“Then you heard correctly.” She laughs her tinkling bell laugh and I love it. I want to see it every damn day. The sound of it sets my world to rights every time.
“Did I ever tell you about the time Tanner got kicked out of preschool for showing everyone his little baby ding-a-ling?” Dad asks Abby. Jesus Christ, here we go again.
“It’s not little, Dad!” I laugh.
“Sure it’s not, Son,” he says through his laughter before turning to Abby. “So did I every tell you about his little baby peep show?”
“No,” she laughs. “But I’d love to hear about Tanner’s life of crime before he became a law man.” She winks at me.
“I’m just going to take this moment to go buy some snacks before kickoff,” I tell them before I turn on my heels and run like hell all to the tune of Abby and my parent’s laughter.
By the time I return to the stands with drinks and popcorn in tow, I set them down and we all stand for the anthem and then kickoff. Tonight, the Mason Bulldogs are playing the Tall Pines War Eagles, a town in East Texas when my buddy, Sam, used to coach before he was killed in a car accident.
Tall Pines is the reigning state champs and the team to beat, but Mason is holding their own. And Abigail is yelling like a longshoreman. I have never laughed harder, especially when my mom chimed in and started screaming just as loud, if not louder. I also learned that both my sweet mama and my gentle girl both have ahem . . .advancedvocabularies.
When the buzzer rings and clock times out, the Eagles beat the Bulldogs, but we lost with class and heart. Abigail was devastated as we drove back to my house. When we pull into the driveway she looks positively forlorn.
“You gonna be alright, honey?” I ask her.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she sighs. “I just didn’t know I was going to get so . . . invested.” I can’t help but laugh at her seriousness.
“The Eagles are the State Champs, baby. They’re the top dogs. It was awesome that we kept the score so close.”
“Yeah, that was really awesome.” She nods.
“Let’s go inside,” I say and her eyes heat as she looks at me.
“Yes, let’s go inside.”
I lean in and let my mouth touch hers ever so softly, letting the tip of my tongue touch her bottom lip just for a second, before I pull back and step down from the truck. I jog around the front and open the passenger door for Abby, pulling her down from the cab. I take her hand in mine and together we run for the front door like teenagers who have the whole world at their feet—not an old Marine who has lost too many of his friends and a woman who trusted a man so wrong he took his hands to her—we’re just us, Abby and Tanner.
I push open the door for her and she runs inside. I follow behind her, locking the door. When I turn around, she’s stripping out of the flannel shirt, opening one button at a time. And I think I might have died a little.But in all the best ways.
I reach behind my neck and pull my t-shirt over my head dropping it on the floor. Abby’s eyes go wide as she takes in my chest, scars and all, and then her beautiful brown eyes turn smoky and I charge, bending at the waist, I toss her up over my shoulder and she lets out a peal of laughter and a shriek as I run towards my bedroom at the back of the house.
I slide her down my body and set her on her feet next to the bed. She looks at me and then pulls her tank top over her head revealing her pink lace bra that I saw when she was so nervous before our first date that she forgot to put her bra on. That memory gives me pause. The last thing I want to do is rush her in any way.
“Are you sure?” I ask her. “It’s not too late to stop. I’ll always stop if you ask me to.”
“I don’t want you to stop,” she says as she unbuckles my belt and pulls it free from my jeans before dropping it to the floor.
Her delicate hands pop the button on my pants and then slide the zipper down. I step out of them and then kick them to the side before scooping Abigail up in my arms and carrying her the rest of the way to the bed like the precious cargo that she is.
I lay her down on the bed and then cover her with my body, bracing my weight on my arms. And then I kiss her like I was always meant to—slow and deep. I’m determined to take my time. Slowly, I kiss my way down her body stopping to peel her pretty pink bra down her shoulders. Her breasts are lush and firm, and I could easily get lost in them but that is for another time. This is about Abigail.
I continue to kiss a path down her body until my mouth meets the waist of her leggings that will star in my dreams for a long, long time. I slowly pull them down her legs, taking her panties with them exposing all of her to my gaze.
I gently push her legs wide and then settle in between them. I trace her core with my fingertip and I hear her breath catch as I lick and kiss at her most secret places. Abby whimpers and clutches the sheets in her hands as she inches closer and closer to the edge of her orgasm, but this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. I slide a finger in deep as I roll her clit into my mouth and it’s all she needs to drop over the edge.
“Tanner,” she says her voice raspy. “I need you.”
“You have me,” I tell her as I push my boxer briefs down my legs before settling on my knees between her thighs.
I reach over to the nightstand and pull a condom from the drawer. I rip the foil packet open with my teeth before rolling the latex down over my cock. She holds her arms out to me and I happily lower myself into her warm embraces.
She arches her back as I slide into her slowly, oh so slowly, and then wait. Her nails bite into my shoulders as she silently tells me what she needs, and I will gladly give it to her every day for the rest of my life.
I pull back and rock into her waiting body over and over until we find a rhythm that we both enjoy. The heat of her body sucks me in and I am lost to the moment. I am lost to her, only her as I pump my cock into her over and over and she meets me thrust for thrust.
