Page 11 of Take Me Slowly, Part 1 (Aurora Hollow duet #1)

RILEY

"Okay, out with it." I placed a beer in front of Connor, and slipped into a stool. "You've been moping around like an angry bear all night."

"No I haven't," he snapped.

"Look around," I said. "Everyone's left and it's barely nine p.m."

"It's a Sunday," he said, as if I didn't already know that. "They don't hang around late on a Sunday."

"They didn't hang around tonight because you glared at everyone like they kicked your puppy." I ran a finger down the side of my glass, swiping at the condensation that gathered there.

"I did not." But he glanced around and saw I was right. He and I were the only ones left, except for Zara, who was finishing up behind the bar. "Fine, I did. Some days a guy isn't in the mood for socialising."

If his dad was here, he'd kick his ass, but he went home early too. Connor insisted we had things under control because the night was already quiet.

"Which brings me back to—” I gestured at him to spill. "You're even grumpier than usual. What's going on?" I gave him my best ‘out with it’ look. How could he not tell me what was on his mind?

"I did something fucking stupid," he said after a few more moments of pointless hesitation. "I got it into my head something was up with Leah and I went over there."

I squinted at him. "Did you fuck her without me?

" I wasn’t bothered, because I didn't do jealousy.

Not really. I'd pretend to be pissed off with him for a while, but that would pass quicker than a summer storm.

I held grudges against everyone but him.

I knew he wondered what he did to deserve that, but he tried not to take it for granted.

"No, I did not fuck her," he said. "I did see her naked though. She's fucking gorgeous." Slowly, in detail, he told me what he did, from rubbing the aches out of her feet, to pulling the plug on the bath. He even admitted to buying her food.

I sipped my beer and shook my head at him. "No wonder you've been in a bad mood. To balance out doing something nice."

"It wasn't nice," he growled. "She needed help, that was it. What was I supposed to do? Walk away and leave her in pain?"

I wouldn’t have walked away either, but I said, "You could have called Whitney or Fiona." I paused. "Or Holly. She would have helped Leah, then sucked you off after."

"I don't want Holly to suck me off," he snarled. "She's just a friend, okay?"

"Because you want Leah to suck you off," I said. "And me."

"If you keep saying 'suck you off,' I'm going to make you get under the table," he said. As if that was some kind of threat. I could almost see him thinking he should do that anyway, even with Zara present. No doubt she'd seen worse.

"You say that like I'd object." I grinned and took a gulp of beer.

"My dad would fucking kill me," he said regretfully.

Not that Jacob Ferguson cared what Connor did and who he did it with, but if he did it here in front of the staff, he'd be pissed.

He was known to check in on things at the end of the night from time to time, without warning.

It would be just my luck if he did it tonight while I was on my knees, my mouth around his son's cock.

"He'd fucking kill both of us," I said with a sigh. "I guess we better get out of here then." I glanced towards the door.

"We're not going to Leah's," Connor said before I suggested it. "She's probably asleep by now anyway."

“I guess.” If I got a massage, then a hot bath, I'd be asleep.

After fisting my cock. Was she lying awake right now, thinking of us?

Thinking of me? Pushing her hand under the waistband of her track pants and between her legs?

Circling her clit with her fingers, rubbing herself until she got off with my name on her lips?

My cock was swelling at the mental image.

"My place then," I said. "Unless you'd prefer to mope around here all night?"

"I should help Zara." Connor swallowed down the rest of his beer in a gulp and slid off his stool.

"I'll give you a hand." I finished my beer and followed him behind the bar.

I placed our glasses in the glass washer and caught the washcloth he tossed me to get to start on wiping the tables. He made it his job to tidy up the liquor bottles and take the empties out to the recycling.

Between the three of us, we got the place packed up quickly. He turned the lights down and followed us out, locking the doors behind us.

"See you tomorrow," Zara said cheerfully before heading to her small apartment above the souvenir store across the street.

"Night." We stood and watched until she disappeared into the building to be sure she got there safely. The distance was short but Connor wouldn't be doing his job if the staff weren't safe, especially a woman. No one was hurting any of his father's employees on his watch. Or mine.

Don't read anything into it, we’re still assholes.

"Remember the time we went into the city to watch hockey?" I tilted my face back to look up at the expanse of sky above us. "We couldn't see any of the stars. They look so fucking big from here. Like you could reach out and grab one."

"They're not big, we're up high," Connor said gruffly. "And you can't grab them, the fuckers are made of… I dunno, whatever the sun is made of." He shrugged.

"Fuck." I gave him a look. "Be romantic, why don't you?" I dug my elbow into his side.

"Sorry if I gave you the impression I was romantic," he said sarcastically.

But he took in a breath of clean air and stared up at the stars. "I guess they're kinda cool."

On a night like this, I could make out hundreds, thousands of them winking at us. If I remembered anything about constellations from high school, I could tell you which ones I saw, but I didn't. I preferred to make up my own patterns anyway. Like that one there? It looked like a dildo.

"I'd call running a bath for someone and buying them food romantic," I said after a few moments.

"Don't," he said. "It's not. It wasn't about that. It's…what we do. That's all. I've taken food to Whitney too, when she's sick. And Fiona. And Carly." The woman who worked in the café was old enough to be our mother. “What I did was a gesture of habit, not kindness.”

"Yeah, but I don't remember you stomping around with that angry bear face after helping them," I said. "And I don't remember you saying you saw them naked. Or wanting to. It's okay to admit when you're attracted to someone, you know?"

We started to walk down Main Street away from the Frosty Brew, past stores closed hours ago.

"It's just physical," he said. "I want to fuck her. That's all it is."

"I never said it was more," I said, not bothering to contain my amusement. "I want to fuck her too. Why not? We're not related to her. We didn't grow up with her. She's a new pussy to play with."

"Yeah, we didn't see her eat crayons." He told me about Whitney saying that and smirked.

I laughed. Whitney was right though. Knowing everyone in town had its downside. Too many things couldn't be forgotten or unseen by them or me. I'd done some dumb shit in my day. I didn't need to be with someone who'd remind me of those things at the worst possible moment.

One of the good things about Connor was that he'd done those things with me.

Instead of laughing at me, we reminisced.

Laughed at each other. Wondered how the hell we both made it to adulthood.

Like the time we thought it was a good idea to ride lawn chairs down the white water.

We survived, the chairs didn't. Much to the irritation of Connor's mother.

Sometimes I think she would have preferred the chairs make it, not us. The chairs were a lot less trouble.

"Everyone in town feels like a sister to me,” I said. “Everyone except Leah. I don't know about you, but I don't want to fuck my sister. Yours on the other hand…"

He glared at me. "Stay away from my sister." As if he needed to warn me.

Even if I wanted to, Whitney wouldn't have gone there. For so many reasons. Including the fact she wouldn't be interested in fucking someone her brother was also fucking. That would be weird.

"I prefer her brother," I said, my voice low.

"Good answer." Connor seemed appeased by that.

"I thought so." I grinned.

My hand brushed past his. I wanted to grab it, lace my fingers in his. Even out on an almost empty road, I didn't.

That side of me, of us, it was still something I needed to come to terms with myself.

Not because I was ashamed, but we never discussed what we were to each other.

We'd fallen into a pattern of behaviour that was a lot of action and a few words.

Panting, sweating and giving each other orgasms, but never pillow talk.

Not really. Not beyond surface level conversation and banter.

I knew he was as scared as I was. What was he afraid of? The same thing he was always afraid of. That he’d put himself out there and then I’d decide it was time for me to leave Aurora Hollow.

If I was honest with myself, I always worried I'd have to leave. That I’d be forced to move to the city.

Make a solid career that didn't rely on seasonal tourism.

A job that paid a reliable, consistent wage.

Why wouldn't I want that? What we did, it was the best job in the world, but it came with no guarantees.

Tourists might stop coming. They could find another, favourite playground.

Hell, we couldn't be sure we wouldn't break our necks next week. Or next month. Or next year.

Connor had the Frosty Brew to fall back on. What did I have? He’d have to step away from our business some day, to run the pub. He talked about expanding it. Setting up a restaurant. A hotel. He had ambitions.

One day I might not be enough for him.

"Do I want to know what you're thinking?" he asked.

No, he definitely did not. It would bring him down. I'd insist I had no intention of leaving, but it would linger in his mind the way it lingered in mine. He’d assure me taking on the pub was years away. Maybe tonight it was, but that could change when the sun rose.

"I was thinking how good your cum tastes," I lied.

He looked over at me without missing a step. "You're full of shit, Riley Crane. You're right, but you're full of shit." Of course he wouldn't buy my bullshit. He never had. Why would he start now?

"How do you know how good your cum tastes?" I was happy to change the subject and push the dark, morbid thoughts away. They took hold too easily and never seemed to want to let go.

"Because I've tasted it on your lips," he said. "It adds a delicious, salty layer to your mouth. Not to say your mouth isn't delicious already." He slid his tongue across his own lips, smiling slowly. Savouring the memory as if the taste was right there.

"Of course it is," I said as if I was offended by the suggestion. "But you're right, tasting you in my mouth is next level." I wanted to taste him right now. Right here.

As I had that thought, we walked past Leah's cottage. The windows were in darkness, not even a faint glow coming from between the blinds. Once again, I pictured her with her hand between her legs, thinking about me while I stood just outside.

"I bet she tastes good too," I said softly, breaking through my thoughts. "Tell me again what colour her nipples were."

"The perfect shade of pink." He sighed. "And the hair on her pussy matches the hair on her head."

"I wish you could paint as good as her, so you could paint me a picture," I said. "It would keep me going until I see the real thing."

I wished he took a photo so he could show me.

I could look at it myself whenever I thought of her.

Whenever I imagined how soft and warm her skin would be under the calluses of my fingers.

It wouldn't be too long until I touched them, parted her legs to lower my face between them.

I wanted to hear her moans as she came on my tongue.

"Come on." I started walking again, a little faster now. I needed to be away from her and alone with him before I lost my load here on Main Street.

Leah fucking Kent was going to be the end of me. If I wasn't the end of her first.