Page 75 of Playing With Love

It started as a chuckle then when it turned into a deep, rumbling laugh I turned my head to watch. I loved the sound, loved the way his face changed when he was happy and how he expressed that—open and honest and unreservedly.

Loved it.

Truly.

In the purest sense of the word.

“I’m not sure you have much to complain about seeing as you had two orgasms this morning.”

“So did you,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, I did. One better than the other. But it’s not me playing shitty music to pay you back for giving me a sweet orgasm.”

I ignored his shitty music comment. Lainey Wilson was rad.

Neither of my orgasms had been sweet. The first had been mind-bending. The second one had rolled through me, not as long as the first but it had hit harder watching him take himself there with powerful strokes, dipping inside me, teasing, pulling out, seeing his biceps flex, his abs tighten the closer he got. Then there was the climax portion of the festivities—his climax, that was—and feeling it hit my belly before he smeared it in. But it wasn’t the feel of it, it was the act itself. The look of rapture on Tucker’s face.

Male beauty in every sense of the word.

Mine.

“The second one could’ve been sweeter if you’d⁠—”

“Liza,” he groaned.

I turned my head to look out the side window and smiled.

“Just sayin’,” I mumbled.

“I hear what you’re saying. I also hear you think you’re being cute. But just a warning, my payback won’t be country music on repeat.”

“Oh, please tell me, Master Tucker, what will payback include?” I clapped back.

I heard his growl and smiled wider.

This was fun.

Much better than thinking about scary things like love. I could happy dance my way through the rest of my day teasing Tucker instead of wanting to shut down and run away.

Yes, this was so much better.

Or it was until my phone rang, and since my phone was connected to the car Lainey stopped signing and my mother’s name displayed on the screen.

Yeah, nope. Not today, Satan. I quickly stabbed the red icon on the screen to decline the call and reached for my phone to send my mother a text telling her I was working. Lainey came back on the radio but was silenced again with another call.

“You should take the call,” Tucker said. “Could be important.”

My mother rarely had anything important to tell me, but back-to-back calls wasn’t her style. If I didn’t answer, she’d leave a message and wait for me to call her back.

Damn.

I answered the call and was in the process of putting my phone to my ear when it happened. And when it did, my stomach bottomed out.

“Liza,” my father snapped. “How nice of you to answer your phone.”

Hearing my father’s unhappy greeting, I fumbled said phone and watched it bounce off my knee and land somewhere near my feet.

“Um…hi, Dad, sorry I’m⁠—”