The One Place (15 page)

I started it as an innocent kiss, but one touch of his tongue to my lips and we were gone. I moved my hands from his shoulders up into his hair and pulled my body even closer to his. His fingers flexed on my hips and secured me to him tighter as his tongue caressed mine. I could feel him starting to get hard under me and ground my hips down. A gravelly groan came from his throat and he put both his hands under my ass to lift me as he stood up. I automatically wrapped my legs around his waist and clung to him with my arms around his shoulders, all the while still lost in his delicious kiss. His taste was like nothing else. It was all Tuck. I swear he could have spent 24 hours eating nothing but onions and garlic and he would still taste good. I’d say that I’d test out my theory someday, but I doubt he would be on board.

He carried me into the bathroom and set me down in front of the shower. He broke the kiss to reach into the shower and turn the dial on. I clung to his hips with my thumbs through his belt loops to keep myself from crumbling to the ground in my daze and kissed at any piece of skin I could reach-his chest, abs, all along his tattoo, and I even reached trying to get his throat. He turned back to me and grabbed the hem of my shirt and I immediately raised my arms to help him get it off. He reached around and unhooked my bra, pulled both straps off my shoulders, and then used his hand to lift one breast and suck the nipple into his mouth. I moaned and my head rolled back. “
God
, baby.”

He wasted no time, using his free hand to reach down and unbutton my jeans. He popped the nipple out of his mouth and settled my breast back into place so that he could use both his hands to push my jeans and panties over my hips. As soon as they cleared my knees he stepped back to me and put his mouth back on mine. I could taste his desire in his kiss. It was fiery and rough and close to out of control, but had an underlying gentle quality that was always there when Tuck touched me anywhere. It was
magnificent
. I braced my hands on his upper arms and toed off my shoes and then stepped out of my jeans and panties.

Realizing I was the only one naked, I tugged on his t-shirt at his waist so he would get the hint. He knew what I wanted immediately and reached his hand over his head and back between his shoulder blades to pull his shirt off. In order to get the shirt off our kiss had broken, so I just stood back and watched the show of him losing his clothes. He was golden and tan from all of his outdoor work this summer and as cut as ever.

He quickly unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and kicked off his boots, making short work of his pants and underwear the way I had. He reached into the shower and felt the spray, grabbed my hips and backed me into the water with him following me. Instantly, his hands went back to my ass and squeezed, while his head came down and his mouth claimed mine again. I returned the favor by running my hands down his sides, along his tattoo and around, and grabbed his delicious backside. As soon as I squeezed a growl escaped his throat and he released my ass and mouth, put a hand into my stomach and pushed me up against the tile wall.

He bent and grabbed a breast with each hand, lifting the right one and swirling his tongue around the nipple. He kneaded the left one with his left hand and then sucked hard, taking the whole right nipple into his mouth. I moaned and then followed it up with an extremely, breathy, “
Tuck
.”

It felt so good, and it felt that way in two places. I felt a rush of wet between my legs as Tuck stood back and ordered gruffly, “Spread, Baby.” Knowing what was coming was going to feel like heaven and already feeling a desperate need for release building in my belly, I quickly sidestepped my legs further apart. Tuck dropped to his knees and ran both his hands up my legs to the inside of my thighs, continuing all the way with one hand and sliding a finger through my slick heat. I pressed my hands into his shoulders, let my head rest against the wall and whimpered, “Baby. God, Baby.”

Tuck answered hoarsely, “Fuck, Babe. Already wet for me. Now you’re gonna come for me.” His words turned me on even more. He knew just the right things to say to me. He didn’t usually say very much while we were fooling around, but when he did it usually had pleasurable effects.

Instantly, I felt his mouth on me, licking and lapping, and then up circling my nub with just the right pressure. I grabbed onto his hair like it was a handle and held his head to me. With how turned on I was, it wasn’t going to take long for me to come. And it didn’t.

He licked me, and then finding my opening shoved his tongue inside, following a rhythm and then moving up to rapidly flick his tongue over my nub.

“Jesus, Oh my God. Oh my God. Tuck, baby. I’m gonna-”

As soon as the words left my mouth he increased his speed and I fell over the cliff, shattering into a thousand beautiful, sated pieces.

Tuck climbed back to his feet, grabbed my ass, and lifted bringing me back down onto his rock hard length. It felt so good. With him inside me, I felt so full and so right. A feeling I had never had with anyone else.

Tuck apparently felt the same way, pushing out through a harsh voice, “Fuck, Baby. So wet. Hot. Tight. Fuckin’ heaven.”

He set a punishing rhythm and pounded into me again and again. He locked his mouth to mine and with the touch of his tongue, made everything around us disappear. When he was getting close he pulled back and whispered, “Help me, Babe. Touch yourself.”

I moved one arm from around his shoulders and reached down in between our bodies. I found the spot but went first to touch our wet connection. It was beautiful. At the feel of my fingers touching and feeling him moving inside me, Tuck shoved his face in my throat and whispered, “Hurry, Baby. I’m gonna come. Get there again, Talie. Hurry.”

I moved my hand to my nub and circled and three strokes later we finished simultaneously, whispering each others’ names, mine with his trademark “My” in front of it.

After coming down, standing in the spray, intwined in each others’ arms, I whispered, “I love you, Tuck.” I had been feeling it, but it was a scary thing to admit.

Tuck pulled my face out of his chest and lifted it so I was looking into his eyes. “Talie. Jesus, Babe.” He touched his lips to mine and moved back so there was an inch separating us. “I love you, too. Have for a long time. You have no fuckin’ idea how much. Joplin felt right to you. Well,
you
felt right to me. Couldn’t stop myself from talkin’ to you when I heard you talkin’ to Ruthie about a place to stay. Couldn’t take my eyes off you. Then you threw me attitude. Sealed the deal.” Leaning his forehead against mine he finished, “Nobody like you. Best I ever had in every fuckin’ way possible.”

There was nothing I could say to that to do it justice, so I just tucked my head to his chest, kissed it, and then gave him a squeeze.

We stood there like that for several more minutes before we washed each other, dried off, and crawled into bed.

Neither of us put on any clothes. We snuggled together, him on his back with me turned into him. I rested my head on his chest, threw my arm across his waist letting my hand mindlessly trace his tattoo, and intwined my legs with his. We fell asleep like that, and it was the best night of sleep I had ever had.

Chapter 20

I woke up feeling better than I ever had before. Tuck and I had told each other we were in love last night. Not to mention, I was wonderfully sated from two intense orgasms in the shower.

Tuck
. I rolled over to feel the empty sheets next to me. They were already cool, so he must have left the bed awhile ago. I thought he would stay in bed this morning after the night we had. I also thought he’d already be weaseling all of my secrets out of me by now.

When I looked more closely, I noticed there was a note on his pillow.

Babe,

Out at the barn. Jasmin is dropping her foal. Didn’t wanna wake you. I’ll come see you at work.

He wasn’t much of a note writer, but it covered all the basic facts. I couldn’t really ask for more than that. Plus, I was in an agreeable mood.

I would have liked to go out and see Jasmin drop her foal, but I had to get to work. I got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to get ready.

********

As I walked to work, I took everything in. The trees were still bright green and their leaves fluttered in the light breeze. The birds were chirping and the sky was a bright, clear blue. As I turned left off of my and Tuck’s street I could see the Joplin Jivin’ Hotel in the distance. I knew it was sea-foam green but it the bright sun, with the light reflecting off of it like this, it really looked beautiful and fit in with the rest of the town.

I turned right onto Main Street and noticed that it was busy. It was a beautiful day and people were out enjoying it. Mother’s with strollers, elderly couples hand in hand, and older kids whizzing by on their bikes and skateboards. Steve in The Goods looked up and noticed me and waved as I walked by. There was soft music playing as I strolled down the sidewalk, and the display windows in the front of the stores were filled with bright colors.

As I walked it hit me that this was the first time after living here and walking this route for months that I had paid even one ounce of attention. I had felt how beautiful Joplin was, through the warmth and kindness of the people in it, but I had never looked with my eyes and seen how stunning in appearance it was too.

I was usually so lost in my thoughts, so busy reliving every piece of the past, so busy trying to find a way to put all the pieces together so that I could get back at Andrew, that I had forgotten to fully experience what this life had offered me.

I wasn’t sure what had made the difference and opened my eyes. Maybe it was Tuck telling me that he loved me, but I had felt that from him from the beginning. I realized now, he never showed me anything but love. So maybe it was finally making the decision to leave my past in the past, to fully commit to living this life instead of always looking back to my old one, and that Tuck had agreed to do the same thing with his past and move forward with me.

We both wanted and
needed
to let go of what we had lost and learn to appreciate what we had instead.

Actually, Tuck and I were remarkably similar. I had never fully let that sink in either. We had both lost things, people we loved really, to some kind of tragedy. We were both searching for some way to find the missing pieces to the puzzle and get back what we had lost. And both of us had been turning a blind eye to the things that the life we did have, and the people who
were
in our lives, could offer us.

It was like the world knew that we would need each other to pull us out of the ruts we were living in. Life had sent me here, to Joplin, to find the other half to my whole. It had to be some higher power. I believed that now. I had found the one person who needed me just as much as I needed him. And for remarkably similar reasons. There had to be a stronger influence at work to randomly send me to the right place.

I wanted to move on with Tuck and make a life here with him. I wanted to marry him and have his babies. I wanted to spend my days wrestling calves, or birthing foals, or cooking in the kitchen of that farmhouse. As long as I was doing it with him, I wanted to do it.

God, I couldn’t wait to see if making love to him tonight would be more vivid like the colors, sights, and smells of the town were now, post-epiphany. I couldn’t imagine it. It might kill me, actually.

********

Work went the same as always, it was just like my eyes were open wider or something. The customers were chatty and I was having a good time. Some commented that they’d never seen my eyes so blue or that I’d never smiled so big, and I knew that I had to be projecting my feelings outward into my appearance.

I was also anxiously awaiting Tuck’s arrival just like I usually was. I could never seem to get enough of him and he felt the same way. What’s more, I couldn’t wait to tell him about my walk to work and the line of thoughts it had sparked in me. I couldn’t wait for him to see the change in me that so many of the customers had seen in me.

********

I was waiting in the back for an order to come up when Ruthie came in talking to Toni.

“I know, I can’t believe he’s back. And alone. Weird. You know this is gonna be hard for Tuck.”

At Tuck’s name, my curiosity heightened, so I turned and started to ask Ruthie what her and Toni were talking about.

And then I saw him. Dark blond hair and cold brown eyes aimed right at me. A thousand thoughts were running through my head, but one key one was at the forefront.

How is it possible that Joplin, the place I chose to be my safe-haven- the place I fell in love- is the one place where Andrew could find me. The one
fucking
place.

I turned at the sound of the door to see Tuck walking in. He always searched for me first thing when he came in. Even if I was busy, he always met my eyes and then moved away to wait for me. I was expecting him to take one look at my face and know something was wrong. What I didn’t expect to see was that he wasn’t looking at me at all, but at Andrew, and the expression on his face was a complicated mixture of recognition, dislike, and concern.

“Where’s Jenny?” he barked and I felt my entire body go so still it was like I was made of stone. The weight of the reality crashing in on my shoulders was almost too much to take. Without thinking, my feet took me forward, moving me toward Tuck.

As he turned to me and took in my appearance, he immediately stepped to me, placed his hands on the juncture where my neck met my jaw on either side of my face and murmured, “What’s wrong, Talie?”

Before I could utter a word, Andrew spoke. “It would seem, Tucker, that our
darling
Natalie is reacting to the fact that, as it turns out, your Talie is very much
my
Talie. And she’s looking pretty good for a dead girl.”

I guess destiny really
is
a cruel bitch.

We had decided to let go of our pasts, but they weren’t ready to let go of us.

********

The story of Talie and Tuck will continue in The One Girl, book 2 in The One Series. Hopefully, coming soon! Keep reading for a preview of the Prologue and first chapter of The One Girl.

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The One Girl

Laurel Ulen Curtis

Prologue

I couldn’t wait to get done with all this work and get to the diner.

I spent so many years wastin’ away doin’ nothin’ but workin’. With Jenny gone and my parents dead, I never felt like anything else was important. I would just as soon spend time workin’ hard and lettin’ my mind try to come up with new ways to look for Jenny.

All of that changed so swiftly, in one day, that I could hardly believe it. From the moment I saw her standin’ there talkin’ to Ruth, somethin’ drew me to her. She was unbelievably fuckin’ hot with her long auburn hair and little waist with just the right amount of tits and ass. And then when she turned toward me and I saw her face and her bright blue eyes, I was lost. But her looks weren’t even the draw. For some reason, she was like a magnet, a really fuckin’ strong one, and I couldn’t fight the pull.

So I opened my mouth and spouted the first asshole bullshit I could come up with. If I wasn’t gonna be able to resist her, she was gonna need to push me away. I didn’t need to get close to some chick and start complicatin’ life. I had enough fuckin’ complications. My parents were fuckin’ dead and all I had left was Jenny. I needed to put everything I had into findin’ her, not some new pussy. So I decided I would just be a dick to her and she would stay away from me.

Then, she shocked the shit outta me by dishin’ shit right back and fuckin’
smiling
at me. Jesus Christ, I had been screwed. I hadn’t even had a chance after she showed me the attitude.

Thank God, I let her in-got to know her and let her know me. She was the absolute best thing to cross my doorstep in a long fuckin’ time. Hot, so fuckin’ hot. Kissed and fucked like a dream, and fuckin’ Christ she could suck a good cock. But even more than that shit, she was fuckin’ funny. So positive even though her life had dealt her so much shit. And she cared more about the people in her life than she would ever care about herself. I couldn’t wait to see her.

********

I pulled up in front of the diner and parked my truck like always. I turned off the ignition, grabbed the keys, jumped out, and slammed the door. Rounding the hood, I stepped onto the sidewalk, crossed it, grabbed the handle on the door to the diner, and pulled it open. I always looked for her first thing when I came to see her. She never said anything but I knew she loved that I always found her eyes first.

But as soon as I walked in the door, my eyes saw something else.

Holy shit, Drew was here. Holy
shit
! Where the fuck was Winnie? Was she okay?

“Where’s Jenny?” My voice was harsh like a bark.

I belatedly realized that Talie had been rushing over to me. As soon as I took in her face, I could see something was really fuckin’ wrong. She hadn’t looked like that since I’d called her ‘darlin’’ the day I took her around town.

Christ. She was more important, Drew could wait. I couldn’t believe I thought that, but it was fuckin’ true.

I stepped to her and put my hands on her upper neck, softened my voice, and asked, “What’s wrong, Talie?”

She didn’t even breathe before Drew started to talk. God, he was a fuckin’ prick. “It would seem, Tucker, that our
darling
Natalie is reacting to the fact that, as it turns out, your Talie is very much
my
Talie. And she’s looking pretty good for a dead girl.”

Talie looked like she was gonna be sick and I was feelin’ the same except with an added bonus of a lot’a fuckin’ anger. Fuckin’
shit.
I finally find somebody worth lovin’, somebody worth lettin’ go of the past that’s been eatin’ at me for years. And that fuckin’ girl turns out to be the one girl who probably not only has the answers I been searchin’ for, but is a fuckin’ part of them.

Chapter 1

My thoughts were jumbled and comin’ so fast that I was having a hard time keepin’ up. So I said the first thing that made it through my throat and it was directed at Talie. “Did you fuckin’ know about this?”

She looked like I had struck her. Honest to God, it looked like I had just backhanded her across the face.

She shook her head almost violently and struggled to get the words out to answer me. Her voice was broken and stilted like she was fighting off sobs. “No, Tuck.
God
, no! I had...I had no idea, I swear. I’m so sorry...so so sorry.” She burst into tears and started to fuckin’ lose it.

Christ, I was such a dick. But I just couldn’t stop myself from freaking out enough to comfort her.

“Then what in the
fuck
is goin’ on?”

Drew’s face took on a smarmy sneer. He was fuckin’ loving this. Me, flippin’ out and confused, and Talie was having a full break down.

“Jenny left me over a year ago. Natalie is my fiance whom I’ve believed to be dead for the last couple of months or so.”

My head cleared enough to realize I couldn’t believe a thing this asshole said. I also put a couple’a other pieces of the story together. Talie had told me people thought she was dead. She’d also told me she didn’t talk to her family and she’d done it to protect them from a monster she’d been livin’ with. Fuckin’ Drew. Christ, I really was an asshole. Drew had fuckin’ raped her and I was makin’ her stand there thinkin’ I thought she was garbage.

That was over. Starting right now. “Enough! I know one thing that’s important right now. She ain’t your Talie. Never was and never fuckin’ will be. She’s fuckin’
mine
.”

Finally, that brought a little color back to Talie’s face. I guess I had restored at least some of her faith in me, thank God. Although, I knew this was probably going to be one complicated fuckin’ mess.

I made another decision and surprisingly I wasn’t scared by it all. “She’s my woman,
my
Talie.” I paused to take a breath and finished, “In fact, she’s my fuckin’ fiance.”

I heard Talie gasp along with all the other women in the place. I had to get Talie out of here. We had some shit to talk about that we should’a talked about a long time ago, and I had a feeling we were gonna need to make some decisions and fuckin’ fast. With the way she had talked about him and from what I knew about him, things were about to get really fuckin’ ugly.

I didn’t even look at Drew as I grabbed Talie’s hand and dragged her out of there. I opened the passenger door on the truck, pushed her up inside, and slammed the door. She flinched, but I couldn’t seem to get complete control of myself yet.

I rounded the hood, opened my door, jumped inside, shut the door, and started her up. I threw the gear shift into drive and took off.

We needed to get home, and we needed to talk. We needed to talk yesterday, but I let her fuckin’ talk me out of it.

Shit! Stop. This was not her fault. She didn’t know this was gonna happen any more than I did. I wonder if he followed her here or he just happened to come home and get a fuckin’ surprise. How ridiculous. She ran thinkin’ she’d be safe since he thought she was dead. She would’a been if she hadn’t come to his hometown! Didn’t she know where he was from? There were so many questions that I didn’t have the answers to. At least this time, maybe I knew someone who could answer them.