CHAPTER THIRTEEN
HALEY
I press myself against him, the fire warming my back. I breathe him in deeply, my nose placed against his chest.
When we kiss, it’s with a new tenderness, a softness that belies the hardness of his body.
He watches me when I pull away, his eyes half-lidded before a grin spreads across his face.
It’s so strange to think this is the man I loathed only days ago.
He stops.
“What is it?” I ask.
“You,” he says. “You’re just so god-damn beautiful. You’re beautiful and you don’t even know it.”
We shed our clothes quickly, our breathing ragged, random articles of clothing strewn over the sofa and floor until we’re completely naked, standing before one another.
He sheaths himself quickly, procuring a condom as if from thin air.
I look down, mesmerized by how hard his cock is as it bobs between us, the low light highlighting its full length.
He reaches forward, filling his hand with a breast, my nipple pressing into his palm.
I reach out and wrap my fingers around the thick base of his shaft. I’m tentative at first, almost as if this is new, but I’m also eager, the anticipation hanging heavy, pulling at my core.
Our mouths come together again hot and needy as Dane drops me to the floor, the sheepskin rug under my back warm from the fire crackling beside us.
I break away panting enough to see how every rippling muscle on Dane’s body is now glowing, the hard lines of his abs, shoulders and arms cut out by the firelight, his tattoos wet. He is perfection.
He looks down at me with glazed eyes filled with arousal, and it’s with this silent teasing my body begins to hum.
He slips his hand between my legs, leaning forward to take my lower lip, tugging on it lightly with his teeth.
I can’t help a small moan escape my lips. This is the same man who’s teaching me to stand up for myself, who’s putting my son to bed and making dinner. It’s almost too good to be true.
Ah, but it is. It is true.
Dane finds my wetness and applies more pressure, his cock tapping against the side of my leg. Fresh sensation fans out from my core.
His lips shift to my neck. “Spread your legs,” he commands.
I let them fall apart. He removes his hand, lowering himself to run the length of his cock up and down my slit, sawing there in my heat and wetness until I’m gasping for breath, my eyes closed and body thrumming with latent desire.
No one has been able to get me this wet, this ready so fast, not even myself on the handful of occasions I’ve dared to.
He continues to tease, kissing his way back across to my mouth, his tongue darting past my lips as he draws back until the very tip of his cock is poised against my opening.
When he pushes in, I feel every inch of his member, the beautiful friction of it sending tendrils of pleasure looping up my spine.
I suck in a breath and drag my fingers down his back, clawing at the muscle and sinew there as he bottoms out in the slick glove of my pussy.
“Breathe,” he tells me, licking up the side of my neck, nibbling on my earlobe as he draws back.
I pull in air, raspy, eyes closed, his cock running forward and my mouth so wide and open my jaw strains from the effort.
The fire continues to crackle and pop, growing hotter and hotter with every moment that passes by.
Dane strokes forward and back leisurely. This is slower, tender love-making at odds with the man above me. His actions belie his hard appearance.
I let out more breath, feel him expand inside me, filling me completely.
The pressure on my clit brings with it an aching, hollow burn that’s desperate to be quenched.
I slide on the rug, using my ankles to push off his buttocks, needing more of him inside me, unable to ever get enough of him.
“Jesus,” he groans, head resting against my shoulder. “You’re so tight.”
I wish I could reply, but I’m too focused on my breathing and the dark light behind my eyes. My worries are gone here. They do not exist in this space of pleasure.
He strokes into me harder, faster, cradling me in his strong arms. He pumps away in controlled, short thrusts, mixing them with longer, drawn-out strokes until I’m shaking beneath him, fluttering there hot and sweaty, my hips jerking and bucking for more.
He thrusts in and out, grunting against me, and it’s so good, so, so good I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to reach these heights again.
Every time he thrusts forward his cock hits the same spot, lifting me up onto a higher and higher plane of pleasure, the darkness turning into a shimmer, my eyes closing tighter and my core begging to be unwound and uncoiled.
It’s a strange sensation. I feel so exposed, so naked, but I feel alive too, energized, all my troubles banished during this one, perfect moment.
All that exists is us, together, in this place in time.
Dane places a hand beside my head, lifting himself up. His chest comes free from my breasts, my nipples hard and strained. He stares right down into my eyes, the fire flickering inside them, a heated tempest burning me up from the inside out.
We’re both breathing hard, rough as he continues to slide in and out, sluicing through my wetness faster and faster, drawing us both to release.
His eyes don’t break from my own as the pressure builds, the friction and the heightened sensation I’ve come to know.
It rises sharply, my hands slapping down onto the ground for support. I think I’m going to suffocate, or hyperventilate, I’m not sure, but consciousness is definitely drifting away as the fall becomes too great.
“Oh, oh,” I pant, crying out. “I’m… I’m coming.”
He grunts, eyes snapping tightly shut as he thrusts as deep and long as he can, the pressure on my clit too much to take.
I let it all out, groaning loudly with completion, my legs convulsing against his sides as everything slips away. He pumps forward against my rump and finds his own release, quietly cursing against my ear, shuddering and jerking against me.
I float, drifting in a star-filled sky, the fire nowhere to be seen in this place—one filled with nothing but joy and exultation, the very deepest pleasure imaginable.
My senses are drawn inwards again as I continue to rail through my orgasm, squeezing and milking him from the inside, taking everything he has.
And just when I think I’m done, that I couldn’t possibly come any more, it continues—endless and infinite.
My head falls back against the rug, my mouth ringed wide and dry, his length continuing to pulse inside me.
A soft kiss follows as he draws from my body.
He lies beside me staring at the ceiling, his chiseled chest lifting and falling. “You’re incredible,” he pants.
I throw a leg over him and draw in to his side, letting my fingertips tap against his chest. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
I’m blissfully sensitive. Even my skin seems lit.
Dane turns his head to me, eyes drunk. “You’ve got to get out of this town, Haley.”
Now it’s my turn to stare at the ceiling. “You haven’t seen the best of Merit; only the worst.”
“I’ve seen it before, trust me.”
“And how’s that?” I sound oddly defensive.
“I told you. I grew up in a town just like it, where everyone thought they knew one another, where any little mistake would follow you your entire life.”
I face him again, no longer feeling exposed lying naked here beside him. “I know what you’re saying, but there’s more to this town than gossip.”
“Is there?” he laughs. “Gossip’s the fuel a town like this runs on. I mean, what mistake did you make to put everyone here on your case so much?”
I swallow hard, staring back at the ceiling.
“It’s got to do with Andy, right?” Dane continues.
“My son wasn’t a mistake.”
Dane pushes up onto an elbow, looking down at me. “I know. That’s not what I meant, but you can tell me, whatever it is. I won’t judge.”
Should I? Should I open myself up to him?
I’d be exposing myself in a far different way, making myself completely vulnerable.
I want to, but I’m cautious. Plus, there’s an odd sense of déjà vu I can’t seem to shake.
Still, I draw in a breath and tell him. I tell him everything. “I was popular at school,” I start, “as weird as that seems now.”
“What?” laughs Dane. “You dated the quarterback?”
“I did, actually. Go, Raiders,” I state, no enthusiasm in it.
Now I have his attention. “You’re serious?”
“I am. He was the town golden child, the one who was going places, who would put Merit on the map. Everyone knew he was going to be in the NFL.”
“How long did you date him for?”
“Two years before he went to college. We started a long-distance relationship. We did everything right. We told each other we’d wait… Well, wait for marriage. It wasn’t easy, though. When he came back for the holidays he wanted to have sex, begged me for it, telling me how all the girls at college were putting out. I listened, we did it, and the next thing I knew I was pregnant.
“But you want to know the really crazy part?” I tell him. “Everyone here thinks I ruined his chances at being someone, ruined his life. He didn’t even stick around. He bailed as soon as I told him, didn’t tell anyone where he was going. He could be in another country now for all I know, dead…”
“Excuse my French, but the guy sounds like a fucking asshole.”
I smile a little at that. “In hindsight, I guess he was. I can’t believe how stupid I was.”
Dane takes hold of my face. “You’re not stupid, baby. Don’t you ever say so.” He kisses me on the forehead. “There’s more sense up here than in this whole town combined.”
I like being someone else’s ‘baby.’ “It won’t matter much longer anyhow.”
Dane’s eyebrows knit together with concern. “What do you mean?”
Tell him. I draw in a deep breath. “The house is in foreclosure.”
“It’s what?”
“The bank’s breathing down my neck. Any day they’ll take it. I guess you chose the wrong place to wait out a long winter storm. Pretty soon, there won’t be a place to wait in at all.”
Dane pulls me close, hand at the back of my head, my cheek against the strong hammer of his heartbeat. “I could bullshit you and say it’s all going to be alright, but that’s not my style. Things happen, and it doesn’t always work out, but people get through it.”
I’m holding back tears—not for myself, but for Andy.
“What I want you to hear,” Dane continues, “is that I’m here, right now, and I’m hoping that’s enough for the moment.”
I’m thinking to myself maybe it is. I’m developing feelings for Dane—more than that. I know it and feel it, deep within myself.
I don’t admit this out loud. That would be the height of exposure, everything laid bare to the elements. I have to think about Andy, about protecting him.
We lie there silently against the crackle and pop of the fire, the wind howling outside.
In this moment at least, everything is perfect—the calm not before, but amidst the storm.