The Slow Burn Read online

  Her eyes were open and the need was again stark.

  She verbalized it.

  “Baby . . . please.”

  “I’m not sure I can—”

  “God, Toby,” she got up on her forearms and arched her back.

  Jesus.

  Fuck.

  “Please, honey,” she begged. “Fuck me.”

  His mind was torn, wanting to make this gentle and good.

  But his hips responded to her plea.

  They drew away, rammed in, her head flew back, that amazing golden hair went everywhere, she moaned, “God, yes,” and his mind got with the program.

  He gripped her hips and took her, fucking Addie, Jesus, yes, fuck yes, fucking her fast, powering in hard, driving deep, her pussy rippling around his dick, her body rocking back into his, their flesh connecting sharply, the sounds cracking in the room.

  Toby slid a hand around, bent into her, going for her clit.

  “No, baby, no. I’ll go,” she breathed.

  “I want you to go,” he growled, touched her clit with his middle finger, and instantly found she had not lied.

  She got up on her hands, reared back into him, hair again flying, and she cried out, “Toby,” her pussy a fist spasming around his dick.

  Good Christ.

  She was . . . fucking . . . phenomenal.

  He fucked her faster, harder, staying at her clit.

  “Yes, oh God, yes, baby,” she whimpered, slamming back into him, her thighs bound together with her jeans, his finger tight against her clit, her movements wild, hurried, desperate, urging him to go at her faster, rougher.

  So he did.

  God, fucking beauty.

  She dropped down again, reaching both arms forward, another offering, pussy, ass, hair, everything.

  All that was her, he wasn’t going to be able to hold.

  “Fuck, Addie,” he grunted.

  “Fuck me, Toby, keep fucking me,” she begged breathlessly, crashing back into him, either having the longest orgasm in history or multiples that didn’t seem to be stopping.

  He didn’t care.

  He wanted her to go . . .

  Go . . .

  Go.

  “Fuck, baby,” he snarled, now pounding into her, the feeling gathering in his balls, thumping down his cock—huge, colossal, so massive, if it wasn’t Addie taking his fucking, it might freak him.

  “Yes,” she whispered, whipping her hair around to look over her shoulder at him. “Yes, Toby.”

  He caught her beautiful blue eyes, saw the look in them, hot and hungry and openly loving taking his cock.

  He couldn’t hold back.

  Toby closed his own eyes, rammed in to the root, arching into her, and exploded on a muted roar.

  Coming inside Addie

  Buried inside Adeline.

  Fucking finally connected to his Adeline.

  Best ever.

  The fucking best he’d ever had.

  Fingers wrapped around her hips, Toby was taking her gently when he came down, righted his frame, his neck, and looked back to her.

  She was cheek to the bed, eyes to him, pussy sleek and tight and warm, accepting the caress of his dick.

  “Hey,” she whispered.

  Jesus.

  His Adeline.

  He felt his lips hitch. “Hey.”

  “So, well, at this juncture,” she started, her voice breathy, sweet and hot, “I think it goes without saying, I’ve been into you for a while.”

  That made him grin as he glided in, stayed in, watched her face get soft (or softer) when she took all of him, he liked that one serious fuck of a lot, nearly as much as he liked being planted inside her, and he replied, “Same.”

  “Um, it’s best for the general population that you continue to keep that body under wraps,” she advised. “I think I had a mini-orgasm just when you took off your shirt. But your dick . . .”

  She let that hang.

  But it made him smile, bend over her sliding his hands up her sides, and he wasn’t a fan of his fingers drifting over her ribs and feeling how deep the ridges went, but he ignored it, took his hands from her and put his forearms in the bed when he got as close to her face as he could get.

  “I like your bra,” he shared.

  “Hmm,” she mumbled.

  “And your ass.”

  “Well . . .”

  “And you got a very pretty pussy.”

  “What every girl is dying to hear,” she teased.

  He smiled at her again.

  Then he got serious.

  “Babe, we need to talk.” He took one hand from the bed and ran it down her ribs. “And you need to eat.”

  “Tobe—”

  He lifted up, pulled out, hiked his jeans over his hips then reached to her, pulled her up to just her knees, and nabbed her panties with her jeans to hike them over hers.

  “Deal with this condom,” he said in her ear, sliding his arms around her to hug her to his chest. “Then we’re going to the kitchen.”

  She turned her head to catch his gaze.

  She might have been wanting to say something.

  But she didn’t because Toby kissed her again.

  Yeah.

  It wasn’t the heat of the moment.

  She tasted warm, like a good Kentucky bourbon felt in your stomach.

  But better.

  This time he went slow, made it sweet, gave her time to explore his mouth, gave himself some to explore hers, and only when she twisted to make it more serious did he break away.

  “Condom. Kitchen. Food,” he said, touched his lips to her nose and then he moved away.

  When he’d done his business and again hit the bedroom, she had her Henley back on, her jeans done up and his tee in her hands.

  “Could I request you go shirtless at all times when we’re not in the company of others?” she asked as he walked to her.

  And there it was.

  Addie was back.

  Sassy. Funny.

  But being that in his bedroom.

  He’d been pretty pleased with himself when he got his degree. When he’d earned his pilot’s license. When he’d told Johnny back in the summer that he was going to stay in Matlock and wanted to work at Gamble Garages and earned that look on his brother’s face.

  But Addie being like that in his bedroom?

  No day he’d had was better than that day.

  “If I do that, are you gonna be able to keep your hands off me?” he asked back.

  “Highly doubtful,” she replied.

  He stopped close and gently tugged his shirt from her hold. “Then for now . . . no.”

  She pretended to pout.

  He kissed her again.

  And he did it thinking there they were, Toby and Addie, in his bedroom, after a fast, hard, spectacular fuck, kissing.

  He broke it but didn’t move away.

  Though he did put his shirt back on.

  “I didn’t expect that ever to happen, honey,” he said, tugging it over his stomach. “But if it did, I’d have wanted it to go differently.”

  She stayed in his space, but tipped her head to the side and asked, “How?”

  “Slower. Gentler. Definitely wanted it to last a lot longer.”

  “I think I came about five times, Talon.”

  He stared at her.

  “Seriously,” she declared.

  “No shit?” he asked.

  “It’s been a while,” she shared.

  He grinned and through it said, “Baby.”

  “And the vision of your insanely amazing chest was burned on my brain.”

  His grin changed, and he repeated, “Baby.”

  “And your big dick was inside me and you fuck like a heavyweight.”

  He’d been standing close, but separate.

  With that, he drew her in his arms.

  She slid hers around his shoulders.

  Jesus, fuck.

  He was standing with Addie in his arms after fucking her in h
is bedroom.

  Christ.

  How did this happen?

  He wasn’t going to ask.

  He was just going to go where the winds took him because these winds were warm, the sun was shining, and he liked it here.

  A fuckuva lot.

  Totally best day ever.

  “Not that I’ve ever had sex with a heavyweight,” she carried on. “But if I were to guess, that’s how they’d fuck. I had no choice but to come and do it over, and over, and over, and just to say, over and over after that. I was kinda scared not to,” she teased.

  “You might wanna shut up,” he advised. “Or I’ll have to go gentle next time.”

  “These are not complaints,” she informed him.

  “Good to know,” he muttered.

  “You’re also a good kisser,” she shared.

  “I got that when I gave you half of one and you raced up the stairs with me.”

  She smiled up at him, it was sassy, sweet, satisfied, and she moved a hand to rub the backs of her fingers along his beard at his jaw, a touch he felt warm his chest and twitch his dick.

  She did all this drawling, “That would be you dragging me up the stairs after I gave you half a kiss.”

  “I remember it differently.”

  “Whatever,” she mumbled.

  As much as he was enjoying this . . .

  “Need to get food in you,” he reminded her.

  She lifted her gaze from watching what she was doing at his jaw to his eyes.

  “It’s pot luck and it’s happening in a couple of hours, and if you don’t show at my place for dinner after all of this, I’m never speaking to you again. But we both know if I don’t shovel down a truckload of Margot’s chicken, I’ll never hear the end to it, so I don’t need to fill up now.”

  “I’ll make you a smoothie and you’ll be all set for Margot’s chicken, and I’m absolutely showing tonight and I’m also absolutely spending the night.”

  She grinned up at him as she pressed into him.

  Right.

  Apparently, they didn’t need to have the convo about being on the same page.

  They were on the same page.

  “Where’s Brooks?” he asked.

  “I dropped him at Margot and Dave’s before I came over here,” she answered.

  “Does she know you came over here?”

  She shook her head. “I just told her I had some errands to run. She’s keeping him the afternoon and they’re bringing him home when they come tonight.”

  “Right.”

  “She’s also gonna watch him three days a week instead of him going to daycare.”

  Uh.

  Say what?

  Toby’s frame went solid and his repeat of, “Right,” was tight.

  “And I’m gonna talk to Johnny tonight to defer payments of the loan for a while,” she said softly, watching him closely.

  Holy fuck.

  He did not dig into that, harp on it, anything.

  He just forced his body to relax and whispered, “Good.”

  “And I’m gonna eat your food and use the money you gave me to hang tough until I can find a job that’ll keep me in Matlock, or closer to it than the city. A job that pays more that’ll cover Brooks and me so we can stay close to family, but I can take care of both him and me without fucking shit up.”

  That made Toby close his eyes, tighten his arms, and drop his forehead to hers.

  He opened them and again whispered, “Good.”

  “You were right,” she whispered back. “I’m proud. I don’t know what made me that way. If Mom had a Margot, we’d have been with her and not alone with Izzy heating up soup and making us cheese sandwiches. And if someone handed Mom ten thousand dollars, it might have smarted, but she would take it and be gracious and grateful and get her girls things we needed, and other things we wanted just so we knew we were loved and cared for. So one day, I’ll want to pay you back. We’ll sort that out later. But now, Brooks needs onesies and Christmas cookies even though he won’t remember them, and I need to stop acting like I’m all alone and lean on people who are hurting because I’m not letting them help me.”

  “You were trying to make her proud,” Toby told her.

  “Sorry?”

  “She did it that way. You were trying to do it like she did it. Her sacrifice, your sacrifice. Like you get it. Like you’re both in the same club, paying the same dues.”

  “God,” she mumbled, her gaze drifting away. “You’re right.”

  “She didn’t want to be a member of that club, honey.”

  Her gaze came back, and she replied, “You’re right.”

  “My guess, me telling you that you don’t have to pay that money back won’t get in there with you,” he surmised.

  She bit her lip.

  He gave her a squeeze and murmured, “That’s okay.”

  It was because this was going to work.

  She was funny and feisty and lost her mind when he’d been out of line with her son—not her, her son—and came to his home to get in his face about it.

  Half a kiss, and five minutes later, she had her jeans down her ass and was on her knees, offering her pussy to him, so it was safe to say they had chemistry. Give them time and a situation that was not extreme—like both of them wanting to go there for seven months, nursing a slow burn, they blew on it, and it became an inferno—it was likely to take the phenomenal of what they’d just done to fucking cosmic.

  So in the end, that ten K wouldn’t matter.

  It would just be absorbed in what was going to become them.

  Before he could say what he had to say, which was not this was starting, it was going to work, they were going to make that happen, she said something that solidified what he already knew.

  They were going to make this happen.

  “On the sidewalk, I was a bitch. I got defensive, took it too far, and I’m really sorry. I’ve been wanting to say something to you, but I had a long day at work yesterday. Then my text this morning was lame. I should have mentioned I wanted to talk. You came over and things got . . . out of hand.”

  She gave him that, he said what he had to say.

  “I will never, not ever again, Adeline, do what I did to Brooks today. I was intent on making a point to you, thought you’d throw it in my face, was already pissed and holding a grudge about what went down on the street, and I wanted to get it done and get out. He won’t get lost in something like that again, not ever, Addie. I swear to fuck.”

  She again ran her hand along his beard at his jaw. “I know, honey.”

  And that was done.

  Toby bent his head and touched his mouth to hers.

  He didn’t pull very far away before he murmured, “Smoothie.”

  She cupped his jaw in her hand. “We have more to talk about.”

  “While you’re sucking back a smoothie.”

  “Toby, I’m getting that this is happening.”

  Oh, this was happening.

  “This is definitely happening,” he growled as he tightened his arms even farther.

  Her eyes rounded a little before they went soft and she melted into him.

  “Okay,” she said quietly. “If it is, are you moving to Florida?”

  “No fucking way.”

  Her eyes rounded at that a lot before she let out a cute little giggle he would not ever have expected could come out of Adeline Forrester, but he liked it a whole lot. Then she kept at him, “Right then, so you’re coming over tonight and spending the night and I’m so totally, hugely, outrageously down with that.”

  He smiled at her.

  “But, you know,” she continued, “the Usual Suspects will be there and I’m not thinking we should hide this from them because I could tell Margot was itching to get into the fact she heard about our fight, Iz heard about it, goes without saying Johnny heard about it. And—”

  “Baby, we’re not hiding anything.”

  Her eyes got big again. “Are you—?”

&
nbsp; “They’ll be good.”

  To that, she looked dubious and explained it by saying simply, “Johnny.”

  “He’ll be good.”

  No less dubious with, “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, and if he isn’t, I don’t give a fuck. This is about you, me and Brooklyn. You’re into me. Brooklyn loves me. Johnny and I had a talk yesterday and I’ll share what that was about but,” he gave her a squeeze, “I’m doing it while you’re sucking back a smoothie.”

  She began to look ornery. “Most men like skinny chicks.”

  “That’s wrong. Most men like what they like, like most women like what they like. It comes in a variety of forms. And I’ll take you as you come but not when you come that way because you’re run down, don’t have enough money to feed yourself properly or enough time to do it.”

  She gave him another soft look before she hid it and sassed, “You’re into me too.”

  “Totally into you,” he admitted openly.

  And when he did, her head jerked a little in visible surprise.

  Then she assumed an expression he’d never seen from her, but it was one he absolutely expected from Adeline Forrester.

  Sultry, confident, and hot as fuck.

  Jesus, if he didn’t get her out of there, like now, she’d be on her knees at the edge of his bed again.

  Toby moved his hands to her waist and gave her a squeeze. “Now I’m making you a smoothie.”

  She moved her hands to his neck and held on tight, so he didn’t make another move.

  “Best part about that,” she whispered, “what you said, and it does not diminish the happy I’m feeling that the slow burn is over, I just got me some, you’re gonna give me some more later, I have Christmas lights and food in the house and my hands right now on you, but the bestest best part is that you said this is about you, me and my baby.”

  “Addie,” he whispered back, sliding his hands from her waist up her sides.

  His hands stopped moving when her heart slid into her eyes.

  That he didn’t expect from Adeline Forrester either.

  And it wasn’t hot as fuck.

  It was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen in his goddamn life.

  “That’s the bestest best part, Toby, outside of me, right now, having my hands on you.”

  Well, hell.

  Fuck it.

  He’d make her a smoothie in a minute.

  Right then, he kissed Addie again.