“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” I smile at her, grabbing a straw. I put it in the glass then hand it over to her dad so he can help her drink it.
Feeling warmth hit my back, I then feel Colton’s hand on my hip before it slides around to rest against my stomach. Putting pressure there, he pulls me back into his chest, causing me to shiver. “Your rules suck,” he says against my ear, and I know exactly what he means, but I don’t turn my head to look at him, even though I want to. Instead, I keep my eyes on Olivia as she takes a sip from the drink, relaxing a bit when she doesn’t toss it away but sips more.
“You sure you’re not up for Vegas? Maybe the court house in town?” Tide asks, and my eyes go to him and I smile, shaking my head. “Bummer.” He grins a devilish grin that I’m sure gets him lots of attention.
“I thought Anna was taking care of Olivia while you’re working today,” Colton says, keeping me pinned between him and the bar.
“She was, but she called me an hour ago asking me to pick Olivia up so she could take care of a few things,” he responds quietly.
“Mama has a date tonight, so she wanted to go shoppin’,” Olivia informs, and Tides jaw tics at this information. “She said I couldn’t go wif her.” Seeing the sadness in her eyes, my heart breaks a little.
“How about you come with Nana Rose?” Rose suggests, and Olivia looks at her. “I need to make some cookies today, and I could use your help.”
“Really?” Her face lights up.
“Really.” Rose nods. “Once you finish your drink, we’ll go.”
“Yippee!” Olivia grins, taking another drink from her straw, this time sucking down the juice as fast as she can, which makes me smile.
“Thank you,” Tide says, sounding relieved. “Mom said she’d watch her, but she can’t get away from work until four. And Dad’s on the road until Friday, so he can’t step in either.”
“I told you before, you can always call if you need me to help out,” Rose tells him, and I watch his face soften.
“I can pick her up at five, five-thirty. Or call Mom and have her pick her up at four. Whatever works for you.”
“She’ll be fine with me until you come to pick her up. That way, your mom doesn’t have to leave work early.”
“You sure?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions. You know I love spending time with my girl,” she scolds, and I can see it in her eyes that she really does love spending time with Olivia.
“Thanks,” he says again, and she nods.
“I’m going to grab my bag and jacket. I’ll be right back,” she assures, then she looks at Colton and me. “You two will be good here, right?”
“We’ll be fine, Ma,” Colton replies while I nod.
“Good.” She heads into the office and comes back a minute later, wearing her coat and asking, “Where did Olivia go?”
“I’m right here,” Olivia answers, and I look around like I can’t see her either.
“That’s so strange. She was just sitting right there.” I point at where she’s sitting on her father’s lap.
“I’m right here,” she giggles, waving her hands out toward us.
“It must be the mermaid juice,” I stage whisper, and she giggles louder, making me smile.
“Oh, there you are!” Rose says as Olivia stands on her dad’s thighs to get our attention.
“I was Indavidsable,” she announces proudly.
“You were.” I wink at her and she smiles then looks at Rose. “Can we go bake cookies now?”
“Yes, just kiss your dad first and say goodbye to everyone.”
“Love you, angel. Be good for Nana Rose,” Tide instructs after she turns toward him and plants a kiss on his cheek.
“I will,” she promises happily before scooting off his lap.
“I’ll call you when I’m on my way,” Tide tells Rose, handing her Olivia’s bag, and she nods with a wave of her hand.
Watching them go, I smile when Olivia yells, “Bye, Uncle Colton! Bye, mermaid lady!”
Laughing, I give her a wave.
“Thanks for distracting her,” Tide says once they are out of sight, and my eyes go back to him.
“No problem.” I shrug.
“You’re good with kids,” Colton adds softly, and I turn my head to look up at him.
“I love kids,” I reply quietly, and his entire expression softens and something I’m not willing to decipher right now, fills his eyes.
“I need to get back to work,” Tide inserts, thankfully breaking into the moment, and I look at him as he stands from the stool and sticks out his fist to bump it against Colton’s. “I’ll see you at the gym in the morning.”
“See you then,” Colton agrees.
“Take care of my boy,” Tide demands of me before turning to leave, which in turn leaves Colton and me alone. Still feeling him at my back, I try to scoot away, but he doesn’t let me get very far.
“I need to work,” I whisper as his hand splayed against my stomach tightens.
“It’s lunchtime,” he reminds me, dropping his mouth to the side of my neck. “We’re off the clock.”
“We’re not off the clock,” I laugh, rolling my eyes at him even though he can’t see, and I feel his lips smile against the skin of my throat.
“It was worth a shot.” He kisses my neck then lets me go, and I turn to face him. “Where did you learn to make mermaid juice?” he asks, and I laugh, shaking my head.
“I made it up so she wouldn’t cry,” I admit. “Thank God you guys keep juice in the fridge. Otherwise, I would have looked like an idiot.”
He tosses his head back and laughs loudly. Seeing him laughing, my chest gets warm and I smile. I know it’s way too soon to be falling for him, but I so totally am.
~**~
“Oh, God,” I breathe, as Colton’s mouth leaves mine to travel down the side of my neck. Leaning my head back, I gasp when his hands grab my ass that he put on the counter in his kitchen moments ago, as he pulls me deeper into him and his erection. It’s so hard I can feel it through his jeans and mine. “Dinner is going to burn,” I tell him, sliding my hands up the back of his shirt. Not that I care at all about dinner right now. Especially with his tongue and teeth doing amazing things to the skin of my neck.
“Let it. I’ll just eat you for dinner instead,” he replies, and my eyes slide closed.
The last few days, ever since he found out what happened with Lisa and her posse at the bar, things between us have gotten more and more heated with every single kiss and touch. I know it’s just a matter of time before neither of us will be able to stop the inevitable from happening, and I know at this point I don’t want to.
“Colton.” I start to pant when his hands slip under my shirt and slide up the skin of my sides, taking my tee with them as they go.
“Fuck,” he growls, dropping my tee to the floor. His eyes go to my breasts that are covered in a black lace bra. Looking down, I watch his fingers slide just under the edge of lace before he looks at me while I stare back at him. “Right.” He licks his lips and pulls in a breath. “As much as I want to fuck you on my kitchen counter, I’m not fucking you on my kitchen counter the first time I have you,” he states, lifting my legs pulling them around his back, and dragging me off the counter.
“I—” I start to tell him that I don’t mind where he has me, as long as he doesn’t stop what he’s doing, but I don’t have a chance to. His mouth lands on mine again and he kisses me as he walks us across the kitchen to the stove and somehow turns it off while never losing my mouth. He then goes to the oven, where I have chicken cooking, to do the same. Pulling my mouth from his so he can navigate the stairs, I kiss down his jaw then lick and nip up his neck to his ear.
“Jesus.” His hold on me tightens when we reach the top, and then he presses me back into the wooden wall. With one hand still holding onto my ass, the other moves up and into my hair, where he tugs downward so he can get my mouth once more. Pulling at his shirt, I frantically undo t
he buttons and rip it from his shoulders, and then tear my mouth from his, wanting to see all of him.
I don’t have a chance to get a good look at him before he’s lifting me higher and latching onto my breast through the material of my bra. My head falls back against the wall with a loud thud and my fingers slide into his thick hair to hold on. Before I can enjoy that much either, he pulls me off the wall, and then I’m flying through the air and landing on the bed with him on me, his fingers unhooking the front clasp of my bra.
When his lips capture my nipple this time, I’m more than a little thankful for our new position. Digging the heels of my feet into the bed, my back arches along with my neck. As he cups my neglected breast with his big hand, I moan deep in my throat and lift my hips to his. Oh, God, even through his jeans and mine, I can tell he’s huge, and my core convulses at the thought of him sliding inside of me.
“Colton,” I rasp as his hand cupping my breast slides down and unhooks the button of my jeans then pulls down the zipper. Feeling his touch against my pelvis, my body starts to shake with need and my head digs farther back into the bed. Hearing his groan of approval when his thick finger finds my clit, I moan again.
As he releases my breast with a pop, I feel his forehead drop to my chest. “Fuck, you’re so goddamn wet.” His finger slides deeper, and my hips lift to help him out.
I know I won’t last like this. I’m way too turned on, and I want him too much. Tipping my head down to look at him, I whimper when his fingers leave me so he can sit back on his knees to pull down my jeans and panties in one quick move.
“Christ, you really are perfect everywhere,” he groans, running his fingers through my wet folds and causing my hips to jerk in response. “So fucking perfect and so fucking tight.” He slides one finger into me, and then another, lifting them up and rubbing them against a spot deep inside me that I didn’t even know existed until now.
Moving over me, he nudges my legs apart with his shoulders, and then his mouth is on me as he flicks my clit with his tongue twice before sucking hard. I don’t even have a chance to prepare myself for the orgasm that explodes throughout every single inch of me, ripping me apart into a billion tiny pieces before putting me back together once more. When I come back to myself, his fingers are still moving inside me but gently now, and his mouth is at my inner thigh, where he kisses it once before looking up at me.
Meeting my gaze, he places one more soft kiss on my inner thigh before he leans back, unhooks his jeans, and slides them off his hips. My mouth goes dry as I take all of him in. He’s beautiful, like a sculpture created centuries ago, with tight muscles under smooth golden skin. Licking my lips, my eyes go to his cock and my breath hitches in anticipation. He’s thick and long, and beautiful there too. He reaches over to his bedside table and opens the drawer, grabbing a condom. I watch him rip it open with his teeth then slide it on.
“You ready?” he asks, positioning himself between my legs and wrapping his hand around his cock.
Running my hands up to the smooth, warm skin of his chest, I hold onto his shoulders and pull in a breath. “Yes.” I nod, feeling the head of his cock slide over my clit then bump against where I need him most.
“Wrap your legs around me, baby,” he instructs, so I do. I lift my legs and wrap them around the back of his thighs. My body vibrates with anticipation as he starts to slide in. He’s so thick that there is a bite of beautiful pain with every single inch he gives me. “You’re so fucking tight. So fucking perfect for me,” he groans, burying himself completely, filling me up in more ways than one. Tears burn the back of my eyes, but I hold them at bay, not wanting to ruin this moment by being ridiculous and crying.
Once he’s seated inside me, he wraps his hand around my jaw, lowers his face, and brushes his lips against mine. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I whisper, lifting my legs a little higher and bringing him that much closer to me.
“Good,” he whispers back, rubbing his thumb across my bottom lip. “Give me your mouth, baby.”
Lifting my head, I give him what he wants then kiss him back as he pulls out and slides in slowly, so slow it’s almost torture. Having him, all of him, his weight, his thickness, his mouth, his taste, his scent seeping into my skin and lungs, I know I’m done for. I’m ruined. There will never be anyone else for me but him, and when we both find release at the same time, that connection I’ve been feeling since the moment we met, increases tenfold.
Feeling all of that, I know I was wrong earlier today. I’m not just falling for him. I’m falling fast, and there is not one thing I can do about it. Really, I’m not sure I’d want to stop myself, even if I could.
CHAPTER 9
She’s The One
Colton
WITH THE SCENT OF Gia’s hair under my nose, the feel of her naked body pressed tightly against mine, and her soft breath whispering across my skin for the first time, I don’t regret what happened to me. I’m actually thankful it did. I now realize that in losing everything I thought I ever wanted, I was given something better, something real. Something I know I will cherish and protect for the rest of my life. Now I just need to find a way to make her feel the same way I do.
I know she cares about me, but I want more. I want her heart, and I want to go to bed with her every night and wake up with her every morning, which means she needs to start her life here in town. Really start her life here by finding a job working with kids. It’s something I know she loves doing, something I could tell she missed doing when I saw her interact with Olivia.
On that thought, I kiss the top of her head then reach behind me to grab my phone and check the time. It’s already after 6:30 in the morning, which means as badly as I want to take her again, I don’t have time. Plus, I didn’t let her sleep much last night. After the first time, I took her slow to prove to myself that I could do that for her, give that to her. We went to the kitchen and ate the dinner, her sitting on the counter wearing one of my shirts and me in my boxers. After we finished eating, I didn’t give her a chance to go to her room. I carried her back upstairs, where I fucked her bent over the railing of the loft before taking her into my bed. She fell asleep in my arms after that, only to have me wake her up twice more during the night.
Dropping my cell phone back down, I wrap my arm around her and hold my lips to the top of her head. I need to soak in this moment and hope it will be enough to get me through the day. Before she was even mine, I wanted to claim her, to let people know, in any way possible, that she belongs to me. So now that she is mine, I know it’s going to be close to impossible to follow her ridiculous rules.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Her sleepy voice greets my ears, and I pull my head back to look down at her, finding her eyes still closed. “I can hear you thinking, and I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. So could you please just say whatever it is you need to say so I can go back to sleep?” she asks, and I smile.
I was wrong about her being shy when I first met her. She’s not shy, not even a little bit. At least, not with me. I love that she can go toe-to-toe with me and get in my face when something is pissing her off. I like that I don’t have to play guessing games to try to figure out what’s bothering her. It’s refreshing, although her keeping that bullshit with Lisa from me still makes me see red, even if I can appreciate that she was trying to protect me.
“How are you not tired?” she asks, tipping her head back and blinking her eyes open to look at me.
“I might not have slept long, but I slept solid with you in my arms,” I tell her truthfully, and her face softens. Running the pad of my thumb along her cheek, I sigh. “I gotta get up. I need to meet Tide at the gym soon.”
“Oh,” she says, sounding disappointed.
“You wanna come?”
“Do you mean go with you to work out?” she asks, sounding horrified, and I fight back a smile.
“Yeah, baby. I mean go and work out with me.”
“No thanks. I’m not big on the who
le gym experience.”
“Why’s that?”
“When I was fifteen, my stepmom made my dad force me to go to spinning classes four days a week at her gym. She would go along with me and chat with her friends about how at fifteen I was already a size eight. Everyone in the class started to get in on her jokes about my weight and endurance, which meant I left upset after every class. Once I didn’t have to go back, I vowed to never go to a gym again.”
“First, it’s doubtful that anyone would ever say something to you at my gym. But if some motherfucker ever made you feel uncomfortable, I would lay them the fuck out.” I give her a squeeze then ask, “What did your dad say when you told him about what your stepmom was doing to you?”
“Nothing, I never told him,” she admits quietly, and my jaw clenches as I picture her as a teenager, losing her mother and dealing with that bullshit afterward.
“Why the fuck not?”
“I didn’t want to upset him,” she explains.
Anger fills the pit of my stomach at the idea of her keeping that shit to herself. “So you let that bitch and other bitches treat you like shit, just so you wouldn’t upset your dad? The same way you kept the shit Lisa spewed at you to yourself to protect me?”
“I—”
“No,” I cut her off, dropping my face closer to hers. “You do not let anyone treat you in any way that makes you feel uncomfortable, and if by some fucked up chance something like that does happen again, you tell me and I’ll deal with it,” I order, and her jaw tightens.
“I can take care of myself.”
“By what, keeping everything in and trying to make shit smooth for everyone else around you in the process?”
“Well…”
“Baby.” I give her a squeeze. “I hope to God that if you would have told your father what was happening that he would’ve protected you from it happening again. That said, your dad is no longer here, but I am, so it’s my job to look out for you. So let me.”