“The one with the tail?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Okay, honey,” she replied on a sweet shiver.
She wanted vanilla with spice.
He gathered her hair in his fist, tugged gently and bent his chin down to catch her eyes.
“You feel like playing when you get home, I’m obviously down with that. But not like tonight. You make it short. We can go back to it later, but I don’t like missing dinner with you.”
Her face was soft in that way he liked too fucking much, her eyes telling him things he loved to hear but still wished he hadn’t made her feel. She pressed up and touched her mouth to his before she settled back.
“We’ll play it that way from now on.”
He shoved her face in his neck, lowered his head back to the floor and grunted.
“Can I tell you something in confidence?” she asked.
She could tell him anything.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“You can’t tell a soul.”
“Baby, you think you can’t trust me to keep my trap shut?”
She let out a little giggle, he got off a different way hearing it, and she wriggled on him, like she was digging into his flesh.
But she was actually digging deeper into his soul.
“Okay, then,” she started, “so, you slamming me into a spanking bench and jacking off over me, not to mention on me, might just be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen and experienced.”
She was telling him this so he wouldn’t worry that she wasn’t okay with what they’d just shared.
She didn’t need to do it. Her coming that hard for him and snuggling him said it all.
But her doing it dug even deeper into his soul.
“Good to know,” he muttered.
“It’s not very Mistress-y and if anyone knew—”
“Leigh pushes Olly over the edge all the time.”
Her head came up and he shifted his eyes to her.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Does it on purpose. He thinks she might get off on it more than he does.”
“He told you that? Or did you see it on the monitors at the Honey?”
“Told me over beers a coupla weeks ago.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Did you, uh … talk about us?”
He shook his head against the floor. “Olly lived his life before Leigh thinking his head was jacked the way he wanted it. With the freedom she gives him, he’s now open about shit. Very open. Like the floodgates have been lifted so I know he had that pent in and needs a safe place to let it go.”
“I’m glad he has that,” she murmured.
“Me too.”
“I’m glad you give him that part of it, to be able to talk about it, to someone other than Amélie, that is.”
“Man’s a brother.”
She grinned at him. “Yes. And I’m glad you have that in him too.”
Branch said nothing but he was glad too.
“As hot as what we just had was, handsome,” she dipped closer, “I’m still gonna have to punish my big boy for being bad.”
“You think I don’t know what I’m buyin’, and got no problem with it, you’re wrong.”
Her grin came back.
He tightened his arm and squeezed his hand at her ass. “Gotta get this toy outta me, babe.”
“Right,” she whispered and moved to get away.
He tightened his hold further and she stopped.
When he said nothing, even though she was lying right on him, she called, “Branch?”
“Thanks for rocking my world, honey,” he said quietly.
That got him a big smile.
“More than welcome, Branch.”
He brought her mouth to his and kissed her.
They did this for a while.
Then he rolled them to their feet, they cleaned up, she grabbed his cock ring while he pulled on the pants she’d bought him and they went into her house, up the stairs, to her bedroom.
And tangled together, like they always did if she hadn’t tied him down, they fell asleep.
nineteen
Absolutely Right
BRANCH
She came still riding him and Branch watched as she offered her tits to him through her orgasm, her back curved, moving fast, pounding herself down on his cock hard, her whimpers slinking through the room, over the bed, along his skin.
He was torso and knees up, encasing her with his body, driving his hips up into hers to give her more, watching his pretty girl give him beauty as she came for him.
And when she was gasping, her eyes dazedly searching for his, he whipped her to her back, hitched up a knee and drove into her harder.
“Yes,” she whispered.
The remote to the ring he was wearing in his hand, he hit the button to give them both more and grunted when he got it around the base of his cock, through his balls and at the bullet up his ass, making him power deeper into her.
“Branch,” she panted out.
“Again,” he growled.
“Branch,” she rasped, writhing underneath him.
“Fuck, Angie, again,” he demanded, lifting a hand to her tit, squeezing and pulling at her nipple.
Giving her that, she did as told, grasping onto his hair with both hands, yanking at it hard, her legs rounding him, and she held on tight as he rode her and took her to another orgasm.
He tossed the remote aside, wrapped his arm around her waist, drove her down into his thrusts and grunted his orgasm into the room as he filled her with his cum.
They were both shuddering when he reached for the remote, turned it off, hunched his back, rested his forehead against hers, and their breaths clashed as they came down.
She slid one hand out of his hair to curl it at the back of his neck, the other she gentled but left it where it was.
“I like vanilla and spice,” she whispered.
Not even feeling what he was doing, Branch grinned at her.
Her body froze under his and the grin faded.
“Baby?” he asked.
She glided her hand out of his hair to his cheek and brushed her thumb along his lips while her eyes watched.
“You okay?” he pushed when she didn’t respond to his call.
Her gaze lifted to his and she said quietly, “Definitely.”
“You got—”
“I’m okay, Branch.” She lifted her head from the mattress and gave him a light kiss. Dropping her head she said, “Totally, definitely okay.”
He let it go but only because she looked exactly like her words said she was and asked instead, “Wanna untail me or you want me to take care of it?”
“I always want to take care of you, honey.”
He took her mouth in a deeper kiss, but it wasn’t a long one, before he slid out of her and rolled to his back.
She rolled with him, got to her knees and rested one hand on his stomach while her eyes went to his crotch. He felt her other hand working there, gently sliding out the bullet and lifting off the ring. She leaned over him, giving him an awesome view of her tits hanging in his face, as she tossed the cock ring on a washcloth on the nightstand.
Then she lowered himself to him.
It was time.
Shit.
“Got something to talk about,” he announced.
He watched the wary look seep into her eyes and he wrapped his arm around her.
“It’s not bad, baby, promise.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“I gotta leave town.”
She stared at him as he felt her get tense.
“Not long, a few days,” he assured her quickly. “Maybe a week. I don’t know how long it’ll take to do what I gotta do but,” he gave her a squeeze, “I’ll be back.”
“You’ll be back?”
“I’ll be back.”
“I … are you going to be…” She paused for a long time before going on, “unavailable while you’re away?”
/> “You wanna check in, do it. Text. Call. I’ll have my phone, Angie, so you want it, just do it. I might be doing something that I can’t answer right away, but I’ll answer. And just to say, you can do that but I’ll need to be focusing on what I’m doing so I’ll answer when I can and I’ll call you back when I can but it won’t be me instigating either. Do you understand that?”
She nodded.
Of course she understood.
She was Evangeline.
“Are you down with that?” he pressed.
She relaxed against him. “Yes, Branch, I’m down with that.”
He rolled into her, taking her to her back and resting his length down her side.
He lifted a hand and brushed her curls away from her forehead before he looked into her eyes.
“What I’m doing, you call, or I call back, I might not be able to talk long,” he warned.
She nodded and whispered, “But you’ll be back.”
Christ, but he’d fucked with her head.
“Yeah, honey, I’ll be back,” he reassured.
“Can I … Do you mind if we talk about something else?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
“Okay.” She bit her lip, looked to his shoulder, out the sides of her eyes toward the bed then back to him. “Can I ask … I mean, if it happens … if, you know, I don’t…”
She trailed off, holding herself funny at the same time having difficulty holding his gaze, hers now on his chin. He gave her a squeeze with his arm still around her.
“Baby, say it,” he urged. “You can give me anything.”
Immediately, she looked directly into his eyes and shook his world straight to the foundations.
“If I don’t win, if you feel you have to leave me, will you tell me?”
Before he could answer or even wrap his head around what she was asking, she kept talking and she did it fast.
“I just want you to tell me. I don’t want you to just be gone. If I … if I lose you … I’ll try to understand. If you need that, I’ll try to let you go. But I don’t want you to vanish. I want to be able to say goodbye.”
Oh yeah.
He’d fucked with her head.
He pulled her to her side, into his body and both of his arms, stroking her back.
“I told you I’ll be back,” he said gently.
“I know … just…” She shook her head, wrapping both her arms around him, digging one under his body to do that, and she held on tight. “Just promise me that, Branch.”
He was making a lot of promises.
Promises he knew were far more important to keep than the one he’d made Raines in that asshole’s bedroom years before, even if that promise was for Rob, for Piz, for Lex, Di, Benetta.
And every single one of them would agree.
“Promise, Angie,” he whispered.
She didn’t look happy about it and the hold she had on his body didn’t loosen because he’d given her what she wanted, but he’d also done the exact opposite, not sharing he’d not only be back, he wasn’t really ever going to leave.
All she did was nod, tuck her face in his throat and hold on.
He put his lips to the top of her hair and drew in a huge breath.
He should tell her now. He should go back on what he said. He shouldn’t come back to her. He should stop fucking with her head.
But fuck him, holding her in his arms in her bed, maybe especially because she was feeling what he was making her feel, weak and fucked in his own head, he couldn’t do that.
Not to her.
Not to them.
Fuck.
“To get this done, I gotta get on the road, babe,” he said into her hair.
She nodded again, her nose brushing his throat, before she moved, not looking at him.
She’d pulled out of his arms and started to crawl to the side of the bed when he caught her and tugged her right back.
She looked into his eyes.
“We can end this,” he whispered.
She pressed into him, her beautiful blue eyes filling with dread.
Fuck.
“No,” she whispered back
“I’m hurting you.”
“I know the score.”
“Baby, it isn’t right.”
“It’s absolutely right, Branch. And I’ll take what I can get of absolutely right for as long as I have it, fighting to earn more along the way, rather than not ever having it and never knowing how beautiful it feels.”
He tunneled his fingers into her hair at her scalp, shoving her face in his throat again as he grunted, “Angie.”
“If you’re not ready to go, don’t go,” she said into his skin. “Do your thing, come back to me and give me more.”
He didn’t reply, fighting her pull, fighting the shit fucking with his head.
Fighting the need to give her what she wanted.
More.
“And anyway, you have to help me pick a dog,” she reminded him.
Yeah, he had to do that.
He forced himself to relax, releasing the pressure he had on her head, and she tipped it back.
He looked down at her.
So pretty.
“You need to hit the road,” she told him softly.
“Yeah.”
“Kiss me, honey,” she whispered.
He kissed her. He did it a long time.
Even after they were out of bed and going through the motions of him leaving, he pulled her into his arms and did it again.
Repeatedly.
And after he was showered and dressed and he had a travel mug of coffee in his hand, Evangeline in flip-flops, yoga pants and a tight little tee standing in front of him at the door to his truck that was at the curb of her house, he did it again for an even longer time.
He broke it but didn’t pull away.
“See you soon,” he murmured.
“Okay, Branch. Be careful. Stay safe.”
He nodded.
She lifted up and touched her lips to his before Evangeline, always the strong one, pulled out of his arms.
She retreated to the sidewalk and stood there while he angled up into his truck.
She waited there while he pulled into her drive.
He caught sight of something to his right, glanced that way and saw her neighbor standing outside her car, watching them.
When she caught his glance, she lifted her hand and waved frantically.
Without thought, Branch took his hand from the steering wheel and flicked his wrist in return.
He reversed out and watched Angie walking backward up her drive as he started to roll away.
She blew him a kiss.
And that kiss landed way deep down in his soul.
He jerked up his chin at her.
He then watched in his rearview mirror as she turned to walk up her driveway, her eyes to his truck, until he lost sight of her as she reached the side of her house.
Branch drew in breath, engaged his phone and called Gerbil.
“Wassup?” Gerbil answered.
“Gonna hit my condo, change, pack a bag and go to the unit to grab some gear. Send me details of where I’m going. I’ll be on the road in two hours.”
“Done,” Gerbil replied.
Branch disconnected.
And in two hours, he was on the road, heading to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where Gerald Raines was renting a cabin in the mountains under a fake name.
twenty
Fools
EVANGELINE
Evangeline was in her bathroom, getting ready and wondering if she should be doing it, when her phone on the countertop rang.
She stopped applying mascara and snatched it up immediately when she saw Branch was calling.
It had been three days since he’d gone. She’d texted. He’d texted back. Short and uninformative for them both, but he’d kept contact.
But earlier, when Amélie had called and asked her out, Evangeline had told her she’d think on it and she’d
called Branch to find out what he thought of it.
Now, although it had been over an hour since she left her message, he was calling back.
But he’d called back just like he’d said he would.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey,” he said back.
“Everything good?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
Okay, well, he didn’t feel in the mood to share.
Not new.
“I called to ask you about something,” she informed him.
“Shoot,” he offered.
“Well, Leigh asked me to meet her and Olly at the club.”
Branch said nothing.
“Just drinks,” she told him. “And hanging with friends.”
Branch still said nothing.
“You know I wouldn’t do anything you didn’t like, honey,” she told him softly, shifting so she could rest the side of her hip against the basin. “But, well … I miss my friends. And that was our place to hang together where we could be with each other in a place that was ours. I guess I have to admit, I miss it.”
“That asshole is there and he gets near you, you tell him to back off,” Branch commanded.
She bit her lip.
He’d left.
But he was coming back.
Before he’d left, he’d grinned at her.
Grinned.
At.
Her.
She’d never seen anything quite so amazing.
If a smile from Stellan altered his face in way that made handsome exponentially more handsome, a mere grin from Branch was almost agonizingly beautiful.
Also before he’d left, he’d held her and kissed her beside his truck like it was him who didn’t want to let her go.
Not to mention he was replying to her texts.
And now staking his claim.
Again.
She honestly had no idea where they stood. He was hanging on to where he was at in his head.
But he wasn’t letting go of her.
He wasn’t leaving.
No, he was taking care of her pool and demanding to help her pick out a dog.
Maybe he didn’t even know what he was doing.
What she sensed was that she should just keep doing what she was doing. No pressure. Just showing him how good they were and how, if he let go of what was messing with his head, they could keep having that for as long as it lasted.
That being maybe forever.