you couldn’t stop looking at – she wondered if he got it from riding motorcycles or from good genetics or something else entirely.

  Darrin was standing, stooping just a little beneath the low ceiling of the loft, by the time she got up.

  ‘You should take off your shirt, if you don’t want it to get dirty. And those pants, for sure.’

  ‘Because you care about the cleanliness of my clothes?’

  ‘In truth,’ she said as she began to unbutton his prim and proper buttons. ‘No. Because if this is your last clean outfit, and you get it dirty, then I get to see you walking around naked until you find the super-secret ...’ She undid the last button and pushed the shirt back to expose his chest, letting her fingers spread out over his chin. ‘Washer and dryer ...’

  ‘The washer is super-secret?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she said. ‘And so ...’ She took his shirt all the way off, shook it and hung it on one of the tool hooks along the wall. ‘... you see why you must take everything off lest you get it very very dirty.’

  ‘Your logic is escaping me,’ he said, but he didn’t stop her when she slid to her knees in the hay and reached to unbutton his jeans. He was already hard beneath his boxers, and she made quick work of them as well, delighting in the way his cock popped up as soon as it was free of its coverings. She took its length into her mouth, stretching her lips around him. He shifted his hips forward, urgent and rough, and she tasted the salt-sweet of him in the back of her throat.

  ‘Kallie,’ he said. ‘Fuck.’ His voice was rough-hewn and broken, more groans than words, and the very sound of it made her ache. Fuck, she wanted him. How did he keep doing this to her? Just when she thought she had this ... whatever it was ... in control, if nothing else, he turned the tables on her, ignited her desire with little more than a couple of words.

  ‘Stop,’ he said, tugging lightly at her hair. ‘Wait ...’

  The sensation of his hands, tight fingers wrapped in her hair, pulling her away, it left her breathless, wanting more. She sucked him in deeper, slipping her hand into her unbuttoned jeans, feeling the desire that soaked her fingers.

  ‘Kallie,’ he said again. ‘Enough. God.’

  This time, the tug was harder, insistent, and Kallie let herself be pulled away. She looked up at him, licking her lips, loving the dark heat that rimmed his blue eyes, the way his lids were hooded with lust as he looked down at her.

  ‘You insouciant wench,’ he said, and a grin almost broke through the words. ‘It’s my turn.’

  Faster than she might have imagined, he was down in the hay with her, flipping her on her back. His fingers found her unbuttoned jeans, pushed her own hand away, then tugged down her jeans and underwear all in a single pull, until they were pooled around her ankles. His movements were rough with want, and that too, only deepened her desire. The hay that scratched her back and ass didn’t do a thing to cool her want.

  Especially not when he was leaning over her the way he was now, staring her down, lowering himself until he could set his mouth between her thighs, his tongue beginning long, slow strokes that bordered on torture. At the same time, his fingers found her and began to open her, resting inside so her that she ached and bucked upward into his touch, hoping that he would fill her with more, fill her more deeply, the sense of his weight inside her the only thing that offset the exquisite press of his tongue along her clit.

  She loved oral sex, but normally, this was about the time she started feeling bad, wishing she could come but being unable to. She could feel herself reaching that point and tried to push past it, tried to imagine that he wasn’t expecting anything from her, tried to tell herself that he was enjoying this as much as she’d enjoyed sucking him. Today, last night. Maybe tomorrow if he didn’t get on his bike and ride.

  He looked up at her from between her legs, his grin wicked, his lips wet with her. ‘I could do this all day,’ he said. ‘You’re beautiful.’

  She felt that thing in her chest, cool as water, as liquid and immutable as a river. It didn’t take away all of her worry, and it didn’t mean that she could come, but it opened through her and let her breathe.

  Darrin dipped his head again, resumed the twirls of his tongue, and then he pulled the length of her clit into his mouth. The tug was sharp and strong, and it surprised her enough that she let out a near-shout of pleasure.

  He was making a sound of his own and she realised he was giggling. Between her legs. While he ate her out. That bastard. That–

  And the he did the most surprising thing; he started circling the flesh of her ass with a finger, teasing her there, forcing her body to tense and squirm. She realised suddenly how long it had been since someone had touched her there, at all, and how much she’d missed it. He kept circling while his mouth worked the whole of her clit and just when she thought she couldn’t stand it any more, she felt his finger enter her ass, soft and wet, a gentle push that filled her and stretched her and took her over the edge.

  ‘Fuck, Darrin ...’ She found his hair with her hands, fumbling and shaking, letting her orgasm rise up through her until it blurred her vision and stole her breath, until all she had left was pleasure and the feel of his body against hers.

  Chapter Ten

  DARRIN WAS FLOATING SOMEWHERE in-between asleep and awake, the delightful post-sex bliss that was made all that much better by Kallie’s head on his chest, the scent of her – wood and leather and some sweet, unnameable fruit – in his nose. There was a piece of something – hay, straw, a stick? – poking him in the back, but he didn’t care enough about it to actually move. If anything, the small discomfort made his pleasure all the better.

  He could hear the puppy giving little puppy snores down below, and the sound of animals eating and moving about. But other than that, it was quiet. And still. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard so little, felt so still. Peaceful. That was the word he was looking for. It felt ... he felt ... good. At home. Turning, he nuzzled against Kallie’s neck, letting his mouth trace the soft curve of skin where it met her collarbone.

  ‘Doorbell,’ Kallie said, her voice sounding half-asleep.

  And then, a second later, wide awake. ‘Crap. Get dressed.’

  ‘What?’ he said. She scrambled up and was throwing clothes at him. He was pretty sure the shirt on his face was hers, although he couldn’t remember her bringing it up with them.

  ‘The horses only neigh when someone’s here. Or if there’s a coyote. Which there’s not.’ She pulled her shirt off his face and pulled it on. Even though he knew he was supposed to hurry – although he wasn’t entirely sure for what – he was sad to see her body disappear beneath the fabric.

  ‘This interruption is getting to be a bad habit,’ he said. He sounded grumbly, but he knew it was only because of the waking up, because of how comfortable he’d been there in her arms. Nothing to worry about, nothing to decide.

  ‘Come. On.’ She tugged at his arm between words and he finally pulled himself up. Bits of stuff stuck to his back, and he swiped at them, but Kallie was already dressed and bopping down the ladder.

  He climbed out of the hay loft far slower than she had, bits of hay still poking him in the ass under his jeans. He’d had to do something about that. Later.

  Gauntlet was waiting at the bottom of the ladder, head cocked, clearly sure that something was up. He scooped him up in his arms and headed toward the barn door, expecting the man – did he even know his name? He realised he didn’t – the man with his big truck.

  Instead, it was Shar who met him at the barn door.

  She grinned at him, lifting one reddish brow. ‘Ah, there’s the patient now. Kallie says she’s been naughty-nursing you back to health.’

  ‘I said no such thing!’ From behind Shar, Kallie stood, arms folded across her chest. Her
hair was full of straw and there was still rabbit fuzz all over her. God, she was cute when she was being a brat. He could sit here and watch the two of them all day. And he bet Shar could tell some amazing stories about her best friend. In fact, he bet she’d be all over that.

  Shar rolled her eyes, canting her head at him. ‘It’s a good thing I can’t hear her, isn’t it? Come and let me look at your bite while you tell me all the dirty news about my favourite rescue friend.’

  ‘I’m your only rescue friend!’

  Shar lifted her brow in question and Darrin nodded in answer. ‘Yes, she’s bitching,’ he said, although he was pretty sure Shar could hear every word that Kallie was saying.

  He sat down on the hay bale farthest from Toddy’s stall and pulled up his pant leg, having a bit of deja vu as he heard the horse stamping its feet behind him. Shar kneeled down and used her fingers to explore the bite. Only once did it hurt hard enough for him to clench his teeth together.

  ‘Not bad,’ she said. She turned to her friend, fingers flying, and a second later Kallie went off, all but stomping her feet and pouting.

  ‘Giving her more shit about me?’ he asked.

  She watched his face intently, and it took him a second to remember she’d probably been reading his lips. She shook her head. ‘No, I sent her on a silly errand so I could ask you what your intentions are with her.’

  ‘I ... uh. What?’

  She waited, as though she was expecting him to say more. He wasn’t sure he had any more. He tried to dig into his thoughts on it, but it was a jumble of confusion between what she’d told him she’d needed – which was, clearly, not him – and what he could give and what he needed and ... He shook his head, willing his thoughts to settle before they exploded into a mulch of complete confusion.