Springwell Series: Books 1 - 6, page 9
Damn right, he was. I was almost there already.
He stooped to bite my ass cheek, and I jerked from the pleasure. Pushing my legs wider with his thighs, he spread my cheeks and licked me from clit to taint.
“Oh God,” I groaned, fists clenched so tight that my nails dug into my palms.
“So wet,” he growled, licking me again. “So ready for me.”
I wanted to scream at him to do it, to give me what I needed. He stiffened his tongue and gave me just the tip. “You taste so good,” he said. He dove back in again and again, then teased my swollen lips, circling my clit.
I was putty, helpless. There were so many sensations assaulting me, it wouldn’t take much to—
His mouth latched onto my clit, and he sucked hard.
Screaming, I flattened my hands against the table and rocked my hips against his mouth, riding the waves of a sudden, fierce orgasm.
He lapped me with long strokes, then flicked the tip of his tongue against my clit so fast, I orgasmed again. I thumped my head on the table and slapped the surface, the ecstasy almost painful, too much. Not enough.
“I need you,” I panted. “In me. Now.”
Lunging upward, he tore open the foil package and had the condom on in seconds. Stroking me with the head of his cock, once, twice, he began to push inside.
“More,” I moaned. I was stretched almost painfully to accommodate his girth, but I craved all of it, every inch, right now.
He groaned and thrust in completely, bending over my back. “So hot. So wet. So tight.”
“Screw me, Chance. Hard. Like only you can.”
He grabbed my hips in a bruising grip and did exactly what I asked. His hips pistoned against me, his dick plunging deep. Over and over, he slammed home. Stamping me as his. I met his rhythm, claiming him in return.
“Harder.” The tension inside coiled even tighter, a third orgasm just on the other side. “Faster.”
His hips slapped against my ass in a frenetic pace.
Time seemed to stop, then my orgasm surged, and I cried out. Wave after wave of ecstasy stole my senses away. Chance’s cock prolonged the crest as he continued to thrust wildly, then he shouted and came.
10
MANDY
Slumping, I smashed my cheek against the cool table and tried to catch my breath. An acrid taste hit the back of my throat and I sniffed. “I think something’s burning.”
“Oh, crap.” Chance yanked himself out of me, and I instantly missed the connection. He leapt to the stove and twisted a dial to shut off the burner. Picking the frying pan up, he laughed and showed me the black lumps. “I don’t think even the squirrels would touch these sausages.”
Chuckling, I shuffled to the kitchen sink. A delicious soreness had stuck with me, leaving me sensitive and hungry to be touched, explored. I contemplated telling him to forget breakfast. Once had not been enough. A hundred times, even, would just be a start. We had twelve years of catching up to do, and—
I froze with one arm out to grab a paper towel. There, on the counter, sat the FBI agent’s business card. It had been tucked in the junk drawer—Chance must have found it when he’d been gathering cooking supplies.
I grabbed the paper towel and shoved it under the faucet. My mind was racing, my lust all but forgotten. Quickly cleaning myself up, I passed Chance a fresh towel. He wrapped up his condom and tossed it in the trash.
“Time to talk?” he asked quietly, pointing to the card.
“Yes. I think so.” If we were going to have a relationship, he needed to know all of it. I pulled on his shirt, not wanting to have this conversation naked.
He cleaned the broken egg off the floor, then put his shorts on.
“I’m not sure where to start,” I said, sitting down with a thud.
“How about when Walter and this loan shark entered your life?” He pulled a chair close to me and sat, massaging my shoulders.
I blew out a breath, gathering my thoughts. It took me a moment to figure out where to start, but once I got going, the words tumbled out. I explained about Dad, and his debts, and the loan.
As he listened, Chance’s jaw hardened and his eyes flashed with emotions—rage, sorrow, shock, and more—but he kept quiet, letting me tell the story at my own pace. God, I’d missed talking to him. He had always been a great listener and shoulder to lean on.
“After Walter’s first visit, I drove to Atlanta and walked into the FBI building,” I continued. A spasm raced through my fingers, and I blinked at the sensation of Chance gripping back. When had I reached for his hand?
Concentrating on the comfort of his touch, I kept going. “I didn’t have an appointment and my case wasn’t life or death, so it took a while before I got to see anyone. Agent Mark Butler. The one on the card. I told him what I’ve told you, and he asked me to be an informant.”
“I take it you turned him down?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I agreed. But I told him straight out that I wasn’t sure how useful I’d be. After all, I didn’t know anything about this loan shark or his organization. I only knew Walter. The agent asked if I’d pass on information as I learned it. I didn’t see a choice, so I said yes.”
“But?” Chance’s expression had turned grim.
“I had to back out.”
“Why?” His fingers twined with mine as if he was offering me his strength.
“Walter found out. I don’t know how. He had pictures, though, of me and Agent Butler. And then…” I squeezed Chance’s hand, drawing on that strength to fight my fear and fury. “Pepper was walking home. It was late, after work. One of his thugs came and robbed her at gunpoint. He said it was a warning. She didn’t understand, but I did. The minute she told me, I knew it was Walter—that he’d arranged the whole thing. So the next time I saw him, I made a deal. He’d leave my loved ones alone, and I’d play nice. I’d pay off Dad’s debt, I wouldn’t complain, and I’d keep the authorities out of it. I called Agent Butler, told him I was out, and I’ve been trying to deal with it on my own ever since.”
“You have me now to help.”
“I do, but…” I bit my lip, then plunged ahead. “I’m afraid you’re going to do something to make it worse,” I confessed. “Your sense of justice hasn’t changed, but you can’t fix this. I still don’t know who the boss is. My only contact is Walter, and what good would it do to go after him? He’s replaceable. If you take him out, his boss will just send someone else, someone who’ll come after us harder than before. One man can’t take on an entire corrupt organization.”
Chance’s lips thinned, and his eyes sparked.
I leaned forward. “Please promise you’ll talk to me before you get any ideas.” I hesitated, not wanting to bring up our past, but I knew I had to, to make him understand. I drew a deep breath and looked him straight in his eyes. “Don’t treat this like you did your Navy decision.”
Every muscle in his body turned to stone. “You mean the decision to give us a future?”
“A future?” I nearly laughed. “We already had a future. What do you—”
“You always said you believed in me.” He leaned forward. “I trusted you meant it. When I talked to that Navy recruiter, he showed me how we could have a fresh start. They’d teach me how to channel all that anger into something productive and I could use it to protect people.” His chin lifted. “My scores on the aptitude tests were really good. It meant I’d start with a higher ranking, and it’d give us more money to start off our lives. I couldn’t wait to tell you.” He looked away, frowning. “I didn’t get it. Still don’t. Instead of being happy and proud, you broke up with me. I can’t tell you how much that shredded me. You left me, just ditched me without an explanation.”
Pain lanced through my heart, and I tried to take my hand back, but he clamped my fingers tighter.
“You destroyed me too,” I said, when he didn’t let go. “Not once did it occur to you to talk to me about our future. You just went ahead and made plans that impacted both of us. Plans you couldn’t take back—you’d already enlisted. I thought we were on the same page, and then out of the blue sky, boom. You slapped me in the face with this huge decision. This life-changing contract you signed behind my back.”
“Not behind your back—”
“Did you ask me what I wanted for us?” I interrupted, needing him to finally hear my point. “My dream was to take over the garage and marry you.” I trembled, my deepest wish laid bare at last. I’d always assumed he knew, but saying it out loud all these years later still got my heart racing. Especially now with us on the cusp of…something.
Plunging ahead, I forced myself to confess it all. “I thought we’d run the shop together and maybe have kids one day. When you showed up with that contract, you told me my dreams didn’t matter. That our life here—the life I wanted and planned on—wasn’t enough for you.”
Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and kept going. “You did the same thing my mom did to my dad. She stuck around long enough to make him fall in love. Long enough for him to have a taste of all his dreams coming true, then left when she decided she didn’t want the same things he did.”
The hard edges fell from his expression, and Chance’s shoulders slumped.
“Mandy,” he whispered. Small spasms shook his body, and he dropped his head.
My heart ached, but I continued. “I never wanted to be shuffled around the world at the Navy’s whim or be left behind when your team went out on missions.” A traitorous tear slid down my cheek. “I wanted to build a life in Springwell around you and the garage. But then you joined the Navy, and you were so proud and excited. I couldn’t ask you to stay, and I knew I’d be miserable if I went with you.” My throat hurt from pushing words past the lump. “I refused to beg to be enough for you when you’d already made your choice to leave, so I did what I had to do. I walked away.”
Chance rose from the chair and rounded the table. Craning my neck, I braced myself for his rebuttal. I never expected him to drop to his knees in front of me.
Cradling my face in his hands, he swiped his thumbs at the tears I couldn’t stop. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “It never occurred to me you’d see it that way. It should have, but it didn’t.”
Relief at finally releasing the pain and him actually listening to me hammered at my defenses. Cracks split into fissures, destroying the wall I kept around my heart.
“Jesus,” he breathed. “I’m ashamed to admit you’re right. I didn’t ask you about the future, or where you wanted us to build our life together. I was so focused on ending the constant battles with my dad and the reputation I had in this town, I latched onto a way to escape that kept you with me.”
He pulled my head down to rest on his forehead. “I always wanted you by my side.”
“And I wanted to be by your side.” I kissed his hairline. “I just wanted that to happen here.” Mirroring his hold on my face, I gently forced his chin up. “Chance, we’ve both had time to grow up since then. We’re not kids anymore. I’m learning so many new things about you every day.”
Crinkles deepened around his eyes, and they lightened. “And I’m enjoying getting to know you all over again.” He shot me a devilish grin. “In fact, I’m feeling the need for another lesson. How about we skip breakfast and really devote ourselves to—”
I lurched from the chair and pulled him up with me. “Food can wait—the diner’s got a late lunch special.” Tightening my hand, I led him to my bedroom, but hoped we wouldn’t surface until tomorrow morning for work.
11
CHANCE
Iplucked the economy sized box of condoms off the pharmacy shelf and tossed it in the handle basket. It landed on top of the deodorant and body wash. Every bachelor’s staples.
Days had gone by since I showed up at Mandy’s house to cook her breakfast and had a sex-a-thon instead. Since then, we’d been flipping back and forth between her house and mine. Thankfully, Pepper had a lot of late shifts at Lunar Brewery, and Mandy and I took advantage of having the place mostly to ourselves. Sometimes we fucked—a lot of the time—but sometimes we just curled together, on the bed or the couch, and talked about everything, future and past. I taught Mandy my recipe for cheesy grits. Mandy showed me a house on Zillow, not quite her dream house, but something close.
“Three bedrooms,” I said. “Does that mean—”
“I hope?” She pointed at a tree in the front yard. “A tire swing right there, and maybe a slide?”
I found myself smiling in the pharmacy aisle. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, but…two kids, I thought, with my hair and her smile. That would be fine with me. Perfect, even.
Spying the digital clock above the pharmacy counter, I cursed. I only had a few minutes left on my lunch break and I still hadn’t picked up any food. Hating to leave Mandy alone for any period of time—both due to my inability to keep my hands off her and due to concerns about Walter returning—I decided to grab something quick and eat it in the garage.
The condoms shifted in my basket and I hesitated. Should I grab another box? The rate we were going, I should invest in the rubber supplier.
“Chance McCallister,” a stern female voice barked.
I snapped my gaze from the condom display to a tall woman with styled, wavy gray hair. She’d somehow snuck up on me and was standing beside me. Despite the ninety-two-degree temperature outside, she wore gray slacks—without a single wrinkle—and a pink cardigan sweater set.
“Mrs. Foster,” I said, inwardly cringing. This woman had made my sophomore year hell in high school. She had never approved of me, and no matter how many tests I aced, I’d still ended up barely passing English literature.
“I was sorry to hear about Ray,” she barked, her mouth pulling down.
Did she disapprove of my father dying or of having to offer me her condolences? “Thank you,” I answered, not really caring how she meant it.
“You’ve really turned over a new leaf,” she continued. “I can see it. You finally grew up. Stopped all that fighting nonsense. Learned to put your God-given life to use.”
“Um, thank you.” I had no clue how to respond. These statements weren’t really compliments, but I didn’t feel like arguing.
She plunked on a pair of silver-framed glasses and studied me from head to toe. “The Navy did a good job with you. And you’ve come home and found an honest job.”
Like I hadn’t had an honest job before I’d left? I’d never been a thief, or an entitled kid expecting the world to cater to me. I’d worked long hours in the garage.
“I’ve always loved working for the Loomises,” I responded, racking my brain for a way to end this bizarre conversation. “They’re good people, and George taught me so much.”
Her gaze slid to my basket and her lips thinned. “Yes, well, you and Mandy have certainly picked up where you left off.”
Spots of warmth burned my cheeks but rather than feeling embarrassed, I mostly wanted to laugh. Thirty years old, and I felt like a teenager getting caught having sex. “Yes. We’ve fortunately been able to work things out.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She snatched her glasses off and let them dangle by the pearl beading around her neck. “You’re the type we want to stay in Springwell.”
Since when?
“You’ll be a good role model for the next generation of kids.” Her blue eyes sharpened. “You graduated high school, joined the Navy, served our country, and came home to find employment.” Her chin dipped. “Your mother would be proud. Welcome home.”
I snapped my jaw closed at her retreating back. What the heck was that?
I strolled out from the last bay in the garage and spied Mrs. Winchester—a beloved Springwell resident who used to work in the mayor’s office before she retired—getting out of her twenty-year-old Cadillac. She plucked a plate off the passenger seat and headed toward me, her arthritic gait making me wince for her poor knees.
First yesterday in the pharmacy, now today. Had I become a magnet for the matriarchs of this town? A waft of chocolate hit me, wiping all thoughts from my mind.
“I pulled them out of the oven right before I left the house.”
“They smell delicious.” I accepted the plate of brownies shoved into my mostly clean hands. “You didn’t have to go through the trouble.” My mouth watered despite the protest. I hadn’t had an honest-to-God home-baked treat since I’d left Springwell.
Mrs. Winchester swished her wrinkled hand. “It was nothing—what you did is worth more than an hour or two of my time.”
I frowned. “What I did?”
“For my Arthur, for his Caddy. Those crooks in Columbus were going to overcharge him two thousand dollars.” Mrs. Winchester clutched the cross at her throat, her Southern voice so scandalized, I had to bite my lip to keep from grinning. Her husband had taken their Cadillac to a garage in Columbus when he’d visited his brother for a week. He’d busted a taillight, which should have been no big deal, but those lousy mechanics had tried to sell him a new muffler. If Mrs. Winchester hadn’t insisted he get a second opinion, they’d have gouged him good.
“We’re on a fixed income,” she whispered as if imparting a secret. “We can’t afford to go throwing money around.”
“Your husband knows he married a smart, shrewd woman,” I said, not sure how to wrap up this impromptu thank you. I had cars waiting for service, and if I could manage to keep my hands off Mandy, we might actually finish the ones we’d promised to complete today.
“Married fifty-four years,” Mrs. Winchester crowed, her short white hair glowing in the sun, matching the beaming smile on her face.
“You have any more trouble with the Cadillac, you know where to find me.” I fished a brownie square from beneath the plastic wrap. “Thank you for these.” I groaned at the warm chocolate bursting over my tongue. “Oh and hey, while I have you here…I was thinking you might be able to help me with something.” Mrs. Winchester knew every family in town—maybe she could answer some questions about my dad and his brother.
