Closing the door to Mila’s bedroom, I shuffle down the hall in search of Tori. We should be celebrating tonight, but Mila burned her hand, and Tori was so bummed my daughter got hurt during her watch, she retreated to her room after dinner. But now that the kids are in bed, I want to check on Tori.
Knocking gently on the door, I wait for her to respond before I enter.
I find Tori curled up on her bed. Tears streaking down her face. Cheeks splotchy. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
She sniffles and shakes her head. “Just emotional.”
I kick off my boots and slide in behind her, wrapping her in my arms, taking a second to breathe in the sweet scent of her hair, damp from a shower. “It’s not nothing if it has you in tears.” Reaching back, I pull the comforter over us to warm her up because she’s shivering.
“It’s stupid.”
“You’re a smart woman. Whatever’s making you cry can’t be stupid.”
Her voice, thick with emotion, guts me. “I’m really upset by what happened with Mila—that she burned herself so badly—but I’m also on my period, and that’s why I can’t stop crying. Because what if something worse had happened?”
“Shh.” I kiss her neck. “The fact that we’ve only had that one injury all summer speaks to the great job you’ve been doing looking out for my troublemakers. Mila will be okay. I promise. No need to beat yourself up about it.” By the time I got home, Tori had already cleaned and dressed the wound. “If it makes you feel any better, when I was a kid, I accidentally tripped Logan, and he flew into the coffee table and knocked out his front two teeth. They were baby teeth, so they grew back, thank God, or my momma never would’ve forgiven me. Baby, you gotta look at the bright side—at least my kids have their teeth.” Cody is still mostly slobber, but he’s damn proud of his tiny chompers.
Turning in my arms, she gives me a watery smile and burrows into my chest. “I’m really sorry, though. I want you to know that.”
“Tell you what.” I run my fingers through her damp hair. “You can make it up to me.”
Her head pops up, the earnestness in her eyes doing me in. “Okay. Yeah, whatever you want.”
“Go out with me next weekend.”
Her lips tug up in the corners. “How is this me making it up to you?”
I stroke her back and pull her over me so she straddles my waist. “We’re pretty far into this relationship, and I’ve never taken you on a date. Doesn’t seem right.” The night I tracked her down at the club doesn’t count.
Deep down, I’m big on grand gestures, and Tori makes me want to pull out all the stops.
Tears pool in her eyes again. “Really?”
Not that I want to know about the men she’s dated in the past, but if her expression is any indication, they’ve been shitheads.
“Yes, ma’am.” With my thumb, I wipe her cheek. “We should be celebrating. Allison agreed to reconsider the payout, and the judge approved our interim proposal since Allison was amenable. That’s due to you. Who knows what could’ve happened if you hadn’t suggested the co-op? I was already maxed out on alimony payments. You saved the day, darlin’. So no more tears, okay? My kid is tough. She’ll be fine.”
That gets me the smile I’m looking for. And another sniffle.
“C’mere.” I smooth my hand over the back of her neck and bring her lips to mine. They taste like tears and chapstick.
A curtain of silky hair blocks out the dim nightstand light until she’s all I can see. I lick her bottom lip and she opens for me with a soft moan. With her curvy ass swaying on my lap, my cock is already digging into the zipper of my jeans, but I don’t want this to be about me or sex or getting off. Just making her feel better.
Rolling her over until we’re on our sides, I slide her thigh over mine and trail my hand along her shoulders. “We don’t have to do anything tonight, sweetness. I know you’re not feeling well.” Otherwise, I’d be rubbing that peachy ass in those tiny sleep shorts.
“I’m so bloated, and I have the worst cramps.” Tucking her head against my chest, she groans.
“If you hadn’t told me you had your period, I’d never know. You’re so beautiful to me, you could be prancing around in a paper sack and I’m pretty sure I’d still have stars in my eyes.” I tilt up her chin, her shy smile so fucking radiant I finally get why those Greeks fought for Helen of Troy.
In this moment, in our quiet bubble, all the heartache of the last few years is worth it. The divorce. The self-doubt. The loneliness. I’d do it again. Because it brought me to this place with this incredible girl.
I drag my lips against her shoulder. “I’ve heard sex can make you feel better. All those endorphins get released into your body.”
She arches into me, pulling me closer. “Shark Week sex kinda grosses me out, but now that you’re touching me, I’m really turned on.”
A chuckle rumbles in my chest. Shark Week.
“So let me make you feel good.” I suck on that tender spot on her neck, loving that I can feel her nipples harden through her thin tank top. “We don’t have to be traditional about it. I can just get you off. Make you feel good.”
“Mmm.” Her eyes flutter closed, her minty breath on my lips. “Okay, but we both have to come.”
No objections here.
With gentle movements, I kiss her lips, wanting her to feel how much she means to me. Wanting her to know how grateful I am to have her in my life. She’s turned everything around. My outlook. My attitude. My expectations for my family.
When she opens to me on a pleasured sigh, I stroke her slick tongue with mine until her whole body relaxes against me.
“This is for you,” I mumble against her swollen lips. “If you want me to stop at any point or you’re not feeling well, just say the word. I’m not squeamish, so I don’t want you to worry about that.”
Her moan is my answer as I caress her breasts.
“These sore?” Luscious curves fill my hands, and I give them a careful squeeze.
Nodding, she gasps. “But that feels good. And, um… I just took a shower, so I’m, you know, clean.”
Wouldn’t really care one way or another, as long as she’s comfortable. “You smell delicious, and I’m as hard as a lamp post”—which I underscore with a thrust between her legs—“but we can take another shower if things get messy.”
Her lips twist, and I rub her lower lip with my thumb.
“I have a tampon in right now.” The tension in her body ratchets up again, and she shakes her head. “Am I grossing you out? I am, aren’t I?”
On a ranch, you grow up learning about reproduction at an early age. Even my brother, who has the maturity of a monkey at times, can handle the topic.
I chuckle, and rub out the knot in her shoulder, which makes her collapse against me with a pleasured sigh. “If a man can put his dick in a woman, he sure as hell should be able to talk about her cycle. And no, I’m not grossed out.”
That seems to do the trick, and her lips tilt up. “You’re one of a kind, you know that?” Her hand delves into my hair, and this time she kisses me back like her life depends on it, using her foot to pull my hips tighter to hers.
I roll her onto her back, my body cradled by her welcoming arms and legs. Our tongues tangle with that deliberate slide and thrust that mimic all the things I want to do to her tonight. Even if we have to modify it a bit so she’s comfortable.
When her breath stutters and her chest heaves against me in a pant, I lick down the long column of her throat. Across her clavicle. Down the valley between her ample breasts.
With a few quick tugs, I remove her tank and my t-shirt and resume my exploration of her body. First with a few soft sucks of her tantalizing nipples, which makes her squirm breathlessly beneath me. Then with a tug of my teeth that lifts her hips off the bed.
Her skin smells like coconuts, the delicate scent that I’ve come to associate with Tori making me unbearably hard.
When I slip off her tiny sleep shorts, I do it slowly, so she can stop me if this is going too far, but she doesn’t.
Tiny pink lace panties greet me, and her satiny skin peeks through, making my mouth water. But tonight requires patience, so even though I want to rip off the dainty fabric with a hard yank and a growl, I don’t.
She reaches for the button on my jeans, and I watch her lick her lips as she releases my cock from the confines of my clothes.
But as she’s reaching for me, I catch her wrist.
“Don’t move,” I instruct as I grab a dark towel from her bathroom and the lube I tossed in her nightstand last week. After I slide the towel beneath us and kick off my jeans and boxer briefs, I flip open the bottle and drizzle the clear liquid over my length before snapping it shut and tossing the container on the bed.
Eyes wide, pouty lips wet, she watches me palm my length and spread the lube. Squeezing from root to tip, I curve around the swollen head and back, the pace languid. Because it’s for her.
A deep flush paints her cheeks and tints her plump, pert breasts. “You’re making me crazy right now,” she whispers before licking two fingers and dipping her hand into her panties.
A groan catches in my throat.
Is there anything hotter than watching a stunning woman touch herself? Fuck, no. And especially not my woman.
My cock swells in appreciation of the quick motion of her hand underneath the lace. Of the way her other hand pinches her nipple with a hard tweak. Of her ravenous stare.
“I could watch you do this all night.” It’s true. Tori’s a vision. A goddamn goddess. Hair tangled around her, tits high and flushed, slender hips gyrating to a tempo I can feel, a heavy thumping bass that extends all the way down my hips.
With a squeeze to my balls, I edge back before I embarrass myself.
Her sultry voice zings through me. “Ethan, touch me.”
She swallows when I caress her legs, from the back of her knee to where her thigh reaches her ass. My fingers dig into that sweet dip between the two until they meet in the middle and she’s out of breath.
“Gonna take these off”—I finger the lace scrap adorning her pretty pussy—“and then you’re gonna come.”
She nods on a pant that has me palming myself again.
Her eyes are hazy with lust, but beneath the desire, beneath the craving, I see something I’ve never had in any other relationship. Absolute trust.
And it makes me fall that much harder for this girl.
Keeping my eyes pinned to hers, I guide her panties down until they’re out of my way, and then I kneel between her open thighs. Pulling my length up, I let my cock slap against her swollen mound, and she gasps, arching toward me and telling me yes. My girl likes it rough sometimes, though tonight, I want to take it easy on her. Mostly.
With a leisurely thrust, I glide against her. Notching through her folds. Knocking the head of my cock against that sensitive nub.
Slow, I remind myself.
But then she parts herself so I can fit even closer, and my balls draw up tight.
“Goddamn, baby.”
A gasp escapes her at the sensation, and she pulls her knees to her chest, the sight enough to send me right back to the edge again.
Really and truly, I want to thank Jesus right now for the honor of fucking this beautiful woman.
My thrusts make her tits bounce, delighting the caveman in me, who wants to carry her to my lair and fuck her into the next ice age.
Nearly mindless with desire, I squeeze her pussy lips that cradle me, tightening her around me, and when she gazes down at my slick crown parting her, that’s all it takes for her to come with a muffled cry.
Head thrown back, body tight and arched, her body heaving, Tori’s still shuddering when light dots my vision and that tidal wave of pleasure barrels through me.
My body quakes as I shoot my release on her stomach, the sensation so intense, I catch myself on one arm before I almost crush her.
So. Fucking. Good. How does it get better every time?
When I can finally breathe again, I laugh. “Sorry, sweetness. Didn’t mean to make a mess on you.”
She gives me a sleepy, sexy smile and yanks me closer. Guess we might need that shower after all.
