by Quinn, Taryn
I groaned when his lips hit a certain spot on my neck. Most guys didn’t care enough about the foreplay part before they were trying to get their dick wet. At least that had been my entire college experience. One wild year before I came home.
This? Yeah, this wasn’t anything like the fumbling nineteen-year-old guys I’d been with in the past.
No, this was wild and wonderful.
I felt him smiling against my skin. So, he was able to smile. It was rare. Exasperation and interest often flared in his blue eyes, but not much laughter.
I’d have to change that. At least for tonight.
“As much as I’m enjoying all this foreplay, LC, I’d really like to get inside. I’ve heard Sage has very comfortable beds.”
He drew back, those shrewd eyes blurry and confused before he seemed to come back to himself. He brushed his nose along mine. “All your fault, fairy queen. You make me forget myself.”
“I thought I made you want to throttle me.” My lips twitched as he wrapped my long braid around his palm.
“Oh, you definitely do that. I’ll just have to find other ways to keep your mouth busy.”
The laugh rolled out of me. “Is that so?”
He seemed to realize what he’d said and frowned. “I’m sorry, I—”
I shushed him with my finger to his lips. “I don’t mind a cocky response now and then.”
“I’m not that guy. At least not with women.”
I drew the pad of my finger over the little wrinkle between his furrowed brows. “Neither of us are doing what we normally do tonight. Let’s just be spontaneous and go with it.”
“That’s not—”
I kissed him hard. “That’s what spontaneity is, LC. Not doing your usual. Now take me to bed or lose me forever.”
He let out a strangled laugh. “Did you just quote Top Gun at me?”
I shrugged. “I watch a lot of movies. Especially the good ones. And if you can play the piano, then I definitely found my Goose.”
“Not your Maverick?”
I felt like that might be a bit of a test. “Let’s see if I get the best of both worlds then.” I opened my door and he sighed. I leaned back in. “What?”
“I can’t even be a gentleman for a moment.”
“Oh, that’s so cute.” I nodded to the Hummingbird’s Nest. “I’ll race you to the door.” I slipped a bit on the snow, but almost kept my footing. Until Mr. Helpful hooked his arm around me and we both went down like a pair of children.
Rory’s face was covered in the cold, fluffy snow, and I couldn’t stop the screeching laughter.
“Again, thwarted.” He pushed himself up and almost lost his arm in the deep snow. I rolled him over with a laugh. His eyes were dancing as he looked up at me. “You do know it’s like two in the morning...” He raised his hand out of the drift and checked his watch. “Make that three.”
“Hmm. You telling me to be quiet?”
“I don’t give a fuck. I just want to keep hearing that laugh. Even if it’s at my expense.”
I lowered myself on top of him. “Do you understand the difference between with and at?”
“I do.” He pushed a few loose bits of hair out of my face. “My best mate definitely laughs at me.”
I curled my hand around his wrist. “Then you should know this is definitely with. Sex should be fun. Especially the pre-sex stuff.” I kissed him again, our lips slick and cool from the snow still falling around us.
Before it could get too out of control again, I rolled off of him into the snow and quickly opened and closed my legs to make a snow angel. I looked over at him. He seemed confused as he rolled up onto his elbow.
“Fun, LC. Remember?”
He sighed and dropped onto his back and followed suit.
Content to stare up at the sky and watch the snow globe level snowflakes swirling in the sky, we both stayed there for a few minutes. I looked over and he had a crooked little smile on his face.
DANGER!
Do not fall in love with this man!
A red flasher in the back of my head tried to turn on, but I stomped it out. I was wearing four-inch platforms. I could do such things.
I didn’t want to hold anything back. There would be no tomorrow. Tonight was just us being us, no matter which way the dice fell onto the table. I found his cold hand in the snow and pulled him up with me. “Time for you to warm me up, LC.”
The night sky matched his hooded eyes. He was actually looking at me as if I was a sexual creature capable of inciting desire. Me, with my braids and crazy sixties’ outfit. August’s little sister who had a little fence around her when it came to some guys.
Do not cross.
Do not mess with August’s little sister.
Luckily, Rory Ferguson of California didn’t know such things. And I was going to use that knowledge to the fullest. No holding back.
“Should I be worried about that expression?”
“Maybe.”
“Queen fairy indeed.”
I took his cold hand and dragged him behind me to the front door of the Hummingbird’s Nest. He fumbled the key out of his pocket behind me and we both tumbled into the foyer. It was empty and silent. A note on the desk said no one would be there until morning—well, a few more hours since it was well past three at this point.
Rory steered me away from the desk to the stairs. I talked to Sage now and then, but I wasn’t quite in her circle of people. Of course I talked to everyone since I worked at the diner, but Sage was always at the bed and breakfast, so she didn’t come by that often.
That and she had her hands full with her husband and child.
Again, that pang hit me. The same one that compelled me to join the baby meetings at the café. How could I not get a touch of baby fever with all the coupling going on in the town?
I pushed that thought away. This wasn’t about babies. This was about me taking something for myself that wasn’t attached to work or my brothers. Or my ice cream plans, which were taking over my whole world.
Nope, this was just for me. To feel like a woman who was wanted. Heck, so I felt like a flesh and blood woman all around.
Rory turned back to me as we headed up the spiral staircase. A look of concentration was back on his face. Like I was a puzzle he was still trying to figure out.
I rushed up to meet him, curling my arm around his middle so I could get my cold hands under his sweater.
He gave a little yelp, but pushed me against the wall as we got to the top of the stairs. I smoothed my hand around his back when he eased his knee between my legs. I love how smooth he was along his back and the rough chest hair along the front of him. What would it feel like against my skin?
Would he leave me pink and abraded? Or would it just wind me up more?
“Being thinky,” he said against my mouth.
“Haven’t done this in a while.”
The lines reappeared between his brows. “How long is awhile?”
I brought my hand back around to the front of his torso again. I found a necklace the higher up I went. I toyed with the disk before I tunneled my nails through the hair between his pecs. Thank God it was so late, because we were being improper in such a fancy place. “It’s not my first time. I just haven’t had much opportunity since college.”
“How long ago was college? A second?”
I smiled. “Is that your way of trying to ask me how old I am, Mr. Ferguson?”
His gaze narrowed. “Should I be wondering?” He tugged on one of my braids. “It’s not right for a grown man to be this lustful toward a woman with braids.”
“Lustful? I like the sound of that.”
He pressed his zipper against my belly. “You know what you’re doing to me, Ivy.”
I shivered. Hearing him say Ivy made me crazy. I rather loved the fairy queen moniker, but there was something about his accent and my name. A low rolling timber of music. I had always thought my name was old-fashioned, but it sounded lyrical on his tongue.<
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“Say it again.”
His eyebrow shot up. “That you’re near jailbait?”
I nipped his scruffy chin. “My name, sir.”
“Oh, is that what you’re after?” His accent got a little thicker. “Are you looking for this, my fairy queen?”
I rolled my lips behind my teeth with a soft groan. “Is it so wrong to enjoy your accent?”
“All you American ladies do seem to get off on it.”
It was my turn for an eyebrow raise. “I’m not just one of your American chick hookups.”
“Aren’t you though?”
I kicked his boot.
He laughed and curled tighter around me. “No, Ivy Beck, there’s been nothing and no one like you before. Or will be after, I’d wager.”
Before I could unpack that compliment or statement or whatever it was, he dragged me back into the whirling sensations of his kiss. He rocked against me as he took my mouth into a long, slow turn of lips and tongue. He kissed me like he’d been doing it for years, not for less than an hour.
Thoughtful and restless with just the lightest hint of…more. I couldn’t put my finger on what, but I chased it. Consuming and overwhelming, his taste burned my tongue and seared into my memories. He brought his hands up to cup my face and hold me there for him to plunder and own.
I shivered at each dip of his tongue and roll of his hips against me. My nails dug into his sides to ground myself, because I wanted to hold onto this moment and not think about the future, just live in the now. Tomorrow would be coming soon enough.
My heart raced as I went onto my toes to get closer to him even as he was backing up.
“Room.” He swallowed as if he was trying to find oxygen. “I need you under me.”
“Yes.”
He walked backwards down the hall, watching me the entire time. His seductive eyes drew me forward, but the low light of the hallway didn’t give anything away. Was he thinking about how quickly he could get me naked? It seemed like it was so much more than that.
Silly. It was just because we were alone and worked up. Nothing more.
He stopped at a door with sunflowers and a tiny family of sparrows nestled into a wreath. That was me, the sparrow that was used to doing her job, staying in the safe confines of her world.
Mercy, I was getting fanciful.
Maybe it was the wildness of the moment. The way he touched me like he couldn’t stop. But it was just a moment.
And that was all this could be. It was enough. It had to be.
He opened the door and flicked on the light then turned to me with his hand outstretched.
I told myself that again and again as I put my hand in his and let him lead me into the softly lit room. The fire was going, flames licking up from a wash of colorless, glittering stones. This room wasn’t as cozy as I’d been expecting.
It was cool and modern with touches of the sunflower on the door to warm it up. It suited the situation. Pretty lies wrapped over cool perfection. Neither one of us were bringing our truths. We’d just found a connection to hold onto.
It had been so long since I’d felt an instant connection with someone. I’d been working toward my future for so long, I forgot to look at the now.
I turned to Rory. His blue eyes were full of heat—for me. It seemed so overwhelming and alien, exciting and incomprehensible. My fingers trembled a little as I unzipped my vest, tossing it on the warm yellow chair in the corner. Rory’s gaze never wavered even as I slowly tugged the end of one of my braids free.
He walked toward me, the bulge in his jeans still as impressive as it felt against me in the hall. But there was no hurry in his step. All the rushing seemed to have been left outside these doors.
He drew me deeper into the room toward the fire. My fingers weren’t trembling from cold, but it was sweet that he thought so.
Coming closer, he took my other braid and mirrored my slow unwind of hair. My one vanity. It wasn’t practical to have it so long considering all the jobs I had, but watching him spear his fingers through it and lay it over my chest made me shiver all over again.
When both braids were done and the waves fell down my back, he leaned in and kissed me, filling his hands with my thick hair. He massaged the back of my head, and each kiss went deeper until I couldn’t resist the urge to lean into his touch for more.
He tugged at my shirt and tossed it aside, his lips going for my neck as he tugged lightly on my scalp to keep my head tipped back. With his other hand, he softly drew the backs of his knuckles along my midriff to the line of my breasts, but never over them. I thanked all the gods I knew that Kinleigh had demanded a full treatment for the sixties’ outfit I was wearing. The bra was a little more modern, but the smooth silk made my okay breasts look way better than the ill-fitting bras I was forever fighting with.
He dropped into the high-backed chair by the fireplace and drew me down to straddle him. My hair was a curtain of fire, thanks to the flames behind me.
Rory’s hands slid down to my waist to tug me as close as possible, making sure I felt just how hard he was. I rolled my hips lightly as we kissed until we were both breathless with it. His fingers slipped up my back and undid my bra. The straps fell forward, but he didn’t look at my breasts. No, his gaze was on mine as he slowly stripped everything away from me.
I wanted to feel him too.
I pushed at his sweater until it was up and over his head. We both hissed as my breasts swayed against his hair roughened chest. His fingers sunk into my hair, dragging my head back to get to my neck and finally, the tips of my breasts.
I let out a harsh, surprised groan as he sucked the tip of one. After all the sweet, soft touches, the harsh pull and tiny bite seemed to catapult me past the dreamy veil of lust into a technicolor reality. My nails dug into his chest, sliding down to his hard belly, to his pants.
He cupped my breasts and ravaged my mouth as I ripped at his belt and zipper. I needed him closer. Needed to know he was just as wound up as me.
He filled my hand as I finally looked at him. Finally met his gaze and found crackling intensity where there had been patience.
“It’s been too long, Ivy. I’m hanging on by my fingernails here.” He nudged my hair out of my face. “I want everything.” He coasted his thumb across the hard tip of my breast, then pinched it until I gasped. “I want to take my time, but I think I’m going to go mad if I don’t get inside you.”
I stroked down the impressive length of him. “You’re not the only one.”
“Maybe we’re not ready for you to get inside of me tonight, yeah?”
I laughed. “That’s a whole different kind of evening.”
His laugh was choked and rumbling. “Not that I wouldn’t do just about anything you asked right now.” He groaned. “Not that I should be saying that to a woman who has her hands around my cock.”
“Then it’s a good thing I want one thing right now.” I slid off his lap and swallowed back a groan of my own at the reality of Rory sitting before me with his dick so hard it was pushing against his lower belly.
I kicked off my platforms and lost a few inches, but Rory sure didn’t.
Dear Lord, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all of that, but I was going to find out. I wiggled out of the tight pants, kicking them away with my shoes. “Sorry, the panties don’t match the cute bra.”
“You’re fucking gorgeous.”
My breath stalled and everything went warm. His voice rattled as if sandpaper and a storm were dueling in his chest. I took his hand and drew him in front of me. He towered over me now. The uncertainty in his eyes just wouldn’t do.
I was tiny compared to his broad shoulders and athletically lean body. I liked that he wasn’t all rippling muscle. He was real. There were plenty of muscles going on and he was fit as all get out, but it was more like a guy who liked to play sports than one who lived in the gym.
I drew my nail around the medal he wore. I couldn’t quite make out the saint, but it wa
s old and looked as if it had been handed down or worn forever. The chain was long enough that it was probably hidden more than shown in his life. My touch drifted lower to the line of hair that dipped to his open buckle.
The thick ridge of his cock pushed at the black cotton. I was tempted to hit my knees for the first time in…well, ever. Oral was rarely first on any girl’s list, but something about the way he looked at me made me want to taste him. To have him watch me.
He lifted his hand to cup my face. “Sweet Christ, I’d die if you do what I think you want to do.”
I stepped closer, pulling the band of his boxers away from his hardness. “Is that right?”
“Siren.”
I grinned. “I thought I was a fairy.”
“You’re temptation in all its forms.”
“I rather like the sound of that.” But that was all I was able to get out. He swooped down and kissed me hard, wrapping his arm around my waist to lift me against him. We fell onto the bed in a tangle of limbs and laughter.
He lifted me up against him as he shoved pillows out of the way to get me on my back. His mouth was everywhere. My lips, my neck, my shoulder. I couldn’t get up out of the hole we were making in the pillow-top mattress.
I wrapped my legs around his waist. The line of his smooth, hard cock slipped between my thighs to bump my aching flesh. His fingers fumbled between us to push my panties aside, and he groaned at what he found.
I pressed my forehead into his shoulder. I was slightly embarrassed at the state I was in. Definitely not one of the cool, calm girls he was probably used to. Posh and unaffected.
Me? All of the affected. I was going to go out of my damn mind if he didn’t make me come soon.
No woman should be this wound up. It couldn’t be healthy for this kind of crazy to settle into my bones.
I lifted my hips to slide him against me. Anything to get some friction going. The ridged maze of veins along his shaft hit me just where I needed him. I pushed closer. “Rory.”
