Three Reckless Words: A Grumpy Sunshine Romance (The Rory Brothers Book 3)
Three Reckless Words: Chapter 14

I don’t think I’ve woken up this happy in the past ten years.

At first, I don’t even know why.

It’s like I’ve been drenched in the most glorious honey scent and I want to drown in it.

Then she wiggles her plush little ass against me and my dick reminds me exactly why I feel like a billion dollars.

Winnie.

Stifling a growl, I slide my hand around her waist and between her breasts.

Her hair is a delicately tangled maze of curls. She smiles and blinks like she’s dazed.

“Morning.”

“Damn good morning,” I growl back.

Like a satisfied cat, she stretches, grinding against me again.

My cock is truly awake now, and I catch her hip as I grind against her sweet ass. Neither of us bothered to put on any clothes last night.

If I had my way, I’d keep her here like this forever, naked and all mine.

Her body feels just as perfect as I imagined.

Better, even.

Her breasts are small and pert with pink nipples like ripe cherries, made to tease a man, and her skin feels impossibly soft.

“Careful, I have morning breath,” she protests.

I kiss her anyway.

Fuck morning breath—I need her again.

It’s insatiable, this hunger she’s stirred awake.

Before Winnie, sex was mechanical, an urge like an itch I’d scratch once in a blue moon.

Sure, I wanted it.

A man has needs, and I found women to fulfill them. Always at their place, and rarely twice in a row. They’d go back to being nameless memories the very next day.

Plus, with work being what it is and Colt getting older, even quick and dirty hookups have gotten less frequent.

I started to think that was just part of aging, the carnal desires taking a back seat to life, probably for the better.

But no, not anymore.

Not when I want to devour this woman, to savor every part of her. From what I discovered last night, she tastes like licorice and honey.

It’s already fucking constant, this addiction to Winnie Emberly, the way my hands still ache to touch her even when she’s right in front of me.

It’s hot need, pure and simple.

I pinch her nipple as she moans, low and demanding.

Another thing I love—she knows what she wants in bed, and it’s sexy as hell.

She doesn’t wait for me to initiate, either. She goes for what she wants.

Her long legs wrap around mine and she grinds against me again, teasing me.

Growling, I push my fingers against the nub of flesh between her legs, already soaked, and press.

She gasps.

She’s so wet for me I instantly lose my mind.

Always so ready.

Fuck, I could slip inside her right now and I’d fit like heaven because she wants it that bad.

“Archer,” she whispers.

This shit is unhealthy.

It’s honestly sick how much I love it when she moans my name like a prayer. I’m addicted, and I slip my fingers inside her, catching her moan in my mouth, when I hear footsteps.

Not coming to the room, no, but plodding around downstairs.

Loud voices, young and adolescent, just on the cusp of puberty rattling them to lower octaves. Colt’s voice is slowly getting deeper, but Evans has that rasping, nasal quality of a voice always about to break.

Shit.

I remove my hand from her at the same time she rolls away, her eyes wide.

“Colt,” she mouths.

Double shit.

What now?

He shouldn’t know we slept together.

With my other hookups, I was careful to a fault, never letting any of my flings intersect with his life. He doesn’t know I see women, and that’s how it should stay.

Especially because this thing with Winnie is—

Shit, I don’t know what this thing with her is.

All I know is I want her more than my morning coffee, which is sacrosanct. The day doesn’t start before coffee strong enough to strip paint pries my eyes open.

Raking a hand through my hair, I ponder what to do.

“I’ll go downstairs and start breakfast,” I tell her. “Wait a little to make sure the coast is clear.”

Her hand is cupped over her mouth, but although her eyes are wide, they’re filled with laughter. A breathy giggle escapes.

She’s still naked, the little minx, showing off this tiny roll around the base of her stomach when she sits up.

I love that too.

Winnie isn’t bird thin. She has real curves. Her physique reflects the carefree spirit behind those big green eyes.

Goddamn.

I don’t know what I did to have a woman like this fall into my bed, but I’ll pray to any deity who can keep her here.

But first, Colton.

I jump up and throw on a pair of jeans and a white tee, hoping to hide the hard-on from Hades that refuses to behave.

When I head down, the boys are on the sofa, laughing at some dumb streamer on TV screaming like a girl while he games.

I heave a sigh of relief.

Okay, disaster averted.

No, I didn’t get to see Winnie ride me this morning, but I saw plenty last night. In the moonlight, she looks like a goddess coming for my soul, and I was set to hand it over.

I snort at the thought.

A fucking goddess?

Who am I? Where is Archer Rory?

While Evans and Colt laugh themselves red over the streamer’s antics, I get started on breakfast, beating the pancake batter together and frying up some bacon on the side. I’ve just about regained my composure when the doorbell chimes.

Weird. Someone at the gate at ten a.m. on a Saturday? I pull out my phone, check the camera, and my heart stops.

Of course, it’s Rina.

It had to be her.

Shit!

What did Colt say again?

Something about his mother wanting to take them to the park?

Naturally, I forgot like the sex-crazed lump I am today. I was so taken up with Winnie that I never gave Rina the time of day.

I didn’t call her like I meant to. I never even made a final decision about this outing.

And Winnie’s still upstairs.

Fuck.

At least Colt hasn’t realized she’s not in the guest room. If I can just tell Rina to come back later before Winnie comes down, this whole mess might be averted.

But when I buzz her through and open the door, she breezes past me like she owns the place.

“Pancakes,” she says as a greeting, inhaling sharply. “You always were good at those.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Rina?”

“Visiting Colt, obviously. You know I’m not here for you. Didn’t he tell you we have plans?” She sails into the kitchen and I follow, gritting my teeth and hoping Winnie doesn’t choose this instant to pop in. “I want to take the boys out to the park to fly their drones.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“Must I run everything past you to see my own son?”

My glare could melt through solid granite.

“I’m his dad,” I remind her, folding my arms.

In this space, I’m painfully aware of the fact that Winnie was here last night, cooking with me while our elbows touched. The lightest brushes were a soft breeze, bringing the storm that came later.

The air feels different in this kitchen with Rina today. Colder.

“When it involves our son, I have a right to know.”

“And I’m his mother. Are you saying you don’t trust me to look after him?”

“I’m saying you gave up your right to just skip through his life when you walked out.” Yes, my temper is off the rails. I suck in a low, slow breath. Hard to believe we were ever anything more than two strangers bristling with suspicion. Did I ever love her?

She sighs and shakes her head.

“You should’ve called me, Rina.”

“I told Colt to run it by you. I figured he did. He says he wants to go.”

Yeah, I know because he told me. And it wouldn’t have pissed me off so much if I hadn’t forgotten about it.

Predictably, Winnie chooses this very second to waltz in.

She’s cleaned up well, decked out in a green skirt paired with a white shirt that clings to her curves. Nothing inappropriate, but still hot as fuck.

Her hair is piled in a messy bun, and she beams like the morning.

At the arched entryway, she stops, staring at Rina like she’s seeing double.

Rina stares right back.

If these were two cats crossing paths, they’d be blowing up like furry balloons, if they weren’t already ripping and biting each other.

“Oh. Crap.” Winnie rips her gaze away from Rina to look at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Rina gives a sickly smile I don’t believe for a second.

“I’m the one who’s intruding, believe me. I didn’t realize I’d interrupt your precious time playing house, Archer.”

“It’s not like that, Rina,” I bite off.

My vision goes red.

She’s too good at pushing my buttons.

“Oh, I think I know exactly what it is. No need to hide it. You’re a grown man and you can do what you want.” Her eyes flick between us both. The worst part is, she’s not wrong. Winnie looks healthily fucked and happy. “I just didn’t know you were bringing your girlfriend around Colt, Arch.”

“Rina, enough,” I spit.

Winnie forms up beside me and throws her arm around my shoulders.

It’s so unexpected I almost jump.

A gesture of support. Possessiveness.

Back off, she says with her pose. He’s mine.

I shouldn’t like it, but I do.

That’s when I know my mind is fully gone.

“Sorry,” Winnie says, her voice saccharine. “I didn’t mean to step on any toes. I didn’t know you guys needed to discuss it first? Does Archer need your permission to date?”

The fact that she’s just casually taken on the role of my girlfriend bowls me the fuck over.

I’m speechless.

My girlfriend.

My girlfriend.

I haven’t had a girlfriend since my divorce. This is new, and I have no idea what she’s doing.

None of this should be happening right now in any sane universe, but I’m not denying it. I don’t want to deny it, which is even more ludicrous.

“Oh.” Rina blinks, and fuck, why does it feel so good to see the woman who made me so miserable lost for words? “Well. It’s not… It’s not that you guys can’t be together. Around Colt, I mean.” She pulls herself up. “But you probably want some alone time, right? I’ll go say hi to Colt.”

It’s a good save, honestly.

I might have respected her for it if she wasn’t Rina. If I didn’t hate her guts.

Winnie tilts her head as she looks at me, waiting for me to make the next move. Although she’s stepped up with this little act, this is ultimately my son. My choice.

That alone is enough to make me want to kiss her until she forgets her own name.

“Rina, wait,” I say, because the wretched woman’s right about one thing—I desperately want some alone time with Winnie. Twice last night wasn’t enough. I’m painfully obsessed, and my whole cock burns just thinking about it. “You can go—as long as Colt checks in and you bring them back before it’s too late. I’ll text you the number for Evans’ mother.”

Rina smiles, pleased at having won this round.

It unsettles me, but there’s no point fighting this when I have so much to gain, too.

“Okay, cool. I’ll get them out of your hair soon.”

I have to bite my tongue.

I hate her smarmy-ass insinuation that Colt is a burden in any way, but I need to pick my battles.

She’s Colt’s mom.

No matter what else she is, I can’t escape that fact.

“I’ll call them over,” I say, even if leaving Winnie alone with Rina screams bad idea. A spitting match with Colt in the house is the last thing I need. Even so, I head over to the great room. The two boys look up from their streaming. “Hey guys. Your mom’s here, Colt.”

“Sweet.” His face clears. “You’re cool with letting us go to the park?”

“As long as you check in. Every few hours at least, okay? If you don’t, I’ll come and replace you.”

It’s not that I don’t trust Rina.

But I don’t trust Rina.

“Sure!” Damn. The kid’s too eager to appease me so he can go with her.

That invisible knife stabs me in the heart.

I hate that she’s done this, making him believe she’s here to stay, and now I feel like the bad guy for being suspicious.

“All right, bud. She’s waiting in the kitchen.”

“Evans, let’s go.”

Colt grabs his phone and sprints off the sofa. Evans follows, nodding awkwardly at me as he passes, and we head back up together.

To my relief, Winnie and Rina aren’t talking.

Winnie rummages around in the fridge for some orange juice, then pours herself a tall glass. Rina watches her with barely concealed irritation.

I don’t know what the hell is going on, but seeing Rina flustered like this feels satisfying, like rubbing salt into an old wound.

For once, it isn’t mine.

Then she sees Colt and her face lights up. She smiles like he’s the only person in the room, me and Winnie long forgotten.

“Hey there, kiddo. You guys ready?”

“Do you guys need lunch money?” I ask, sounding like a dick.

Rina’s expression tightens. “I’ve got it covered, thanks.”

Colt, because he’s astute for a kid of that age, glances between us with a slight frown.

I force a smile.

“Okay, you can handle it, Ri,” I say. “Remember, Colt, check in.”

“Dad, I know. Gah.” He lowers his voice as he glances at Evans and mutters, “Sorry he’s so uncool sometimes.”

Uncool?

For fuck’s sake, I never thought I’d be branded Satan in teenager-speak.

I fold my arms and catch Winnie’s expression, which she’s trying to hide behind her juice glass. But she’s grinning all the same.

“Let’s go!” Rina drapes an arm over Colt’s shoulders, though it doesn’t look as comfortable for her as it did a few years ago, back when he was shorter. “I’ll bring him back at a decent hour.”

“Sure. Thanks, Rina.”

The awkwardness feels palpable, but the three of them head out and the front door closes, a little harder than necessary.

I turn to Winnie, who’s no longer smiling.

“What the hell was that, Sugarbee? My girlfriend?” My confusion makes my voice sharper than intended.

Any other reaction would be impossible.

“I’m sorry,” she says, putting her glass down. She’s shy again now that she’s not playing whatever role she had mapped out in her head. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. If I upset you, I’m—”

I cut her off right there, pressing her against the counter with a kiss.

Her hot breath catches, the rest of her words swallowed in my mouth, and she kisses me back, digging her hands into my hair.

With me, she’s not soft. Not delicate.

And fuck, it’s hardly been thirty minutes since I left the bed with her in it, but I’ve wanted her all that time, and it’s been driving me mad.

She’s just as eager as I am, tugging at my shirt and hurling it to the floor, then exploring my chest with her hands.

She hasn’t asked me too much about the tattoos yet. At some point, she will.

Now isn’t the time, though.

The only thing that matters is skin and sweat and stricken moans.

My hands graze down her thighs and lift, hitching her up so she’s perched on the counter. Her legs wrap around me, and she rubs against my erection, moaning pure honey into my mouth.

She feels so fucking good even through my jeans.

When I press a hand between her legs, rubbing her pussy, she’s soaked all over again and so responsive.

I could play this woman like an instrument.

Some notes, I only discover by touch. Every time I do something she likes, she lets me know. Loudly.

I can feel my dick throbbing in my head.

I’ve never heard anything as erotically charged as Winnie’s voice when my thumb brushes her clit or when I let it linger, gingerly massaging her to the brink.

“Th-there! Archer!” she gasps, dragging her nails down my back. “God. Right. There.”

What a good girl.

I keep going, reading her breaths and ragged moans and the way her tits grow heavier against me. I suck her nipples, bite her neck, kiss her until I’m drugged with her flesh, all while she fumbles with my belt.

Her hands are so small and warm against my cock.

I groan.

Usually, I pride myself on being able to last, but something about her strips away my self-control.

It’s all I can do not to blow off in her hands as I bring her closer, claiming her pussy with two fingers pushing deep, the better to stroke that sweet velvet that’s already mine.

Before I take her there, when her body tenses around me, ready to come, I push myself free from her clutches and crouch down in front of her, spreading her wide and tasting her.

Licorice and honey.

Goddamn.

She smells and tastes incredible, dripping with desire.

It’s smeared across her thighs, and when I bring my face down to suck, she damn near jumps off the counter.

“Archer—shit!”

My tongue goes to work, tasting her, lapping and thrusting until her hot, sweet cunt becomes my world.

When her legs tremble, that’s my cue to pull her closer.

I hold her down, fusing her to my face, making her ride my beard. I know what that friction does, and I can’t wait to feel her come on my mouth like fucking fireworks.

“Ah-Ah-Archer…” she whimpers my name, tensing her shaking hands on my shoulders.

I stop and look up. “Do you want to come for me, Winnie?”

“Do you want to fuck me?” Her laugh is more of a rasp.

“I asked you first.”

“Then yes. Make me come.”

“Say please.”

“Please.” Her nails dig into my head as she scratches through my hair. “Please make me, Archer.”

Music to my ears.

“Good, good girl.” Time for her reward.

I slide another finger inside her, loving how hot and tight she is, and pull her clit between my teeth, bringing her off with that brutal yet delicate tongue work that will have her dreaming about me for the next decade.

Her orgasm hits like a desert storm, sweeping through her with sudden, shuddering fury.

She’s damn near ripping into my scalp with her nails, moaning so loud it’s a good thing there’s no one else around.

Her pussy convulses, squeezing my fingers so tight it’s almost uncomfortable.

My cock nearly blows in my pants, jealous as hell it isn’t in her.

“Now,” I whisper after she slumps with eyes half-closed, drifting down from the high with her legs still wide and open for me. “Now, I’ll fuck you.”

“Every time you’re in this kitchen, you’ll think of me,” she says, her voice low, almost lazy.

Honestly, I’m afraid she’s right.

Every move I make that heightens this addiction seems destined to backfire tenfold.

Snarling, I unwrap a condom from my pocket and roll it on as she arches her back, offering her tits to me.

This woman is unreasonably perfect, reducing me to a depraved wildebeest.

“Don’t think of later. Stay in the moment, stay with me,” I tell her, pushing inside. Her heat welcomes my cock like coming home. “Think of now.”

Message received.

She wraps her arms around me, pressing her chest against mine, and there’s something so ungodly intimate about the way our bodies connect.

I pick her up and carry her to the sofa in the living room.

I need better leverage than the counter. Hell, if I have my way, I’ll fuck her in every room in this house a hundred times over.

She braces herself against my shoulders as I sit, holding her on top of me, still seated inside her.

“I’ve never been carried off by a caveman before. No guy ever did that…”

“It’s bad taste to bring up past partners in the middle of mind-blowing sex, Winnie,” I growl, jealous as hell that anyone else had her before me.

“Sorry!” Her head tips back as she laughs, a bright sound that comes straight from her belly. “Sorry. I guess I don’t know sex etiquette too well.”

There’s something damnably disarming about this woman. It pushes past the stupid, primal jealousy at the idea of her being with other men.

“Right now, the rule book says less talk, more riding my cock.” To encourage her, I press my thumb against her clit again until she grinds against me.

Incredible.

Her smile beams wicked delight. “You made me beg for it, Archer Rory.”

“And you loved every second.”

“Your turn.” To illustrate my point, she shifts her hips again and takes my bottom lip, biting gently.

Prickling heat flares through me, adding to the gently building pressure at the base of my cock, stirring fire in my balls.

Oh, she’ll get me there like this, no question. But it’ll be slow, like the incoming tide, not the crashing apex of a mighty wave.

And I’m hungry enough to want the wave.

But this won’t be that easy.

If she wants me to beg, she’ll have to work for it.

“It’s cute that you think you can make me.” I trace my fingers down the dip of her spine.

She gives me green eyes dark like the forest at dusk and grins. “Oh, don’t worry. You will.”

The next ten minutes are the longest divine torture of my life.

For a while, I indulge her, letting her play at being in control. She always gives back that slow, dick-teasing glide, holding back whenever I thrust too hard and deep.

When we’re both torn to shreds with desire, panting and groping, damn near mauling each other and fighting for this fucking release, that’s when I move.

I grab her and pin her down under me.

Then I fuck her like a mountain coming down, dragging my pubic bone against her clit until she explodes.

Her screams echo off my high ceiling, filling the house with our music.

And my ears are ringing when I come so hard in that honey-sweet pussy my soul leaves my body, pouring myself out in this little splash of madness, wondering if I’ll ever replace myself again.