Sapphire Falls: Going Too Fast (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Big Easy Book 7) (8 page)

So she went with the element of surprise. Darting out the door.

There was a full moon to light her way, and she ran with absolute, unbridled delight through the field. She was barefoot, but the grass was green and soft. She’d never in her life imagined doing anything so scandalous. She felt wild, reckless, free. She was halfway back to the river when Zac caught up to her. His large hand wrapped around her upper arm, twisting her toward him. She started to stumble and feared this chase was going to end painfully, but Zac turned at the last minute, tugging her onto his chest as he took the brunt of the fall.

“Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly.

“Caught you.”

Tacy tried to break free of his grip, but as she suspected, he’d captured her. And he had no intention of letting her go.

Zac managed to smoothly pull himself—and her—up from the ground. She dug in her feet when he started back toward the RV. She gasped when he lifted and tossed her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes.

She couldn’t help it. She giggled. Zac hesitated for a moment then his laughter mingled with hers. He was going for some sexy capture fantasy, and she was ruining it with the happiness she couldn’t contain no matter how hard she tried.

Once they returned to the RV, Zac set her back on her feet, but kept hold of her, guiding her to the bedroom again.

She tried to twist out of his grasp, but the man was nothing if not determined. She expected him to push her to the mattress and tie her up. The mere thought of that had her pussy clenching in excitement. So she was surprised when he sat down first and pulled her facedown over his lap.

Shit. The spanking. She’d forgotten that part. Her horny mind had latched onto the sight of those two ties on the mattress and the rest had faded away. He’d promised to stop if it hurt and she knew he’d stand by that.

Tacy jerked when his hand caressed her bare ass gently.

“Nervous?” he asked, though he clearly knew she was, given her reaction.

“I was the queen of vanilla when you met me. What do you think?”

“I think you were made for this.”

She didn’t have time to consider that assertion before his hand rose, coming down harder this time. While it stung, she suspected he was holding back, letting her test the water first.

And there went another little piece of her heart.

Tacy decided to reward his kindness. Glancing up at him over her shoulder, she feigned a bored expression. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

Like her, Zac seemed hard-pressed to resist a dare. Probably a result of growing up in a house full of siblings.

He spanked her again, and this time, he put some force behind it.

“Ow,” she yelled.

Zac landed two more without pausing. She started to take him to task, to tell him he was hurting her, but then she remembered the word. All she had to do was say stop.

She never even considered it. Not when he added another hard smack to her upper thigh. Actually, that was the moment when things stopped hurting and went a bit fuzzy. Her inner muscles clenched, the spasm more painful than the spanking. God, she needed him to fuck her. Like yesterday.

And hard.

Tacy fought to rise from his lap, determined to straddle it and sink down on the hard cock pressing against her hip.

Zac held her down firmly.

“Dammit, Zac. Let me up. I need you. Need you to fuck me.” Her demands came out in harsh breaths.

He didn’t give way. He landed half a dozen more smacks, varying the strengths and locations. They only drove her arousal higher.

Her body was on fire—her ass from the spanking, the rest from sheer, unadulterated horniness.

“Please. God. Please.” If she had any pride left, she sure as hell couldn’t find it. Didn’t want to.

Zac finally relented. He lifted her from her lap, but rather than move them onto the bed, he cuddled her, kissing her cheeks gently. “You’re perfect, Tacy.”

No one had ever told her that. Not once. And the crazy thing was, when she thought about it, that was all she’d ever tried to be. The perfect daughter. The perfect player.

Zac was the only one to make no demands other than for her to be herself, to be happy, and that was what he found perfect.

She swallowed down the lump forming in her throat and silently prayed tonight would never end. Mercifully, he didn’t see her expression, didn’t notice the impact he’d just had on her.

Instead, he moved her slowly to the center of the bed. He grabbed one of the ties and bound her hands together above her head. Zac didn’t bother to restrain her to the headboard, didn’t use the other tie.

Once he had her hands where he wanted them, he caged her beneath him, kissing her as if his life depended on it. She understood the passion, that overwhelming desire to take as much as she could grab.

His fingers tightened in her hair, pulling it until her scalp stung as he kept kissing her. She pretended it was the stinging that sent tears to her eyes, but she knew better. Knew exactly why she was crying.

She blinked them away, refusing to let him see.

“Tacy,” Zac murmured against her cheek. “God, darlin’. I need you so much.”

She listened as he pulled on the condom, parting her legs so that he could come inside.

He thrust in with one hard motion that sent stars whirring behind her closed eyelids. Zac didn’t hesitate to take what they both wanted. Over and over, he pushed. Then, just before she came, he withdrew and flipped her to her stomach. Tacy went up on her knees, her head and hands still pressed to the pillow as he pounded into her from behind.

She urged him to go faster. Harder.

He wrapped his arms around her, gripped her breasts, squeezed them roughly as she shoved her ass against him with all the force she could muster. It still wasn’t enough.

Zac withdrew again, flipping her onto her back once more. “Want to see you. See your face.”

He kissed her as he returned to her body. She wrapped her ankles around his waist, but it wasn’t enough. Lifting her bound hands, she placed them around his neck, tying herself to him.

Zac didn’t take her to task for moving them. She wasn’t even sure he’d realized she had. He keep thrusting in, going deeper than she’d thought possible.

Then he lifted her knees, threw them over her shoulders and showed her exactly how deep he could go.

She screamed when her orgasm came, but Zac didn’t stop moving. He pounded harder and she took it. Needed it. If this was all she could have, she would steal every ounce of pleasure and pain and hoard it in her memories for the rest of her life.

Her climax had only started to wane when the second overtook her. God, could orgasms lap each other?

She trembled roughly, her body on system overload. Zac couldn’t resist this time. He fell too.

“Tacy. Jesus. Darlin’.” Every word came out with a rough grunt, punctuated by one, two, three more hard thrusts into her body before he stilled.

He kissed her, neither of them seeking to part despite the undeniable heat in the room. It was steamy, humid, almost sweltering, but she didn’t care. Didn’t want him to leave her.

Zac broke the kiss, his hands holding her cheeks as he looked deeply into her eyes. “Soul mates,” he whispered.

She didn’t bother to hide her tears at that. She let them fill her eyes and she let him kiss them away.

He
was
her soul mate. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind she would have spent centuries searching for this man again.

She was in love with him. God. Love.

And she thought the haunted house had been terrifying.

Chapter Six

Zac knew Tacy wasn’t in the bed before he even opened his eyes. Hell, he could tell she wasn’t in the RV at all. It was too still, too quiet. He couldn’t quite explain it to himself, but there was an energy in the air whenever she was around. It was a silly thought, but it was the only way he could describe it. His body seemed to know whenever she was within a fifty-foot radius, and it responded.

He’d never experienced anything like it before, but he liked it. A lot.

He liked Tacy a lot. Maybe more than like. When he’d told her about his childhood last night and she’d looked at him with those compassionate eyes, he’d lost his heart to her. The whole damn thing fell out of his hands and into hers. Which was crazy.

God, he could imagine Tacy’s response if he took her hands in his and told her he loved her. She’d think he was a nutjob. Who fell in love in less than a week?

He knew. Those clinging guys who could never hold on to a girlfriend because they were making plans to introduce her to the parents and proposing within forty-eight hours.

Yet that was what Zac wanted to do with Tacy. He wanted to take her home to Mama Lewis. Wanted to invite her to Sunday supper and introduce her to his big crazy family. God. They’d love her.

Caliph and his girlfriend, Jennifer, would show her their ink. Chloe would want to get a picture of the two of them together. Noah and Mama Lewis would compete to impress her with their gumbo, teasingly forcing her to tell them whose was the best. After dinner, Dani and her boyfriends, Aiden and Bryson, would pull out their guitars and they’d all sing along to every song they’d ever loved. And then they’d sink deeper into the well-worn couches in front of the big screen as Justin, Ned and Jett cussed out whichever team or ref was currently pissing them off. He wanted to see her there, wanted her to be a part of his family.

Dammit. He pushed the insanity deep inside and opened his eyes. His vision confirmed what he already knew. He was alone.

Glancing at his phone, he discovered he’d slept late. It was nearly noon. Perhaps she’d decided to let him sleep in and had gone to breakfast with Lauren. Apparently there was a mud run today, though he and Tacy had decided to skip it. Originally she had planned to do it, but he wasn’t sure her knee was up to it, and the only kind of dirty he planned to get was with her, between the sheets.

He started to text her when he spotted a piece of paper on her pillow.

Zac,

Have to cut trip short. Heading back home today. Unexpected emergency. Had a wonderful week. I’ll text you later.

Xo,

Tacy

What the fuck was that?

Did she seriously just cut and run, say goodbye in a damn note?

Hell no. Hell fucking no.

Zac rose and quickly tugged on a pair of khaki shorts and a T-shirt. There was no way he was letting Tacy leave without saying goodbye. In person. Jesus. After all they’d done together, she owed him
at least
that much.

No. Now she owed him more than that. He wanted an explanation for the note. She wasn’t callous or thoughtless, so clearly something had spooked her. Scared her.

But what?

It sure as shit wasn’t the sex. Last night had been incredible. Hotter than hell. And Tacy had felt that too. She’d loved every single second she was tied up and she’d begged him to spank her harder.

His mind raced over everything they’d said and done, but nothing triggered any alarms. If anything, he turned a corner last night. The attraction he’d felt for her changing into genuine emotions—friendship, attraction…love.

Love. Zac sank down on the edge of the bed. He’d fallen for Tacy over the course of this week, but last night was the first time he had admitted it to himself. What if Tacy had made the same discovery?

Her life was in a major state of flux right now and he’d just added another wrench to the works.

He needed to find her, to talk to her. He fired off a text, asking where she was, but that act proved futile when he heard her phone beep. She’d left the thing on the nightstand next to her side of the bed.

While that find made him happy—surely she wouldn’t leave town without her phone—it didn’t help him find her in the meantime. He didn’t have Lauren’s number, or anyone else’s in town for that matter.

Zac grabbed the keys to the RV from the table and started the vehicle. They were parked in a field in the middle of nowhere. The nearest house was Phoebe’s, so he’d start there. He had no idea how much of a head start she had on him, but he prayed she was still in Sapphire Falls.

He parked the camper in front of Phoebe’s house, not bothering to shut off the engine. After knocking on the door several minutes and glancing around back, he had to admit no one was home.

His next stop was Lauren’s house. Once again, the place was deserted. Clearly everyone was at the mud run. He returned to the town limits and reclaimed his same spot at the campsite before jogging toward the square. He had absolutely no idea where the mud run was supposed to happen. He consulted with one member of the Blue Brigade and learned the run was over, and most folks were cleaning up by floating down the river in tubes.

The river he’d just been parked beside. He sighed in frustration.

Tacy hadn’t planned to do the run, but Lauren’s husband, Travis, had. He did a quick sweep of the booths and rides just to confirm Tacy wasn’t there, and then decided to drive back to the river.

Panic set in when he returned and realized he didn’t have a clue where these tubers got in and out. He forced himself to sit on the bank and calm down. He needed to think rationally. Driving all over Kingdom Come was getting him nowhere.

He took a deep breath and considered everything they’d said last night, the confidences they’d shared. When he found her, Zac needed to have a plan. He grinned when he considered what he would say to her.

Then he flipped on his phone and started doing a Google search. He had quite a few things to say to Tacy Bradford. If she’d left town, he’d follow her. To hell with Big Sur and the Pacific Ocean. His rambling trip suddenly had a purpose, a set-in-stone schedule.

Once he found what he was looking for, his gaze swept over his surroundings.

He’d just wasted two hours searching for Tacy, and he was in the exact same place he’d started. What he needed to do was stop moving around. He clearly wasn’t going to find her out here, so it was best to head back into town and ask around.

He’d start at the Come Again because he needed a drink. Big time.

* * *

“Oh my God, I’m such a freaking idiot,” Tacy repeated, her head in her hands.

Lauren was kicked back in her chair at the Come Again, watching her over the rim of the giant margarita she’d just ordered. Tacy’s sat untouched in front of her on the table, though getting drunk certainly seemed like a good idea at the moment.

“So what did the note say again?”

Tacy crinkled up her face. “Stupid shit. Something about an emergency and leaving early and thanks for the week. Why did I do that?”

“Panic.”

Lauren’s answer was succinct and there was no question in her tone. Her friend was right. She’d panicked. In spectacular fashion. Then she’d acted like an idiot, leaving him a note. A note, for God’s sake!

“He must hate me.” Tacy could only imagine how Zac would have felt waking up to find the bed empty and that horrible note on her pillow. “It was a terrible thing to do. Who says goodbye like that? And after such an amazing week?”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

Tacy didn’t acknowledge Lauren’s comment. Instead, she just buried her head deeper in her hands. “To make it worse, I left my phone in the RV. That’s why I couldn’t call you.”

After leaving the RV this morning at the crack of dawn, Tacy had walked the almost-five miles to Lauren’s house. And she’d cursed herself for being an absolute idiot the entire way. Upon arriving at Lauren’s, she’d discovered her friend gone and recalled the mud run.

Fortunately, Travis’ parents had passed her as she’d begun the trek to town. Her knee had started to hurt from so much walking and she’d been limping. The lovely couple had picked her up and driven her to town. Once there, she discovered she’d missed the mud run. Her first instinct had been to sit down and have a good old-fashioned cry right in the middle of the festival. Instead, she’d headed straight for the haunted house. She’d find some dark corner for her breakdown and if she was terrified out of her mind, it served her right for acting like such an idiot. She’d remained there for a long, terrifying hour, letting the tears fall without bothering to hide them, before daring to return to the carnival.

Mercifully, she’d found Lauren almost immediately. Her friend had taken one look at her stressed-out, freaked-out, tear-stained face and dragged her directly to the Come Again for drinks.

“Do you think you left your phone there subconsciously? Looking for a reason to go back?” Lauren asked.

She shook her head. “No. Believe me, I wasn’t thinking that clearly. Left my favorite T-shirt and a pair of flip-flops too. What am I going to do, Lauren? I have no excuse for my behavior.”

“Of course you do.”

For the first time since sitting down, Tacy looked up and faced her friend, blowing out an exasperated breath. “I have no excuse. I’m going to
tell
him. Good God, how do you look at a guy you’ve known a handful of days and say, ‘hey, by the way, I’m totally in love with you’? He’ll think I’m a lunatic.”

Lauren grinned and Tacy realized her friend wasn’t looking at her, but over her shoulder.

“Why don’t you turn around and test that lunatic theory?”

Tacy winced at the sound of Zac’s voice. She didn’t move, didn’t take her eyes off Lauren’s face. “How long has he been behind me?”

Lauren scrunched up her face and pretended to consider her question. “I think you were saying something about being a freaking idiot. Was that it, Zac? Freaking idiot?”

“Yep. Freaking idiot,” he repeated.

The humor in his tone was the only thing that gave her the courage to stand up, turn around and face him. That, and the fact he and Lauren were having a lot of fun at her expense. “You’re both assholes.”

Zac laughed and there wasn’t a trace of anger on his face.

Every ounce of regret and fear that had consumed her today vanished.

He reached for her. “I owed you a little payback for running out on me this morning. I’ve driven all over this damn town looking for you.”

She walked over to him, taking the hand he offered, loving how warm and strong it was. “I was hiding in the haunted house.”

Zac tugged her toward him, wrapping her up in a tight hug. “Damn. That was a serious panic attack. You’re limping.”

“Sort of overdid it on the walking today.”

He shook his head, his eyes concerned. “Tacy.”

“I’m so sorry, Zac. I don’t usually overreact like this.”

He took a small step away and cupped her cheek. “I don’t understand why. You’ve been in love before, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but it’s never felt quite this intense. Or happened so quickly.” She paused and then narrowed her eyes. “Why aren’t you bothered by what I’m saying and trying to escape?”

He placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “Because I’m in love with you too. I’ve been in my own state of sheer panic all day, afraid I wouldn’t be able to find you.”

“So we’re both crazy?” she asked, suddenly feeling about a thousand pounds lighter.

“Apparently.”

“What do we do now?”

He shrugged. “You hop in the RV and come see Big Sur with me.”

She laughed. “That really
would
be insane.”

“You don’t have anywhere to be for the next few weeks, do you?”

She shook her head. She didn’t have one single plan. And his sounded awesome. “Nope. Nowhere to be.”

“So it’s settled.”  Zac seemed to subscribe to Lauren’s life motto. Just do it.

“Okay. Then what?”

“If things go the way I’m hoping, I’m going to convince you to come back to New Orleans with me to meet Mama Lewis.”

“I’d like to meet your family. A lot.”

“They’re gonna love you, darlin’.”

“And then?”

He didn’t hesitate to reply, and it occurred to her she hadn’t been the only one thinking—and dreaming about the future. “I’ve got this little apartment a few blocks away from the French Quarter. I was thinking maybe you’d like to stay there with me for a while.”

“A while?”

“As long as you want.”

“Do you know if there are any schools in New Orleans that offer a landscape design degree?”

He grinned. “I just happen to know for a fact there are. Did a bit of Internet research this afternoon.”

She sucked in a breath, relieved, thrilled, amazed that he’d actually been planning for a future with her. “That sounds awesome. If you don’t mind putting up with an out-of-work, stressed-out college student for a while.”