Page 35 of Rescuing Dr. Marian (Made Marian Legacy #1)

FOSTER

Tommy had been back for five days, and I still hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ask him about Stanford.

I was a total chickenshit, but to be fair, we’d also been busy with training exercises, including an all-day wildfire and missing-person rescue drill, a long search and rescue exercise, and an unexpected request to help provide additional support at an ultramarathon being run through the foothills on the far side of Slingshot.

When we weren’t working, Tommy spent as much time checking on his sister as possible. His entire family was in town to see Hazel, and even if he hadn’t wanted to visit with the patient, he would have been expected to spend time with his parents and extended family.

He’d invited me to join him a couple of times, but I’d declined with excuses. Chickie needed training, Trace needed help with something, or, in one case, I’d had bad chicken at dinner.

None of it was true—or not true enough to keep me from joining him.

The real reason was self-preservation. My only chance at surviving this “fling” was to weld a damned cage around my heart and drive sharp spikes into every inch of the metal grating.

Getting to know his family any better would be a colossal mistake, considering there was no future between us.

Which was why my heart rate shot up when Tommy’s eyes pierced me across the now empty table in the SERA dining hall and he said, “You’re not saying no tonight.”

I played dumb, scrambling to come up with another excuse to beg off a Marian family visit. “To…?”

He bounced his eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll tell you back at the cabin.”

Oh. The lascivious expression on his face made the tension in my shoulders release. Definitely not a family thing, then.

I leaned in closer and lowered my voice, even though no one was around to hear. “If it’s something that’ll take place at the cabin, you have to know I’m not saying no to you.”

Tommy’s grin jolted something low in my belly. “Then what are we waiting for?”

As soon as we stood up, Chickie scrambled to her feet and fell into a natural heel next to Tommy’s leg. The three of us made our way back to the cabin, the low evening sun still plenty bright and the breeze blowing away the heat of the day.

Halfway back to the cabin, I reached down to grab Chickie’s collar. A few nights before, I’d caught an elk nosing around our cabin, so I wanted to play it safe .

“Sorry, Chickpea,” I said when she gave me her big eyes. “Better safe than sorry.”

I kept walking for a couple of paces before I realized Tommy had stopped in his tracks to stare at me.

“What?” I asked, looking around to see what had made him stop.

The look on his face turned melty-sweet, the kind of tender affection that made me wonder what the hell had happened to suddenly make him look at me like that.

“What is it?” I asked again.

He shook his head and continued walking to the cabin without a word.

I shook my head and followed. The minute we were in the cabin with the door closed, he shoved me against it and kissed me wildly.

His tongue carried the taste of hot fudge from the sundae he’d had for dessert, and I licked into his mouth, seeking more of it.

When he finally pulled back, I asked dazedly, “What was that about?”

His hand was still clutching the front of my shirt. “Chickpea! You got a SAR puppy and named her after my hummus, just like I suggested.”

Shit. Since he hadn’t put it together in the last four weeks, I’d figured he’d forgotten that part of our Hawaii conversation.

“That’s not… no, I…” I blew out a breath and knocked his hand away from my shirt. “Fuck off,” I muttered, moving over to my bed to kick my shoes under the edge of it.

Tommy followed me and pressed himself against my back, wrapping his arms around my middle and splaying his hands across my stomach and chest. “Why can’t you admit it? It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever?—”

“Don’t.” I put my hands over his but didn’t pull them off me. Instead, I caressed them with my thumbs. “If you tell me that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for you, I’m going over to your family’s lodge right this fucking minute with some very choice words for every single person there.”

His laughter vibrated through my back. “Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I’m still…” He blew out a breath. “I’m touched, okay? Very touched.”

This entire conversation made me very uncomfortable. “I can think of better ways to touch you,” I growled.

He laughed again and turned me around to face him.

“Which brings me to the thing I said earlier about not saying no.” Tommy’s eyes darkened, but I could also see a sliver of insecurity.

“I want to fuck you. Or… or you can fuck me, although I’ll probably be a big giant baby because you have a massive bull-cock, but I’m happy to try. ”

I snorted as my dick suddenly perked the fuck up at the thought of thrusting into Tommy’s sexy ass. “Are you missing the tight heat…” I stopped myself from the stupid tease about sex with a woman. “Sorry, that was crude and uncalled for.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Also inaccurate, considering I’ve had the tight heat of your mouth many, many times the last week or two.

And, just so you know, no . There’s not a single moment I’ve missed having sex with a woman.

The shittiest orgasm I’ve had with you has still been ten thousand times better than any I’ve had with women. ”

Tommy’s words shocked me. “Liar,” I accused, hoping it didn’t sound like the fishing expedition it was.

“Well…” He pursed his lips, considering. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Mpfh.”

A shit-eating grin split his face. “There haven’t been any shitty orgasms with you.” He slid his hands up and down my arms. “In fact, I was just thinking the other day that if this is what being with a guy is like, I’ve been missing out.”

“It’s not. Not always,” I found myself saying. Looking away, I cleared my throat. “So you really never considered being with a guy before, ah… before Hawaii?”

Before me .

Tommy shrugged. “I thought I had considered it. With as many gay and bi men as there are in my family, I couldn’t not. And it’s possible there’s been a long-standing Captain America thing I might have misinterpreted as hero worship…”

“Spandex suit got you?”

“More the muscles under the suit, I think.” He ran an appreciative hand over my chest that had me stifling a groan.

“But my point is, I’ve always been open to being attracted to anyone.

I’ve just never been attracted enough to a man to label it.

Or to act on it.” Those heart-stealing hazel eyes met mine. “Until you.”

I grabbed his face and kissed him, hard.

“Want to fuck you so fucking bad,” I admitted against his lips before pulling back and meeting his eyes. “But we’ll start the other way tonight, okay?”

I could tell from the heat in Tommy’s eyes the idea was very okay .

We continued kissing and touching, yanking clothes off each other, until we were humping each other on the bed, panting with need.

I grabbed a bottle of lube and poured some onto my fingers.

“Haven’t been with anyone like this since…

” I glanced at him from under my lashes.

“Ah… New Year’s. So. All tests negative. ”

His cheeks darkened. “Yeah? Um. Same. I had a panel done last month. Negative.”

Before I could reach around and begin prepping myself, Tommy took the lube from my hands and poured some into his own. “I’ve been told I have good hands,” he teased. “You should let me do that.”

Instead of reaching for myself, I moved my slick fingers to his cock. “Sounds like a plan.”

His eyes rolled back as he sucked in a breath. “Wait, fuck. If you do that, I won’t be able to… oh fuck, Foster.”

We played with each other a little while, teasing and stroking, stretching and taunting, until both of us were rock hard and out of breath.

Tommy pushed me over until I was sprawled beneath him on my stomach, one knee pushed up toward my chest. “You okay?” His voice was insistent as he gently moved the lubed head of his cock across my hole.

“This your way of drawing out the anticipation? Fuck me already. I’m not the cherry here.” I reached back for his hip and held on to it, urging him forward.

“If you could cease referring to previous experience while I’m preparing to fuck you, that’d be appreciated,” he grumbled .

“Tommy, sweetheart, you’re not going to hurt me. Take a breath and soldier on. I promise you’ll like it.”

He pinched my ass. “Jackass.”

When the tip of his cock stretched into my hole, I focused on breathing and relaxing. For all the big talk, it had actually been a long time since I’d bottomed for anyone. I was up for it, especially with Tommy, but it didn’t come so naturally to me. And I wanted to make it good for him.

“Oh fucking fuck.” The high-pitched edge to his voice as he sank into me was worth every moment of discomfort as my body tried to ease around his cock. “Foster. Oh god. You’re so fucking tight and hot.”

I squeezed around him involuntarily, making him jolt and groan. “What can I do to make it good for you? Because I’m… oh god… I’m not gonna…”

He moved tentatively in and out, pushing deeper with each thrust into me. The warm dampness of his chest pressed against my back as his lips landed at the base of my neck. “Thank fuck. Thank Christ. Oh fuck.” His words ran together, a breathless, incredulous whimper.

I reached back and threaded my fingers into his hair, pushing back with my hips to meet his thrusts and encourage him to keep going.

The shift in angles did the exact right thing to my nerve endings, and on the next pull, his dick dragged across my gland, making me slur, “Just like that.”

It was quick, which was probably a good thing, but feeling Tommy inside of me like that—and knowing he’d never done this with another man—made me feel a fierce possessiveness. Like he was mine.

I didn’t want him ever doing this with another man.

To be honest, I didn’t want him doing this with another soul.

It was sacred. Too much and not enough all at once. I’d never, ever felt this kind of connection and trust with another person before.

His hand came around to grip my chin. “You’re mine,” he said through his teeth. “Do you understand me? I don’t want you letting anyone else inside you like this but me. Please, Foster. Please tell me you won’t—” His voice broke on the second please .

The way his thoughts echoed my own nearly ripped my soul in two.

I turned and kissed him quickly to keep him from saying anything else. As I held his head with his lips pressed tightly to me, I felt his orgasm crash over him, triggering my own.

Tommy’s words had shocked me, not because it was a surprise he wanted more than a fling but because he hadn’t been able to keep from admitting it out loud.

There was a relief in that. I knew he’d been walking on eggshells to a certain extent, trying to keep his pleas for more than casual to himself. Trying to keep from scaring me off.

So the fact that he hadn’t been able to keep from saying it meant he was overcome with feelings.

And he wasn’t the only one.

I wished that changed things. Wished it meant I could respond to his pleas with promises of my own the way I wanted to. But my weak grasp on my commitment to keep it casual was the only protection I had left, and I was trying to hold on to it for as long as possible.

Four more weeks.