WINTER

I showed up at six to pick up Ivy. We were carpooling since Atra wasn't far from Finn's jobsite. I felt bad that I hadn't been here before, since I knew how important of a project it was to him. And I was worried. I'd talked to Tucker about it, and he said that a lot of people felt Finn would fail. He was too young and too inexperienced, and his uncle, the other half of O'Malley Construction, wasn't helping him. No one knew why, though, other than Finn's dad and uncle had fought about bidding for the project.

Given what I knew about the O'Malley mess, I suspected it had nothing to do with the project and everything to do with the O'Malley home life. But I kept that to myself. It was Finn's business, and no one else’s.

Finn was walking across the dirt-packed land toward the trailer when I drove up. He spotted me and immediately redirected his path to my car. I had to restrain myself from leaping out and running to him like some loved-starved teenager, even though that's how I felt inside.

Besides, watching him move, even walk, was a pleasure I didn't mind taking in. His long strides ate up the distance, and he was on me before I had enough time to appreciate the view.

"What are you doing here, sweetness?" He smiled, and my entire body warmed in response.

He leaned down and gave me a long, deep kiss that turned warm to hot in seconds. I forgot what he'd asked me, and when he released me, I tottered on my weak legs and smiled dumbly up at him for about five long seconds until his quirked eyebrow reminded me.

"Oh, I'm here to pick up Ivy."

"Right." He looked a shade disappointed but covered it well. Tucking my hand in his, he asked, "Want to see the project first?"

"I'd love to." The only other time I’d been here was that night, and I didn’t see much other than the inside of the trailer.

We walked over to the trailer. Ivy was seated at a big metal desk with paper sorted in big piles. Her lovely hair looked a little mussed, and she glowered when we stepped inside. "Finally, I can't wait to get out of here."

I gave Finn an apologetic grimace. Our plans to look at the property would have to wait. "Sorry, I was practicing on some pigskin today and time got away from me."

"Whatever." She stood and draped her purse across her body. "Let's go."

"How about I take you both out for dinner?" Finn interjected. He squeezed my hand. He wasn't ready to let me go, and frankly I'd been waiting all day to see him.

"No, God, I can't even think about eating." She patted her stomach, making Finn sigh. There was a dynamic here at play that I didn't really understand. Hopefully one or both would explain it to me later before I became uncomfortable.

"Why doesn't Ivy drive home, and I'll take you to dinner after I show you the jobsite?" Finn moved across the trailer and grabbed a yellow battered hard hat. "A little big for your tiny head, but it'll do," he said and set the helmet on my head as if his suggestion was a done deal. It slid forward and covered my eyes. He reached behind me and cranked something, and soon the helmet was just slightly too big instead of so big I couldn't wear it, kind of like the baseball helmet. He smiled, and I knew we were thinking of the same thing.

"I can't drive, genius," Ivy huffed from behind. When she’d taken the car the other day, she’d risked violating her parole. She wasn’t eligible for a license yet and usually got a ride home with someone since I had the car.

"I'll drive you home and come back," I offered.

"No need." Finn took the keys from my hand and threw them at Ivy. Reflexively she caught them. "I called your parole officer, and as long as you're going to and from work, you can drive." With that, he took my hand and led me out of the trailer.

"You called her parole officer?"

"He actually called me. Apparently your sister needs to be actively looking for a job if she's not currently employed. Her former boss called her parole officer and told him that she'd been fired, so he called Ivy and she told him that I'd hired her. He called to verify."

"Wow, Jimmy is a real asshole. Was he trying to get her parole revoked?" 

"Don't know." His detached tone told me he didn't care either. 

"You guys seemed tense. Do you want to tell me about that?"

"She doesn't want you to go out with me. Want to tell me about that?" 

The grip on my wrist had gotten tighter and his footsteps a little faster. I had to nearly trot to keep up with him. "She's emotional," was all I could come up with. I didn't quite fully understand her hesitancy toward Finn unless there was something deeper and darker that had happened while they were dating that neither wanted to confess. 

He grunted and then stopped walking when he reached an opening wide enough to frame four doors. "This is the entrance. It will have twelve-foot double doors in the center and two sliding doors for accessibility on either side. When you first walk in, there’s a four-story atrium ahead of you flanked on either side by the escalator bank. Escalators go only to the third floor. Elevators take you to the fourth. There's room for shops on the first floor with the next three being offices. Floors five through eight floors are residential." He was apparently very done talking about Ivy. He walked me through the stores that had committed and then out onto the back which overlooked the river.

"This is a big project." I hadn't fully grasped the scope of the build from the erected steel beams. 

"Too big for me," Finn admitted. "I'd never willingly sign up for this."

"But you're doing it." I leaned against one of the metal support frames. The view of the river was beautiful on the ground level, and I'd imagine eight floors up, it would be even more spectacular. Once this building was complete, the units would fly through the leasing agents’ hands.

"I am." He cocked his head.

"What now?"

"You and Adam are about the only ones who've never implied I'm in over my head."

"Maybe we know you best."

"Is that right?" He had moved so his big body was only inches from mine, his forearm resting against the metal beam.

"Yes." My heart was in my throat, but I couldn't stop the words from tumbling out even as they exposed every feeling I had. "I've made a study of Finn O'Malley. He's easy going on the outside, but he cares deeply. He’s had the same best friend since kindergarten. He sticks by people even when they've done him wrong because he wants the best for them. He takes on projects he doesn't want because someone he loved would have wanted him to finish them."

His work-roughened fingertips made circles around my face. "What does Finn O'Malley think of Winter Donovan?"

I sucked in a shallow breath. It was getting hard to breath. "Finn likes Winter. He thinks she's a talented artist. Also good at kissing."

One side of his sexy mouth quirked up. "Nothing else?"

Tongue-tied, I didn't know what else to say.

"Finn more than likes Winter. That's a pretty tepid phrase for how he feels about her. He also thinks she's a kick-ass artist and an even better kisser. He loves her kind heart and her willingness to listen. He loves her sexy black hair." He ran a hand over it, watching the silky strands slip through his fingers. "He adores her beautiful breasts and her very sensitive nipples." His hand crept under my shirt to squeeze one of them tightly between his fingertips. "Oh, right there, huh?" he murmured as I gasped at the response that echoed in the lower parts of my body. "He can't stop thinking about how good she tastes and how he'd much rather spend all his free time with his head between her legs."

It was a good thing the steel beam was behind me because otherwise I'd have fallen, particularly when his free hand slid under the loose leg of my shorts to rub over my very damp panties. His fingers pushed aside the elastic of the leg opening and briefly caressed my swollen lips before diving inside.

"Mhhmm," I moaned and then shut my mouth for fear my sounds would travel down the river. His shoulders were broad, and I was small enough that it was possible no one could see me, but we were in the open. One of his hands squeezed and kneaded my breast while the other was between my legs, making me wet and hot. I wanted to climb around him and press my aching center against the hard shaft rubbing against me.

"Can you come right here?" he whispered in my ear, running his lips along the shell of my ear and then finding the sensitive spot around my neck.

I shook my head no and then yes because I didn't know if I could and I wasn't sure if I should. He took my confusion away by not stopping. He dipped his head and claimed my mouth. I rode his fingers and sucked on his tongue until I forgot where I was and the danger of exposure.

He took his one hand away from my aching breasts, dipped his knees and then lifted me higher. I wrapped my legs around his waist and allowed his fingers to stroke me to an orgasm, right there, in the middle of downtown for any resident to see. Thankfully his mouth stayed over mine the whole time, so at least my cries of happiness didn't echo up or downstream.

"Come back to the trailer," he said, his voice hoarse and gravelly. I squeezed him tightly when he pulled his fingers out. I wanted him to stay inside me.

"Why?" But I knew why. I read it in his eyes and felt it in my veins. I followed him, making no attempt to right my panties or the bra he'd pushed up above my breasts. His gait was uneven, due, I guess, to the massive hard-on tenting his jeans.

The Honda was gone, and the trailer was quiet and dark. Finn had me on the desk, a nipple in his mouth and my shirt over my head, before the door slammed shut behind us. I fumbled with his jeans, but he brushed my hands away and wrenched them off and then pulled his T-shirt over his head with one hand.

His swollen erection bobbed between us, and for a moment, my breath caught at the beauty of him. His body was cut and defined, which I attributed to the years of hard labor and not gym membership. The slabs of his abdomen were sprinkled with dark hairs that narrowed into a line that led directly to his cock. Across his chest the hair was thicker, but not so much that I couldn't see his beautiful skin underneath, the dusk of his nipples and the ridges made by his pectoral muscles.

"You're beautiful," I said, reaching out to touch him. He closed his eyes and dropped his head back in pure pleasure as I took the time to explore each one of his hard muscles.

"See something you like?"

"Like is such a tepid word," I repeated, and a slight grin curved his lips upward. "Winter loves Finn's hard body. She enjoys it enough that she thinks it should go up on a calendar. The Many Months of Finn O'Malley."

His chest shook with silent laughter. "She'd like a calendar?"

"Yes, with lots of nudity." I slid off the desk to my knees and rubbed my hands up his powerful thighs then around his hips to dig into the tight muscles of his ass. His cock sported a drop of liquid, and as I stared, the whole shaft seemed to swell and the pearl of his arousal beaded up large enough to drop off. I caught it with my finger and brought it to my mouth.

A rough noise above had me looking up. "You take my breath away."

He reached down to cup my face and draw me upward, but I didn't want that. Not yet. I took his shaft in my hand and marveled at the velvet-covered steel. It was harder than the beam I’d leaned against earlier but softer than the anything I've ever touched.

He held still as I stroked him first with my hands, tracing each pulsing vein and caressing the head. He shuddered when my finger rubbed the spot underneath the head, and when I placed the flat of my tongue there, his knees jerked and he stumbled back until his ass hit the desk.

I hid my grin and sucked the fat head into my mouth until I heard him groan. His hand came to cup my head, and he made shallow thrusts into my mouth. I allowed him to use me, savoring the musky scent and the salty flavor. I lapped at his length as it moved in and out of my mouth. When his thighs began to shake and his movements became rough and irregular, I sucked hard, wanting him to lose all control.

But with a quick jerk, he had me on my feet. I wiped the corner of my mouth. "I wanted you to come."

"I know, but I can't." He stopped. His words weren't altogether coherent, as if he was too far gone to be able to form actual sentences and complete thoughts. "Need to be inside you."

He spun me around and ripped my shorts down. I heard the rip of foil, and then two strong fingers were between my legs. "You’re so wet, baby. So ready for me," he moaned and then shoved inside me with one swift push.

The frantic movements and the near desperate sounds as he pounded into me from behind drove me wild. Was there anything more exciting in the world than hearing your partner lose his shit because he found you so incredibly hot? No, nothing.

His hand roamed my back and butt, slapping me slightly on the ass cheeks and then squeezing. "Fuck," he said. "I want to bite your ass and fuck it at the same time." He laughed at his own absurdity, and then his other hand crept around to find that tiny mass of nerves extruding from my body. His calloused fingers rubbed over it, the lube of my body making everything slick and wet.

I rose onto my tiptoes and pressed down against his fingers. "Yes, right there," I shouted. Let the river dwellers hear me. I couldn't care less.

"God, you look so beautiful. You're tight and pink, and your pussy looks like it’s swallowing me every time."

He wound a hand tightly around my hip, so tight I was sure to have marks tomorrow, but I loved the bite of his fingers into my skin. His other hand worked my clit until I lost control. Mindlessly I moaned and shoved back against his thrusts and ground down against his hand.

He worked me feverishly until I was crying out, and even after I'd come around him, he still surged relentlessly into my body, spilling what seemed like a gallon of seed into his condom until he collapsed against me.

We lay there, sprawled on the top of his desk, papers everywhere—some even stuck to my chest and face—like wrecked ships. The insistent tone of my phone broke through my haze. Reluctantly Finn leveraged himself off me. He came back with paper towels and a water bottle.

"All I've got, sweetness," he said apologetically. He wet the cloths and then wiped my legs down, careful not to rub my tender parts too roughly.

"Why do you do that?" I asked. I'd never had any guy so interested in aftercare.

He rose to his full height, close to the ceiling of the trailer. "Because I love you and want to make sure you're taken care of." I gasped and covered my mouth. Luckily for me, he didn't take offense. "Surprised you, did I? You shouldn't be though. I'm not fucking around with you. You're first wife."

Then he winked. I launched myself into his arms and assaulted him with kisses, saying everything I was too terrified to give voice to. I was saying it though. In my head, those were the only words I was saying.