Chapter 34

chapter

thirty-four

OWEN

Addie exits my bedroom, and my next breath gets lodged in my throat.

She's wearing only a shirt and panties, and as if that image weren't hot enough on its own, the shirt is mine.

She spins on her heel, graceful and beautiful, flashing my last name printed across the back of the shirt. It's one I used to wear during workouts and practices when I played baseball.

It looks like it belongs to her, and my chest stirs for the hundredth time this week.

"If you still played baseball, I'd wear this to your games," she says as she sashays toward me and wraps her arms around my waist.

"No way." I shake my head. "I'd miss the ball every time because I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off you."

"You're too charming for your own good, you know?" She rests her chin on my chest and peeks up at me. "It's just as well—I don't know anything about baseball."

"Unacceptable," I say hoarsely. As assertive as I would've liked to sound, such a thing isn't possible when she looks at me like this.

Addie's gaze is so pure and comforting. A thousand other descriptions come to mind too. Her eyes just make me feel things I've never experienced before.

I dip my head for a slow kiss. With a deep breath, I nod over my shoulder. "How about a glass of wine on the deck?"

"Perfect." She links our hands, and I lead her toward the kitchen.

With full glasses perched in our grip, we settle onto two cushioned chairs on my back deck, the three-quarter moon bright tonight. On my phone, I pull up my app and turn the surrounding lights on, dimming them to a romantic setting.

The hot tub buzzes with the jets, which are on a timer, and Addie hooks her thumb toward it. "Nice hot tub."

"We can get in later if you want."

"I don't have a swimsuit."

"You don't need it." I wink, and this earns me a mischievous grin. Unable to stand even the three feet between us, I jerk her chair closer to me.

She nearly spills her drink, but she doesn't complain.

"How was your day?" I ask, my voice low.

"You want to know about my day?"

"I want to know everything about you."

"Well." She licks her lips, and I follow the movement with my gaze. I'm completely consumed by her. "It was uneventful, for the most part," she says with a shrug. "A couple of students were out with a stomach bug, which sucked, but I wasn't hit by a dodgeball or basketball this time. That's one good thing. But the PE teacher I share a classroom with was wearing sweatpants."

"What's wrong with those?" I cock a brow.

She lifts her darkening gaze. "They're too distracting, especially when they're paired with wild hair and devilish smirks."

I fight one of those smirks right now, hiding behind my glass of Pinot Noir. "It sounds like the trouble I'm having with the perky English teacher I share a classroom with."

"Oh?"

"She bends over a lot, and it's hard not to picture leaving teeth marks in that ass. In fact, the first chance I got, I did just that."

Her gulp is magnified by the silence of the night. "And what did you think?"

"All I can think about is doing it again," I rasp and lean over for a wine-soaked kiss underneath the stars with the woman who's completely taken over my body, mind, and soul.

It's been an hour of talking and drinking, but we're doing less of the latter now that both our glasses are empty. I should've brought the bottle out here with us. I had every intention of retrieving it from inside, but twenty minutes have passed, and I still haven't moved.

I'm too hooked on Addie, and all we're doing is talking about family and friends.

Such innocent topics are somehow far more interesting when she's the one I'm chatting with. We could talk about rocks and I'd be captivated.

She curls her foot under her other knee and twists to fully face me, her glass abandoned on the table on the other side of her. "It's wild that our dads know each other, right?"

"I had no idea, but it makes sense. Everyone around here knows one another." I shrug. "Did you say your dad lives in Louisiana now?"

"Just outside of New Orleans in my stepmom's hometown."

"Do you get to see them much?"

"I used to visit a few times a year, but it's been a while now since my last trip out there. He's so busy with work, and I've had a lot going on too—I'm actually a lot like him with the routines and lists and organization." She sighs as a smile teases her lips. "When I do visit, it's always the best time. We go to Café du Monde for beignets and coffee, stroll through the French Quarter, and enjoy the museums. Once, we ran a marathon through the city together, and it was a blast. My stepmom made us matching shirts and cheered us on from the sidelines—she opted to ride her bike along our route instead of running."

"She sounds supportive."

"Very." Addie nods, then snaps her fingers. "Another time, I met them in Pensacola for a beach trip, and we found some baby sea turtles. It's all I could talk about for months, and my dad started calling me ‘sea turtle.'" She balances her chin in her palm as she rests her elbow on the chair. "We've made a lot of good memories since the divorce."

"What ever happened with your parents?" I ask, but then I think better of it. "You don't have to tell me. I don't mean to overstep, but you saw my family. We hardly have any boundaries."

"I want to share with you," she says, and her tone is almost shy as she tucks her hands back into her lap. "If you can believe it, my mom wasn't always the way she is now."

"How do you mean?"

"For one, she was Mom and not Rain. She had a full-time job as a receptionist at a local dental office, and she and my dad were happy… until she saw a psychic during a girls' trip with some of her friends right before I turned ten."

"A psychic?"

Addie's lips tighten into a frown. "One hour with a psychic, and my mother was a different person. She'd somehow been convinced that she needed to clear my father's trust fund to make donations to various charities, and we should all become vegetarians. That we should all be closer to the earth. On my tenth birthday, she even tried to convince us to sell the house and travel the country in a van, where she'd educate me on the world by being one with it."

"What did your father say?"

"He thought it was some kind of phase she'd grow out of. That maybe she was having her midlife crisis sooner than most people, but the phase took on a life of its own."

"What do you mean?" I scoot to the edge of my seat and lean both elbows on my knees.

She twists her lips this way and that, pausing before she blows out a frustrated breath. "She sort of maxed out all their credit cards with donations to environmental charities and organizations. Her thought was that my father would have to pay one way or another, but what he did instead was serve her divorce papers."

I swipe at the corners of my frowning lips.

"He stuck around in town and helped with our financials for a while, but eventually, Rain and I filed for bankruptcy. Dad made sure we kept the house, but then he packed up and moved to Louisiana, where he met Henrietta." She offers a sad smile that cuts through me when she says, "He found his happy and never let go."

My stomach churns.

While I can appreciate the sentiment of clinging to joy—it's a beautiful notion—he left his daughter.

He moved away and started a new life without Addie.

The underlying sadness in her voice suggests she might feel the same, but I don't press her on it. Who am I to tell her how she feels?

"Maybe that's one thing we don't have in common." Her laugh is unsteady and hesitant. "He at least figured out how to be happy."

"What would make you happy, Lockhart?" I urge, peering into her eyes, which glisten under the bulbs of light strung around my deck.

Her expression softens as a slow, wicked smile spreads. "Right now, a little dip in the hot tub would make me happy."

I clap and stand. "Beat you in there."

"You're on!" She jumps to her feet and wiggles out of her clothes, nearly stumbling with her panties around her ankles on her way to the hot tub.

I race past her, fling my shirt off, and climb into the hot tub, grateful I already slid the cover off earlier this afternoon for some maintenance.

This is perfect hot tub weather, and the soak works wonders for my knee, not that it's at the forefront of my mind.

What's more important is the naked fucking angel dipping into the water next to me.

"Hey!" Addie sinks into the hot water until the steam rises around her flushed cheeks. "You didn't win. You're still wearing shorts."

"The rule was to beat me in here. We didn't specify with or without clothing." I chuckle as the wheels in her head clearly turn for a rebuttal.

Guess she doesn't have one, but she does pout. Her bottom lip juts out as she splashes me with water.

I splash her back, lunging toward her and cornering her.

Addie's wet hair and dripping breasts call to me.

As I capture her mouth with mine, I cup her tits in each hand and tease, knead, and pluck her nipples.

Even in one-hundred-degree water, she shudders under my touch, and I savor every one of her moans and whimpers as the cool breeze nips at my shoulders.

She pulls my shorts down, which go easily with the water, and she urges me backward until I hit the opposite corner.

The jets massage my back as she floats over me, straddling my hips while she continues kissing me. I'm hard underneath her, and I grunt as she positions me right where I need her.

She sinks onto me, and my relief is immediate, like I'm lost when I'm not inside her.

I dig my fingers into her slippery skin as she rises and falls, and her head lulls to the side with each movement.

Her hair falls over her face, and I slip my fingers through it until I gather a fistful of her strands at the back of her head, tugging on them just as she likes.

This earns me a heavy moan.

And I grow even harder inside her as she rides me faster and wilder, the water sloshing over the edges next to us.

My head spins as I give myself to her yet again, hoping like fuck that I can be the one who makes her happy for days, weeks, and months to come.

And beyond .