by Snow, Nicole
“Insight,” I say, inching closer to her, “is half desire and the rest inspiration. That’s when you finally notice things you may not otherwise. Keith and I figured we’d be able to see where the sand hid the landmines, and we did. Demolition was one of our specialties, so we created a few small remote-controlled devices. Then that evening, while the sun was setting, we did it.”
“What?” She’s almost breathless. It comes out too much like a moan.
Ah, hell.
Her face is inches from mine, so caught up in the story I’m telling, she leans closer still.
I lower one hand beneath the water and plant it on the tub seat where the edge of it brushes against her thigh. “We made ourselves a diversion. Blew up our latrine.”
“Oh, no.” She starts laughing. “No way. Was it even near the truck?”
“No, and that was the point. One of our guys was hauling around a fifteen-pound bag of jellybeans sent by his sister. Guess she worked for a candymaker or something, almost a miracle they didn’t melt in the Afghan heat, but they were bright with all the colors of the rainbow. Thousands of ’em. So we used the entire bag, filled up the latrine that evening and let it rip.” I spread my fingers wide across her thigh. Another inch and one finger could slip beneath her bottom.
Gwen giggles.
“The latrine was on the other side of our base camp. It was almost dark by then, so while everyone was busy, especially the snipers, watching and probably laughing at the jellybeans flying in the air, Keith and I used our remote-controlled devices to set off enough mines for us to make it to the truck. The insurgents never knew what hit ’em. We came back heroes with cartons of cigarettes, bags of snacks, and a full box of socks before anyone knew it had happened.”
“Miller!” She gently slaps my arm. “That’s the moral of the story? You risked your life for cigarettes, snacks, and socks?”
“I’ve risked my life for better things, too.” I lean closer. “And will again.”
“Miller...I don’t...is this a risk you really want to take?”
My lips brush hers. “Damn right, Gwendolyn, if it means having another taste of you.”
Adrenaline hits my veins in a rush as I take her mouth, pressing my lips hard against hers. Her plush, pink mouth parts with my tongue, and I slide it in, pushing my fingers into her bikini bottom.
She twists, moaning, and loops her arms around me, spreading her long, fuck-worthy legs.
It’s like heaven just opened its gates. She whimpers into my mouth as my hand finds her pussy folds.
My thumb rakes her clit, just brief enough to make her stiffen. Then I slide two fingers up in her, loving how tight and hot and wet she is for me.
Snarling, I pull out of the kiss, my ears burning as she whispers.
“We...we shouldn’t do this.”
“Bullshit.” I twirl my finger inside her, finding her sweetness, making her body jerk against mine. “Tell me again. I’ll stop if you want, but I think I know better.”
She answers, running the tip of her tongue across my bottom lip. “I don’t want to stop, but this isn’t exactly private.”
“There’s a curtain, Gwen. The kids won’t get out of that pool till they have to. And if anybody comes knocking, we’ll see them coming.”
I rub harder, loving how she bucks against my hand. Her pussy drenches my fingers. Even in this water, she’s fucking soaked, and I can’t stop thinking what it’d be like if I replaced my hand with something else.
She lowers a hand, runs it over my chest, and then down into the water right as I find her clit. “Okay, I just–oh! God, right there.”
“Fuck.” A groan snags in the back of my throat when she gives it back, her little hand brushing the tent of my cock in my trunks.
Spreading her legs wider, she whispers, “I haven’t done this in forever.”
I shrug. “Good. You’re wet enough to break both our dry spells.”
She sucks her lip, doing terrible, terrible things to me.
Her eager hand slips inside my trunks and folds around my cock. I almost lose my rocks right there and shame myself forever.
Shit, it feels so good. Normally, it’s easy holding my own with a woman, even redheads.
But none of them were this tall, this beautiful, this ready to be held down and mounted good and proper. I push her against the edge of the tub, moving between her legs, smothering her lips.
My teeth find her bottom lip and I suck. I bite. I show her how much of a madman I can be, courtesy of one damnably fine Minnesota girl.
She kisses me harder, whimpering again, getting into it. Her pussy shifts against my cock.
Is it even dry humping if it’s in the water?
Whatever it is, I want my trunks and her bottoms gone like yesterday.
“We shouldn’t do it here. Not all the way but...there are other things.” Her hand glides up and down my cock.
“You’d better tell me what you’re thinking, Gingersnap. Clue me in.”
She flushes hellfire red. “Oh, I mean...”
“Say it, babe. You want me to bring you off with my hands harder than you’ve ever been in your life? You want me to bury my face in your cunt? You want me to fuck your mouth, and you want to swallow every drop of come scalding my balls?”
Her eyelids flutter. She’s speechless, breathless, but I haven’t even got her really going yet.
Sliding another finger inside her, I frig her pussy faster, substituting what I’ll do to her with my dick later. “Tell me, Gwen. Might just stop if you don’t.”
“I...I....” She lightly pinches the head of my dick, then looks at me with those wide, shimmering green eyes. “I like the way you think, Miller. And I think I want us both to come.”
Just like that, I’m fucking gone.
Hearing this woman say it – come – is closer to a verbal command than I’d like to admit.
So I press down against the nub of her clit with my thumb.
I go to town.
I light her the hell up before I squirt off in her hand.
“Miller!” she gasps, arching into my hand, throwing her head back. “Oh, right there. There.”
Sex marks the spot.
I dip my head and shove her pink top aside, taking one tit in my mouth, sucking like my life depends on it.
She works my shaft faster, harder, pumping it with such rhythm I could come right now, but won’t. I’m going to milk this as long as possible. I won’t give it up till she does first.
Latching on to her other tit, I suck harder, loving how her pussy clenches my fingers and her hand pumps my cock, building a vicious O inside both of us like nothing else.
I feel the fire at the base of my spine, blazing hotter every time her hand glides up my balls to the swollen tip of my dick.
“Holy hell,” she gasps, her hips working against my hand, adding her own friction to mine. “Miller, Miller! I’m going to–”
“Come for me, babe. That’s what I want you to do,” I growl, right before attacking her mouth with mine. My tongue plunges in, finds hers, and owns it.
She’s close, breath drawn in, legs shaking. I can tell she’s about to burst, but that doesn’t stop her from working her sin on me.
The way she’s jacking me off never slows, never misses, even when she arches against my hand and her whimper turns shrill, frantic.
I sense the second she’s about to tear loose, and keep my mouth locked on hers, muffling her moan as her pussy convulses, turning to slick heat against my fingers.
I keep pressure on her clit, swirling my fingers inside her as her body stiffens.
My muscles harden, too.
It’s coming on like lightning.
I hold it back, focusing on hers a little longer, working feverishly till her legs tremble and I know she’s coming down off her O. Then, I give in, let myself erupt with a loud snarl.
So fucking good, I get fully lost in the pleasure.
It burns and gnaws and ruptures loose, fully e
ncompassing me as she continues stroking till I’m fully spent. Till every last bit of my cock goes numb in her hand.
We both slink backward, up against the wall of the tub.
“Holy shit, that was intense,” she whispers.
“Yeah.”
No fooling.
And now I can’t help but wonder what the hell I was thinking to let this happen.
11
The Cost of Lemonade (Gwen)
Well, crap. What did I just do?
Had the best orgasmic high of my life for one thing. But the distant, contemplative look scrawled on Miller’s face makes me worry it’s a new low.
I leap to my feet, grab the railing, and race out of the hot tub. As I snatch my towel, shifting my swimsuit back into place, I mumble, “I’m going to check on Shane and Lauren. Be right back!”
I’m actually running away, but I can’t tell him that.
Did I really just have sex in my mother’s hot tub? Not full-blown sex-sex, obviously, but a form of sex.
Good sex. Great sex. Memorable sex. Sexy sex.
Sex with a loud, confusing, deliriously gorgeous beast-man I barely even know.
I nearly run around the screened-in porch, and as I approach the pool, I toss aside my towel and then dive in the water.
I swim the entire length of the pool, under the buoys, all the way to the shallow end.
Shane and Lauren are there. As soon as I surface, they ask me to watch as they dive for the weighted rings they throw to the bottom of the pool.
I’m glad for the diversion, honestly. It’s a whole lot easier to digest than that man and...whatever that was. After they collect them all, I offer to toss the rings again. Mother must’ve wandered off for a bit to take one of her evening walks shortly after I showed up.
Lauren stays in the shallows, but her comfort with the water has grown. Shane wants the rings tossed into the deeper side, so I find a spot near the buoys where I can toss rings for both of them, and I try to forget what just happened in the hot tub.
Like that’s even possible.
I’ll never forget that.
Ever.
I can’t believe I’m standing here, in Mother’s pool, tossing diving rings for Miller’s kids, after what just happened with Miller himself. This can’t be real. It’s more like an M.E. Court novel, the part where Mother’s characters do something terribly reckless but inevitable, right before the sky comes crashing down on their heads.
More to look forward to, I guess. The sex was certainly right out of a romance. Freaking unbelievable.
I came so hard I literally saw stars. It’s never been like this.
I’ve had sex before with three different guys. Mother never held back teaching me about the birds and bees and the importance of a healthy sex life. It’s the relationship part she had a bigger problem with, and that’s what I’ve always lacked.
Like everything else, it scares me.
“Gwen, Amelia has some treats for the kids,” Mother says, returning to the poolside.
Amelia, her maid, sets a platter on a nearby table. Various desserts, including homemade coconut ice cream bars dipped in chocolate and coated with more coconut shavings, candied mango, and a pitcher of lemonade with carafes of milk and mineral water next to it.
“Come on, you two,” I tell Shane and Lauren. “Snack time.”
Shane instantly starts swimming to the side of the pool. “More food? I love this place! Are you the luckiest lady on earth or what, Gwen?”
I smile. It’s hard not to seriously consider the answer to his question after the past hour.
But then, depending on the aftermath, my luck could change rapidly.
Lauren hands me a diving ring.
“I love it here, too. It’s just nice all the time. No stupid worries.” She smiles, but there’s a hint of knowing sadness in her eyes. “I wish we could stay here forever.”
My throat thickens. They will leave. Probably very soon.
I’ve known it from the beginning, but it hits harder now.
For her sake, I put on my best fake smile. “Well, right now, let’s not worry about that and have some good stuff. Swimming always makes me feel starved.”
Miller finally shows up shortly after we sit down on the loungers by Mother.
Much like I’d done, he dives in the deep end off the board, swimming the entire length of the pool in a slow, refreshing lap.
“Care for some dessert, Miller?” Mother asks as he emerges.
My heart jumps in my throat as he stands, and my mind goes back to the hot tub.
Heat braises my cheeks as his blue-eyed gaze meets mine, only growing as he grins.
Of all the things I’m afraid of, this should be king.
Miller freaking Rush and the squirmy, conflicted, impossible way he makes me feel. He was made to flash danger until my entire system short-circuits.
“Looks tasty,” he says.
I grab a towel off the pile on the chair next to me and wrap it tight, desperate to hide how my body reacts to him all over again. Even at this distance.
His look sharpens as he waves at the changing house. “Think I’ll get dressed first.”
“Does that mean we have to quit swimming too?” Shane yells from the pool, his mouth full of ice cream.
“No, son,” Miller tells him as he walks by. “Keep having fun till we leave.”
Shane lets out a happy yelp and takes another huge exaggerated bite off his ice cream bar for effect.
Gotta love that kid.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about having a gazebo with gables and gold trim built out there,” Mother says, pointing to a blank expanse of her backyard, covered with perfectly manicured green grass that eventually flows into a grove of oak trees. “White and gold, with a tiled floor to die for.”
“Sounds pretty!” Lauren chirps.
“Oh, it will be,” Mother replies. “That’s the one thing this place has always lacked. Something more formal for outdoor parties and big events like weddings. It’d be perfect for that. I think I’ll have Miller build it.”
I tear my gaze off the changing house and look at her like she’s lost her mind. “Miller isn’t a carpenter, Mother.”
“No, no, Daddy could build it!” Lauren throws back. “He built our house in Seattle almost by himself. Another guy helped run the wires, I think, but the walls, the roof, the sweet little finishes...that was all him.”
Mother gives me a knowing grin, far too proud of her uncanny instincts.
I shake my head, shifting my gaze back to the changing house, waiting for Miller to emerge and hoping I’ll have an excuse by then to make my escape.
Because that’s what I need to do with this. Run.
Get as far away from him as I can so I can process.
Ah, but there it is.
That familiar, overwhelming fear I’m used to, rising up inside me as I stand.
“Where’re you going, dear?” Mother asks, looking up from the book perched in her lap.
“Bathroom break,” I say and head toward the house, even though there’s a bathroom in the changing house. Once inside, I take a second to catch my breath and regain control over my own body.
I’m on total overload right now. This is just too much. I’m used to calm and cool with no surprises. Dull and safe.
Not a hulking, wound-up beast who can make every nerve sing soprano one second, and then flay me open with his razor-sharp blue eyes the next.
I head down the hallway and use the bathroom, taking my sweet time. When I finally muster up the nerve to go back out to the pool, Shane and Lauren are the only two there, flopped down in the chairs under a couple big umbrellas.
Shane sees me and jumps off the lounger as I walk across the warm cement.
“Dad said we couldn’t go back in the water until you came back, and only if you’re staying out here with us.”
I scan the area, making sure I hadn’t missed Miller or Mother. “Where did they go?”
&n
bsp; “Inside. Been gone for a while now. Guess they had a lot to talk about.” Shane bounces from foot to foot, casting an antsy glance at the pool. “But you’re staying here, right? We can go back in the pool, can’t we?”
I shouldn’t feel so disappointed by Miller’s absence.
But I do.
I’m also worried about what he and Mother have going on that they have to ‘talk’ again. I never did get an answer about the oh-so-secret discussions happening under my nose ever since we showed up here.
“No worries, I’m staying,” I say. “Go ahead and get in the water.”
“You’ll swim with us, won’t you, Gwen?” Lauren asks sweetly.
I agree, hoping it’ll be a good distraction, and join them in the pool. We stay there until Miller finally returns.
I study him closely, but there’s just...nothing. An impassable mask. The stone-cold look on his face doesn’t give me any hint what he discussed with Mother, other than the fact that he’s clearly not happy about something. Uh-oh.
“Guys, time to go,” he tells the children. “Dry yourselves off and start getting ready, please.”
Disappointment shows on their faces, but they don’t argue or beg for more time in the water. I follow them into the changing house, making sure they shower off the chlorine before getting dressed, and then do the same myself.
Mother hugs us all goodbye before we head for the car. I cast a worried glance back at her, wishing someone would cough up the truth about what’s really going on.
Miller climbs behind the wheel of my car, waiting not-so-patiently. I get in the passenger seat while the kids get settled in the back.
At least someone walks away happy. They chat about the fun they had on the whole ride home, while I watch the broody thunderhead on Miller’s brow deepen with virtually every passing second.
God, what happened?
What did Mother do this time?
Once we’re home, the kids, with their limitless energy, head outside to play by the golf course. Miller collects his laptop and takes it out on the deck, obviously hoping for privacy.
My mind swirls like a jet engine as I try to buckle down and focus on a few mundane household chores. Not so easy.
