“Baby,” Grant called from the ground, “this is a fantastic view of your perfect ass, but I gotta tell you, you’re freaking me out.”
She laughed and dropped her hand from the roof’s eave to press a hand to her stomach, aching from all the laughing she’d done with him today. And all the sexual gymnastics he’d put her through the night before. “Would you stop? I’m almost finished, and it’s getting dark.”
“You’re not almost finished,” he complained. “You still have the whole front, which includes three more gables. But you’re right about it getting dark. I swear my heart’s not going to make it through this. If you hurt yourself, you won’t be able to set up for the Winter—whatchamacallit.”
“Winter Wonderland,” she corrected him for the third time.
“I don’t care. Get your beautiful self down here. I’ll finish the rest.”
Grinning, she hooked the end of the light string to the corner of the gable, then twisted to look down at him. He was standing at the base of the ladder, holding it stable with one gloved hand, aiming the video camera at her with the other. He looked adorable all bundled up in his parka, a knit hat warming his head, his dark hair sneaking out from underneath the edges, and a few days of scruff darkening his jaw.
“You may have gotten away with telling me what to do last night,” she said, “but don’t expect that to continue during the day.”
He lowered the camera with a big, bright grin cutting across his face. “Is that right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. And you’d better be able to dub over that tape like you promised or all this effort is going to be wasted.”
“Someone’s getting bossy,” he told her as she climbed down the ladder. “Sounds like she needs a spanking.”
As soon as she got within his reach, Grant slapped her ass. Hard.
Faith gasped. “Ow.” She half laughed the complaint and shot a scowl over her shoulder. “You little—”
Another crack stung her cheek. Her sex clenched and flooded with heat, shocking her.
“No name-calling,” he told her.
Faith gritted her teeth against the flare of desire. This had been happening all day—these sudden, intense bursts of lust, erupting out of nowhere like the strike of a match. She’d chalked it up to residual hunger from their wicked night, a desire awoken from hibernation and greedy for fuel. And after a day of close proximity and teasing, she was seriously ready to do something reckless for a fix.
She continued down the ladder, stopping a couple of rungs from the bottom to turn to face him, eye to eye. He circled her in his arms and stepped close until their jacket-clad bodies pressed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stroked her hand across his rough cheek. “I may be laying down a few of my own rules tonight, Saber. So don’t get too comfortable with all this control.”
“Mmm.” He set the camera on a higher rung and squeezed her butt, pulling her closer. “I like the sound of that.”
And he kissed her.
The move had become familiar over the course of the day. He’d hatched this filming plan the night before during lulls in their sexual activity. And later today, after the store had closed and he finished with the high school hockey practice, he’d promised to show her how to take the video from camera to YouTube.
Before Faith had even stirred from their nonstop night of bliss, Grant had repaired the broken pipe in her basement, then driven into Ashville, the next largest city, to buy a video camera and video editing software. And he’d followed her with that damn camera all afternoon, recording nonstop.
He’d also been touching her nonstop, kissing her nonstop, and smiling nonstop. Her passion had built and built, filling her with an ache she wanted him to ease. And the way he was adding to that fire with his teasing, talented tongue wasn’t helping her ignore her desire.
Faith slowly, reluctantly pulled from the kiss and stroked his jaw, running her thumb over his bottom lip. “Have I mentioned you’re the best kisser in the entire universe?”
Grinning, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Maybe, but I doubt anyone could hear that enough.”
His lips trailed over her cheek and down her neck. Faith hummed in pleasure. “Have I mentioned last night was the best night of my life, and that I can’t wait to get you naked again?”
“Maybe,” he murmured against her throat, gripping her ass with both hands and pulling her hips against his, making her groan. “But tell me again.” He lifted his head, brushed her hair off her forehead, and cradled her jaw. “Tell me in a way you haven’t told me before.”
She sighed. Her gut ached. Her body yearned. Faith met his eyes. “Last night…opened a new chapter in my life. You make me feel…strong and treasured and beautiful in a way I’ve never felt before. You make me realize there’s more to life than Holly and St. Nicholas Hardware. I was starting to believe I wasn’t capable of handling things on my own. You changed that.”
His devilish smile had softened into a look of surprise. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just searched her eyes. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I…don’t know what to say. No one’s ever…”
She shook her head and kissed him lightly. “Don’t say anything. You asked, I answered. Now let me go so I can move the ladder. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can get you back to bed. And I’m dying to get you back to bed.”
She stepped to the ground and turned toward the ladder. Gripping the sides, she pulled it carefully away from the house.
Grant’s hands covered hers and pushed the ladder back against the house with a clatter.
“Grant…” she said, annoyed.
She cut a look over her shoulder just as one of his arms circled her waist and hauled her up against him, forcing all the air from her lungs. But there was no mistaking the erection pressed against the curve of her ass. Or the rasp of desire in his voice when he put his lips to her temple and said, “Why wait?”
Faith fought to pull her gray matter back together. “Why wait for what?”
“To take the edge off that need.”
She groaned and rubbed against him. “Because you have practice in half an hour, I have to close the store, and there are lights hanging off Dwayne’s roof. If you’d stop distracting me, I’d get it done.”
“If you let me do it, it would get done faster.”
“Says you.”
“I don’t want you up on that ladder in the dark.”
“Same. And you need to let your shoulder rest. You’re supposed to be recuperating, remember?”
“I stopped by another store while I was in Ashville.” One of his hands moved lower, pressed between her legs, and closed over her sex.
Shock and excitement twined. She sucked a breath and rocked away from his hand, only to meet with more pressure behind her from his hips…and that iron swell. “Grant, Dwayne’s going to be home soon.” She glanced around the front yard, to the quiet street and the houses with lights shining in the windows surrounding them. “And we’re in public.”
“Don’t you want to know which store?”
He gripped her sex tighter and all the built-up lust from the last twenty-four hours spilled between her legs. A groan ebbed from Faith’s throat.
“Naughty,” he whispered with wicked glee at her ear. “Bet you didn’t even know it was there. I swear it was like a speakeasy, the front door off an alley and unmarked.”
He clenched and released her sex as he spoke, and within thirty seconds, Faith was dizzy with the same clawing need he’d instilled in her the night before.
Without warning, his hand disappeared from between her legs, and while a minute ago all she’d been able to think about was getting him to stop, now all she could think about was getting his touch back.
The man seriously messed with her mind.
“I want to show you one of the little treats I picked up for you.”
While he reached into his pocket, Faith forced her head clear. She pushed at his arm wrapped around her waist, but he held her in a vise. And the more she moved, the more she rubbed his erection, exciting them both.
“I want to see it,” she told him, “after I’m done with the lights.”
“I can’t wait that long.” He reached around her with the other hand and jerked at the button on her jeans, making her gasp. “And I don’t think you can either.”
“Grant, what in the hell—”
His bare hand pushed against her belly and slid down, down, down. Beneath her panties and deep between her legs. The warmth and pressure combined to swamp Faith with pleasure and lust and a need so rabid, it clawed at her.
She grabbed a rung of the ladder with one hand and curled the fingers of the other around Grant’s wrist. But that didn’t keep her from rocking against his hand as if she had no control over her body. “Ah…my God.”
“That’s just the beginning,” he rasped at her ear. He did something with his fingers, kicking off a vibration.
“Wh—what—”
He opened his mouth on her neck and pushed his hand deep with a low groan. Something attached to one or two of his fingers vibrated over her sex.
“H-holy—” A wicked and wild pleasure cut off any ability to think. “Oh my God.”
“You can’t wait, can you?” he asked.
She couldn’t answer. The only thing she could focus on was the buzz between her legs making her go cross-eyed.
He stroked circles around and around her opening. Faith’s mouth dropped open, and her breathing grew choppy. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. She would have said the words if she’d been able to speak. This level of pleasure was unthinkable until this moment. And just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, just when she saw the horizon of that delicious orgasm she’d been craving for hours, Grant pushed two fingers past her opening and up into her pussy.
Two thick, vibrating fingers.
She cried out in pleasure, in shock, in need.
“Shh, shh…” Grant’s whisper at her ear dragged her back down to earth. “We’re in public, remember?”
Holy shit. She forced her eyes to focus. The night had grown a little darker, but not dark enough for Faith to be letting him do what he was doing. Nor did she have any intention of stopping him. And just how twisted was that?
“Need more room.” The hand at her waist pushed her zipper down and wiggled her jeans lower on her hips. Then he stroked over her ass, down her thigh, and caught her behind the knee. And lifted her foot to the second ladder rung. “There we go…”
The fingers inside her moved freely, pushing deep, immediately finding the place that made her moan and whimper and bend and shatter, and manipulating it mercilessly with those soft, vibrating fingertips.
The sensation gushing through her pulled Faith into an arch with a high-pitched “Oh God…” Her head dropped back against Grant’s shoulder, mouth open with sounds she absolutely could not control. “Yes, yes, yes.”
God, she’d used that word a lot over the last twenty-four hours. Yes and more and please. More than she’d used them in all her years combined.
Grant covered her hand curled around his wrist and pried her fingers loose. “I need more room, baby.”
With his hand over hers, he pushed them both beneath the hem of her tee, up her abdomen, and beneath one bra cup, so her own hand covered her breast. She barely noticed when his other hand pushed even deeper inside her and Grant finger-fucked her in long, slow, deep, vibrating strokes.
He thrust deep, rubbing her back wall with the vibration and rasping, “You are so fucking sexy.” Then twisted his hand and pulled out halfway, holding it there to circle and circle and circle. “I can’t wait to get you naked and use this all over your body.”
“Don’t stop, don’t stop,” she begged.
“Touch yourself, Faith,” he whispered at her ear. “Pinch and roll your nipple.”
She did, without question, without resistance. He’d broken down barrier after sexual barrier in one twenty-four-hour period and conditioned her for pleasure. And his murmured “Good girl” tipped her closer to the edge.
“Oh, fuck, please, Grant. Harder, harder, harder.”
“Mmmm, damn, baby, you’re a trip.”
He thrust deep and hard, and pleasure exploded through her body. “Yes, yes, yes. More, more, more.”
“Talk dirty to me, Faith.”
Always pushing her. This was how he did it. He got her to this place where she needed release, craved the pleasure, then pushed her for one more inch.
“Give it to me,” she said, her voice thin and rough. “If you’re going to fuck me, fuck me, don’t play with me.”
His laugh was quick and hot, followed by a growl of fire and deep, steady, hard thrusts of vibration.
“Ah, God… Don’t stop. Don’t fucking stop. So good. Mmm, so good. Can’t wait, can’t—”
She shattered with a scream of shock and ecstasy—one Grant cut off with his hand over her mouth. One he perpetuated with continued hard thrusts and manipulation of her G-spot. Faith could have been in the middle of a crowd and not given a damn at that moment. All that mattered was soaking up every last drop of bliss spilling through her body.
Faith was panting and still shaking when her mind came to a sluggish focus. She leaned against him, while Grant’s hand stayed between her legs and continued to explore her. “I love how wet you get.”
“What…in the hell…is that?” she asked, barely able to keep her eyes open. Her skin tingled everywhere he touched, and he was getting adventurous.
“A fucking fantastic investment is what this is. That store in Ashville was the best find ever.” His fingers stroked her perineum, and her blood kicked right back to simmer. She rocked her hips back against him, and he groaned. “Imagine having me inside you, filling you, stretching you, hammering you, while I run these over your body.”
That thought pushed her breath right out of her lungs. “How long until Dwayne gets back?”
He chuckled, low and hot. Leaning over her, he kissed her throat, grazed the skin with his teeth, and pushed his fingers farther back, vibrating a path between her cheeks.
A zing of sexual current cut through her ass, and she gasped. He worked circles over the pucker there and shot Faith right back toward climax. “Oh fuck… Grant…”
Her whine was wasted on him. His mouth bit paths along her neck while his vibrating fingers stimulated a whole new and intense response. And he dragged her hand, still beneath his own, into her pants and placed her fingers over her clit.
“Touch,” he said.
“Grant—”
“Touch.” His order was final, and he maneuvered her fingers to the very top of her clit, where his fingers joined hers in searching for that place—
He found it first, and his touch pushed more pleasure into Faith’s sex from a whole different direction. She was bombarded with sensations so wildly thrilling, she wanted to drown in them. Swim in them. She whimpered but let Grant place his fingers with hers. Let him guide her movement.
He lowered his chin, putting his lips at her ear. “Do you have any idea how fucking hot it makes me to watch you touch yourself?”
A whole different kind of pleasure filled Faith. She pried her eyes open and found his handsome face in the darkening shadows, creased with desire and intensity.
“Now you can find pleasure and satisfaction any time you want it, Faith. No more denying yourself.”
Emotion rolled through her, intense and sharp. Emotion she didn’t understand. She released the ladder and curved her arm back and around Grant’s head, pulling his mouth to hers. And gifted him with an erotic example of what she hoped he’d do to her when they had more privacy.
He drank her in, added passion to the kiss, and devoured her while his fingers parted, pushed Faith’s out of the way and shocked her clit with an orgasm that burned right to her core. Grant added pressure to her mouth to keep her from pulling away and muffled her cries as he drove orgasm after sweet orgasm through her body until she dropped back against him, limp.
Grant still had his hand down her pants when headlights turned the corner and started down the street.
“You, Miss Nicholas, have been saved by the cavalry.” He dragged his hand back and jerked her jacket into place a moment before Dwayne turned into his drive. And pushed the vibrating fingertips into his jacket pocket. “Because I was just about ready to do you in the front yard. Damn, you make me do the craziest thing, woman.”
Grant was teasing, but in her exhausted state, it struck her as extremely funny. She was holding herself up with the ladder, still laughing, when Dwayne climbed from his car, grinning.
“What are you two up to?” he wanted to know.
“Faith just lost at rock paper scissors,” Grant told him, taking Faith by the arm and sitting her on the front steps. “Now she’s got to sit on her ass while I finish the gables.”
“Hey…” she complained, then started laughing again. “That’s only because you wouldn’t let me go for three out of five.” And she added a sweet “The offer’s still open.”
That made Grant bust up laughing. “I promise to take you up on that another time. But not right this minute.” He grabbed the ladder and walked it to the next gable, telling Dwayne, “We’ll be ready for a show in ten minutes. Get your popcorn ready.”
