Runaway Groom (5 page)

Abby,

It feels like I’ve been missing you forever now.

Happy Valentine’s Day, baby.

B

Adjusting the skirt for the fourth time, Abigail wobbled for a second on the uncomfortable heels before steadying herself and blowing out a breath. “This isn’t a big deal. I can make it through this meeting. He probably won’t be there.”

“Talking to yourself is a sign you’re going crazy. Are you crazy for me, Abs?” His voice made her spin on her heel to face him.

She glared at Braxton. “Why are you here?”

“Well…” he pushed open the door in front of her, sliding a hand to her waist to guide her into the conference room, “…I’m now an important member of the Chamber of Commerce. That makes me part of the covered bridge festival planning committee.”

She would have to work with him if he worked on the committee. He couldn’t. He needed to be stopped. “You don’t have to be. You aren’t required to be part of the committee. We both know that. You could opt out or—”

“Braxton!” The cheerful voice interrupted them and Abigail turned to face Judge Hannigan. Longtime head of the covered bridge festival committee, the judge was also one of her mom’s high school sweethearts.

“Mornin, Bob. You get my email?”

Braxton wasn’t only on a first-name basis with the judge, he also emailed him?

That couldn’t be good.

“I did. That was why I asked you to come today. We need someone who writes for the paper to do a series of interviews. Between Braxton and me, we’ve come up with quite the list. Not only will it run in our local paper, it’s going to be syndicated and your boss was very excited when we requested you for this story. Local flavor, will attract tourism to the area… All in all, we think it will do wonders for area businesses and draw in a greater headcount than previous years.”

It grated, a little, to know that Braxton had a hand in her name getting picked, but it was quite the coup. The local paper paid well but a syndicated article would get her name out there. It wasn’t really an offer she could pass up. She bit back the response she wanted to give and instead gritted out, “I would be honored to do the interviews, Judge.”

“Thought you might feel that way. Braxton, this meeting is mostly things we’ve discussed already. Why don’t you take Abby here down for a cup of coffee, fill her in on what she will be doing for us? I’m sure between the two of you, this is one thing I can knock off the checklist.”

“On it, Bob.”

“Braxton doesn’t have to—”

The judge closed the door in her face.
Dismissed. Stuck with Braxton.

“Actually, Braxton does. I’ll be tagging along for the interviews. Bob and I felt it would go well and—”

“Is this some plot to get me to talk to you?” She figured it was about time to call a spade a spade.

“Yup. Sanctioned by your boss and the town council.” He looked pleased with himself.

“That is pretty fucking underhanded, Braxton.”

He grinned. “I know. All’s fair in love and war.”

“Which are we planning?”

His smile only seemed to grow. “Whichever involves you screaming my name, darlin’.”

She wondered if he remembered that talking in that slow, drawn-out drawl was like waving a green flag at her lady parts…all systems go.

Poking his chest with one finger, she met his tempting eyes, refusing to acknowledge the way his voice going husky like that made her stomach clench in need. “This isn’t going to work.”

“We’ll see.” Snaring her up against his body and keeping her tight in his arms even when she wiggled with a half-assed attempt to free herself, he grinned. “Always seems to work pretty damned good to me.” With that, he closed his mouth over hers and she got lost in the taste of him.

When he released her, she panted, one hand still cupping his face, and tried to remember what they’d been talking about.

When she finally did, she smacked his chest, which didn’t disturb in the slightest his smug grin. “Business only, no funny business.”

“I’m going to stick with
we’ll see
.” And he strode away from her whistling. The bastard.

“I’ve got coffee. C’mon in.” Leading Carnie inside, Abigail shifted the two grocery bags she was carrying. Sliding them onto the countertop, she froze when Carnie squeaked.

“Are you okay?” Turning, she saw her best friend staring, jaw agape, at her dining room table.

“Why is there a large bouquet of condom balloons on your table?”

Abigail felt the blood rush to her head. Seeing the glossy white card sticking out of the disturbing arrangement, she snagged it before Carnie could. “Okay, he’s going too far.”

“Braxton?” Carnie poked at one of the balloons which wobbled, floppy tip jiggling.

“Who else?”

“So…is this a suggestion that he can use a lot of condoms? What in the hell is up with this exactly?” Carnie laughed.

Opening the card, Abigail scanned the few handwritten words.
Like I’ve told you before, not quite yet. Love, B

Dropping the card, she sighed, memories hitting her in a flood. Carnie scooped it up and then waved it. “Not quite yet? There’s a story here. One I haven’t heard.”

“It’s stupid. That’s why you haven’t heard it.”

Grabbing a soda, Carnie plopped down. “Don’t make coffee. Tell me the story.”

Flopping into another chair, Abigail poked at one of the balloons. “It all started when we were kids.”

Abigail never planned to be nervous for it. Her first time, planned for months down to the hotel room, shouldn’t be nerve-wracking.

Sipping a soda, she stared out the window at the parking lot. Rain soaked it, making the lights have halos. Thinking of halos when she was about to engage in a night of sin with her boyfriend wasn’t helping the nerves.

“No one knows we’re here. Don’t know what you’re looking for.” Braxton’s voice sizzled over her skin.

“Just watching the rain.”

“If you’re as nervous as I am, you don’t have to hide by the window. I don’t think I could get it up right now if you stripped down and started dancing around the room. I’m too freaked out.”

Laughing, she turned to face him. “You’re nervous? I thought men didn’t get nervous. Besides, aren’t you supposed to at least act like you know what you’re doing?”

She crawled onto the bed and reclined next to him. He lay sprawled on his back, shirt off, golden tan dark against the white sheets. With a playful grin, he caught a lock of her hair around his finger. “No lies. That’s always been our motto. I’m a nervous wreck. All you have to do is lay back and enjoy. Me? I’m supposed to give an outstanding performance, ruin you for all other men, and otherwise make my mark without blowing my load too soon. Yeah, no pressure there.”

“None.” She laughed. “What if we take it as it goes and if we don’t get around to doing the deed, we don’t? I think we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves.”

His lips traced a path up her neck, finding the spot behind her ear that she loved when he kissed. “Sounds good. If we’re only fooling around, should I bother with the condom?”

“We ought to. Safer. Just in case.”

His mouth found hers and for a while she was lost in the feel of him, the taste of him. Lately, it seemed that she couldn’t get enough of him, even the sound of his voice made her breath speed. Breaking the kiss, he grinned at her. “We could use them as fancy balloons.”

Laughing, she bit his shoulder, happy he’d taken off his shirt before laying down so she could sample his skin. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

“Of course I do. The look on my dad’s face when he found us playing with the ‘balloons’ we found? And the best he could say was, ‘don’t play with my fancy balloons.’ Looking back, it
was
pretty damn funny.”

“We were what? Six or seven? We had no clue what they were laughing about.”

“Nope. Very durable balloons though. Kind of ruined regular balloons for us, I think, for the rest of childhood.” Grabbing a condom, he ripped the packet and pulled out the small rubber ring. “So, one fancy balloon. Any clue how I am supposed to do this exactly?”

“Uh, no. Thought you might know that bit.” Abigail touched it. “It’s soft, at least. I remember them being more powdery.”

“Sweetheart, it’s the only thing soft. Laying here with you has me hard as a rock. Turns out I was wrong about the whole pressure thing messing up that part.” He fiddled with the rubber disc.

“Do we have to blow it up first?”

Unzipping his jeans, Braxton pushed them down and freed his cock. “I don’t know. It isn’t something I can actually ask the guys about.”

“Gimme. Let me try to put it on.” He passed it to her, but she decided that messing with him might be a bit more fun than putting the rubber on. Tracing her fingertips up and down the length of him, she enjoyed watching his stomach muscles clench and hearing his breath catch. Having this kind of power with him always gave her a little thrill. Bending, she kissed the tip before licking and teasing him. Running her fingers across his balls, she felt them tighten and she gave one long suck along his length.

“Abs, we aren’t gonna need the condom if you keep that up.” His voice broke, breathless.

Grinning up at him, she tried to slide it on.

She got it partway before it shot back off.

“Whoops.”

His laugh rumbled in her ear, since her head was so close to his chest. “Turns out, even though we practiced everything else, this part might take us a while to figure out.”

Retrieving it, she tried again. “When I get old enough, I’m going on the pill or something so we don’t have to do this.”

“Abs.”

“Yeah?”

“The idea of being inside your body, nothing between us, isn’t helping the fact that I’m hard as rock and your fingers are making me want to come.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“This isn’t working.”

Frowning up at him, she watched as he took the condom back, ruining the precious inches she’d gained. “I almost had it on.”

Blowing it into a balloon, he tied it off. “Yeah, but there might be a hole in it. We fiddled with it too much.” He tapped her on the head with his freshly made fancy balloon before hitting it so that it sailed across the room.

“Oh.”

“C’mere.” His lips crashed into hers, his fingers hot and tempting as they glided under her shirt. “You need to be a lot more naked.”

After a few short moments, he had her down to her underwear, and her breath was coming in short pants. “Hang on,” he said.

She heard a rip. Closing her eyes, she fought a fresh wave of nerves.

“Got it.” Turning, she looked up at him, naked except for the rubber.

Muscles gleaming with sweat from passion and tanned from mowing lawns all summer, he looked almost too sexy. Loving him was something she’d been doing for as long as she could remember but this, being with him as a girlfriend, still felt so fresh and new. “So, I’m guessing you know what we do from here.”

“I think we’ll figure that part out together. Whether we know what we’re doing or not, our bodies know what they want.” His words, spoken in a near whisper even though they were alone, made shivers dance across her skin. She wanted him.

She was ready. She’d waited for this moment—they’d waited—wanting it to be right. She couldn’t imagine being with anyone else like this.

Again, he kissed her, and she dug her fingers into his hair. His hands seemed to touch her everywhere at once. She was hungry for him, and had been for so long. Soon, she was against him and the feeling of the length of his body, moving over hers, sliding skin against skin—

Suddenly, he rolled onto his back, breathing hard, and lay very still. “Don’t touch me, Abs. I’m good, I’m in control, but I want you really bad. Gimme a minute.”

She tried to think past the needs that had every nerve in her own body hypersensitive. “Why can’t I touch you?”

“I’m scared of hurting you. Taking your virginity. Not sure I can do it.”

“Fine, I’ll take yours.”

Rolling, she plunged herself onto him, feeling only a token resistance from her own body as she accepted him. Mostly she felt full. It took her a moment, adjusting, to get him all the way in, but she managed it while he lay, breathing very hard and clutching the sheets, white-knuckled.

After a moment of adjusting to the feel of him, she managed to bite out, “There, that part’s done.” It wasn’t uncomfortable, not exactly. It was almost nice. Stung a little, but…

When he laughed, she almost rolled off him, flooded with embarrassment.

Then he caught her hips with his hands, holding her in position.

Grinding his hips upwards slowly, with a little twist that had her head lolling back as heat zinged through her body, he answered, “Not quite yet.”

It felt so good, so new, so much, a moan curled out of her throat.

“Shit, Abs, you feel so good. So right.” Another roll of his hips and she began to move with him. Bracing her hands on his chest, she lifted her hips as he pulled back, meeting him halfway. The pleasure rippling from there, from that motion, made her fingers curl.