by Penny Wylder
“You bet your ass that’s what I came back for,” he says before pulling away. “Now let’s get your stuff and go back where there’s air conditioning. You were right before, work starts tomorrow.”
He heads up the stairs and I stay where I am, frozen. None of this is what I expected when I came back home. And other than the scare we just had, it’s more than I ever imagined. It’s been two days. Where the hell am I going to be in two weeks?
8
Reynard
I curl my body around Klara’s feeling her catch her breath. The sound of it makes me want to turn her over and push into her all over again because I know that I’m the one who made her that breathless. That made her scream my name a couple of minutes ago.
I’m not taking the fact that she’s here with me for granted either. The look on her face when Amada walked in, I knew what it meant, and as soon as I explained to Amanda, she was fine. And I hope that Klara will be willing to see her again, though I understand her reasons for not wanting to today.
“I told you where I went,” Klara says softly. “You never told me what you did.”
“Once you left?”
I feel her nod.
Moving my hand across her stomach, I pull her more firmly back against my chest. “I just…stayed. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I got a job at a cabinetry shop, and I fell in love with wood.”
She giggles, and I bite her shoulder. “Not that kind of wood.”
“I know,” she says. “Still funny.”
“I threw everything that I had into it, and I was good. Soon I was getting requests for side jobs from other contractors, and with that experience I got even better, and I was able to just go off on my own. The rest is history.”
Klara turns over to face me, cuddling in closer. “Why do I get the feeling you’re skipping over a lot?”
“Because talking about carpentry while you’re naked with me isn’t highest on the list in my mind. I have other things that are distracting me.”
She smiles and loops an arm around my neck. The movement presses her breasts against my chest. “That’s even more of a distraction.”
Klara’s eyes drop to my lips for a moment before she looks back up at me. “I did a thing while you were cooking us that delicious dinner.”
“And by cooking, you mean taking the delivery out of the bags.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” she says. “But I did a thing.”
“What?”
She bites her lip. “I googled you. I swear that I’ve never actually done that before. You just kind of were always in my head, I never thought to look you up. So, I know that when you say that you’re good at stuff and that you split off on your own that you’re being extremely modest. And now I know why you were able to call in so many favors. The pictures of your stuff are incredible.”
“Like I said, I just happened to be good at it. The rest is just practice.”
Klara presses her lips to mine, moving slowly and arching into me. My body reacts instinctively, and I know that I could take her again without any trouble. “I think that there’s something to having a natural talent and not just practice. I could say the same for something else that you’re very good at.” The thrust of her hips leaves no room for questions.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yes.”
In one quick movement, I roll her underneath her and settle my hips between hers. “You’re not bad yourself,” I say softly. “I can’t get enough of you.”
She blushes pink a second before she pushes back, leading me to reverse our positions. “I never got to finish today, when we were interrupted.”
I laugh. “I’m still sorry about that—”
Her mouth closes around my shaft, and all the words are suddenly gone from my vocabulary, just like they were this afternoon. But this time she’s not holding back, not shy, and not teasing me. Klara is going straight for the bull’s eye.
She dives down my length, surrounding me with perfect wet heat. Her lips stretch around me, sucking back to the tip before she lowers herself again. It’s the hottest fucking thing that I’ve ever seen. “God,” I manage to say. “I don’t know whether I’m upset that we were interrupted or glad that we were.”
Her laughter vibrates across my skin, and I have to close my eyes. The movement of her lips. Her tongue. Her mouth. It’s almost too much. My hips lift into her mouth, thrusting deeper, but she doesn’t back away. Instead, her eyes suddenly gleam with interest and she stares up at me while never breaking contact with my skin.
Reaching down, I tangle a hand in her hair. “You need to tell me what you want.”
“What do you mean?” She pulls back and takes a breath.
“I mean that I’m close, and I’m seconds away from flipping you over and fucking you harder than you’ve ever been fucked in your life.” Her eyes go dark at my words. “Or if you want me to do exactly what you said and come all over you.”
Klara’s breath catches, and she stares at me. The lust in her gaze could light this bed on fucking fire. “Your choice,” I say. “But you have to choose now.”
She slides off the bed and onto her knees. One hand is already between her legs and god, I want to be that hand.
“Both,” she gasps. “Both. One and then the other.” Then she smirks. “If you’re up for it.”
My hand is already gliding up and down my shaft, increasing the pleasure that she put there. It’s not going to take long for me to be there. Not with her on her knees in front of me, fingers moving between her thighs, eyes on mine like I’m the only thing in the world that she can see.
Klara gasps again, this time from her own pleasure, lips parting and eyes drifting closed, and that’s enough. Fire races down my spine, grabbing my body and holding it hostage. The explosion of pleasure rips through me like a hurricane, and I come hard.
My cum splashes across Klara’s chest, painting her breasts and upward like the necklace I never knew that I needed to see. She groans and shudders, and I have her up off her knees in a second, moving on pure instinct.
That orgasm didn’t even make a dent in my arousal. I’m still hard and I’m nearly blind as I get the condom on and bend her over the edge of the bed and push in a single thrust.
Klara cries out, and it’s so fucking perfect. She feels so good, pussy gripping my cock and squeezing like a fucking vise. How in the hell did I not notice her? It’s something I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for. I didn’t notice her, and we lost years. If I had just looked at was right in front of me, maybe we could have been doing this all along.
Just like I promised, this is hard and fast. I’m barely on the heels of the last orgasm and the next one is rising just as fast. I drive myself into her again and again and again and Klara’s fingers dig into the bedsheets, holding on. Her pussy flutters around my cock, and the moans coming from her tell me that she’s close. So fucking close. And she’s going to come again.
I slip my hand under her and find her clit without ever slowing down. “Oh fuck. Rey, please.” Her words are desperate, strained, so fucking close. One more thrust and I feel her spasm. She arches off the bed, voice echoing off the walls. The force of her climax is too much, and the world goes white, another electric burst of lighting driving me into her and holding me deep.
Pleasure so deep it comes from places that I didn’t know it existed. And it lasts for what feels like forever.
When I come back to myself, I’m still buried inside Klara’s cunt, leaned over her on the bed. Lowering myself further, I press a kiss to the back of her neck. “You were right,” I say. “Always both.”
She laughs, though it’s raw from her used voice. “We’re going to have to wash your sheets. I got you all over them.”
“Worth it.” I slip out of her and deal with the condom and come back out to find her stripping the bed. “You don’t have to do that now,” I say.
One eyebrow raises. “We’re going to sleep in them?”<
br />
“No, but you’re still covered in my cum,” I tell her, saying it intentionally. “Figured we could shower first.”
Klara grins. “I’d like that. But I’m not sure I can go another time.”
I reach out and take her hand. “If you think just being with you naked, wet, and soapy isn’t something that I’m interested in, then you’re wrong.”
She drops the sheets, and when she comes closer, I capture her in my arms and kiss her. “I’m very glad that you’re not staying in your house.”
Klara doesn’t say anything, she just kisses me back harder, and when we pull apart, she’s the one that leads me into the shower.
9
Klara
The crew that shows up in the cul-de-sac the next morning is a better one than I could have hired. I had the list of things that needed to be done, but honestly, they barely needed any direction. We retrieved the supplies my father had bought from the storage unit, and they got to work. And because they moved as a unit led by Reynard, I could start to make plans for the actual decoration.
Most of the places had some basic furniture, and I can make do with that. A few coats of paint and some other details, and these houses will be perfectly adequate guest houses. And as income from them starts to come in, improvements could be made. So, I create tiers of decor and I start at the bottom.
Rey thought of that too, and the crew is fully prepped to paint and primp when the actual renovation work is done.
I would never admit it to him, but he’d been right that first day. My parents did give me an impossible task. I don’t exactly blame them. They were desperate and thought that they were about to lose everything. But that doesn’t change the fact that I could have never done this by myself. Even if I were only decorating these five houses, getting all of them done, alone, in two weeks, would be a stretch. Now we actually have a chance.
Later in the afternoon, a shadow falls across the notebook I’m sketching in while sitting on the front lawn of my childhood home, and I look up to see Rey smiling down at me. “How’s it going?”
“I’m feeling much more hopeful and optimistic now. How’s the crew?”
He sits down on the grass beside me. “They’re taking a quick break, but they’re doing well. The house should be finished up tomorrow.”
“Rey, there’s really no way that I can thank you. You’re saving my ass in a truly indescribable way.”
Reaching over, he takes my hand. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not.”
One half of his mouth tips up into a smile. “I know what it’s like to be in over your head. And I know the feeling of panic that it brings. If I can make it so someone doesn’t have to feel that, I will.”
“Thank you. Seriously.”
Rey leans close and kisses me. This kiss isn’t like the others we’ve shared. It’s not the raw passion that seems to overtake us when we’re alone in his bedroom, and it’s not tentative like new lovers should be. It’s soft and sweet and comfortable. It tugs at the strings inside my chest and makes me wonder how this is even possible.
And the things it makes me feel aren’t things that I can think about right now. “Do they need help?” I ask when I pull away. “I’ve done some good work here—I can put this on hold.”
“Nah,” Rey shakes his head. “They’re fine. In the rhythm of it.”
“In other words, don’t go in there and fuck it up?”
He laughs. “That’s not what I was going to say. But you don’t need to go anywhere at the moment. They’ve got their marching orders. But I wanted to mention that I’ve made plans tonight to get drinks with a friend—Manuel. We do it every couple of weeks. You’ll have the run of my house, and I won’t be back late. That all right?”
“Oh,” I say, shocked that he’s even asking me. “Yeah, of course. I have to go pick up a shit ton of paint and lamps and stuff, so I can do the first run of that while you’re out.”
“I can cancel.”
I smile as I roll my eyes. “Why would you?”
“Well…” Rey’s eyes drop to the neck of my shirt and slowly climb back to my eyes. “I could think of a few reasons that would be very, very tempting.”
Heat curls low in my stomach. He’s right. Those things are very tempting. Last night was…un-fucking-believable. And I’m almost sad that it’s so good. Because at the end of this trip I have to go back to Austin and my life, and all I’ll be left with is my vibrator. As much as I enjoy that little piece of equipment, it’s nothing in comparison to a real, human cock.
Specifically, Rey’s cock. Because he manages to fill me up and draw pleasure out from nerves that I swear I’ve never felt before.
“You seem to forget that those things will still be an option when you get back,” I say quietly, even though the rest of the crew is two houses away and can’t hear us.
“I haven’t forgotten at all.”
“Well then,” I say, clearing my throat, “you have to tell me something.”
“What?”
I pin him with a stare. “Last night you gave me exactly what I wanted. But what do you want? You never shared your dirty thoughts with me that first night.”
“Fuck,” he says under his breath. “There are so many things.”
“Hmm…start with two.”
He leans closer until his lips are brushing my ear and his breath is giving me goosebumps. “First, I want to come all over your tits again, and then use that to fuck them until I come in your mouth.”
Arousal sweeps through me, hot and fast. The picture that paints in my mind is enough to leave me shaking. These aren’t things that I’ve done before, but I don’t care. Hell, I don’t know if I’ve ever even thought of doing stuff like this with anyone else. I swallow. “Okay, that’s number one, what’s number two?”
He smiles at this one. “I want to take you out into the desert. Far enough that we can’t see the lights. So it’s just us and the stars. And I want to fuck you until you scream my name so loudly that they hear you all over Texas.”
“If you have a place where you can guarantee I won’t get bit by anything, then I’m game.”
“I know of a few places,” he says, brushing his lips along my jaw. “And if none of those work, I’ll go looking until I find a place that’s perfect.”
“Dedication,” I murmur. “I like that.”
“I’m nothing if not dedicated, Klara.”
He pulls back when he says those words, and the way he says them feels too big and too serious and makes my heart stutter and my stomach drop. I have to look away.
“Good,” I say, clearing my throat.
At the house being worked on, I see the crew stand and head back inside, clearly done with their break. Rey sees it too. “Guess I’ll get back to it.” He stands. “And I’ll see you tonight. I’m going to head out right when we finish.”
“Sounds good.”
I blush at the way he looks at me now. Anyone could read the heat in his eyes and the promise that lies there. And I want it. All of it.
Rey turns and heads toward the house, and I’m left spinning under the Texas sun. What the hell is happening to me?
10
Reynard
The greasy air in the Devil’s Ranch bar is a feeling that’s at once comforting, nostalgic, and repulsive. It’s the kind of place that you hate to love and love to hate. And lord knows that I’ve been here enough. For the last few years, I’ve been coming here at least once a week with my friend Manuel, and various hang outs, dates, and parties.
Today it’s just the two of us, though.
We’re busy enough that this works the best for keeping up with our friendship. And tonight, I feel like I need advice. Cause the things that I’m feeling and what’s going through my head are big, and I’m honestly not sure what to make of them.
He’s already at the end of the bar in our usual spot, nursing a beer. I’m still sweaty from the day of work on the house because I didn’t dare go back to my house
with her. If I had, we’d be in bed together and I would have missed this meeting entirely.
Manuel nods to me as I sit down, and I motion to John to get me my usual. That’s the nice thing about having a normal haunt in a relatively small town. People know you and what you like.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey.” I take a sip of the beer and sigh. “How’s it going?”
He laughs. “Long day.”
“I know that feeling.”
“Yeah, you look like hell. What were you doing?”
I shrug. “Flipping a house. The usual.”
Manuel shakes his head. “Of course. Just start today?”
“Yeah. Got the crew together, it’s a few houses. Tight deadline. But it should be good when it’s done.”
“Over on the edge of town?”
I frown. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Jack was driving by. Said that he saw a bunch of people working over in Reject’s Corner. And that there was a blast from the past.”
“Do tell.”
He knocks back the last of the beer and signals for another one. “You remember Klutzy Klara? From high school? Guess she was over there and looking fucking hot.”
That’s the other thing about living in a small town. Anything that’s out of the ordinary spreads like wildfire. I’m glad I noticed her car before anyone else. Not that I think she would have fallen into the bed of the first man that said hello, but the selfish part of me is relieved that I’ve had her to myself. “Yeah,” I say. “I remember her.”
“Jack said that she’s completely different. Barely recognized her. Gotta say, I’m curious now.”
I roll my eyes and grin. “And how would Ella feel about that?”
Manuel makes a face and punches me in the arm. “I said that I was curious, not that I wanted to hit on her for fuck’s sake.”
“Well,” I say, laughing, “I can tell you that your curiosity is well-deserved.”
