Reality Strikes

HARPER

My entire body was wary.

Not only had this man kissed me, unlike anything I had ever experienced—not like I had a lot of experience in the first place—but he could cook, he was great with my son, and held a steady job.

He seemed perfect, but even I know men had flaws.

As I watched him grab a couch throw and place it over Levi, who had fallen asleep next to Rusty on the sofa, an odd thought occurred to me.

Maybe this whole night I had been searching for some reason to evacuate this entire thing immediately.

He had answered every question I had thrown at him, personal or not, and so far hid nothing from me.

Maybe I was subconsciously trying to sabotage whatever this was in order to remain lonely. I was safe alone. It was secure, dependable, and zero chance of being ripped apart.

He stoked the fire in the fireplace below his giant wall-mounted television and then sat down beside me as I occupied half of his two-seater sofa. “You made up your mind yet?”

I furrowed my brow, tilting my head to the side in question.

“Mind? About what?” I took a sip from my coffee cup, pulling my legs up under me as I sat cross-legged, turning slightly to face him.

“Yeah, about whether or not I’m a suitable candidate. I presumed that’s what you were doing when you asked me thousands of questions over dinner. Don’t get me wrong, the inquisition was nice, it meant there was no lull in the conversation, but it kind of felt like I was being grilled for an interview.”

I blushed furiously; I could feel the heat burning the tips of my ears and cheeks.

My eyes fell, “I’m sorry, I honestly didn’t mean to give you the third degree, I was just…” I trailed into silence—what had been my endgame? Maybe I was looking to trip him up.

“I get it, you’re protective of who you allow in, of who you trust. There’s a lot of sexual chemistry between us, you’re cautious. Did you find anything deceitful or are you confused about anything I answered?”

“No,” I scoffed, “I think I was looking for imperfections.”

He chuckled, “I’m far from perfect. In fact, I think I have trust issues because of Sheila.”

“You have every right to, what she did to you was atrocious.”

“Yeah, but it also solidified she was not the right one.”

“Right one? As in ~the one~ that you’re meant to be with forever, right one?”

“Yes, my mate, my other half, the great love of my life. Do you not believe in soul mates?”

I turned my head away from him. “How does your TV not catch fire being above the fireplace?”

“It’s not real, I watch everything on a screen that drops from the ceiling. Now don’t change subjects.”

“Huh,” I clucked my tongue before turning back to face him. The TV sure looked real. “I just…don’t believe…I’m lovable.”

My hand covered my eyes. I had never confessed my inner insecurities out loud before.

“Why would you believe that?”

“It’s always just been Leivon and me. In the end, he will always come first and I don’t think anyone can handle that. It’s not exactly like I have men lining up to be with me, it’s always been the opposite, they run from me.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. It’s a mother’s natural instinct to put her young first. But you should really stop using the term men. They were boys—a real man fights for what he wants.”

Spencer removed the mug of coffee from my hand and then entwined our fingers. My heart picked up pace at the personal closeness, a flurry of fluttering wings roared to life inside my stomach.

“I-I should go, Levi has school in the morning and we have work…”

He stood up, pulling me by my hand, out of the main lounge room. “Where are we going?”

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to do all day but I know how you want to keep things away from cowboy.”

He led us down the hallway and into a dark room, leaving the door slightly ajar, allowing just enough light to barely see inside.

“Harper…”

I turned around, my eyes falling instantly onto a bed. I had a feeling we were in his room. He gently took my hand in his again as I followed him around to the side.

He leaned over and switched on a bedside lamp.

“What are we doing in here? What if Levi wakes up and wonders where we are? What if someone knocks and we don’t hear them? What if—”

“What if you just relax for five seconds. Rusty may be a gentle soul, but he’s fiercely protective of those he cares about, and clearly cowboy and he have already established a bond.”

Spencer ran his hands up and down my arms, causing me to shiver under his touch.

I flopped down onto his bed. “Am I really that uptight?”

I look up at him as he moves between my legs, leaning down to me, and I slowly descend back onto his bed so my body lay against his soft fluffy quilt cover.

“I think you’ve just been so busy worrying about everyone else that you’ve forgotten yourself. You are not uptight, you are incredible.”

The temperature of the room suddenly spiked as his body pressed against mine and our lips connected. His tongue slid into my mouth and massaged my tongue with his.

I groaned at the lavish feel of our mouths moving as one, our hands roaming each other unashamedly.

This singular kiss was what my body had been yearning for. He palmed my bum cheek before lifting my right leg and wrapping it around his waist.

Our passionate need was taking control and had my head swimming with deviant depraved thoughts of ways I wanted to devour his body.

His hips thrust his member into my core, and I felt his large arousal harden against my jean-clad pulsing mound.

There was nothing I wanted more than for him to tear away every layer of clothing and take sexual advantage of my burning body.

My fingertips grabbed at the hem of his polo shirt, sliding it up as I palmed his skin underneath. He broke from our kiss, ripping his shirt up over his head and tossing it carelessly to the side.

My lips hungrily caressed his skin, and I nipped at his shoulder; a hiss escaped his mouth as I took full opportunity to sample his delectable flesh.

He tasted just as incredible as he smelled. The strong smell of oak and rain, like the forest after a thunderstorm, consumed me.

My tongue extended, circling his nipple as he continued to dry-hump me, rubbing against me in just the right way so the friction and action tickled my aroused nub.

This was the most sexual I had been in years. I could feel my core moistening my panties, and I prayed it wasn’t gushing out, because God knows I had never been turned on quite this much.

Spence pushed me back, lifting up my T-shirt and the cup of my bra, releasing my erect right nipple as he smirked and growled from the back of his throat.

The way he looked at me with dripping desire had me grinning from ear to ear. I felt…sexy.

His warm mouth captured my breast and suckled gently, causing my back to arch off the bed. I was losing my mind to the rhythmic ministrations on my sensitive flesh.

Each thrust up had my core burning hotter than the last. I wanted him in me, needed to feel him in me, and I cursed the fact we both had pants on.

Suddenly, we hear the dog barking like a maniac from the lounge room. We both froze, staring wide-eyed at each other.

I kicked into gear hearing his bark again and pushed Spence off me with as much panicked strength as I could muster, fixing my shirt and racing down the hall to my son.

He was sitting there rubbing his tired eyes.

Thankfully, Spence had thrown his shirt back on and walked to the front door. It was about ten on a Sunday night, who would be visiting at this hour? He was the deputy, maybe he was needed?

The front door opened and there stood none other than Sheila, in nothing but a trench coat and heels and the front held open by her hands, her bare naked form on full display.

I leaped in front of my son, attempting to block his view as Spencer panicked and began yelling obscenities at her. This was something I couldn’t handle.

I collected Levi and grabbed my bag, striding past them arguing about her being there, not missing the satisfied smirk on her ugly face.

I clicked him into the booster seat as Spencer called for me to wait but I couldn’t, I had seen enough.

He grasped my elbow as I tried to enter the driver’s door. “Please don’t go, Harper, it’s not what you think. I didn’t know she was coming here…don’t go,” he pleaded with me.

“It’s late, I have to get home,” I stated simply, yanking my arm back and slipping inside. I boldly look up to see his disheartened face and my heart clenched.

My actions had hurt him, but I wasn’t going to be the same girl who watched Levi’s father flaunt his parade of fresh fucks in my face. That had been enough torture to fill the rest of my life.

I reversed and left. I was so close to fucking him, so close to letting it all go and then she shows up, completely naked. She had shown up to get him back…if they weren’t already fucking.

That night I tossed and turned, my phone was vibrating with endless messages but I turned it off without reading them. This was not his fault and inside my heart, I knew it wasn’t.

I had spent all night purposely seeking out his flaws and found nothing. When Sheila had shown up it had given me the opportunity I needed to escape.

I watched as my room lightened, signaling the dawn of a new day.

I would need an obscene amount of coffee to get through everything I have to do today and not sleeping a wink already had my stomach rolling in anxiety.

I showered and dressed, then headed for the kitchen. The sounds of my son and uncle singing away to ‘Johnny B. Goode’ by Chuck Berry lifted my solemn mood somewhat.

“Morning, kid. Jesus, he wear you out that much?” Clade chuckled.

I bend over to kiss Levi’s forehead, “Honey, Mommy left her phone on charge, can you get it please?”

“Sure Mom,” Leivon jumped off his chair and went racing down the hall. When he was out of earshot, I faced my uncle.

“No, his ex showed up last night, naked, and we copped an eyeful of her.”

“Shelia’s back?” His eyes grew wide.

“You know her?”

“The whole town knows what she and his best friend did to him. Wretched girl, always has been. They took off to the city together right after their affair was discovered.” He sat down with a bowl full of cocoa puffs. “That Justin back too?”

“I’m not sure, she was there to seduce him.”

“What does seduce mean?” Levi handed me my phone.

“Thank you, honey.” I dragged my exhausted frame over to the coffee pot, ignoring my son’s question, “Hey, are you excited about school today?” I threw back a distraction at him.

“Yes,” he replied excitedly.

“Good, I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures tonight when I get home.”

Uncle Clade flashed me a look of pity but I had successfully avoided Leivon’s quizzical mind.

Today was going to be tough, but I had survived through worse, I would be fine and hopefully, by tonight, I will be so exhausted I just pass out.

By twelve-thirty my eyes were burning from being open too long and my body was calling for sleep, I decided to take my lunch break in the car and placed my head against the steering wheel.

I closed my eyes and sat enjoying the warmth of the wheel that had been under in the sun all morning, and the fact that I could relax for five minutes, when my passenger’s door opened.

I was startled to a ramrod straight position.

“Relax, it’s just me.” Spence slumped into the seat beside me. I groaned, returning my forehead to its previous position against the wheel. “Harper, you didn’t reply to my texts, then when I called it went straight to voicemail.”

“Well, that’s because it was late, Deputy, and I turned it off.”

“You look as though you’ve had no sleep?” I tilted my head to the side, eyeing him with an unimpressed look.

“Well, having your ex’s naked body burned into my mind doesn’t exactly whip me into a sleeping frenzy,” my tone was thickly laced with sarcasm.

“I didn’t know she was going to come around,” his raised voice had me recoiling and shrinking back into myself.

“I know that…”

“Do you? Because you’re acting as though I fucked her when all I did was slam the door in her face and left her standing in the cold, hollering like a maniac.”

I sat back with my head on the headrest. “I’m sorry Spence, I panicked. I’ve been up all night thinking about it, about how I should have stayed with you and talked about it. I’m just… so…”

“Afraid to be hurt, not just you but Levi too, I get it but trust me, please… I told you I don’t want her. I want only you and Leivon.”

He leaned forward and pulled the lever under the seat, shifting it back. “What are you—”

“Come here, Harper,” he patted his lap. I was too tired to argue or even resist his magnetic pull so I pushed my chair back and climbed onto his lap in my passenger’s seat.

His strong muscular arms wrapped around to hold me securely in place as he peppered light kisses along my jawline and down my neck before claiming my lips in one solid, searing, mind-blowing push.

“I’m coming over tonight, to stay in your bed, in your room—”

I tried to interject, “Spence—”

“No, sweet cheeks, cowboy needs to get used to seeing me, because I’m not letting either of you go. We don’t have to do anything, though I admit, it’s going to be hard not to, but I’m here, and I feel like you are the one I’ve been looking for all this time. You think I would be this cut up if I had no interest?”

I relaxed into him, adoring just being in his presence.

“Not staying, Spencer,” I mumbled, “just come over for dinner—”

“Every night… Every night, at first.”

I chuckled at his assertiveness, he was ensuring I understood he would not just accept what I said, it would all be about compromise and I couldn’t help but lose my reason to him and nod in agreement.

~I want you.~

My entire life, I’ve craved for someone to say those words to me, and never thought it would happen.

~I want you and Leivon, only you and Leivon.~

When he paired them with my son, it felt as though my heart would explode and disintegrate everything right on the spot.

With our lips pressed together passionately and our tongues rhythmically dancing with each other, I finally felt like this was exactly where I belonged and shit, was I in trouble.