Forbidden Fling (Wildwood Book 1) (21 page)

He put one foot on the stair and gripped the railing, looking up at her. “You impress the hell out of me.”

She looked at her feet and shook her head. And then they stood there in the warm night, with the rhythmic chirp of crickets and the occasional hum of a car engine in the distance.

Ethan’s overwhelmed brain cleared, like his body hit the “Reset” button. Without the tangle of problems clouding his mind, he really saw Delaney for the first time all night. Saw the way her pretty little yellow sundress followed the curves of her body, the way her hair fell forward over her shoulder and framed her face, the way her legs seemed to go on forever before they ended in sparkly little sandals.

And he suddenly ached all over. He didn’t understand how he could still want her so badly. He’d never been addicted to anything, but just looking at her standing on his porch made a clawlike craving sting in his gut. Made his mouth water. Made him want to take risks he’d never contemplated before.

“Delaney—”

“I know it might be hard to believe,” she said, starting down the stairs, “but Jack and Austin aren’t the biggest pricks I’ve ever dealt with. I’m a big girl, and I may not always win the war, but I can hold my own in the battles. I know how to handle guys like this. Guys that thrive on power and authority. And I know how to do what needs to get done. I’m a survivor, Ethan.”

She stopped on the last step, putting them eye to eye. “What I
don’t
know how to do is make sure others survive. I don’t know how to save anyone else. I guess I’ve always made sure of that. So stop worrying about me and start worrying about you. If you don’t put up some walls and protect yourself from their manipulation, that light inside you will eventually go out.”

Light?
She saw a light inside him?

She lifted a hand to his face and cupped his jaw. “You’ve been through enough. You have a great life here. A good job, great friends, everyone in town respects and likes you, all the single girls can’t wait for the day you look their way. I’m not going to come into town for a week, or a month, turn everything upside down, and leave. That’s not right.” She ran her thumb over his cheek and smiled. “So we’re good?”

Panic blipped through his chest. He covered her hand with his to keep her from leaving, while he fought for something to say that would fix everything and make her stay. But she was so freaking rational, so goddamned logical, he was having a hard time finding anything to work with. And with the bar, his grandfather, his family, his aunt, and his job in the middle of this, he didn’t even know if he should.

“Delaney, let’s—”

“It’s not a big deal.” She curled her fingers around his and lowered their hands. “And I’m not going to make it one. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t worry. I’m good, so we’re good.” She nodded. Smiled again. “Okay?”

Say okay and let her go.

He shifted on his feet.

One little word.

Let her go. Right your world.

“No.” He heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes. “No, it’s not okay.”

“Ethan . . .”

Her goddammit-I’m-barely-holding-on-here plea was lost on him. He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her warm little body against his.

She pushed at his shoulders, leaning away. “You know I’m right. You know it’s what you need.”

“No.” He lifted a hand and cupped the back of her neck. “
You
are what I need.”

He pulled her mouth to his and kissed her. She mewled, the sound frustrated, but her hands fisted in his shirt and held him close.

Ethan softened his mouth, tilted his head, and kissed her again. This time, she whimpered and her body loosened. The feel of her melting against him pushed heat through his body. He moaned and slid the hand at her neck into the silky strands of her hair, and when she parted her lips to gasp, he pushed his tongue into her mouth.

She opened to him immediately, hungrily, and met the stroke of his tongue. The warm, wet slide made everything Ethan had been holding back—the lust, the confusion, the fear, the anger, the want, the longing—break through his barriers like a flood. The wave wiped everything from his mind but Delaney and brought profound relief.

With nothing else invading his thoughts, he focused on the luscious cushion of her breasts against his chest, the soft mound of her sex against his cock, the feel of her small waist beneath his arm.

And, God, her mouth. Wet. Warm.
Wild.

He tore out of the kiss, lifting her into his arms and starting for the house. “Fuck, I need you.”

She bit her way down his neck, and tingles spread across his skin, but at the same time she murmured breathless attempts at logic. “We can’t keep doing this. Too complicated. If anyone finds out . . .”

He pushed his door open, covered her mouth with his, and let his tongue talk her out of leaving. By the time they were inside, she had her legs wrapped at his hips, one hand deep in his hair, the other working his belt open.

The thrill of winning her over spread through him like fire. He kicked the door closed, and Delaney pulled out of the kiss, breathless, both hands moving to the buttons of his shirt. Turning a circle, he searched for the closest horizontal surface. But his kitchen was a mess, his sofa was covered with laundry, and his dining room table was strewn with paperwork.

Then her mouth found his again, licking and biting and sucking, while her hands worked on his shirt, and his desperation mounted.

“This is the last time,” she murmured between kisses. “Not happening again.”

Fuck that.
He turned a half circle and rested her butt on a wide, deep windowsill. Her thighs opened, and she pulled him between her legs.

Ethan grabbed her wrists and held them still. Her eyes lifted to his, floating with questions.

“What if I don’t want this to be the last time?” he asked even while a small part of his brain screamed,
What are you thinking?

“Ethan.” His name came out as part reprimand, part where-the-hell-did-that-come-from?

“We have something, and it’s not going away.”

“Neither of us wants anything more than this. I’m not staying. Regardless of what I decide to do with the bar.”

“Whatever this is will burn itself out by then, right? There’s no point in making ourselves miserable when we both want each other.”

“Yes, there is.” The sexual haze cleared from her eyes. “There’s a
definite
point, and it’s called keeping your job, keeping peace with your family, holding on to the respect you’ve built here.”

Something stirred deep in his heart. Something he’d never felt before. Something he couldn’t ignore, couldn’t just will away.

He cupped her face with both hands and caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. “You’ve always been the caretaker. A lot of years with no mom, an alcoholic dad, and two younger sisters. You’ve always taken care of everyone else, haven’t you? The way you’re trying to take care of me now.”

Surprise flashed in her eyes before her gaze fell away and she shook her head. She pulled her hands from his shirt and pressed them against the ledge. “Maybe I should go.”

“Maybe you should just admit how much you like me.”

She huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes.

“Maybe you should just admit how much you want me.” He tipped her head back, looked directly into her eyes. “Maybe we should both just admit that we care about each other. That for however long we’re in this, it’s happening because there’s more between us than a physical need to hook up.”

“You don’t know me well enough to care.”

“I know you better than you think. I know the girl you tried to hide from everyone back in high school. And I still see her in you now.”

She laughed as if the idea were ludicrous. “I didn’t try to—”

“Wildwood Vineyards Convalescent Home.”

Her smile froze, then fell in confusion. “What?”

“You were there doing community service work for an underage drinking charge.”

“How did you—”

“Because I was there at the same time doing the last of my community service work to earn my Eagle Scout.”

“You
really were
a Boy Scout?”

He grinned. “And I watched you with those old people. People who never judged you. People who loved your company, appreciated your time, and thrived on your attention. You stayed longer than you had to. You went in on days you weren’t scheduled. You continued going even after your sentence had ended.

“You loved those people, and they loved you. You listened to their stories and laughed with them. You played games with them and read to them. You brushed their hair and painted their nails. Even when you weren’t there, they talked about you.

“Outside the home, you might have been the town bad girl, doing everything you shouldn’t. But you also managed to get your sisters to school and keep your father’s bar running when he was laid out drunk.”

She started to shake her head again.

“I read the police report, Delaney. I know your father was passed out behind the bar when Ian was killed. I also heard after the incident that was a regular occurrence. What I can’t figure out is how in God’s name Phoebe let you work the bar alone.”

Delaney’s gaze lowered to his chest again. “She didn’t know. I told her I was staying the night with a friend. She wouldn’t have let me, and I knew we needed the money.”

He sighed and kissed her forehead again. Then her lips. “So I do know you enough to care. If we have to keep things between us a secret, fine. I’ll do what I have to do to get these stolen moments with you, because I don’t want this to be the last time.”

Her eyes scanned his face, her expression a mix of longing and concern. Maybe some fear. She scraped her lower lip between her teeth, lifted her hands to his shirt, and curled it into her fingers. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you. It . . . scares me.”

His chest filled with excitement, with happiness, with so many emotions that they pushed the air from his lungs. He kissed her hard and deep. Tasted her until her fingers were clenched in his hair, holding his head down.

And just like that, the fire between them flared back to life, fueled with a new understanding and new emotions.

He slid his hands up her thighs and let his fingers drift between her legs. Hooking his fingers in her panties, he shimmied them down and let them drop, then moved his hands up her thighs again. But this time he pushed her skirt up, too, revealing her gorgeous thighs and, finally, that pretty bare pussy he craved. The thrill this woman could whip through him without even trying was absurd.

“So beautiful,” he murmured, letting his hand slide between her thighs and cup her sex.

Delaney’s breath quickened, and her body stiffened. The look she gave him made her seem innocent. One of those God-that’s-naughty-but-it-feels-so-good looks that made Ethan want to eat her alive.

“Like that?”

She smiled, one of those naughty smiles, with her lip still between her teeth.

His own lips turned to match her grin. “Spread your legs, naughty girl. I want to touch you.”

With her gaze holding his, her thighs opened into a wide V, pushing her forward on the ledge, and giving Ethan full access.

“Mmm, perfect.” He stroked his fingers through her hot, wet folds, let them drift farther back and over the tight pucker. Her nipples turned to hard peaks beneath her dress. Ethan’s cock pulsed with heat.

He tipped her chin up, kissed her gently, brought her tongue out to play without the kiss while he swirled his fingers in her slick heat. She moaned and arched for more, but he pulled back and focused on the buttons on her dress, slipping the six of them open, one by one.

“Did you think about me the last few days?” he asked, plunging his index finger deep to tease the walls of her sex.

“Yes.” One of her hands gripped the sill at her hip, the other was clenched in his shirt at his ribs.

He added his middle finger and pushed deeper. Her eyes closed, lips parted, back arched. “Oh . . .”

“Did you think about this?” He soaked in the sight of moonlight accentuating the pleasure drenching her face. Wished he could save the moment somehow. “About me touching you, kissing you? About me inside you?”

With her head against the glass, she opened her eyes. “Yes.”

Ethan leaned in and kissed her, whispering against her lips, “Did you miss me?”

He didn’t expect to get an answer, but she surprised him by murmuring a soft, “Yes.”

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. They were clear, vibrant, hot. And honest.

She’d missed
him
? Or she’d missed
fucking
him?

He wasn’t venturing there.

“Because I think about you all the time. About how wet you get for me. How I glide inside you. How tight you grip me. I think about how you smell right here.” He tilted his head and pressed his face to the hollow between her jaw and her neck and opened his mouth against her skin. He kissed his way down one side of her neck, then back up the other, continuing his whispers. “I think about how your skin tastes. How your pussy tastes. How you feel against my tongue, all plump and soft and juicy.”

“God . . .” A shiver coursed through her small frame, and her thighs spread wider.

Ethan repositioned the hand between her legs so that with each thrust, his thumb rubbed her clit and his ring finger brushed her backside, pushing her toward the peak with methodically steady strokes.

Delaney moaned and writhed with the new friction. She released his shirt and gripped the sill with both hands, trying to leverage herself into the thrust.

“Relax, baby.” He cupped her breast still covered in the soft, thin fabric, and caressed, massaged, and pinched her nipple. She arched into his hand. “I’ll give you everything you want.” He brushed the strap off her shoulder and pulled a corner of the dress down to expose her breast, which he cupped, brushing the nipple with his thumb. “You just have to let go and enjoy.”

He lowered his head and covered her breast with his mouth. And since he knew she was so needy, he skipped the soft foreplay and bit down—hard enough to make her take notice, but not hard enough to hurt her. She gasped, and one hand grabbed a handful of his hair. But her hips continued to rock to the rhythm of his thrust, and she wasn’t pulling away as he licked and sucked to soothe the area he’d bitten. In fact, another shiver racked her body, and she lowered her head to his with a whispered, “Don’t stop. So good.”