Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (25 page)

She couldn’t help it, she practically giggled at how eager he was, tangling her fingers with his and practically lifting her off the ladder and setting her on the floor, but not separating from her for even an instant.

“Sorry. I walked.”

He laughed. “Well, we’d better start walking, then.”

Maggie didn’t think she’d ever locked up as fast as she did then, barely even checking her normal list over before she punched in her code and locked the door.

He reached and took her hand as they set out for the five minute walk to Maggie’s house. His fingers were tightly gripping hers, and she could feel his thumb cradling her wrist as it rubbed the sensitive pulse point there and her pulse raced. He smiled down at her and she wasn’t even embarrassed by how much she wanted him anymore. Just like the keys, it felt
right
to be here with him, like this, to be walking to her house, with every intention of going straight to bed and finally letting herself do all the things she’d imagined since practically day one.

Because who spent so much time around a guy like Noah Fox, who not only looked like he did, but
was
the way he was, and didn’t fantasize about getting him naked in bed? He was kind and funny and so sweet and anxious about making her happy that he practically made her teeth ache.

“You’re great,” she whispered up to him, her voice still a bit loud on the silent street.

His answering smile was just as broad as hers. “Ditto,” he said, bumping her hip gently with his. “Really, really ditto.” And the expression on his perfect face was so awed and fond that Maggie wondered if he’d tell her he loved her right then—because she knew that people didn’t look at other people they didn’t love like that. But he didn’t say anything after that and she had to ignore the tiny pulse of disappointment. There’d be other perfect moments, she rationalized. Like maybe when they were together in her bed, skin to skin for the first time.

It was only a five minute walk, but it felt like it was over in five seconds. Maggie unlocked the front door and Noah hesitated when the door shut behind them. “Are you sure?” he asked again, and Maggie just rolled her eyes, grabbing his arm and tugging him along the hallway to her bedroom, reaching up when they were halfway there to kiss him. Stumbling, they hit the wall and she heard the picture frames rattle a little as he wedged a thigh between her legs, framing her face with his hands, and proceeded to kiss her back so intently and so passionately Maggie wondered idly for a moment if they’d even make it to the bed. But then his hands curled under her butt, lifting her against his undeniably hard cock and her brain literally went fuzzy, then totally silent as he rocked against her.

“Bed,” Noah gasped after a minute of the most uncoordinated yet most arousing grinding that Maggie had ever experienced. Their lips had practically never separated once since the kiss in the hallway, and the kiss had turned downright filthy, tongues and lips and hands. Maggie realized as he set her down that her knees were so weak she could barely stand. Okay, so that was apparently a real thing that could happen. She’d never had anyone make her wobble from a little dry humping.

But then, this was Noah Fox and from what she’d felt under his jeans, there was hardly anything little about dry humping him.

He saw her wobble, of course, and then he stupidly lifted her, like she was practically nothing, like she weighed as little as a feather, which was
definitely
not the case, and the next thing Maggie knew, the mattress was soft underneath her and then Noah, all hard, tense muscles was hovering over her, kissing her senseless again.

Her head fell to the side as his lips drifted with purpose from her mouth to her cheek, to her ear, to her neck. And it was apparent from the toe-curling way he was sucking against the sensitive skin between her neck and her collarbone that he was definitely going to leave a mark. She’d never found that particularly hot until this moment, when it seemed to light something on fire inside her. Well, whatever was left inside of her that wasn’t
already
on fire.

“Noah,” she gasped out as his teeth nipped at a particularly sensitive spot, “
clothes.”

He pulled back and just grinned at her, reaching up to tug off his sweatshirt and then lift off his t-shirt. And yeah, okay, her jaw hung at the sight of his bare chest, all flawless ridged muscle and she knew she was never going to get sick of putting her hands and her mouth all over
that
.

And she was just about to,
finally
, when he tugged her up and against him, his hands reaching around underneath her shirt and unhooking her bra. She knew he was just about to finish undressing her when his hands froze and his eyes met hers. “Sorry,” he said, and she just laughed.

“Please don’t ever apologize for being good.”

With a quick grin, he pulled her shirt over her head, and let it and her bra fall beside the bed, her clothes mingling with hers.

Maggie had always fantasized about the moment when the man for her, the
perfect
man for her, saw her naked and it looked like he’d just been hit with a brick to the face. And well, it wasn’t like she thought she was anything particularly special, but she’d always secretly, romantically believed that with the right man, it wouldn’t matter. It would only matter that it was
her
.

And though she’d grown older and a little wiser, she still stubbornly believed it
would
happen someday.

The day was here, Maggie thought smugly, as he just stared at her, the expression on his face even more priceless than she’d ever believed. “God you’re beautiful,” he said, mouth moving down the sensitive skin of her neck again, nibbling at her collarbone, skating over the slope of her breast. His other hand cradled her against the mattress, as if she was too precious a possession to merely just lie there, and even as fire sparked through her from the wicked thing he was mouthing against her nipple, she felt adored.

Her hands moved over the smooth skin of his back, and to the waistband of his jeans, sliding her fingers underneath. She teased him a little, loving the way he tensed and shook as her fingers followed the curve of his waist and then ghosted over his erection.

“Not playing fair,” he groaned against her skin, as if
he’d
been playing by the rules. Which he hadn’t. Not really. Not since the moment they met, Maggie thought.

“Want you,” she panted into his mouth as he turned to kiss her.

“Not yet,” he said into her lips, while simultaneously grinding his cock against her, practically sending her to the stratosphere.

She just writhed beneath him as he reached down and way too deftly unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, sliding them down with a feat of grace that she knew she never could have managed. But then, he’d also managed to turn her into a mess of want and need and more, more,
more
.

And that was before he had her panties off, and slipping a finger into her folds, slicking it upwards through her wetness to her clit and circling it teasingly. “That’s better,” he grinned so unrepentantly that she wanted to simultaneously moan and wipe that smile off his face.

“You like that?” he asked with such a low, deep growl it turned her on even more and Maggie could only gape at him wordlessly as he proceeded to dismantle her with his thumb and his way too clever fingers.

Maggie felt her fingers gripping the sheets as he seemingly effortlessly coaxed her towards what she was pretty sure was going to be a mind-blowing orgasm. Then his fingers crooked up inside of her, twisting and reaching and she just fell apart, a black wave washing over her. When she opened her eyes, his expression was so cocky she couldn’t help but giggle weakly.

He leaned down and kissed her again, and she’d recovered enough that she took the opportunity to finally unbutton his jeans and slide them down, taking his boxer briefs with them. And she loved the way he just froze above her, totally and completely immobilized when she gently wrapped her hand around his cock. “Want this,” she said sweetly, grinning up at him. “Now.”

“Okay,” he said, and his voice was absolutely gruffly adorable. He shed his jeans and pulled a condom out of his wallet and she nodded softly at him. He ripped open the packet and slid the condom down his cock before glancing up at her, and she just shook her head. “You know, I’m not made of glass,” she chided him. “I really want this.”

“I want it too,” he said, low and gruff, and wrapped himself around her, pressing his lips to her temple. He began to slide inside her and Maggie tensed for a minute. He was big and it had been kind of a long time for her, but he felt her reaction instantly and slowed down. “You okay?” he asked and she loved the way his voice went all gravelly.

She nodded silently and shifted, biting her lip as she felt the stretch of him. Not perfect then, but Maggie had never thought it would be. Just perfectly imperfect. But then he started to move inside her and the pain melted into pleasure, and she glanced up at his face, loving the tight concentration and how he scrunched his eyes up tight, as if he was trying to focus all of himself on pleasuring her.

His strokes were long and slow and Maggie wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him to go faster and he totally understood because he chuckled then, dipping his head and letting his teeth graze along the edge of her shoulder as her head fell back.

Electricity was skating up her spine again, and Maggie felt the pleasure build inside her again, deeper and more intense as she bucked up her hips to meet his. A tiny moan escaped his lips and she reached up to cover his mouth with hers. She wanted to absorb all his sounds and his pleasure and never let it go. He slid a hand underneath her and tilted her up just so and Maggie lost it, moaning herself through their sloppy kiss. A few more thrusts and she felt him tense up over her, strain making every angle of his face stark and beautiful. After a moment, he collapsed onto her, warm and big and she wrapped her limbs around him, loving the feel of him.

“Sorry, heavy,” Noah slurred into her ear, and she adored how wrecked she could make him sound. She wanted to make him sound like that
all
the damn time now.

“No,” she insisted. “It feels good. You feel good.”

Maggie felt him smile against her skin. “Ditto.”

Noah woke up the next morning and felt better than he had in months.

Better than pretty much any day since that fucker had thrown a fastball at his head.

He was curled around Maggie, her body soft and warm against his, her hair tickling his nose as he breathed in and out. He never wanted to move. He wanted to stay exactly as they were, forever.

Realistically, Noah knew that
forever
was supposed to scare the shit out of him. He was supposed to freak out, and slip from this warm bed and let Maggie wake up cold and alone, wondering if she’d imagined the love in his eyes last night.

He’d done it plenty of times in his past—left in that gray window right before dawn—but then he’d never gazed at anyone else with love before. Not even Tabitha.

It was almost funny and definitely ironic that it was Tabitha’s sister who had practically held up a mirror and showed him just how petty and small his feelings for Tabitha had been. He’d been in love with the idea of love, more than he’d actually been in love with Tabitha. He’d begun to suspect it last year, when he’d witnessed just how much Jack loved Izzy, but it had taken Maggie to show Noah that love was more than just someone to go to dinner with, more than someone you wanted to fuck, more than someone who pissed you off just because they could.

Noah didn’t know if he could tell Maggie. Despite last night, he could still feel her wariness around him, feel her hesitancy when it came to fully opening herself up to him, and he couldn’t blame her for that at all. After all, they barely knew each other and the last woman he’d seriously dated had been her older sister, but in the end, Noah knew love made everything complicated very, very simple. He loved her, and that was that.

Unlike that passing fancy he’d felt for Tabby, this was sickening and almost horrifying, and humbling, his heart practically expanding with each breath he took, but he knew, absolutely and without any question, that he was not going to leave this bed. He was not going to leave her, going to leave the perfect nest of warmth they’d created, and leave her wondering. It was too soon to tell her the truth, but he wouldn’t ever let her question that she was important to him.