Man Cave, page 15
That alone, just that one perfect bouncing tit exposed, was enough for me to go fucking caveman.
I’d flipped her beneath me–I didn’t give a shit if a police officer saw my bare ass–and got her completely covered.
Only then did we answer the door. Of course Mallory knew the guy. Hunter. Named after the town. Or the town was named after his family and his family named him after both. Whatever.
The guy knew it was cool Mallory was in the house and exactly what was up, only smirked and asked if either of us were being murdered. When I gave him a dark look, he smirked some more and told us to quiet down. Then left.
If answering complaint calls about overly loud sex was all the police department had, then this was one boring-ass town. That made it perfect.
Needless to say, it had been a surprise and now I wanted to check and make sure Mallory was okay. By giving her a good, fast fuck. Getting her to a quick–and quiet–orgasm would make me…no, her, feel better.
I found her coming out of one of the ground floor bathrooms. I didn’t give her a chance to say a word, just walked her backward right back in there and closed the door behind us, careful not to catch Scout’s nose since he was curious and eager to hang with us.
I heard a little disgruntled woof, then his toenails on the wood as he walked away.
“Theo,” she whispered, eyes wide at the way I pretty much cavemanned her into the bathroom. I just didn’t grab her hair while doing so.
Now she kept her voice down, although it made me hard as fuck remembering why she was so loud the day before. Me.
“Wanted to make sure you’re okay,” I said, stroking her hair, which was down. And silky soft. “After Thursday and all. Didn’t get a chance last night.”
I’d texted for our usual six o’clock fuck, but she said she was working at her brother’s bar, that she was helping him out by filling in. So it’d been almost two days since I got my hands on her. Two long fucking days.
She flushed, clearly just as embarrassed as she’d been the other night. I hadn’t been embarrassed. I’d been fucking proud. And I probably owed that guy Hunter a beer.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Good. Turn around and bend over the sink.”
Her mouth fell open. “What? Here? Now?”
“Here. Now. I didn’t get you off yesterday, unless you did it yourself with that dildo of yours. I’m sure you know that will never satisfy you like my dick can.”
She gasped as I grinned. “How did you know–”
“I didn’t, but you just gave yourself away.”
“Mav and Bridget are out there! God, Silas, too.”
“Don’t worry, they don’t know about us.”
A look I’d never seen before crossed her face, then was gone. Sadness? No, disappointment? No, discontent? Worry? Who the hell knew? Not me. I pushed on.
“Besides, this is going to be quick, but you’re going to have to be quiet. Very, very quiet.”
She bit her lip, considered, then turned around.
Fuck, this woman.
My dick was so hard for her. Had been all day.
She set her hands on the edge of the fancy-ass sink, wiggled her hips and stuck her ass out. I glanced at her in the mirror as I tugged down her yoga pants and panties.
I had my dick out and condom covered in seconds, but I didn’t immediately push in.
“You wet?
She squirmed as I cupped her from behind. Soaked. Then began to fuck her with two fingers. I watched her in the mirror. Gorgeous. Flushed. Aroused. Fucking mine.
37
MALLORY
* * *
I was in big trouble. I was close to coming, just from his talented fingers, like that very first night in the restaurant parking lot. My body responded to him like a dog to the rattling of kibble in a bowl. His deep voice asking me if I was wet and I was done for.
Except… it was becoming completely and totally obvious, as if the mirror in front of me showed what was really going on here.
I was getting fucked. Only fucked.
Don’t worry, they don’t know about us.
I was his dirty little secret. Mav wasn’t being discreet by keeping what was going on between me and Theo quiet, he really didn’t know his brother and I were having sex. I hadn’t told Bridget. Why? Because it was just sex. Deep down–and not deep down in my vagina–I’d hoped for more from Theo.
Maybe that was wrong of me, because when I told him my plans of wanting sex with Tom the history teacher, that had been just sex. Birth control for smart sex.
Theo had taken that literally when he volunteered.
Smart sex. He used condoms and I was covered by the birth control shot.
But it seemed my vagina and heart were somehow connected, in ways I didn’t even know about until all the sexing started, because Theo’s words hurt me.
They don’t know about us.
He wasn’t planning on telling. Or changing my status.
I was now his fuck buddy. Enough where we were doing it sneakily in his brother’s bathroom. Or not sneakily and getting the cops called on us.
But it was just sex.
Fudge. The second he tried that Bird of Paradise pose during the yoga class on Tuesday, things changed. I liked Theo. No, if I was honest, probably a lot more than liked. He was actually really funny with the driest wit. Kind in a subtle sort of way. Definitely possessive, the way he’d ensured Hunter never saw an inch of me even though he’d gotten an earful. Coming in here, he was checking on me. Perhaps like a guy checks the oil on his car, putting the dipstick in and out, but still. He was asking. And getting ready to put his dipstick in.
Unlike Theo, I wanted Mav and Bridget to know about us. For us to go out there and eat some steaks with Silas and talk about dating. Being a couple. Anything two people did who were into each other. Besides sex.
But Theo had different ideas. Or only one.
To sex me up. Satisfy me. I’d wanted to have sex, to finally not be an almost-virgin any longer. He’d done just that. Was still doing it, and really, really well.
“Ah!” I cried out when he pinched my clit between two fingers. My eyes flew to his in the mirror.
“Where’d you go?” he asked. He was so much bigger than me, a contradiction of uptight and rugged that turned me on. He didn’t style his hair any longer. It was a bit longer and unruly now, as if he was finally loosening up. I didn’t even want to think about how sexy that beard was, or how it felt between my thighs.
I shook my head, not wanting to tell him. Not only because the truth would definitely drive him away. He wasn’t looking for a clingy woman and I wasn’t a woman who’d stick around and linger on a guy who wasn’t interested. He also had his fingers inside me, rubbing them masterfully over my g-spot in a way that had me panting and clenching around him. Now was definitely not the time.
So sex it would be.
“Mav’s going to call us to eat anytime,” I said. “Think you’re skilled enough to get me off before then?”
“Is that a challenge?” One sandy brown brow arched as he questioned me in the mirror. “You know I work best under pressure.”
He lined up at my entrance, settled his hands on my hips.
“Do it,” I said. If sex is all I get, let’s make it good.
He thrust in, pressing me against the lip of the pedestal sink and fucked me to not one, but two orgasms so fast, we were back in the kitchen before Mav even brought the burgers inside.
38
THEO
* * *
“How long you been fucking Mallory?” Silas asked, putting his seat belt on in the passenger seat of my car.
I put the key in the ignition and glanced his way.
He was serious, but by the curve of his mouth, he was amused.
I glanced at Mav’s huge home, the log and stone exterior blending into the mountainside. “A week.”
Sex, as in intercourse, not that long, but I didn’t think Silas was that technical.
He’d flown in the other night, late, and was staying with me. One thing Bradley had done when we decided to keep the little house Dex had lived in was get the second bedroom furnished. Good thing I’d been with Mallory at Lindy’s house instead of at my place on Thursday or Silas would have gotten an eyeful. Better the police showing on a noise complaint than me having to kill my own brother for seeing Mallory bent over the arm of my couch… fuck, or on her knees.
“That’s great,” he replied. “Never thought I’d see the day you settled into small town life.”
I shrugged, started the car. “It’s actually not that bad. I made friends with the fire chief and even wowed a roomful of six-year-olds.”
“You? Six-year-olds?”
I huffed. “I know. I’m not sure who was more surprised. Me, Mallory, or all those first graders.”
“You talked to Mallory’s class?”
I nodded.
He chuckled. “Well, Hunter Valley agrees with you. Especially having a little firecracker like Mallory in the sack.”
I instantly saw red. I reached out, grasped his jacket. Snarled. “Watch it.”
He raised his hands. “Whoa, chill.”
I took a deep breath, let it out, then put the car into gear and drove down the street. The pavement was completely clear of snow, even though we’d had about eight inches the other night but was piled along the curb. From what I imagined winter to be like in Hunter Valley, I doubted it would disappear before spring.
“All I mean is she’s not Maude. Thank fuck.”
I hadn’t given Maude a second of thought since I walked into the exam room and found Mallory sitting there in a paper gown. Hell, for months before that. Mallory was my mission. A purpose. And it wasn’t saving lives.
It was giving her my dick and all the orgasms that went with it.
Based on the way my balls were drained from the quickie in the bathroom and I was fucking chill–or had been until my brother started poking fun–the mission was a success.
I couldn’t get enough of her. My dick was getting hard all over again and wished it was Mallory beside me instead of Silas.
Fuck.
“No one knows. In fact, how do you know?”
He turned and gave me a look. “Seriously? You’re not very subtle. Even Scout knows.”
I had no idea what that meant, especially since dogs didn’t talk. Scout might be smart, but he wasn’t Lassie. And, Mallory had stayed quiet as she came. We hadn’t been in the bathroom long. It was probably the quickest quickie ever. To be honest, I didn’t want to know the signs of how unsubtle I was.
I flicked the blinker, then slowed for the turn. “Whatever. It’s just sex.”
He studied me.
“What? Your sex life so bad you want to talk about mine?”
No way in hell he had a woman. If he did, he wouldn’t be in Hunter Valley. He’d be hot and heavy with her right now. But no. He was with me. Then again, I was with him instead of Mallory, which wasn’t much better.
He frowned as I pulled into the driveway. “Well played, asshole.”
39
MALLORY
* * *
“I can’t believe she didn’t give you any notice,” Lindy said, her voice on speaker.
Bridget and I were in her kitchen eating straight from our own cartons of ice cream. She leaned against the counter by the sink. I was beside the fridge facing her. I had to leave soon to go get ready for the shift at the bar, but for now, we were snacking. We could see Dex’s game on the flat screen in the great room. The game was in Boston, so Lindy was alone at their apartment in Denver.
Since Silas and Theo left, Mav headed with Scout to the job site. The James Inn was getting close to being done. The last I heard the interior decorations were being done now.
“She got engaged. It’s not like Maggie knew when it was coming.” I sighed, jammed the spoon into my container of mint chocolate chip. “I have until the end of the month to move out. I just don’t want to listen to them having sex all the time between now and then.”
I was such a hypocrite for saying that, considering I’d forced Lindy’s old next door neighbor to do the very same thing with me and Theo.
“You’re welcome to stay at the house for as long as you want,” she offered. “Dex has a game on Thanksgiving in Phoenix, so I’ll go with him and enjoy the amazing weather. But we’ll be up for Christmas, at least for a few days.”
Which meant I had a few weeks to get my shit together, although I really didn’t want to stay that long.
I glanced at Bridget, who was licking the Rocky Road from her spoon.
“How did you even know I was there?” I wondered. I hadn’t thought about it before. “I was going to call and ask if I could crash for a day or two, but–”
But I was busy having sex with Theo.
“The alarm system.”
She’d had it installed before she moved to Denver. Since the house was going to sit empty, she and Dex thought it best if it was monitored. Which meant, so was I.
“And like I said, stay as long as you need. You know you’re always welcome.”
Gosh, that was such a mom thing to say, and it made me blink back tears.
“The alarm system’s supposed to text me when a door or window opens,” Lindy continued. “It worked, so thanks for testing that for me.”
“Glad I could help,” I muttered. Then I wondered what else that alarm system monitored, like emergency calls to the address.
Suddenly, I was done with my ice cream.
If Lindy found out… gah, if Bridge found out about me and Theo, then I was screwed.
Literally, by Theo himself, but figuratively because they couldn’t know.
Why? Because what was I going to say? I was casually and thoroughly sexing it up with Mav’s brother? That I was using him for his dick?
I couldn’t tell them that Theo didn’t want more. I wouldn’t put them in the middle if he wasn’t interested in me for anything but sex. Clearly, I wasn’t worthy of a relationship. Why would I be? I’d been told all my life I wasn’t enough, that I’d never be enough. Without words, Theo proved that.
Didn’t that fudging suck?
40
THEO
* * *
I picked up my phone and sent Mallory a text.
I have something for you.
Your dick?
No.
No?
Well, yes. You can always have my dick. But something else.
What is it?
Be there in an hour.
I couldn’t wait to see Mallory’s face when she saw her present. I’d barely kept it a secret the day before when we were at Mav’s for lunch. But the paperwork hadn’t been signed. Now it was, with a lot of extra cash for the county clerk to push the deed through on the weekend.
Between what she told me about her mom being difficult and having to work shifts at her brother’s bar even after her teaching job to save, I wanted to make it easy for her. To take care of her. To take on her troubles and make them go away. Whenever she talked about the little house, she lit up.
So when I took her hand and led her to my car, then drove away from Lindy’s house, she was confused. “What is it?” she asked.
I laughed. I hadn’t done that enough and it seemed Mallory was pulling them from me. Verna and Jeff, even Mac were all becoming good friends and colleagues, but Mallory… well, she was special.
I had no idea what that even meant.
I slowed in front of the house, then stopped at the curb, eager to share my excitement.
Mallory looked to me, then Mrs. Jonsdottir’s place. No, Mallory’s.
“Theo, I… what are we doing here?”
“This. This is what I have for you.” I turned off the car, climbed out and came around to open her door, but she was already climbing out.
“What?” she asked when we were on the sidewalk.
“Your house,” I said, pointing to the little white home. Wasn’t it obvious?
I pulled the keys from my coat pocket. “I got you your house.”
She stared at the keys, then me.
“You… you got me… my house?”
I took her hand, led her up the shoveled walk. I’d made her speechless, which was probably a first. “Mrs. Jonsdottir was easily swayed with a cash payment. I even offered movers to pack her up and she flew on the James Corp jet this morning to her daughter’s in Texas.”
“You… you got rid of Mrs. Jonsdottir?”
She followed, but almost tripped on a rise in the concrete where it had buckled a little over the years. That would have to be fixed.
“I didn’t get rid of her. I just moved her along with a generous incentive. She wanted to be with her family, and you wanted the house.”
“How did you know about her family?” she asked, still confused.
“I met with her on Friday.”
Since she was standing on the wraparound front porch like she’d been hit on the head with a fly ball, I took the keys back and opened the front door.
When it swung open, the hinges squeaked. Those needed some oil.
Mallory stepped inside.
“It’s empty.”
“We’ll move your things in tomorrow.”
She walked around the small living room, stared at the walls, the wood floors, everything. Then back at me.
“You bought Mrs. Jonsdottir’s house for me.”
I smiled, eager to christen every room in the place. I went over to her, cupped her face and kissed her. “Yes.”
She stepped back, looked at me with equal parts horror and anger. Like one of those Disney villains with horns and smoke coming out of their heads.
“YOU BOUGHT MRS. JONSDOTTIR’S HOUSE FOR ME?” she shouted, her voice echoing off the bare walls.
