Song Chaser (Chasers) (29 page)

I roll my eyes, “Well, seeing as how I was freezing in the cab, I don’t see a very strong case building in your favor.”

Tanner flips me around, feigning offense. “Are you saying I didn’t keep you warm in the car?” he asks, referring to our very steamy make-out session that caused the cab driver to veer a couple times.

I shrug, “Meh, I was warm, I guess. But,” I let a grin slide onto my face. “I didn’t realize that’s all you were aiming for.
Warm
.”

The corners of Tanner’s lips pull up into a sideways smirk, “Are you challenging me, Frecks?”

My eyes roll up a little and I shrug again. Then, before I have time to stop him, Tanner’s fingers find the ticklish spot in my ribs and he goes to town. I squeal and thrash to get away from him, laughing uncontrollably but he’s relentless. He throws me over his shoulder and carries me to my room, tossing me down on the bed and tickling me harder. Tears start streaming from my eyes and I’ve lost all ability to breathe I’m laughing so hard. Finally, he relents and I shove him hard against the chest as I stand and move to my closet. “Not fair! You’re not ticklish for me to get you back!”

A short laugh escapes his lips and he kicks back on the bed, “Aww, poor thing.” He pouts his bottom lip out mockingly and I shoot him a playful glare before fishing a pair of pajama shorts and tank top out of the middle drawer of my dresser. I bump it closed with my hip and move to my bathroom to change.

I feel instantly cooler once I’m in the shorts and tank and I lean over the sink to splash my face with water. As I blot it dry with my hand towel, I feel Tanner move up behind me, pressing his hips against me. I pull the towel from my face and I’m greeted with Tanner’s honey eyes, hooded and daring as they stare back at me in the mirror. He wraps his hands around my waist and thumbs the hem of my shorts before breathing against the skin of my neck, “I like these shorts.”

My cheeks flush and I wonder if I should even try not to blush around him anymore. He always seems to find a way to bring that shade of red right back up. I
turn at the waist to face him, but he snaps his hands down onto the bathroom counter on either side of me, pinning me in place. My eyes meet his again.

“You know, I think it might be time for me to cash in on that bet,” he says, still searing my skin with his gaze as he nips at my neck. He bites a little harder and my eyes roll back.

“Look at me,” he demands, and I do. “Do you want me to fuck you bent over this counter while you watch?”

I shiver at his words, my senses jumping to life at the touch of his lips on my skin. Words and my breath stolen,
I nod.

Tanner shakes his head, “I need to hear you say it, Frecks.”
His voice is husky and seductive, sending another parade of chills down my arms.

“I want you to,” I say kind of softly, my confidence drained a little. Sure, I told him not to go slow the first time and got a little feisty in the shower when I asked him to take me from behind, but I’m still nowhere near as experienced as he is. He knows that, and I think that’s why he’s asking.

“What was that?” he asks, sliding one hand up under my tank top and pinching my nipple as his other travels south of my navel. I moan and let my head fall back when he presses two fingers between my lips, teasing.

“I want you to,
please
,” I breathe a little too desperately. “Fuck me against this counter.”

Tanner smiles devilishly as his hand runs slowly up and over my collarbone. He grasps my neck firmly, but not too hard, and holds my jaw with his finger and thumb, locking my head forward. “I want you to watch. Do
n’t close your eyes. Don’t look away. Watch what I do to you.” A jolt shoots straight from where his hand is touching me down between my legs and I feel myself grow wetter. “Nod so I know you understand,” he says and I nod, though my neck feels weak. Everything feels weak, like he’s oozing a sedative from those fingers pressed against me.

Slowly, Tanner pulls his hands to my stomach and lifts my tank top. I stretch my arms up toward the ceiling and he pulls it over my breasts, my head, my elbows before letting it drop weightlessly to the floor. I let my hands fall back and grab his hair as he kisses against my neck. His hands glide down again before hooking my shorts and tugging them to join my tank on the floor. I turn my head back to kiss him but his hand shoots up to grab my jaw again, adjusting me so that I’m facing the mirror. “Watch.”

Holy fuck, this is hot.

He takes his hands off me long enough to quickly undo his belt and drop his jeans, pulling his boxers with them. His body is partially hidden behind mine, but I can feel him pressed against me, growing harder as I pull my hands behind me and dig my nails into his hips.

Tanner hooks his hands around where my waist bends and pushes me forward, my face close to the mirror now as he stands dominant behind me. The veins in his arms are on full display, the muscles in his body tensing with every breath he takes. He reaches down to guide his length and slowly, so I can feel every inch of him pushing into me, he slides inside. My breath hitches and I moan, my eyes rolling back. He spanks me, not too hard and honestly I feel the exact opposite of pain when he does it, and my eyes snap open, focusing on his again.

“What did I say? Eyes open.” He grips my hips in his hands and works himself in and out. I feel him so much deeper in this position
that it’s nearly impossible to keep my eyes open. I bite my lip and cry out his name, my breaths more moans than anything.

“Goddamnit, I love how vocal you are,” he says, thrusting into me a little harder. I yelp and a jolt of electricity shoots through me. Tanner runs his hands up my back and grabs my hair in both his fists, gently tugging back so that my chin lifts up and I stare directly into his eyes. He works harder, faster, pounding into me as my thighs bang against the edge of the counter.

Watching his face as he looks at me, seeing what I do to him makes me crazy. It feels almost too personal to keep my eyes open and watching, but I obey and the visuals heighten my sensitivity. Tanner slides one hand around my waist and plunges it between my legs, working my sweet spot in a circular motion. I rip his hand away and he eyes me, curious.

“I don’t need it.
I want to come just from you inside me.”

Tanner curses under his breath and slams into me a little harder. Challenge accepted. Over and over he fills me and my breaths grow shorter, my muscles tighten. I hold my breath and Tanner whispers, “Come, baby.” And that’s all it takes. His words push me over the edge and I spiral out of control, my legs shaking violently and screams louder than I thought imaginable bursting through my lips. Waves and waves of pleasure roll over me, washing away every other feeling and drowning me in ecstasy.

“Oh, fuck,” Tanner moans and I feel the warmth of his release. His eyes stay locked on mine and I realize this is the first time I’ve ever watched him come apart for me.

And it’s so fucking hot.

Our bodies tremble as our breathing steadies, sweat beading on both of us and steam covering the mirror now. I lean up off the counter, my body already sore, and turn to kiss him. I pull him between my legs and kiss him playfully, “Remind me to let you win bets more often.”

He laughs a little against my lips and his hands squeeze my waist, “Remind
me
to keep it hot as fuck so you wear those shorts more often.”

We
both change, me back into the discarded shorts and tank and Tanner into a pair of basketball shorts he left over and the same t-shirt he’s worn all night. It smells like his cologne and sex and I like the way the two scents play with each other as I rest my head on his chest. We’re cozied up under the sheets of my bed, still too hot to pull the comforter up.

“Frecks?”

“Hm?” I ask, still a little sedated from his touch.

“Why do you think you’re so much like your mom?”

His question catches me off guard and the finger I had lazily been drawing circles on his abs with stops abruptly. He leans up and I fall back against the mattress as he adjusts himself, propping up on one elbow.

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I guess everyone has just compared me to her my whole life, so I started believing it, too. I haven’t ever been with a guy very long and I fled from the same town she did for pretty much the same reasons. I just have a selfish tendency that seems to override my other intentions.”

His face is contemplative. “Did you ever think that maybe people were saying you were like her in a good way?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, sitting up and crossing my legs to face him.

“Well, you haven’t told me much about your mom, but I’m sure she was a great woman or she wouldn’t have made so many people sad when she left. Maybe they see her good qualities in you.”

I chew my lip, considering his observation. I already know that I look a lot like my mom, but I always just assumed that when people said I was like her, they meant
it in the selfish, it’s-all-about-me-and-I don’t-care-what-anyone-else-thinks way. “I don’t know. I guess maybe, but I think everyone just saw how much I desired the same things she did and repelled the life I was supposed to be living. I feel like I almost adopted that straight from her.”

Tanner shakes his head, “I don’t think so. Everyone has to figure out the path that works best for them. Just because you were born in a small town where your family owned a syrup farm doesn’t mean you’re supposed to want to stay there your whole life.” He sits up and faces me, propping his elbow on one knee. “Society puts so much emphasis on what we should and shouldn’t do, what we should and shouldn’t
be
. But maybe it’s not about what’s supposed to happen. Maybe it’s about following our gut and finding our own version of what should be.”

I smile, both at what he said and how he said it. “You’re getting kind of deep on me, Tanner West.”

He laughs, “I know, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about it and I hate that you think you’re like the evil spawn of a selfish woman. I know your mom hurt a lot of people when she left and maybe she didn’t do it the right way, but who’s to say her spirit didn’t just need to be free? Who’s to say she didn’t try to stay, to live the life she was supposed to, but then realized life is too short for that? If that’s the bad quality you think you got from her, I just think that maybe it’s not a bad quality, at all. Maybe it’s the best thing she gave you – a desire to be who you want to be.”

Damn. I’ve never thought about it that way. Hell, I haven’t really ever thought about it period other than
when she first left and my thirteen-year-old self tried to make sense of why Mom was gone.

I tuck a strand of loose hair behind my ear and look back at Tanner, “I think you see a better person in me than really exists.”

He shakes his head and pulls me toward him, pressing his lips to my forehead. “I think I see the real you.” He lies back down and pulls me with him, my head resting on his chest again. I feel the heavy words, the heavy thoughts filling the space between us but I don’t call them out and thankfully, neither does Tanner. We both know they’re there, but I’m afraid of giving them attention. I don’t want to ruin what we have, whatever that is.

“I’ve missed you,” I say, nuzzling against him. “Our schedules suck.”

He groans, “Ugh, I know. I wish you could take off work and come with me this weekend.”

My face scrunches and I prop myself up to look at him, confused. “What are you talking about?” I laugh a little with the words, wondering if he’s toying with me.

“To Paisley’s bakery opening. It’s this Saturday.”

My heart stops dead in my chest but I still feel it pounding in my ears, “What?”

Now Tanner looks confused. “Yeah. I told you about it when we were driving back, remember?”

I recall him telling me he was going to her bakery opening
, but when I asked him when it was he couldn’t remember. He said he had it written down somewhere. “Yeah, I do. But you didn’t tell me it was
this
Saturday.”

He leans up, sensin
g my reaction, “I’m sorry, babe. Paisley just reminded me of the date last week.”

My cheeks grow hot and this time not from blushing.

I am fucking pissed.

I jump up from the bed and start gathering Tanner’s things, shoving them into a duffle bag I got at a university event my freshman year. “You need to go.”

“What?” He jumps up too, trying to grab my hand but I yank it free. “Kellee, what’s wrong? I thought you were okay with me going?”

Are you shitting me? Is he really that clueless?

I wheel back around, the heat rushing to my face again. “The fucking Loner Boys concert is this Saturday, Tanner. You know, the one you bought us tickets to? My favorite band that you were going to take me to see for the first time? Or did this all just slip your mind the minute precious Paisley called?” I know I’m acting a little immature, but I can’t help it. I’m so mad I can’t see straight and I watch Tanner’s face as he connects the dots.

“Oh shit, Kellee. Fuck
. I am so sorry.” He reaches out for my hand again but I step back away from him. His hand stays outstretched, but he doesn’t push. “I forgot, I totally did and I’m the biggest asshole ever. I’ll make it up to you.”