With a self-deprecating chuckle, she says, “I know. Me drinking sugary chocolate. Shocker.”
More like progress. I can tell her how absolutely beautiful she is every day for the rest of our lives, but she has to be the one to see that beauty in herself. If I’m able to help ease the struggles she has with food, then I’ll consider that a huge win.
Handing her back the mug, I lick the sweet stickiness off my top lip. “That’s hands down the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.”
She smiles, and I catalog it into memory like I do every smile she graces me with. Needing to touch her, I wrap an arm around her shoulders, desperate for the feel of her body nestled to mine. The second she snuggles against me, an instant calm settles over me, and I feel like I can breathe normally again.
“Sorry I missed all the hard labor.”
Another shrug. “It’s okay. The stuff I told Natalie was a lot. You needed some breathing room and some space. You and Amelia were together for almost four years, and I can only imagine how hard it was for you to hear. I’ll understand if you want to put a stop to this… whatever it is,” she says, gesturing between us with the ceramic mug. “My emotional baggage is a lot for anyone to handle.”
I kiss her bandana-covered hair and inhale the soothing scent of lavender. Needing to peel back the layers of what she said, I ask, “Is that what you think I want?”
Her face tips up to look into mine, her cheeks tinted a rosy blush from being out in the sun. I count the smattering of freckles that adorn her nose and plan to kiss each one later.
“I honestly don’t know. I’m still unsure about what exactly is going on between us. My empathy skills are pitiful, and I’m terrible at picking up on emotional cues. I have enough trouble trying to figure out how I feel about things, let alone someone else’s feelings. It’s one of the reasons why I write everything down in my journals. Putting how I feel on paper helps me understand things better.”
A gust of wind kicks up, scattering dead leaves across the porch floor and pricking the skin of her bare arms with goose flesh.
“Then let me make it perfectly clear.”
Tracing a finger around the shell of her ear, my mouth follows its path with a trail of soft kisses. As I write ghost letters along her clavicle spelling out the words “I want you,” her breathing picks up and her heartbeat accelerates. If I’m being honest, so does mine, except all the blood is funneling south to my rapidly hardening dick.
“I like what’s happening between us. I like the man I am when I’m with you,” I tell her.
It was difficult listening to her recount all the horrible things Amelia did to her, but only because I’m ashamed I never saw it. I should have protected her.
When my finger draws out the last ‘u,’ I glide it up to her lips and outline their perfect pink shape.
“I want you, Douglass. So fucking much. Never doubt that.”
With her breathy “yes,” I grip her neck and steal her lips, licking between the seam until she opens for me. She tastes of chocolate and sugar, and I greedily invade her mouth, taking from her what I crave most. With light nips of my teeth, I enjoy the softness of her lips before I need more and pull her across my lap. Her knees embrace my hips, and I grind her down on my cock, devouring every moan she makes as she rotates her hips in search of the friction she needs to get herself off.
Douglass may appear reserved and shy, but when she’s in my arms, she’s wild and free and so damn sexy when she takes control.
“You look fuck-hot in these,” I say, pushing down the other strap of her overalls. I could have her naked and riding me in two seconds flat.
“Natalie’s inside,” she says, suckling my lower lip, then brushing kisses along my stubbled jaw. Her hands map the muscles of my pectorals through my T-shirt.
“Figured as much.”
And I honestly don’t care. I don’t care that Natalie is inside or that we are outside in full view of the neighbors. I want Douglass to come apart in my arms, gasping my name, and I’m not stopping until she does.
My nose nuzzles the side of her neck where her lavender scent smells the strongest and is a siren’s song of temptation that I can’t resist. I bite down on the supple skin and enjoy the guttural moan that she makes. Her mouth covers mine, our tongues tangling and dancing.
“And Mrs. Shepardson is watching us through a pair of binoculars from her kitchen window.”
Okay, maybe I do care. With Douglass in my lap, I twist around to look over at the neighbor’s house and wave to a green, fluffy robe-clad Mrs. Shepardson, who immediately yanks her curtains closed and disappears when she sees us staring at her.
“Who would’ve thought that sweet, old Mrs. Shepardson was a creepy peeper?”
Douglass buries her face under my chin and dissolves into mellifluous laughter. I caress a hand up and down her back as she giggles. I set the swing going and lazily rock us back and forth. Off in the distance, a bright flash of sheet lightning flickers as the electricity in the atmosphere jumps from one cumulonimbus cloud top to another.
My dick is cursing the nosy neighbor for interrupting my and Douglass’s impromptu teenage make-out session, knowing that the chances of getting inside Douglass tonight are very low. Natalie’s bedroom is right across from Douglass’s. Not to mention, Douglass’s small twin bed has very creaky box springs. We also have to be up early to take Nat to the airport. I think Harper said Bennett would be on the six-a.m. flight from Tampa. I wonder if we’ll run into him and Mason while there.Fucking Mason…
Douglass’s head lifts. “Are you growling?”
Was I? Shit, I think I was.
