AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He moved his head lower and licked one nipple, then trailed across to the other and gave it a little kiss. Sensation arced between them like lightning. She arched her chest so he wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t even think about stopping. She loved the way he lavished her breasts with those long, appreciative strokes of his tongue.
“You taste like mulled wine,” he murmured.
“Hm?” Lost in the pleasure, she wasn’t tracking his words anymore.
“It always goes right to my head. I can’t handle it.”
While he feasted on her breasts, one of his hands went between her legs, sliding through the moisture that still remained, and inspiring more. God, it felt good to be naked with a man again, to be touched, to want to touch. She’d avoided getting involved with anyone since she’d moved here. Lake Bittersweet was so small, and people talked.
But here, now, with Galen, she didn’t care about any of that. She bit him on the shoulder, telling him without words that he could go harder, go faster. He got the message.
He shoved her legs apart with his thigh and practically dove between her legs to replace his hand with his mouth and tongue. His scruff abraded her inner thighs, and she sensed the roughness that he held in check. She urged him on, flexing her hips against his mouth, muttering hot words to him, grabbing at his back, his hair, his shoulders.
A quick pause for him to put on the condom, and they pounced on each other again. They rolled back and forth across that king-size bed, licking, touching, sucking, nibbling, moaning, savoring, surrendering, dominating, all in turn. When she was just about out of her mind with need, he pinned her hands over her head and settled himself between her thighs.
“Now, Galen. Now,” she whispered.
He surged inside her partway, paused to adjust, to check her reaction, something she herself was almost too crazed to do. He’d grown to an impressive size, and probably wanted to make sure it wasn’t too much. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him in. It wasn’t too much. If fact, she wanted more. She wanted every bit of him inside her, filling her up, sending her into orbit.
He caught on to her mood, or maybe he was feeling the same ferocious hunger, because he set a deep and consistent rhythm that made her blood hum in her ears. She knew words were leaving her lips—she could hear them—but she didn’t bother to think about what they were. It didn’t matter, they were just sounds to let him know how she was feeling, how over the top her desire was, how good it felt when he touched her so deeply, when it was just him and her and bare skin and sweat and hands and cock and…the climax detonated deep inside her this time, like a depth charge in the ocean.
It ripped through him as well, as if the same natural event had struck them both. They held onto each other while the orgasm rocked through her, and him, and back to her, or so it seemed. His strong arms around her, his body surrounding her with heat, his heart racing against hers…her senses overloaded.
And when the spasms died down, there was comfort and a goose-down comforter and the sweetest, wildest man in the world by her side.
nineteen
Lake Bittersweet Wilderness Adventures generally went through a seasonal lull that started sometime in late fall. Hunting season brought a certain amount of business, and there were even some climbers and hikers who preferred the less mosquito-ridden months of the year.
But by October, Galen had much more time on his hands than he did during the summer. He usually spent his days chopping and stacking firewood, tidying up his property to get ready for snow, and stockpiling supplies for the winter.
This year, he had to devote a certain amount of time to dealing with everyone’s shock at the sight of his new haircut. Every time he showed up anywhere—the grand opening of Kendra’s new office, the bachelor party of Kirk Williams, who was getting married to Gina Moretti, or the last farmers market of the year—jaws dropped and he got peppered with questions.
At first he would say things like, “What haircut?” or “I woke up this way,” just to mess with people. Then he tried, “I scared a yeti on the trail and figured it was time for a change.” Or, “I’m thinking about a career change to corporate compliance officer.” Or, “Next up, I’m going to wax my chest.”
The one thing he didn’t say was that he’d wanted to prove to Brenda’s mother that he could be a normal person if he had to. It hadn’t worked, anyway. Laney Abercrombie had seen right through him and stormed out of town the next day.
Even though both CeCe and Brenda kept telling him he shouldn’t worry about it, he couldn’t help it. His own family had disintegrated like wet toilet paper. He’d never want to contribute to someone else’s family misery.
“It’s not you, it’s me,” Brenda insisted. “She wanted to make us move to Connecticut. She’s even threatening to stop paying for Granny to stay at the senior home. That’s what she does. She uses money to control us. We told her ‘no’ and that’s why she left.”
The pit in his stomach told him it wasn’t over yet. Families were important. He wanted the McMurray women to work things out. On the other hand, he sure as hell didn’t want Brenda to move away. He wanted to see her as much as possible. After she was done with school for the day, on weekends, in the middle of a random Tuesday night when she couldn’t sleep…whenever.
Redbull warned him that he was too easy to get. “Women like the chase.”
“I thought men were the ones who like the chase.”
“Men like competition.”
Galen squinted at him suspiciously. “Is this some kind of tribal wisdom or something you read in Cosmo?”
“Cosmo. That’s white people dating. For us natives, we show our love with actions. Haul enough wood for a woman, fix her car, maybe she gets under the snagging blanket with you.”
He winked, letting Galen know he was joking, at least a little bit. “Brenda knows she doesn’t have to chase me. She’s got me. She knows I had a crush on her.”
“Did you say ‘had?’ The crush is over?”
“I don’t think it’s a crush anymore. What’s one step up from a crush?”
