Beginning of Forever (Heaven Hill #7) Read online

  “What?” she asked, not able to help the grin that spread across her own face.

  “She’s out…most everybody else is either in bed or they’ve moved the party somewhere else for the night…” he let his sentence die off.

  Being together for years meant that you knew what your significant other was getting at or trying to say, but sometimes she liked to make him work for it. “That means we should sleep really good tonight. It’s been a super long day. Working at CRISIS means you don’t get to take holidays off.” She exaggerated a yawn and raised her arms up over her head, stretching.

  He took the opportunity to grab her around the waist and lift her up. Using his hands, he spread her thighs and let her legs circle his mid-section. “I think you know just what I’m gettin’ at, sweetheart. No reason to act like you don’t.”

  Of their own accord, her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him in to a kiss that was hot enough to cause sweat to break out on his brow. He groaned in the back of his throat, tightening his grip on her ass.

  “You’re right.” Her voice was breathless as she pulled away from the kiss. “Where can we go?” Some people were okay with having relations while a child was around, but that had never been her thing and probably never would be.

  “Neither one of us got to swim tonight.”

  “Give me five minutes to make sure that someone can watch Addie if she needs something before we get back and to grab my swimsuit.” She hurriedly grabbed the baby monitor they used while they were here and went in search of a friend.

  “Five minutes, and that’s all you get.”

  The tone of his voice told her there would be no argument.

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  Chapter Three

  “Go on, enjoy that piece of man meat you call yours. I’ll make sure Addie is taken care of, if she needs anything. I’m pretty sure she won’t, but don’t worry about it,” B told Meredith, grinning at her like a lunatic as she held up the baby monitor in one hand.

  “Why are you so happy I’m going to go have alone time with Ty?” she asked, her eyes squinted together in question.

  “I just have a really good feeling about tonight. I’ve thought about it the whole night…every time I look at you, I think it’s a special night.”

  “Whatever.” Meredith laughed. “Thanks for watching her.”

  Not waiting for B to spout off more weird words to her, she high-tailed it back down the hallway and to the dorm room they called their own. She closed the door as quietly as she could. “B and Jagger got it if Addie wakes up; let me just change real fast.”

  When she turned, her mouth went dry, like barren desert dry. “How is it that every time I look at you without a shirt on, you’re hotter than you were the time before?”

  “I keep tellin’ you. It’s the workouts with Drew, plus I wanna keep it tight for you.”

  Keeping it tight was one way of putting it. She was pretty sure he now sported an eight-pack on his abdomen.

  “Go change, I’m ready for some adult time with you,” he ordered, stepping up to kiss her on the cheek. His hand cupped her hip and pulled her to him for a fraction of a second. That fraction was enough for her to know that maybe B was right, maybe this night was special.

  “Be right back.”

  Meredith’s heart pounded in her chest as she made her way to the bathroom. She tried to think back to the last night they’d had like this and realized it had been a while. Playing mommy and daddy, not to mention the stress of the court case to get Addie, had taken a toll on their intimacy. She wanted a little bit of that back tonight. Digging through the bag of swimwear she kept at the clubhouse, she looked for one bikini in particular…it was skimpy, and she hadn’t worn it in a couple of years. Partly because she’d gained a few pounds and partly because those few pounds she’d gained made the damn thing look indecent. Quickly she got out of her clothes and put the suit on. Her hair had been up in a ponytail for most of the night because she’d let it air dry before they came. Taking it down, she was happy to see that it had naturally curled. She took a few minutes to arrange it before she put a cover-up on and then made her way out to the room.

  “Really? A cover-up?” Tyler’s face was a mask of disappointment.

  She laughed. “The only person I want to see me in what I’m wearing is you. So yes, a cover-up.”

  Grabbing her hand, he pulled her out of the room, and within a minute they were down the hallway and outside on the deck. Tyler watched her, his eyes dark, as he moved around the space, lowering the lighting that had been placed here and there to give it some atmosphere. “Don’t want anybody to be spying,” he explained.

  Meredith knew without a doubt that no one would be spying—everyone respected Tyler in such a way that almost any person she knew would rather kill themselves before they would disrespect or disappoint him. “While you do that,” she started to take off the cover-up, “I’m gonna get in.”

  His intake of breath was sharp as he saw the bikini she wore. It gave her satisfaction to hear it and made her feel powerful. It was one of the best sounds she’d heard in a very long time.

  Glancing over her shoulder at him, she gave him a saucy smile before she jumped in. When she resurfaced, pushing her hair back from her face, smoothing it with the water from the pool, he was still standing. Staring. His gaze was so intense she could feel it in every part of her body. It was almost unnerving. “Aren’t you gonna come in?”

  He went down into a squat and used his index finger to call her over to him. There were no words exchanged between the two, but there didn’t need to be. They could speak with looks and sounds; they didn’t need words.

  It was as if he had a string and she were attached to it. His gaze pulled her across the water until she stopped in front of him. Sitting on the edge of the pool, he put his legs in, using them to encircle her. “You’re not gonna get away,” he teased.

  “I never wanted to.” She gazed up at him under wet lashes.

  There was something in her gaze that called to him. Every time they were intimate, she gave a piece of herself over and he took that piece and held it close to his heart. It was one of the things he’d loved about her from the beginning. He’d had tons of meaningless sex in his life, but with her—every look, every touch, every sound meant something. “Give me your hands,” he told her.

  She did as he asked, gasping as he used his upper body strength to pull her up out of the water. To stabilize herself, she quickly spread her thighs, straddling his hips. Using her hands, she gripped his shoulders to keep her balance, and it was then that his lips claimed hers.

  One large palm went to the nape of her neck, tangling in the mass of hair there. His other went to her hip, settling her more firmly against the hardness of his body. Meredith moaned deeply in the back of her throat. He owned her, always had from the first moment he’d saved her—hell, he’d probably owned her from the moment he’d changed the password on her phone just to piss her off. Their past had directly pointed to their future, and she knew without a doubt that there had never been and would never be another man for her. She tore her lips from his, needing to take a breath.

  “You smell so damn good.” He smeared his lips down her neck, bringing his forehead to rest in the spot where her neck and shoulder met. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he turned his nose into her soft skin. He inhaled, feeling the reaction he had to the unique smell of his wife. With sharp teeth, he nipped at her pulse point, before soothing the burn with the tip of his tongue.

  Grasping his hair in her fingers, she pulled him more firmly to her, pressing his lips and mouth harder against her skin. There was nothing in the world that felt better than when she was being owned by this man. He could do absolutely anything to her and she would always say “yes” and “more”. He’d broken through a shell that had been erected after her attack, and he hadn’t ever let her put it back in place. She’d never had to with him; he knew what she needed, always.

  Running his hand down h
er back, he helped her rock into him. He loved the tease before they got naked. There was nothing that turned him on more than knowing what was underneath the clothes his woman wore, but there was something forbidden and erotic about dragging out the moment where they would disrobe and be skin to skin. She let him play—she loved to let him play—and oh, did he love to play.

  Tilting her back against his arm, he held her tightly. She trusted him, knowing he’d never let her fall. His lips once again worked on her neck, sucking gently here and there, causing her to grind into him whenever he hit a spot she liked. This time his lips slid down further to her upper chest, teasing the skin there.

  “Stop teasing.” The tortured voice that came out of her mouth shouldn’t have been hers, but it was.

  “I haven’t even started yet.” His grin was that of a man who knew his way around a woman’s body and promised he wouldn’t stop until two things happened: he was done and she was satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt. If there was one thing Tyler Blackfoot didn’t ever do, it was leave his woman wanting more.

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  Chapter Four

  Meredith felt like she was on fire as Tyler reached around and grabbed the tie that held the top of her bikini in place. She felt the give of the string as he pulled on it, then she pushed back against his strong forearm so that it could fall away. Her eyes met his before he broke the gaze and looked down at the flesh he’d just bared. There was something about the look of concentration that fell into place over his features that excited her.

  “You get more beautiful every time I see you,” he whispered before bending his head so he could capture her hard flesh in between his lips.

  This was what she loved about him. Before him, she’d been extremely self-conscious about herself, especially after the attack. He had taken all those feelings and thrown them into a box, shoving it somewhere she would never be able to find them again. With him, she did feel beautiful, she did feel wanted, there was no doubt in her mind that her husband loved and wanted her. Those feelings were worth more than anything in the world to her. Running her hands through his long hair, she pulled his head tighter against her flesh as she arched her back into him. The loud moan that came from deep in her throat had her blushing and giggling.

  He pulled away, grinning up at her. The way that smile transformed his face was amazing, and she was so happy to have put it there. “Shhh,” he admonished, the grin widening. “We don’t want people coming out here to investigate.”

  She couldn’t help giggling and grinning right back at him. They laughed so hard they lost their balance and fell into the pool, taking each other under. As they broke the surface, she saw a feral look in his eyes. It caused her heart rate to speed up and she felt a feeling in her stomach—not fear, but something else. She loved the chase; there was something about trying to get away from him and letting him catch her that excited her more than anything. Pushing against the bottom of the pool, she did her best to get out of his reach, but the pool was a small, enclosed space, and when one of the walls stopped her escape, she felt his hot body come up behind her.

  “Where do you think you’re goin’?” he asked, his deep voice close to her ear.

  There had been a moment in time when, no matter even if it was him, she would have freaked out having a man coming up behind her. Now, however, she loved for her husband to enclose her in his arms from behind. She grabbed his arms, circling them around her waist. “Lettin’ you catch me.”

  He chuckled. “You didn’t try too hard to get away.”

  Truer words had never been spoken. Never would she try to get too far away from him. There was no other place she felt safer.

  “You okay?” he asked, his deep voice still at her ear.

  She wasn’t sure what he was talking about until she felt his big hands move up her waist to cup her bare breasts. Then she felt his nose nuzzle her neck, his teeth nipping lightly at the skin there.

  “Fine,” she breathed out on a moan when he used one hand to tease the tip of a breast. She felt him use his other hand to push the bikini bottoms down her hips. Reaching out to the edge of the pool, she grabbed hold and helped him kick the bottoms off.

  “Good,” he rumbled in her ear. “If I ever do anything you aren’t comfortable with, I want you to always tell me.”

  It wasn’t something that they always talked about before they made love, but if they did something out of the ordinary, he still felt the need to reassure her. In a way it wasn’t necessary anymore, but in another way, she was so appreciative when he did it. Meredith knew Tyler would never hurt her, but there were some moments—even now—in her everyday life that something would trigger a memory of that night and cause her to be transported back to that night under the bridge. The fact that he took a moment—where she knew he was as far gone as her—to let her know that he remembered meant more than anything else ever could.

  At some point while she’d been lost in her own mind, he’d rid himself of his swimming trunks, because now he grasped her hips with one hand, his other hand clasped over the one she still had on the edge of the pool, holding it there. To keep herself grounded, she moved her other hand to the metal siding and gripped hard. The first entry of his body into hers always took her breath away. She wondered if it would always do that. There was a part of her that had wondered if their passion would burn out. Especially for those months when they were trying for a baby—when she hadn’t let passion take them away. It had been about one thing and one thing only—getting pregnant. Shame still crept up on her when she thought of those long months. In her want for something that God saw fit she didn’t need, she’d almost ruined her marriage.

  Throwing her head back against his shoulder, she breathed deeply as he surged into and out of her body. What she smelled was Tyler. She could smell the leather that always clung to his skin, she could smell the tobacco he had a penchant for smoking. God, she loved everything about him.

  “You still with me?” he asked, his voice rough as he reached up and grasped her under the chin so he could pull her head back further. Their eyes met as she nodded to say she sure as hell was still with him. “I was worried there for a sec,” he breathed out on a low breath.

  “Always with you,” she told him, hooking her arm around the back of his neck and holding onto his hair with her fist. The move pulled her breast above the water, and he abandoned holding her hip to reach up and grab hold of the flesh again.

  Meredith’s legs were beginning to burn, but this was the best workout she’d ever had in her life. Dropping her eyes down to see where he cupped her, she took pleasure in the look of his dark skin against her pale, white skin. Even in the summer she didn’t tan well. She loved that he had a tan year-round. Just one of the many things she loved about the man she’d dubbed the gentle giant. Rolling her head against his shoulder, she finally let her mind go and gave herself over to the feelings he evoked in her body.

  “Don’t know if I can hold back, baby,” he ground out between gritted teeth.

  She took his hand from her breast and moved it down the middle of her body to where they were joined. He knew exactly what to do to make her detonate, and she didn’t want him to let go without her. In less than sixty seconds he had her with him, and she was squirming against his fingers, lifting her legs up in an effort to get closer to him.

  “C’mon, Mer.” He nipped at her earlobe, soothing the bite with his tongue.

  Out of nowhere he grasped her around the waist and pulled her into a sitting position on him, shoving himself deep inside her, not stopping his fingers where she needed them the most. The weightless feeling was all it took for her to join him. He groaned loudly in her ear, and she put her own hand up to her mouth to smother the sounds of her pleasure. They had no idea where everyone was, and there was no reason for them to advertise what they’d done.

  She giggled minutes later when her heart rate leveled itself out and her legs no longer felt like jelly. She turned in the circle of his arms, taking in th
e fact that his face was still red, wearing the evidence of his exertion. “You okay, old man?” she teased, grasping him around the waist. He was close to turning thirty-six and hated for anyone to remind him.

  “Do I need to turn you back around and show you what an old man can do?” he questioned, his eyes blazing. “Old man, my ass,” he mumbled.

  “I’m teasing.” She giggled at how upset he got whenever she mentioned it. There weren’t many things that upset Tyler Blackfoot, but he was having a very hard time going past the thirty-five mark. “You’re still hotter than any other man out there, be it younger or older.” She squeezed him around the waist, burying her head in the crook of his neck.

  “Damn right,” he grumbled, clasping his arm around her neck and pulling her into his body. He breathed deeply, taking comfort in the familiarity they had with one another. There was nothing else in this world that could ground him like having her in his arms.

  “We need to get out of here,” she whispered. “There’s no tellin’ what time it is, and you know as well as I do that Addie likes to wake up early—especially when we stay at the clubhouse.”

  Those words were true. The little girl loved being around the clubhouse. It was probably because she had built-in playmates with Liam and Denise’s daughter, Tatum, and Rooster and Roni’s son, Carter. Even though Carter was littler than the two girls, he still managed to keep up. He was crawling, and that was all he needed to do to be a nuisance to them. He took great delight in making the two girls cry whenever he could. Add that to the fact that every woman in the clubhouse who didn’t have children doted on the three of them and it was hard for Meredith and Tyler to get Addie to want to leave when it came time.

  “Let’s go,” he told her, pulling her through the water and over to the ladder so they could step out.

  “Hang on.” She swatted at his hand. “Let me put my clothes back on.”

  He helped her tie the string on her bikini top and slip the bottoms over her hips, while she helped him tie the string at the waist of his swim trunks. “We’re presentable now,” he told her, lifting himself out before reaching down and offering her his hand.