Southern Comfort (25 page)

“Oh God,” he said, his voice pained. “I must’ve been really good in a past life.”

Natalie chuckled, then sucked in her own breath as his hands eased around to cup her breasts in his palms. His touch was exquisite, unlike anything she’d ever known before. Or maybe it had just been too long.

She shook her head. She wasn’t going to think about that now. She had a wonderful man, open and willing, and she was taking advantage of it. To hell with tomorrow. She had him tonight.

“I need you,” she admitted.

He pulled her closer, ducking his head to take one rigid nipple into his mouth. Natalie gasped, the tension in her building, and yet they were both mostly dressed. How could this be? How could he drive her so close to the edge with just a simple touch? Never before had it been this way. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. And she never wanted it to end.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“I wish you would stop asking me that.”

He ran his fingers around the waistband of her sweatpants. “I just want to make sure. I don’t want you to regret this.”

“Stop.” She grabbed his face in her hands and stared deep into those exotic brown eyes. “I’ll have no regrets.”

He studied her features for what seemed like an eternity, but could’ve only been a few seconds, then he pulled her mouth to his once again.

This time he took over the kiss, nipping and biting, licking and otherwise making her mad with wanting him.

Somehow he worked a hand between them, inside her baggy sweatpants.

She almost fell apart in his arms as he traced a finger along her cleft. She was ready for him. Oh so ready and if he didn’t touch her soon …

“Oh,” she gasped as he pushed one finger inside. She was more than ready. She was beyond ready, and she needed this more than she needed air to breathe.

She rose up on her knees, then ground against him, needing that sweet friction but unable to achieve it. She pushed against him again, and he chuckled. “Slow down, we have all night.”

She stilled in his arms. They had all night. All night to be in each other’s arms, all night to explore, to kiss, to taste, to touch. That’s what she wanted: all night.

But first she needed him now. She reached between them and somehow managed to undo the button on his jeans, slide down the zipper, and kiss him all at the same time. But she hated that she had to move away from him in order to touch him skin on skin. She tugged at his pants, then took him into her hand, his skin like velvet, his desire like steel.

“Stop,” Newland rasped.

Stop? She couldn’t stop. She needed this, wanted this, had to have this. Had to have him if for only one night. She might not ever feel this way again in her entire life. But at least she would feel that way tonight.

“Please tell me you didn’t just say that.” Somehow she managed to keep her voice even, but it took almost more effort than she had.

He brushed her hair back from her face, his touch gentle and sweet even though his fingers trembled. “We don’t have a condom. I didn’t bring my wallet out here. I came out here to look for bootleggers.” He said the last word on a small laugh.

Natalie tucked her hair behind her ear suddenly embarrassed, suddenly shy as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing. Then she pushed off him once more. She reached into her pocket and fished out the tiny package. “I’ve got one.”

The surprise on his face was priceless. “You’ve got one.” The implication was obvious.

He grabbed the leg of her pants and pulled her to him, easing them down at the same time. When she was free of the offending fabric, she dropped down beside him and rolled the condom into place. He watched, still as she straddled him once again, this time impaling herself on his hard length.

She loved the feeling of being in control but yet not. The passion simmered just below the surface, just under the façade. Then she realized that he was going to let her dictate the rhythm, set the pace. She gasped as she took his length, then wiggled a bit for good measure.

He groaned and fisted his hands in the grass at his sides. This was insane but when had anything with Newland been normal? Somehow, she liked it that way.

“You need to move,” he said. His eyes were closed, his fingers still knotted in the blades of grass. His teeth were clenched, and she thought for a moment he was in pain. Maybe he was. She wiggled again. His groan grew louder.

“That’s not what I meant.” Eyes still closed.

She was in control. It was a heady feeling to know that she could feel so full, so fulfilled, so complete and yet have the power to make him crazy.

She gave a small laugh, pushed herself up on her knees just enough to move up his length and still retain their connection. She pushed down again, slower this time, and the feeling was beyond compare.

“I can’t take much more of this, Natalie.” His voice was perfect proof that he was close to the end of his self-control.

Maybe that was what she wanted all along. Maybe she wanted him to lose control, to be pushed over the edge, to not know if he would be able to take another breath if for some reason this stopped.

She raised herself up again, slowly, almost to the tip before easing down once again, taking all of him deep inside.

“That’s it.”

The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back in the cool summer grass. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he pumped into her harder and harder still, taking her to the brink of someplace she had never been, not even in his arms.

He snaked one hand under her hips and lifted her higher, giving one last thrust before he stiffened and cried out her name.

She was close. So close. And she couldn’t let it stop. She bucked against him again, grinding herself to him, holding him to her, her legs locked around his hips. As if sensing her need, he thrust again and again even though his climax had passed. Again and again, over and over until the pressure building inside her burst into a thousand pieces of stardust.

She heard a strangled cry, realized it came from her own lips, and still she couldn’t let him go. She held herself pressed against him, heels locked around his back, needing this moment to go on forever and ever and ever.

“Oh God, oh God,” she chanted. Never,
never
before had she experienced anything like this.

Finally, still locked together, he rolled to one side pulling her on top of him.

She lay sprawled across his chest, their bodies pressed close as she tried to gain back her breath. Not even knowing if she wanted it.

“Have I died and gone to heaven?” she breathed into the sweaty skin on his chest.

He chuckled. “That’s about the tritest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

She leaned up on her elbows, her mouth inches from his. “Is that bad?”

He pulled her in for a swift kiss. “No, it’s the best thing ever.”

“Tritest?” she asked. “Is that a word?”

He laughed, still holding her close. “It’s a word.”

Natalie couldn’t stop her smile all the next day. After their foray in the grass, they’d spent the rest of the night ensconced in his room exploring each other until dawn.

She should be exhausted, wiped out, and dead on her feet. Instead she felt exhilarated. Never before in her life had she felt so alive. With Newland, she had been in control, she had lost control, she had given up control, and she had taken it back. He had given as well as taken and showed her an equal partnership and love that she hadn’t known could exist. But even after all of that, one thing was left unsaid. Gerald. But maybe no one mentioned him because Newland knew he was leaving after Thursday night. But she wasn’t going to worry about that right now. She was going to pull a page from Scarlett O’Hara’s book and worry about all that tomorrow. Or the next day. Whichever was convenient.

She let herself into the house just after six, praying that Aubie had come home like he was supposed to. Home. Had she really started to feel that way about Bitty’s house? She had moved out to prove her self-worth, but hadn’t she done that? Couldn’t she move back, she and Aubie, and help Aunt Bitty?

She and Newland both knew there was no ghost, as did Aubie. But if she and her brother were there, they could help Bitty, and wouldn’t have to worry about her leaving the stove on and the refrigerator door open. Someone would be there shortly to help take care of things. Her aunt loved to cook and loved to feed people, and Natalie would hate to take that away from her. Then again hadn’t she taken some of that away when she and Aubie moved out?

Natalie shook her head and pushed those thoughts away. This was home now, and she would be moving in soon. For good.

She wasn’t sure how Aubie would take that. He hated the duplex and thought they should buy a house, but he had never mentioned moving in with their aunt. Perhaps they could make him an attic room where he could have his office, privacy, and his big screen TV and game consoles. If he had come home.

She hadn’t texted him like she did when school was out to make sure he knew he had to be there. But she was trying to do what he asked. She was trying to let him grow up, make his own decisions, and make the decisions he knew he needed to make.

Oskar barked out his welcome as she entered the house and set her purse by the door.

“Hello, baby.” She picked up the pooch and got a bunch of puppy kisses in return.

Aubie poked his head out of the parlor, then turned back toward the room, saying, “It’s just Nat.”

Natalie set Oskar at her feet and together the two of them clicked down the hallway to the parlor.

It was card night. She had forgotten about that. Everyone was in attendance including Newland and Aubie.

Her aunt had pulled out the octagonal card tabletop that had once belonged to Natalie’s father. She’d forgotten he’d even owned the thing. The last time he used it she was in high school. But it had been stored at Bitty’s, someplace in this big rambling house.

She looked to the stack of change in front of her brother. “I don’t think—” she started, but Newland shook his head.

Right. It was just poker. All between friends and nickel ante. She could do this. She could relinquish some control, enjoy her life a bit more and allow those around her to make their own mistakes.

She walked to the coffee table where two pizza boxes stood half open. She flipped one up, found a piece of veggie pizza, and nearly moaned with pleasure at the first bite. How long had it been since she’d eaten pizza? Way too long. She chewed the bite with ecstasy, then turned to find Newland watching her, his face an odd mixture of laughter and desire.

She chewed a little slower, suddenly hit with the fact that in two days he would be gone. She had gotten used to him being around. And it wasn’t just the great sex. It was him playing cards with the Fab Four, him fixing the steps to the cellar, and him walking around with Mr. Piddles cradled in his arms. There was so much more to Newland than she’d thought when she first met him. She was going to miss him when he was gone.

She swallowed hard, suddenly uncomfortable with the idea.

As if sensing her turmoil, Newland mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, unable to even whisper the words back. There was a lot that was wrong. And come Friday morning, her life would never be the same again.

• • •

“I’ve got a theory,” Newland said as they walked around the side of the house and down toward the cellar. The idea had come to him while he was playing cards with the girls and Aubie. Right about the same time that Natalie’s attitude had shifted.

At first she had seemed happy, jubilant even, but then as if someone had dropped the curtain, her expression changed, became troubled and clouded over with something akin to despair. At the time he thought it might have something to do with the fact that Aubie was playing poker or maybe even the fact that she was eating pizza like it was about to give her an orgasm. Just the thought made him shift in his seat. She really needed to treat herself a little more, and not worry so much about making sure everyone’s life went was nothing but smooth sailing. She thought she had everything all neatly lined up, but
that
was the hitch in her life. She wasn’t even living it.

“So what’s this theory?”

Newland opened the cellar doors and started down inside. He turned on the light and motioned for Natalie to follow. Thankfully when he told her to put on something more comfortable and come with him to the cellar she had actually donned those incredible blue jeans and followed him out the door.

“I think this is just a storage facility for Gilbert and Darrell.”

She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, seemingly unaware of what the action did to emphasize certain parts of her.

Newland dragged his gaze away from her breasts and back to her face. “Uh, where was I?”

“Darrell and Gilbert use this as a storage facility. I thought we’d already decided that.”

Newland nodded. “I think tomorrow night, they’ll come to move all this out of here.”

“Why tomorrow night?”

“That’s the brilliance of it all.”

Natalie shook her head. “I’ve never heard anyone mention Gilbert, Darrell, and brilliance all in the same conversation.”

“I can see that. That’s why I think somebody else is in charge of all this.”

“Like who?” Natalie frowned.

“Well, I was hoping you might have some theories on that. You know the town. Who in Turtle Creek is smart enough to run a moonshine business of this magnitude?” He pointed toward the increasing number of crates stacked in the cellar.

Natalie thought about it for a moment. “Most of the businesses here are small. They don’t make a great deal of money, but they do okay. No one’s driving around in a new car or has a new Rolex or anything like that. And I can’t imagine anyone here doing something like this.”

“I guess they could be from another town close by. Any ideas?”

She shook her head. “They could be from anywhere in the county. Maybe even in Tishomingo County.”

Newland nodded thoughtfully. He’d really hoped she would have some idea who might be behind the operation.