She moved down and ran her mouth across the ridges of his abs
Those abs contracted.
Her exotic eyes lifted to his. There was fire in them but not all that fire was about what she was doing.
Seeing it, knowing what it said, his abs contracted again as his chest got tight.
“Have I told you I liked you today?” she whispered.
“No,” he whispered back.
“Well, I like you.” She kept whispering.
“I like you too, baby.”
He watched her face get soft as she smiled, gifting him with the dimple.
“Come here, Emme,” he ordered.
She slid back up his body.
When her face get close, he drove a hand in her hair, wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her mouth down to his.
She gave it instantly.
Keeping their mouths connected, Deck rolled her onto her back.
Then he gave as good as he got.
And better.
* * *
Four days later…
“I don’t believe you,” Emme snapped, the fire in her eyes flashing.
Deck swallowed a laugh and said, “Babe.”
She planted her hands on her hips. “Babe? Babe? That’s your response? Babe?”
“How’s this for a response? Babe, you’re just plain wrong,” he told her.
“I can’t be wrong about an opinion,” she told him.
“You can when you don’t know what you’re talking about,” he fired back.
She threw her arms out, narrowly missing slamming one into her avocado fridge.
Buford, lying on the faded linoleum of Emme’s kitchen, lifted his head from his paws, gave her a look at her agitated movements then dropped his head back to his paws, getting used to this because this was Emme.
And Emme, being Emme, kept going.
“Gun control laws are too lax.”
“You own a gun?” he asked.
“I don’t need to to know that’s true,” she said by way of answer.
“I own seven.”
Her eyes got huge.
Cute.
He powered through her cute and kept talking.
“Because of a bunch of assholes, you cannot take away someone’s right to own a gun. Or seven of them.”
“That’s insane,” she breathed.
“Why?” he asked.
“Who needs seven guns?”
“I do.”
“Why?” This was pitched high.
“Work, and I like shootin’ ’em.”
“Can’t you shoot just one?” she asked.
“Not if I don’t have to or I don’t want to and luckily, with the laws the way they are, I don’t have to so I get what I want.”
“Bad people get their hands on guns, Jacob,” she pointed out.
“And they would even if they were illegal, Emme. People get their hands on drugs, have no problem doing it, some of them they even order on-line, and they’re illegal.”
“And therein lies the problem. Guns should be illegal but drugs should be legal.”
Deck stared at her in astonishment at this proclamation before he dropped his head and looked to his boots.
“Alcohol is legal,” she informed his bent head. “I don’t understand why drugs aren’t. And think of all the money we’d have for socialized medicine if we could tax the sale on narcotics and stop spending huge amounts of tax dollars on fighting the war on drugs.”
He lifted his head and begged, “Please, can we not talk about socialized medical care? I like you now and I wanna fuck you later. I don’t mind fuckin’ a woman I don’t like, especially if she looks like you, but it’s more fun fuckin’ one I do.”
She wasn’t listening and he knew this because she didn’t fire back but also because her eyes were narrowed on the stove.
“Shouldn’t that burner be red?” she asked, and Deck looked to her rickety, ugly, avocado stove.
Then he moved to it.
He carefully touched the side of the pot that should be water getting warm to boil new potatoes.
Ice cold.
He then put his hand to the door of the oven where a still very raw beef tenderloin was sitting.
“Fuck,” he clipped, and felt Emme come close to his side.
“Have we lost her?” she asked, and he looked down at his girl.
“I think she gave up the ghost, honey.”
Emme rested a hand on the edge of the stove and murmured, “She had a fine run, what with allowing Alice to cook all those meals for Greg, Marcia, Jan, Peter, Bobby and Cindy.”
Through his chuckle, Deck replied, “Yeah, she did. Though I wish she didn’t kick it when I put a forty-dollar piece of meat in her belly.”
Her head jerked up. “That roast cost forty dollars?”
“Yep.”
Her mouth dropped open.
Deck dropped his to it and brushed his lips against it, and seeing as it was open, he took that opportunity to stroke her tongue with his own.
He lifted his head and asked, “Do you think your phone will work long enough to order a pizza?”
The wonder swept out of her face as pique entered it. “There’s nothing wrong with my phone, Jacob. Or my cell phone. Or yours for that matter.”
“Good, then get your ass to one of them and order pizza. A large one. I don’t care what’s on it, just not pineapple. And boneless wings, at least twenty. Yeah?”
She moved away, mumbling, “I’ll go get my credit card.”
He quickly caught her, wrapping his arm around her neck and hauling her against his body so they were front to front.
He dipped his head to hers. “You get your credit card, I tan your ass.”
Her head jerked and she pointed out, “Jacob, you bought the roast. We’ll eat that tomorrow at your place. I’ll get pizza.”
“Babe—”
She cut him off. “The bids for the windows were insane, all four of them, and I just lost my stove, but Dad says I’m getting a bonus this quarter so I can afford pizza and windows.”
He ignored the comment about her father giving her a bonus that would just happen to be very close to the amount of the cost of new windows that came in on a bid from a man he trusted, namely Holden “Max” Maxwell. Max was also going to be the man who was going to install Emme’s windows even if his bid wasn’t the lowest.
Instead, he repeated, “You get your credit card, I tan your ass.”
“Jacob, really.”
His arm tightened, he curled his other arm around her and dipped his face closer.
“I’m not joking, Emme. You pulled that shit over Mexican coupla weeks ago, I didn’t like it. There’s things a man like me has gotta do and you gotta let me do them. You don’t pay. No reflection on you and your ability to take care of yourself. It just means something to me. You push this now, I will turn you over my knee and spank that sweet, round ass of yours. You do it in future, you’ll get the same thing until you get it. You with me?”
“Are you serious?” she whispered, neck pulling slightly at his arm which stayed firm.
“Deadly,” he answered.
“You’d hit me?” Her eyes were big and she quit pulling at his arm.
“Spank you.”
“That’s hitting me, Jacob,” she said softly.
“That’s spanking you, baby, and when I do it, your ass will be bare and it’ll end in an orgasm but it’ll also end with a red ass that hopefully will teach you the lesson not to test a man like me.”
Her lips parted but her body melted slightly into his.
Fuck him.
He’d half been bullshitting to get his point across, half testing the waters.
Her reaction indicated the waters were warm.
He felt his dick start getting hard.
“You like that idea?” he whispered.
“I’m not sure… I’m not…” she stammered, swallowed and asked, “Is that supposed to make me do what you want me to do?”
br />
This meant she wouldn’t do what he wanted her to do in order to get her spanking.
She liked that idea.
“Rewards can get sweeter, you’re good,” he told her.
“Have mercy,” she breathed, and he smiled.
“You’re kind of already getting those, baby, but you want an adventure, we’ll take it up a notch.”
Her body melted deeper and she repeated, “Have mercy.”
Fucking cute.
So cute, he had to bend his neck and take her mouth.
She melted completely in his arms, wrapped hers around his neck to hold on and let him.
He lifted his head and watched her eyes slowly open.
When his face was three inches away, she stated, “Krystal Briggs said I shouldn’t become your sex slave.”
“Krystal Briggs is not gonna come as hard or as often as I’m gonna make you come tonight, honey, you get your phone and my credit card.”
Her head tipped to the side and she asked curiously but hesitantly, “So this kind of thing is about making me mind you?”
“No, this kind of thing is about giving you good stuff you’re really gonna fuckin’ like. The credit card thing is about me tellin’ you it’s important to me to do that and you givin’ me that. It’s not asking much.”
“You paid for my insulation too,” she reminded him.
“Explained that then, keepin’ you warm and liquid.”
Her body tightened slightly and she started, “Jacob, this makes me a little—”
“It’s important to me, Emme,” he interrupted. “It’s also important to me you have a new kitchen but you aren’t seein’ me rip out this old one to give it to you against your wishes because I know I shot my wad with the insulation. I pushed that, you relented, but it’s your house and I gotta be smart enough to know when to stop pushing. Insulation was a priority. You’ve got no stove, but you’ve got a man who does so that isn’t as big of a deal right now as it normally would be. This is give-and-take, you and me. You gotta learn to let me give so that means you gotta learn to take.”
“And when do I give and you take?”
“Every day, sometimes more than once, when you tell me you really like me when you mean somethin’ else and I know my future includes hearin’ you comin’ home sayin’ ‘hey, puppy’ to Buford.”
That got him a soft look and her eyes fired in that way he liked a whole fuck of a lot but he wasn’t done.
“Because of that, for the first time in a long time, that future looks bright. You’re not the only one’s been lonely, Emme, hoping the right one will come along so you don’t go home to an empty house and climb into an empty bed. So you give every fuckin’ day, and what you give, I like takin’.”
Her body melted into his again and she asked, “You’ve been lonely?”
“Watched my boy fall in love with a good woman, watched her give that to him in return. It’s a beautiful thing, honey. You don’t know what you’re missing until you have it or see someone have what you want. When Chace got that, I knew what I was missing.”
She held his eyes then dropped her forehead to his chest but almost instantly tipped her head back.
“Pizza, restaurant bills, bar tabs, they’re yours,” she announced. “Big stuff, we discuss, but I’ll have a mind to you being a protective uber-alpha just as long as you have a mind to me having taken care of myself for a while and being used to it.” She paused, then quieter, “And spanking and taking it up a notch, just so you know, I’m willing to explore.”
Yes. Fuck yes.
Emmanuelle Holmes had it all.
His arms tightened around her and he murmured, “Deal.”
She rolled up and touched her lips to his.
When she rolled back, she asked, “Will you sort the stuff on the stove while I call in pizza?”
“Yeah.”
She gave him a grin and a squeeze. He returned both and let her go.
She lifted her hand between them and said, “Credit card.”
He got it out, gave it to her, hooked her around the neck and pulled her to him for a quick, hard kiss.
When he let her go, he got her dimple.
Then he got to watch her ass in her tight jeans as she walked away.
* * *
Three hours later…
Emme was collapsed on top of him, her face in his neck, her knees in the bed on either side of him, straddling him, her chest pressed to his, near on dead weight.
He ran his hands down the heated, soft skin of her bare ass and whispered, “Tender, baby?”
She mumbled, “Mm…” and fell asleep in the middle of mumbling it.
Totally out.
Deck smiled at the ceiling and wrapped his arms around her.
Suffice it to say, Emme got off on taking it up a notch.
In a big way.
Yes.
Absolutely.
His girl had it all.
* * *
Five days later…
Emme’s arm tightened around his stomach.
“Mm… no, honey, read here. I can sleep with the light.”
Her words were muffled since her face was mostly smushed in his chest. She’d just felt him make a move to leave the bed.
She liked him to stay close.
He liked to give her the option.
“Sure?” he asked
She didn’t answer. She was gone.
He carefully shifted, turned on the light on her nightstand and looked back down at her.
She didn’t even twitch.
He grabbed his book from the nightstand, shifted up the headboard and took her with him.
She didn’t move or make a sound.
One-handed, his other arm around her curled into his side, Deck opened his book.
Buford got up, circled the bed then collapsed on it lengthwise, four legs spread out, his groan sounding only after he was settled in.
Deck watched this and smiled.
His eyes went back to his book, and he smelled strawberries so they tipped down to Emme’s hair all over his chest. Her body warm, legs tangled with his, arm still draped over his stomach.
He looked to his dog taking most of her bed then to his girl.
Even as the blood in his veins heated, something warm settled deep in his gut.
This time, he was not going to miss it.
This time, he knew exactly what it was.
This was because he knew he didn’t have it totally right.
His girl had it all.
And now he did too.
Chapter Twelve
Bottom of My Soul
Two days later…
“Only you would grill chops in a fuckin’ snowstorm.”
Deck looked from the built-in grill on his back patio to Chace. They were outside. They were wearing jackets. They were drinking beer and Deck was grilling chops. It was, in fact, snowing. However, they were covered by the patio’s overhang.
“Look at these chops,” Deck ordered. Chace looked to the thick pork chops on the grill then at Deck and he grinned. Deck grinned back and finished, “Now, quit your bitchin’.”
Chace kept grinning then his eyes wandered to the huge windows and he kept his grin but it changed.
Deck looked that way too and saw Emme and Faye sitting on one of his couches. Emme, unsurprisingly, was talking. Faye was smiling.
Deck had to admit Faye was all kinds of pretty. The mountain girl next door. Even prettier now, heavy with Chace’s baby, glowing, happy, expectant.
But Emme—in a form-fitting, stylish sweater, tight jeans and bare feet with her toes painted wine red, her hair gleaming, bangs falling into her eyes, face animated—was stunning.
He looked back to Chace. “Surprised you’re here, man. What is she now? Two days past due?”
Chace tore his eyes from his wife and looked to his friend. “Yeah. Two. But she got to talkin’ to Emme, Emme mentioned she wanted us over so you could cook food that makes The Rooster seem like
Taco Bell, and they could bond. Faye said no time like the present. My girl,” he shook his head, “nothin’ fazes her. She says Jake’ll come when he comes, and she figures our kid wouldn’t want her hanging around doin’ nothin’ while she waits for that to happen. So she’s not gonna do that.”
That sounded like Faye.
And Deck loved that Chace was naming his firstborn after him. Loved it so much he was going to return the favor. It might make things confusing, kids running around with their names, but he didn’t give a fuck.
It said a lot.
It meant a lot.
So he was going to do it.
“I gave in,” Chace went on, and Deck focused on him, “mostly because your house is closer to the hospital.” Another grin before, “Her bag’s in the car.”
Deck smiled. “Good thinking. Give her what she wants but have what you need.”
“Yep,” Chace replied, taking a sip from his beer. When he was finished, he asked, “Things cool with Emme?”
Deck looked back down to the chops but he knew his lips were curved up. “Yeah.”
“She okay with your folks comin’ to town?”
This was the most recent news.
Deck’s mom and dad were coming for a visit.
Deck was born and raised in Colorado, just outside Aspen.
Years ago, when Deck was in college, Deck’s dad had declared he was done with snow and took a job in San Diego. After retiring two years ago, they stayed. They didn’t visit often, Deck normally went to them, and they never came in winter or spring.
But his mom had called and Deck had told her about Emme. Then his dad got on the phone.
Deck remembered they’d met her once, one of the many times Emme popped by Deck and Elsbeth’s place. He remembered but they didn’t. That said, Richard Decker heard how Deck was talking about her and decided they were due for a visit. In March. When they avoided Colorado until June, earliest.
Though he was worried she wouldn’t, Emme took this news in stride. She seemed completely unaffected by it. But Deck was keeping a close watch on her in case she was hiding nerves.
To all appearances, she wasn’t.
“Seems to be,” Deck answered Chace.
“Outside the norm, Rich and Karla comin’ out when snow’s on the ground,” Chace remarked.
Deck finished flipping chops and looked at his friend. “Didn’t say it, where I am with Emmanuelle, but you know Dad. He heard it. Then he laid it out. He’s thinkin’ Emme and me bein’ together less than a month and this bein’ where it’s at is too soon. So he’s settin’ up to check things out and offer a father’s wisdom.”