The Slow Burn Read online

  “Honey, stop,” he ordered.

  She didn’t stop.

  “I won’t have you taking that on, Toby. It’s not right.”

  “Okay, Addie, I won’t take it on.”

  She shut her mouth.

  “I didn’t mean to take you there with Perry and your dad.”

  “Toby.” She said his name tersely. “Perry didn’t damage me. I know his shit isn’t mine. My point is, your mom’s shit isn’t yours. It wasn’t your dad’s. It’s hers. And I’m sensing you’re still eating it, and that has to stop.”

  Toby said nothing because he saw nothing, not Addie’s beautiful, protective face, not her body on his.

  His mind was gone.

  Riding the wave of her words.

  “Baby,” she called.

  Toby stared at her not seeing her.

  “Toby, honey, come back to me,” she urged, cupping her hand along the side of his face.

  He came back to her.

  She caught it the moment he did.

  “That hadn’t occurred to you,” she surmised.

  “No,” he confirmed.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “She destroyed him.”

  Addie ran her thumb along the edge of his beard.

  “He never got over her.”

  “And those ‘Aunt Whoevers’ you mentioned earlier, that wasn’t trying to get over her?” she asked.

  “That was passing the time, maybe attempting to give his sons a woman’s touch. Mostly, I figure, it was because he was a guy and needed to get himself some, so he got it. He broke more hearts by the time I was ten than I could count and he did that shit hammering into his boys you never broke a woman’s heart. He told us the worst kind of man dragged a woman’s heart around. I never got that because he did it all the time.”

  “Yeah, that’d be pretty freaking confusing,” she murmured.

  “Loved him, don’t get me wrong, Addie. He was a good man and a good father, and he loved us too. Was proud of us. Showed it. Taught us good lessons. Brought us up right. Knew to give me the freedom I needed, and I’ll always be grateful for that. But Johnny sets him up as this kind of god-like wonder when he wasn’t. He had flaws.”

  “Okay, but you know one of those flaws wasn’t loving her,” she said cautiously.

  “Maybe I didn’t, until now. Though I did know fucking women over was not something to aspire to, and definitely doin’ it while tellin’ your boys never to do that shit was fucked up.”

  “Hmm . . .” she hummed.

  “Hmm . . . what?” he demanded.

  “It’s natural and swings both ways, a woman looks to her mother and either wants desperately to be like her or fears the shit out of becoming her. Same for a man.”

  Shit.

  She had that right.

  “The thing with you is,” she continued, “you’re torn because he was good in so many ways, admirable even, but there was something important that wasn’t right, and you honed in on that and not the other things he clearly gave you. And maybe . . . just think on this, okay? Maybe you should cut him some slack because everyone has flaws. No one is perfect. And he wasn’t perfect. That makes him not god-like. Though in the end, it makes him what he actually was. Human.”

  He rolled her on that, covering her with his body and then kissing her when he got her under him.

  Once he released her mouth, she blinked slowly a couple of times, it was cute, then she grinned at him.

  “Now do you want me to sort out your big brother issues?” she offered.

  “Do you have big sister issues?” he asked.

  “Nope. Izzy’s one hundred percent rad.”

  He grinned at her. “Yeah, she is.”

  “Johnny’s rad too,” she said gently.

  “Now, baby, my big brother is god-like,” he told her.

  “He’s just human, Toby,” she replied.

  “I don’t have a lot of shit around Johnny, Adeline. I was Grams and Margot’s favorite. He was Gramps, Dad and Dave’s favorite. They all loved both of us but each of us got something special. It was just that he could do no wrong because he did do no wrong. He’s golden through and through. Solid. When I was a kid, I wanted not to like him. It was fucked up, but it was true. He’s just totally not unlikable. He’s that good of a guy. I wasn’t a fan of his big-brother shtick, but as you know, we worked that out. I think I just recently gave up the idea that somehow, for some reason, I had to be like him. You found you, today, Addie. I found me when I laid shit out for Johnny last week. So it’s all good.”

  “You sure?”

  Christ, she was sweet.

  He hadn’t expected this.

  He got off on her tart. Her backbone. Her quick wit. Her protective instinct. The fact she was gorgeous.

  But he really fucking liked the sweet.

  “I know town talk, honey,” he told her gently. “I know about Take ’Em and Leave ’Em Toby. I know they think Johnny’s the salt of the earth, takin’ on the garages as the next generation after Gramps and Dad. I know what tradition and the respect that shows means to folks in a small town in Kentucky. I know they admire him for puttin’ up with Shandra’s family’s bullshit like the pillar of strength he is. Findin’ Brooks for you. And I know they think I’m the flaky younger brother who goes off and fucks around and can’t commit to job or town or woman.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they think.”

  “Babe, it’s not me who’s gonna get some asshole comin’ to me tellin’ me about Fucked Up Addie. So yeah, I think today demonstrated it does.”

  “Only because, when I was sowing my oats, I didn’t live here.”

  Toby shut his mouth.

  “And we can’t go to that Greek restaurant in Bellevue,” she informed him. “I revenge banged one of the owner’s sons in his truck during the Memorial Day Food Festival while Izzy hung out with Brooks on a picnic blanket in the square. It was petty, and in the end it didn’t matter because, for a revenge bang to work, the person you’re getting revenge on needs to know about it. Although, when we were done, I considered asking the guy to take a selfie with me and sending it to Perry. I figured if shit got ugly, it would not be good I sent my ex a selfie like that.”

  She paused, watching him closely, then went on hurriedly.

  “You weren’t back in town. I hadn’t even met Johnny yet.”

  “Babe, I’m just pissed I wasn’t around so that revenge bang could be with me. Though, since you weren’t in the right place then, that might have been bad. But I don’t care you got yourself some. It was over with your ex.” He grinned. “And you got down in the mud to get some of your own back. Good. I’m glad. You deserved it. Proud a’ you, Addie.”

  She grinned back. “We so totally fit.”

  They so totally did.

  “And if you weren’t you, Toby, you would not fit me and it’s not about being flaky and fucking around and fucking up. It’s that all you went through made you all you are. A good, decent, protective man who would take on a woman and her son. And if you weren’t that, it goes without saying, it would seriously suck.” She glided her knuckles along the beard at his jaw. “‘Take ’Em and Leave ’Em Toby and Wild Child Addie, a match made in heaven.”

  Fuck, he liked that.

  So much, he felt the growl in his gut before it came out his mouth and he kissed her when it was still rolling.

  She kissed him back, sealing their first date and all she just gave him on her couch in his memory.

  And it was good.

  Too good, seeing as, with her on her period, they couldn’t take that goodness further.

  So he broke the kiss and muttered, “Let’s go to bed.”

  “No way,” she replied. “I’m going down on you on the couch.”

  His cock felt her words like she’d slipped him in her mouth.

  He still told her, “You don’t have to do that, Addie.”

  She glided her fingers through his beard and returned, “Honey, shut up and
flip us so I can suck your dick.”

  He studied her face.

  She was moderately turned on, eyes warm and intent, cheeks pink, body loose under his.

  All this indicated she wanted to suck his dick.

  Toby didn’t ask to confirm.

  He kissed her and flipped them while he did.

  They made out with both his hands in the back of her jeans and one of her hands in his hair, the other one cupping and kneading his junk for so long, he was in the zone and was close to begging her to get down to business.

  She either read that from him or wanted to get down to business, because it was Addie who broke the kiss and slid down his body.

  He pushed up until his head and shoulders were on the pillows at the arm of the couch so he could watch.

  And fuck, she put on a show, undoing his belt, his jeans, hitching them down just enough to free his rigid cock, and taking him in her mouth.

  It almost looked better than it felt.

  Almost.

  She took her time. She had no intention of going slow. And for that, he was seriously fucking grateful.

  Tongue and lips and suction and all her beauty right before his eyes, working his dick.

  Jesus.

  Staggering.

  When he could take that beauty no more and either had to fuck her face or take over another way, he wrapped a hand around the base of his cock and worked with her.

  Her eyes came to him with his dick in her mouth and good Christ . . .

  “Adeline,” he groaned.

  She worked with him, following his rhythm, speeding up when he did, sucking harder.

  “Babe,” he grunted his warning.

  And in answer, her hand wrapped around his, tightening as she took it faster, pumped and sucked him even harder, and his head dug back into the arm of the couch.

  His other hand went into her hair, and the world turned white and shrunk to Addie and her mouth, hair and hand as he shot down her throat.

  He came down feeling her lave him, finding both his hands in her hair, and when he dipped his chin to watch her, her eyes were again up to him.

  They closed. She bent her head to what she was doing as she drew him deep. And another noise sounded from his mouth that came from his gut as she slowly skimmed up, wet and hot, every inch she could take before she dragged her tongue hard against the sensitive head, making his hips jerk, and she released him.

  Wild Child Addie.

  All his.

  Thank . . . fuck.

  She crawled back up his body and straddled him, taking his head in both her hands before she kissed him hard.

  When she broke it, he told her thickly, “Fantasy come true for you, honey. I’m now officially addicted to your blowjobs.”

  She smiled down at him.

  Then she said, “You totally owe me.”

  He hitched his jeans back up then wrapped his arms around her again saying, “I’ll pay that debt.”

  She kept smiling.

  Her smile faded, and she whispered, “Thank you for a great day, Toby. And the best first date ever.”

  Toby gathered her hair on either side of her face and pulled it to the back.

  Adeline Forrester was right there, straddling him after blowing him. Her face sweet and earnest, filled with warmth and gratitude.

  This after he got to take her and her boy into town and claim them as his.

  Now, none of his friends would come to him again and ask if he was cool to set them up with Addie.

  She was his, right there, feeling gratitude because she was all she was, gave all she gave and so damned easy to fall in love with.

  It was sweet she felt that way.

  But it was Toby who was grateful.

  And to communicate this, he pressed his hands full of her soft hair into her head and replied, “Believe this, baby, you gave as good as you got.”

  On Thursday night, Toby walked in Addie’s door to Dapper Dan racing down the steps to get to him.

  He shut the door behind him and called, “Adeline!”

  “Up here! Almost ready! Down in a second!” she called back from upstairs.

  He bent to rub down Dapper Dan’s coat, murmuring, “Hey, boy,” his head tipped back to look through the entryway.

  Toby came to Addie every night.

  Strike that.

  Outside of Monday, when she was home because she had the day off work (and he’d come home to her making him chicken parmigiana), since she was working the later shifts that week, he’d been getting Brooks from Margot or daycare and she came home to him.

  He’d noticed she was obsessive about turning out lights in rooms she wasn’t in.

  But it was his understanding Deanna was hanging with Brooks that night while they were having dinner, and it was past Brooks’s feeding time but it wasn’t past his bedtime.

  Right then, the entryway was lit but there was no light coming from the kitchen or dining room and only the muted light of the Christmas tree coming from the family room.

  Further, Deanna didn’t call out to him, something she’d normally do.

  He didn’t bother taking off his overcoat as he moved to the steps and up them.

  The only light in the upstairs hall was coming from Addie’s room.

  He hit that, saw it empty, and moved to her bathroom.

  He stopped in the doorway, and all thoughts of where Deanna and Brooks were went out of his head.

  Fuck.

  She was in a loose knit, just loose on her body, long-sleeve brown sweater dress that had horizontal rips in the knit at the sides from hem up to her waist, showing plainly she either got creative with underwear or she wasn’t wearing any. The hem was low at the back, almost to her knees, but high at the front. Stiletto-heeled, thigh-high boots with lacing up the back. Hair up in a messy bunch at the back of her crown with some hanging down her neck and in her face.

  She was bent to the mirror gliding on lip gloss.

  Through the mirror, her gaze came to him in the door.

  “Good news, Talon. I’m officially done with my monthly visitor,” she declared.

  “Do not tell me that shit when you’re about to get fucked against the basin even if you were still on your period,” he warned in return. “I’m hungry, I want steak, and I want to take my time when I take that dress off you.”

  She straightened but didn’t turn to him, though her eyes pointed at the mirror didn’t leave him.

  In fact, they slid down and up the length of him.

  He fought getting hard.

  Again, strike that.

  He continued fighting getting hard.

  “You clean up pretty good too, baby,” she shared.

  He ignored that.

  “Where’s Brooks?” he asked.

  “Change of plans,” she told him, going back to the mirror and her lip gloss. “Margot and Dave are keeping him for the night.”

  Excellent.

  “Then hurry and finish, Addie, ’cause you’re packing a bag and spending the night with me. I wanna fuck you in my bed and do it right this time.”

  That made her turn fully to him. “In my opinion, you did it right last time.”

  “Make no mistake, fingering your clit ’til you come and/or you sucking me off for the last five days, I got no complaints. But the pussy ban bein’ done, I wanna celebrate. So hustle up ’cause my official first date is gonna end with both of us seriously getting off.”

  She gave him that grin of hers that said clear she knew she owned his dick.

  If you told him a year ago he’d be down with any woman laying claim to his cock, he would have laughed his ass off.

  Now, that shit wasn’t funny.

  It just was how it was.

  “You counted the days?” she asked.

  “I counted the hours,” he answered.

  He hadn’t but he did a quick calculation in his head because he knew her smart ass would test him.

  She did.

  “How many hours has it b
een?”

  “Depending on when I finally get back inside you, around a hundred and forty-four.”

  She started laughing.

  “I’m thrilled you’re amused, babe,” he said. “But get your hustle on.”

  She moved to him, body in full sway, and he hoped like fuck she actually wasn’t wearing underwear because he’d decided to get off on the slow burn and get them both off on it later.

  When she made it to him he didn’t move out of her way, and she read that correctly.

  She put her hands to his abs, rolled up on the toes of those boots and touched her mouth to his, leaving some lip gloss.

  Only then did he get out of her way.

  He stood and watched as she slipped her lip gloss into the bag that was waiting on the bed and said, “I’m gonna let Dan out. We’ll come by and get him before we go to my place on the way home tonight.”

  “Cool, honey,” she murmured, strutting toward her closet.

  He let out the dog and was letting him back in when she came down with her bag.

  He took it from her as she put on her coat. They went out to the porch. Addie locked up. And he grabbed her hand and held it as he led her to the passenger side of his truck.

  He threw her bag in the middle and helped her up, shutting the door when she was settled.

  He rounded the hood, angled in, started her up and headed them out.

  They were on the road before he asked, “Your period always this long?”

  “It’s of me, so it’s like me. Sometimes it’s a couple of days. Sometimes it’s a whole week. There’s no rhyme or reason. It likes to surprise me.”

  “Fantastic,” he muttered.

  She giggled.

  He loved that giggle. It didn’t come often so it felt like a gift when he got it.

  He still wished her period would settle into a two-day program.

  “What’d you do today?” he asked.

  “Online shopped like a pro,” she answered. “Brooks’s Christmas is almost done. Izzy, Johnny, Charlie, Deanna and Dave are done. I have to go into the city to pick something up at the store I saved on shipping to send there for Margot, and when I’m there, I’ll get some other stuff to finish up. You’re almost done too and—”