Charged (Saints of Denver #2)

by Jay Crownover

  I circled the tiny indent of her belly button with the tip of my tongue and used my fingers to tweak and tug on her clit as I worked my way up her delectable body as slowly as I could. When I got to the valley between her glistening breasts, I chuckled and whispered, “Cotton candy,” against her slippery skin.

  “Your favorite.” Her voice was thready and tight with anticipation and desire. Her legs shifted under me and her hips lifted and dropped with each thrust and retreat of my plundering fingers.

  I bent so I could nibble on her candy-flavored nipple and told her, “You’re my favorite— period.”

  She muttered her appreciation and wound her fingers through my hair as I started to circle her clit with my thumb. My dick was harder than it had ever been and I couldn’t resist wrapping my fist around it as I simultaneously worked her and myself to the breaking point. Her tongue darted out and swiped at her full lower lip and I was a goner. Knowing I wouldn’t last much longer, I maneuvered myself the rest of the way up her body and swallowed a flood of dirty words as she pressed her pillowy flesh around my dick. Her plump breasts, tipped with those luscious and pointy nipples engulfing my cock so that all I could see was her and the tip, which was even better than my fantasy.

  The position wasn’t quite right for her to get her mouth around the leaking head as I rocked my hips carefully across her chest, making sure I didn’t crush her much smaller frame with my weight or my overzealous reaction to how good what she was doing felt. My balls dragged across her slick skin and my dick throbbed where it was trapped in the best vice ever. She couldn’t get the head in her mouth but each time the tip moved towards her mouth she managed to stroke the flat of her tongue across the slit, and each time she cleared away the evidence of how good this felt only to have another pearly drop rise up to replace it. She cased my pleasure with her wet tongue and I rode her breasts with a cock that felt like it was made of stone. I’d never been so hard that it hurt before, but leave it to this little hurricane to take me somewhere else I’d never been and leave me disoriented and so fucking happy I could hardly stand it.

  I felt the desire coil tight at the base of my spine and felt my balls start to ache in a way that let me know it wasn’t going to be long before those flushed and thoroughly worked-over tits were going to have more than cotton-candy-flavored oil covering them.

  In my mind, marking her and claiming her in all the ways I possibly could was sexy and appealed to the need I had to completely make her mine. The reality of it was that nothing felt better than being inside her tight, wet heat. There was no place that made me feel more like the man I was supposed to, the man that deserved this woman and all the wildness and sweetness that she offered than when I was seated all the way inside her. When my heart touched hers and when she breathed me in, as I breathed my love for her out, that was the sexiest thing that could ever happen between the two of us.

  So even though I was mere seconds away from blowing all over her, I pushed off the wall where I was bracing myself and scooted back down her body, dropping a kiss on her surprised mouth as I hovered over her in a one-armed pushup as I lined my now very angry erection up with her opening. I could see confusion in her eyes but it was quickly replaced by passion as I pushed my way into her with a contented sigh. Her body welcomed me with quivering muscles and featherlight pulses.

  “You feel better than anything ever has, Avett.”

  She sighed and wound her arms around my shoulders as I lowered myself to cover her fully. She wrapped her legs around my hips and her heels dug into my ass as she whispered into my ear, “So do you.”

  She didn’t only feel better, she felt right. The way she moved against me, the way she responded to me, the way she took and gave with equal passion, the way she said my name, the way she came for me … wild and sweet … every single time. She never held back and every single time I took her to bed I found something new to love about her; this time it was the way she shifted below me and urged me to roll with her so that we could switch places and she was the one doing the fucking.

  I complied and immediately put my hands on her breasts. The soft flesh was still shiny and slick from the oil and she moaned in pleasure as her nipples slipped and slid in and out of my fingers as I tried to catch them as she bounced vigorously up and down on my shaft. I loved watching her ride me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the place where we were joined, the way her body pulled me in and released me as we both glinted with sex and passion.

  When she dipped her fingers between her legs and started to circle her clit as she rocked even more quickly on me, I knew she was close. I let go of her breasts and shoved my hand behind her head so I could pull her down for a kiss as she stiffened above me and let out a little whimper of pleasure. She always came beautifully, but when she was above me, I could see the rose-colored flush flood her entire body. I could watch her odd colored eyes spin out in a tie-dye of satisfaction and completion. It brought my own orgasm racing forward when I watched her sex flutter and flex so delicately and prettily around my much more aggressive arousal.

  I bucked into her wetness as she planted her hands on my chest and rode out the rest of the storm with me. It only took a few more thrusts and her telling me that she loved me for me to find my own finish, and once I did, she collapsed on top of me and used her fingers to lightly trace along one of the eagle’s wings. I swear I was so far gone for this woman that the feathers ruffled and fluffed up under her touch.

  “Best present I ever got.” I turned my head so I could kiss her cheek but ended up kissing her nose as her head jerked up so that she could look down at me with wide eyes.

  “I got you something else. When I get the feeling back in everything below my vagina, I’ll get it for you.”

  I twisted her long, colorful hair around my hand and used that to pull her down for another kiss. “I told you that we didn’t have to exchange gifts. I get you in my bed every single night and that’s all I want. That’s all I’ll ever want.”

  I’d asked her to move in with me over a month ago and she said no. She said she was still working on trying to do the right thing without thinking about it and she wanted to keep working on her relationship with her mom. Plus, Brite hadn’t quite gotten over almost losing her so the bearded giant wasn’t exactly ready to let his little girl go yet. I’d given her a key to my loft and told her she was always welcome and luckily she spent more nights than not in my bed. But apparently, a couple of days ago she had come home early after a meeting with the D.A.’s office and found her mom and dad in a fairly compromising situation on the kitchen table.

  Avett laughed it off and told them she was glad they couldn’t keep their hands off each other but the run-in had finally convinced her to move in with me, which meant I got to put her in a compromising position on our kitchen table … twice.

  She wiggled loose and we both let out a moan as our bodies separated. She was glossy from head to toe, covered in all kinds of sex and good times, and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her and tumble her back underneath me on the bed.

  She lifted her hands up and tried unsuccessfully to unstick her hair from her still-oiled-up chest and made a face at me as I licked my lips. “Lofts don’t really offer much in the way of hiding places, but luckily you’ve avoided the kitchen like the plague since that disastrous dinner incident.”

  She made her way over to where the fridge was and I saw her wiggle and shake, her naked backside making my tired dick take notice. She let out a triumphant sound and came back towards the bed with something as big as she was wrapped in brown paper covering her almost completely up. She hefted the burden onto the mattress and pushed it towards me with a mischievous grin.

  “Merry Christmas, Quaid.”

  I grabbed the edge of the giant package and started to carefully peel the corner back as I picked at the tape holding it shut. She watched me with wide eyes and the longer I took with the wrapping, the more impatient she became. By the time I had one side of the tape fr
ee and opened, she had her arms crossed over her bare breasts and was tapping her foot impatiently. The fierce look was ruined by her lack of clothing but I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I took hold of the big flap I’d worked free and ripped the front of the packaging off with a quick jerk of my arm.

  I blinked and lost the ability to breathe when the image waiting for me on the massive canvas was revealed. The bed sank down a little as Avett crawled back up next to me. She reached out and touched the eagle on my chest as I traced the identical image that was staring up at me from the painting in my hands.

  “Remember I told you that I knew the guy that did your tattoo? Well, he and his business partner have branched out and are doing all kinds of things beyond tattoos. Custom artwork happens to be one of those things. I thought you could hang it in your new office. That way you can have a little bit of wild Quaid around even when you have to be civilized Quaid.”

  I couldn’t look away from the painting and I couldn’t get my heart to stop beating her name over and over again. No one had ever done anything as thoughtful or as personal as this for me. No one understood me the way Avett did, which proved even more how right she was for me.

  She reached out and peeled more of the wrapping away and I whispered, “Those are my mountains.”

  She nodded and reached up to pull on the ends of her hair. “I wanted to you to be able to have your favorite place with you even when you were having a bad day.”

  I let out a deep breath and moved the big painting to the side of the bed so that I could pull her to me. I arranged her so that she was straddling me and lowered my forehead so that it was resting on the center of her chest. She smelled sugary and decadent. I wanted to eat her up all over again, but it was the steady and sure beat of her heart that made me tell her, “The mountains used to be my favorite place. Now that’s anywhere you are.”

  She hummed in appreciation and scraped her fingers over the short sides of my hair. “Well, you shouldn’t have too many bad days anyway now that you’re working for yourself.”

  Instead of taking any of the numerous offers that had come at me fast and furiously when I walked away from the firm, I decided that I had worked too hard for other people and all the wrong reasons for far too long. The only person I wanted to impress and to prove myself to was currently wrapped around me and I knew there was nothing I could do that would make her love me any less so I decided it was time to jump again and go into private practice. I already had more clients and more inquiries than I knew what to do with and I wasn’t even officially back in business until after the first of the year. I was planning on being more selective and more discriminating in who I invested my time and legal knowledge into. I still believed everyone deserved the best defense possible, but now I wanted to give it to the people that really needed it. There would be no more putting bad people back on the street simply because they waved a wad of cash in my face and were guaranteed to get their names in the press.

  I’d wanted some time to settle into life without the smoke and mirrors, and I’d wanted time to spend with Avett before she started school and went to work for Asa. I was being selfish with my time and my talent, but at least I knew I was doing it for something that mattered, something that was beyond value.

  “I got you something for Christmas, too, but it’s too big to hide in the loft.”

  She jerked back and looked at me with her brows puckered and her mouth set into that pout I couldn’t resist. “I told you not to spend a lot of money on me, Quaid. You better not have bought me a car or something else that’s going to make me fight with you on our first Christmas together.”

  I shook my head against her soft skin and chuckled. My little hurricane was full of fire and independence, something she never let me forget. I could love her and support her but she wouldn’t let me coddle her or indulge her. She insisted that was part of us doing this relationship right. There were times when I wanted to spoil her for her simply being so unconcerned with material things but then she would remind me that I gave her my heart and the real me and that was worth more than any trinket she insisted she would lose or break anyway.

  “It’s not a car … exactly. Let’s take a shower and clean up and I’ll take you by the bar so you can check it out before we head over to your parents’ house for dinner.”

  She was still looking at me through narrowed eyes but she didn’t offer even a peep of protest when I scooped her up and started walking towards the bathroom. If we were taking a shower together, that meant we were going to have to get very dirty before we got clean, so it was a good thing her parents wouldn’t mind if we were running a little bit late.

  Going to Brite and Darcy’s for Christmas dinner was the kind of holiday gathering I was actually excited about. I was looking forward to spending time with a family and a close-knit group of friends, where it was actually about enjoying each other’s company and spending time together, not about having the appropriate date or the best gift for the boss in order to gain brownie points and accolades. Being taken into the fold by Brite Walker was a profound experience, and knowing that the burly man not only approved of me but more importantly approved of me for his daughter was the greatest validation I had ever been given. I finally felt like I was reaching the potential I’d long been chasing after and it had nothing to do with things and everything to do with one special girl that whipped through my life like a cyclone.

  Being around Avett and her family had even inspired me to reach out to my own estranged brood. I’d sent my folks a Christmas card, one that had a picture of my mountains on it, and mentioned that I wouldn’t mind taking a trip up north to see them. I didn’t even know if they had a way to get mail out on their frozen lake or if they were interested in seeing me after so much time and bad blood, but I tried and figured that counted for something.

  After a very steamy shower that had nothing to do with the water temperature and everything to do with me trying to lick all of the cotton-candy flavoring off of Avett, we got dressed and grabbed the gifts she had picked out for her parents—a new knife set for Darcy and a picture of her sitting on a Harley when she was still in diapers with Brite holding her on the massive machine, a smile brighter than the sun splitting his bearded face. The picture was yellowed and there were burn marks around the corners but the damage was hardly noticeable where it sat in the silver frame that looked like it was made of spokes. Avett had cried when Zeb called her and told her he found a box of pictures in one of the closets of the destroyed house. The box had been under the remnants of a leather jacket so the damage was minimal but the effect something so simple had on my girl was profound.

  We got dressed and bundled up in defense against the winter chill that was thick in the December air. Snow had fallen overnight, leaving a light dusting on the ground that crunched under our feet as we exited the truck when I pulled to a stop behind the bar. Avett huddled into my side and rubbed her bare hands together as I led her towards the big metal vehicle that was taking up a good portion of the back parking lot.

  “Is that an ice cream truck?” She sounded bemused. “Why does Rome have an ice cream truck in the parking lot in the middle of winter?”

  I gave her a tight squeeze where she was pressed into my side and reached out with my index finger so I could draw a heart in the frost that had accumulated on the side of the big vehicle.

  “Not an ice cream truck—a food truck, and it’s yours.” I shifted her so that she was facing me, her wide-eyed look of shock and her slack mouth making me chuckle. “Merry Christmas, Avett.”

  She looked at the truck over her shoulder and then back at me, disbelief and astonishment clear in every line of her small body.

  “What did you do, Quaid?” Her tone was breathless and filled with awe as she moved out of my grasp and towards the towering truck. She traced a heart next to mine and then trailed the rest of her fingers through the frost like she was petting the side of the monstrous vehicle.

  “It wasn’t all me act
ually, and I can’t take credit for the idea—that was all Asa. When I mentioned that I wanted to get you something that you would have forever, no matter what happens between you and me, no matter what choices you make in the future, he was the one that brought up the idea of giving you your space to cook in.” I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly and looked down at the crisp white blanket beneath my feet. “I may have suggested trying to buy a restaurant and it was quickly pointed out to me how ridiculous and unrealistic that kind of undertaking would be, not to mention how uncomfortable it would have made you. Asa mentioned the food truck, and your dad and Rome immediately decided that they wanted to pitch in as well. This is from all of us, Avett. We wanted to give you whatever kind of future you want to have for Christmas because we all believe in you and we all love the passionate, talented woman that you are.”

  She spun around and threw herself at me, which made me stumble because of the slick ground. I struggled to keep us both upright as her arms wound around my neck in a stranglehold.

  “I can’t believe you guys did this. I haven’t even started school yet. I don’t know what to say.”

  I kissed her because she was happy and because she didn’t automatically tell me that she didn’t deserve something like this. We’d come a long way from that day she sat across me dressed in convict orange, looking like every bad thing that happened in the world was her fault and her burden to bear. I kissed her because she was mine to kiss and that was what made me happy.

  “That’s the thing … this truck is yours, so you can do whatever you want with it. You can let it sit until you finish school, you can run it on the weekends, once you figure out what you want to do with it, you can hire someone to run it for you, or you can even sell the damn thing and invest the money back into your education. The options are endless and the choice is yours to make.”