One Lucky Deal (23 page)

Candace pulled her shirt back on. It was almost all the way on when she had an unusually loud thought.
Screw Gail.
Slow was driving them both out of their minds. They were ornery and miserable. Taking Gail’s advice was what had started this whole weeklong marathon of arguing. Candace tore her top off and dropped her pants. She kicked them to the side and then was standing there in her bra and panties debating about whether she should actually get completely naked.

She heard Tad’s truck rumble into the driveway, and her heart kicked. She lost her nerve. What if he’d spelled it out before she left with Keith? What if he took it back? What if he turned her down while she stood in their living room nearly buck-ass naked?

“Shit!” Candace cursed when she heard him slam his truck door. She grabbed up her pants but the legs were inside out and she tried to correct it by stuffing them back the other way. She didn’t get them there in time. Tad was in the door with the door shut and his keys sat down before he raised his head and spotted her.

His gaze slid down her body, lingering, and her skin reacted with heat just as if he’d actually touched her. “I didn’t know if you would actually…”

“Yeah, with all the fighting and stuff—” Candace swallowed hard. “I didn’t know if I would either.”

“But you did.” Tad took deliberate steps toward her, but with her pulse kicking and her nerves turning, she dropped her pants. They circled each other but he still kept gaining on her. She felt the cool metal of their front door against her back and she couldn’t remember how she’d gotten so far from where she’d started.

The way he was looking at her had stolen her breath and her mouth had gone dry. “Almost.” She commented on the purple-and-pink striped bra she was still wearing and her blue panties.

“Yeah.” Tad trapped her with his arms on the door around her. They were so close. She could smell the garage on his clothes. She could smell his soap. She could smell him.

His gaze slid down her body again, and her nipples went hard and her panties went damp. She just wanted him to touch her, but for some reason she was paralyzed. She couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. His eyes were holding her in place.

“Did you have fun today?” Tad’s voice was low and whispery—making her ache.

“Yes.” She should have lied. She should have stroked his ego, but with so little clothes on she wasn’t sure if she even could lie to him.

“Did he flirt with you?” Tad rubbed his jaw over her cheek and down the side of her neck. She stretched and exposed it for him.

“Yes.” Her voice was shaky with the desire his coarse stubble was stirring up along her tender, soft flesh.

Tad lifted his face and they locked gazes. “Did he kiss you?” Tad asked as he pinched the back of her bra strap, letting it come loose.

Candace’s mouth opened to lie but she couldn’t with him looking at her like he was. She dampened her lips with a flick of her tongue. She was so on. She hoped her answer didn’t put a sudden halt to this. “Yes.” Her voice sounded barely like her own.

Tad cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth up against his. Her lips were parted, waiting for a kiss from Tad, but he didn’t give it to her—not quite yet.

He tugged her bra from her arms. “Did it make you weak in the knees?”

Candace swallowed hard as she watched the silky material slip from Tad’s fingertips and drop to the floor. “No.” She shook her head. It stirred a moan from her throat as the movement caused her lips to brush against his.

“Did it make your nipples hard?” Tad breathed against her mouth and he dragged his callused thumb roughly over one sensitive nipple. She whimpered against his lips. “Did he, Candy?”

“No.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, unable to wait another second for that kiss.

He grabbed her wrists in one hand and pinned them above her head against the door. “Did he make you wet?” Tad’s hand brushed over her breast. Candace bit her lip and tipped her head back. She curved against his hand as it skimmed down her ribs to the hollowing of her stomach and then to the outer swell of her hip. “Tell me, baby.” Tad’s voice rumbled against Candace’s outstretched neck.

“No.” She quivered when his fingers slipped to disappear inside the lace edge of her panties.

He let go of her wrists. “Who does?” Tad cupped the back of her head, holding her tightly by the hair, close enough for their lips to touch but not close enough for her to kiss him like she really, really needed to.

Her gaze clicked onto his and she sighed. “You do.”

His fingers slipped lower and she knew he found her so hot and so wet for him. At that they both moaned. He tipped his forehead against hers. “Goddamn, Candace… Why?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.” Her voice all but croaked. “But you do. It’s all for you.”

“Good enough.” He groaned and finally brought her parted lips up hard against his.

Now that his grip on her loosened and she was free, she felt wild and crazed. They kissed until she was no longer sure of who the hell she was or what she did to deserve such pleasure. When they came up for air, she found that she’d gotten his shirt off him and had already undone his belt buckle.

She rubbed him through his jeans. He was so big, hard, and thick. He would have been intimidating if she didn’t trust him with every single cell in her entire being. She should have questioned that, but she didn’t. Everything in the world made perfect sense to her right now.

Tad’s hand pressed Candace tighter against him and he groaned out her name. He kissed her mouth—tugging on her lips with his teeth, licking, nipping, and teasing down her chin to her neck. He rubbed his face against her skin. She listened to his heavy breathing and the sound of his day-old beard scratching deliciously against her skin.

She shoved her hand inside his pants. They were slung so low, and loose enough for Candace’s hand to slide inside them with no problem. When her skin came in contact with his skin, she let out a gasp. “Commando?” Candace half laughed and half moaned.

“I need to do laundry.” He brought her mouth back to his.

“I need—” Candace just moaned, unable to take it any longer.

Tad tipped his forehead against hers and held his breath. She wrapped her hand around his thick, hard cock and stroked him. “I got what you need.”

“I know,” Candace whispered. “I know.” She kissed him hard and moaned loudly. It erupted from deep within her when he slid two fingers inside her. She tore her lips from his mouth and stared into his face. His gray-green eyes were stormy with desire and heavy-lidded. The sight of him so turned on drove her to the edge. “Tad, now!” she begged him.

“Baby.” He sighed and slowed his fingers, but Candace didn’t slow down on him any. She pushed his pants to the floor where he couldn’t kick them off because they were hung up on his boots. She grabbed his shaft tighter and stroked him faster. He hissed in a breath, and she watched his stomach ripple.

“Tad, please. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so badly. I just need … I just need you.” She looked him in the eyes. “Please.” She leaned her hips forward and dragged the tip of his erection up her thigh and let the head slide against her damp panties. He groaned. Tad bent down and grabbed his wallet from his pants.

She kissed his jaw. She licked down his salty skin and then grazed her teeth over his flat nipple.

“Jesus.” Tad inhaled sharply. He ripped open the condom so fast that it sprang from the wrapper. He nearly lost it but Candace had left zero room between the two of them and it landed between their bodies.

“Let me.” Candace took the condom from him and slowly rolled it down over his thick shaft.

*

Because they were so frantic and because it had been days that felt like years, that slow, drawn-out roll down his shaft had built an exquisite anticipation. When he was finally fully sheathed Tad breathed again, but not before he had picked her up, pinned her against the wall, slipped her panties aside and slid quickly, deeply, and fully inside her.

He brushed her hair from her face. He watched her as he thrust against her. She was so hot. So fucking sexy. So beautiful that it sometimes was just too much. It hurt to look at her.

He closed his eyes and felt her. He felt her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs wrapped so tightly around his hips and her body holding onto him so snugly. He kissed her lips and closed his eyes tighter when he pulled from her mouth and buried himself in her neck.

“Tad…” Candace was begging him. Her hips were free agents and doing irrevocable damage to his reserve. Her nails dug into his back and into his scalp. She cradled him to her throat. It was like everything she did was too much. He wasn’t going to be able to hold back … not with his body … not with his heart.

“You feel so good, baby.” Tad panted into her ear. He sucked her lobe into his mouth and nipped at it with his teeth just so he could salve it with his tongue. He was trying to regain control, but he didn’t have any. Tad had her up against the door. She was in his arms, but it was Tad who was losing his grip. He was the one sliding down that slippery slope.

“Please,” Candace cried out, her voice sounding watery, but it was probably just his ears. “More, Tad. Please,” she begged him. “Take me there.”

He choked on a laugh. “Candy, I am.” Tad grabbed ahold of her hips. Candace reached down and pulled his hands up to her breasts and they both groaned. “You’re going to kill me.”

“Tad.” She cupped his face, searching his eyes—looking for something. It unnerved him and he looked away. Tipping his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth. She was so sweet. So damn delicious.

He brought his thumb between their bodies and rolled it in a tight circle around her clit. “Talk to me, Tad. Please,” she begged him.

Tad let out a strangled moan. He was slick with beads of sweat breaking out all across his body. “Baby—Candy.” Tad stuck his teeth into her shoulder. She clung to him. Her fingers wrapped around the short strands of his hair. “God, you’re so good. You’re too perfect. I can’t even think right now. You feel so good.” He kissed her mouth hard. “Come on, tell me, baby.”

“Now,” she whispered.

“Tell me.”

“Now.” She clutched his shoulders. Her fingers dug into his skin, her mouth opened, and her head tipped back against the door. “Tad, I’m coming.” Her back arched to take him deeper.

He felt her squeezing around his dick. He watched her eyes roll into the back of her head. The color of her skin changed—the same with the expression on her face. Tad had to kiss her. He grabbed her by the nape of the neck and forced her open mouth up against his. “That’s it, baby,” Tad whispered against her tongue when she shuddered in a breath after her release.

“More,” she begged. “Don’t stop.”

“I’m not.” His thrusts became harder and quicker even though it was going to be his own demise. His body quaked. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to stand, let alone keep going.

“Baby,” he whispered against her neck. “I’m so close.”

*

He kissed up to her ear where she could feel the bursts of his ragged breaths. Candace thought
, I did that. I’m making him shake. I made him hard. I’m going to make him come
.

“God, Candy. I love this. You feel amazing.” He panted against her lips. “You’re so—so perfect.”

She felt her whole body go rigid from her toes right on up. She erupted in his arms, her skin flushed, and the blush flew up from her breasts to her neck. It happened so quickly it shocked her and then she felt him shake.

He came so hard his legs wobbled beneath them. He slid them both to floor in a giant heap of loose limbs.

Tad was still inside her. His breathing was ragged and he hadn’t fully stopped thrusting yet. His thumb was still stroking her clit, and his other hand was cupped around one of her breasts. He kissed her neck, and Candace was basking in all of it.

“Molly was right.”

“Molly?” Tad pulled back to look down at her.

“She said makeup sex with you was … amazing.” Candace closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of him, still hard—still inside her.

“What?”

Candace opened her eyes and cupped his jaw. “But I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“You are?” Tad smiled and kissed her palm. “I’d say you’re pretty good at both.”

Candace moaned and kissed his salty, sweaty shoulder. “I don’t want to fight anymore.” She smiled against his neck.

Tad pulled back to look at her again. “What are you saying?”

Candace smiled like the siren she suddenly felt like she was, bit her lip, and nodded. She rocked her hips provocatively against him. Tad groaned so low and deep she felt it in her abdomen. “From now on let’s just skip the fighting.” She reached behind him and grabbed his hard, firm buttocks and pulled him deeper inside her.

Tad’s eyes heated. “Candy—” The way he said her name sent shocks of electricity coursing through her. “Baby, we don’t have to fight for it to be good, but I’m not even close to being done making up with you.”

“Promise?” Candy smirked against his lips.

“Promise.” And like always, he delivered.

Chapter 18

“What is that smile about?” Jeannie asked Candace the next day at work.

“What smile?” Candace tried to hide it but she couldn’t and she knew it.

“That one that says ‘I’ve gotten luckier than a slutty four-leaf clover.’ Are you going to give me all the juicy details?” Jeannie waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Especially since you’ve been walking around like the Hulk for the past week.”

“The Hulk?” Candace raised an eyebrow.

“Big. Scary. Intimidating … angry,” Jeannie clarified.

Candace laughed. “Nothing to tell.” That was a bald-faced lie. There was so much to tell, but Candace didn’t know how to put it all into words, and she wanted to be selfish about it, anyway.

Candace’s phone chimed and Jeannie and Candace both dived for it at the same time. Candace grabbed it up before Jeannie could. It was from Tad. There was no fluff, and half of it was quick shorthand as if he’d sent the text in a hurry. He was just asking her to meet him tonight at Lucky’s after work. Because of the lag in their schedule and Jeannie’s persistent interest, she read the text aloud to her.