The One Girl Read online

  Christ. Hotman. I had forgotten about that. I smiled, shook my head, and then gave her a chin lift before leaving the room.

  Either she was a handful or I just wasn’t used to dealing with two of them at once. The latter had to be it.

  Men aren’t designed to handle two women. To be honest, they can barely handle one.

  Don’t misunderstand, they can handle action from as many women as will give it, but in order to handle a woman well emotionally, it’s a strictly one at a time thing. At least, that was my opinion.

  ********

  A few minutes later, I was in the bedroom stripping down, when Talie came in.

  I was down to just my boxer briefs, and when she noticed, she froze in the doorway.

  Her eyes roved my body aggressively as she muttered, “Sweet, sweet baby Jesus. That is so freaking attractive.”

  She wasn’t even talking to me, she was talking to herself, and it was hilarious.

  “What was that, Babe?”

  Her eyes snapped up and into focus as she realized that my question meant she’d said that out loud. “Um.”

  I chuckled as I spoke, “Yep, heard you, Talie. I guess you think I’m attractive.” I smiled my most seductive smile, walked over to her, grabbed her hips, and finished, “Feeling’s mutual.”

  She pierced me with a ferocious intensity coming from her blue eyes, as she responded, “Um, yeah Tuck. You’re attractive.” A smirk started to slip on her face as she finished, “But I was talking about the tattoo.”

  “Tattoo’s a part of me, Babe. And I saw you, you weren’t just lookin’ at the tattoo.”

  I started kissing her throat before she could say anything, so she only managed to stutter her answer through her increasingly ragged breaths. “This...is...true.”

  Stuttering was good, but if she could still speak to say anything other than my name, ‘God’, or ‘Yes’, I wasn’t doing a good enough job.

  Moving my thumbs so that they skimmed under the bottom of her shirt and touched skin, I kissed my way up her jaw to the soft spot by her ear.

  Her pulse was pounding, and God, she smelled good. She always did, but she had picked up some body spray on her last trip to the pharmacy, and I had to admit, I loved it. It was a soft flowery smell that mixed perfectly with her natural scent. It wasn’t overpowering, I could still smell her, but it mingled nicely and seemed to elevate her natural scent.

  She moaned softly as I shoved my hands all the way into her shirt and up along the side of her ribs. I stroked the underside of her delicious breasts with my thumbs and she immediately lifted her hands above her head wanting me to take off her shirt. I didn’t waste any time, giving into her demands without hesitation, and lifted the shirt up and off.

  Christ, she was wearing her black see through lace bra again. Her breasts were the perfect mix of full and heavy but not too big. I could see her rosy pink nipples standing at attention through the lace, and I was overwhelmed by wanting to have my mouth on one.

  So I leaned forward and closed my lips around the peak through the lace. I palmed her other breast and swiped the nipple with my thumb while soft, fast breaths were whispering out of her throat. She loved when I really took my time with her breasts, and quite frankly, so did I.

  I took my hand and reached around behind her to unhook her bra, just as I sucked her nipple deep and then popped it free. The lace must have added extra friction because her fingers moved to wrap around my head and dug into my hair.

  “God, Tuck. Oh my God.”

  I loved when she got like this. She had to be soaking wet, and I couldn’t wait to feel for myself. “You wet for me, Baby?” I reached down with my free hand as I said this, while my other hand pulled her bra forward, down her arms, and off.

  I worked fast to unbutton her shorts, and then I shoved them down her legs, taking her panties with them. She helped me out by toeing off her shoes and then stepping out of her shorts and panties.

  Sweet merciful God, she was absolutely beautiful. So. Fucking. Hot. I could feel myself, already hard as a rock, get even harder to the point of throbbing uncomfortably. I needed to be inside of her.

  Her hand reached out and pulled my underwear down at the same time that her other hand reached forward and palmed me. My head fell back and a growl escaped my lips after rumbling from deep down in my throat.

  “Fuck, Babe. Gotta be inside you. Tell me you’re ready, please.”

  Her answer was to literally jump up, wrap her arms around my neck and legs around my waist, grab my hard length, position it at her entrance, and then push her whole body down, taking me inside swiftly and easily.

  Jesus. Don’t come. Don’t come. Don’t come. I had to grit my teeth to stop it from happening.

  When she got wild and took control, it was the hottest thing I had ever experienced in my life. Thankfully, she did it often, and she did it well.

  I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

  Once I got under control, I grabbed two good handfuls of ass and lifted her up, keeping just the tip inside. And then let her slide down.

  Talie knew what she wanted and had no problem asking for it. “Tuck, baby, go fast. Fast, baby.”

  Oh, yeah. I had no problem doing what she wanted as I started to pound into her soft, wet heat at a brisk pace.

  “God, Tuck.”

  Her tits were bouncing in my face, so I flicked her nipple with my tongue. She instantly took one of her arms from around my neck and lifted her breast for me as I concentrated on keeping my rhythm. I closed my mouth around her nipple and swirled my tongue around it before flicking it with my tongue again.

  Man, she was hot tonight.

  After getting what she wanted, her head fell back and a super sexy, raspy moan found its way out of her mouth.

  I had wanted to take her on her knees tonight, but she was too hot. I wanted to see her face, and I wanted to take advantage of her vivacious attitude. That position would have to wait. She was going to ride me instead. Decision made.

  I moved toward the bed, still inside of her, turned and sat down. Her legs automatically unwrapped themselves from around my waist, and her knees found their place in the bed so that she was straddling me.

  “Ride me, Baby. Go wild, I wanna see it. Fuck me fast, slow, hard, soft, whatever you want. Do whatever you gotta do to get so wet its runnin’ outta you, Baby.”

  I felt a rush of liquid all over me immediately, and I felt her inner muscles contract. She absolutely loved when I talked to her like that, and I absolutely loved her reaction.

  “That’s it, Babe. Just like that. But more. I wanna feel you all over me.”

  She whimpered, lifted herself up, and pushed back down. Her eyes rolled back as she reached behind herself and put her hands on my thighs. She set her pace, and she set it to go fast. Up and down, in and out, grinding down at the bottom so that she got a little extra out of it. I reached for her with my thumb and touched the spot I knew she loved, while my other hand palmed her magnificent bouncing breast.

  “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah! Tuck, baby. Yeah.”

  God, she was loving it.

  Christ, her on top had been a good idea. A really good idea.

  “Fuck, Babe.”

  I was getting close. Sweet God, was I getting close, so I needed to push her to get there faster. She had to either go before me or at the same time. There was no other option.

  “Come on, Talie. Come for me, Babe.”

  She moaned over and over, and I could feel her starting to quiver around me. Her head fell back, and as a result her hair skimmed my thighs, tickling me.

  Fuck.

  “Let go, Talie. Come for me.”

  She came instantly, and she did it hard. “Oh, God, yes. Tuck!”

  The sight, sound, and feel of her coming in combination with how close I had already been, sent me right over the edge as I pulsed into her over and over again. “Fuuuckkkk. My Talie. Christ, Ah.”

  My hands clenched into her ass, I slowly came down a
nd opened my eyes to see hers on me.

  She was as alluring as ever and looked like she might have even been willing to go for another round, but I was fucking wiped.

  “Come here, Baby.”

  She pulled herself off of me carefully and crawling on her hands and knees, moved to snuggle into the crook of my arm. I flicked the covers over us as I murmured, “You wore me out, so we’ll shower in the mornin’. You good to sleep like this or you gotta clean up?”

  As I said this, I realized the lights were still on, moved the covers back off of us, got up, moved to the light switch, switched them off, went back to the bed, got in, and pulled the covers back over us again.

  In answer, she snuggled closer and threw her leg over my thighs. I guess she was good to sleep like this.

  “Love you, Babe.”

  She turned her head, kissed my chest, and whispered, “Me too.”

  I was asleep seconds later, but I dreamt that she added, “More than anything, Tuck. Crazy how much.”

  Chapter 7

  Poisonous Snake

  The next morning I woke up to an empty bed. My arm shot out but all I felt were cold sheets.

  Closing my eyes again and focusing my ears, I listened so that I could hear if the shower was on or not.

  Nope.

  Groaning, I cracked one eye open again and confirmed that, indeed, the bathroom light was not on. I guess she wasn’t in there.

  Where the hell was she? She wasn’t normally up before me, let alone, gone, leaving a cold bed and dark bathroom behind.

  Foolishly, I got up on an elbow and looked around the room. It was like I was expecting her to magically appear or something. I leaned back and covered my face with my hands, trying to make my brain wake up.

  After several moments, finally able to process rational thought, I decided I was going to have to get up and look for her.

  Expelling a deep, grumbly sigh, I threw the covers off, shifted my weight up to sitting, grabbed my jeans off of the floor, and pulled them on commando. Zipping them up just enough to cover myself up and make sure they didn’t fall off, I headed down the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

  What I saw when I got there made my step falter.

  “Am I dead? I must be dead, right?”

  Right before my eyes, Talie, the woman I loved, the woman with no domestic skills whatsoever, was cooking breakfast.

  “Don’t be an asshole, Tuck. It’ll ruin the taste of the bacon.” She smirked and popped a piece of nicely cooked, perfectly crispy bacon into her mouth.

  I tried not to be an asshole, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around the improbability in front of me.

  “I’m sorry, but the Talie I know does not cook. And she most certainly doesn’t cook well.”

  Unless. “You been pullin’ a fast one on me the whole time? You know how to cook, but you just pretend not to so that I’ll do it?”

  I thought only men did that.

  “Geez. It’s just breakfast, Tuck. I thought I’d do something nice for you.”

  She looked like she might actually be a little offended so I moved to do damage control by rounding the island, coming up behind her, putting my hands to her hips, my lips to her ear, and murmuring, “Sorry, Babe. Just surprised. ‘Preciate it.” I gave her a kiss on the neck and went to move away, but added, “Though, I’d rather wake up to a warm bed with you in it than a warm breakfast.”

  Her face softened and she smiled at me just as Kayla walked in.

  “Holy sweet Jesus, Hotman. You look good with no shirt on.”

  Talie’s eyes narrowed on her sister.

  Crap. I had kind of forgotten we weren’t alone in our own house. I met Talie’s eyes and muttered, “Gonna go get dressed, Babe,” before turning and heading back to our bedroom.

  ********

  After taking a quick shower, I had pulled on some clean jeans and was in my closet to grab a shirt to put on.

  Instead of rushing in, grabbing a shirt, and getting out, I took in the mixing of my and Talie’s few belongings. I couldn’t help but notice how right it felt.

  As my eyes scanned, they stopped on a box that I hadn’t thought about in years. My parents’ most treasured belongings. I reached up, grabbed the box, pulled it down, and headed into my bedroom with it. Setting it down on the bed, I opened the lid and looked inside. On top was my parent’s wedding picture, followed by a recent (recent before their deaths, anyway) picture of them. They looked just as happy, if not happier, in the second picture as they did the day they got married.

  Looking at the pictures like this, I also noticed how young they were. They had been together such a long time, that it had often been easy to forget just how young they still were at the time of their deaths.

  I brushed the picture of my mom’s cheek with my thumb, took in her blue-green eyes that matched mine, and then set the pictures aside. Next, I pulled out my dad’s wallet and rifled through it. It had pictures of Jenny and I from when we were kids and a mixture of business cards and other miscellaneous scraps of paper.

  I shuffled through them quickly, but then stopped when something caught my eye. A green, folded sticky note with ‘Jenny Winniekins’ and a phone number I didn’t recognize was mixed in with the business cards, and it was close to the top of the stack like maybe he had put it in there right before he went to Nashville.

  I picked up my phone from the nightstand and dialed the number on the paper. Surprisingly, it rang four times and then clicked over to a voicemail box. “Hey, you’ve reached Jenny. Leave your name, number, and a message, and I’ll get back to you!”

  I dropped the phone on the bed like it was a poisonous snake and stepped away from it. I hadn’t heard Jenny’s voice in so long and hearing it now, knowing what had happened to her, made my stomach dip and churn to the point where I thought I might be sick.

  Not to mention, I had expected the number to be disconnected or belong to someone else at this point. I hadn’t actually expected to hear her voice, a voice that had matured a few years since I’d heard it last, talking back to me like she wasn’t dead just like my parents.

  Quickly putting the contents of the wallet back in and placing it back in the box, I dug around until I found what I had intended to look for when I took the box down. My hand searched until my fingers closed around the velvety softness of the small square box I was looking for. I pulled it out, popped it open, and let my eyes land on the beautiful, round, 1.25 carat diamond of my mother’s engagement ring.

  I suppose it would have gone to Jenny one day, but since that wasn’t an option, I couldn’t think of a better place for it to go than on Talie’s left ring finger.

  It was currently waiting for a ring, and this one was perfect. It was simple and classy, but big enough to fit her big personality. Talie would also love that it was a family ring, and she would love that it would be a way to keep her connected to Jenny.

  I tucked the ring into my pocket because I knew I wanted give it to her as soon as possible. We hadn’t known each other that long, but I honestly couldn’t wait to see my ring on her finger. Somehow, I had known it was right the moment I met her.

  They say when you know, you know, but I never believed it. I had never felt anything close to right with another woman, so I figured it was probably garbage. I figured if I didn’t feel right with any of the large number of perfectly good women I’d been through, it wasn’t happening. Then I met Talie. To say she changed things would be a vast understatement.

  I popped the now empty jewelry box closed, put it back in the box of my parents’ belongings, and closed the lid. Picking it up, I carried it back into the closet and put it back where it came from.

  Back on track, I pulled a gray t-shirt off of my shelf and pulled it over my head, shoving my arms through the holes simultaneously.

  I brushed my hand through my hair a few times, flicked out the lights in the closet, bathroom, and bedroom, and headed back downstairs to the women.

  ********
r />   I didn’t get to give her the ring that morning because Kayla was always there. I wanted to be alone with her when I did it, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I should probably do something at least a little special. She was right when she said I told her we were engaged instead of asking her, so I probably needed to do something romantic to make up for it.

  After that, the girls had headed into work, and I had gotten down to business myself. I had to go help a few people because I had been seriously slacking on that lately. People had come to depend on me, and when I didn’t come around it really affected them.

  The elderly were my most regular ‘clients’ if you will, and I actually liked it that way. To me, they needed the help the most and they were the building blocks of this place that I loved so much. Several of them, or their families anyway, had been here since the beginning. The Tanners for example were one of the five founding families of Joplin.

  Anyway, I had fixed a sink, cleaned a garage, and taken care of all of the regular business at home, and now we were out at the Lizard.

  Talie, Ruthie, and Kayla were performing on the bar while Jace stood sentry. I guess he didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Bobby last time, and it hadn’t taken any time for Kayla to fit right in with the girls’ normal routine.

  I was standing back, separated from everyone, just observing. My mood had kind of been in a funk ever since I had dialed that number and heard Winnie’s voice this morning.

  I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, not even Talie, because I wasn’t really ready to talk about it, and I didn’t want Talie to know why I’d been in that box in the first place.

  Another reason to keep quiet was because I also thought I might be losing my mind a little bit. All day, I’d been feeling eyes on me, but every time I did a scan to check the area, I found no one. It wasn’t like the many eyes of the town I had felt the other day, it was one set. I didn’t know where this paranoia was coming from, but I definitely didn’t like it.

  As a result, I was a little closed off and quiet even though coming out had been my idea.