Southern Playboy (North Carolina Highlands 4)

I can’t hold on anymore. Not with this laughing, languid woman in my arms, riding my dick like it’s her fucking job.

Curling my fingers into her waist, I grit my teeth and prepare myself for the onslaught.

And oh, does it come. Release rises up to meet me and slams through my body like a vicious tackle, the kind that leaves me breathless. Bruised.

There’s a howl in the woods, and only when I feel the condom fill with cum do I realize that howl belongs to me.

I’m howling like a goddamn animal.

Amelia digs her fingers into my hair and fists them, holding my face still while she kisses me hard, licking her tongue into my mouth. Stealing the howl and turning it into something else.

A plea. A confession.

“Are you actually a werewolf?” she murmurs into my mouth, and the sound morphs into laughter.

Opening my eyes, I give her thighs a squeeze. “Only with you. Jesus, A, you made me lose my goddamn mind.”

“Your human form too, apparently.” She pulls back, searching my eyes. “You okay?”

A knot forms where my heart should be. “Nah.”

“Rhett.”

“Funny—you don’t have a curfew anymore, but now all of a sudden, I do.”

Her expression softens. “What made you think of that?”

“I hate that this night is going by so fast. I wanna take you home, A. I wanna lay you down in my bed and fuck you like a civilized human being. We never got to do that as kids, have a sleepover. A month ago, we could have. But now I can’t—we can’t—and it’s kinda killing me.”

Amelia arches a brow. “Rhett, you’re literally still inside me. You had time to think all this through?”

“Yes.”

“Think of it this way, then. A month ago, we could have had a sleepover. But we wouldn’t have because Liam wasn’t around yet, and he’s the reason our paths crossed again in the first place. So there.”

I let out a sigh. “Why you gotta be so smart?”

“To drive you crazy.” She gives my bicep a squeeze. “Same reason you’re so sexy.”

I tilt my neck to look up at her. “So you think the truck is a sexy dad car after all.”

“In its own gas-guzzling way, sure. Bed is cozy.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her close. Bury my head in the crook of her neck and hold her tight. “Was it ever this good before?” I ask softly.

“No,” she whispers. “This was . . .”

So good it’s scary.

I’m not sure if that’s the right thing to say, though. Communication may be sexy, but leading people on isn’t. I’m changing. I’m questioning things, and I feel the ground shifting underneath me. That doesn’t mean Amelia and I are suddenly on the same page, and we’re ready to ride off into the sunset.

I have to think of Liam, first and foremost, and what’s best for him. Is that me taking my foot off the gas pedal in my career? Or is it me hitting that pedal hard?

And if hitting it hard is the right thing for Liam, I’m going to lose Amelia. She wouldn’t commit to Vegas for a few weeks. No way is she gonna leave the town and the people and the job she loves for years. I’d be an asshole to even ask her.

Fuck. Fuck, there’s a very real chance I’m making a very big mess right now.

I take a deep breath. Let it out. I know if I let my mind spin out, I’ll panic, and that won’t serve any of us right now. So I carefully guide Amelia off my lap, wincing when my dick slips out of her.

“I want you to know I brought you out here to go swimming, not to have sex,” I manage.

Amelia stands up. Gloriously, gorgeously naked. The fantasy hits me out of nowhere: a sliver of my cum leaking down her thigh. I’ve taken her raw, no protection. Just a promise that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep our family together this time.

Because I’m starting to think I might want a family. Maybe even a big one—siblings for Liam.

A woman like Amelia to raise them with.

“Really? Because I came for the sex,” Amelia says. “Food wasn’t bad, either. But I’ll go swimming if you still want to.”

I blink, snatched back to the present where what I want isn’t clear. It’s muddled. Or maybe that’s just me flailing around in what would otherwise be still water, the kind that lets you see all the way to the bottom of the riverbed.

“I want to.”

I tie off the condom. Leap down from the truck, still naked, and hold up a hand to Amelia. “C’mon, honey. Let’s get you cooled off after the hot sex I just gave you.”

She slips her hand into mine. “Please tell me the weird porny exchanges end here.”

“But the hot sex—it doesn’t, right?” I help her down. Keeping her hand in mine, we walk to the water.