Page 30 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Now

M ac was on the ground in front of her, waiting.

Waiting to see if Annie would reject him, push him away like she had every other time since he’d been back.

He knew a little part of her wanted to. He knew Annie wanted revenge, but she had been punishing him for years and Mac was ready to repent for his sins.

The porcelain tile he’d chosen for his fancy new kitchen was digging into his knees and Annie’s fingers were still tangled in his hair pulling just enough to sting. He waited, barely breathing, for her to turn him away.

‘Okay,’ she said, her voice a throaty whisper that made Mac’s heart race and his cock stiffen.

‘Okay? You’re going to let me eat you out?’ he asked, needing confirmation before he did something insane and ended up getting his ass kicked.

Annie clapped a hand over his mouth. ‘Don’t say it out loud!’ She gasped and Mac laughed, barely believing what he was hearing.

‘I can do it, but I can’t talk about it?’

‘Yes, exactly. We don’t need to talk about it.’ She held his gaze. She didn’t want to talk about any of it. She never did.

Mac would take it. He didn’t know if this was a second chance or one last time or an apology, but he wanted it whatever it was. He wanted this moment with Annie.

No regrets this time. He wasn’t going anywhere and, if Annie still wanted him after this, he’d be ready.

He leaned his forehead against her hip bone, breathing her in. Her little moan when he reached around and grabbed her ass made him glad he was already on his knees. That sound had haunted his dreams for over a decade.

‘This ass is still perfect,’ he said, his voice a low rumble.

‘Mac.’ Annie’s voice was nearly a whine. Her legs were already trembling, and he hadn't even unbuttoned her pants yet.

Mac chuckled, looking up at her.

‘Just do it,’ she bit out, and it was so different from the last time when she had been gentle and nervous. When she’d kissed him and trusted him.

But this felt more honest. There would be no kissing this time.

She didn’t trust him anymore. He hadn’t earned it yet.

This time was to exorcise their demons. He undid the button on her jeans, tugging down the zipper, urged on by Annie’s harsh breathing and the feel of her fingers digging into his scalp.

He pushed the pants down over her hips and groaned at the sight of her tiny lace panties.

A pale blue that left nothing to the imagination, a string of satin over her hip and around to a little lacy triangle in the back nestled right between the delectable curves of her ass.

‘If you had been wearing these the first time, I wouldn’t have made it past getting your pants off.’

‘If this whole thing is going to be a compare and contrast to the last time…’ Annie's voice trailed off as Mac kissed and nipped the flesh of her thighs.

‘It’s not,’ he said. ‘It won’t be. But you should know you were perfect that first time and somehow, you’re even better now.’

Another little gasp as he licked along the string over her hip. And then it didn’t matter anymore what she had been like then because he was here with her now.

Annie wriggled the rest of the way out of her jeans.

Mac helped tug them over her feet and toss them aside before going back to his task.

He didn’t know if he was a better man now, but he knew he was better at this than he was at nineteen.

And, if nothing else came from this night, he was damn well going to settle the score.

‘Hold on, darling,’ he said, looking up at her one more time before he pushed those absurd panties aside. ‘Jesus, Annie, you’re so beautiful.’

Annie tugged tighter on his hair, little whimpers escaping her.

He knew he was teasing her, but he didn’t mean to.

He had two regrets in his life: one was leaving this woman the way he had, and the other was not doing this the first time around.

He wanted to savor it, now that he’d been granted a second chance.

He dug his fingers into her thigh and hooked her leg over his shoulder, opening her up to him.

‘Mac,’ Annie groaned, and the sound was so aggrieved that he was smiling when he finally let his mouth dip to her center. One lick had Annie gasping and Mac groaning. Another and Annie’s legs were shaking, and Mac thought he might die here on his kitchen floor with his head between her thighs.

But now was no time for dying. Mac was a man with something to prove.

* * *

Annie had thought about Mac a lot over the past decade, far too much, actually, and she had imagined similar scenarios to this one more times than she would ever admit.

The fact that Mac was a frequent star in some of her most favorite fantasies was certainly not something she had ever said out loud.

But this, this moment right here far surpassed anything she had imagined.

At some point she'd ended up with her back against the wall, her leg still draped over Mac’s shoulder and his face still buried between her legs.

He was licking and sucking and groaning like a man possessed.

From somewhere outside of her body, Annie vaguely considered that his knees probably hurt from those tiles and that his scalp probably hurt from the way she was using his hair as reins to move his head where she wanted it. But Mac was undeterred.

Worship was the only word to describe what he was doing.

And he had been right. He was very good at this. She fully believed that he did not leave women unsatisfied. Annie felt a brief stab of jealousy at the thought of the other women he’d practiced this skill on, but mostly she was just thankful that he had.

‘Mac,’ she gasped, the pleasure building and he looked up at her, his eyes dark, his hair a mess beneath her fingers. He looked as wrecked as she felt. Unraveled. Unmoored. Maybe this was a mistake? How would they ever come back from this?

‘Take it,’ he said. ‘Take what you want, Annie.’ Mac’s desperate plea brought her back to the present.

Take what you want. She wanted this, didn't she? Mac on his knees for her. She rolled her hips using Mac’s tongue to get the exact pressure she needed. Mac groaned, the vibration adding to the sensations rioting through her.

‘Do that again,’ she bit out, unable to stop. She couldn’t. Not now.

He did what she demanded, sending pleasure coursing through her body.

His voice rumbled against her. Her heel dug into his back.

Her toes curled. She was going to come like this, with Mac’s mouth on her clit and his hands on her hips and her back against his wall.

She was going to come with her heart a confused mess and Mac looking up at her like he wanted more.

Like he was here, and he wanted everything.

‘Again.’ Annie rocked against him. And the pressure and tension and heat built inside of her.

Another groan, another rock of her hips against Mac’s perfect tongue and Annie was unraveling, the orgasm rolling over her in waves so intense she couldn’t stand.

She couldn’t see, she couldn’t think. Mac held her up, pinning her to the wall as he lapped every bit of pleasure from her body.

She was boneless, sliding down the wall as Mac was standing, scooping her up on his way.

‘God, Annie,’ he was saying, his voice next to her ear, but Annie could barely take it in. ‘That was so amazing… so fucking beautiful,’ he murmured against her skin as he lifted her up.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked even as she snuggled her face against his neck as he held her. ‘I’m not staying here for the night,’ she said as Mac carried her out of the kitchen.

‘Okay, darling,’ he said.

‘I’m serious. I’m not staying.’ Annie’s voice was drifting closer to a whisper, exhaustion overtaking her.

She'd been working so hard on this wedding and on her business and on resisting Mac.

She didn't think she could do it all anymore.

And it was so nice in his arms. Maybe she could give in just for tonight.

Even as she claimed she wasn’t staying, Mac was carrying her upstairs. She’d never been upstairs, and her curiosity woke her up a bit. He carried her into the first room on the right.

‘Is this your parents’ old room?’ she asked as he lowered her onto the bed.

‘No, I turned two of the smaller bedrooms into one bigger one for me. It seemed too weird to take my parents’ room.’

Annie nodded. That would be weird. The room was a good size, but Mac’s enormous bed took up most of it.

‘This bed is huge,’ she said, running a hand over the plaid bedspread.

Mac shrugged. ‘I like to spread out.’ He turned and started rummaging through his closet.

The rest of the room was tidy but lived in, a leather chair in the corner was draped in a small pile of shirts and the dresser had a coffee mug from this morning still sitting on it.

Little details of Mac’s life that Annie never thought she’d see.

The walls were a moody, navy blue, but one was covered in colorful framed postcards and travel posters, reminders of all the years he was gone.

Annie refused to think about the packet of postcards she still had under her bed, the ones she should have gotten rid of a long time ago.

Mac emerged from his closet and tossed Annie a pair of sweatpants and an old lacrosse T-shirt. ‘You can wear these.’

‘I’m not staying,’ Annie repeated, tugging on the pants. She couldn’t cram herself back into her jeans at this hour.

‘Okay,’ Mac said, still looking at her like he wanted to keep her. It was unnerving.

‘I’m glad you moved out of the basement.’

‘Yeah?’ he said.

‘Yeah, I mean it was cool when we were teenagers, but a grown man living in the basement would be kind of creepy. Wouldn’t be a great place to bring women.’

‘I’m glad you’re concerned about where I might bring women,’ Mac said with a smirk, leaning against the door frame of the closet.

‘Turn around,’ Annie said, holding up the shirt. She resisted the urge to bury her face in it and inhale.

‘Why?’