Rachel Gibson - Crazy On You

A deep groan vibrated his chest against her breasts. His grasp on her waist tightened, relaxed, flexed, then slid to her behind. Pleasure flushed her skin and she opened her mouth wider, kissing him deeper. She ran her hands over his shoulders and chest and neck. He untangled his fingers from her hair and slid his palm down the side of her throat and across her shoulder. While his tongue plunged into her mouth, his hand moved to her ribs. He fanned his thumb across Spandex and the side of her breast. Back and forth, driving her mad with the want of his touch. Her breasts tightened while other places in her body turned liquid with need. She melted into him even more. Against her pelvis she felt the stiff ridge of his erection and she rocked against him, loving the feel of it. The size and weight and hard length.

His hands slid to her back, his fingers brushing her bare skin above her tank top. This had to stop, but she didn’t want it to. Not now. Now she wanted more. This was crazy. She was crazy. As crazy as everyone said. Crazy Lily lusting after her neighbor and she didn’t seem to care. He’d ignited something in her she hadn’t felt in a long time. Crazy, consuming lust.

Tucker took a step back and grasped her shoulders. Her hands slid to down his shirt, his star cool against her palm and his breathing, heavy, harsh, lifting his chest. “Lily. I want more.”

Great. She wanted more too. She took a step toward him but his grasp tightened, keeping her at arm’s length. She didn’t understand. If he wanted more, why was he pushing her away? “So do I,” she said, although she thought it was obvious.

“I want you.” He dipped his head and his heavy gaze looked into her. “All of you.”

She raised a hand to her mouth and touched her wet, tingling lips. Was he talking some strange sexual position? If so, she might be okay with it. Would probably be okay with just about anything. Had probably been there and done that. Several times. But he was young and she had eight years of experience on him. That was probably his attraction to her. “What exactly do you want?” However, there was one part of her that would always remain virgin territory. She didn’t judge women who went there. She just wasn’t one of them.

“When I saw you today, I knew I wanted every bit of you. That I want to know all of you.”

She dropped her hands to her sides. “You said that.” She really didn’t want to have to come right out and say it but… best to be up front because real ladies didn’t do it in the back. “My bottom is a no landing strip.”

His brows pulled together over his suddenly sharp brown eyes. “What?”

“I just thought you should know.”

“Thanks for clearing that up.” He frowned and took another step back. “Jesus, Lily. You thought I want anal sex?”

She shook her head, more confused by him than ever before. And he was plenty confusing. She put her hands on top of her head and blew out a breath.

“That’s not only disturbing, but insulting.”

“I’m disturbing?” She put one palm on her chest. “You said you wanted to know every bit of me. And that bit of me is off limits.”

“I wasn’t talking about your ass, for Christ sake.” He raised a hand, palm up. “I was talking about you. Your life. Your heart and soul.”

Her heart and soul?

“I want more than sex.”

She turned and grabbed the mugs for something to do with her hands. What could he possibly want? More than sex? All men wanted sex. Her heart and soul? She reached for the coffee carafe and poured. What did that mean?

“I’ve had relationships that were just about sex. I don’t want that anymore. I don’t want that with you.”

“Relationship?” The coffee sloshed over one side of the Everything’s Bigger In Texas mug and she turned to face him.

“Pushing you away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” He scrubbed his face with his hands then dropped them to his sides. “I still can’t believe I did it, but I don’t want to start out that way.”

“Start? We can’t start anything. We can’t have a relationship.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“That’s not a reason.”

“Okay.” She raised a hand toward him. “You’re thirty and I’m thirty-eight.”

“So.”

“So I have a young son.” She dropped her hand. “I can’t just… just can’t go around… with you.”

“Because I’m thirty?”

She’d already lived so much down. “People will talk.” And it was nice walking into a room and not hearing whispers behind her back.

“So what?”

If he could say that, then people had never talked about him. “They’ll say I’m a cougar, and that you must want someone to take care of you.”

“Bullshit.” He moved across the kitchen and grabbed his coat. “You’re not old enough to be a cougar.” He shoved his arms into the sleeves. “I have my own house and car and money. I don’t need a woman to take care of me. I can take care of myself and anyone else in my life.” He stormed across the kitchen but paused in the doorway long enough to say, “I tried to do the right thing today, but the next time I get my hands on you, we’re not going to stop.” She heard him walk through the living room and open the front door. Then, “Hello Mrs. Brooks.”

Crap! Her mom.

“Deputy Matthews?” Lily raised a hand to her throat as her mouth fell open. Please God, just let her mom walk inside without stopping to ramble. “How’s your cat?” Obviously God wasn’t listening to Lily Darlington. Probably punishing her for putting her hands on the young neighbor.

“Pinky’s good. Thanks for asking.”

“Marylyle Jeffers had a black cat like yours. She had diabetes and had to have her foot cut off.” No wonder Lily acted a bit imprudent sometimes. Her mother was one taco short of a combo plate. “Leg too.”

“Oh I’m sorry-”

“Then she caught the pleurisy and died. Not saying it was her cat, but she did have horrible luck. Even before she was struck with-”

“Momma, you’re letting out the bought air,” Lily interrupted and stuck her head into the living room. She couldn’t look at Tucker and pinned her gaze squarely on her mother’s pile of gray hair. She was sure she was a bright red and didn’t know what was more embarrassing-what she’d done with Tucker or her mother’s inane rambling. “Thank you again for carrying in my groceries, Deputy Matthews.”

“You’re welcome. See you two ladies around.”

Louella Brooks stared at the closed door, then turned her gaze to her youngest daughter. “Well.”

That one word packed a wealth of meaning. Lily ducked back into the kitchen, looked at the two coffee mugs, and raised the Everything’s Bigger In Texas mug to her mouth. She managed to hammer back half. It burned her tongue and throat and she set it back down as her mother entered the room.

“He certainly is a nice-looking boy.”

Lily swallowed past her scalded taste buds and throat. She reached for her pink Deeann’s Duds mug and turned with a slight smile on her face. “Nice too. He carried in my groceries.”

A scowl settled into the wrinkles on her mother’s face. “You’re a single woman, Lily. You have to be careful who you let in your house.”

“He’s a deputy. What do you think he’s going to do? Kill me?” Touch me? Kiss me? Drive me as crazy as everyone says I am?

“I wasn’t talking about your physical safety.”

Lily knew that. “He just carried in my groceries and had a half a cup of coffee.” With her free hand, she pointed to the mug on the counter. “Then he left.” And thank God too. If he hadn’t stopped when he had, her mother would have used her key and strolled inside. The mere thought of her mother walking in on her and Tucker was too horrible to contemplate.

“Single gals can’t be too careful when it comes to their reputations. Just the other day, the cable repairman was in Doreen Jaworski’s house for three hours.” She gave Lily a knowing look. “Cable repairs don’t take three hours.”

“Ma, Doreen is in her seventies.”

“Exactly. She always did wear her clothes kind of sudden. Or course that was before she married Lynn Jaworski… which just goes to show, people’s memories are longer than pulled taffy.”

Lily closed her eyes and blew into her coffee.

“Her daughter Dorlynn didn’t fall far from that tree. She-”

Lily didn’t bother to stop her mother. Louella was going to talk until she ran out of words, which could take a while. Since her mother’s retirement from the Wild Coyote Diner, the rambling had gotten worse. Nothing to do for it but block out her mother’s voice and retreat into her own head. Unfortunately, her head was filled with Tucker. He’d said he wanted a relationship, but he didn’t know her. Didn’t know her past and what everyone said about her. At least not yet. He’d no doubt change his mind once she heard about the Ronnie incident of ’04.

Lily took a sip of coffee and winced as it hit her scalded tongue. But her past wasn’t the biggest reason any sort of relationship was impossible. She was busy. She didn’t have time. She couldn’t get involved with him.

He was thirty. She hadn’t even known what she’d wanted at thirty.

He might not have a problem with the age difference, but she did. People would call her a cougar. That crazy cougar, Lily Darlington. If it was just about her, she might risk it. Might show the world her middle finger. But it wasn’t just her. She’d gone to school with a momma who wasn’t wound too tight. Kids could be really cruel, and she couldn’t do that to Pip.

The rows of track lighting in Lily Belle’s Salon and Day Spa sparkled like gold fire in the sequins of the owner’s dress. The long-sleeved dress covered Lily from collar bone to mid-thigh, and might have been considered modest if not for the fact that it clung to the curves of her body. A body she kept thin and toned through a busy life, Rodney Yee, and the Pilates Power Gym in one of the spa’s back rooms. She not only cut hair, she was the owner and face of her business, and it was important that she reflect a positive, healthy image.