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10

EDGE

A fter lunch, Evie was unusually quiet while I drove to the gun range.

I waited until I pulled into the parking lot to ask, “Are you okay?”

“I guess I’m a little nervous,” she admitted.

“I’ll be with you the whole time. We’ll go over everything before we start shooting,” I assured her.

And that’s exactly what we did. I showed her how to load and unload the gun and how to chamber a round. Then I had her do it a few times. After that, we talked about gun safety and went over the current gun laws for our state.

“I don’t need a permit for this?” she asked in surprise.

“As of right now, no, but gun laws tend to change frequently, so keep that in mind. Are you ready to give it a try?”

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

After we put on our ear and eye protection, she followed me into our assigned lane. Once we were all set up, I stepped to the side and gestured to the target hanging in the distance. “You can go first.”

She glanced at the gun, the target, and then back at me. “I’m not sure about this.”

“It’s okay. I’ll help you. Come stand right here.” When she was in front of me, I moved in behind her. “Pick up the gun and point it at the target, but don’t pull the trigger.” Wrapping my arms around her, I put my hands over hers and helped her correct her aim. “When you’re ready, squeeze the trigger to fire.”

It took her a few seconds before she fired her first shot. “Holy crap! I didn’t expect it to feel like that.”

“That’s why it’s good to practice. So you know what to expect.”

“Should I go again?”

“Yes. We’ll empty this magazine and then you can shoot by yourself if you feel comfortable.”

I hoped like hell she felt comfortable, because I didn’t know how long I’d be able to stand being pressed up against her without losing my mind. I’d been trying to keep things platonic between us because I knew she had a lot going on, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her. She was beautiful, but she also had a great personality and was fun to be around. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with her.

“Well, what do you think? Do you want to try by yourself?” I asked as she reloaded while I replaced the target.

“I think so,” she said nervously.

“I’ll be right here if you need me.”

She was doing fine until the sixth or seventh round. Suddenly, she put the gun down and jumped back. “Hot! Hot! Hot!” she shrieked while shaking her shirt. When a brass casing dropped to the floor, I understood what happened and started laughing.

“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But holy crap, that was hot. Why didn’t you tell me that could happen?”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Because it didn’t occur to me. If you were wearing a low-cut shirt, I might’ve thought of it, but you’re dressed fine for shooting.” She looked at the gun warily. “It was a fluke. I doubt it’ll happen again.”

“Are there any other flukes I should know about?”

“Not that I can think of.” I gestured to the gun. “Do you want to keep shooting?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Not really, but I know I need to.”

“I don’t know. It kind of seems like you’re a natural,” I said and pointed to the target. She’d hit the target each time she fired. “If that was a real person, you would’ve stopped them.”

“It’s probably just beginner’s luck.”

“Well, keep shooting and we’ll find out.”

After reloading and shooting three more times, we determined it wasn’t beginner’s luck. “You did great! Look at these targets!”

She grinned. “I have to admit, I’m a little proud of myself.”

“You should be. Are you ready to go or do you want to keep going?”

“I’m good, but what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You haven’t had a turn yet. Aren’t you going to shoot?”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Oh, come on. I want to see what you can do.”

“If I didn’t know better, I might think you were trying to secretly compete with me.”

She laughed. “Compete? No. Honestly, I want to see your targets because I don’t have anything to compare mine to.”

“Oh, well, I think I can help you with that.” Hers were good, but she obviously thought I was just telling her that to boost her confidence.

When I finished shooting, we collected our targets and cleaned up after ourselves before leaving the store. In the parking lot, we stood at the back of my truck and compared our targets. My shots were mostly concentrated in one area of the target while hers were wider spread, but all of her shots had pierced the torso printed on the paper.

“See? I wasn’t lying. You did real good.”

“Maybe, but I’m nowhere near as good as you are.”

“This was your first time. I’ve been shooting for over twenty years. You did a hell of a lot better than I did my first time.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. I think I missed the target more times than I hit it the first time I went to the gun range.”

She grinned. “Since I have no way to verify your story, I’m going to choose to believe you.”

“Good. Do you want to get something to eat before I take you home?”

“Sure, but you don’t have to take me home. I have a car at your house. Remember?”

“Oh, right.” I was slightly disappointed at the thought of not being able to drive her home. Then something occurred to me. “After dinner, I can ride to Cedar Valley with you and drive the loaner back.”

“That’ll work, but I have one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to take you to dinner.” She held up her hand to stop me when I opened my mouth to argue. “You’ve done so much to help me, and I’d like to thank you.”

“You don’t have to do anything to thank me. I was happy to help.”

“I know, but I want to.”

It went against everything in me to let her pay for my dinner. I wanted to take care of her and do things for her, not the other way around. But I could see that this was something she really wanted to do, so I obliged. “Okay. Where do you want to go?”

She laughed. “I was hoping you’d know of a place.”

“We’ll figure something out. Let’s get going.”

Once we were on the way to Cedar Valley in her car, we decided on having pizza for dinner. “I’ll place the order online. What kind of pizza do you like?”

“I’m not picky when it comes to pizza. I’ll eat anything except sardines.”

“So pineapple pizza would be okay?”

“Yes. I know it’s one of those things people love to argue about, but I think the real issue with Hawaiian pizza is the thinly sliced meat they try to pass off as ham, not the pineapple.”

“I’ve never had it, so I can’t agree or disagree, but it sounds like you have a valid point.”

“Well, now you have to try it. Order a pizza with cheese on one side and pineapple on the other for me. Then get one with whatever you want. And breadsticks.”

We picked up the order and took it back to her place to eat, where I tried pineapple pizza for the first time.

“What do you think?”

“It’s definitely not what I expected, but it’s not bad,” I said and continued eating the slice of pizza. Before I realized what I was doing, I picked up another slice and started eating it.

Evie laughed. “I’m guessing that means you like it.”

“Oh, sorry. Here. Have some of mine.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s fine. I can’t eat an entire pizza in one sitting.”

“I can, but I’m not going to.”

“Don’t hold back on my account. Eat what you want.”

When we finished eating, I helped her clean up and put the leftover pizza away. I really didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t have a reason to stay. I was also tired of holding back and hiding my feelings from her. Deciding it was time to let her know how I felt, I turned toward her and reached out for her waist to pull her to me.

Her eyes met mine and I could tell she was in agreement. Leaning forward, my lips had barely brushed hers when a loud crashing sound startled both of us.

Evie fisted my shirt with both hands and pressed herself against me. “What the hell was that?” she whispered.

“I don’t know. I’ll go look. Stay here.”

“No. Don’t.”

“If someone’s out there, we need to know.”

She reluctantly released her grip on me and stepped to the side. “Fine, but be careful.”

Pulling my gun from its holster, I checked the chamber before I quietly walked to the front door and looked through the peephole. When I didn’t see anyone or anything, I moved to the nearest window to peer outside.

“Do you see anything?” Evie whispered.

“No.” I continued moving from window to window until I found the cause of the noise. Exhaling in relief, I returned my gun to its holster and turned back to Evie. “It’s fine. A couple of trash pandas knocked over your trash can.”

“A couple of what?”

“Trash pandas. Raccoons.”

She briefly sagged with relief before she squared her shoulders and marched toward the back door. Flinging it open, she stepped outside and started yelling. “You little shits scared the crap out of me! Shame on you! I toss out plenty of scraps for you, and this is the thanks I get!”

Evie was staring them down with her hands on her hips while the two raccoons were standing on their hind legs with their hands raised in the air. After snapping a picture with my phone, I doubled over laughing.

“It’s not funny. They scared me.”

“Yes, it is. Look,” I said and held out my phone. “They’re surrendering. This picture is meme worthy.”

She tried not to laugh, but she only lasted a few seconds. “Okay, fine. It’s funny.” Walking back inside, she grabbed two breadsticks from the refrigerator.

“What are you doing?”

“Feeding them. They’re obviously hungry.”

“You know you’re not supposed to feed them, right?” I asked carefully.

She sighed. “I know, but they kept getting into my trash can and making a huge mess. I thought it would save all of us some trouble if I left the food out for them.”

“I’ll help you secure the lid so they won’t be able to get into it anymore. Once they realize there’s no food, they’ll stop coming around.”

She scrunched her nose. “I know you’re right, but I kind of like them.”

“They are cute,” I admitted.

She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Go on. Get out of here.” The raccoons stared at her for a few seconds before they ran off into the wooded area.

Once we were back inside, I pulled her to me and kissed her. I didn’t want to give anything else a chance to interrupt us. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she melted into me.

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” I said against her lips.

She threaded her fingers through my hair and pulled me closer. “Well, don’t stop now.”

We stumbled our way to her bedroom, bumping into walls and furniture. I couldn’t take my hands off her.

When we made it to the bed, I was struggling to contain myself. I didn’t want to scare her, but I wanted her with an unprecedented ferocity.

I tore myself away from her long enough to rip her shirt over her head before I did the same with mine. Then I reached behind her and quickly divested her of her bra.

“Fucking hell,” I breathed. With a gentle push, she fell back onto her mattress, and I followed her down. Cupping her breasts with my hands, I captured one nipple with my lips and used my fingers to toy with the other one.

While I continued to lavish her breasts with attention, she pushed her jeans down her legs and kicked them across the room. Sitting back on my knees, I took in the sight of Evie’s gorgeous body, only clad in a skimpy pair of panties.

She started to sit up, but I pushed her back down and removed the last bit of clothing from her body. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to know what she tasted like.

Pushing her legs farther apart, I dropped down to my stomach and captured her clit with my mouth.

“Edge,” she moaned and clasped a handful of my hair.

I continued licking and sucking while she writhed and moaned. Then I added two fingers to my ministrations, pumping them in and out.

“Edge,” she panted. “I’m going to come.”

“Yeah, you fucking are,” I said and continued with what I was doing.

Moments later, I felt her tense before her pussy tightened around my fingers and pulsed with pleasure. The sounds she made were music to my ears, and I was eager to hear more from her.

When I was certain she was finished, I looked up to find her staring down at me. She reached for my arms and pulled me on top of her. “I need you to fuck me,” she said and started undoing my jeans.

I grabbed a condom from my wallet before I pushed my jeans and boxer briefs off. I made quick work of rolling the condom down my shaft and lining myself up with her entrance. Then I met her eyes and pushed inside.

“Fuck,” I breathed. She felt amazing. I was torn between staying still to relish in the feeling and fucking her into another dimension. She made the decision for me when she wrapped her legs around my waist and silently urged me to move.

I don’t know how long it lasted, but it wasn’t long enough. I knew right then and there that I would never get enough of her. I held out as long as I could and made her come again before I found my own release.

After we had a few minutes to catch our breath, Evie said, “I hope this doesn’t change things between us.”

“I do.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to be your friend, Evie. I want to be more than that.”

“Oh,” she said and smiled softly. “I want to be more than friends, too.”

“Good. I’m glad we got that settled.” With that, I pulled her to me and proceeded to show her how much I liked being more than friends.